Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to Mr. Leonard Bernstein have his way with the music of Mr. Igor Stravinsky, a little box set comprised of six count them six CDs. I’m pretty certain that the second piece of classical music I heard was Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on Greensleeves, a performance conducted by Adrian Boult on a monophonic Westminster album. And I do believe the third piece of classical music (these were all played in my eighth-grade music appreciation class) was Stravinsky’s The Firebird, which I loved, and the version was, of course, the monophonic recording by Ormandy. I have the box set of Mr. Stravinsky conducting Mr. Stravinsky and had several of those albums in the LP days – very nice stereophonic recordings. Wags like Mr. Hurwitz, the know-it-all critic, doesn’t care for Mr. Stravinsky conducting Mr. Stravinsky, but I never had a problem with such things. Mr. Bernstein, however, does fantastically well, especially his first stereophonic recording of The Rite of Spring on Columbia with the New York Philharmonic – it’s really brilliant and so is his The Firebird Suite. His later version of The Rite is loved more by certain types, but I recall not liking it nearly as much – we’ll see how I feel when I hear it. We just had Pulcinella, which was delightfully deft in Mr. Bernstein’s hands, and now playing is Petrouchka. The stereo on these is so great, but Hurwitz says Columbia stereo is variable – then again, I find Mr. Hurwitz variable and mostly not in a good way. I’m not sure I could count on the fingers of one hand any Columbia stereo recordings that don’t cut the mustard or even cut the ketchup – I’m sure there may be a bum one or two in there as there are with every label, but their track record in the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s is pretty great. I also watched the second and third Dirty Harry movies, Magnum Force and The Enforcer.
Magnum Force, well, it’s terrible. The John Milius and Michael Cimino script has an interesting central idea, but it’s so ham-fisted and the dialogue is terrible. Milius blames it all on Cimino, who apparently changed a lot. But it does just about everything wrong a sequel can do and yet it still was a big hit. And I must say, it’s terrible from the first shot in the credits – it’s so wrongheaded as is the famous speech spoken over the shot that you know what you’re in for instantly.
The third film is back on better footing, mostly due to Clint bringing original Dirty Harry scribe Dean Reisner back to polish Sterling Silliphant’s script. The dialogue in this one, at least for the Harry stuff, is much better and actually has many laugh-out-loud lines, which Clint delivers perfectly. And pairing him with Tyne Daly was a great idea and she’s the heart of this one and they play beautifully together. This one’s shorter and leaner but it has a fatal flaw in that the villain is not as strong as Andy Robinson in the first film – in fact, it’s a bunch of villains, but the head guy, DeVeren Bookwalter, is so bad that you can’t take any of that seriously. He was discovered here in LA at the Globe Theater just off Santa Monica Boulevard on Kings Rd. He did the classics there, mostly Shakespeare. Needless to say, after The Enforcer his career did not take off. In fact, he died very young at forty-seven of stomach cancer. Also, The Enforcer is the only Dirty Harry film not to have a score by Lalo Schifrin, and as much as I like Jerry Fielding, his score isn’t helpful, save for one or two cues. Oh, and watching the season finale of Outside the Box season one was perfectly in keeping with catching up with the Dirty Harry films since the season one finale is the Dirty Harry musical.
Yesterday was a day, at least I recall it being a day. I mean if it wasn’t a day then what the HELL was it? I only got about six-and-a-half hours of sleep, got up, answered a lot of e-mails, and then buckled down, Winsocki and spent a few hours getting the Indiegogo stuff in piles with post-its as to who gets what. I think I got it all done. I seem to be missing a couple of things, so I have to go back to the campaign and make sure I got everything right. It’s disturbing when that happens.
After that, I made a Factor meal – turkey reuben, Keto friendly. One bite and into the trash it went. It was rank. Then I made some chicken dish with cheese on top and peppers and some kind of ranch sauce. One bite and into the trash it went. At that point, I went online and ordered a chicken Caesar from Stanley’s and then cancelled my Factor subscription. I still have five meals left, one of which is the chorizo chili and that one wasn’t so bad, but I’m hoping one or two of the others are okay, too, so it’s not a total waste. After that, I listened to music and did a few other things on the computer, then sat on my couch like so much fish and watched the two Dirty Harry movies – and I didn’t doze off once, which is the first time that’s happened in months.
Then I did a Gelson’s run, as I hadn’t been out of the house all day. They’re having their own Sparkling Ice sale so I got five more of those – I just love them – a twelve pack of caffeine free Diet Coke, some guacamole for the tortillas I’m about to make for my snack, some more sour cream, and some pickles. Then I came right home and listened to more Bernstein/Stravinsky.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll double check all the Indiegogo stuff I did yesterday and finish up what I didn’t get to, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, I’ll eat, I’ll make sure all the Kritzerland show stuff is ready to go, and then at some point I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
The rest of the week and weekend is more of the same, and then we do the last of the Kritzerland online shows on Sunday at 5:00/8:00 on the Tube of You only, no Facebook. I’m hoping all you dear readers can be there to watch it live and then join us for the afterparty to celebrate what we were able to achieve during this crazy past year. All links will be in these here notes come Sunday.
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, double check all the Indiegogo stuff and finish whatever I didn’t get to, hopefully pick up packages, eat, make sure all the Kritzerland show stuff is ready, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite films of Clint Eastwood, as both actor and director? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have been enjoying Mr. Bernstein doing Mr. Stravinsky.