Well, dear readers, I’m pleased to announce the latest Kritzerland release, the original cast recording of L.A. Now and Then. It’s a two-CD set at a one-CD price and has ninety minutes of the show, which includes every note of music plus the entire We Look Ahead sequence. It was recorded live over two performances and John Adams, the recording and mixing engineer has done a great job with it. Here’s the cover.
It’s available now for pre-order at Kritzerland. If you were an Indiegogo contributor for the cast album perk you need do nothing, you’ll be sent it automatically.
Yesterday was a rather pleasant day. I got eight hours of sleep, got up, and got everything prepped for the CD release. I picked up a couple of teeny-tiny packages that had teeny-tiny things in them, then came right back home. Having done all that needed doing, I promptly sat on my couch like so much fish.
Yesterday, I watched a motion picture on Blu and Ray entitled The Panic in Needle Park. No, this wasn’t a sci-fi film from the 1950s about errant and truant spaceships upsetting people in Needle Park, this was the 1971 hard-hitting film about drug addicts in New York on the Upper West Side’s Needle Park aka Sherman Square near 71st and Broadway. The film was shot towards the end of 1970 when I was still living in New York and I can tell you that it’s like taking a time machine back to that era when New York was not gentrified and Disneyfied. This was the film that put Al Pacino on the road to stardom (which would be solidified the very next year with The Godfather). From the very first shot of him you know this guy’s going to be a star – he just electrifies the screen, even while just walking.
Now, I hate drugs, I hate anything to do with drugs, I have never smoked the marijuana cigarettes or taken the cocaine or shot up with horse or whatever they call it. So, I never had any desire to see this film. But I dutifully watched it and it’s very well done, and Pacino and Kitty Winn are really good in it, as is the large supporting cast. And the film and photography really capture that moment in time in New York in a really visceral way. I did have to look away at the shooting up close-ups – the film is unflinching in that regard. The good news here is the transfer is absolutely perfect. Perfect color and contrast, and looking exactly like a 1971 film shot on Eastman stock should look.
The film has not one note of music in it – not a score, not source music, nothing. That was a choice and it works well for the film and gives it a certain raw, verite quality. But, there WAS a score written for it, recorded, and then thrown out. And it’s included on the Blu-ray as an isolated score. It’s by classical composer Ned Rorem and it’s really interesting and quite good. Watching the film with the score (you don’t get the actual film sound, just the score and the silent film) you can see that it completely changes the entire feeling and vibe of the movie, and not in uninteresting ways. It would be fun to see the film with the score properly mixed in, but you get the idea. What the music definitely does is make the relationship between the two leads more emotional and it makes them more likeable. It’s fascinating to watch and anyone who’s interested in film and music and that relationship should watch it both ways. A wonderful presentation from Twilight Time.
Then I had a brief visit with Nick Redman, and then it was time to sup with Lanny Meyers. We went to the Eclectic Café and had a really good meal and fun conversation. After that, I came home, did some work on the computer, and then just relaxed.
Today, I shall be up whenever the DirecTV man arrives, which is somewhere between eight and noon. I’ll eat, hopefully pick up packages, hopefully print out a LOT of orders, and relax.
Tomorrow I’m attending a concert at Disney Hall. Sunday I have a work session with Kay Cole. And next week is very busy doing stuff for the August Kritzerland show.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, eat, hopefully pick up packages, hopefully print out a LOT of orders, 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, various upcoming Kritzerland titles. Blu-ray, next up The Hound of the Baskervilles, the Hammer version. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have announced the cast recording of the LA show.