Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much Mozartian fish, listening to so much Mozartian Mozart, as played by Mr. Leonard Bernstein, part of a box set entitled Leonard Bernstein: The Pianist. I’m actually enjoying these performances very much. Being these were recorded for Columbia, the sound is, of course, excellent. We also get Beethoven, Ravel, Shostakovich, Bernstein, Copland, Gershwin, and then some vocal recitals with Bernstein as accompanist. Eleven CDs in all, and the set is currently on Amazon for only thirty-six bucks, although I got it for much less than half that at a used CD store yesterday. They have these little cards that you get stamped whenever purchasing and I had two almost full cards – when they stamped those, I suddenly saved sixteen bucks. I love when that happens, don’t you? I also managed to watch two count them two motion pictures and finish the Prokofiev symphonies. The first motion picture was entitled Carol, starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, directed by Todd Haynes and adapted from the novel by Patricia Highsmith, written under a pseudonym, namely Claire Morgan – it was released as a pulp paperback in 1952 and was fairly unique and pioneering being a serious work of Lesbian fiction. Phyllis Nagy wrote the screenplay. I saw it via a DGA screener when it came out and really liked it – I was already a fan of the director and the style and look of the film was just wonderful and classic cinema. I don’t know if Haynes ever succumbed to the “now” way of movies, but if he did, I haven’t seen it. For me, he makes real movies. No fancy CGI junk, no sound mix to blow your ears out, just simple and beautiful filmmaking by someone who knows what he’s doing. The two leading ladies are wonderful in this. I don’t always care for Rooney Mara, but she’s at her best here. The score by Carter Burwell is very good, too, and a special shout out to Sandra Powell’s costumes, which are just so perfect and that really illuminate the characters. The second motion picture was also directed by Mr. Haynes, who is currently my favorite director in films – this one was entitled Dark Waters, which I saw last year on a DGA screener. It, too, is a terrific movie, shot beautifully, directed perfectly, and featuring excellent performances all around (Mark Ruffalo, Tim Robbins, and Anne Hathaway. It’s the true story of one lawyer’s attempt to take on Dupont and reveal the hard truth about Teflon and what they’d been doing to people and the environment since the 1970s, which was reprehensible. But huge corporations like that get away with literal murder and if it wasn’t for this lawyer, they would still be getting away with it. Their attempts to quash everything is infuriating, and their further attempt to renege on the deal they’d made was disgusting. Fortunately, this lawyer didn’t give up and Dupont ended up having to settle a humungous number of lawsuits to the tune of over 500-million dollars. That didn’t help all the people who died because of what they did, but at least they had to pay the price. So, since I’m on a Todd Haynes kick, I think I’ll watch Wonderstruck again. I’ve only seen it once and I really loved it and I’ve had a Blu-ray here for several years that I’ve never watched.
Yesterday was mostly a ME day except for when it wasn’t. I was up at eight-thirty after seven hours of sleep, I had an early breakfast at Uncle Bernie’s deli – bacon, eggs, hash browns, toast, and one pancake, just because I always like to try pancakes. Everything was very good save for the pancake, which was just ordinary. Before I left, I got a pint of chicken salad, a half-pint of potato salad, and two slices of rye bread for a meal later. Then I went to the used CD store and spent about forty-five minutes there. I could barely make it to forty-five because of being masked – I started to feel faint and just bought what I bought and got the HELL out of there pronto.
Then I came home, answered a bunch of e-mails, listened to the last of the Prokofiev symphonies, then had the first of two Zoom rehearsals for the Group Rep cabaret. That went well, and then I sat on my couch like so much fish and watched Carol. After that, I had the chicken salad sandwich and potato salad, which was really tasty all the way around. Then I watched Dark Waters, then had the second Zoom rehearsal, which also went well. Then I began listening to Bernstein at the piano, which is ongoing. About to move on to Beethoven.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll relax, eat, rest my voice, and then I’ll mosey on over to the Group Rep around six o’clock. At six-thirty, Richard Allen will arrive and set up, then we’ll run stuff by the handful of folks who weren’t with us at rehearsal, and then we’ll do a stumble-through of the show. Then our sound guy will arrive and get the stage monitor set up and get the sound balanced and “written” for the computer. I’m sure we’ll be there until at least ten-thirty. Then I’ll come home and watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow, I’ll rest and relax the entire day, then we’ll have a sound check to make sure everything is working properly and then we do show one. Tuesday is much the same and we do show two. And then it’s immediately on to the Kritzerland anniversary show and I’ve got to get all those songs chosen and to the singers as soon as possible. So, another busy little week.
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, relax and rest my voice, eat, have a stumble-through and get the sound right, and 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, happy to be listening to Lenny at the piano.