Well, dear readers, I have breaking bombshell news – it is May. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, it is May, and it is my fervent hope and prayer that May will be a month filled with health, wealth, happiness, creativity, and all things bright and beautiful. As the French would put it, Mai oui – oui Mai. Those darn French. In any case, at the time I’m writing these here notes it is not, in fact, May, not quite yet. But it will be when I post them. Such are the way of things – or the May of things. Right now, I’m finishing up listening to the Mahler seventh with Bernstein conducting in amazing Columbia stereo. Earlier, I did my best, I really did my best, I swear I did my best to watch something but due to not enough sleep, I just dozed right off, occasionally waking up to hear a few lines of dialogue. The movie was one I’d never seen before and probably dozing off was preferable to actually watching it. It was called Flight From Ashiya, a 1964 film from 1964, starring Yul Brynner, Richard Widmark, George Chakiris, Suzy Parker, and Shirley Knight. The New York Times opined thusly: “Occasionally, it’s diverting to see just how consistently bad a picture can be. Anyone interested should catch ‘Flight From Ashiya.’” The LA Times review wasn’t much better. The film did have a nice score by Frank Cordell. Unfortunately, unless my dozey eyes deceived me, the transfer of this scope film was pan & scan. I’ll go back and check, though. In LA, the film opened on March 25 on a double bill with House of the Damned – never heard of that one, but it’s a no-budget horror movie shot in seven days by the very bad director, Maury Dexter, one of the Twentieth Century-Fox cheapies. The best part, sixty-three minutes. As I read the description, I may have watched the beginning on YouTube because of the LA locations. It played some pretty bad theaters for a first-run film, like the World in Hollywood. I don’t think it made it to a second week. But there were a lot of big movies playing at the time, so I’m sure no one went to see it. Why on that date you could see Elsa Lanchester’s show at the Ivar, you could see one of the final four performances of the long-running Pajama Tops at the Le Grand Theater. You could go to the opening of the Los Angeles Youth Theater production of The Fantasticks at the Cahuenga Playhouse, as I did. That production featured Alex Henteloff as the old actor, even though he was all of about twenty-one at the time – those who’ve read Kritzer World know that Alex went to LACC and was very kind to me, and that we ended up doing the Doris Day spinoff pilot, Young Love, playing roommates. I’d already seen him in Rhinoceros at LACC and he was superb in it. Also in the cast was Tom Nardini, who had a nice role in the movie Cat Ballou. You could go to the Teenage Fair at the Hollywood Palladium, or if you wanted to see a movie, you had endless great choices, from How the West Was Won in Cinerama, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World at the new Cinerama Dome, Cleopatra at the Pantages, Seven Days in May at the Chinese, if you felt like an Elvis movie, Kissin’ Cousins opened on that day, The Pink Panther was packing ‘em in at the Paramount, the frothy comedy, Sunday in New York opened on that day, too, Becket was at the Stanley Warner Beverly Hills, where I saw it four times, Tom Jones was at the Vogue, celebrating its ten Oscar nominations, or if you just wanted to watch a movie on TV, Channel Nine was showing the sci-fi classic, Them. Well, that was long.
Earlier, I’d gotten about five hours of sleep, was up at seven, she of the Evil Eye showed up at eight-twenty, and I moseyed on over to the Coral Café for a nice breakfast. I was there for about ninety minutes – very few people there. After that, I went to Gelson’s and got food for the next four days, so that’s good. Then I went across the street to the mail place and picked up two important envelopes and a small package. Then I came home just in time to say goodbye to she of the Evil Eye. I then answered e-mails, had telephonic conversations, and mostly was tired. In the late afternoon I had a Cup Noodles thing, chicken flavor. I put in water and microwaved it. It was – weird. Now, the last time I had a Cup Noodles was back in the early 1970s, when microwaves weren’t really a thing in most households. So, we had to actually fill the tea kettle (remember them?) and boil water. I found Cup Noodles amusing back then – now, not so much. That was it for food. Then I dozed and here we are, now listening to the strains of the Mahler fourth with Otto Klemperer doing the honors – a beautiful-sounding recording from 1961 and a fine, leisurely performance, that’s generally well thought of, although most find his Mahler performances idiosyncratic. I just listen to the music. The general consensus is that Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic from 1960 is the best, and that Reri Grist’s solo singing is the best. For some reason, I don’t have that in Music, so I’ll have to find it in the garage and put it in. In fact, I don’t have any of the Bernstein Mahlers in Music except for the seventh. Where is it, is the question. Yes, that is the question.
Today is May and May is today. I’ll be up by ten, I’ll get coherent and dressed, not necessarily in that order, then I’ll go do my banking and some errands and whatnot, then come home. At one, I’ll make faux chicken stroganoff over rice or over rigatoni – I’ll decide at the time and at the time I’ll decide. I’ll do some writing and hopefully the Catalina Club will have our show online so I can announce it – they’re very slow even though they pestered me for the blurb. Then at some point, I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
The rest of the week is going and doing and doing and going, eating food of my own preparation and then not sure what will be what on the weekend, although I do think it will involve a meal out.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by ten, do banking, do errands and whatnot, eat, hopefully get the Kritzerland show announced so people can make reservations, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you can ask me or any dear reader any old question you like and we can give any old answer we like. So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, and welcome the merry month of May, or, as the French say, Mai oui – oui May – and it is my fervent hope and prayer that May will be a month filled with health, wealth, happiness, creativity, and all things bright and beautiful.