Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, finally listening to the new Louis Lane The Complete Epic and Columbia Album Collection from Sony. His albums for Epic introduced so many young people to the classics and the recordings hold up amazingly well. He was hand-picked by George Szell to be the assistant conductor of the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra at a very young age, eventually taking over the orchestra. His recordings, along with Mr. Ormandy’s, were how I came to love so many classical pieces. He made his first record for Epic (Columbia’s subsidiary label – Szell was also on Epic) in 1958 in great early stereo. He was more of their Pops conductor, much like Fiedler was for RCA, doing great compilations of American music, Latin-American music, movie music, Broadway music, and other wonderful compilations of all kinds of music. The first time I ever heard the overture from Candide was the Lane recording, that first record called Pop Concert U.S.A. I still love that recording. In fact, several recordings of music I love remain my favorite recordings. The set consists of fourteen CDs and can be had for just over fifty bucks. I’m only on CD 2, which is Pop Concert Latin America, and it sounds amazing in Epic’s Stereorama sound. And CD 3 has always been one of my all-time favorite albums – On the Town, Music from Broadway Shows. I played that album to death back in early 1961 (it came out in 1960) and I think I got it through the Columbia Record Club. Anyway, this is all big ol’ nostalgia happiness and a lot of musical heaven for the likes of me. It comes highly recommended. Earlier, whilst I was uploading all this stuff, I watched a motion picture entitled Network, from 1976, and from the acid pen of one Paddy Chayefsky. It was great satire back then and a huge hit and winner of several Oscars, including a posthumous Oscar for Peter Finch, who’s great, but I feel it should have gone to William Holden, one of his finest performances. Faye Dunaway took best actress, Beatrice Straight won for supporting actress, for approximately six minutes of screen time. And Paddy Chayefsky won for original screenplay. Sadly, what was once satire is no longer satire – it’s become a crazy reality. Dunaway is really brilliant in it – her best along with Chinatown. Sidney Lumet’s direction is superb. If you’ve somehow never seen it, you really must, and if you haven’t seen it in a few decades, give it another look.
Prior to that, I got eight hours of good sleep, answered e-mails, shaved, and then just before leaving for the lunch meeting at Barone’s, we found out Barone’s is closed on Mondays, so we ended up at the Smoke House. I had a cup of clam chowder – really thick like it should be and great, and then a pulled pork sandwich, which had way too much meat and therefore could not be picked up by either human or inhuman hands. I had to eat it with a fork. There was so much meat that I couldn’t even finish it. It came with fries, but I only had about three because I was so damn full. The meeting was productive and positive. Then I stopped at the mail place and picked up the Lane box, then came home. I had more e-mails to answer, and then I got a good e-mail about one of the projects that I was waiting to hear about, and the news is that it will happen. Can’t talk about it for a while, but it allows me to keep a promise I made back in 1996 and that makes me very, very happy. We still need the other projects to happen, so please send some of your strongest most excellent vibes and xylophones that they do and sooner than later. I didn’t eat any other food, I had several nice telephonic conversations, uploaded the fourteen CDs and got them into Music, and here we are.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll definitely try to get half the commentary written, I’ll eat something amusing, I’ll check with the mail place and see what’s what, and then at some point I can watch, listen, and relax.
The rest of the week is more of the same, I know there are a couple more meals and meetings and then we’ll see what the weekend brings, although I know one thing it’s bringing – a birthday dinner to attend on Sunday evening at a restaurant I’m very fond of.
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, write commentary, eat, check with the mail place, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite performances of Faye Dunaway and William Holden? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, so happy to be in the lane with Louis Lane’s great recordings sounding better than ever.