Well, dear readers, this week is flying by, like a gazelle playing the Hilton sisters singing I Will Never Leave You. The way the gazelle pull off playing both Daisy and Violet has to be seen to be believed. Perhaps if they cast the gazelle in the current revival the show would not be closing. What the HELL am I talking about. Well, one thing you can be certain of – I will never leave you.
Yesterday was a day, a Monday to be exact. It was not an eventful day nor was it an uneventful day, although there were both events and unevents. Once again I only got seven hours of sleep and was up around eight-thirty. Once up, I answered e-mails and did stuff on the computer, then I had a brief visit from a brief visitor (who sang I Will Never Leave You and then did the opposite), then I went and had a chicken salad sandwich and no fries or onion rings. Then I picked up a couple of packages, then came directly home. Once home I did some work on the computer and then I sat on my couch like so much fish because from here to the end of the year I am pretty much done with work, save for announcing our last release of 2014.
Yesterday, I watched a motion picture on a region B Blu and Ray entitled The Glenn Miller Story, a motion picture that’s the story of Glenn Miller, hence the title. The stars are James Stewart and June Allyson and the director is the wonderful Anthony Mann. I’m a sucker for these kinds of biopics and even though I owned the DVD I’d never actually gotten beyond the opening scene. So, it was all new to me and I loved every minute of it. First off, you can’t go wrong with Glenn Miller music, here adapted by the one and only Henry Mancini long before he hit it big with Peter Gunn. Stewart is terrific and so is Allyson, and there are lots of fun cameos by the likes of Gene Krupa, Louis Armstrong, Francis Langford, The Modernaires and others. The story is corny, which is just the way you’d want it. It takes a full hour before we get the classic Miller sound, but once it comes it never lets up. I didn’t actually know how Mr. Miller passed and that he was so young when he did. There are two transfers on the disc – one is full frame, which is how most people think this movie should be shown. Note to most people: No, it should not. That version is four minutes shorter than the film as released – no one seems to know why three or four short scenes went missing. Then there is the proper widescreen version (not quite proper – it’s 1.85 and should be 2.00 but that difference is minimal. The color is very good, and while there is some bleeding from misaligned matrices, it’s mostly a very pleasing transfer, and the widescreen version is complete. The full screen version is in stereo, but the film was never released that way – the widescreen is in mono.
Then I had another brief visit from another brief visitor – he, too, sang I Will Never Leave You and then promptly left me, which was fine. I also got two items from UPS right after he left – a little padded envelope thing and a big box. I opened the little padded envelope thing to find a screener for Into The Woods. The big box contained a huge gift basket from Miss Sandy Bainum and her ever-lovin’ hubby. It was filled to the brim with all sorts of interesting foodstuffs – cookies, candies, truffles, all kinds of crackers, cheese, smoked salmon, peanut brittle and on and on. I unpacked it and got it all put away and I shall be partaking of the goodies over the next few weeks. Then I sat on my couch like so much fish again.
Last night, I watched the first hour of a motion picture on Blu and Ray entitled Birdman of Alcatraz, which is not the prequel to Birdman. I will have much to say about it once I finish it. I hadn’t seen it in over a decade, maybe even two decades.
Today I have a noon o’clock meeting at The Smoke House with a potential publicist for Inside Out, should we ever actually fund the damn thing. After that, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, then I’ll come home and continue choosing songs for the January show (at the moment we don’t seem to have a musical director – that part of the Kritzerland show equation is really starting to annoy me – it just gets harder and harder and harder). I believe we’re within one person of being fully cast. Then at some point I’ll finish Birdman of Alcatraz and watch something else – hopefully more screeners will arrive.
The rest of the week is more of the same, then on Friday I’m seeing a musical Barry Pearl directed, Saturday I’m seeing a Waiver theater production of Putting It Together, and Sunday I have a dinner with someone I haven’t seen for about fifteen years.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, have a meeting, hopefully pick up packages, choose songs, cast our final kid, find a musical director and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite biopics and your favorite films starring Burt Lancaster? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I shall sing I Will Never Leave You with Guy Haines. Like Daisy and Violet, we’re inseparable.