Well, dear readers, I don’t know if anyone has noticed, but it is November. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, it is November and it is my fervent hope and prayer that November will be a month filled with health, wealth, happiness, creativity, and all things bright and beautiful. I’m finding it difficult to process that it’s almost the end of the year, aren’t you? The first half of the year moved along at a steady pace, not flying by, which the second half of the year most certainly has, flying by like a gazelle having a tummy tuck. Now that we’ve had the important news of the day, I’m just sitting here like so much fish, listening to the music of the wonderful composer, Arthur Benjamin, who is a particular favorite of mine and has been ever since I saw The Man Who Knew Too Much back in 1956 at the Lido Theater. While the score was by Mr. Bernard Herrmann, the big piece of music in the film took place at Albert Hall in London and involved an assassination attempt at a certain point in the concert piece being played. As it was in Hitchock’s original version of the film in the 1934, the concert piece was the Storm Cloud Cantata for orchestra and chorus, written by one Arthur Benjamin. He’d go on to write some film scores after that, including a great score of a film called An Ideal Husband – interestingly, a wonderful suite from that score was recorded by none other Bernard Herrmann. He wrote several operas and some wonderful classical pieces, including a terrific symphony, violin concerto, several pieces for piano and orchestra, and his most performed piece, Jamaican Rumba. Happily, there are several excellent CDs of his music – one wishes there were more, but we must be grateful for what we DO have, oh, yes, we must be grateful for what we DO have. Prior to Mr. Benjamin, I watched two count them two documentaries on Amazon Prime courtesy of the Firestick thing. The first was a really well-done documentary made by a young man who suffered sexual abuse by a relative as a child – in fact, by three relatives – repeatedly, and, to a lesser extent, his sister was also abused. His father bought a video camera when the kid was born and so we have a lot of footage, and we see this little kid, happy and smart, turn into a depressed, surly kid who’d like nothing more than to come up with a way to kill himself. The truth comes out and his two nephews are arrested, tried, and convicted. But his uncle, a cantor at a very famous temple in New York, hires the most expensive lawyers money will buy and the congregation at the temple raises the money to pay for his lawyers. And so, that case takes four years to come to trial and then never does because he takes a plea deal that will mean he won’t be charged with the felony, only four misdemeanors. A horrible man who, at the time of the documentary, was still alive and well and living in New York – he did resign from temple, though. It’s heartbreaking and maddening, but he’s become a fine adult, as has his sister, and he’s a major advocate in the fight against child abuse.
The other documentary was about convicted women who killed their husbands because their darling mates were abusing them – all the way from kicking and punching to chaining them in basements. But at the time of conviction, no evidence of abuse could be put into evidence, so of course the pretty much all got maximum sentence. Then the law changed about spousal abuse and it can now be entered into evidence. So, this documentary is about the crusade to get four women released from prison – most of them have been there for over thirty years at the time this film was made back in 2012. It’s a little fragmented in its structure, but it’s interesting. Most interesting is one woman who was finally released in 2015 – she had the living daylights beaten out of her repeatedly and has the photos to prove it, and her darling husband had threatened that he was going to kill her on the day she precluded that from happening and killed him. And yet, all these years later she says she misses him and still loves him. And THAT is a huge part of the problem. One hopes she’s gotten over it by now.
Yesterday was, of course, Halloween, so I, as always, donned my usual costume of The Old Jew. I got about eight-and-a-half hours of sleep and could have probably easily slept another two hours. Once up, I answered e-mails and then got ready and moseyed on over to the mail place, where I picked up an important envelope that had indeed arrived after I’d been there on Saturday. Then I went to the theater for our two o’clock rehearsal. We were only missing two actors, so Doug Haverty read those roles and therefore we were able to run the entire play. It went pretty smoothly and my notes were mainly about trying not to stumble over words and lines and to keep the energy from dropping too low. It’s a very good cast and they’re all doing very well.
Afterwards, I did something I’ve never done before in all the years I’ve lived in the Valley – I stopped to Tommy’s Famous Hamburgers on Laurel Canyon Blvd. and Burbank Blvd. I ordered the famous chili cheeseburger, the famous chile and cheese hot dog and the famous fries. I came home and famously ate all that famous food right the HELL up. I probably could have lived without the hot dog – it was good, but too filling. The cheeseburger was also good, but neither were really good enough to have them again. The fries were fine. After that, I sat on my couch like so much fish and watched the two documentaries. The rest you know.
Today, I’ll try to be up by ten or thereabouts and I’ll hopefully get the banking out of the way early and hope that there won’t be any lines at either bank. Then I can relax until it’s time to be on my way to the theater so we can run a few things prior to our seven-thirty reading. I’m thinking that maybe some of will go out for a bite afterwards. Then I’ll come home and watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow, our very own Donald Feltham and I will be going to the storage place around eleven-thirty to try and find something that needs finding – it’s very important we find this item, but it will require removing a lot of what’s in that storage locker to get to the box that probably has it. Hoping it won’t take too long and that we’ll be successful in locating it. Then at six-thirty we have our first rehearsal for the second play, which is slightly different than having our second rehearsal for the first play. Wednesday, I think I’m doing a podcast of some sort, then at ten-thirty in the evening I’m having my Moderna booster shot. Thursday and Friday I’ve kept light – will probably Zoom with David Wechter on one of those days. Then Saturday and Sunday are rehearsals for the second play, then we do that on Monday. I also have to prepare and announce our next two releases.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by ten or thereabouts, do banking, hopefully pick up some packages, have a snack, and then go to the theater, run a few things, and then we do the reading, and perhaps have a bite afterwards, and then I can watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: Where have you had your favorite chili dogs and chili hamburgers, and what, if anything, do you like on them, i.e., cheese, onions, tomatoes, pickles. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, as we welcome November – and it is my fervent hope and prayer that November will be a month filled with health, wealth, happiness, creativity, and all things bright and beautiful.