Well, dear readers, here he is to save the day – Mighty Mouse is with BK. That was a novel way to start the notes, with the Mighty Mouse song. I, for one, loved Mighty Mouse when I was a kid. Why that just came to me out of the blue or green, I have no idea. It just happened as these things do. Otherwise, I’m listening to a favorite album from my early teen years, recommended to me by one of my high school teachers, whose name I think was Mr. Swarz or something like that – The Shearing Piano – my first George Shearing album, a monophonic LP that was thankfully released on CD with a whole slew of bonus tracks. I fell in love with the album instantly – all solo piano of wonderful songs. My favorite was and is Frank Loesser’s beautiful A Tune for Humming. I must have played the album a hundred times back then – like most LPs I loved, I played it over and over again. I’m sure it’s on the Tube of You if you care to sample it. One of the treats I had in the 1990s was going to Carnegie Hall and seeing Mr. Shearing work his magic along with Johnny Dankworth and Cleo Laine. That was an evening to remember. Prior to listening, I watched a six-part documentary about Late Night TV, from its humble beginnings right up to 2021, when the documentary was made. Of course I found the early installments the most interesting – loaded with clips from The Tonight Show with Steve Allen, then some interim hosts, then Jack Paar, then Johnny Carson. We get all the dirt about the Carson/Letterman/Leno drama – we also see lots of other attempts by Merv Griffin, Joey Bishop, Joan Rivers, Arsenio Hall, and although we don’t see it, thank goodness, Chevy Chase’s pathetic, smarmy, smart-ass attempt, which lasted exactly one week. Lots of fun talking head interviews along the way. In the later episodes, we begin to see what all of the current hosts call “authentic” late-night shows – that must be some kind of new catchphrase for heaven knows what. And, of course, they all see it as the evolving of late-night TV, while the likes of me sees it as the devolving of late-night TV shows. I’ve never even heard of several of these new-fangled hosts and from what I’ve seen I have no need to ever watch them. And we learn that the Internet changed everything, with bits from talk shows going viral and of course I hate all that stuff. By the end of the six episodes all I know is it made me long for the less splashy, less contrived, and certainly less political days of Carson. Everything today is loud and obnoxious and not for me. Letterman was, for me, unique and the last of the greats. I never got with Jay Leno, really, I couldn’t stand Conan from the first, what I’ve seen of Jimmy Fallon doesn’t make me want to watch, although he seems like a nice fellow, and my namesake’s show doesn’t interest me one or even two whits. I’ve never seen anything on The Comedy Channel, save for the clips in this documentary, and certainly I’ve never seen any of the stuff on the cable streaming channels. Anyway, it was an interesting six episodes and they’re all pretty straightforward with no silly “arty” stuff. They do a whole section on what late-night had to do during the pandemic and all the glitchy stuff that happened, and it made me realize that in our small way we kind of showed everyone how to do this stuff with our Kritzerland online shows, which were influential in their way with other types of online things that were trying to do what we did. I can’t tell you the number of private messages I got asking how we did what we did with no technical issues at all. I kept mum until it was all over.
Yesterday was another nothing of a day. I got almost eight hours of sleep, then began a lengthy live chat with CD Baby. Normally, if there’ve been any digital sales, those payments come automatically on Mondays. But I realized the other day I haven’t gotten any payments for months. So, I visited the site and there’s almost $250 there that they haven’t sent me. The guy I was chatting with kept checking and not finding an answer and finally he told me there’s some problem on the backend but he didn’t know what and he’s reached out to the financial team but could tell me no more. He promised to get back to me via e-mail, hopefully by the end of the day, but the end of the day came and went without a response, so I’ll follow up today and get stronger – they have no right to hold money like that, especially when they’ve never sent me anything about it. And I want it solved because they only pay out on Mondays and I don’t wish to wait another week to have that happen.
I went to Gelson’s and got stuff for Wacky Noodles, came home, rustled up a batch, and ate it. It was very good. The only other food I had was some gummy stuff. I kind of have a hankering for soup right now, but I don’t know where said soup would come from. In the old days it would have been a simple trip to Jerry’s Deli, but alas those days are gone. Then I watched the six episodes, and then I spent the evening making a show order and writing half of the commentary, which I’ll finish today.
Today, I’ll be up by nine-thirty, I’ll shave and shower and get beautified and at eleven I do a Zoom interview with Gold Derby, which I’m told will take twenty minutes. After that, I’ll hopefully have heard from CD Baby – if not, I’ll start another live chat and won’t stop it until I have an answer. I’ll eat something at some point, I’ll check the mail place to see if there’s anything there, I’ll finish the commentary, and then I can watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow, I’m having a birthday luncheon with dear reader Jeanne on her side of the hill, otherwise it’ll be a ME day, and hopefully so will Sunday. Then next week is super busy, as we begin campaigning for the Sami Emmy stuff.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by nine-thirty, shave and shower, do a Zoom interview, hopefully hear from CD Baby, check in with the mail place, eat, and 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 – CD, nothing. Blu-ray, To Kill a Mockingbird. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, hoping for a something kind of a day rather than a nothing kind of a day and please let that something be positive and good and that Mighty Mouse will be on the way to be with BK.