Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to the Herb Alpert album, Midnight Sun – wonderful stuff – while pondering two ideas I’ve been thinking about for two months. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, I have been pondering two ideas that began as one amorphous idea and then split into two different ideas, each of which I am excited about. Both would be for live streaming and both would really push just about every envelope that there is in terms of what people have been doing, including us. Obviously, I am not going to be telling anyone anything about them, other than the folks who I want to be involved and I’ve already had that conversation. One of the ideas is kind of a natural for me, but the other one I am completely jazzed about, as what was just amorphous and unfocused and really nothing other than some vague notion, suddenly and unexpectedly came into focus last night, as I was driving home from a Gelson’s run. I love when that happens. I got home and wrote it all down and I can only hope that a) I can figure it out in terms of its mechanics and b) that I’m good enough to make it work. So, over the next couple of weeks I’ll be fleshing out the two ideas and then I’ll begin work in earnest on them. So, that was a fun thing for last night. We can use all the fun things we can get. I was also feeling much better yesterday, more like my old self, emphasis, of course, on old. I actually had energy and everything, which I needed because the evening hours were quite non-stop for a while with some prep work for Sunday’s Backstage at Kritzerland show. Herb is now doing his redo of A Taste of Honey. Beautiful orchestrations on this album. I have loved A Taste of Honey since the day I first heard it. I was trying to remember which version that was – it was before I heard Streisand do it and Herb’s first recording wasn’t until 1965. It was written by Bobby Scott for the Broadway production of A Taste of Honey in 1960, part of the background music he wrote for the play – I even think the score may have been played live in the theater. So, looking at the history of the recordings, I’m guessing my first hearing of it was from a Martin Denny album – if not that, then definitely a Victor Feldman album. Interestingly, The Beatles recorded it, Streisand, of course, Acer Bilk, Paul Desmond, and finally the song’s biggest hit version by Alpert. I have the Martin Denny version on CD and happily Bobby Scott’s entire score for the show is available on CD and is fantastic and highly recommended by the likes of me. How did I get off on a Taste of Honey tangent? Funny where the mind takes you when the mind has a mind of its own.
Yesterday was a very pleasant day. I was able to force quit the brain when I got into bed at two-thirty and I think I was asleep within four minutes. I slept nine-and-a-half glorious hours, so that was great. I felt so much better when I got up. Amazing what a tonic a good night’s sleep is after not having enough for three or four nights. Once up, I answered e-mails, did work on the computer, got some pretty definite good news for one of the guests I was after, and then the lunch I’d ordered the night before arrived at one-thirty. An all-white half chicken. As I’ve said, the California Chicken Café is hit and miss with their rotisserie chicken – two days ago it was great, yesterday less so. Now that I think about it, the only time it’s not been great is when I’ve done the half chicken rather than one breast. I ate it all up, of course, but I’ll now take a nice long break before I have it again.
There was no mail or packages to pick up, so I just did a lot of stuff around the home environment, some work at the piano, and then finally I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I went to watch the extras on The French Connection Blu-ray, only to find out there WERE no extras on The French Connection Blu-ray. Who knew? So, instead, I watched the first half of Alfred Hitchcock’s Foreign Correspondent, a film I like quite a bit. Prior to starting the film proper, I watched the hour-long Dick Cavett Show interview with Hitchcock, which was delightfully delightful. The great stuff in Foreign Correspondent is truly top-flight Hitchcock – a murder in a crowd standing in the rain with their umbrellas is brilliant, the final plane ride is great, Joel McCrea is great, Laraine Day and Herbert Marshall are great, and George Sanders is always a treat when he’s playing someone with a wry wit. But the entire cast is fantastic. Where the film errs is in some of the writing and surprisingly in the score by Alfred Newman, which actually fights the film a lot of the time. I just kept imagining what Bernard Herrmann would have done with it and I think it’s part of why the film has never been ranked as one of his best. But I’m enjoying it – haven’t seen it is five or six years now.
After that, I went to Gelson’s and got food for today and tomorrow, then had my idea brainstorm as soon as I got in the car. The rest you know.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages (more Airborne and Pepcid), I’ll eat, I’ll finish choosing songs for the core cast, we’ve already begun making tracks for what I’d already chosen, we’ll do some more private tests for Sunday’s show, then I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow will be more of the same, Saturday she of the Evil Eye comes so I’ll have to do stuff whilst she does her thing, then we’ll do our final private tests, and then I’m relaxing. Sunday, I’ll relax until we do our Backstage at Kritzerland show on Facebook and YouTube Live.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up when I’m up, do whatever needs doing, hopefully pick up packages, eat, finish choosing songs, do private tests, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite films of one of my favorite actors, Mr. Joel McCrea and what are your favorite films of Mr. George Sanders? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have had one vague and amorphous idea split into two no longer vague and amorphous ideas.