Well, dear readers, I am still sitting here like so much fish, still listening to the sixth symphony of Alexandre Tansman in the still of the night. My back is very tired and sore, not necessarily in that order, due to spending hours at the piano, plunking away. Happily, I finally got the form of the thing I’ve been working right and actually set all but ten lines to music – I’m pretty happy with it so far, I think. I have to take frequent breaks to stretch out on the living room couch, which is helpfully helpful. I did manage to watch a motion picture last night, entitled Harper. I enjoy watching it ever two or three years. It stars Paul Newman as detective Lew Harper, and you could not ask for a better supporting cast, with great turns from Lauren Bacall, Arthur Hill, Julie Harris, Robert Wagner, Pamela Tiffin, and a nifty screenplay by William Goldman, based on the Ross Macdonald book, The Moving Target. Of course, Macdonald’s sleuth is named Lew Archer, but Newman was in the midst of his “H” phase – Hud, then Harper, then Hombre, and I suppose you could count The Hustler. So, the studio asked for the name change to an “H” name. It’s nimbly directed by Jack Smight and photographed by Conrad Hall. It’s very much of its time and a couple of moments would, of course, make people cringe heavily and want to attach warnings to it because they have no ability to see beyond their “now” noses to understand WHEN a film was made and in what year it was set, Harper being 1966. The very ending is a bit weak, but there’s great dialogue throughout, classic Goldman lines abound. It’s a Warner Archive release and one of the few that I find a fail. Not a huge fail, but the color leans to the pasty brown and it shouldn’t. The IB Tech prints were gorgeous – this is flat by comparison. Newman did a second Harper film in the 1970s called The Drowning Pool. Some studio should really take a look at all the Archer novels and cast it closer to what Macdonald wrote – they’re marvelous books, and even the very late Archers are fun – not classics like the early ones. My favorite of his books, The Chill, would make a great movie. Maybe someday. Other than that, I got seven or eight hours of non-consecutive sleep, got up but was very logy for the first couple of hours of the day, answered lots of e-mails, ordered Pad Thai, ate Pad Thai, then began working at the piano, which took most of the rest of the day. There was, believe it or not, another online book fair, so I checked out that – very boring and only about twenty-five dealers. Nothing of interest to me. Then I watched the movie, and then continued listening to Tansman in the still of the night. I wonder if the still makes good moonshine in the night? And here we are.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll eat something amusing, I’ll move on to the final song after finishing the ten lines that need music, although the music will just be a continuance of what’s come before. Then at some point, I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow, I’ll work a bit, relax a bit, and then the Darling Daughter will arrive, and we’ll go have a nice dinner and probably drive around looking at old haunts, which we always enjoy doing. Sunday will be a ME day, and then next week is very busy and, of course, on Tuesday it will be a new month.
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. eat, finish a song and start another, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player and you DVD/Blu and Ray/streaming player? I’ll start – CD, Mr. Tansman. Blu-ray, in the mood to watch One, Two, Three. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I shall dream of a still in the still of the night.