Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to the music of Ottorino Respighi, a composer I’m very fond of, this particular disc released in 2010 and which is all world premiere recordings for violin and orchestra. It’s a wonderful disc, especially the first piece, which is called Chaconne for Violin, Organ, and Strings, a free transcription of Tomaso Vitali. The minute the main theme came on I knew I’d heard it before by violinist Sarah Chang – I’d heard it on the radio one night and loved it and had to have it. I believe what this is is Respighi’s version of the Vitali piece. The main theme is a stunner, and I loved this version even more. The other pieces on the CD are all wonderfully tuneful and excellent. Prior to that, it was the Messe Solennelle de Sainte Cecile (A Whole Messa Cecile, who was a Saint, but a mess) by one Charles Gounod. It’s a wonderful work in a great performance conducted by Igor Markevitch on Deutsche Grammophon back in the mid-1960s. And before that, it was two Rodzinski discs on Westminster, a Brahms/Tchaikovsky violin concertos CD (with violinist Erica Morini) and Dvorak’s Slavonic Dances on the other CD. Both feature excellent performances, but Westminster in the 1950s was not the equal of the major labels, sound-wise, whether mono or stereo. They got better in the 1960s. So, sound-wise these are certainly acceptable but not a patch on the butt cheeks of RCA or Columbia or Decca or EMI’s mono and stereo recordings from this era. Still, I was glad to hear them. And before that, it was a disc of Anna Moffo singing various arias – I loved it and it’s in excellent Living Stereo sound circa 1961. And then going back to the night before, before I went to bed, I finally caught up with Woody Allen’s film, A Rainy Day in New York, starring Elle Fanning, Timothee Chalamet, Jude Law, Cherry Jones, Liev Schreiber, and many others. Amazon Prime is keeping it pretty hidden, but Marshall Harvey alerted me to it and I found it and it’s streaming for free.
It’s no secret that I haven’t enjoyed most of Allen’s output other than a handful of films all the way back to the mid-1980s. It’s also no secret that I feel he’s been treated shamefully, especially by that faux one-sided hatchet job of a “documentary,” whose filmmakers are known for doing what they do, which is skew everything they way they want it (they make no pretense that their stupid thing is in any way fair). They take stuff out of context, they have agenda-laden people blathering on (HBO has a financial deal with Ronan Farrow), and everyone buys it hook, line, and stinker, even though every single thing in it has been debunked and refuted for years. Anyone who has done even a cursory look at both sides understands what’s at play here. The bottom line is that Mr. Allen has never been charged with any crime, and two separate exhaustive investigations found that he was innocent of the single alleged event that Mia concocted and drilled into her young daughter. The fact that the event is almost impossible, given that it was daytime in a house filled with people seems to not matter to those who won’t look at both sides of the story. And they constantly conflate his marriage to Soon-Yi with Dylan – one has nothing to do with another.
The number of people who just regurgitate the same lies over and over again (he married his daughter, he married his stepdaughter, he groomed her from the time she was twelve, she was underage, he was married to Mia, he lived with Mia, and on and on) and no matter how many people correct them they still do it – no, Soon-Yi PREVIN was not his daughter, nor was she his step-daughter, nor did he play any part in her upbringing whatsoever, which even Mia has stated over and over again publicly, no she was not underage when they began their affair (she was, in fact, twenty-one), no Woody and Mia were never married, no, they didn’t live together, nor did he spend a single night in her apartment – I mean, all this information is not hard to find out. Yes, it’s okay to think it was weird, but it’s not okay to lie. Anyway, the point is Soon-Yi has nothing to do with the single allegation made by Mia and Dylan. And any psychologist worth his/her/their salt will tell you that pedophilia is not a one-time thing. And then there’s the pesky fact that he’s been married to Soon-Yi for almost a quarter of a century, they’re happy, and they have two college-age adopted daughters, who love their father – do you think they would have been allowed to adopt if there was even a hint of this allegation being true? No. Anyway, all that is just a prelude to say that while I know that A Rainy Day in New York wasn’t really a good movie, I found myself enjoying the bits of it that worked well – the photography by Vittorio Storaro, which is gorgeous, some of the performances, and just the New York ambience. It’s typical Allen writing – everyone sounds like he’s speaking, the characters don’t really ring true, but every now and then you just all of a sudden get a laugh out loud line. The critics, all of whom would write orgasmic reviews of any Allen film, including the worst of them, all suddenly wrote vicious and vitriolic reviews, which I found reprehensible. But that’s who these people are. My goodness, I went off on a tangent, didn’t I?
Yesterday was a weird but okay day, the weird part being that I slept for ten hours and got up way too late at one o’clock. That really put me behind, schedule-wise. First, I had to chat with one of our cast members about her schedule for the playlet, but we worked all that out and all is well. Then I had a lot of e-mails to answer, and I got a response about my notes on the Blu-ray, so they’re investigating, but I think the big culprit is that the menu volume is just way too loud and so it makes it seem that the videos’ sound level is too soft when you’re going directly from the menu to the program. So, we’ll probably just end up matching the menu level to the program level.
Then I went to the mail place and picked up some packages and came right home. The Factor meals hadn’t arrived, so I made the other half of the pizza crust thing, with sauce, mozzarella, and pepperoni. This time I let it cook for thirty-minutes and the result was MUCH better. But this crust, whatever it is, really isn’t that good, but it does sort of satisfy the pizza craving. Then I sat on my couch like so much fish and listened to the commentaries for all the Outside the Box episodes and those were all fine. I then checked all the text on all the menus and didn’t find anything but the two things they’d already found. So, once we resolve the sound thing, we’ll be good to go to the replication stage, so that’s good.
Then the Factor meals arrived around six-thirty. I tried one – Keto chorizo chili, with cheese and a little cup of sour cream. Net ten carbs, which is fine and under 600 calories, which is also fine. It was decent – not bad, not great, but it seemed very fresh – there was just some spice in it that I didn’t care for. So, seven more meals to go, some of which look pretty good. After that, I spent the rest of the evening doing Kritzerland show stuff and then listening to music. And now playing is more Respighi – a suite from the ballet, Belkis, Queen of Sheba, which I’d imagine is about Belkis, Queen of Sheba. And you know what they said to Belkis as she tried to leave: “Come back, little Sheba.”
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll attend to the Indiegogo stuff, which I didn’t get done because of getting up late. I’m hoping we start shipping the two titles that just came in, but I’m not sure she picked it up yesterday – I’ve told her she must get it today. I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, I’ll eat whatever two Factor meals I choose, and then at some point I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
The rest of the week is finishing the Indiegogo stuff and getting it to the helper for shipping, and then we get ready for the last of our online Kritzerland shows and its afterpartay.
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, attend to the Indiegogo stuff, hopefully start shipping, hopefully pick up packages, eat, 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, happy the Factor meals arrived and hoping I like the rest of them as I factor in the Factor factor.