Well, dear readers, I don’t know what about this is my VACATION either I or others am not understanding, but I guess I’m going to need to speak LOUDER. THIS IS MY VACATION. I don’t want to work, I want to relax and have my time be MY time. And yet. All right, starting today, I AM ON VACATION, and I don’t care who knows it. End of VACATION rant. I am now sitting here like so much fish, awaiting the arrival of the three CD releases pages so I can test them and then have them go live. Going live is the ticket. And speaking of our three final CD releases for 2019, here they are. First up, the latest in the Bagley reissues, and one of the rarest in terms of the OOP previous release and what that’s bringing on the open market – Arthur Schwartz Revisited. It’s one of the best produced of the Bagley CDs, and the songs are rare and delightful. Here’s the cover.
Then we have a cast album reissue – Sandy Wilson’s delightful Valmouth from 1958 in improved sound and certainly improved packaging, and it includes a brand new lengthy personal reminiscence from the show’s set and costume designer, the one and only Tony Walton. Cleo Laine stars. Here’s the cover.
Finally, a CD I’m especially happy about releasing – Three Concertos by composer Franz Reizenstein. He wrote many classical pieces and then, like many classical composers, also wrote for films, including really fun scores for Hammer’s film, The Mummy from 1959, and Circus of Horrors from 1960. His concert music is very appealing and here we have his violin concerto, his first piano concerto, and his brilliant Concerto Popolare, written for the Hoffnung Music Festival, a concerto to end all concertos and fall-out-of-your seat hilarious. These are all archival and historic recordings, and the Poplare is the premiere performance done live at the Hoffnung Festival. I’m hoping folks will take a chance on this one – the music is simply delightful. Here’s the cover. They should be live, if not when these here notes go up, soon thereafter.
Yesterday was a day, namely Tuesday. As Tuesdays go, it was okay. Once again, I had a lot of trouble getting to sleep, and once asleep, sleep was fitful – so I think I only got around five hours of sleep. Once up, I did a phone interview with a fellow who’s writing a book about Shemp Howard, who became one of the Three Stooges after brother Curly was too ill to continue. He was a Stooge for eight years, and, the fact is, when I first took notice of the Stooges, it was at the Picfair Theater back around 1954, when they’d always show a new Stooge short, and those were all with Shemp, so that’s who the Stooges were to me – Larry, Moe, and Shemp. I didn’t know about Curly until later in the decade, when the Stooges became hugely popular again thanks to the Don Lamond-hosted TV show that showed the classic shorts every day. It’s been hard for this fellow to find anyone who thinks Shemp was a valuable addition, but I always loved Shemp and we chatted for quite a while about it.
After that, I had a lot of e-mails to answer and I had to get the eBlast and other stuff ready for our announcement. After that, I picked up buy one tiny packages, then went and had some matzoh ball soup and a few fries – very good. Then I came home, listened to a little music, and then sat on my couch like so much fish.
Yesterday, I chose a DGA screener entitled Jojo Rabbit – I had no idea what it was – in fact, I thought it was probably some stupid animated thing. Well, it’s anything but that. What it is is kind of a very clever satire that takes place in Nazi Germany. It’s fairly audacious – the filming style is kind of that quirky thing that quirky filmmakers like to do – you’ll recognize it right away – but it’s a remarkable film in that it somehow manages the almost impossible feat of negotiating all its tonal shifts. One minute, you’re laughing out loud at the outrageousness of it, and the next you’re getting surprisingly emotional. I watched the first forty-five minutes or so, but then had to be on my way to the theater for some callbacks and new auditions. I was hoping that wouldn’t take too long, but we didn’t finish until around 8:45.
Then I stopped at Gelson’s and got some small snack-type things, which I came home and ate – a bit of lobster salad, a bit of spicy Thai noodles, and a bit of salad. Then I finished watching Jojo Rabbit. I honestly didn’t think it would hold until the end, but it did. It features an absolutely remarkable performance by a kid actor, who should be nominated for an Oscar but won’t be because the idiots at the Academy are only impressed with the pretentious, method BS of actors like the star of Joker, which I loathed and whose leading man’s performance made me want to vomit on the ground. Scarlett Johannsen is also in Jojo Rabbit, as is Sam Rockwell, both very good. But every performance is terrific, and I just really liked it a whole lot. It’s irreverent, weird, it has anachronistic use of songs that actually somehow works, and it is highly recommended by the likes of me.
After I finished that, it was back to listening to music, and I had to resend the audio files for Valmouth, which is what was hanging us up – in fact, if the pages haven’t arrived soon, it probably won’t be live until morning.
Today, I can sleep in a bit, hopefully we’ll get a LOT of orders for the new batch, and let me tell you, we NEED a lot of orders or the end of the year is not going to be so pretty, and then I’ll relax, eat, hopefully pick up some packages, and then I won’t be able to go to the event and party I’d planned on, as we’re having the last of the auditions this evening.
Tomorrow is a completely ME day from start to finish. Friday is, too, save for going to the theater to do the pre-show announcement. Not sure if I’ll stay for the show or not, or I might leave after the first act. We shall see. Saturday, she of the Evil Eye comes, so I have to get out of here, and then Peyton and her mom are coming up to see the show, so we’ll dine beforehand somewhere fun, and I’ll stay and see the show with them. Sunday, I’ll pre-show announcement and then perhaps leave. I do have to do a Costco run, most likely on Monday, and then we have our Christmas Eve Do.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, sleep in a bit, hopefully get a LOT of orders for the new batch, relax, eat, hopefully pick up packages, have more auditions, then I’ll watch a DGA screener. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear reader any old question you like and we get to give any old answer we like. So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, hoping to get back to my VACATION, or at least begin it.