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April 19, 2019:

PASSOVER, GOOD FRIDAY, AND ROCK CANDY

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, how can it be Friday already?  It came so fast I almost passed over it.  Oh, wait, I’m glad I didn’t pass over it because it is a Jewish holiday entitled Passover.  I think it is also Good Friday, for our non-Jewish dear readers.  I think it is also Celebrate Rock Candy Day.  So many things today.  So let’s talk about yesterday before we Passover on Good Friday whilst eating rock candy.

Yesterday, well, what can we say about yesterday?  I got nine hours of sleep, we can say that, and that was a mighty good thing.  Once up, I did the usual things – answer e-mails, work on the computer, listen to music. Because it was already late, I then went and picked up a couple of packages and a little residual from the WGA. I do enjoy getting those because they’re never for nine cents or anything like this.  This wasn’t huge but it will pay for a few meals.

Then I thought about food and ended up just doing Taco Bell since it was easy and cheap. I came home and ate that all up, listened to more music, including the box set of Quincy Jones film music from Universal France. Six CDs of mostly 60s Quincy (some 70s and later, too), and first releases for a few things, like Mirage and John and Mary.  These are all from LPs, so no new material or anything.  Well, I wish I could rave and I sort of can about the music itself. What I can’t rave about is the sucky mastering, which seems to be a “thing” with the producer and “creator” of this series. I suppose there are several options for this way too loud, in your face mastering: perhaps the producer doesn’t hear very well. That’s one option.  Perhaps the producer has no idea what he’s doing (my favorite).  Perhaps the producer doesn’t even listen to what he’s given by the mastering engineer.  This isn’t heavy metal music, these are sound tracks.  By the end of the third disc I had to shut it off and take some Excedrin. It’s really unfair to the music itself, which just sounds harsh at this level.  Then I sat on my couch like so much fish.

Last night, I watched the Twilight Time Blu and Ray of Bedazzled, directed by Stanley Donen and starring Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. I saw it the week it opened and remember quite well thinking that when it was funny it was really funny – but how almost every sequence began really well and then petered out.  The two stars are, of course, great – the whole cast is. Watching it all these years later, I feel exactly the same – when it’s funny it’s laugh out loud funny, and the rest is just sitting there waiting for the next funny to come along.  The transfer looks pretty good, certainly better than it ever has on home video, but it does seem perhaps a shade too brown – nothing major, and there’s nice detail once you’re out of the opticals, of which there are many, especially during the first ten minutes of the film.

After that, I listened to more music – two Ernst Toch symphonies – one of which I actually enjoyed.  And John Scott’s wonderful score to A Study in Terror.  I did the event page and eBlast for the May Kritzerland show, and even began planning the June show, which will be one of our many composer tributes, and I’ve already cast two people in it.

Today, I shall probably be up by eleven at the latest, then I have to do a show order and write the commentary, so that will be a good part of the day.  I’ll eat, hopefully pick up some packages, and have a Good Friday, which I will not Passover – only the rock candy is in question.  Does anyone still make rock candy?  Does anyone still wear a hat?  Then I’ll probably watch something.

Tomorrow, she of the Evil Eye will be here and I’ll go do my usual Saturday stuff.  Beyond that, I have no idea if anything at all is happening on Saturday or Sunday. I’m sure I’ll go somewhere for a nice meal on one of those days.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a show order, write commentary, eat (perhaps something Jewish-inspired), hopefully pick up some packages (perhaps something Jewish-inspired), and then 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, lots o’ stuff.  Blu-ray, more Twilight Time titles.  Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, as we Jews have our Passover, and others have their Good Friday and others have their rock candy.

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