Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much Thursday fish on a Wednesday night, still going through the Andre Previn RCA recordings of his Vaughan Williams cycle and it really is top notch stuff. Currently on symphony nine, but they weren’t recorded in order, so there’s still two earlier symphonies to hear. Speaking of hear – is it hear, hear or here, here? Let’s find a definitive answer, shall we? We shall: Both. While here, here has become a thing in past years, the original hear, hear meant hear what’s being said, hear the point. Whereas here here could mean that or could be used in the context of who wants a slice of pepperoni pizza from Domino’s, and someone would raise their hand and say here, here, although I don’t actually know anyone who would want a slice of pepperoni pizza from Domino’s. What the HELL am I talking about? I seem to have gone off on a tangent with no real purpose, but then again we’re over twenty-two years of notes that have had no real purpose, so there’s that. Earlier in the evening, I watched two episodes of something called Mare of Easttown, which I thought might be a documentary about Mare Winningham, but it’s a mystery series on HBO starring Kate Winslet. Now, from everything I’d heard, this was touted as the greatest thing since sliced bread, the second coming, the crème de la crème and a real original. Two episodes in and, for me, it doesn’t feel original at all, it feels rather like the British crime series Happy Valley and a couple of other shows, including some Nordic series. I would be very surprised, however, if the inspiration for this was indeed Happy Valley, a series I enjoyed very much. It follows the same kind of structure and has a similar leading character. It’s okay – Ms. Winslet is very good, but it’s one of those dreary affairs where everyone is kind of a jerk in one way or another. We’ll see how I feel after all seven episodes. Oh, and it really has a terrible score – rather like every score on these kinds of shows. I mourn for real film composers who understand what film scoring is supposed to do. One can only imagine this kind of series with a score by a masterful film composer, but alas, until someone brings that kind of film score back, and it will happen, I’m afraid all we’re going to get is this boring, droning music that is more sound design wallpaper than actual music.
Yesterday was a wacky little day. I did get eight hours of sleep, so that was good. I got up at noon, answered a lot of e-mails, ordered food from the California Chicken Café – the usual chicken breast and wing, and chicken pasta salad, a small thing of it. That arrived and I ate it and it was all very good. I had a telephonic conversation with my gal at the publisher and tomorrow I’ll be sending in the stuff for the new book. Hopefully, it will go as fast as it usually does. Also, got a little miracle that was very helpful.
Then I got word that we’re finally up on Film Hub, which now offers the Sami series to every streaming service except Amazon Prime Video, as we’d already done that. Oh, they’d like us to switch it over to them so they can make money, too, but we’re not doing that – no reason to. I had a couple of other telephonic conversations, thought about going out and getting something for dessert, but didn’t. Instead, I sat on my couch like so much fish and watched episode one of Mare of Winningham. I went to watch episode two but nothing would load – not on any of the streaming services – it’s done this before and I’d researched it and it said to clear the caches on the apps. But none of the apps from the last time I cleared had much stored, but I cleared them anyway. Nothing. I unplugged the Firestick and plugged it back in. Nothing. So, I Googled again and found a completely different instruction that didn’t involve clearing caches – it said to go into preferences and click on relaunch Firestick. I did that and voila, everything loaded fine and I watched episode two. Now I’ll know what to do the next time it happens.
Rather than have some sugar-loaded dessert, I decided to make the pasta I had left, only about four ounces, and rather than using a lot of butter and cheese, I made a mini version of Wacky Noodles and that was a nice evening snack. I think the earlier food only added up to about six hundred calories, so I think it was a good solution to have the mini Wacky Noodles. And then it was time to write these here notes.
Today, I’ll be up by ten, I’ll have another conversation with the gal at the publisher, I’ll hopefully hear from my check-in coordinator and send her all the stuff – I think I’m getting last year’s check-in gal, so hopefully she’ll remember how it goes with me. Then we’ll have our second Kritzerland rehearsal, which will be over at six, and then I’ll eat something light and fun, then I can watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow, I’ll finesse the commentary, but mostly I’ll try to relax, since I won’t have a ME day on the weekend. Saturday is our stumble-through and then I’ll rest my voice. Sunday, I’ll relax all day, and then we have our sound check at five o’clock, then we do our show at eight. After, some of us will go get a bite to eat, I’m sure. Then next week is the countdown to Sami, which we’re all very excited about.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by ten, have a telephonic conversation. Hopefully hear from the check-in coordinator, get all the files in, have a rehearsal, eat, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite TV detective shows – from the golden age to now, including overseas shows. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to know that both versions of hear, hear and here, here are acceptable.