Well, dear readers, I it’s the fourth of July, Independence Day and I am feeling very independent as I write these here notes and am filled with natural fireworks emanating from my very pores and lighting up the room without making any noise to scare either pets or humans. And whilst the natural fireworks are emanating, I am listening to Miss Eileen Farrell sing Wagner, after which she’ll be singing perhaps my favorite Vaughan Williams music, Serenade to Music. And her pop album with Percy Faith was simply wonderful – great arrangements, sound, and she sings like a dream. What does that even mean? Sings like a dream? What dream? I don’t recall singing in my dreams, really. Speaking of my dreams, I had a doozy last night – I thought I was sooooo clever, coming up with a hilarious something or other, either for a song or a story or a movie – Stranger in the Manger – a trilogy – to be followed by Danger in the Manger and Ranger in the Manger. I laughed and laughed in this dream about my cleverness. When I woke up and remembered it, the one thing I couldn’t remember is why I found it sooooo amusing. But there you are. Dreams are dreams, weird and wacky and wry. So, I guess Miss Farrell sings like a dream only in the most general sense of a good dream. I don’t know what the HELL I’m talking about anymore, perhaps because natural fireworks are emanating from my very pores. Prior to the late evening music listening, I did manage to watch two motion pictures. The first motion picture was on a French Blu and Ray and was entitled M – not the Fritz Lang M but the remake M directed by Joseph Losey. I watched it back in 2016 when I got it and really enjoyed it for what it was. Watching it again, I realize that some of the dialogue is risible, and some aspects of it don’t work that well. What does work are the performances of David Wayne and several others in the large cast. Poor Luther Adler, a wonderful actor, is saddled with a lot of the risible stuff and he does his best with it. Also around are Howard da Silva, Raymond Burr, Martin Gabel, Steve Brodie and other fine character actors. It also is mostly shot on location in a Los Aneles that no longer exists. Incredible footage of downtown LA, mostly Bunker Hill – nothing shot downtown is there anymore. And then Ocean Park Pier, also long gone. As I wrote back when I first watched it, the first shot of Wayne and the little girl he’s abducted was shot right across from where my grandfather’s Wheel-O stand would have been. All we needed was a reverse shot, but we never get it. And then the shots on the boardwalk are also incredible, including the fish place where my grandmother bought my grandfather’s whitefish, and just down the street a wonderful view of the Hotel St. Regis, where they lived, then called the St. Regis Apartments. Anyway, I enjoyed it. The transfer looks okay but has had just about all the grain removed from it, which was a silly thing to do. And there are forced French subtitles, which is annoying. Hopefully, it will come out here at some point.
Then I watched a 2008 documentary on Amazon Prime entitled Wrangler: Anatomy of an Icon, about Jack Wrangler, the gay porn star (and straight porn star, too), and ultimately husband to Miss Margaret Whiting. I met them both at the New York party that we did for the launch of the label I created back in 2000. They were both very nice. I do remember the woman who put up the money for the company being very drunk and rather obnoxious to Mr. Wrangler and him being utterly charming about it and not letting it phase him. It was embarrassing, but he was a class act and we laughed about it. It was at that point, that I walked away from this woman and would not speak to her again for the rest of the evening. And we all know what happened just a year later. Anyway, the documentary was fun and interesting, and Mr. Wrangler comes off with warmth and humor, as does Miss Whiting and the other participants. Sadly, he passed way just a year later at sixty-two. And then it was music, music, music. Now playing: Miss Farrell’s pop album with Andre Previn – superb arrangements and heavenly and yes, she sings like a dream.
Yesterday was a leisurely day of leisure. I got up at one after eight hours of sleep. I answered e-mails, took the Amazon shoes to the mail place for returning, went to In-N-Out and got two cheeseburgers and no fries, came home and ate them – really good – and then continued helping a nice young gal who sang in all the group numbers in the Kritzerland online shows. She’s doing a Kickstarter and I was on her eBlast and so I checked it out and could see she was doing everything in a way that wasn’t going to get her funded. She’s trying to raise 7K for a short film. So, I wrote her and told her to call me if she wanted some tips on how to run a crowdfunding campaign. At that point, the campaign had raised less than seven hundred bucks, which wasn’t good. She called instantly and I spent an hour on the phone with her, giving her pointers and direction – she wrote it all down, and I told her she had to get to work instantly to turn things around, as the first three days are always of great importance. She did exactly as I’d suggested and was soon over $1,000. By the end of the evening, she was over $1200. And yesterday, still doing everything I’d told her, she got over $2,000, which is a strong two-day salvo for the amount she’s trying to raise. If she gets to 3K by Monday she will definitely reach her goal. She’s a sweet kid and I was happy to be helpful.
I did a quick Gelson’s run and got two little dessert things – I haven’t had any sweets for the past few days. It was probably foolish, but they were both good and I’m allowed to do desserts once every few weeks. Then I watched the movies and listened to the music and had natural fireworks emanating from my very pores, silently, whilst feeling very independent.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, which won’t be much, I was thinking about a Stanley’s Chinese chicken salad, but they won’t be open today, so perhaps it will be California Pizza Kitchen, their roasted garlic chicken pizza, which I love, and which is just under 1000 calories. I could also just get some stuff from Gelson’s. We shall see. Then I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
This coming week is all Kritzerland show stuff – getting everyone their songs, which will give them almost three-and-a-half weeks with them, some meetings and meals, then doing a musical theatre workshop on Saturday, followed by a dinner with Peyton and her mom and then seeing our playlet afterwards. So, that will be a fun day.
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, figure out food, eat whatever it may be, then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, wishing everyone a happy and safe fourth of July – love your pets and humans and let’s hope for people to be considerate, although I think we all know that most people are selfish little butt cheeks.