Well, dear readers, why doesn’t it feel like the Christmas season? It IS the Christmas season and yet, for me, it does not feel like the Christmas season. I think it’s high or even low time for it to damn well start feeling like the damn Christmas season, don’t you? Let’s have some holiday spirit and merrymaking, let’s perk this damn thing up, let’s have some damn chestnuts roasting on either an open or closed fire, let’s have some turkey and some mistletoe, not necessarily in that order, let’s have some damn joy and jollity – in other words, we need a little Christmas, right this very minute.
Yesterday was a day that didn’t feel like the Christmas season was in evidence. Oh, it was a perfectly fine day, no terrible things happened, but where was the sparkle and fizz? I was up at eight (barely) to announce the Kay Cole album, which I did. Then I went back to bed – not to sleep but just to lay there like a dead herring in the moonlight, which I did. Then the pool man came and I was very strong with him that he can’t leave some knob the wrong way so that nothing works – he never takes responsibility for doing it (this has happened several times), he acts all befuddled, but fixes it, and then he sheepishly told me what the problem was and how to deal with it. Then I printed out some orders and began the task of starting to clean up the house for the Christmas Eve Do.
Then I went and had a breakfast burrito for my meal o’ the day and I even got a little cupcake to take home for a sweet treat. I picked up some packages and came home. I uploaded some music and listened to more Rachmaninov performances – Lorin Maazel doing the symphonies – okay, but nothing to shout about, although I shouted anyway. And I got this completely random Rachmaninov compilation on that Australian Eloquence label – it’s just pieces of things (it only cost two bucks), nothing really complete. So, why did I buy it? Because it has the slow movement of symphony two conducted by Adrian Boult, that’s why. That performance (complete) has never been issued on CD and why is anyone’s guess – clearly they have the tapes and it’s not like every OTHER version isn’t out there and it’s not like Mr. Boult isn’t one of the most revered conductors ever. You see, back in the 1970s, I was driving home from the beach or Santa Monica or something. And I had a classical station on and suddenly the most stunningly beautiful music was playing and I was so taken with it that I pulled over and parked and listened until it was done, so I could write down the name of it. It was, of course, Rachmaninov’s second symphony and the conductor was Adrian Boult. I bought the LP the next day and wore it out. When CDs came I patiently waited for it to be issued. And here we are, thirty-three years later and it still hasn’t been issued. Hearing the slow movement was like a nostalgia rush – he does a beautiful job of it and no wonder it became my symphony.
Meanwhile, a screener arrived, something called Moonlight. Just reading the description included it seemed like everything I don’t like in movies today and it seemed like yet another movie I’d seen in a million other movies. But I’d just read something about it and how wonderful it was, so I figured if, as with Silence, I didn’t like it I’d just shut it off. So, since my afternoon meeting got canceled and moved to next Monday, I sat on my couch like so much fish and watched Moonlight. The beginning made me think here it comes, yet another movie about an African-American kid and drugs and all that stuff – and then an interesting thing began to happen and it continued to happen all the way until the end credits. At every point the movie confounded my expectations. It went places that I had no idea it was going. I wasn’t in love with some of the direction, but the actors were really wonderful and every time I thought it was going to go to the usual Screenwriting 101 place, it didn’t. The film follows a young boy into manhood – the role is played by three different actors, and yet all three seem to embody the same person at different stages and places in this character’s life. I kept waiting for the shoe to drop, so to speak, but it didn’t and what do you know – it was simply a heartfelt and pretty wonderful motion picture of some depth. It may, in fact, be my favorite film of what I’ve seen this year. So, here’s the thing – read NOTHING, don’t know anything about the plot – and I think you’ll be as pleasantly surprised as I was. Certainly it will be up for a few awards and certainly I liked it better than the overpraised La La Land.
Then I listened to some film music for a change of pace – first two George Duning Star Trek scores – just wonderful, then Mr. Duning’s Toys in the Attic score, also one of my favorites. Then it was Henry Mancini’s Wait Until Dark score, which is genius. And for the first time (and I’ve seen the film and heard the music a LOT) I noticed the whistling and I don’t know why it’s never hit me before that the whistler is the brilliant Muzzy Marcellino, best known for his whistling the theme from The High and the Mighty. He appears nowhere on the musician list for the score, which I find odd – but it’s unmistakably him and he’s listed in the music department of the film on the imdb. Anyway, what a great score it is, and January brings the Blu-ray. I also went to Gelson’s and got a little salad for my evening snack.
Today, I’m lunching with our very own Mr. Nick Redman and others at the nearby Thai place. I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, choose songs, then I’ll have something light for supper with another friend. Then I’ll go to Gelson’s and buy everything I need for the Christmas Eve Do – mostly the spaghetti sauce ingredients, some rolls, and the ingredients for the tuna pasta salad.
Tomorrow, she of the Evil Eye comes, I have a little work session with a young person, then I’ll relax, and in the evening I’ll make the tuna pasta salad, and do all my slicing and dicing, so I can sleep in a bit on Saturday morning. Then I begin the long process of making the sauce and getting the house completely ready for the Do, then we do the Do. Sunday is, of course, Christmas, and I’m hoping to see the Darling Daughter at some point. And then it’s another week of ME stuff and relaxing, and getting ready for the New Year and the beginning of a new book.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, lunch, hopefully pick up some packages, choose songs, sup with a friend, and then relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What were your favorite TV shows of 2016 – what did you binge on, and also which were your least favorites? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, hoping that it starts to feel like the damn Christmas season so I can find and feel the holiday spirit.