Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, going through the symphonies of British composer William Alwyn. I haven’t heard them since before the pandemic and so I thought it was either high or low time to rectify that, as I’m a big fan of Mr. Alwyn’s music, either classical or his film music. The five symphonies I have are all conducted by Alwyn himself – I listened to the Chandos recordings with a different conductor, but they weren’t to my liking, especially sound-wise. Alwyn is a superb interpreter of his own music and the sound and performance on these Lyrita CDs is impeccable. Alwyn’s symphonies are moody – sometimes lyrical like Vaughan Williams, sometimes more astringent like William Walton, but always tonal. Some of the symphonies sound very film music-like. I think I’ll listen to the symphonies followed by everything else I have by him, which is pretty much everything, including his chamber music. If you don’t know the name, he wrote the film scores to Carol Reed’s classic Odd Man Out and Fallen Idol, A Night to Remember, The Winslow Boy, Disney’s Swiss Family Robinson, and many others. I’m sure it’s all on the Tube of You should you care to check it out. I did manage to watch a motion picture last evening, entitled Air, about Nike’s courting and getting Michael Jordan. It’s cut from the same cloth as tons of other movies about things that seem possible to achieve only to achieve them. Thanks to a very good cast (with one exception) it’s enjoyable as these things go. Once can quibble with certain aspects of the writing, and Ben Affleck as director has no visual style that he hasn’t cadged from elsewhere and so visually the film just sort of sits there like so much fish, because film storytelling is not only aural but visual. I’d be happier if he’d just put the camera down and shot the scenes, but instead we get pointless and dizzying circling camera shots, pointless camera moves, pointless shakycam, and more. It’s competent and no more. But the biggest mistake he makes as a director is the score – wait, what score? What is his “vision” for the score? Only music from the 1980s, whether songs that ineptly tell us what the characters are feeling (I hate that device and if I never see/hear it again it will be too soon) or the use of film cues from 1980s movies. It’s a stupid conceit and hurts any emotionality that the film should but doesn’t have. It needed a real score by a real composer, although the crap these “directors” think is film music is, well, crap. Anyway, I like these kinds of movies every now and then and I enjoyed it for what it was rather than what it wasn’t.
After the movie, I went out and put gas in the motor car and then went to Gelson’s. I got two ingredients that I didn’t have and need for Wacky Noodles, and I also got a Caesar salad – no chicken – because I was hungry and hadn’t eaten since one o’clock. I came home and ate the salad, which was very good, and then it was time to write these here notes.
Yesterday was certainly a day – no bad things, so that was nice. It was another night of seven and a half hours of sleep. I downloaded a more modern version of the alarm app I had on the dead iPad, set it for eleven, and it worked just as it should. Once up, I answered e-mails, we did some Sami stuff that needed doing and that I cannot talk about quite yet but will early next week, Then I went to the mail place and got the hardcover book, which looks fantastic. Here it is.
I’d pre-ordered the same pastrami sky-high from the day before and that got to me at around 12;45. I ate it all up and it was, once again, excellently excellent. I had a couple of telephonic conversations, got a couple of sheet music orders, and then I finally sat on my couch like so much fish and watched the movie.
Today, I’ll be up by eleven, I’ll do whatever needs doing, hope for a miracle, eat some wacky noodles, maybe place a book order although I suspect that won’t happen until Monday, still trying to find out why the hardcover is not on Amazon – kind of outrageous at this point – also only softcover at Barnes & Noble, and then I can watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow, we have a casting session at one, which shouldn’t last too long, after which I’ll probably grab a bite to eat, then I’ll come home, relax, and then in the evening I’m seeing a show in Simi Valley. Sunday is Mother’s Day and I’ll be staying home and pampering myself as the biggest mother of ‘em all. Then next week is Sami stuff, settling on our cast for the workshop, and doing whatever else needs doing.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by eleven, do whatever needs doing, hope for a miracle, eat, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player and your DVD/Blu and Ray player. I’ll start – CD, nothing. Blu-ray, nothing. Streaming, The Shootist. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have had the third day with no bad things – what a pleasure that’s been and may it continue.