Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish listening to nothing because I’ve been busy getting our two new releases live, which they now are. But now I’m listening to John Mauceri conduct the overtures of Rodgers and Hammerstein. And our two new releases are Ben Bagley recordings of two delightful shows – the first is E.Y. Harburg’s Hold on to Your Hats, with music by the great Burton Lane, plus a lot of Harburg bonus material, all very rare stuff. The second is the delightful revue, Make Mine Manhattan, the show that introduced Sid Caesar to Broadway. The score is really tuneful and clever and occasionally laugh-out-loud funny, even all these years later. Wonderful casts for both shows and, for me, these are two of the most fun albums he did. Here are the covers.
Prior to all that work, I finished watching a motion picture on Amazon Prime that I’d watched the first half of over six months ago – Seberg – a film about actress Jean Seberg and the horrible vendetta against her by Mr. Hoover and his FBI. Their actions were disgusting but back in the day no one dared go up against them. After her suicide a decade later, the FBI had to admit under the freedom of information act what they’d done. But so what? Hoover was dead and they just said they no long did stuff like that. But the damage they did to Seberg was reprehensible. Kristin Stewart plays her very well. As a young lad, I thought Seberg was beautiful and talented, having seen her in Bonjour Tristesse and then, years later, in Breathless and other films. After that, I watched Brian De Palma’s film of James Ellroy’s novel, The Black Dahlia. I only saw it once when it came out and I do remember thinking it was one of the worst films he ever made, and boy has he made some stinkers. I was surprised to see that this film is now fifteen years old. And no, in the intervening years it has not suddenly become a masterpiece or gem. I just read what I wrote back in 2006 and I feel exactly the same now. Here are a few excerpts: I was not quite prepared for how inept and really bad it is – there is not a single worthwhile thing in the film – the storytelling ranges from incoherent to boring – De Palma and his cameraman make the usual ridiculous choice of draining the color from the image because it’s a period piece – note to director and cameraman – LA was not sepia in the 1940s. LA was a full color town – and then there are the actors – it’s laughable watching Josh Hartnett and Aaron Eckhart trying to look comfortable in their fedoras and 40s togs – they look like high school acting students acting roles for which they are not suited – Hillary Swank is doing her own movie – her accent is unique and seems to come from no known country – all in all, a complete and utter failure in every way. And it really is, even all these years later. A fictionalized version of the Elizabeth Short Dahlia murder, it’s simply ludicrous.
Yesterday went by quickly due to not getting up until after one, finally getting close to eight hours of sleep. Once up, I answered e-mails and did some work on the computer, did a Gelson’s run and got some sweet Eyetalian sausage and stuff to make some pasta, came home and quickly rustled up some bow tie pasta with red sauce, sauteed onions, and sausage. It was very good. Then I had to go to Vitello’s with the singer to explain why we weren’t happy with the video she’d paid for and the fact that they wanted to charge her for giving her all the footage so we could recut it. They were very understanding and actually shocked that these people wanted to charge her for the footage after she’d already paid them to film it. So, hopefully she won’t have to pay for it and then Marshall Harvey and I will go to a post house and fix it up. After that, I came right home and sat on my couch like so much fish and did my viewing. After that, I got the eBlast ready, the pages went live, and that eBlast goes out at midnight. Don’t know why it was scheduled for an hour after I said go live – it usually posts within ten minutes. I’ll have to ask them.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll write, I’ll probably have a sausage, peppers, and onion sandwich for lunch and another for my snack, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, choose songs, hopefully get a LOT of orders, and then I can watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow is more of the same, Saturday is busy and then I’m seeing the reading of a new musical, and Sunday is the singer’s show in Palm Desert, which I’ll probably view via Zoom from the comfort of the home environment.
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, write, probably have a sandwich then another later, hopefully pick up packages, choose songs, hopefully get a LOT of orders, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite true crime books and films? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have announced two delightfully delightful albums that everyone should have.