Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to the first symphony of Roger Sessions. I’m sure I’ve heard it before, as I know I have a CD somewhere with his first three symphonies, but my guess is if I’ve heard it it was many years ago. Last year, I did hear his second symphony because it was part of the Dimitri Mitropoulos box set. His first symphony from 1927 is quite good – appealing and tonal, a little jazzy, occasionally a hint of Milhaud-like dissonance, and very American in sound. I remember his second symphony was a bit noisy but still accessible. I do know that he soon went to serialism, and I just don’t care for any of that stuff, although I’m now going to try and get through all his symphonies, since they’re all on the Tube of You. But this one is excellent. Prior to that, I watched a documentary and a motion picture. The documentary was entitled 537 votes, which was about the 2000 election between Al Gore and George Bush, an election that was decided by a mere 537 votes. I remember the brouhaha certainly, but not the details, so this was fascinating to watch because the Republicans, even then, were doing their thing, lying, hiring paid people to demonstrate and cause problem and stopping votes from being counted – you know, trying to steal an election, which they most likely did because the Democrats weren’t bombastic enough to stop them. And isn’t it oh so ironic that the Republicans tried the same shenanigans in 2020, only they were the losers. The difference is the Democrats were demanding recounts and that 10,000 votes that had been tossed out because the machine couldn’t read them, be hand-counted, which they weren’t. In 2020 it was the Republicans doing that except they were lying, hadn’t a legal let to stand on, but still recounts happened all over the country – sometimes three or four times because of their bellyaching, but nothing changed the outcome of the election. No matter what side of the fence you’re on, this documentary is fascinating and even amusing at times, with folks like Roger Stone basically saying, yeah, we did all that underhanded stuff and hey, it worked. Then I watched a movie called The Late Shift, about the scrambling over who’d take on The Tonight Show after Johnny Carson retired. It’s a dual between David Letterman and Jay Leno. I couldn’t stand it when I watched it back when it came out, and it’s even worse now. The actor playing Letterman is better than the actor playing Jay Leno but there was no winning there, not with both of them so visible back then. The wigs are terrible and the Leno make-up just doesn’t quite work. While I understand the casting of Johnny Carson, and as good an impressionist Rich Little is, it just comes off ludicrously because Little is simply doing his Carson impression – he sounds like him and has his “takes” and “tics” down but it never feels real and so doesn’t work at all. The rest of the large cast is okay playing real-life people and Kathy Bates as Jay’s crass manager is fine, but the whole thing just kind of reeks and is poorly directed.
Yesterday was perhaps a day – nothing horrible happened, thankfully, but nothing good happened either and we do need something good to happen and so let’s hope something good happens sooner than later. I did get eight and a half hours of sleep, so that was good, got up, answered e-mails, and then ordered in from nearby Maria’s Kitchen, because they had some kind of weird sale going on – half-price on all their pasta dishes. So, I had the spaghetti carbonara – it was pretty good but not a patch on the buttcheeks of Barone’s carbonara. But the half off thing meant it was pretty reasonable, cost-wise. The only other food I ate was some popcorn and some gummy things. And the carbonara portion wasn’t all that much and it looked to me like there was no cream – just oil. Anyway, that was the food.
Then I had a nice Zoom thing with David Wechter – we’re going to do another project this summer, so we talked through various and sundried things about it. He’s had this idea for years and the central part of it is appealing to me, but the surrounding part wasn’t – but we came to an understanding about how it would work best and now we’re on the same page about it. After that, I watched the movies and that was pretty much it.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing and since I didn’t get around to making the show order or writing commentary, that will be the day’s work. I’ll check with the mail place to see what’s what, and I hope to be able to place the book order. I’ll probably go to Gelson’s or Ralph’s to get food, I’ll eat whatever I get and I’ll get whatever I’ll eat, and then at some point, I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow, I do the Gold Derby Zoom interview at eleven – that should take twenty minutes or so – and then I’ll do whatever needs doing, Saturday I’ll probably have to go down to the storage because the helper cannot find a title she says we’re out of, which we’re not – we should have at least three or four hundred in boxes but she couldn’t find them. This has happened before and then I go there and find them. Sunday will be a damn ME day.
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, make a show order, write commentary, get food and eat it, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What movies based on fact where real-life people are played by actors do you feel were completely successful and that the actor really “got” the person they were playing? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, knowing there was nothing much to report but hoping that today there will be nice, positive things to report.