Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, writing these here notes whilst listening to the suite from the ballet Gayane by Khatchaturian. Or is it the suite from the ballet Khatchaturian by Gayane? I love the music from this ballet. It contains two big hit tunes – the Sabre Dance is, of course, the most famous of the two, having been used in countless films and TV shows, including, most effectively, in Mr. Billy Wilder’s motion picture comedy, One, Two, Three. The other famous tune is the Adagio as used by Mr. Stanley Kubrick in his motion picture 2001: A Space Odyssey. Of course, it’s Mr. Ormandy conducting in excellent monophonic sound. I’m now on disc 93 of 120 and am uploading disc 100, so not far behind. That’s been a LOT of listening since this wonderful set arrived, but I’m diligent that way and can listen whilst I’m working. Some people whistle while they work, I listen while I work. It also helps that many of the albums are in the forty-five-minute range. I haven’t skipped a single thing. Ultimately, I’ll nuke some stuff I know I won’t be listening to and I can always upload again if I have a hankering to hear something I’ve nuked. This evening we’ve heard some Albeniz, some Brahms, some Dvorak, and others. Prior to this evening’s listening, however, I watched a DVD that dear readers elmore kindly sent me, thinking I might enjoy it. It’s called La Fille Mal Gardee and its staging is by Frederick Ashton. Well, I did NOT enjoy it – I LOVED it, every damn second of it. I laughed out loud, I was captivated, and I was entranced, not necessarily in that order. It is brilliantly choreographed, and I can’t imagine I’d like a cast more than this one, although I’m kind of now interested to watch the black-and-white film that’s on DVD of the original cast. But I’m so glad he didn’t send me the later Royal Ballet versions (there are two – one on DVD and one on Blu-ray), because those have camera direction by the dreaded Ross MacGibbon. This one, from 1981, is full frame, on videotape, and the camera presentation is basic and simple, which is exactly what I like. In other words, we see the dance, we see the staging. The Lise is the adorable Lesley Collier, and the Colas is handsome Michael Coleman. Unlike many of today’s prima ballerinas, Ms. Collier is not a skinny stick of a thing and Mr. Coleman is not a pumped up, dance belt-bulging preening thing. I loved the chickens and loved the clog dance, and yes, there’s a character that I most certainly could have played. With a year of rehearsal, I might have been able to even dance it. It never overstays its welcome – it’s a three-act ballet in ninety swift minutes. The score by Ferdinand Herold, arranged by John Lanchbery, is marvelous, and he conducts with flair. Also, unlike today’s videos, you can hear the audience laughing and applauding, you can hear the dancer’s feet on the stage and the whole thing sounds like you’re there. Mr. MacGibbon should learn from this. Anyway, what a treat it was.
Yesterday was an ordinary day. Nothing bad, nothing especially good, but I’ll take that over a bad day anytime. I got eight hours of sleep, answered a lot of e-mails, found out that The Smokehouse wasn’t going to work for food, so instead I ordered a bacon and cheese omelet from Jinky’s. It arrived pretty quickly and was very good, but I must say no omelet I’ve had recently is as good as Hugo’s and Hugo’s isn’t as good as Jerry’s used to be. And there you have the tale of the various omelets. After that, I did some writing of the commentary but didn’t feel like finishing it, which I’m sure I’ll do today. I had a brief Zoom rehearsal with Sami Staitman, got two videos in and got those where they needed to go, went to the mail place and picked up nothing, but got an envelope on its merry way, contacted all the ten-CD perk people to get their lists, and then finally sat on my couch like so much fish and watched the delightfully delightful La Fille Mal Gardee.
After that, I had some cheese and salami for a snack, an Atkins bar for a sweet, a Sparkling Ice (I’ve only been drinking one Diet Coke a day, which is amazing), and then I watched a motion picture entitled The Crimson Kimono, another completely wacky film of Sam Fuller, this one released by Twilight Time in a beautiful transfer from Sony. It’s a wild ride and I enjoyed it very much. It stars Glenn Corbett and James Shigeta. Then I listened to music whilst doing a few things on the computer and then it was time to write these here notes.
Today, I’ll be up by ten-thirty, I’ll have a little phone work session at eleven, which won’t take long, I’ll finish writing the commentary, I’ll start organizing the Indiegogo stuff so we can start shipping next week, I’ll eat, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, I’ll hopefully find out which day we’ll be going to organize storage, and then I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow, and the rest of the week is more of the same and I think the organizing day will either be Thursday or Friday and I don’t think it will take more than an hour or so to do, and then we can go have a meal after. Not sure what the weekend holds, but I’ll try to get some stuff done and out of the way, for sure. And I’ll of course do whatever needs doing because one simply must.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by ten-thirty, have a little phone work session, finish writing the commentary, start organizing the perks for shipping, eat, hopefully pick up packages, hope for a miracle or three, figure out if we’re doing the storage thing on Thursday or Friday or some other date that works, 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 to have seen such a delightful ballet as La Fille Mal Gardee.