Well, dear readers, the Sandy Bainum photo shoot happened. I know this because I was there for ninety minutes of it and there was a man with a camera – Johnny Buzzerio – his crew, a make-up/hair person, and lots of workers putting the finishing touches on Sandy’s redesign of her new LA residence. She lives only about ten minutes from where I grew up. I arrived after being freshly coifed by our very own Teddy and so I certainly felt comfortable about that. They put a tiny bit of make-up on me and I wore my favorite sweater (they wanted something darkish, which it is) and some black slacks. The first hour was spent in taking photos at Sandy’s piano. We did several versions of those from different angles – I saw a few and some of them were really cute, although I just have great difficulty looking at myself these days. I have had no luck, despite eating reasonably and jogging often, losing the damn fifteen pounds I put back on earlier in the year, mostly during the writing of Red Gold. So, I told Johnny to ultimately use his “thin” filter when he was touching up the photos. We then took some photos in front of a neutral gray thing, just in case Doug Haverty (who was in attendance) wants to matte us into some setting or other. Sandy looked yummilicious. I finally left around two o’clock, so I knew I could beat the traffic, which I mostly did.
I’d gotten about seven hours of sleep, and Teddy was fun. Laurel Canyon was a bit of a mess, traffic-wise, which is always wacky to me at ten-thirty – does no one in Los Angeles actually work that a canyon road is so filled with traffic. It’s ridic.
After I got back to the San Fernando Valley, I immediately had some food – a chicken salad sandwich and some onion rings. After that, I just came home, answered a lot of e-mails, had a couple of longish telephonic conversations, and actually worked on a new song for a project I may or may not be working on. It’s something I’m moving slowly on, and we’ll see how it all comes out. I then listened to the three revised tracks from And the World Goes Round (just level things and a pause thing), approved it and off it went to the pressing plant. Then I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I finished watching a motion picture on Blu and Ray entitled Hangmen Also Die, directed by Fritz Lang and starring Brian Donleavy, Anna Lee, Walter Brennen and many others. As most here know, Mr. Lang has no bigger fan than I. If you went to the imdb you’d see “review” after “review” saying what a great film this is. I certainly was hoping it would be, especially after the superb Man Hunt, made the year before. But Hangmen Also Die, for me, is one of Lang’s weakest films, if not his weakest. His direction is fine as is James Wong Howe’s photography. The script, based on a story by Lang and Bertolt Brecht, is just awful. It’s all speechifying and propaganda – of course, it was made before the end of the war and one understands and accepts that aspect of it, but the actors, save for Brennan, are so over the top and cartoonish that you can’t ever take any of it seriously. Of course, they have to spout dialogue that is so bad that no human being would actually say it. None of this is helped by Hanns Eisler’s score – it’s either melodramatic or non-existent (for most of the film) – it was inexplicably nominated for an Oscar. Go know. And the film just plods on and on – 136 minutes of it. Not a film I ever need to revisit, I’m afraid, and not one I can recommend unless you’re a Lang completest. The transfer is fine, but many sources were used and it’s very inconsistent in terms of the source.
After that, I did some work on the computer and relaxed and I worked on this new song a little bit more.
Today, I don’t think I have any plans, so I’ll be writing some liner notes, eating, hopefully picking up some packages and relaxing, as well as choosing the songs and gathering the music for the October Kritzerland show.
Tomorrow I may have a meeting at some point, but otherwise I can probably finish the liner notes and get that package designed. This week will be busy – comping the Sandy vocals, meetings and meals, doing some event for Bewitched (one or two days, not sure), seeing a musical on Friday night (and supping with Kay Cole), and then seeing the opening night of Kiss Me Kate at the Pasadena Playhouse on Sunday.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, write, eat, hopefully pick up packages, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite Broadway and off-Broadway show orchestrations? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy the photo shoot went well.