Well, dear readers, I don’t know if anyone is aware of this, but this is the final day of 2021. And they say we don’t have the latest up-to-date news here at haineshisway.com. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, this is the final day of 2021. And logic will tell you that tomorrow will be the first day of 2022, and it is my fervent hope and prayer that both 2022 and January will be a year and month filled with health, wealth, happiness, creativity, and all things bright and beautiful. Also, it means that tonight, tonight, won’t be just any night – tonight is our annual New Year’s Rockin’ Eve Bash, the best way to watch various and sundried balls drop and the safest way to spend New Year’s Eve. So, come and join us, won’t you? We may even do a surprise Zoom thing if enough people are hanging out – you never know. In other news, I am sitting here like so much fish, writing the final notes of 2021 and listening to Previn the Pianist – I’d never bothered listening to the first few discs of The Classic Andre Previn box set – only the first disc, which was a Gershwin Concerto in F and Rhapsody in Blue disc with Andre Kostelanetz conducting Andre Previn, pianist. But the next four discs or so were the solo stuff so I skipped it. But they’re quite good, these solo piano discs and they’re stunningly recorded. You get stuff like a wonderful and surprisingly accessible Hindemith sonata, then Samuel Barber’s Four Excursions, which is wonderful. Then on subsequent CDs you get some lovely Poulenc and Roussel. Very enjoyable. Prior to that, I tried to watch the new film of The Tragedy of Macbeth, which I’m finding slow going. It’s filmed in the Academy ratio to, I suppose, be hipsterish. And it’s directed rather like an Orson Welles film in terms of sets and stuff. The actors are fine but after fifty minutes I suspect it’s just not my cuppa anything.
Yesterday was a very short day. I didn’t get to sleep until four-thirty, as I was making notes on the new book and stuff, and I didn’t arise until two o’clock, after nine-and-a-half hours of needed sleep. That only left me two hours before the early dinner with Robert Yacko, so I answered e-mails and did stuff on the computer, then showered and got ready, then moseyed on over to Barone’s for our meal, celebrating his birthday and Christmas. He had a nice gift for me (a gift certificate for the Smokehouse) and he has another on its way, a new wallet, which will really be nice to have, since I’ve had my current wallet for a decade. I gave him several fun things – a Nudie Musical Blu-ray, Patrick Bronstein Presents, which I know he’ll like, and a Scotland Lord thing like I got myself, and then my original work sheet for the lyrics to C.C. Brown’s, which he introduced in L.A. Now and Then, plus a Xerox of the first page of Children Will Listen sheet music with hand corrections in red by my close personal friend, Mr. Stephen Sondheim – those are original corrections and NOT Xeroxed and they’re one-of-a-kind.
The meal was, as always, amazing. I had my beloved Carbonara and some garlic bread, and for his first time there he had the angel hair pasta primavera with chicken, which he loved. We were both members of the Clean Plate Brigade.
After that, I went right to the mail place and picked up a couple of packages and the screener for The Tragedy of Macbeth, then came right home. I watched the first fifty minutes, then listened to Mr. Previn, made just a few additional notes on the new book and then it was time to write the final notes of 2021.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll do a Gelson’s run, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages and the second important envelope – the really important one thankfully arrived yesterday – I’ll eat, and then I can watch, listen, and relax until it’s time for our annual New Year’s Rockin’ Eve Bash. What fun we’ll have. And, as always, at eleven-thirty I’ll do my usual contemplation thing, and then at midnight I’ll have my usual sip of champagne, welcome in the New Year, and then try to get to bed by one or so.
Tomorrow will be 2022, January 1 to be exact, and as I’ve done now for over a decade, I will begin a new book, a novel. I waffled over which book to write – this novel or a non-fiction thing, but Muse Margaret chose the novel instantly, so that’s what I’m doing. I’ll get up by eleven, get myself together, and then begin writing. As always, I’ve already written several pages so that I’m already into the book when I begin. I’ll futz and finesse those, then try to do another ten pages or so. In the afternoon, I’m thinking about having just three or four people over for some good cheer and maybe some Wacky Noodles or maybe some faux Stroganoff with chicken over pasta. I’ll have to decide that today so I can buy ingredients at the market. And then, later I’ll watch, listen, and react.
Tomorrow, I’ll continue writing, as I will every day until the book is finished. Thankfully, I’m all caught up with most things, save for writing the sequence on the project with David Wechter, and I may try to do that tomorrow, or at least get a good start on it.
And of course, as befits the final day of 2021, here are the final three Kritzerland releases of the year. First is a soundtrack and a really wonderful one at that – Alfred the Great by Raymond Leppard. I think the audio samples might just sell you on it. Then another Ben Bagley concoction, this one Harold Arlen and Vernon Duke Revisited Volume II – really fun stuff. And finally, a reissue of the 1996 off-Broadway cast recording of I Do! I Do! which I produced and which stars Karen Ziemba and David Garrison – a wonderful version scored for two pianos, a sound I love, and which makes the score sound like The Fantasticks. We’ve spruced up the sound, added a bonus track of Karen and David singing the cut song Thousands of Flowers, and the booklet has brand new liner notes by Tom Jones, Karen and David, and li’l ol’ me, plus wonderful color photographs. Even if you have the Varese Sarabande release, you’ll really want this. Here are the three covers.
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, do a Gelson’s run, hopefully pick up packages and a second important envelope, eat, watch, listen, and relax, and then attend our New Year’s Rockin’ Eve Bash, do my contemplation, have a sip of champagne and welcome in 2022. Today’s topic of discussion: What was your happiest moment in all of 2021? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, as we say a fond Farewell 2020 and a welcoming Hello 2021!