Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, having finished with Miss Farrell for the time being (I think I have three or four more albums by her but can’t find them right now), and have moved on to a small box set of Rafael Kubelik recordings called The Mercury Masters, early mono recordings in Mercury Living Presence. These are, according to the wags, a hugely important development in sound, said wags being audiophile types. I think a lot of the Mercury Living Presence hype is just that – hype. Yes, some of the stereo recordings are great and wondrous, but there are others that are anything but that, sounding dry and small. That’s not audiophile, that’s dry and small. Are these early mono recordings audiophile? Not to my ears. Some of them are nice, a few have distortion, which discounts any use of the word audiophile, the worst example being the Tchaikovsky sixth. I don’t find anything, sound-wise, that’s any cleaner or better than what some of the RCA and Columbia mono recordings of that era were. But I like Mr. Kubelik and the performances are fast and exciting and fun. His Smetana My Fatherland is great. It’s only ten CDs and most are of short duration. So, I’m enjoying it and as I write these here notes, The Moldau is playing – it’s very brisk but excellent. I like Ormandy better, of course, but that’s to be expected. Prior to that, I finished watching The Silver Chalice. I had forty-five minutes left and those forty-five minutes took the film to new heights of badness. The direction is really terrible, and the actors have to speak such awful dialogue I don’t quite know how they kept straight faces. The final fifteen minutes are the most ludicrous of all. The transfer is mostly a lovely shade of brown, but it’s not the worst I’ve seen. The Franz Waxman score comes through nicely in stereo. Overall, a dreadful mess. Then I watched Requiem for a Heavyweight, starring Anthony Quinn, Mickey Rooney, Jackie Gleason, Julie Harris, and, most importantly, the weird and wonderful Madame Spivy, here at her all-time weirdest. I first saw the film at a sneak preview (I think it was at the Picwood in Westwood, but I might be wrong about that – it may have played there – I’ll have to check – if it didn’t play there then that’s definitely where I saw the preview), loved it, and saw it three or four more times when it came out a few weeks later. Quinn is great, Mickey and Jackie are also just fantastic in this, and so is Julie Harris. Director Ralph Nelson does a fine job of it, and of course the writing by Rod Serling is tops. The score by Laurence Rosenthal is one of my favorites. The film runs a brisk eighty-five minutes. The DVD is decent, but it would be so great to have a new transfer and a Blu-ray. Maybe someday.
Yesterday was a day in which I did things. For example, I got eight hours of sleep, I answered e-mails, and then spent quite a bit of time gathering sheet music to send to singers, so that was good, did some work at the piano, picked up some packages, made tuna sandwiches for food, ate the tuna sandwiches, had some telephonic conversations, announced the Kritzerland show and sent out the eBlast for it, and that all took up the entire day. Here’s our flyer.
Then I sat on my couch like so much fish and finished The Silver Chalice, then Requiem for a Heavyweight, and then it was the Kubelik box, which I’m more than halfway through now – distortion keeps rearing its ugly little head, I must say and have said.
Today, I’ll be up by ten-thirty, I have a telephonic session at eleven, then I’ll probably have to drive out to storage and leave stuff there, although that may have to wait until Sunday as I won’t have the stuff for the signed musical quotes until then. I’m just trying to save some trips out there. I have two more songs to choose and I’m still waiting on a couple of pieces of sheet music. Once I get those, then I’ll send everyone their music. I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, I’ll eat something calorie-friendly, and then at some point I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
The rest of the week is more of the same, I have to prepare for the musical theater workshop we’re doing on Saturday, and after the workshop I’ll be supping with Peyton and her mom, then seeing the playlets at the Group Rep. Then I have to put together a fundraiser cabaret for the Group Rep, which is why we’re doing the workshop.
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 telephonic meeting, maybe drive out to storage, maybe not, choose the final two songs, send singers music, hopefully pick up some packages, eat, 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 not call myself an audiophile, even though my ears are better than most in terms of listening to music.