Well, dear readers, I believe I’ve been having some close encounters – not of the third kind or the second or first or seventh kind, but of ALL kinds. For example, last evening I had a close encounter of the singing kind – I’ve been keeping my trap shut for three days and I decided to sing through the score for Nothing in Common just to see what’s what and how long I’d last. My voice wasn’t as strong as I’d like it to be, but I did get through it okay and now I’ll have to rest my voice today and tomorrow until we do the private reading. It’s very tiring singing through that many songs all by one’s lonesome, I must say, especially as some of them have higher notes than I care to sing, but nothing to be done about that, really. Luckily, when we do the reading, I’ll have dialogue scenes to rest up until the next song. Just singing through everything and looking at the page count of the script, I suspect we’ll be trimming this thing down, but then again, we’ll have to see what the length actually is. My guess is that with a ten-minute break we’re looking at two-and-a-half hours, which is twenty minutes too long in terms of what I like a show to run. I picked the stool I’ll sit on and the set-up with the speakers on the piano and me singing and operating the laptop from there will work really well. I also had a close encounter with a motion picture on Blu and Ray entitled The Band Wagon. When this Blu-ray came out and everyone and their mother was RAVING about it and the color and clarity, I was a lone voice in the wilderness because I wasn’t happy with it at all. It was brown and yellow, nothing popped the way the old Technicolor prints did. Eventually, a few people admitted that they saw those issues, but they didn’t care. But here we are, six years later and I have to say it’s even worse than I remembered. Part of that is because Warner Archive has put out some rather incredible transfers since then – The Band Wagon was not a new transer, it was the one done for the DVD. But the proof now makes it easy to see just how right I was. Put on the new release of Show Boat and look at the color. Then put on The Band Wagon. One is stunning in its clarity and color and pop, and one clearly isn’t. I’ll let you be the judge of which is which. The movie remains enjoyable but, for me, nowhere near as great as Singin’ in the Rain, mostly because the latter has a really strong story and script, while The Band Wagon has the thinnest of stories on which to hang its songs and its characters are not as memorable. But Astaire is great and Jack Buchanan, Nanette Fabray, Oscar Levant, and Cyd Charisse all do fine, and the songs really are tops. The Girl Hunt Ballet is actually my least favorite thing in the film, but all the show numbers that precede it are great, with choreography by Michael Kidd. I just wish it looked better and perhaps they’ll redo it AND Singin’ in the Rain, which has a similar brownish look that is nothing like the IB Tech prints.
Yesterday, I had a close encounter with too much sleep – all ten hours of it – which rendered me groggy and gucky, not necessarily in that order. Once up, I had close encounters with e-mails and a few things on the computer. I got a nice Father’s Day text from the Darling Daughter. Here is one of my favorite photographs of us – I told her that if this photo didn’t reek of love, I don’t know what does. I think she was ten here.
I ordered a chicken Caesar from Stanley’s and that arrived soon thereafter, and I ate it all up. I went to the local CVS and got some twenty-four hour Claritin-D, which I like much better than the twelve-hour. After that, I watched The Band Wagon, which you know about, and after that I sang the score, which you also know about, and which took some time because I had to rest occasionally.
Then I watched the first hour of a movie I’ve had a hankerin’ to watch for the past few months but couldn’t find. Turns out that Muse Margaret’s hubby had borrowed it a year ago and still had it until he gave me a bunch of stuff back when I went to dinner a few days ago. And guess what the movie was? That’s right – Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the original version. I first saw it at the Academy Theater on Wilshire Boulevard a few nights before the film opened. Sitting in back of me at that screening was someone named George Lucas. Well, it was a masterpiece every step of the way. The audience was stunned, they laughed, they were in awe, and the applause at the end was HUGE. Everyone there knew they’d seen a masterpiece and that it was going to be a huge hit, which it was. Then came the crass and unnecessary “Special Edition” where we got to go into the spaceship, which, after seeing it, added zero to the film, plus Spielberg put back other stuff he’d taken out originally, and all of that made the film into something that robbed it of its power and magic. Then, for the Blu-ray, there’s a final director’s cut, which I also hate. Gone is the inside of the spaceship but all those added back in scenes still hurt the film. Watching the original, it’s just a perfectly paced, perfect movie and he should have left it the HELL alone in the first place. I’ll probably stay up and finish it once these here notes are posted. I have to go do a quick Ralph’s run to get some Diet Coke, some Atkins treats, and I think that’s about it.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll rest my voice all the livelong day and night, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll eat (Barone’s is once again open, so I might go have something there), I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, and then I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow, I’ll rest during the day, and then we finally have our private reading with our excellent cast of players. I’m looking forward to it and seeing how the whole thing plays. I don’t believe there’s a single line left from the original act one I saw, and I think almost every song from that original act one is gone. I think only one song remains and that, of course, has a mostly new lyric and all new music. The entire structure of the show is completely new, which is what I brought to the table. The rest of the week is locking down the Kritzerland show songs and then on the weekend I’ll see the other night of one-acts and probably attend our night on Saturday, with perhaps an eat out afterwards.
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, rest my voice, do whatever needs doing, eat, hopefully pick up some packages, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite films of Fred Astaire, and your favorite films of Richard Dreyfuss? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I shall perhaps have a close encounter of the tenth kind, a dream I’ll actually enjoy.