Well, dear readers, another day has reached its end and, conversely, another end has reached its day. I have little to say about it since I didn’t get out of bed until after 2:00 and almost eleven hours of very needed sleep. Perhaps that is because we live in the age of anxiety. What am I, W.H. Auden all of a sudden? Or Leonard Bernstein. Or am I simply the very personification of anxiety and age? Or am I just typing words in these here notes? First of all, did you know that W.H. Auden’s long poem, The Age of Anxiety, was published in the year of my birth? To be exact, five months prior to my birth. It was hailed as a masterpiece and damned as the poet’s worst work. It won a Pulitzer Prize, inspired a symphony and a ballet. And, of course, as I began writing these here notes, what music was I playing? Correct – Leonard Bernstein’s amazing symphony based on the poem, perhaps my favorite of all Bernstein’s classical works. I love each movement of it from start to finish. There are many amazing performances of it, including the first in mono with Bernstein and Lukas Foss on piano. I have most of them. My favorite of them all is the stunning 1966 recording conducted by Bernstein, with Phillippe Entremont on piano, probably because it was the first version I heard. In stunning stereophonic sound, it’s a ten-star masterpiece of music, musicianship, and recording. If you’ve never heard it, especially this performance, hie yourself to the Tube of You and listen to it. I also happen to own a pristine, gorgeous copy of the first edition of the poem – the LONG poem of 138 pages duration. I don’t remember when I got it – maybe twenty years ago – but I do remember that I lucked out and it was very inexpensive. Even now, all these years later, there is a fine/fine copy on the ABE for only $325. Mine is a fine/fine copy, too. But even now it’s a real, bona-fide bargain at that price, especially as there was a VERY low print run of only 3,500 copies. Now my age and anxiety are running rampant because I just spent so much time on this here paragraph, so much time, in fact, that the symphony is almost finished. Onward and upward and also upward and onward.
So, this part will go very quickly. After my eleven hours of sleep, all I wanted to do was relax and rest my voice. And that is exactly what I did. For food, I had Pad Thai – I ate half at about two o’clock, and the other half at four. This is thrilling stuff, isn’t it? I did not do a single iota of work. I did manage to watch a motion picture that JohnG recommended, entitled Dangerous Crossing, starring Jeanne Crain, Michael Rennie, and a young Carl Betz. It’s one of those Lady Vanishes type things – a young woman and her new husband board a ship – they’re seen by only a couple of people. Then he goes to do an errand and never shows up in the bar where she is to meet him. He’s completely disappeared, there’s no record of him having a ticket (she’s on the manifest), and the two people who saw the husband say they didn’t. I enjoyed it – Joseph Newman was an underrated director and it’s got the usual Twentieth Century Fox sheen to it. Ms. Crain’s performance I found a bit odd – a lot of ACTING going on. Mr. Rennie was unique – no one quite like him. Very tall, angular, and slightly other-worldly, which is why he was the perfect choice to play the lead in The Day the Earth Stood Still. And as you all know, I loved him in the film Hotel. Anyway, the movie gets a bit silly in its final third, and has some unfortunate voiceover, but it’s very short – seventy-five-minutes – and I enjoyed it. And here we are.
Today will be more of the same – I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll have me a ME day although I do have to finesse the commentary and I do have to go to the mail place and I’ll probably pick up food at the good Studio City Gelson’s for food, unless I just get Subway or something like that, and then I’ll just watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow, I’ll relax until the stumble-through at four-thirty. Tuesday, I have to rest my voice and relax all day and evening, then Wednesday is sound check and show and I’m sure some of us will go out to eat after unless it’s just too late. I wish there was a great jernt open until one o’clock. I’m gonna check around.
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, have a ME day, finesse commentary, go to the mail place, get food, eat, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, as I hope to dream with no anxiety although I do think the here and now IS the age of anxiety.