Well, dear readers, it is late and I must write these here notes in a hurry, a familiar mantra these days. A Familiar Mantra – that’s the title of my next novel. So, what kind of a day was yesterday? Reasonable and fine, and also fine and reasonable. I was up early for she of the Evil Eye. I decided to hold off on my jog till the afternoon, so I did some banking, picked up dry cleaning, paid a visit to the North Hollywood post office, did some other stuff, and then came home.
Although I hadn’t begun the show order, I did write the opening of the commentary, just because I know what the opening number is. Then I sat on my couch like so much fish and began watching the Trevor Nunn film of Porgy and Bess, based on his production. What an odd beast it is – shot after the production had closed, and filmed like a movie, but still looking like a live production, sort of but not really. But the really odd part is everyone is lip-synching to the recording that was issued on CD. So there is a certain lethargy that sets in, because it’s trying to live between naturalism and heightened and it falls squarely in between and not in a good way. There is nothing really “natural” about opera, especially and opera like Porgy and Bess. I do like the singers very much, though and of course since it’s the recording, it sounds very good. I still think the best production of this opera I’ll ever see was the Houston Grand Opera – that was a very special production. I also listened to the Columbia cast album of Porgy, which was, at the time, the very first complete recording of any show, albeit with the sanctioned cuts that were in place at that time. I could not believe the ferociousness of Lehman Engel’s tempos – I’ve never heard anything quite like it, and yes, they’re too fast sometimes.
I dozed off several times and since I’d only had six hours of sleep that was a good thing. Then I did a jog. Then I began watching a home grown DVD a friend had given me a while back – it has three movies on it and I started with the first of them – Meet Me in Las Vegas, an MGM picture directed by Roy Rowland (The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T), starring Dan Dailey, Cyd Charisse and a whole slew of fun cameos, the funniest of which involves Mr. Sinatra. Made in 1956, it’s just astonishing to see the Vegas of that time – completely flat, no really tall buildings at all. It was positively quaint compared to the horrorshow that Vegas is now. The movie is very odd, but at times entertaining. The songs are by Nicholas Brodszky and Sammy Cahn – Mr. Brodszky has never been a favorite of mine and the score is part of the film’s problems. The plot isn’t much to speak of either, but there’s some wonderful dancing by Miss Charisse – the numbers were choreographed by the great Eugene Loring and the less than great Hermes Pan. I got through about two-thirds of it and will finish today.
Then I got ready for my dinner thing and went to the Smoke House where it took place. It is very hard for me to be a good boy there, especially with the garlic cheese bread, but I was. I had two pieces of the bread, but they’re cut so thin it’s really like having one piece of normal garlic bread. I didn’t do the clam chowder either. I had a filet mignon, which I’d already looked up the calories for – about 450 for the size they have. I had some bernaise sauce on it, so another 200 or so for that. Then I had a baked potato, which I hate half of. I normally put a pound of butter on baked potatoes, but I didn’t this time – I did put butter on it but not nearly as much as usual, but that’s the most calories of the meal. Then I had strawberries for dessert, so no real calories there. Even with the butter I suspect it wasn’t over 1500 calories and then I factor in the jog, so not enough to maybe lose anything but certainly not enough to gain anything back. It was quite a long thing and I didn’t get out of there until almost eleven, after which I came home.
Today, I shall hopefully arise after a good night’s beauty sleep. I’ll jog, I’ll probably go have my beloved chopped salad and maybe sans bagel – that way the salad is under 500 calories (well under) and I’ll just do nuts and dried cranberries for snacks later. I’ll do the show order and continue writing the commentary, too. I’m sure I’ll watch a couple of motion pictures and relax.
This week has turned into a very busy one – tomorrow I have a walk-through and meeting at the Pasadena Playhouse, then a production meeting two hours after that, all ALS benefit-related. Tuesday is more of the same, ALS-wise, Wednesday I’m accompanying our own Nick Redman out to Profiles in History so he can pick up the two items he won, plus I have a work session just prior to that, and then a dinner thing after it. Thursday and Friday there are work sessions, too.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a jog, eat something very light, do a show order, continue writing commentary and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, after which I shall try not use the familiar mantra any more this week.