Well, dear readers, I had a perfectly pleasant birthday doing not much of anything. I spent most of it by myself, which was fine with me, myself, and I, not necessarily in that order. I spent a lot of the day and evening “liking” all the Facebook birthday wishes. I find Facebook useful for not much at all other than promotion, but birthdays are definitely one thing that’s fun, even though we were doing it long before Facebook. Last year I had a bit over seven hundred birthday wish posts – this year topped that, going over eight hundred, but I do think I managed to “like” every single one of them.
So, here’s how the day and evening went: I only got five hours of sleep, got up and played on the computer, then went back to bed and slept an additional hour before being awakened by the doorbell. It was a delivery, a little birthday treat from Hayley Shukiar’s family (Hayley’s the little eleven-year-old dynamo who did I Love to Walk in the Rain) – chocolate covered apple slices. I put them in the refrigerator as I was soon going to be on my way to lunch with Kay Cole. So, I listened to more Villa-Lobos string quartets – they’re quite good and interesting, but I’m really thinking I’m simply not much of a string quartet fan – that said, there are a couple of them that are so much fun that I’m happy to have them. Then it was time to mosey on over to the Eclectic Café to lunch with Kay.
It was quite a nice birthday lunch – I had a small Caesar salad and risotto with chicken and asparagus, both excellent. We had sparkling conversation, talked about the CD packaging (I had a different cover idea from what she’d been thinking about, and she totally “got” it and is going to take a few more photos next Tuesday.
After lunch, I picked up one package, came home, then had to pretty much go right back out to pick up two more packages. Once back home I uploaded a new box set of Sibelius symphonies – I thought it would be a nice thing to listen to all of them since we were sharing a birthday (my other favorite birthday share is James Thurber). This was a pretty inexpensive set, conducted by Kurt Sanderling, a conductor I know I’ve enjoyed in the past. But he’s not high on anyone’s list and yet this had two raves on Amazon (not that raves on Amazon really mean anything). Well, the raves were well deserved. I was a little leery with the first symphony thanks to muddy sound (I liked the performance), but the sound immediately got better on symphony two and I must say this is now my favorite set overall (I have three more on their way). Compared to Bernstein, Sanderling is much calmer and even-keeled, which I kind of like. Only in the final movement of the fifth symphony, which is my favorite of all Sibelius tunes, did I slightly prefer the Bernstein in that movement only, but I think after a couple more listens to Sanderling I’ll probably be completely happy. I’m looking forward to the other sets, too, one of which is a Blu-ray – that and the John Barbirolli-conducted set will be here today. Then I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Yesterday, I watched a DGA screener of a motion picture entitled Jackie – Oscar bait filmmaking every step of the way. I didn’t love it, and I didn’t hate it. It’s oddly structured and weirdly paced (it doesn’t overstay its welcome but feels longer than it is) – I found it a bit uninvolving until the last twenty minutes. Natalie Portman is very good as Jackie Kennedy and certainly it’s the performance that’s being touted as the one to beat by the usual wags. I haven’t seen enough other leading female performances to have an opinion.
Robert Yacko stopped by with some tiny mini-cupcake things, which was very sweet of him. After that, I wrote a rough two paragraphs for what will hopefully be the new book – I’ve been procrastinating doing it, but the minute I opened the document I dove right in and had fun writing. I don’t care if it’s good or bad, really – it was just to set the tone and have something on the page for when I really start on January 1. I’ll probably smooth it out a bit and may write another paragraph. I do have to visit a location early next week to take some photos and have some conversations, for research purposes. I ate a couple of the chocolate covered apple slices, which were really yummilicious, and had a couple of the tiny cupcake things, too, also really good. I listened to symphonies and then some of the filler pieces that were included in the set, and that I didn’t have in other sets. It was a nice birthday, and I didn’t mind spending it pretty much alone.
Today, I will definitely jog, hopefully pick up packages, and then we’re doing this shared birthday dinner with Sami’s mom (her birthday is Sunday) at the Woodland Hills Ruth’s Chris – really looking forward to it – haven’t been there since last year’s shared birthday dinner.
Tomorrow I’m comping vocals for most of the day, so we’re hoping to finish all that up, then I’ll hear the mixes, finesse whatever, and that will be that. Sunday is Doug Haverty’s Christmas Do – I may just bring some Dino’s Pizza along with me if the fancy strikes me or, conversely, if I strike my fancy. Next week I have several things to do – some meetings and meals, research for the book, but after that, I’ll be able to wind down until the New Year – we’re definitely announcing Kay’s CD just before Christmas, and I suppose there’s a chance of one other release happening.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a jog, hopefully pick up packages, and then sup at Ruth’s Chris. 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, more Sibelius for the time being. Plus some SACDs to listen to, as well. DVD – screeners of Loving and The Monster Calls, of which I know nothing. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have so many lovely birthday wishes, none of which were lovelier than the ones right here at haineshisway.com, which I feel soon will be the most popular site on all the Internet.