Well, dear readers, this week is flying by, like a gazelle being wrongfully arrested as a gnu. Upon being arrested, the gazelle looked at the arresting officer and said, “What’s gnu? I’m a damn gazelle and get these damn handcuffs off me before I file a lawsuit for animal profiling.” The problem with this week, of course, is that Monday was a holiday and therefore Tuesday really felt like a Monday and then we have the trickle-down effect of days feeling like other days, which, frankly, leaves me in days of a daze. But at least no one mistook me for a gnu, so there’s an upside to everything. Otherwise, I am sitting here like so much fish, as I have been all evening, listening to various and sundried musical offerings. Now playing is a marvelously marvelous CD of Laurie Johnson film music, conducted by Laurie Johnson for Varese Sarabande back in the day. It’s a wonderful album, excellent sound and production, featuring wonderful music from The Avengers, First Men in the Moon, Dr. Strangelove, Hedda, and Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter. Mr. Johnson was both a wonderful conductor and composer and this album is the berries. And for something that’s been out of print for almost twenty-five years, it can be found very inexpensively. Prior to that I listened to an album of Miklos Rozsa conducting his music for Lust for Life and a suite called Background to Danger from some of his Universal film noirs. I had this album when I was a kid, one of the first stereophonic albums of film music I had on Decca. The Varese CD release is fine, but it could be much better with today’s technology – it could fix some tape dropouts and also shape the somewhat tubby sound a bit better. But the music is aces. And no one, and I mean no one, conducts Rozsa better than Rozsa. Prior to that, I finished watching the Ernst Lubitsch film, To Be or Not to Be, starring Jack Benny and Carole Lombard. As I said in yesterday’s notes, the film walks a fine line and thanks to the Lubitsch touch never crosses it. Several sequences in the film are laugh-out-loud hilarious, and Benny, Lombard, Sig Ruman, and the rest of the cast are all fantastic in their roles. It’s beautifully directed and photographed, too, and the Criterion transfer is very nice. Of course, the film was remade by Mel Brooks, starring Mel and his wife, Anne Bancroft, but it was pretty much a misfire on all levels. Some things are better left alone.
Yesterday was kind of an okay day. I got seven hours of sleep but good sleep, and I did stay in bed for an extra forty-five minutes, just resting. Once up, I answered e-mails, had telephonic conversations, and did a few things on the computer. Then I went out for food, first needing to put gas in the motor car. I went to the cheapest of the stations – $4.29 – fifty cents cheaper than any other station in close proximity. To fill the tank was seventy bucks and it still could have taken one more gallon. That is just outrageous, but they continually get away with it because no one in government has the guts to do anything about it.
Then I moseyed on over to Uncle Bernie’s deli, which I do wish was just a couple of miles closer than it actually is. I had a turkey sandwich on rye and a few onion rings, and it was very good. I almost had a sky-high lean pastrami with coleslaw and 1000-Island dressing, but I just don’t care for their 1000-Island. Anyway, I enjoyed the sandwich and onion rings – they were very lightly battered, which was good. After that, I came back home, went in the garage and pulled about eleven CDs I thought it would be fun to hear, and brought them into the home environment. Then I sat on my couch like so much fish and watched the rest of the movie. I then began another Criterion Blu-ray entitled A Night to Remember, about the Titanic, but I just watched ten minutes and decided I wanted music.
Then began the music listening. Now playing: the soundtrack to The Eiger Sanction by John Williams, the original Varese Sarabande release. It actually sounds terrible. There’s a new two-CD release that just came out, that has the entire score plus the album, all completely remastered, and I cannot imagine it doesn’t sound a gazillion times better than this awful CD. Perhaps I’ll get it, as I do like the John Williams of this era.
Today, I’ll be up by eleven or so, I’ll do whatever needs doing, and then we have our second Kritzerland rehearsal, with a couple of our mystery guests attending. After that, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages and an envelope, eat something light but fun, and then I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow is pretty much a ME day, although I still have to read that second script, and I might have a nice meal out. Saturday is our stumble-through, then I have to relax and rest my voice, then Sunday I’ll relax until it’s time to go to Vitello’s for sound check and then show. I’m sure some of us will out downstairs for a meal afterwards.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by eleven or so, do whatever needs doing, have a rehearsal, hopefully pick up packages and an envelope, eat, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite British TV programs, new and old. And your least favorites? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, as I continue to be in a daze from the days.