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December 27, 2020:

HEADING TOWARD A NEW YEAR

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to Mr. Giacomo Puccini’s opera entitled La Boheme (The Boheme), filled with wonderful Puccini tunes, starring Anna Moffo, Richard Tucker, Robert Merrill, and Georgio Tozzi, with Erich Leinsdorf conducting, an RCA Living Stereo affair that’s also SACD. I’m listening to the CD layer and it sounds amazing, recorded in 1961. I wonder if I’d like other performances better, but this is a pretty starry cast. Meanwhile, I do think I’m losing my mind – I got a Blu-ray Audio/CD for my birthday of Tosca with Leontyne Price. It’s right on a shelf in a cupboard above where my computer is.  And yet, I ordered it again. I gotta tell you.  Thankfully, I think I cancelled just in time. That’s been happening a few times and I have to be more careful. In any case, with Puccini playing in Living Stereo I am writing these here notes in Living Word. Let’s see – what other music did I listen to today?  Oh, yes, the classic 1958 recording of The Threepenny Opera by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, starring and supervised by Miss Lotte Lenya. It’s really great, especially after hearing the Mauceri version, which I felt didn’t have much life or sting to it.  This has that in spades and the cast is really good. The only downside is that it was recorded in Germany by engineers who clearly didn’t know what they were doing. I don’t think there’s a single mic that’s actually on the band – it sounds like we’re hearing them through the actor mics – very distant band and it’s a real shame.  Had it been recorded by Columbia in New York it would be a whole different story.  Still, it’s an amazing recording. I also listened to a few soundtracks I hadn’t heard in years – Dead Again by Patrick Doyle – very good – L.A. Confidential by Jerry Goldsmith – very bad – I really actively don’t like this score.  It’s a tepid soup of nothingness, save for the main theme, which is too brief and itself warmed over Chinatown but nowhere near as good.  And then John Williams with Presumed Innocent, which is really a nice score to listen to. I’m really enjoying this La Boheme.  There’s the one I had before that’s gone bad – Freni, Pavarotti, and von Karajan – that’s had one of those Blu-ray Audio releases I’d love to snag but there’s not a single copy to be had anywhere.  The other amusing game is to read “reviews” on Amazon for operas – everyone thinks “their” favorite recording is the ONLY recording – some of them knock this one with Moffo – they don’t like Richard Tucker, the don’t like the conductor – in fact, no one likes Leinsdorf except for me apparently.  And I will tell you that playing the SACD layer of this opera is amazing and sounds even better than the stereo layer because you get all three channels as it was originally recording, so the detail is really improved all across the spectrum.

Yesterday was a sort of day. I sort of got eight hours of sleep, I sort of got up, I sort of answered e-mails, I sort of went and picked up a package, I sort of went to Gelson’s to get the enchiladas thing – I should know better by now to never write about these things – they have NEVER not had these but yesterday – nooooo, not a single one. I just left, came home, and ordered a roasted garlic chicken pizza thing from California Pizza Kitchen.  That arrived about twenty-five minutes later and wasn’t as good as usual, but I still enjoyed it. After I polished it off, I had the remainder of the Darling Daughter’s pumpkin bread loaf thing and that was great. I had a nice telephonic conversation, and then I finally sat on my couch like so much fish.

Last night, I watched a Blu and Ray of Vittorio de Sica’s Miracle in Milan, which I bought when it was released about five years ago, but which I never even unwrapped.  I hadn’t seen it since I saw it the one time I saw it, which was on DVD at least twenty years ago.  I do remember loving it back then, but you know how that goes.  So, I’m happy to report I still love it – it’s simply a magical and wonderful bit of whimsy that’s perfectly cast. And the female lead is Brunella Bovo, even younger than she is in The White Sheik, and every bit as great. She has the most beautiful and expressive eyes, and her smile is adorable. Why this woman didn’t become a major star is anyone’s guess.  This is a restored version of the film and it looks spectacular.  The film’s special effects are, of course, ancient and are dupes of dupes, but the regular photography, which is 98% of the film looks just great.

After that, I had a little bit of the red velvet Bundt cake even though I shouldn’t have. I have real trouble being a good boy at this time of year, but as of tomorrow I am back on the 1000 calories a day and that’s all there is to it.

Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, which won’t be much, I think one package is coming, some Blu-ray thing, so I’ll get that, I’ll see if Gelson’s has the enchiladas thing and if they don’t perhaps I’ll get some ribs, which are calorie friendly and excellent (and messy).  Then I’ll watch, listen, and relax.

Tomorrow, I’ll have a little visit in the afternoon, and I’ll do the rest of the clean-up work on project two and then see how we’re going to proceed and give it a timeline.  And this week we begin part of the process for project one and that will last two or three days, I think. Otherwise, I’m just ready for this horrid little year to be over and hoping that we see a lot of sanity and light in the New Year.

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, pick up a package, eat, and then watch, listen, and relax. 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, as we begin heading toward a New Year.

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