Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much endless fish, listening to the complete Bernard Herrmann score to Endless Fish – sorry, Endless Night. It’s a derivative score, but derivative of his own work and therefore it’s impossible not to enjoy it. It’s a recording from a year or two ago and I listened to it back then, grabbed from YouTube but whoever uploaded it jacked up the sound so loud that it distorted. Since then, someone else uploaded it at a proper level so one can actually listen to it now and appreciate that it’s a nice recording. Mr. Herrmann was only the second composer whose name I learned because I loved his music. The first was one Dimitri Tiomkin and The High and the Mighty from 1954 and then came Herrmann in 1956 with The Man Who Knew Too Much. And with every subsequent Herrmann score he became my favorite – Vertigo and The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, then North by Northwest and Psycho. His music just spoke to me for reasons I can’t really explain. Why some music speaks to you, and some doesn’t is one of life’s great enigmas. I, myself, am one of life’s great enigmas but that’s another story. Anyway, if you’d like to hear it it’s on YouTube and choose the upload that’s separate tracks rather than one long track – that’s the one at the normal volume level. Earlier, I did manage to watch two count them two motion pictures, both in black-and-white. The first was entitled The Glass Wall, starring Vittorio Gassman, Gloria Grahame, and quite a few people I’d never seen before in anything. The best thing about it are the incredible location shots in Times Square (shot in late 1952, film released in 1953), when Times Square was still beautiful and not filled with the low-life element that would begin in the mid-1960s. The movie marquees, the clubs, the stores, all glittery and magical. The movie itself holds the interest until about the last twenty minutes, when it just needs to wrap up but keeps on going. Miss Grahame is so unique and beautiful in these early 1950s movies. Mr. Gassman is fine. Then I watched a motion picture entitled Flesh and Fury, with Tony Curtis in his first major role as a deaf and non-speaking boxer on the rise, Jan Sterling, Wallace Ford, and, most importantly, my new obsession, Mona Freeman, who does a wonderful job. Of course, no one plays a bad girl better than Miss Sterling and Wallace Ford is always terrific. And Harry Guardino is in for one brief scene and a couple of lines – I had no idea he’d been acting that early on – this was his first credited role. Mona Freeman is luminous and just a fine actress. I watched a few of her later films – just a few minutes of each and she was still in her late 20s for most of them. Then I watched a couple of earlier films when she was a teen, including the Betty Grable movie, Mother Wore Tights. I also found images of a few of her paintings – I’d love to have one one of these fine days, and they seem to go for pretty low dough.
Yesterday was weird. I did get eight hours of sleep, so that was good. Once up, I had an e-mail from our musical director asking if he could leave at four on Monday’s rehearsal but that’s a huge deal and would involve rescheduling ten people and their parents. So, that hasn’t been resolved yet, but one way or another it has to be and sooner than later. Even though a package had arrived (Pepcid), I decided to not go to the mail place because I’ll have to go there today to hopefully pick up two important envelopes. I had my chopped Eyetalian salad from CPK and that was excellent. Later, I had a salami sandwich. I had quite a few telephonic conversations and got a nice call from Kay Cole. She’s doing an acting reel and had asked for a comic monologue suggestion and a dramatic monologue suggestion. I suggested the speech from Network, the one that won Beatrice Straight an Oscar. I suggested a few comic monologues, but she didn’t like any of them, so she asked me to please write her one. I did and I sent it to her, and she loved it, so that was good. I did a bit of writing, David Wechter and I made the little decision we had to make, which unfortunately is an added expense I really didn’t need, but it’s necessary. Then I watched the movies and here we are.
Today, I’ll be up by eleven or so, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll have a work session and when that’s through I’ll mosey on over to the mail place to hopefully pick up two important envelopes and Pepcid, I’ll bring home some food and eat it, and then I can watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow – now wait just a darn minute – today is the last day of July. How did that happen? And that means that tomorrow is a little month I like to call August, and it is my fervent hope and prayer that August will be a month filled with health, wealth, happiness, creativity, and all things bright and beautiful. Anyway, I’m attending the opening night of a play on Friday, not sure what’s happening on the weekend other than I’m getting ready for our Kritzerland rehearsal week and show.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by eleven or so, do whatever needs doing, have a work session, hopefully pick up two important envelopes, eat, and then at some point I can watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear reader any old question you like and we get to give any old answer we like. So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I shall dream of being one of life’s great enigmas.