Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to my box set of Puccini operas – most things in this set are performances I haven’t heard and so far they’re all really excellent. Now listening to Tosca with Maria Callas, the stereo recording – excellent. Prior to that it was La Fanciulla del West with Birgit Nillson. I must say that opera has some of the most beautiful music ever written and Andrew Lloyd Webber thought so, too. I mean, he REALLY liked it. He REALLY, REALLY liked it. Prior to that, I watched the first fifty minutes of Written on the Wind, un film de Douglas Sirk, starring Miss Lauren Bacall, Rock Hudson, Robert Stack, and Dorothy Malone. Mr. Sirk did love making this kind of film and no one made this kind of film better than he did. And you know it from the first frame – one of the most interesting title sequences of that era. But mostly I’ve been entering fixes from proofer one. There are quite a few and happily they are things I would have never in a million years caught, which is why you need other eyes to proof. I mean, I proofed it carefully and missed all of these. I’m almost finished and as soon as I post these here notes I will finish. There are a few things to do globally, where I fix one mistake that’s been made over and over again, like an accent mark – that kind of thing. I’ve been doing that for the past three-and-a-half hours. While Puccini plays, BK fixes.
Yesterday was brief, mostly because I got ten hours of sleep and didn’t wake up until two. Once up, I got some e-mails that were quite irritating, having to do with L.A. Now and Then and people who’d committed to do stuff for the show who now cannot do it. Saps the energy, that does. So, telephonic calls and e-mails flew, trying to figure out how to deal with it. Hopefully, I’ll have answers today. I did a few things on the computer, then went to Stanley’s and had another of this week’s specials – seafood pasta with a spicy light tomato/cream sauce. I had them go easy on the spicy, but it really wasn’t spicy at all. I began with the starter Caesar salad. The pasta was really good – shrimp and salmon pieces in the sauce, with red onions, spinach, and cheese. I ate it all up and it was very filling. Then I came right home.
I had more e-mails to respond to, then watched the fifty minutes of Written on the Wind, and then began the major portion of the evening, entering fixes whilst Puccini serenaded me. The guy could write a tune, let’s face it. I have an ancient copy of the score to La Boheme, from 1898, a “new” edition published just two years after the opera’s premiere. This copy is signed by Puccini on the blank front free endpaper, and he’s also signed it a second time under his photo on the following page. The hinge is going and loose and I need to either have the entire spine rebound or I could have the entire thing rebound. I’m trying to find a place in Los Angeles that does that. It will be beautiful once I have that done.
Today, I’ll be up by ten-thirty at the latest, and then I’m getting a needed haircut at eleven – my last haircut was in September and I’m quite unkempt and can no longer control the curling of my hair. The Curling of My Hair – that’s the title of my next novel. After the haircut, I’ll come home and finish the two sets of liner notes and get them where they need to get to, then I’ll hopefully pick up the errant and truant second envelope and if it isn’t here, I’ll have to call New York and tell them it’s lost and to please issue a new check. I’ll eat something light but fun, then I’ll finish Written on the Wind, and then I can listen and relax.
Tomorrow, something is going on, maybe a Zoom thing, and then Saturday morning we have our next casting session, a combo platter of callbacks and new auditions, and Sunday is 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 by ten-thirty at the latest, I must have a haircut, I must hopefully pick up packages and the second important envelope, finish two sets of liner notes, eat, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite films of Miss Lauren Bacall and Mr. Rock Hudson? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, whilst Puccini will play whilst BK fixes.