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December 17, 2020:

A WALTZ DREAM

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, this week is flying by, like a gazelle in a Cessna flying from Van Nuys to Long Beach, masked and socially distanced and hoping to get vaccinated for shingles, flu, and Covid all at once.  Otherwise, I’m sitting here like so much fish, listening to light music rather than the heavy music of last night, but still German.  In this case, it’s an operetta by Oscar Straus entitled Ein Walzer Traum (A Waltz Dream), a bubbly, delightful cream puff of an operetta topped with an éclair and Baumkuchen.  Sugary sweet, tuneful, sparkling – it makes me want to sing three high A’s in a row.  Unfortunately, I don’t like to sing anything higher than a C these days.  I wonder if anyone listens to operetta while having an amaretto and cutting their Baumkuchen with a stiletto?  Ein Walzer Traum (A Waltz Dream) is a very well-thought of operetta, compared favorably to The Merry Widow.  These light as air operettas do put a smile on one’s face and makes one want to eat a Bonbon and waltz around the room in a gossamer gown of gold.  Sadly, I don’t have a Bonbon or a gossamer gown of gold, at least one I can get into – I can, however, waltz around the room in my sleeping shorts and t-shirt and that will have to do, oh, yes, that will have to do.  Of course, being in German I have no idea what these people are going on about, although there is a synopsis in the booklet – perhaps I should read it, although my temptation is to read it in German just so I’m completely in the dark, Ein Walzer Traum-wise (A Waltz Dream-wise).  I could also read it in French, and, if put into a corner, in English.  And speaking of Engelbert Humperdinck – segue alert – I also listened to a wonderful CD of his orchestral music and he is hardly a one-trick pony because all the music on this CD is tuneful and lovely, especially his Moorish Rhapsody.  I also listened to the original Broadway cast recording (excerpts) of Kurt Weill’s Street Scene, recorded in 1947 – I really like it.  I also have the complete version with John Mauceri conducting – heaven knows what box it resides in, which is the frustrating part of not being able to unbox all the classical CDs – all the Puccini operas are there, as well as the Korngold operas, and heaven knows what else.  Maybe I’ll nose around in the couple of boxes I can actually reach.

Yesterday was a pretty good day.  I got eight hours of sleep, answered e-mails, and had a little miracle, so that was good, but I have to tell you, the postage we have to buy to ship these four CDs we released is closing in on three thousand bucks, due to a really large number of overseas orders.  I mean, the customer pays but it’s always a shocker to see how much it is.  But the second two CDs are almost all shipped, so that’s good.  Then I moseyed on over to the mail place and picked up a couple of packages – not a single person in the store – a first – so that was very pleasant.  Then I stopped at Gelson’s and went to their carving station and got about three ounces of their prime rib, a Caesar salad from Wolfgang Puck (no chicken) and then came home.  The prime rib was ordinary, but the Caesar was very good.  Happily, that left me some nice calories to play with.

After that, I did a few things on the computer but decided not to look at project two, so I’d have a day away from it.  Then I played with the rest of my calories and had a Marie Callender’s mac-and-cheese thing – that probably brought me up to about 1200 calories, which is fine.  Then I sat on my couch like so much fish.

Last night, I watched a motion picture on Blu and Ray, entitled Ladybug, Ladybug, a film by Frank Perry, written by Eleanor Perry, their follow-up to their surprise smash hit, David and Lisa.  I saw the film about two months ahead of its late December release in 1963 at a sneak preview at my beloved Lido Theater, where the film eventually opened.  I loved it at the preview, and I saw it about five times more during its short run.  Now, I’d always thought its short run was about two weeks, but I have newspapers from back then and it actually ran four or five weeks, but then it completely disappeared.  I don’t think it ever ran on TV in the United States.  And so, I didn’t see it again for a very, very long time, when I finally found a home-grown DVD – full-frame, of course, taped off some overseas channel and not very good quality.  So, when Kino announced the Blu-ray, I was very surprised they even knew what it was, let alone would want to release it.  I mean, this is a company based on quantity alone, a company that releases some of the most marginal titles that no one but a handful of people would want, but that rather haughtily says in public that they have no interest in Flower Drum Song.  Baffling.  But, of course, I had to have Ladybug, Ladybug, and now I do.  And I still really like it.  It really packed a wallop in 1963 as I was just turning 15 when it came out (but I saw the sneak preview when I was still fourteen), and while it’s obviously very dated now, its themes still resonate.  A lot of interesting actors made their film debuts in this, including William Daniels, Alice Playten, Miles Chapin, Nancy Marchand, Estelle Parsons, Jane Connell, and others.  The adults and kid actors are all very good, especially Marilyn Rogers.  What an interesting career she had – under her real name of Marilyn Siegel, she created the role of Amaryllis in The Music Man, went on to be Brigitta von Trapp in The Sound of Music, and, after Ladybug, Ladybug, one of Tevye’s daughters in Fiddler on the Roof with Zero Mostel, Shprintze to be precise.  And that was it.  She left show business and, from what the fellow who does the commentary says, became a teacher.  She passed away at sixty-three and, according to the commentary, by suicide.  However, I’m not sure I trust anything the commentary person says, but we’ll get to that in a minute.  The film has a very spare but excellent score by Robert Cobert.  It’s around eighty minutes long. The ending is very powerful, both Marilyn Rogers’ final scene and then the last scene that follows it.  It’s all based on a true story that appeared in McCall’s Magazine (I have the issue) – it happened at a school in California – where the Conalrad device went off, code yellow, I think, which mean a nuclear attack would happen shortly.  It turned out to be a short circuit somewhere, but the kids were sent home thinking the world was coming to an end.  Very powerful stuff.

The transfer is fine (Kino, in typical fashion, trumpets it as a “2K restoration,” which of course is hogwash).  This film didn’t need restoration of any kind – what it is is a 2K TRANSFER off an element they don’t mention. I think I’ve called them out on their “restoration” nonsense so many times (as have others) that I think they’ve started to just not use that palaver as much.  And then there’s the commentary – I rarely listen to commentary tracks, but I thought maybe there’ll be something interesting in it.  Alas, I hated it – the guy drones on and on, mostly about the cast – every time an actor appears, we get his filmography, he talks about episodes of TV shows that person did, who was in the episode, the plot of the episode – I mean, it’s ridiculous.  He must spend half the commentary doing that nonsense.  He talks about Conalrad and the era, a little about the Perrys, but mostly it’s just irritating, especially when we get whoppers like Marilyn Rogers did Fiddler on the Roof in 1961, which is fascinating since Fiddler didn’t open until 1964.  How can you trust factoid the guy tosses out when he says something that stupid?  Anyway, I highly recommend the film and also highly recommend that you skip the commentary.

After that, I listened to music and relaxed and 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, I’ll eat something light, I’ll check out project two and futz and finesse anything I think that needs it, and if I’m happy with it, I’ll send it along where it needs to go so a plan can be made.  Then at five, we have a Zoom meeting for project one – that will entail ironing out a lot of details, and we’ll also read through it. It will probably last around ninety minutes or so, but once all the details have been sorted out, we can really set a timeline for it all to get done.  I was hoping we’d have all the orchestrations done for the meeting, but alas we do not – still missing three of ‘em.  After that, I’ll watch, listen, and relax.

The rest of the week, of which there isn’t much, is more of the same, and we still need the major miracle to come along and hopefully it will.

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, go through project two and hopefully send it off, have a Zoom meeting, and then watch, listen, and relax.  Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite performances of the marvelous actor, William Daniels?  Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I shall hopefully have Ein Walzer Traum (A Waltz Dream).

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