Well, dear readers, we had a lovelier than lovely second Kritzerland rehearsal. What a cast and what infectiously infectious songs, one after another. I wish I could tell you about the little nine-year-old powerhouse but I can’t until after the show. But just sitting like so much fish and listening to Kim Huber and Damon Kirsche and Jane Noseworthy and Jenna Lea Rosen and Sami Staitman and knowing how great Brent Barrett and Susan Egan will be, not to mention Richard Sherman himself – well, it’s just a lovely way to spend an afternoon, that’s all I can tell you, although I suspect I’ll be telling you more.
After the rehearsal, Adryan Russ and I moseyed on over to the theater. There, we found the cast learning the finale. I heard it, made a few adjustments and that’s now musically set, and then they sang the bows music for me and that’s fun, too. Then I had a serious chat with the cast, covering many things, and then we ran all the group numbers – I made adjustments in all of them, making it more comfortable for the performers and everything looks better now – I’m sure we’ll continue making adjustments as we go. Then Adryan and I came back to the Valley and stopped at Jerry’s Deli and had some chicken soup, which I really needed, as my throat is a little hoarse from singing and yakking constantly for over a week now.
Prior to all that, I’d gotten a bit over eight hours of sleep but not consecutive – I’ve been drinking so much liquid that I was literally up every hour. I finally got out of bed around eleven, answered e-mails and then went and had a cup of chicken corn chowder and some chicken tenders for my main meal o’ the day. I then picked up two count them two packages, then came home. One of the packages contained the new Arrow release of The Fury – there has been quite a brouhaha over this new release and how it compares to the Twilight Time release. Apparently, the new transfer is off the camera negative, while the Twilight Time was off an internegative. Lots of people really liked the Twilight Time release – I was one of them and so was Robert Harris, who gave it five out of five stars. It looked just like the film looked in theaters. Yes, there was some dirt, but that dirt was in the opticals and has always been there, and Fox chose not to even attempt to clean those few flecks because some could argue that if it’s in the negative then that’s where it should stay. There have been some absolute rave reviews for the Arrow release, but not a one that I’ve read has actually seen the Twilight Time release. But the usual suspects grab onto that and relentlessly use it to attempt to make Twilight Time look bad. Then there were some odious screen caps posted – the ones from the Twilight Time Blu-ray were carefully chosen from scenes with opticals that had dirt – that comprises about a minute or two of the entire film. But the caps from the new transfer had no detail in them at all, but when that’s pointed out, suddenly those caps weren’t taken correctly or were condensed poorly. The argument always changes to suit whatever their needs are – it’s amusing to watch.
So, I popped both Blu-rays in and began comparing. So, is the Arrow a complete revelation and does it put the Twilight Time to shame? No, afraid not. The opticals still look like opticals but Arrow has decided to clean the dirt from them, so, depending on how you feel about that kind of thing, that’s either a plus, a minus, or an I don’t care. If this transfer was indeed from the camera negative then the opticals are a generation closer. But they still look like opticals and no amount of dust busting is going to change that. I still found the Twilight Time detail a little better, but that may be subjective. The biggest difference between the two transfers is the color. Now, here’s the second amusing part – there are always many complaints when older films come out and have blue in them – suddenly we have to read a bunch of inane “why do they do this blue push” in these transfers. Well, that’s the difference here – the Arrow is blue, where the Twilight Time transfer is a bit yellower. My memory is that the Twilight Time is perhaps more accurate, but I wouldn’t swear to it on a stack of pamphlets. The color on the Arrow is certainly nice and I like blue so for me it’s a kind of a plus. The Arrow is very clean, but it’s just funny how reading a bunch of reviews of the Arrow written by people who don’t have a clew as to what the Twilight Time even looks like, will cause people on those boards to go crazy with delight in damning the Twilight Time version. As someone on one of the boards said, there was nothing wrong with the Twilight Time version – the person saying that is someone who has worked for Arrow, by the way. I only compared the first twenty minutes or so, but there are several specific shots being referenced that I want to look at before rendering a final opinion.
I had a long talk with our very own Mr. Nick Redman about it, because he was interested to hear my opinion. Then he told me that some board had a person on there posting real crap about me – it took one look at the following post to pretty much figure out who it was, due to the wording and the content and the fact that the poster registered there a mere six weeks ago. Here’s their first post about me:
“If you were to meet Kimmel (and I pray that you never do), you might actually feel sorry for him. He’s a sad, bitter guy who oozes negativity, something that comes through quite clearly in virtually everything he posts online. Simply dropping by his website (something else I only recommend for the stouthearted) is an object lesson in his almost pathological need for approval–he regularly exhorts/admonishes his 8-10 regular posters there to up the post count, as if that is some kind of arbiter of success. He also regularly insists his opinions are facts, a trait he shares with at least some of the people he regularly complains about. He’s now whining on HTF about the posts here. I have an image of him in his little house furiously Googling himself by the hour to see if he’s famous yet.”
Now, who do we know who comes to this here website every day, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, not only to read these here notes but to read every post on the discussion board? Hmmmm. Let me think real hard. The name being used on that board is “erhen.” A little Googling told me enough about that to help solidify what I was thinking. And then someone posted:
“Interesting. I’ve met Bruce Kimmel in person several times and he’s always been a charming and delightful presence in the room. Always interesting to see how the prism of the internet can distort reality.”
To which, erhen responded in typical fashion, “In case it wasn’t clear, I’ve known Kimmel for decades. He can in fact be charming, but he is one of the most relentlessly negative people I know. Just my 2 cents’ worth, YMMV.”
To which I say, no one who’s known me for decades, who’s actually known me would ever post such a thing because anyone who actually knows me knows I do not let the word negative or that kind of behavior anywhere near me. No, I think what we have here is a pathological lying socio-psychopath, that’s what I think we have here. erhen also implies knowing Nick – um, no. It’s so easy to lie on the Internet, to post any specious thing you want while hiding under a fake username. It’s cowardice at its height. But it seems to make this person very happy so I’m sure it will continue until the day karma finally does this person in – and it will, oh, yes, believe me it will. But I’M the relentlessly negative person. Right. Check. Over and out.
Today, I shall hopefully arise after a good night’s beauty sleep, after which I have no plans at all other than to rest my voice, hopefully pick up some packages, buy candy to give out, jog, eat, and maybe do a bit of writing. Then the trick or treaters will arrive and that’s about two or three hours’ worth of giving out candy.
Tomorrow, I hope to rest more, then we have a noon rehearsal with Brent Barrett, and then in the evening a show rehearsal. Saturday Kay Cole will be working with the cast, as will Lloyd Cooper, whilst I have our stumble-through, and Sunday Lloyd will work with the cast, while we have our sound check and matinee and then evening performance. Then we begin rehearsing Sandy’s show in the mornings and our show rehearsals continue in the evening.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a jog, relax, eat, write, hopefully pick up some packages, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What was your favorite Halloween and your favorite Halloween costume? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I shall fall asleep thinking of a spoonful of sugar and a lovely way to spend an afternoon.