Well, dear readers, there are so many tales I am holding in abeyance but they will be told because they are too astonishing to not be told. There, I’ve said it and I’m glad. I am so very heartily sick of things that should be easy being made difficult by amateurs, I am so sick of the way in which the current world works, in certain ways, and I am sick of people not showing the appreciation they so clearly need to show. I like things to be easy, that’s all there is to it. Easy and breezy and never queasy or sleazy. After I tell the tales, I shall tell the tails. And after I tell the tails I shall eat a ham chunk, not to mention a cheese slice. I shall tell tall tales and tall tails, I shall tell the tales with great veracity and perspicacity, I shall tell the tales with relish and also with mustard, I shall tell them from beginning to end, and then I shall tell them from end to beginning like Harold Pinter or Memento. I shall tell them with humor and with rancor, not necessarily in that order. I shall name names – for example, Gerald is a name I will name. I will provide food for thought and I will also provide thought for food. I can go on like this for hours, but since I have no clew as to what the HELL I’m talking about, I may as well write some notes.
Yesterday was exactly the kind of day I wanted and needed, save for one really irritating e-mail that I responded to with great swiftness and terseness, as it deserved. That was the only irritant of the day, thankfully. I had nine hours of blessed sleep, answered e-mails and had some telephonic calls, then I went and had a cup of soup and a ham and Swiss on the bread of rye, with no fries or onion rings. I picked up a package, the helper came by for some invoices and I did some work on the computer. I did a mile-and-a-half jog, after which I immediately sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a motion picture on DVD entitled Damn Yankees. I was in the mood having seen a not-so-wonderful production of the show a week ago. It’s not really a great movie, despite it having the show’s original director, George Abbott sharing the director’s chair with the very able Stanley Donen and despite having virtually almost the entire cast of the Broadway show, save for Tab Hunter. But there are several standout sequences for sure, including Shoeless Joe from Hannibal MO, a heartfelt Goodbye Old Girl, a brilliantly sung Heart, one of the best theater showstoppers ever written, and most especially Who’s Got the Pain. To see Gwen Verdon and the show and film’s choreorgrapher, Bob Fosse, in their prime, brilliantly dancing, is breathtaking. Gwen Verdon is interesting in the film – the camera doesn’t really take to her, but there’s still some of the magic that comes across. Perhaps without Mr. Abbott there, Mr. Donen could have helped her performance for the camera. Who knows? The supporting players are almost all wonderful, Ray Walston makes a good but not great Applegate (I know I’m in the minority about that, but I’ve never really cared for his performance in the film), and Tab Hunter is surprisingly charming and good. The added song, There’s Something About an Empty Chair is dreadful, and the cut song, A Man Doesn’t Know is very much missed, as is The Game and the Blooper Ballet, which was probably too much of a stage conceit to work on film. But it all moves along nicely and it’s always fun to revisit it.
After that, I played on the computer, took a shower, and relaxed, which is just what I needed.
Today, I have a work session for the Kritzerland show, and then a rehearsal with Juliana. I could try to rush through an early lunch, but I think I will wait to eat until the rehearsal is done. Then I can go somewhere fun and relax and have a leisurely meal. I have no plans for the evening hours other than doing a jog in the early part of the evening.
Tomorrow, I have a lunch, and then I’m relaxing and tomorrow I’m hoping I don’t have anything to do, other than some liner notes stuff. This coming week will be devoted to Sandy Bainum, with work sessions every morning except Monday. I also have some meetings and meals to do, then on Friday night I’m helping with the entertainment portion of a birthday party, which requires some patter writing and stuff that I must attend to on Monday. The entertainment will last about thirty minutes and then I will have to leave immediately for home, because the next morning we have our first long recording session for Sandy’s new album. That continues on Sunday and then directly after we wrap I go to the Hollywood Bowl to see a Hitchcock film music concert, which I’m very much looking forward to. I get to meet Olivia Tiomkin, daughter of Dimitri, who I’ll present a It’s a Wonderful Life CD.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, have a work session, have a rehearsal, eat, hopefully pick up some packages, jog and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player and your DVD/Blu and Ray player? I’ll start – CD, more Eugene Ormandy. Blu and Ray, Out of the Past and the Chaplin Mutual Shorts. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, after which I shall arise and think about the telling of tall tales and tall tails.