Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much exasperated fish, having lost one of our singers for the Kritzerland show, and trying to find a suitable replacement on such short notice, which, as of this moment, we haven’t. With rehearsals starting tomorrow, it’s very worrisome. Other than that exasperation, I’ve been listening to a lot of film music or music by film composers, save for watching a motion picture on Blu and Ray. And there’s been a lot of gold in this listening to film music and I mean actual GOLD, as in Jerry GOLDsmith and Erich Wolfgang KornGOLD. And there’s plenty of Gold in them thar hills, that much I can tell you. The Korngold was actually his Symphony. If I remember correctly, the premiere of the symphony on the radio was an ill-rehearsed and played performance. Dimitri Mitropoulos was in love with the symphony and had intended to perform it in concert, but he died and that was that. It wasn’t until 1972 that it was finally heard in concert and then recorded in 1974 and eventually released by Varese Sarabande on LP later in the 1970s. It was like manna from heaven hearing it. Produced by George Korngold and conducted by Rudolf Kempe, it was wonderfully performed in excellent sound. And that’s all there was for many years. And then suddenly it became a thing and I’ve lost count of how many recordings of it there are now, but it’s a lot. And while they’re all basically fine, none of them hold a candle to Kempe. I hadn’t heard this recording in quite some time – wonderful music and a treat to hear again. I began the Goldsmith soundtracks with several I haven’t heard since playing them once when they came out. First up was Lonely are the Brave, a wonderful score and classic early Jerry. He’d scored three features prior to 1962, then did four scores that year, which is pretty amazing. Then it was Freud, an incredible score also from 1962. Then from 1963, A Gathering of Eagles, which is nice but not great. But those early Goldsmith scores are mostly incredible – I found these in a box of Varese stuff I hadn’t had room for on the shelves. I was hoping to find The List of Adrian Messenger, which I know I have somewhere, but it wasn’t in this box, which means there’s another Varese box and that one has a lot of MY stuff in it, so at some point I should try to locate it.
I first became aware of Goldsmith without knowing who he was – from his music for The Twilight Zone and Thriller. Once I learned the name and fell in love with these early scores of his, then I looked forward to anything scored by him and that continued to be the case right up through the 1980s. I can’t think of a single Goldsmith score I think is great from the 1990s forward, even though there are those who LOVE everything he did. The 1960s and 1970s and early 1980s were his GOLDEN period. Yes, there were a few not that interesting scores in that period, but most of it was pure GOLDsmith and include some of my all-time favorite film scores. So, that was fun listening. As I write these here notes, the last of A Gathering of Eagles is playing, and then it’s onto another film composer, this one named John Williams – not his film stuff but his violin and flute concertos, which I remember not liking at all. So, I’m interested to hear those again.
Yesterday was an exasperating day, truly. I only got five hours of sleep, got the news we’d lost one of our singers, began trying to do damage control and find someone, which proved very difficult and is still proving difficult. I did pick up a package, and I went to Islands for food, because I had a free food card. I got it when I wrote a less than flattering Yelp review about one of my take-out orders. The manager contacted me and asked me to give them another chance – that was almost a year ago. The Big Wave was excellent and so were the fries, so I’ll write an update review saying so. The entire meal cost me six dollars, which was the tip. That’s what I’M talkin’ about. But in the exasperating department, I don’t know what was with drivers yesterday, but they were insane, cutting in front of people, turning right from the center lane, trucks blocking traffic lanes, and on and on, one thing after another, including one idiot woman driving about three miles an hour because she was looking at her texts. I can’t stand these people.
Once back home, I continued the hunt, had a telephonic call, and kept turning on the air because it was eighty damn degrees in the house. I’d get it down to 74, turn it off, and twenty minutes later it was eighty again. The air conditioning is really killing my throat and I have lots of phlegm from allergies. I’d finally had it and sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched an Eyetalian motion picture entitled Death Occurred Last Night, which I’d only seen once before. I suppose it’s a crime thriller of sorts and I did enjoy it the first time I watched it, but it’s really not very good and rather silly for most of its run time. It does star the excellent Raf Vallone. After that it was on to the music listening. Now playing is the John Williams violin concerto. It’s really not my cuppa, I must say. It’s almost like he willfully stayed away from anything approaching a tune. There are moments that do sound like him but those are few and far between – or is it far and few between?
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, most especially finding a replacement singer and figuring out what they’ll be singing, since they’re not going to be able to learn three songs they don’t know – we’ll try for one and let the other two be stuff they know well. We do think Kerry, who got a TV gig several weeks ago, will be able to show up to do one song, so that will be helpful, but we really have to find the replacement singer today. I can’t make a show order until I know what songs are involved, so that’s a pain in my ASS. I’ll eat something light, perhaps of my own concocting, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, but I won’t rest easy until we have our replacement.
Tomorrow is our first Kritzerland rehearsal, which I’m looking forward to. I then might go to the theater to see our replacement actresses’ first performance, just to be supportive. I’d show up just for our show and leave right after. Then hopefully by Friday I’ll be able to make the show order and get the commentary done – normally, it’s finished by this point, and I really don’t like being up against it like this. We have our second Kritzerland rehearsal on Sunday, stumble-through on Tuesday, and then we do our show.
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, hopefully find a replacement singer, eat, hopefully pick up packages, 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 this damn exasperating day is done and hoping there will be no repeat of it.