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November 18, 2020:

BACHIANOTES

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, after Mahler what?  Yes, after having gone through the Bernstein cycle and the Klemperer four symphonies box as well as listening to a few odds and ends on the Tube of You, I have gone back to Bach, because of the old boys he’s my favorite.  I have all the Stokowski transcriptions conducted by Stokowski and I really love all those.  I have another transcription disc from an old MGM LP by Arthur Winograd that I quite fancy – I grabbed it from YouTube.  And being in a Klemperer frame of mind, I’ve decided to listen to St. Matthew Passion again because I enjoyed it so much, despite its almost three-hour length.  And so, Bach is playing as I write these here notes, which we could call Bachianotes if we were in a Villa-Lobos frame of mind, after his Bachianas.  I seem to have Bach on the Brain right now, don’t I?  It happens at my age.  Speaking of my age, I do believe that I’m about to be even older in about three weeks’ time.  And to that I say, oy and vey.  But what can you do – time marches on and so do these here notes, inflexible and intractable, just as day turns to night and night turns to day.  Just as I don’t know what the HELL I’m talking about. Otherwise, I have just been sitting here like so much fish, not doing much of anything other than listening to music.  And that reminds me of famous TV commercial slogans for reasons that remain a complete mystery to me.  Nothin’ says lovin’ like something in the oven.  You’ll wonder where the yellow went when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent. I’d walk a mile for a Camel, or in my case, for a Kimmel.  The milk chocolate that melts in your mouth, not in your hands.  Brylcreem – a little dab’ll do ya. It takes a licking and keeps on ticking.  Plop, plop, fizz, fizz.  With a name like Smuckers it has to be good.  Ah, the days when ads were fun and memorable, not necessarily in that order.  Well, hadn’t I just better get back to the Bachianotes?  I think I’d better.

Yesterday was an okay day.  I got seven-and-a-half hours of sleep, had a telephonic call to work out the arrangement for the final track.  That proved to be a bit trickier than I thought when I got the track, so rather than talk it through, I went to the piano and recorded it the way I heard it and sent that off and that did the trick.  Richard Allen put the vocal in the computer and played to that and voila.  Then I had a nice catch-up telephonic call with Kay Cole, so that was fun.  After that, I answered e-mails, then went to the mail place and picked up what was there, then came right back home.  I did some work on the computer and then it was time for food.  I made tacos – I had a bit less than four ounces of ground beef, which I made with some onions.  That went into the various and sundried taco shells along with some lettuce, tomato bits, and cheese, topped with a bit of salsa.  They were quite satisfying, and I enjoyed them very much.

After that, I did some work on project two, mostly revising the opening, as I’d had a good idea when I went to bed and it turned out to work very well.  Then I mushed on a bit until I finally sat on my couch like so much fish.

Last night, I watched a motion picture on Blu and Ray, a favorite of mine – No Way to Treat a Lady, starring Rod Steiger, George Segal, Lee Remick, and some wonderful character actors.  It’s based on a novel, a paperback original by Harry Longbaugh who, it would later be revealed, was a pseudonym for a well-known novelist.  Harry Longbaugh was, in fact, the real name of the Sundance Kid so that should tell you that the well-known novelist was William Goldman.  I have a minty fresh copy of the paperback and some years later there was a hardback version, this time credited to Goldman – I have that, too.  I saw the movie several times when it came out – first at a sneak preview, and then during its run.  It was a great film to see with an audience.  Steiger is at his best in this film, Segal is a nebbish Jewish cop, Eileen Heckart is his mother, and Lee Remick becomes his sweetheart.  It’s directed by Jack Smight, with a script by John Gay, and it’s a real time machine back to the New York of 1968 – in fact, I would move there in December of that year.

Towards the end of the film, an entire long scene takes place in Joe Allen’s.  The dialogue is great, the pace is great, and I always enjoy revisiting it.  Now, to the Blu-ray – it’s from an overseas company called Via Vision or something and on their Imprint label.  They license stuff from Paramount, who gives them whatever transfer they happen to have.  In the case of War of the Worlds, they lucked out and got the new 4K transfer that Criterion got here in the US.  The other Paramount titles have not been so lucky, transfer-wise.  This is the same that was used for the DVD, maybe with a bit of clean-up, but certainly not the new transfer it should have had.  I looked at the DVD directly after and it’s the same color and contrast exactly.  Obviously, going to high definition gives it more detail.  I just wish it were better.

After that, I went and put gas in the motor car, to the one station near here that’s charging $3.29 a gallon.  If you go less than a half-mile from there, the next station you come to is charging over four bucks.  Insanity, I say.  After, I came right home again.  I was hungry, so I had one of those Healthy Choice frozen things for 300 more calories, which probably put me close to 1200 calories, but that’s fine.  Then I finished with Lenny’s Mahler and began Stokie’s Bach.  The rest you know.

Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, thankfully all tracks are now to the singers, and I think we can move on and begin to make charts for project one.  I’ll mush on with project two, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, I’ll eat (not sure what – I do have stuff here, but I might need a different kind of meal), then I have to set our Zoom rehearsals for Friday.  After that, I’ll watch, listen, and relax.

The rest of the week is more of all that, plus a Zoom rehearsal tomorrow for Doug’s short play, and then on Sunday we’ll try to have a blocking rehearsal at the theater.  I think I can get that done with just one rehearsal, and then we can have another two or three after that, and then I’ll be ready to shoot it.

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 start on the charts for project one, mush on with project two, hopefully pick up packages, eat, set Zoom rehearsals, and then watch, listen, and relax.  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, as I get ready to post these here Bachianotes.

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