Haines Logo Text
Column Archive
March 1, 2019:

MARCHING INTO MARCH

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, I don’t know if anyone has noticed, but it is March. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, it is March.  We have marched into March.  And it is my fervent hope and prayer that March will be a month filled with health, wealth, happiness, creativity, and all things bright and beautiful.  I am still taking all my preventatives, since every day this week I’ve had someone sick in the house.  I am fighting the good fight, which is better than fighting the bad fight.

We had a very good and fun second Kritzerland rehearsal yesterday. Everyone was pretty up on their material, which is always appreciated, and the songs are just so beautiful.  I made a few arrangement adjustments, and we’ll see how it all hangs together at the stumble-through.  As I mentioned, I completely re-did the show order, moving things around – the original order just didn’t feel quite right to me and now it seems better.

Prior to rehearsal, I’d gotten nine hours of sleep, and would have gotten more were it not for the fact that it took me a while to fall asleep and the fact that the phone rang about six times in the morning.  Once up, I answered e-mails, but had to get ready for rehearsal and didn’t have much time for anything else.  Then we had our rehearsals, which went from one-thirty to a little after four-thirty.

After that, I went to the mail place and picked up a couple of packages, and then I went and had some matzoh ball soup, which was soothing and excellent. Then I came back home.  Jenna Lea Rosen had brought me a tuna sandwich from some Kosher jernt around here, which was sweet, and she had a friend in tow, visiting from Toronto.  The sandwich was pretty good – I ate it for my evening snack, along with a Kind bar and a few pretzels.

I answered more e-mails, had some telephonic calls, and then I finally sat on my couch like so much fish.

Last night, I watched a motion picture on Blu and Ray entitled The Third Secret, which I’ve written about before when I’d watched the DVD.  I saw this film at a sneak preview many weeks before its release and I really liked it a lot, mostly because I was already a fan of young actress, Pamela Franklin.  But it was the black-and-white scope photography and the excellent cast, including Stephen Boyd, Diane Cilento, Jack Hawkins, Richard Attenborough, and a young Judi Dench, whose first film it was.  Charles Crichton was a wonderful director and does a wonderful job with this film.  One of the interesting things as I watched it again, was realizing that in two scenes with Pamela Franklin she’s talking about the number of patients her murdered psychiatrist husband had, and on the track she says four while her mouth is clearly saying five.  I wondered why I’d never noticed that before, and why the change.  When I watched the extras on this UK Blu-ray I found out and what a surprise it was: Patricia Neal was in the film and completely cut out. How you cut someone who’d just won an Oscar is anyone’s guess, unless her role just hurt the film so much – it couldn’t have really been for time since the film runs 103-minutes.  So, that explained that – I gather there are stills of Miss Neal in the film and I shall seek them out.  There’s a nice score by Richard Arnell, too.  Whilst writing these here notes I’ve been listening to the audio commentary, which is so irritating – a male and a female yakking for all of the 103 minutes and rambling like crazy.  The transfer is the same as was done for the DVD – it’s funny to read the armchair reviewers praise it and say how it’s better with better grain when it’s exactly the same but just higher resolution.  It looks fine for what it is, but had Fox done a new transfer then Twilight Time would have released it.  But this UK company doesn’t care – they’ll take anything that’s given to them. They’ve released quite a few Sony titles and every one of them is from a dated master because if there were new transfers, they would have automatically gone to Twilight Time.

After that, I listened to music and relaxed.

Today, I have to be up by nine-thirty so I can get coherent for our eleven o’clock three-hour revue rehearsal.  After that, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages (hoping that The Cardinal will be here), then I’ll probably go have more chicken soup (sans matzoh ball) and a sandwich or something akin to a sandwich, and then I’ll come home and relax for the rest of the evening.

Tomorrow, I can sleep in as the stumble-through isn’t until four-thirty, so that’s really helpful.  After the stumble-through, some of us will probably go get food and then I relax for the rest of the evening.  Tomorrow, I’ll also sleep in, then relax until it’s time to mosey on over to Vitello’s for sound check and show.  Monday I can rest all day and night, which is great.  Tuesday we have our final run-through of the revue, and then I go directly over the hill for a bite to eat, then sound check, and then Nick Redman’s memorial, then on Wednesday it’s sound check and we play our revue.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up early, have a three-hour revue rehearsal, hopefully pick up packages, eat, and relax.  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, Mili Balakirev.  Blu-ray, something called Psyche 59, which I’ve never seen, and something called Human Desire, which I have.  Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, welcoming in the new month, the lusty month of March – and it is my fervent hope and prayer that March will be a month filled with health, wealth, happiness, creativity, and all things bright and beautiful.

Search BK's Notes Archive:
 
© 2001 - 2024 by Bruce Kimmel. All Rights Reserved