Well, dear readers, once again I’m getting to these here notes rather late, which means I must write them in a hurry so that I can scurry to bed. I don’t know how the time gets away from me but it does. I’d like to have time stay with me instead of constantly trying to get away from me. I bathe, I always smell good, I don’t eat sheep’s eyeballs, I mean, what is it with time? Time – the bitch goddess. Where was I? Oh, yes, the notes. I overslept yesterday and was awakened by a knocking on the front door. It was the helper, and as soon as I got out of sleep mode, we went to the garage and spent about ninety minutes organizing all the sheet music that’s been piling up. It’s all in separate folders now and we should be fine from here on in. Then I decided I had a craving for Bird’s so I hurried on over there and arrived around noon, just before the lunch rush. I had my usual half chicken, all white meat, and small sides of Caesar salad and mac and cheese. It was all quite yummilicious and I ate it all up. I was quite full, which is odd since I didn’t have onion rings this time around. Go know. Then I came back to the San Fernando Valley and picked up four count them four packages. After that, I came home and spent quite a bit of time catching up on e-mails, reading posts here at haineshisway.com, and making fixes to the packaging of our next release. Then I did a jog. I wasn’t satisfied with one part of my liner notes, so I sat on my couch like so much fish and watched the motion picture whose score comprises half this release.
Of course, I cannot write about that motion picture on DVD without revealing what that half of the release is, but ask me if I care? Well, what care I for tinsel and glamour? And what care I if I reveal half a release? The motion picture was entitled Kings Go Forth, a film starring Mr. Frank Sinatra, Mr. Tony Curtis, Miss Natalie Wood, and Miss Leora Dana. I’ve had the DVD since it came out a decade ago and I’d never gotten around to watching any of it save for the titles, as it was non-anamorphic. And somehow, I’d never managed to see the film over all these years, which is odd since I’ve always loved its score, and was quite taken with the song they got out of it, Monique, as sung by Mr. Sinatra (not in the film, though). I sang that song a couple of times over the phone as a young teen to actress Monique Vermont.
First off, I’m a big fan of the film’s director, Delmer Daves, and this is one of the few Delmer Daves films I hadn’t seen. Well, I really liked the film a lot – in fact, I loved it a lot. It’s a compelling story (from a novel by Joe David Brown, who also wrote two other novels that became excellent films – Stars In My Crown and Addie Pray which, of course, became Paper Moon), deals with very controversial issues for 1958 (racial), and features what I now consider to be one of Mr. Sinatra’s best performances. Tony Curtis is also excellent in another of his cad roles (he was an excellent cad in this and in Sweet Smell of Success from the previous year), and Miss Wood is fetching as a young American woman who’s been living in Paris since she was a little girl and who, it transpires, is of mixed parentage. The screenplay by Merle Miller is wonderful, and that score – Elmer Bernstein in his great early period, doing what he did best, and that was so fresh back then. I cannot recommend this movie highly enough, and if you love great film music, I also recommend picking up our new release next week because it also features another terrific score by another interesting but not that well known composer. The transfer is the transfer – anamorphic would have been nice, but I doubt MGM/UA is going to get around to this film anytime soon in terms of a new hi-def transfer – although, that said, they have been going through their catalog so that they have hi-def transfers to air on MGM-HD.
After that, I rewrote in total that section of the liner notes and gave all the other fixes to the designer, so that package is done and awaiting approval, which will hopefully come today or tomorrow. Also, I got word that Marco Polo will be shipping tomorrow, so that’s good. Then I submitted a funding project to kickstarter.com, just in case the restoration and transfer of Nudie Musical is beyond my means, which it very well may be. I should know that by mid next week. If the price is what they first quoted me, then I’ll be fine. But if we have to do extra clean-up work and color correction beyond the norm, that price could double and that is too much for me at this time. I’ve worked out a series of fun things depending on how much is donated. But I’m hoping we don’t have to do it, frankly.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because time has gotten away from me once again and I must get some semblance of beauty sleep before having to arise early once again.
Today has turned into a VERY busy day. At ten-thirty I have a rehearsal with the thirteen-year-old. After that, I’ll just have enough time to do a couple of errands and whatnot, and then I have to be at the lab for the telecine session for reel one of Nudie Musical. That will take two hours at least, then I have some other stuff to do, after which I’ll be supping with our very own Miss Alet Taylor. After that, I have invoices to prepare so that we’re ready to ship tomorrow.
Tomorrow will be a shipping day, but other than that and a few little errands and whatnot and hopefully picking up an important envelope, it should be a fairly light day. I do have to choose what I’m reading at the signing/reading and I have to get crackin’ on episodes five and six of the web series. I think we’ve found a costume coordinator for the New York shoot, so that’s great. Have to find one for here, too. Saturday is, of course, the signing, and then I think something’s happening Saturday night but I can’t remember what. Sunday is another rehearsal with the thirteen-year-old and then I think something else is happening after it, but I can’t remember that, either. I’ve been pretty good about adding stuff to the iCal, so maybe I’m wrong. Time – the bitch goddess – will tell.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, have a rehearsal, do errands and whatnot, attend a telecine session, and then eat. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite films of Mr. Frank Sinatra, Mr. Tony Curtis, and Miss Natalie Wood? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland where hopefully time will stop being a bitch and just be on my side, where the bitch belongs.