Well, dear readers, this month is flying by, like a gazelle in the middle of an intense discussion as to why in the musical Fiddler on the Roof the character of Hodel doesn’t yodel and that the character of Motel has never actually stayed in a motel. It’s a discussion that must be had in these woke times, I’m afraid since Hodel now identifies as a piece of Kale and Motel identifies as a – motel. What the HELL am I talking about? Otherwise, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to Eddie Sauter’s incredibly interesting score to Arthur Penn’s incredibly interesting but incredibly weird and wacky film Mickey One, which starred Warren Beatty and was a huge and I do mean huge flop. It’s really surprising Sauter didn’t do any other movies because this is seriously good, and it features Stan Getz on sax. I had the album when it came out on MGM Records and I have it on CD – Verve issued that and it sounds incredible. Four years earlier, Getz had commissioned Sauter to compose an album for him and that became the album Focus, which came out in 1961 and was an instant classic – it, too, is on CD and sounds great. Sauter composed the theme for the third season of Rod Serling’s Night Gallery. Mostly, though, he was a jazz/big band guy in the 1950s with his Sauter-Finegan Orchestra, who did several excellent recordings. And then, as if all that wasn’t enough, he was a great orchestrator of Broadway shows – he didn’t do a huge number of them, but the ones he did do remain some of my all-time favorite Broadway orchestrations – The Apple Tree, 1776, It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s Superman (absolutely fantastic), and Henry, Sweet Henry. He also did Milk and Honey, Foxy, Little Johnny Jones, Molly, Georgy, and La Strada, the latter two were huge flops that had superb orchestrations. He died of a heart attack at sixty-six. Prior to that, I finished watching the Miyazaki film Porco Rosso (Crimson Pig), which is a weird one but really excellent and very well done, with another rousing Joe Hisaishi score. I followed that with the Studio Ghibli film The Secret Life of Arietty, which was based on Mary Norton’s novel, The Borrowers. Miyazaki wrote it and was a “planner” on it, but it was the first feature directed by the very talented Hiromasa Yonebayashi. I only saw it once back when it came out in 2010 and I loved it then and I kind of love it more now. It’s just a wonderful movie, very touching, the animated characters have great depth, and the film is stunning to look at, especially in this incredible transfer. The only minor nitpick is the score and only because I missed Joe Hisaishi’s music – it’s not bad or anything and it works just fine, but it’s not Hisaishi. I must admit to shedding a tear or two and I don’t care who knows it.
Yesterday was a fine ME day. First, I got two hours of sleep, was up for an hour, and went back to bed and slept another seven hours for a total of nine hours. Despite many attempts to learn my lesson as regards frozen yogurt, I can’t eat it anymore – my tummy simply doesn’t like it. And one must listen to their tummy. Once up, which was at one, I answered some e-mails and them moseyed on over to the mail place to pick up what arrived the previous day – the arrivals for yesterday had an attempted delivery at seven last night – and, of course, the rather uneducated Amazon driver knows full well that they close at five on Sundays, so, no, they didn’t attempt anything. It’s all there, plainly written on my permanent delivery instructions. So, I’ll get those today. For food, I had a little pizza craving so I got three slices of pepperoni and one little square of Sicilian cheese and tomato from the jernt I like that’s close to here, I came home and ate it all up and it was excellent. After that, I finished watching Porco Rosso.
Then I buckled down, Winsocki and wrote for a couple of hours on the project with David Wechter. That was fun and I think it came out okay. Then I watched The Secret Life of Arietty (a not so wonderful US title – the Japanese is something like The Borrower Arietty). After that, I had a telephonic conversation and then began listening to Eddie and Stan, which I’m still doing as I wrap up these here notes.
Tomorrow, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll eat, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, I’ll write the rest of what I’m supposed to write and then I’ll have a Zoom meeting with David Wechter and we’ll discuss what we’ve written. The rest of the week is more of the same, plus some meetings and meals and I should have the flyer for our show today and I’ll be able to post that everywhere there is to post it. Well, it just arrived, so here it is.
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, eat, hopefully pick up packages, write, have a Zoom thing, and then I’ll watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite Broadway orchestrations? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have been listening to Sauter and Getz – Together Again.