Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to some interesting “modern” twentieth century symphonies circa the 1960s, I believe – Easley Blackwood’s first symphony and Alex Haieff’s second symphony. While these are not exactly Rachmaninov or Copland, they’re both enjoyable in their way – I favor the Blackwood and am interested in hearing more by him. What’s amazing is that these got recordings at all. What’s more amazing is that Charles Munch and the Boston Symphony Orchestra did the recordings for RCA and I have to tell you, the RCA stereo on these is mind-bogglingly mind-boggling. These won’t relax you, and they may even make you want to get a hammer and knock some holes in the walls, but I have an open mind to some of this “modern” music and some of it really is like film music in a way. I also watched two count them two motion pictures last night, so let’s get those out of the way, shall we? The first motion picture was on a new Blu and Ray from Warner Archive, a little movie I like to call Annie Get Your Gun, a show I truly love. I’ve never been all that about the film, unfortunately and no, not because of Betty Hutton, who I think is terrific in it. The entire cast is excellent. I think it’s because Sidney Sheldon, who did the screenplay, is just not so hot as a screenwriter (he did use stuff from the play, of course), but also because they cut two of my favorite songs – Moonshine Lullaby and one of Berlin’s best ballads, I Got Lost in His Arms. And I miss Frank’s I’m a Bad, Bad Man, which I know would have the woke running to Facebook – that and the Indians. But I’m a Bad, Bad Man is a charm song that sets his character and it’s fun. Director George Sidney does well enough, but it just has never quite clicked for me, much as I enjoy a lot of it. The transfer, however, is a stunner – gorgeous beyond belief and truly what Technicolor should look like – compare to Singin’ in the Rain, whose negative is gone apparently, and you’ll see what that film’s color should actually look like. I also watched the two Judy Garland numbers and it’s so clear they made the right decision to replace her. She looks bored, she’s not funny, and she’s just not Annie, frankly. I think whatever she was going through at the time did her in and it didn’t help that Mr. Busby Berkeley and Miss Garland did not get along.
The second movie was entitled The Girl on the Bridge, another of Patrice Leconte’s films. I’d only seen it once before when I got the DVD and was on my Leconte kick – that was back in 2005. I still enjoyed it a lot. This is what I wrote about it back in 2005: A sweet fable about fated souls who bring each other luck when they’ve had not luck on their own. It’s a tight eight-eight minutes, beautifully shot in black-and-white scope and just a delight. The two stars, Daniel Auteuil and Vanessa Paradis are excellent. In other news, I do believe I’ve topped off on chicken Caesar salads. Have to take a little break.
Yesterday was a weird day in certain ways. I got nine hours of sleep, answered e-mails, and the ubiquitous chicken Caesar from Stanley’s arrived, and I ate it all up, but I realized that had to be it for a while. Then I went and picked up a couple of packages, one of which was a belated birthday present of The Stephen Sondheim Encyclopedia. There’s already been talk on the Facebook that the book as several error, perhaps more than several. I’ve only glanced at it – the type is very small, and I had to use my handy-dandy magnifying glass. I happened to thumb to a page where they were talking about Sondheim’s song No, Mary Ann, which I was the first to record. And yet he doesn’t mention that recording, but mentions Sondheim Sings Sondheim, the album of his demos. I checked the index to see if my name was there – nope. And yet, I am mentioned many times as I thumbed through things, for my recordings. Wouldn’t you think I’d make the index? He does mention most of the recordings, so that’s nice.
I spent literally the entire afternoon doing Indiegogo organizing, but I finally have all the names and perks in a document, and now I have to organize all that PER NAME. Having it under the perks is way too difficult because of all the multiple items some contributors took. So, having it by name with the items underneath will be much easier. The only time that won’t happen is with people who ONLY took the Blu-ray perk and stuff like that, where it makes sense to just list those all in one place. That will probably take a couple of days. There are major bills that are coming do that are worrisome, too. But that’s not a worry for this week. What IS a worry is the upcoming move. I haven’t heard a peep from the helper, so I’ll need to find out when exactly it’s happening. I reserved the new spaces for Sunday. If the move doesn’t happen Sunday, then I can move the start date to when it actually will and save a few crumbs.
Then I watched the two movies, had a few nuts for a snack, and that was pretty much it.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll try to find out about the move, then I’ll get to work on the Indiegogo stuff and maybe in a week or so we can start shipping the stuff that doesn’t involve the Blu, CD, or sheet music. I think I’ll make some tuna with onions and perhaps add some celery and I’ll serve it on some lettuce. That’s all completely Keto friendly, of course. I haven’t had tuna since I began this, so that will be nice. I wish I knew a place that had good chicken and egg salad, because I could do the same. And actually, now that I think about it, Art’s Deli has very good chicken and egg salad, so perhaps I’ll mosey on over there and get a scoop of each along with some ranch dressing. That would be a super good change of pace. I’ll eat whatever I do for food, and then I’ll mosey on over to the mail place and hopefully pick up some packages. After all that, I hope to watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow, I have the Zoom mentor thing at three, otherwise it’s more of the same. The rest of the week is like that, then an early dinner with an old friend and that’s about it. And then the big move happens. Pray for Rosemary’s Baby, baby.
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, find out about the move, do Indiegogo organizing, eat, hopefully pick up packages, and then 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 answers and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, knowing that I had one chicken Caesar salad too many.