Well, dear readers, I’m happy to say that the Time Warner Man arrived right on time, got the line hooked back up, and I’m back on the line without using a personal hot spot. He was quite a nice fellow and he told me I’d be surprised how often AT&T morons do this kind of thing. Nothing about AT&T surprises me, frankly, except their ability to take responsibility. So, even though she of the Evil Eye was here, I didn’t actually leave the house until ten-thirty. I then drove to the Rite-Aid near Hollywood Blvd. and Vermont – the only store in LA (at least that I’ve been to) that sells Twizzlers chocolate licorice. It turns out that Richard Sherman and I have even more in common than I thought. When he was here on Friday I gave him a Swedish Fish, which he loves. Then, out of the blue, he said, “You know what I loved when I was a kid and you can’t find it anywhere today – chocolate licorice. I told him I discovered it in the late 1950s and have been addicted ever since. I told him you could still get it and he didn’t believe it. He will now because I bought him a big ol’ bag of Twizzlers chocolate licorice.
After that, I came back to the Valley and had bacon, eggs, and toast and fruit. Then I picked up some packages and then came home. We are now fully cast so I chose the last three songs and got everyone their music and thank goodness that’s done now and I can figure out the show order and write the commentary, as soon as I wrap up these damn liner notes.
Then I revisited the remaining two Terry Trotter CDs – The Michel Legrand Album and Sweeney Todd in Jazz. The latter is very good, but again, the sound isn’t quite up to a couple of the other in Jazz albums we did. The Legrand album is also very good but certainly my least favorite of all we did – don’t know why, really – Terry is great, the trio is great, the guests are great and the music is, of course, great, but it just never is magical to me – I felt that back then and I feel it now. However, the Bergmans, who wrote the liner notes, loved it, and I’m told Legrand did, too. Then I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Yesterday, I watched a motion picture on Blu and Ray entitled Bells Are Ringing. I had no idea it was on Blu-ray until dear reader George mentioned it in a post. I held out little hope for it as it was a Spanish Blu-ray and while some are okay, many are just, in essence, bootlegs. So, here’s what I can tell you – it’s definitely not the DVD transfer – it’s more solid than that and has slightly better color – in fact for most of its running time the color is quite pleasing, but there are a few scenes that should have been tweaked a bit. There’s some detail but not quite enough – perhaps they took this from the hi-def transfer shown on TCM or something – that wouldn’t, of course, be full hi-def but it would be better than the DVD. Sound is great, though. And it has the same deleted scenes as the DVD. I absolutely fell in love with both the movie and Judy Holliday when I saw it at the Stadium Theater on multiple occasions. Then I didn’t see it until the laserdisc release, and seeing it all those years later I was shocked at how poorly paced it was, how Vincente Minnelli’s direction had none of the style or fluidity of his earlier films – it was, in fact, really pedestrian. And seeing it again yesterday, it’s still pedestrian in terms of Minnelli’s work. But I do love Miss Holliday, Dean Martin is very good as Jeffrey Moss, and the entire supporting cast is lovely. And there will never EVER be a funnier Dr. Kitchell than Bernie West. And there will NEVER be another Judy Holliday. I do love the score, and I love the song added for the film, Better Than a Dream. But Minnelli’s work is just baffling to me.
I then watched about ten minutes of Love Me or Leave Me and that Blu-ray looks pretty good. I’ll say more when I’ve finished it. Then I did the shorter jog since it was already after seven. I’d spent an hour on the phone with Apple trying to get the new version of Garageband on my computer – the version that was carried over from my other computer was five years old and useless. Then I went to Gelson’s and got four drummettes, a tiny bit of mac-and-cheese, and a little seafood salad for my evening snack. I resisted the temptation to open one of MY bags of chocolate licorice. Then I took a shower and relaxed, listened to more music, and that was that.
Today, I have a work session with Kay Cole and John Boswell – that will last an hour or two. Then I’ll write, pick up one Sunday package, eat, and then Richard Sherman will come with the last of the music we’re doing on our new CD. Those are the tracks I have to put vocals on, so as soon as those are cleaned up I’ll do that – probably in the next week or so. Then I’ll relax.
This week is filled with meetings and meals and going and doing and getting projects in for approval and writing and planning and getting a jump on the November Kritzerland and casting the rest of The Brain.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, have a work session, jog, write, pick up a Sunday packages, put on my Sunday clothes, eat, have a Richard Sherman visit, 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, happy to be back on the line.