Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to Bernard Herrmann’s brilliant score to North by Northwest. Back in 1959, when I saw the film many, many times, I would hum the music and act like I was being chased by an airplane. I had all the major themes memorized. And every day, I’d wait for a soundtrack release that never came. The closest I got to any music from the film was knowing there’d been a 45 of the love theme played by Russ Conway and Orchestra. Unfortunately, I could never find it. It was in the big Schwann catalogue, Wallichs Music City ordered it, but it never came. In fact, it would be two decades later that I finally found a copy. Then there was finally a re-recording of the score with Laurie Johnson conducting, which I believe was one of the first digital recordings. Originally released on Starlog Records, it was subsequently released by Varese Sarabande in both digital and analogue sound. I could not stomach the digital recording, which had far away sound and no detail. The analogue was better but still not great. Then we got the Rhino CD, which had terrible sound, so that was, for me, useless. Then a re-recording by Joel McNeely, one of the best-sounding of the Varese re-recordings because they finally did one that wasn’t live to two-track, so it could actually be mixed. But finally, Intrada issued the entire soundtrack in great sound, and that’s what I’m listening to now. Oh, if it had only come out in 1959. But we have it now and if you don’t have it, you should. Otherwise, I started about six movies last night and instantly dozed off as each one began. Unbelievable, but true. So, I gave up on the movie idea. Had I known, I would have watched this new documentary that just premiered on Max, entitled Surveilled. Apparently, it is very frightening. I’ll watch it today. It was kind of a useless evening, punctuated with some truly unnecessary irritants that were truly unnecessary and to which I did not react well, which was certainly the way anyone would have reacted. Such are the way of things every now and then.
Earlier, I’d gotten about seven hours of sleep, got up, answered e-mails, made three tacos that were excellent and VERY low calorie, then I finessed and got that out of the way, the rehearsal schedule was finally set, I made some more notes on the new book and frankly I may even write a few more pages because I’m kind of in that mode, frankly, so why not, say I, and I say why not. I had some telephonic calls, then tried to watch many motion pictures to no avail, and here we are.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll either make three more tacos with the remaining meat, or make faux stroganoff with chopped hamburger meat, I’ll call the mail place to see if anything’s there and if there is I’ll go retrieve it, I may do some writing if I’m feeling it, and then at some point, I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow is more of the same, Saturday I’ll try to get to the mail place, Sunday is a ME day, Monday I’ll get myself in the proper frame of mind for the physical on Tuesday and then we’ll see what’s what for the rest of the week.
Let’s all put on our pointy party hats and our colored tights and pantaloons, let’s all break out the cheese slices and ham chunks, let’s all dance the Hora or the tango, for today is the birthday of dear reader KevinH. So, let’s give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to dear reader KevinH. On the count of three: One, two, three – A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO DEAR READER KEVINH!!!
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, figure out food, call the mail place and go there, if necessary, maybe do some writing, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What were your favorite soundtrack albums when you were growing up. And what movie didn’t have a soundtrack album that you wished had? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy that a great-sounding soundtrack of North by Northwest finally saw the light of day.