Well, dear readers, it’s the day of the show and we are, I think, ready, willing, and able to do it, so we do hope you’ll all join us on Facebook and YouTube Live at 5:00 PST/8:00 EST. We have some mighty fine performers, we have some pretty great songs – some that are premieres for us and some that are encores for us, hence the title: Premieres and Encores. There are some really fun things, plus a few things of great beauty. Here are the direct links to both jernts.
YouTube Live: https://www.youtube.com/haineshisway
Facebook Live: https://www.facebook.com/KritzerlandUpstairsatVitellos
Otherwise, I’m sitting here like so much fish, having finished with the orchestra works of Samuel Barber, which I love. The performances and band are mostly fine, but the sound isn’t much to my liking and while it’s fun to have all this in one place, I won’t be nuking my more favored versions of certain pieces. And now I’ve begun with Mr. Philippe Entremont, his complete solo piano recordings. I’m not all that about solo piano recordings but I really love his playing and I feel it my duty to know a bit more about the solo piano pieces by Chopin and Ravel and Faure and others. I’m on the first CD (this is his complete Columbia recordings – not a daunting number of CDs, thankfully – and I like hearing things I’ve never heard before, and so far I’m enjoying this first CD, a Chopin recital in mono on Epic. This album was the only time he appeared on Epic, the very next recording was on Columbia, probably because he was proving to be so popular with the populace. I do love the original covers and the booklet is the usual Sony high quality affair with all the recording particulars. Chopin could write a tune, there’s no question about that. I’m a little tired from only about four hours of sleep, but not as much as I usually am. Anyway, I’m excited about tonight’s show and only wish I didn’t have to do the Zoom casting thing, but I think I’ll only stay for an hour and actually no one has sent me an invite yet, so there’s that. I just can’t do stuff on show day. And I suppose I will have to post relentlessly on the social media about the show and tag many people. And with disc two in the Entremont set, we get Ravel and Moussorgsky in mono on Columbia, with a classic Columbia cover.
Yesterday was a day of four hours of sleep. I got up earlier than I needed to, thanks to an allergy attack – the reason was simple – suddenly we had some rain, which triggered the old allergies. So, I answered e-mails and got ready for she of the Evil Eye. Once she arrived, I beat a hasty retreat, which did not make the hasty retreat too happy and so the hasty retreat beat me in return. Sadly, I couldn’t go to Jerry’s Deli, but I wanted a very light breakfast and matzoh brei is as light as it gets if you only have fruit with it. So, against my better judgement, I went to Art’s Deli three blocks past Jerry’s. And, as always with Art’s, the food was extremely mediocre, although it baffles me how any deli can make mediocre matzoh brei. Plus, I hate the way they do their outdoor dining there – first of all, it was cold. Second of all, you have to go inside and order your food as if it were to go. So, you get it in a to go container, which you then take to a seat outside. And I forgot to order a Diet Coke, but I wasn’t about to go back inside for it. So, I ate it, and then sat and killed some time.
After that, I drove to the mail place and picked up a couple of small packages that had just that minute arrived, and then I moseyed on over to the Group Rep, my first time there since In My Mind’s Eye’s closing performance. They are Covid responsible and follow all protocols. So, the directors entered via the side lobby door, while the actors entered through the stage door. Before entering the theater, they take your temperature by aiming a device at your forehead. I was told my temperature was 91, which seemed a little weird to me, but they were happy with that. Then they asked a few easy to answer questions and in I went. We all sat apart from each other. Then it was three-and-a-half hours of sitting there with a mask on, which I actually couldn’t do, so whenever we were between actors I went outside to breathe. I left after the one gal who was reading a scene from our play, so I missed the last two people. But no one I saw was really right for Doug’s play.
I came directly home and arrived at around four o’clock. I made a Marie Callender’s frozen dinner – a weird but amusing thing – a Kansas City barbecue chicken thing topped with a cornbread top. It wasn’t great, but it did amuse me. After that, I had a few pieces of saltwater taffy, but I was still a bit hungry and I don’t think quite to the calorie count, so I had a few chips and cheese and salsa and that did the trick. The trick it did was the connecting rings – it was fascinating. I must say, hearing Moussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition in its original solo piano version is also fascinating. And pairing it with solo Ravel pieces was the perfect, since Ravel did the famous orchestration of the Moussorgsky thing.
Then I wrote the fourth set of liner notes, so that’s finally out of the way. It went pretty quickly, actually, and I got them on their way. Then I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched half of the first volume of Tex Avery cartoons on a Warner Archive Blu and Ray. I really like his wacky sense of humor, but you can only do so many of these at one time, clever and funny as they are, because they’re relentless in a way that the Loony Toons aren’t. But they are laugh-out-loud funny a lot of the time. The transfers are pretty excellent – not quite Technicolor enough for my taste, but really quite acceptable.
After that, I listened to music, did some organizing, and then began the Philippe Entremont journey.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up (no later than noon), then I’ll do as much of the Zoom thing as I can, then I’ll relax, post, shave and shower, and then it’s show time. I’ll probably eat after, and it will probably be Regina pizza number three. I do look forward to your live comments as the show is airing, so comment away. And yes, there’s a What If in this show.
Tomorrow and this week is split between starting on the charts for project one and locking down everything for the December Kritzerland show, plus wrapping up casting on Doug’s play. So, a very busy week any way you look at it and I look at it head on rather than sideways.
And I must say that I’m grateful as all get out for light and sanity and I hope that will prevail as we move forward – for ALL of us. And I think we all know how grateful all get out is.
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 (no later than noon), I’ll Zoom cast, I’ll relax, I’ll post on the social media, I’ll shave and shower, and then we’ll do Kritzerland 110, after which I’ll eat Regina pizza 3. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, looking forward to light and sanity and show day, oh my.