Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to Mr. Ormandy’s wonderful performance of Richard Strauss’ Death and Transfiguration, a tone poem about both death and transfiguration, recorded in gloriously glorious stereophonic sound in 1959, which was not the year of my birth. But I really want to talk about not Mr. Ormandy or Mr. Strauss but Ralph Edwards. Whilst I was watching various and sundried videos on YouTube, I came across an episode of Mr. Edwards’ show, This Is Your Life – this one happened to be Lou Costello. While the show can sometimes be amusing on certain levels, just watching how uncomfortable Mr. Edwards’ guests sometimes are and how awkward and weird Mr. Edwards is himself, but the Costello episode is one of the most cringe-inducing of them all. Lou looks mortified when Edwards shows up during the filming of a commercial for the new Abbott and Costello movie, Dance With Me, Henry, their final movie together. And the look on his face when Mr. Edwards starts talking about the great tragedy in Costello’s life, well, as I said, cringe-inducing. Thankfully, they do attempt to get past that tragedy quickly, but it’s just so awkward. Later on, Lou looks much happier when Edwards is talking about everything he’s done for kids. Mom is there, Bud is there, lots of people from his past are there. Even back in the 1950s when we’d watch I thought that Edwards was a horrible host. He frequently doesn’t even remember what he’s supposed to be talking about. I did watch some fun performance videos, along with some irritating videos, and I did doze off once or twice. Prior to that, it wasn’t much of a day. I ultimately got almost eight hours of non-consecutive sleep. I woke up after only two hours and that turned out to be a good thing because the site went down and I was able to get hold of our tech guy and he fixed it about thirty minutes later. I do believe we’ve just had the transfiguration part, which has an interesting note-for-note section identical to part of the main theme from Bruce Broughton’s score for The Boy Who Could Fly. And now we’re having a Bach family reunion courtesy of Mr. Ormandy. Once I got back in bed, I fell asleep quickly and slept until almost one. Once up, I had a lot of e-mails to answer. I’d thought about having hot dogs again, but the chili from Saturday had gone bad, which surprised me since it was in the refrigerator for not even two complete days. But I changed my mind and made Wacky Noodles instead – with penne pasta – it was a very good batch, I must say and have said. Then I called the nice Dr. who did my eye exam and told her I really needed to get corrective glasses for the double vision and she’s having me come in today just to make sure the correction for the right eye is absolutely perfect. Interestingly, friend David Wechter is having the exact same issue and has already gotten a prescription for the prism lens – just hasn’t gotten new glasses yet. In fact, we pushed our Zoom thing to today because of it. At some point, I began my viewing and the rest you know.
Today, I’ll be up by eleven at the latest, I’ll do whatever needs doing, then I’ll mosey on over to the glasses place and choose some frames and get the final exam. I’m hoping the glasses can be ready by Friday, but I have no idea how long that actually takes. It’s quick at Lens Crafters, but not sure about this kind of jernt. Then I’ll come right home, make some hot dogs, eat, and then do the Zoom thing. After that, I can watch, listen, and relax. Oh, and the book did go off to the printer. Oh, and the new eBook is still number 1 in new releases. Oh, and neither of the two reviews I know about has appeared, although there’s one five-star rating, which is weird.
The rest of the week is more of the same. Friday, I’m attending the opening of Doug Haverty’s play and I’ll sup somewhere beforehand. Not sure what’s happening on the weekend.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by eleven at the latest, do whatever needs doing, choose frames and make sure the corrective lens is perfect, come home, eat some hot dogs, have a Zoom thing, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What did you think of the early reality TV shows like This Is Your Life and Queen for a Day and You Are There and such? And what were your favorite game shows when you were growing up? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy that Mr. Edwards will never say to me, BK, this is your life.