Well, dear readers, the Do is Done and what a Do it was. In fact, I’d like to Do, Do, Do it again, but alas everyone has gone home to their beds to sleep so Santa can do his thing. We had quite a nice turnout – one never knows who will be showing up – let’s see if I can remember everyone – Adryan Russ and her ever lovin’ Dale, Kay Cole and her ever-lovin’ Michael Lamont, Doug, Dorathy, and Hartley Haverty, Richard Sherman (solo – his ever-lovin’ Elizabeth is under the weather with a sore throat), our own dear readers Amy and Mark, my pal Joanna Erdos, critic Rob Stevens, he of the Robby Awards, Sami and mom, Barry Pearl and his ever-lovin’ Cindy, Leslie Young and her two daughters, Alexa and Mia, plus friend James, Grant Geissman and his ever-lovin’ Lydia, Robert Yacko, Marshall Harvey (wonderful editor of Outside the Box and many great movies), film music fan Henry Stanny and his ever-lovin’ Nancy Hoven, my old friend Ira Hefler and singer Lori Donato – I think that may have been it – sorry if I missed anyone but it’s late and I still have some pots and pans to deal with. There was wonderful conversation, lots o’ laughs, lots o’ food consumed (the consensus was that this was the best sauce ever), folks brought fun desserts, I was pretty good with the food until after everyone left, when I had my second helping of spaghetti and tuna pasta salad – just call me Miss Piggy – back on my strict diet tomorrow – will probably just do tuna pasta salad with no spaghetti, no bread, or anything else. As always, the evening’s final hour was musical – Richard delighted everyone with four or five songs – he played to by his dad, Al Sherman – that was really fun – then he did Supercalifragilisticexpialadocious, Hushaby Mountain, The Whimsey Works, and we did Two Roads. I was asked to play and sing my song, Simply, which I did, then there was a request for Robert Yacko to sing the Sherman Brothers’ Christmas song, Christmas in Los Angeles, which I played sans music and pretty much winging it from my memory of the sheet music – in fact, I only missed a couple of chords in the bridge. Adryan Russ sang a new Christmas song she penned the lyrics for.
Then everyone left and I cleaned up everything save for the big saucepot and the pasta pot, which I’ll tackle once these here notes are posted. I had my second helpings and began writing these here notes, stuffed to the damn gills, listening to John Williams’ marvelous score for The BFG. Here are the promised photographs. First, the table is filled with tuna pasta salad, cutlery, plates, cups, and candles.
And, of course, the infamous spaghetti sauce.
And here are some of our happy guests listening to Richard Sherman sing.
And here’s Richard, playing.
Prior to all that, I’d slept a whopping ten hours, then I got up, did my morning stuff, printed out a few orders and answered a few e-mails, then I went and picked up a couple of packages and came right back home. I then began the preparations for the sauce – first thing up is always sautéing the mushrooms, garlic, and onions in a half a cube of butter. Then I added all my other ingredients and let it simmer whilst I went about getting everything ready for the Do – setting out the candles, putting the chairs in the den, and constantly checking on the sauce and stirring like mad. I listened to the SACD of Close Encounters of the Third Kind – it sounds pretty terrific, but boy is it a different listening experience from how the music happens in the film, which is thankfully the way the expanded CD is presented. And I noticed the anomaly that has always bugged me in the album mix – as the music before the end credits is reaching its highest peak and crescendo resulting in the resplendent statement of the main theme, the volume drops about four db and totally robs the moment of its magic and power, then it’s restored – whether they limited it for the LP I know not but it’s a shame it wasn’t fixed for this SACD – it would have been VERY easy. In the expanded edition that moment is perfect. I also listened to The BFG twice and a Boult-conducted Rachmaninov third – mono, and certainly not my favorite performance – but the companion piece, in stereo, was great – a performance of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ eighth symphony. I have a different version also conducted by Boult but I liked this one even better. Then I got ready, and waited for the arrival of the first guests, who happened to be the Haverty folks. The rest you know.
Today, I’ll hopefully arise after a good night’s beauty sleep and I’ll open the few gifts that people were kind enough to bring. Then at some point the Darling Daughter and her Darling Husband will arrive – I’m sure they’ll have some spaghetti and tuna pasta salad and we’ll have a nice time. This year there’s no Wechter Christmas Bash, so I’ll just spend the rest of the day listening, watching, and relaxing.
This week is more relaxing, choosing the rest of the songs for the February Kritzerland show, and a little going and doing and doing and going.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, open presents, have a visit with the Darling Daughter, watch my intake of food, listen to music, and watch whatever I feel like watching. 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 – and let’s hear about all the gifts you got, too. Let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have told The Tale of the Do and wishing everyone the merriest Merry Christmas.