Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, a gaggle of fish, so to speak – wait a minute – geese is a gaggle, fish isn’t a gaggle. What was I thinking of? I should go back to school – wait a minute – by dear reader George, I’ve got it – a school of fish. Funny how one thought leads to another thought, isn’t it? Of course, thought and these here notes is an oxymoron of the highest order. Wait a minute – I’m thinking there could be a joke here – a gaggle of geese and a school of fish walk into a bar and… You finish it. I am currently listening to some wonderful music by composer Philip Sainton, born in France but his musical career was strictly London as is his sound world. I discovered his music the way most did, at least the people who saw the John Huston film Moby Dick, for which he provided the score and what a score it is. RCA released the soundtrack, and I acquired it in the early 1960s in a bargain bin and fell in love with it. I’d seen the movie back when it came out and played my beloved Stadium theater. The movie was a bit much for the eight-year-old me, although I did amuse myself by driving my mother batty saying, “Call me Ishmael” every two minutes. I should have used that in Benjamin Kritzer, but I had plenty else like it. Thankfully, William Stromberg made a modern and complete stereo recording of the score for Marco Polo records. That was very good news. The not so good news is that it’s not well recorded, nor is the band really up to it. One wishes that Chandos or another classical label had done it with a world-class orchestra. The RCA soundtrack is, of course, in mono. Sadly, it’s never had a legitimate CD release – it was, in fact, on my list of Sony titles I was licensing until they stopped licensing. I think both the Stromberg recording and the RCA album are on the Tube of You. There isn’t much Sainton on CD but what there is is fantastic. The Island is a great work. Check him out. Otherwise, I did watch a motion picture last night, a 2024 release entitled The Critic based on a novel called Curtain Call. The movie apparently was released last year, had a very poor reception, apparently did some reshoots and was re-edited into what I saw last evening. Well, I thought it was dreadful, despite a fun performance by Ian McKellan as the titular critic. From the trailer, you’d think it was a delicious 1930s Brit mystery, but it’s more melodrama, with dreary scenes that are poorly written and characters we don’t really ever care much about, if at all. It’s convoluted, and its ninety minutes seem like three hours. There’s an equally lifeless and dreary score by Craig Armstrong, and the supporting cast is wasted, and that especially goes for Lesley Manville, who gave one of the five greatest female performances I’ve even seen on the stage, as Mary Tyrone in Long Day’s Journey into Night. The direction is flaccid and uninteresting, and I highly recommend not spending a dime on this one.
Otherwise, I got ten hours of needed sleep, got up, answered a few e-mails, got dressed, did some banking, came home, ordered Pad Thai from the usual jernt, it arrived and wasn’t quite as good as it usually is but I ate it all anyway, answered more e-mails, had a long telephonic call, still hunting for a set designer, dozed off for an hour or so whilst watching crap on YouTube, watched the movie, ordered some clam chowder from BJ’s – it arrived just as I began writing these here notes and for the second time the container the soup comes in was only half-filled, not even a cup let alone the bowl it’s supposed to be. So, this time I called them, they said they’d make sure it never happens again and said they’d send me an eGift card. Certainly, it hasn’t arrived as of yet. It left me still hungry, so I just ordered a little dinner salad from Denny’s and that should be here soon. And here we are.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll the small bit of writing I didn’t do yesterday, I’ll shave and shower, and then I’ll mosey on over to Hollywood, have an early dinner somewhere, and then mosey on over to the El Capitan for the concert. I’ll have a full report for you after.
Not sure what’s up for tomorrow or the weekend but I’m hoping it can be a ME weekend because then things will get very busy, right through the end of the year.
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, shave, shower, have an early meal, then attend a concert. Today’s topic of discussion: Speaking of Moby Dick, what are your favorite performances of Gregory Peck and also what are your favorite performances of Ian McKellan? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, whilst I tell myself the classic joke “a gaggle of geese and a school of fish walk into a bar and…