Well, dear readers, this week has flown by, like a gazelle doing the Highland Fancy. Does anyone still do the Highland Fancy? And just what the HELL is the Highland Fancy? Apparently the Highland Fancy doesn’t exist. I seem to be confusing the Highland Fling with the Boston Fancy. The Highland Fling is an actual dance, one of many Highland dances that are apparently only performed by gazelles on Highland between Sunset and Hollywood Blvd. There’s the Dirk Dance. Of course, if there’s a Dirk Dance shouldn’t there be a Doge Dance? There’s also the Highland Reel, not to be confused with the Lowland Real. The Boston Fancy is something wholly other. I was confused thinking there was a Highland Fancy when there’s really a Boston Fancy. And the Boston Fancy I definitely remember from my childhood because I had a 45rpm recording of that song by Miss Giselle MacKenzie – I believe it was the flip side of Hard to Get, but I can’t swear to that at this time. Now I can swear to it and once again my memory proves infallible. I remember dancing in my mother’s girdle to the Boston Fancy song. I seem to have gone off on a tangent here from which I may never return. Well, I’ve just done the Highland Fling and the Boston Fancy as well as the Studio City Fandango. What the HELL am I talking about? For those who do not believe Miss Giselle MacKenzie sang the Boston Fancy on the flip side of Hard to Get, here is the proof. Whilst listening, do picture a seven-year-old me dancing in my mother’s girdle. If that doesn’t give you nightmares, nothing will.
Yesterday was a restful day in which I rested. I got up around ten-thirty after about nine-and-a-half hours of blessed sleep, which really helped. Scratchy throat was pretty much gone and replaced by endless clearing of throat shenanigans, which I tried to avoid and did avoid every now and then. There’s really not much to say about yesterday. I did a three-mile jog, I ate some low-calorie hot dog things, I ate low-calorie treats all the livelong day, and I sat on my couch like so much fish, occasionally dozing off several times, almost two hours of dozing, which was also good.
In between the dozing I watched two motion pictures on Blu and Ray. The first motion picture on Blu and Ray was entitled In Which We Serve, a film directed by Noel Coward and David Lean (Mr. Lean’s first credited directorial assignment), starring Noel Coward, and written by Noel Coward, as well as produced by Noel Coward and with a score composed by Noel Coward. It’s quite a wonderful war film with excellent performances by all, including John Mills, Bernard Miles, Richard Attenborough, Celia Johnson and many others. The film is beautifully photographed by Ronald Neame. I don’t hear much about this film these days, but when I was a young man in the early 1970s, this film regularly showed up on many ten best of all time lists. I don’t think it does anymore. The transfer is wonderful and to know just HOW wonderful all one has to do is watch the little documentary about it making, said documentary being from the year 2000 and being filled with clips which show just how bad this film looked back then. This is part of the David Lean Directs Noel Coward Criterion Box set and is highly recommended by the likes of me.
The second motion picture I watched was entitled Peter Pan, the animated film from Walt Disney. I’ve always enjoyed Peter Pan, the animated film from Walt Disney. It has many magical elements but watching it again after many years of having not seen it, it’s not quite a Disney classic, at least for me, and I’m not sure why. It’s all beautifully done, the voices are great, and a couple of the songs are stellar. I certainly enjoyed it and it certainly looks stellar on Blu-ray.
Other than that, I spent a bit of time uploading all the music for the next Kritzerland show – I’ve whittled a very long list down to pretty much what we’ll do, as soon as we lock in our guest star. Then I listened to some music, took a walk, and played on the computer. Since everyone is having fun with the audio clips and whatnot, since we’ve had several new dear readers who probably don’t even know that we did three CDs of music for the Kritzer books – songs featured prominently in the three books – and since some of those dear readers have read the books since discovering our site, I thought I’d post some of the songs, all sung by Guy Haines, and realized by Grant Geissman. This was one of my favorite childhood songs and plays a nice role in the first book, Benjamin Kritzer. It’s called Poor Little Fool.
I’ll post some more songs over the next few days and over the next few days I’ll also post some more songs.
Today, I cannot sleep in too late because I have an eleven o’clock appointment with Teddy to get coiffed. I’ll have to be up by 9:45 and out the door by 10:20. Once the hair has been coiffed, then I’ll come back to the San Fernando Valley, eat, hopefully pick up some packages, pay some obscenely large Kritzerland bills, do some banking, do a jog, and then do some more relaxing and some busy work. I’m hoping by the time I arise in the morning I’m feeling ship-shape and tip-top, not necessarily in that order.
Tomorrow I can sleep in then at three we have our stumble-through, after which a few of us, I’m sure, will go dine somewhere fun and fancy free. Sunday is sound check and show. Then next week is very busy with all sorts of things that need doing.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do both the Highland Fling and the Boston Fancy, I must get coiffed by Teddy, I must eat, I must hopefully pick up some packages, I must pay some bills, I must do some busy work, I must jog, and I must relax and hopefully feel all better. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player and you DVD/Blu and Ray player? I’ll start – CD, lots of songs for the upcoming Kritzerland show, as well as several jazz covers of Broadway musicals. Blu and Ray, who the hell knows – there’s a rather big pile o’ stuff and it will be something in that pile. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland where I will hopefully get another good night’s beauty sleep and hopefully I’ll awaken feeling all better.