Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to the original Mexican cast recording of My Fair Lady, released in 1957 and I believe it was the first stereo recording of the score. It has its charms, but neither the Higgins nor Eliza would cause Mr. Harrison or Miss Andrews to lose any sleep. I believe My Fair Lady and Fiddler on the Roof must hold the record for most foreign recordings. I’m a fan of foreign recordings of Broadway shows and have quite a few on LP and a few that have been release on CD. I did manage to watch two documentaries last evening. The first was entitled Adrienne, about the life and murder of actress of Adrienne Shelly, a very talented actress/writer/director, whose death was first called a suicide but thanks to the persistence of her husband it was soon proven to be a robbery turned murder by a teen construction worker. She was only forty and was murdered only a month before her film Waitress premiered at the Sundance festival to great reaction. It’s a little odd, this documentary made by her husband all these years later and it includes him visiting the murderer in prison to try and understand what happened. And his therapy sessions with their daughter, sixteen at the time of filming, just seems weird and a little off-putting, because it’s trying to tell several stories at once. In the end, I suppose, it’s his cathartic love letter to her. Back in 2015, a dear reader asked me why I was thanked on the film Hold Me, Touch Me, Thrill Me and that sounded familiar but I didn’t remember if I’d done any dialogue polishing or what. As it turns out, the producer told me I was thanked because we allowed them to do a lot of their pre-production stuff in the Bay Cities offices. Adrienne Shelly was in that film and that jogged a vivid memory that came back as if it were yesterday, of us driving to the location and sitting in the car with Ms. Shelly and others and I remember her being bubbly and endearing and very sweet. The second documentary wasn’t a documentary really, it was a one-night thing shot at the Saban Theater here in L.A. in 2011 – an evening with Dick Cavett and Mel Brooks – Together Again. I have to say that it was an hour of non-stop laughs and both Cavett and Brooks are in tip-top form – Carl Reiner is there and, from the audience, recounts how the 2,000-year-old man came to be. If you want to laugh, and who doesn’t, this is the ticket and comes highly recommended by the likes of me.
Yesterday was an even-keeled day. I was up at seven-thirty after five hours of sleep, and out the door by 8:45. I ended up at Hugo’s and unlike the last two times it was almost empty – go know. I had pasta papa and it was very good. Then I went to the mail place and picked up an amazing residual check totally unexpected and sooo helpful. Here is a photograph.
I’m not sure there is a single thing that can be purchased for that amount, although you could get fifteen minutes at a parking meter. Then I stopped at an estate sale that turned out to be the home of Joely Fisher, daughter of Connie Stevens and sister of Tricia Leigh Fisher. Lots of stuff, but mostly clothes. I looked around and left.
Then I went to Gelson’s and got some Sour Patch gummy things so I’d have a sweet for later. I came home and she of the Evil Eye had already left. I noted that the hardcover of Preview Harvey is finally up at Amazon although it still can’t be purchased because they’re temporarily out of stock, like they’ve ever had stock. Hopefully, that will be rectified soon. The whole thing has been fairly outrageous. Then there happened a really interesting conversation with Amazon – a department we didn’t know existed – I provided a LOT of information from them and we’ll see where that all goes. Something I learned that I didn’t know – Amazon owns the imdb, which I found very interesting. I chose a couple of songs for the June 10 Kritzerland but am still looking for our final guy performer. I did get an idea and I’ll see if the person is around and available. Then I sat on my couch like so much fish and watched Adrienne.
After that, I had one chicken breast and wing and some chicken pasta salad from the California Chicken Café and that was a nice light thing. Then I watched the Mel Brooks thing and laughed myself silly. After that, I watched ten minutes of The Girl, about Mr. Hitchcock’s obsession with Tippi Hedren, just to see if was as bad as I remembered – it was worse.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll continue choosing songs, I’ll try to lock in our final performer so we can get the flyer done, I’ll eat, and then I’ll just relax.
This coming week is very busy, with meetings and meals, Sami stuff, I know I have something coming, some interview thing on Zoom for Sami – Tuesday or Wednesday, I think – with Gold Derby, and then whatever else that needs doing I’ll do because one simply must.
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, continue choosing songs, try to lock in our final performer, eat something light but fun, and then I can 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, enjoying the Mexican stereophonic My Fair Lady recording and wanting to check out more foreign cast recording, like my Japanese Phantom or A Chorus Line or Danish Sweet Charity or Swedish My Fair Lady.