Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to Klemperer do Wagner and I will say that I would describe Mr. Wagner’s music as heavy. This is heavy music. Oh, occasionally you’ll get something lighter, but then it’s back to heavy – nice music, certainly – the guy could write a tune, but unlike the other Richard, Strauss, there’s no real lilt of gossamer quality. Some of it is like being assaulted with a hammer, but I like it and Mr. Klemperer does very well by it. Unlike the other Klemperer sets, this one doesn’t have uniformly great sound because several selections are using older masterings – some of it sounds great, though, albeit heavy. Pretty, but heavy with an occasional splash of light and airy. But there’s a place for heavy music with an occasional splash of light and airy, and occasionally one simply needs heavy music. Beethoven wrote some heavy, heavy music, whereas Mozart never got that bombastic, at least the Mozart I’ve heard. My favorite Wagner music is Lohengrin, the bit that Chaplin used in The Great Dictator – that is wonderful music – and I do love the famous Tristan und Isolde Act 1 Prelude and Liebestod. The latter was a direct inspiration to Mr. Bernard Herrmann in his music for Vertigo. I think these here notes are heavy, don’t you? Ponderous even. Perhaps they could use a splash of light and airy, perhaps they should have a little lilt, a little zing, a little verve. Perhaps we should remaster the notes and open up the high end and make the low end tighter and the mids more transparent. Does anyone have a clew as to what the HELL I’m talking about? In other news, I have indeed finished project two – this happened at four in the morning, but I knew there’d be lots to futz and finesse and I did a lot of that, but overall, I was pretty happy with what I’ve done with this very odd project two. So, I’ll continue futzing and finessing and then we’ll see where we go from there. And now the Valkyries are riding and boy is that heavy with a splash of bombastic. Even his titles are heavy – Gotterdammerung – that sounds like something you’d say before hitting someone in the head with a meat cleaver, doesn’t it? Well, enough about me.
Yesterday was an okay day – some frustrations, some nice stuff, some middling stuff, some good stuff. I got seven-and-a-half hours of sleep due to staying up and finishing project two. Once up, I answered e-mails, there was no miracle awaiting, so keep sending those excellent vibes and xylophones and perhaps one will show up today. Then I moseyed on over to the mail place and picked up a couple of packages, then stopped at Gelson’s and got a small chicken Caesar salad and two small chicken tenders, came home, and ate the salad and the tenders. They’ve changed their recipe for the tenders and they’re much better now. Then I began the futzing and finessing and that took the rest of the day. I’m really curious about how long this thing is – the page count, I think, is deceptive. Anyway, I added stuff, I got rid of some stuff that didn’t work for me, and little by little I’m thinking it’s pretty interesting. Then I finally sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched the new Warner Archive Blu and Ray of the Hammer film, The Curse of Frankenstein, starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. There has never been a decent home video release of this film, especially color-wise, so I’m happy to report that the color is pretty perfect and that’s reason enough to rejoice. But I’m rather shocked at how people are falling all over themselves praising this thing as if it were the second coming. The problem is, the image is really soft, sometimes veering on being out of focus. And not a single person mentions this, save for Robert Harris. The medium and long shots are most affected, while the closer shots and close-ups suffer less, and occasionally we get a shot that’s almost sharp. Warners has given everyone three aspect ratios – 1.37, 1.66, and 1.85. The film was, of course, projected in the latter in the UK and US, but in the UK some neighborhood second-run cinemas apparently showed it in 1.66. As to the full-frame 1.37, the only way it was ever shown like that was on TV, but Warners, rather than endure the wrath of the rabid fans who first saw it on TV and think that’s what it should look like, pandered to them and gave them what they wanted. These people simply must relive their childhoods, no matter that the filmmakers would never have been happy about it. They don’t care about the filmmakers, only themselves and their memories.
After that, I went and filled up the motor car with gas – it was running on fumes, I think, since it took almost 18 gallons to get it full and I can think of only one other time since getting the motor car that it took that much to fill it up. After that, I went back to Gelson’s and got a little chopped liver and a little square of noodle kugel for the evening snack (calorie count for the earlier meal was only around six hundred), and that was a nice snack. I had a telephonic conversation, and then I relaxed and listened to music. Thankfully, the Siegried Idyll is lovely and light, so that’s calming, and now it’s the Forest Murmers.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll pray for a major miracle, I’ll futz and finesse project two some more, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, I’ll eat something light but fun, I’ll hear another orchestration, hopefully, and then at some point, I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
The rest of the week is more of the same, having a Zoom meeting tomorrow at five for project one, and doing whatever needs doing.
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, pray for a major miracle, futz and finesse project two, hopefully pick up some packages, eat, hear another orchestration, 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, where my dreams shall be accompanied by heavy music with an occasional splash of light and airy.