Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to Andre Previn play motion picture themes from motion pictures. I love movie theme cover albums and Previn’s are wonderful and either orchestrated by him or Johnny Williams. It is only appropriate to listen to motion picture themes after watching a motion picture, even though the motion picture I watched has never had its themes recorded since it’s a motion picture from the year 1938. This was a motion picture I’d never seen on Blu and Ray or any other format – Ernst Lubitsch’s Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife, starring Gary Cooper and Claudette Colbert, and written by Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett, and featuring a supporting cast of wonderful comedy character people like Edward Everett Horton. How can you miss really, with all those people AND the Lubitsch touch? Well, I don’t know how but, for me, I found this a charmless and mostly unfunny affair. Cooper is never at his best in these kinds of screwball things. Colbert is terrific but everything feels forced and even though it runs under ninety minutes, it feels longer. There are a few bits here and there that land well, but I found it a miss, which really surprised me. Transfer from Kino is old and gray and doesn’t look as rich as a black-and-white film from that era should look. Still, I’m glad I saw it. I also finished season six of Adam-12. It turns out I did have one through five, which leaves only season seven, which was the show’s final season and that’s now on its way to me. The last few episodes of season six are not so good because I think they were all tired and decided to veer away from what the show always did. So, one two-part episode has them learning about police helicopters and that was a bore, and then the final episode was a backdoor pilot for a new show that didn’t get picked up, so Milner and McCord are barely in it and it’s basically a courtroom drama with Sharon Gless, Ed Nelson, and Frank Sinatra, Jr. who would have been the series regulars.
Yesterday was a rainy day – sometimes raining hard but mostly drizzling. It was kind of nice but of course always causes allergy problems going from one weather extreme to another, which I find extreme. I got six hours of sleep again, the visitor thing got pushed to this morning, so I could have, in fact, slept another hour. Once up, I answered e-mails, I did some stuff on the computer, then went and had a fun lunch with Kay Cole at Art’s Deli. I had my tri-salad thing and didn’t have the rye bread that usually comes with it, so that was good. I stopped at the mail place and picked up a package – a book an author sent me, since I gave him some advice – and no screeners, which definitely means the two or three everyone got on Saturday somehow didn’t find their way into my mailbox, which is annoying and which I’ll talk to them about today. Then I came home and did a few things, had some telephonic calls, found out the CDs that should have shipped two weeks ago won’t be here until Monday – major issues with the materials used to make the raw CDs due to shipping stuff sitting in docks and not getting where they should. I decided I needed a day off from writing, so I just did other stuff that needed doing, and then I sat on my couch like so much fish and dozed off for forty minutes, then began watching stuff.
The only other food I ate was a little hot fudge sundae with C.C. Brown’s hot fudge – still great. And that was that. Now Andre is playing his theme from Inside Daisy Clover – You’re Gonna Hear from Me – what a great song it is. And boy does Previn love his French horns – you can hear it in everything he ever wrote – it’s unmistakably Previn – no one wrote for French horn like he did and made it so prominent. You can hear it in his arrangements for Bells Are Ringing’s main title music, but it’s really there in every arrangement and orchestration he did. Even though, for example, the lead instrument in his Two for the Seesaw score is trumpet, the horns have the most beautiful countermelody. It’s what made me love the French horn. Plus, his choice of themes is great – Soldier in the Rain, To Kill a Mockingbird, Second Chance from Two for the Seesaw, Emily, Livin’ Alone from Harper, Tuesday’s Theme from Bachelor Flat and on and on.
Today, I’ll be up by eleven for the visitor – that will only take about ten minutes, then I’ll buckle down, Winsocki and do some writing, I’ll eat something light but good, perhaps a salad, perhaps a sandwich – we’ll have to see how I feel – and no more sweets at all until the Christmas Eve Do and none after that. I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, I’ll do more writing, and then at some point I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow, Richard Allen will come film my hands because we have to do charts on all the Nothing in Common songs – two are done, so about sixteen to go. He’ll film at least three this go-round. Friday is the day I’m really looking forward to, though – lunch with Richard Sherman – first time seeing him since the pandemic began, which is close to two years. This finally got arranged via his daughter because I think word got to her that I was very frustrated not to be able to get calls returned. And I know she knows how much Richard and I care for each other, so I’m thankful she took charge to make it happen. Not sure what’s happening on the weekend, but basically other than writing on the project with David Wechter and also getting ready to write a new book, I’m not doing much from here to the end of the year. A nice two weeks off will do me much good, I think.
Let’s all put on our pointy party hats and our colored tights and pantaloons, let’s all break out the cheese slices and ham chunks, let’s dance the Hora and the old-fashioned waltz, for today is the birthday of our very own dear readers ChasSmith. So, let’s give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to our very own dear reader ChasSmith. On the count of three: One, two, three – A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO OUR VERY OWN DEAR READER CHASSMITH!!!
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by eleven, have a visitor, write, eat, hopefully pick up packages, write more, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear reader any old question you like and we get to give any old answer we like. So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy we had a nice rainy day for a change.