Well, dear readers, it is late and she of the Evil Eye will be here all too soon and I really need to get some sleep, so I shall write these here notes in a hurry so I can do just that. First of all, let me say that after it not happening for at least six months, I had the dreaded dream where I pull a muscle in my calf – I think they call it a charley horse, although I personally have never called a horse charley – I’ve called a horse biff once – it didn’t respond to biff so I called it roberta and that did the trick. Then I looked it in the mouth because it was a gift horse, even though I’d just been told to never look a gift horse in the mouth, and then I got tired of roberta so while I was in the middle of a stream I changed to a horse named lou even though I’d just been told to never change horses mid-stream. And I’ve gotta tell you that lou was a really tall horse, very high off the ground, but I liked lou so I stayed on even though I’d just been told to get off my high horse. What the HELL am I talking about? Oh, yes, my dream charley horse, only the thing with these dreams is that one actually is HAVING the muscle contractions and so you wake up in excruciating pain – this one in my left calf. I finally stopped it but boy did it hurt. I fell back asleep and had the same damn dream with the same result – I woke up in excruciating pain again, my left calf muscle going crazy. I finally got it to stop and it was now REALLY sore. I fell back asleep and had the same damn dream again, but this time with my right calf – I awoke in excruciating pain, and it finally abated after a minute or so. At some point I fell back asleep and this time stayed asleep until eleven, for about eight hours of sleep. I got up and both calf muscles were so sore I could barely walk.
I did the usual morning stuff – answered e-mails, printed out some orders, listened to music, did some organizing (trying to get rid of any CDs and Blu-rays/DVDs I don’t want), had a couple of nice telephonic conversations, but mostly relaxed and listened to music. I’d listened to some Arthur Bliss music a week ago and none of it was as good as I remembered it, which surprised me. Yesterday I’d found a CD of his music – it had A Colour Symphony and his suite for his film score from Things to Come. So, I uploaded it and listened and it was like hearing a whole new thing – these recordings were conducted by Mr. Bliss and the sound was upfront and amazing – the symphony in great-sounding mono, with incredible orchestral detail, and the suite from Things to Come in stereo, sounding just great. Sometimes it really makes all the difference in the world when the sound is not distant and the conductor really understands the music. In this case, it really was night and day, and that’s happened a lot over the last two weeks. I also listened to two of my favorite Darius Milhaud pieces, but in MUCH better performances than I’d previously uploaded – in fact, these are, for me, the greatest thanks to RCA’s great sound and the conducting of Charles Munch.
I listened to Holst’s The Planets, the very wacky and weird version by Stokowski on Capitol – it was the very first stereo recording of that work and while it’s idiosyncratic in the conducting and interpretation, it’s really interesting and fun to listen to – recorded with three microphones on the Goldwyn soundstage, which unfortunately had a too dry acoustic. Had they added a bit of air it would be absolutely stunning. So, I’m now on the hunt for another performance to enjoy. I’m sure I have one somewhere, but I can’t go rummaging through the hall closet shelves anymore – I’ve now done that four times. I’ll look at what I can see and maybe I’ll get lucky – I’m sure I must have another performance here, if not there are many recordings that can be had via third-party sellers for under five bucks. What an amazing work that is. I also listened to two symphonies by the marvelous French composer Arthur Honegger.
Then I picked up a friend and we drove way the HELL out to Newberry Park – thankfully the traffic was pretty good. We met up with two others at the local Islands. Service wasn’t good – I ordered a dinner salad and my usual Big Wave with bacon and cheese and specifically said to please bring the salad first. Ten minutes later the burgers arrived and the server didn’t even know about the salads but said he’d go get them. Our waitress then returned and apologized for the late salads (she should have comped them, but didn’t), and then I told her my burger had to go back because it was on a whole wheat bun when I very clearly said white. Salads came and I ate that, then my burger came back. Islands has my favorite fries, but I’m afraid these were both cold and stale. The burger was fine although not as good as it’s been in other locations, and we got a second batch of fries that weren’t much better than the first batch. Very disappointing, I must say.
Then we went and saw a high school production of Pippin. It was the revival version script and score, with the female leading player, but frankly while I enjoyed the revival okay, all the changes irritated me. I much prefer Mr. Fosse’s original version and that includes the original ending that everyone seems to hate but that I always thought worked fine. I’m always happy to see kids working hard and some of them did well, but as is often the case it’s not the kids who are the problem, it’s the teachers. This director, from what I could see, simply didn’t direct any of the kids, and that’s just a real problem in high school – these kids need and deserve directors who can actually teach them and help them, not just tell them to cross right or left. The choreographer, who was also the conductor, simply took Mr. Fosse’s work he’d seen on You Tube or the video of the original production and used it, and when it was too difficult then he just had the kids do other stuff. Anyway, the kid whose mom I know was the best thing in it – he played Charlemagne. After the show I came right home.
Today I’ll be up early. I’ll go get something to eat, hopefully pick up some packages, then we’ll see if my calf muscles have calmed down enough to jog. Then I’ll watch some motion pictures and listen to some music.
Tomorrow I may or may not go see a matinee. Then next week is all Kritzerland stuff, getting some packaging in for approval and figuring out how many releases we’ll have for the rest of the year. And boy do we need some major miracles around these here parts right about now, so send some strong most excellent vibes and xylophones for major miracles.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, eat, hopefully pick up packages, maybe jog, relax, and watch and listen to stuff. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite films of Bob Fosse and your favorite Fosse numbers? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, hoping for no repeat of the charley horse and other horse tails.