Well, dear readers, I am sated. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, I am sated due to having eaten some bow tie pasta with butter and cheese as my evening repast and a late repast at that. Now that I am past the repast, I am listening to the marvelous Miklos Rozsa score for El Cid (The Cid). It’s one of his greats. There is, of course, a soundtrack CD that’s never had a proper remastering and so sounds shrill. There was a Koch recording of the score that was truly terrible or to put it another way, terrible truly. But then along came James Fitzpatrick and Silva Screen to record the score in its entirety, every note. Nic Raine conducts – he’s not Mr. Rozsa but he does very well and the Prague orchestra is mostly up to it. And the sound is excellent, so that’s a huge plus. But what a score. What a main theme. I saw El Cid during its roadshow engagement at the gorgeous and much-missed Carthay Circle Theater, in 70mm and stereo sound. I remember thinking that Sophia Loren’s lips were wider than the hugely wide screen and I don’t think I loved the film, which was surprising back then. I owned a 16mm Technicolor print and that’s when I began to appreciate the artistry of its director, Anthony Mann. Sadly, all home video releases are taken from a 35mm reduction negative. We’ve had incredible releases for Circus World and 55 Days at Peking from their large format negatives and they’re glorious. One hopes that El Cid and The Fall of the Roman Empire will receive that treatment, too. I’ve also been going through a box set of Puccini opera recordings – very low price and for the most part, really fine recordings. I found the Manon Lescaut in this set, with Montserrat Caballe and Placido Domingo to be much preferable to the one I heard last week, conducted by James Levine, with Mirella Freni and Luciano Pavarotti – in fact, it blows the Levine out of the water. Next up is Madame Butterfly with Victoria de los Angeles, a singer I really like. This recording gets very high marks. I also tried to watch the new Criterion Blu and Ray of Mr. Douglas Sirk’s potboiler, Written on the Wind, but I fell asleep for forty-five minutes, so I’ll start over today. From what I could tell, the transfer looked very nice.
Yesterday wasn’t so bad. I got just about eight hours of sleep, got up, answered e-mails, and then went and did banking. First bank was in and out in four minutes. The Studio City branch of Bank of America is still closed – it’s now been over a month and that’s just ludicrous. Happily, my nearby branch didn’t have a line out the door – just four people ahead of me and for once the line moved quickly and I was in and out in ten minutes.
Then I came home and began one set of liner notes. I had some telephonic calls and then I went to the mail place and picked up no important envelope – this isn’t the most important one, but this one has never been late before – in fact, it’s always earlier than the other one. I hope I don’t have to call AFTRA and tell them it’s missing. Hopefully, it will arrive today. I did pick up two small packages. I came right back home and then I had a ninety-minute Zoom with David Wechter. That was very productive and we’re mushing on towards the finish line. After that, I tried to watch the movie and failed, and then it was uploading all these CDs, which is such a pain in the ASS to have to go back-and-forth between the laptop and the big boy computer.
Then I made the pasta and ate it and now I am sated and listening to El Cid (The Cid) and I don’t care who knows it.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll continue writing the two sets of liner notes until they’re finished, I’ll hopefully pick up the errant and truant envelope, I’ll eat, and then at some point I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
The rest of the week is more of the same and then we have more auditions for L.A. Now and Then on Saturday – quite a few folks are already booked, so that’s good, presuming they actually, you know, show up. There’s one huge casting issue we haven’t even begun to address yet, and that we’re going to have to do very soon. And Sunday I’m having a fun dinner out.
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, continue writing liner notes, hopefully pick up packages and the errant and truant envelope, eat, 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 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, sated from the bow tie pasta with butter and cheese.