Well, dear readers, the question of the day is how much gunk can one old Jew have? And the answer is – a lot. I thought it would be less today but it almost seems worse. I do know that all the gunk is breaking up but apparently breaking up is hard to do. It’s all quite irritating and nauseating and every other ating. Otherwise, I am sitting here like so much congested and gunk-filled fish listening to the soundtrack LP of The Young Girls of Rochefort – in English. This was issued in the United Kingdom on Philips LP in both monophonic and stereophonic sound. It is rare as hen’s teeth and I think we all know how rare hen’s teeth are. I once had a 16mm IB Technicolor/scope print of the film in English and that was apparently one-of-a-kind, and I only wish I hadn’t sold it – the fellow who bought it from me died about eight years ago and heaven knows where his film collection ended up. It was an interesting version because they shot the songs two ways – in French, and then in English so that the French actors are mouthing the English lyrics. But the rest of the film was just dubbed into English with all the actors speaking French. Weird. The movie, of course, has been restored (not brilliantly) but the English track is apparently lost. Is it really lost? I’d bet that Warner Bros. who I believe released the film in the US (barely) has it and no one bothers to look. Had I had my print, that could have been used. Just checked and yes, Warners released it. I’m even guessing they have some kind of negative on it. Anyway, I knew of the English LP version and hunted and searched and searched and hunted and sometime in the 1980s finally found a copy. It was wonderful to have, the stereo was great, and the huge cost was worth it (probably all of forty bucks). The English lyrics are weird and funky, you get the real Gene Kelly (he’s completely dubbed in the French version by Donald Burke – Burke also dubs Kelly’s high notes only in the English version, you get classic dubbers Jackie Ward, Sally Stevens, Bill Lee, Diana Lee and more. Sadly, before I made a transfer of it, there was a bad leak in the garage I had at that time and it go water damaged. I still managed to transfer but it wasn’t good. Then the big Michel Legrand/Jacques Demy set came out on CD with all their stuff. And there it was, the English Young Girls. But – and it’s a big BUTT – it was NOT the Philips album master, it was some new mix that contained tons of dialogue and I just couldn’t stand it. I wanted the LP mix. Another issue in that set is the soundtrack to The Umbrellas of Cherbourg – another completely new mix that I hate. They don’t even mention that these are new mixes. I realized it instantly with the main title music, which in the new mix is in MONO. It morphs into stereo when it goes to the jazzy garage music. Well, it certainly wasn’t mono on the original French soundtrack LP (the main title music never appeared on the US album) and thankfully there was a weird Japanese two-CD release of the original stereo LP tracks of Cherbourg, and some tracks from the French Young Girls, while on the second CD you got Miles Davis’ score to Elevator to the Gallows. I put it in iTunes and the entire mix is so much better than the version you’re now forced to by.
I told someone about the Japan two-CD set and was going to link him to it so he could see it, and do you know that there is not a single reference to this set ever existing, not ONE. Happily, it’s out there in the garage, safe and sound, but I’d imagine it’s worth a ton of money, especially if people realized it was the original and preferable mix. Anyway, to make a long story long, I got another copy of the English LP of Young Girls and did an LP transfer and it really is great. A friend will now get rid of the few ticks and pops (the LP was mint and in excellent shape so there’s not many) and split it into separate tracks and he’ll send that back to me. I just love the score so it’s great to have the original again.
I also managed to watch a movie last night, a documentary about motion picture sound, called Making Waves. It was interesting, but there was not enough history for me – they gloss over many years of pioneering work and concentrate mostly on the sound as done today, which, if you must know, I find really overdone in a lot of cases. But I enjoyed the documentary and it didn’t overstay its welcome.
Yesterday was some kind of day. I got ten hours of sleep, got up and was so filled with gunk I could barely get any sound out of my mouth. It took about two hours to get rid of enough of it that I could talk like a person. Once up, I answered e-mails, we submitted Sami to Amazon and await acceptance, and we’re looking at other platforms that could conceivable stream it as there’s nothing exclusive with Amazon. I was concerned that the short length of the shows might be an issue, but they have Kevin Spirtas’ series and those are mostly shorter than ours. Anyway, that’s done now. I ordered a Chinese chicken salad for food, that came, and I ate it all up and it was very good. Then I did the rest of the fixes on the project with David Wechter and now he has to do his list. Hopefully, he’ll do that today. That was pretty much it, save for having one of those little mini-Bundt cakes for a sweet. That was pretty much it.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll hope for a gargantuan, humungous, enormous, immense major miracle, I’ll eat something fun, I’ll check to see if the green WGA envelope is here (David got his on Wednesday and I should have had mine that same day), then I’ll just watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow, I’m seeing The Secret Garden and I’m praying the damn coughing will pretty much be done. After that, I’ll go have a meal somewhere, then come home. Sunday can be a ME day, then next week is book stuff and looking at other platforms for Sami, and hoping Amazon’s process will be a quick one. I do think everything is up to their specs and that we did it all correctly. I also put the teaser trailer on my YouTube channel – easy to link to from there. I don’t know how to put it on Instagram because it’s not up and down like their videos are – it’s wide. Anyone have any ideas? It went up on TikTok just fine. By the way, if you ARE on TikTok search me – haineshisway is the username – like me, follow me and do the same for Samitheseries. Sami’s mom is going to work on the show’s website this weekend.
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, hope for a major miracle, eat, check to see if the green envelope is at the mail place, then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player and your DVD/Blu and Ray player? I’ll start – nothing. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, hoping that the last of the funk and gunk gets the HELL out of me.