Well, dear readers, today’s notes are brought to you be Stopette Spray Deodorant for all day notes protection. You’re on your own in the evening. Today’s musical accompaniment to the notes is by Dave Brubeck and his composition, Points on Jazz, one of my favorite things ever. I discovered the album on one of my many visits to Discount Record Center on La Cienega and Wilshire, where I discovered so many wonderful albums at discount prices. It was 1962 and I saw a ton of movies that year at the Wilshire and Fine Arts movie theaters, both located within a half-block of Discount Record Center. I don’t know what it was that caught my eyeballs about the cover – maybe the ballet dancer image or the colorful shapes or the names of the artists – Gold and Fizdale. If you were fourteen, wouldn’t you just have to buy an album by two people named Gold and Fizdale? It was a jazz ballet for only two pianos – that intrigued me right away. Also, I’d recently discovered Dave Brubeck’s Take Five and I was crazy about that and this ballet for two pianos was written by him. I believe it cost $3.98 in stereophonic sound. So, I bought it, took it home, and fell in love with the music instantly. I found the main theme incredibly haunting, and I’d never heard anything quite like it. And I loved the sound of the two pianos, one way over on the left and one way over on the right. The variations of that main theme were, in my fourteen-year-old opinion, brilliant. I played it over and over again, and since it was a ballet, I do believe I leapt around my room as if I was a fourteen-year-old Nijinsky, even though I had no clew who Nijinsky was. I’ve loved the music ever since. I found a sealed copy of the LP thirty years ago, but because it was only the two-pianos, the ticks and pops were very audible. When we were a year into Bay Cities, I attempted to license the album from Columbia, to pair it with Howard Brubeck’s Dialogues for Jazz Orchestra. Unfortunately, the licensing fee was way out of our league, and we would have had to press something like 5000 units. So, we passed. While there have been two modern recordings of Points of Jazz, which are very good, the Gold and Fizdale is the definitive gold standard, and it has never had a CD release. When I began licensing from Sony before the pandemic, once again I tried to license it but was turned out because some definitive Brubeck box was coming. Well, here we are, seven years later, and no such box has materialized. The version that was playing when I began these here notes brought to you by Stopette Spray Deodorant was none of the above – it was an orchestrated version and while it’s really good it does miss the purity of the two-piano version. I would love to see the ballet, but as far as I know it’s never been filmed. And now, I’m listening to my LP transfer of the original album and it’s just glorious. Also, after the ballet, the final track of the album is a vocal version of the main theme, There’ll Be No Tomorrow, done by the Dave Brubeck Quartet with Carmen McRae singing. That was my introduction to her, and she became a favorite.
Earlier, I watched the first thirty minutes of the original release version of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the new transfer, which looks splendid. Then I watched the first thirty minutes of The Birds, also the latest transfer, which looks faboo. I did get close to eight hours of sleep. Once up, I answered e-mails, had some text volleys, got no news on the book front, so wrote another missive. If I don’t have an e-mail response today, then I’ll take stronger action and get some higher-ups involved. I cannot stand no communication – it’s just rude and I’ve been with these people way too long to have to put up with it. Then I got another e-mail that was very positive and very heartening. I made some lobster ravioli from Gelson’s – it’s a serving for one, basically, and it sounded good and was easy to make. Sadly, I hated the taste of whatever they’re calling lobster – it tasted nothing like lobster and was extremely fishy-tasting. I ate less than half and threw the rest out. I made about four ounces of fettucine to use up the rest of the sauce – even that didn’t taste good to me. Then I did my viewing, then it was listening to Points on Jazz and here we are.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, hopefully get some book news, then I’m dining out with a friend for an early dinner. Then I can watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow, I’ll relax, I’ll go to the mail place and pick up whatever’s there, then we have the reading of a screenplay just five minutes from here. That should last a couple of hours, although it’s slated for three. Then the weekend will be upon us and I’ll hope two important envelopes will arrive.
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, hopefully get some book news, have an early meal, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What do you think of ravioli in general? I’ve had it the junior high school cafeteria – nauseating – and this thing yesterday – nauseating. So, do you like ravioli and, if so, what kinds and where have you had it and have you made it at home? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy that today’s notes were brought to you by Stopette Spray Deodorant.