Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening the Mantovani do movie themes. I loved Mantovani when I was a wee bairn and bought any album he did with movie themes and/or Broadway shows. The arrangements were excellent and so was his orchestra and the London sound was pretty spiffy on my stereophonic Columbia House record player. Back then, there was no “elevator music” denigration – that came later in the decade. Covers of movie and show music have gone the way of the dodo bird and what a shame that is. However, exactly what themes would they do today, since there aren’t any? Can you imagine a Mantovani album with today’s droning “film music”? How horrifying would that be. Anyway, this is the album with Exodus as its lead track, from around 1961. I played this to death back in the day. They released a lot of Mantovani on CD in the early days, but not one of his movie themes or show music albums. We’d have to wait quite some time for those to come along, but when they did, I was first in line to buy them. And hearing these albums is like being in a time machine and I can visualize listening to them in my room. Of course, people looked down on those who liked these albums, I mean, other kids, because it wasn’t what was then considered rock-and-roll. Of course, what was then rock-and-roll would today be considered elevator music. And so it goes and goes it so. This music also happens to be very relaxing and that’s a good thing because doing the audio commentaries for Tonight’s the Night and twelve episodes of Outside the Box was exhausting. But we all had a great time and I think they came out well. I decided not to have notes with me, so it was all very spontaneous and freewheeling, which I enjoy. Hartley Powers and Marshall Harvey were with me. We jump around a lot in the Tonight’s the Night commentary, which I also think is more interesting than simply commenting about what’s on screen or just plodding along. Hartley left after we finished Tonight’s the Night, which took the exact amount of time the show runs, which is an hour and six minutes. Then Marshall and I dove into the Outside the Box episodes. In season one’s episodes the running times are all under six minutes, with most coming in at around 5:30. So, we had to talk very fast to get in information, but it was fun revisiting all those oldies but goodies. They really are still pretty funny. Season two’s episodes are all longer for some reason, with two of them topping seven minutes. For the Animal Farm episode, I actually was never happy with it. Even back in the editing phase, I kept saying to Marshall that maybe it should just be the title song, without the two other songs, because that one topped eight minutes I think, and I wasn’t so thrilled with the final two songs anyway, whereas I thought the title song really did it all. So, for the Blu-ray we’ve cut the final two songs and I think it plays so much better. I do think both versions will be on the Blu-ray as long as it doesn’t incur extra cost, which I don’t think it will. And the Psycho episode will also have the uncut versions of two of the songs. I shortened them for the version that aired because I felt the episode was running long.
We recorded at a post house located on the lot of Raleigh Studios, which, back in 1975 was called Producer’s Studio and is where we shot The First Nudie Musical. The Bronson gate, which was the sole gate back then was closed and we had to go to a gate a block east that didn’t even exist back then, on the opposite side of the lot from where we were going. But as I drove around the soundstages, there was the commissary we at all our meals in, and just to the right around the bend from that, our offices. It’s all been spiffed up and painted – they were actually about to do all that just before we shot and we had to stop them until we got all the exterior shots we needed, since the studio had to look rundown. Memories, like the corners of my mind, baby. The post house was located literally steps from the real front gate.
Once we finished, it was close to six o’clock. Marshall and I drove back to the Valley and moseyed on over to Stanley’s and dined in with a handful of others scattered about. They really abide by all the protocols. And there were bags upon bags of food to picked up – they must really do a great business for take-out and delivery. I had the chicken Caesar, which was great. I forgot to tell them no croutons, so I had to pick out as many as I could find – the problem was/is that they are mini-mini croutons, tiny as can be and it was hard to tell them apart from little bits of chicken. So, I think I probably ate maybe less than a 1/4 cup – I looked that up online and it was only about 7 grams of carbs, so I don’t think I did any damage, given that I haven’t eaten many carbs at all for the past week and a quarter. I certainly don’t think it was much over an ounce if I even ate that many. Marshall had a cheeseburger, which he liked a lot.
Then we came back here, and I had to send him the long version of Animal Farm again because there was a problem with the cut he shortened – a different frame rate than the other episodes, so he’s doing a version that will match the others. He left and I must say I was zonkered but good. I had to answer a ton of e-mails, proof the Blu-ray wrap around, which I think I approved – it looks really nice. Once I’d finished all that, there was no time for movie watching, so I just began listening to the cascading strings of Mantovani.
Yesterday was otherwise not much of a day. Still no reassuring news, but that has to come on a business day and weekends don’t count, so hopefully come Monday we’ll get some, but it could be as late as Wednesday, so please do keep sending those most excellent vibes and xylophones because we NEED the news to be reassuring. I got a little under eight hours of sleep and really just relaxed and rested my voice until it was time to go record the commentaries.
Today is a ME day. I’ll be up when I’m up. If I feel up to it, I may continue on with the Indiegogo organizing, and then I’ll go to the mail place to pick up a package, I’ll eat, of course, but mostly I’ll just relax and gather my strength for the upcoming busy week.
This week will be a lot of Kritzerland show planning, although I’m waiting to hear if one of our players can do it and if they can’t I may not bother with it. But I’ll also be getting all the Indiegogo stuff ready, and then we do this big move at some point between next Saturday and the following five days. We really need this to be a good week.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, have a ME day, be up when I’m up, maybe continue doing more Indiegogo organizing, pick up a package, eat, 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, happy to have done the commentaries and had some memories like the corners of my mind.