Well, dear readers, sometimes you just need some damn eggs benedict. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, sometimes you just need some damn eggs benedict and yesterday was such a day. I’ve had a craving for a few weeks but I’m just not crazy about the eggs benedict I’ve had in the San Fernando Valley. But I am crazy about the eggs benedict at the House of Pies and that is where I satisfied my craving by having the eggs benedict adventure. That sounds like a rip-roaring yarn, doesn’t it? The Eggs Benedict Adventure by Rudyard Kipling. Where was I? Oh, yes, eggs benedict at the House of Pies. I also think that the House of Pies is the only place in LA that actually knows how to make classic hash browns. I don’t know what the crap they serve elsewhere is but it’s not classic hash browns. Eggs benedict has been around since the 1890s – I had no idea the concoction was that old. Then again, I had no idea that I’m old, so there’s that. I’m not, however, as old as eggs benedict, but occasionally people do have a craving for me, in a nice way, of course.
In any case, I met up with some of our Li’l Abner group, since we were regular visitors to the House of Pies while we were rehearsing the show. Riley Dandy (Appassionata Von Climax), Gabrielle Duguay (Dogpatch wife), Victoria Chediak (our stage manager) and Gaby’s roommate Janelle joined me at two o’clock. Amusingly, with the exception of Janelle, the entire table had eggs benedict and hash browns. I also had a short stack (two pancakes). Well, it was all just great – best eggs benedict in town and hash browns that are just perfection. A few people had pie for dessert – one had the peanut butter pie, the two others had coconut cream pie. We also laughed a lot and yakked a lot – it was fun and I needed some fun, just as I needed the eggs benedict.
Prior to that, I was up by nine-thirty after eight hours of sleep. I had to do stuff on the computer, and I downloaded more of the final master of And the World Goes Round. The helper came by and helped, I had a few telephonic conversations and then I was on my way to the House of Pies.
After lunch, I came right back to the San Fernando Valley, picked up a couple of packages, then came home. I finished downloading the rest of And the World Goes Round, then listened from start to finish – and it sounded just great. I had only a few little nitpicks, almost all of which were about things on disc two – most just volume stuff and really minor, and one pause I wanted shortened a bit. In any case, it will be on its way to the pressing plant this morning. After that, I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I finished watching The Great Race, the second half of the film. And watching it, it all came back to me, the real reasons I’m not all that fond of it – because I can live with almost everything in the first half and even ten minutes into the second half. But it’s when the section with the second Jack Lemmon character begins that the film completely implodes for me. Because suddenly the film is not about a great race at all, it turns into this whole other movie. There’s nothing all that funny in that entire section and I remember back in the day how I was just stupefied by the entire sequence. Yes, there are a couple of chuckles in there, but not enough. Then you get the big pie fight and that should somehow be funnier than it is, although the inspired part is Tony Curtis avoiding all the pies and guck in his all-white outfit – that’s classic Blake Edwards. But the film is handsome to look at, Mancini’s score is fantastic, and the Blu-ray looks wonderful.
I then watched a bit of Fritz Lang’s Hangmen Must Die. Like Man Hunt, it’s a film I’ve started to watch a few times but never got past the first five minutes. Now, finally seeing Man Hunt all the way through was a great experience – just a wonderful and classic Lang film. So far, and I watched about fifteen minutes, Hangmen Must Die is not written well – it’s just a bunch of speechifying instead of good dialogue. The story is interesting, and Lang can do little wrong as a director, but so far it’s just a weird film – the story was by Lang and Bertolt Brecht (here called Bert Brecht!), and the screenplay is by John Wexley, who wrote Angels With Dirty Faces. The overblown score by Hanns Eisler doesn’t help. It was made in 1943, two years after Man Hunt, and yet it looks like it was made a decade earlier. But the story has really just kicked in so I’ll finish it and hopefully it will get better as it goes along.
After that, I listened to some music, had a telephonic conversation, and relaxed.
Today, I must be up at nine, I must do my morning ablutions, then I see Teddy to get coifed at eleven, then I go directly to Sandy Bainum’s new LA residence to take part in a photo shoot. I’m hoping we can do my stuff when I get there, so I can get home before the traffic hits. I’ll bring a few sweaters, a few pairs of slacks, and some shirts. Once home, I’ll eat, hopefully pick up some packages and relax.
The weekend is somewhat open, so that’s nice. I thought I had two shows to see, but as it turns out those are both next week. Speaking of next week, I’ll be comping Sandy vocals, finishing getting everyone their material for the October Kritzerland show, and finessing the Sandy mixes. Then Lanny comes in and listens and gives us whatever notes he may or may not have, we make those adjustments and that will be that.
Oh, and here’s three more videos for you, the three What Ifs we did in last Sunday’s show. Here’s the first of them.
The person taping didn’t get the set-up for the second, so it’s What if Irving Berlin, instead of writing Annie Get Your Gun, had written West Side Story. And it goes something like this.
And finally, the third one.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, get coifed, do a photo shoot, eat, hopefully pick up some packages, 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, Jeune et Jolie and a Don Costa movie them compilation. Blu-ray, Hangmen Also Die. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland happy to have had The Eggs Benedict Adventure by Rudyard Kipling.