Haines His Way
Archives => Archive 2 => Topic started by: bk on October 22, 2004, 11:59:22 PM
-
Well, you've read the notes, the notes were brief, the briefs were brief, and now it is time to post until the brief cows come home.
-
Topic Of The Day: Ferrante & Teicher "Blast Off".
-
To continue the discussion from yesterday. I don't think children need to be enticed to the theatre with stage versions of cartoons they watched on the movie screen or video. Particularly when so many of the characters onstage look like refugees from a theme park.
There is plenty of wonderful children's theatre that kids can go to and be indoctrinated into theatre. Also I don't personally don't think young, young children belong in a theatre. They should be of an age old enough where they can behave and understand the proprieties and obligations of being an audience member and appreciate and pay attention to what's happening on stage.
Oddly enough the first live theatre I saw was another school excursion when I was in the fourth grade -- BEAUTY & THE BEAST, a non-musical version, that owed more to Cocteau than anything else. I remember hand sconces on a wall and other eerie, haunting things. My impression at the time, and ever since, has been of being part of a strange, enchanting dream. We saw another production by the same company that year. It was a comedy about a space ship,a mad scientist, and an interplanetary beastie, as I recall. Not quite as magical or mesmerizing as Beauty & the Beast, but fascinating. I wanted more school days like these.
BK, my favourite weird recording is Marcel Marceau Live...long tracks of silence, with intermittent bits of enthusiastic applause. I also have two records of Tony Randall singing twenties & early thirties ditties...I'm particularly fond of "You're Blase".
-
A weird recording I've never heard all the way through. One of my favourite all-time singers, Johhny Hartman, recorded a record of 60's/70's hits like By The Time I Get To Phoenix, etc. My wife and I got through about two numbers before we took it off and have never played it since.
Another weird recording. A friend of mine burned a CD of nothing but various versions of THE TEDDY BEAR'S PICNIC for me. In tribute to an old 78 recording of it we used to play in college. There are probably about two dozen versions on the CD. He also sent me a humour CD entitled INTERNATIONAL CREPITATION CONTEST. Besides this first selection, it includes such weird cuts as Wish I Was a Lesiban, Kill the Rabbit, and She's Looking Better Every Beer. He also sent me a CD of Max Bygrave songs which are pretty damned weird.
I also have a record of old Harry Lauder songs, which may be a little weird but are also great fun.
-
I have a busy day ahead of transporting and schlepping. Which is why being up at 4 AM is not a great idea. But here I am. I'm going to start off the day be checking out an estate sale in the hood that I saw advertised in the Times. Then to the new place with a big load of pictures and dishes. I'm going to put together the bathroom cabinet (I hope), put in some shelf liner and the schlep some more. Yesterday I bought some scented drawer liner for the built-in drawers. La-di-dah!
Perhaps I should try for some more sleep....
-
Oh - weird recordings - I have a good throat singing CD - which I can't find at the moment for the exact title. (Note to self: must do a better job of organizing CDs in new digs.)
And there's one that's not all that weird, but some of the titles of cuts are winners - The CD is LE MYSTERE DES VOIX BULGARES - The Bulgarian State Rado & Television Female Vocal Choir. The first number is entitled "Pilentze Pee." (I'd translate that as You're In the Money" - but they don't.) Then there's "Mir Stanke le" (which apparently translates to "Harvest Song from Thrace" - go figure.) But then there's "Polegnala e Pschenitza" - easy for YOU to say - which according to the liner notes ALSO translates as "Harvest Song from Thrace"... Those wacky Bulgarians!
...Okay. back to bed.
-
Hello, Jrand!
-
Hi Panni!
-
Love your new house!
I had the same "shelf" experience - and may I suggest DRPANNI before you drive yourself to distraction - call a friend with aptitude and buy him lunch after he puts it together. There are times when TWO sets of hands are needed to hold everything together! Don't frustrate yourself and waste your time!
-
Love your new house!
I had the same "shelf" experience - and may I suggest DRPANNI before you drive yourself to distraction - call a friend with aptitude and buy him lunch after he puts it together. There are times when TWO sets of hands are needed to hold everything together! Don't frustrate yourself and waste your time!
Great minds think alike, Jrand. While you were posting the above, I was writing an e-mail to a friend asking for just such help.
-
Hmmmmmmm....well almost all I HAVE are weird recordings. So.....
SPIKE JONES to be sure. When I was a teeny todd (a SS reference) - my aunt gave me a whole stack of 45 rpm EP's among them several SJ songs. I laughed and laughed and played them until they could play no more (shades of Les uns et les autres). Of course they were WEIRD on purpose.
I have spoken about this Columbia 45 before - from the late 1960's - a country singer named Jenny Clay (who also wrote these two songs). I don't know which was the "a" side - but the titles were:
"Another" and "Treasures With the Trash." Both are musically off the wall and lyrically challenged. I will post the lyrics to the second song in my next message so you can skip it - if you dare.
MRBK I am appalled (a Faye Dunaway reference) - can you please let me know the seller's new ID so I can contact him and EBAY. I have filed a Safe Harbor report. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR - I am so sorry I recommended him to you. But I bet he is even sorrier!
-
LOL.....one track mind - one car on the track!
-
...And thank you. Glad you like the house. Hope my downstairs neighbors won't mind my middle of the night jaunts. Mind you, the people who owned the house before - and lived in my new digs - had toddler twins and a dog. So after that, i should be like a Trappist monk.
-
Treasures With the Trash by Jenny Clay.
I found you in the arms of my very best girlfriend,
And my world fell down with a crash.
I sent you on your way with my very best girlfriend.
I threw out my treasures with the trash.
Took your ring from my finger
And your pitcher from the wall.
Your only suit from the closet
And your coat from the hall.
And I burned everything
That I couldn't smash.
I threw out my treasures with the trash.
Thanks to you
And her, too,
I cain't pick up the pieces.
There was nothing left after the crash.
Just some odds
And some ends
And some "used to be" friends.
I threw out my treasures with the trash.....
REPEAT REFRAIN with a hitch in yur git-along......
-
Is Spike Jones considered weird, Jrand? In that case, I'll list him as in my weird collection.
-
Indeed - they will wonder if you are there.
Did the Paramount boi get your old house?
-
Weird on purpose, so I don't know if that counts.
-
I also somewhere have - or used to have - selections from My Fair Lady in Hungarian. Okay - I MUST try to get some more sleep.
-
Play Julie Andrews singing Stay Awake from MARY POPPINS - works for me everytime.
-
I don't think PB called back, Jrand. Someone wants the place and has said she will put down a deposit. But she's gone out of town and it's still being shown. Which means more running around for me to come home for showings and take Abie out. One thing I DON'T need right now is more running around.
-
LOL....so you will be packing for your trip in your old digs....and unpacking FROM your trip in your new digs?
That is so metaphysical!
-
I will let you alone now....off to EBAY.
-
'Night. (or 'Mornin')
-
LOL....so you will be packing for your trip in your old digs....and unpacking FROM your trip in your new digs?
That is so metaphysical!
No. I'm moving a few days after I return. Which (among other reasons) is why I must be careful to pace myself so that I don't go into the trip exhausted -- or I'll get sick, which would be a bummer.
-
DR TCB asked the following after I went to bed:
...but I want to know who Michael Shayne's piece of blind gossip is supposed to be about??? I could never figure those damn things out. Names, I want names!!
Okay I will give you names and even break it down. The blind item that I read.
Could it be that the onstage double of that closeted (and tweezed) actor has a double life of his own? So say numerous sources who have “procured” this man’s services by the hour, night, or weekend. He’s far more interested in Steve than Eve (regardless of what he tells you), and despite his proclaimed versatility, if you give him a task, he’ll happily get to the bottom of it. He’s handsome enough, but it’s his physique that’s particularly impressive – hardly earned by sweatin’ to the oldies.
It seems to be via other peoples' postings to be one Adam Simmons who is appearing in the musical of The Portrait of Dorian Gray.
Breaking down the clues
Could it be that the onstage double (The portrait)
of that closeted (and tweezed) actor (Max Von Essen)
has a double life of his own? So say numerous sources who have “procured” this man’s services by the hour, night, or weekend. He’s far more interested in Steve than Eve (regardless of what he tells you), (Adam as in Adam and Eve. Adam being his first name)
and despite his proclaimed versatility, if you give him a task, he’ll happily get to the bottom of it. He’s handsome enough, but it’s his physique that’s particularly impressive (One can see his ads and attributes online.)
– hardly earned by sweatin’ to the oldies (Refrence to Richard Simmons series of workout tapes. Simmons being his last name.)
Below is a picture from Dorian Gray. Max Von Essen on the left and Adam Simmons in the back Kevin Bailey is on the right
(http://www.talkinbroadway.com/regional/Icons/ladorian.jpg)
-
Ah - the price of fame!
I think even our esteemed MR BK was once featured in a movie magazine detailing Cindy Williams' "porn past."
-
Good morning, all!
DRPanni, beautiful home, but what does the guest room look like? Also, be careful with the shelves and remember my calamitous experience in August. I had my friend who rebuilt the one wall come and look at the opposite one where the bookshelves are beginning to sag, and hopefully, he'll be working on it by the end of the week.
Weird CD? Mrs Miller, Spike Jones, Florence Foster Jenkins. I used to have on LP a vanity recording of some Colorado production of THE SOUND OF MUSIC featuring the worst cast and orchestra ever to annoy the ears of God. It contained some of the Broadway score not recorded around 1980, such as the Waltz based on "My Favorite Things" in Act One and the "Do-Re-Mi" of the Act Two concert, but it was all played and sung so terrribly they could have been performing the "Crapshooter's Ballet."
-
I guess my recording of music from "The Cornwall Museum of Mechanical Music" may seem a little strange to people. My Yma Sumac record might also fit the bill.
-
A special thank you to the DRs who suggested I stick with this current series of "Six Feet Under". The first three shows were a trial but there has been a payoff. I think I am now up to #6 or#7. The show does seemed to regained its focus. (or maybe I have!)
-
LOL DRELMORE - The Von Trapp Family Crapshooters!
My MOST weird LP has got to be Patty Duke Sings Valley of the Dolls....which is a bit as if Natalie Wood had released an album of the songs from West Side Story.
-
I found in a cutout bin a Capitol CD reissue of a couple of Yma Sumac's weird recordings on one CD. After the third track, I couldn't listen to her any more.
This was before I got my hands on a copy of FLAHOOLEY though that's where I had heard of her. At that time, the LP of FLAHOOLEY was a rare, rare collector's item, and I never even heard it until it came out on CD from Broadway Angel.
-
Watched the DVD of DAMN YANKEES last night, and I have to admit it did not hold up as well as I had remembered as an entertainment. Hard to believe the man who directed SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS directed this.
The picture was fine, no artifacts that I could readily see, but it wasn't quite as sharp as I was expecting. I guess these recent remasterings like SEVEN BRIDES have me really spoiled.
Anyway, glad to finally have it on DVD in the collection but I probably won't be revisiting it nearly as much as I do THE PAJAMA GAME.
-
I feel the same about those two films, MATTH. Something about THE PAJAMA GAME is still so funny and fresh...and of course, then there's Doris!
I have a question that I KNOW the DR's here at HHW his way can answer for me.
I am watching my video of KISMET....what a physically BEAUTIFUL movie. I am listening to Ann Blyth sing and she certainly has a pretty voice. Why when she is singing the SAME notes is her voice pleasing to me....but when Jane Powell sings the same notes (or similar) there is almost a screeching tone that is unpleasant to my ears. Is it the way I HEAR the notes.....the voice quality....why do some women singers sound so irritating....when others singing in the same register do not?
Or is it me?
And nothing against Jane....she is a favorite of mine - except for those trills and screeches.
-
I am watching my video of KISMET....what a physically BEAUTIFUL movie. I am listening to Ann Blyth sing and she certainly has a pretty voice. Why when she is singing the SAME notes is her voice pleasing to me....but when Jane Powell sings the same notes (or similar) there is almost a screeching tone that is unpleasant to my ears. Is it the way I HEAR the notes.....the voice quality....why do some women singers sound so irritating....when others singing in the same register do not?
Or is it me?
DRJRand54, I always liked Jane Powell's voice, and I feel she can do no wrong in SEVEN BRIDES . . . It was Kathryn Grayson I believed had a voice only dogs should hear, speaking of screeches and lousy quality.
Anyway, I'm not sure I can answer your question well or badly, but my guess would be that it has something to do with the way your ear accepts sounds, and that Miss Powell's sound waves irritate something within your cochlea.
Speaking of Hollywood sopranos, I was listening the other day to a soprano from the 1930s sing Victor Herbert's coloratura showpiece "Romany Life," and it was quite stunning. I checked the soprano later: Jeanette MacDonald, whom I adore. You're right about Miss Blyth: she should have had all the roles Miss Grayson got; she would have been a Magnolia Hawks-Ravenal and a Lily Vanessi with some real bite and character. Can you imagine how Grayson would have ruined MILDRED PIERCE?
-
I know what you mean, DR Jrand. I think the timbre of the voice is what is in question. Ann Blyth's voice is much warmer in tone while Jane's is more silvery and thus, as she goes higher up the scale, more prone to shrillness.
Did Ann Blyth ever make any comments about being dyubbed for THE HELEN MORGAN STORY with a voice (wonderful Gogi Grant) totally unlike Morgan's (Ann's wasn't much like Morgan's either but she WAS a soprano).
I also agree about KISMET. I put the laserdisc on occasionally just to enjoy the sumptuousness of it, but it DOES drag terribly even with that powerhouse cast. Minnelli was asleep at the wheel during that shoot. The Arthur Freed book says as much, that he was much more interested in getting to LUST FOR LIFE, his next film, and spent next to no time working any magic on KISMET.
-
You know what DRELMORE....I think it is Grayson whose voice I am thinking about moreso than Powell....I wrote too soon, although as you and DRMATTH both point out, Blyth has a warmth to her voice that really gets to me.
As far as Grayson in MILDRED PIERCE....LOL...it is to laugh.
I don't remember Blyth saying anything about her MORGAN dubbing, although I have heard the TV version with Miss Polly Bergen and it is my favorite. I think that Grant dubbing of Blyth is still one of the great Warner Bros mysteries - of which there are so many.
-
My cochlea is being irritated - eh? Well that explains A LOT!!
As for Jeanette MacDonald....WELL....what a beauty...and what a voice. I love to watch and hear her in SMILIN' THROUGH....she sings "The Kerry Dance" and so many others. Would love to have that on DVD with GOOD sound reproduction. Of all the ladies we have talked about here....I think she is my favorite. I think that in spite of her reputation (undeserved in my opinion), MacDonald was a lot of things but NOT cloying.
-
Good morning, good morning, I've slept the whole night through.
I still have the Marcel Marceau LP, one of my faves. I also love Derek and Clive, Live, the very rude Brit comedy LP done by Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. No one's mentioned Mrs. Miller - those albums are weird and hilarious and somehow likeable. There was an album (on Warner Bros. I think) that I loved - weird music (very loungy, but weird) accompanied by strange narration. I've tried to find it over the years and haven't been able to. There are times when I remember the composer's name and the narrator's name and then I don't write them down and forget them for years. Then there are times when I think it's not on Warner Bros, although I'm sure it is. I'm gonna think about this all the livelong day.
-
Oh Jonathan and Darlene Edwards.
-
No one's mentioned Mrs. Miller - those albums are weird and hilarious and somehow likeable.
Dear Friend BK, please check my post today #26. Mrs Miller was the first CD I mentioned! But I did forget Jonathan and Darlene, one of the greatest spoofs ever. Their first album was subtle and bizarre, and by the last they were doing outrageously low comedy since the joke was out. Both they and Mrs Miller still make me laugh out loud.
-
No one's mentioned Mrs. Miller
Sez who?
Weird CD? Mrs Miller, Spike Jones, Florence Foster Jenkins...
-
As for Jeanette MacDonald....WELL....what a beauty...and what a voice. I love to watch and hear her in SMILIN' THROUGH....she sings "The Kerry Dance" and so many others. Would love to have that on DVD with GOOD sound reproduction. Of all the ladies we have talked about here....I think she is my favorite. I think that in spite of her reputation (undeserved in my opinion), MacDonald was a lot of things but NOT cloying.
I heard, back in the 1980s, that Jeanette turned down R&H for the film of THE KING AND I. You only have to watch her early films to know what a spunky actress, comedienne, and excellent singer she was. MGM did both her and the Marx Brothers, in my opinion, no great favors, but I do love SAN FRANCISCO.
-
Sez who?
DRJay, you just went from God to Hero in my book!
-
I see Dear Reader Elmore3003 needs no help in defending himself.
-
So, tonight begins a World Series between a team from New York, where I've three shows in rehearsal, and a team from Missouri, where DW Joy will soon be performing, 12 times a week, in a theatre with 4000 seats. She has a leading role, Mrs. Claus, and the show is some new creation containing a large number of pre-existing carols. She gets on a plane tomorrow for the state that contained last year's World Series winner for a week more of rehearsals. I don't know when the show opens.
Outside, loudly, is a huge Kerry rally. Where I come from there are always crazy people on the streets, but you're only considered crazy if you're considering voting for Bush. I honestly believe the Current Occupant of the White House is the worst of all 43 presidents. But I'm not such a in depth student of American history to know if any of those 19th Century heads-of-state that got us into so much trouble.
Joy's already voted. One wishes she could have voted in Missouri, a battle-ground state.
-
DRJay, you just went from God to Hero in my book!
Aww, shucks.
-
Dear Spouse Betsy is winging her way to Michigan (and boy are her arms tired--ba-da-BOOM), and I am gloating because I managed to make waffles from scratch this morning (with help from my youngest son and Betsy's recipe). I used the Kitchenaid for the first time ever. Such are the proud accomplishments of the domestically challenged amongst us.
Weird recordings: I think we did this a long time ago, because I distinctly remember talking about Jonathan & Darlene and how I found the 2 CD set in a little mom and pop record shop in Port Townsend, Washington, of all places. But tops on my list (which I also seem to remember discussing here) is a bizarre LP called "The Music of the Spheres," which purports to have translated Johannes Kepler's mathematical formulae about the orbits of the planets into "music." It is a very weird 30 minute trip that I can only compare to several police sirens at different pulsing rates screeching simultaneously.
And, JR, I am appalled that you could not have mentioned Frances Farmer Swings Fats Domino, certainly one of the strangest albums ever released.
-
P.S. Has anyone else become addicted to WhatWORD on AOL Games? It's quite challenging, as you are required to make specific words, but frequently those words contain other words within them, so you have to analyze how to get the letters into the requested word without making the contained word first.
My best outing (next to Mary Cheney--ba-da-BOOM) was to get to Level 11 (just a few shy of Level 42) and a score of about 350,000.
-
elmore: Sorry, sorry, sorry (that is three sorrys) - my eye must have skipped over it.
-
She has a leading role, Mrs. Claus, and the show is some new creation containing a large number of pre-existing carols. She gets on a plane tomorrow for the state that contained last year's World Series winner for a week more of rehearsals. I don't know when the show opens.
Outside, loudly, is a huge Kerry rally. Where I come from there are always crazy people on the streets, but you're only considered crazy if you're considering voting for Bush.
DRNoel, as I was walking down Broadway from 86th Street, I passed many Kerry-Edwards folk and their banners walking up Broadway to your neck of the woods. Now I know why. But aren't they preaching to the converted?
Here's good wishes to DWJoy for her gig as Mr Claus' Mrs.
-
elmore: Sorry, sorry, sorry (that is three sorrys) - my eye must have skipped over it.
Love means never having to say you're sorry, another Duchess of Windsor quote?
-
And what, pray tell, DRJMK, is so weird about Frances swinging Fats?
-
DRJAY don't you have a video to watch?
-
And what, pray tell, DRJMK, is so weird about Frances swinging Fats?
The long pauses every two or three measures as she slurps a little vodka? :)
-
DRJAY don't you have a video to watch?
Indeed. And my apologies for it taking this long!
Though I have a concert this afternoon, I have nothing (nothing, I tell you!) on my schedule for this evening. (Oh. A sort of Frank Sinatra reference.) My intent is to at last settle into an evening filled with nothing but the Misses Hayes and Farmer. Report will follow.
-
And what, pray tell, DRJMK, is so weird about Frances swinging Fats?
The constant sound of the lobotomy drilling?
-
And what, pray tell, DRJMK, is so weird about Frances swinging Fats?
The heavy grunts as she tries to lift him?
-
She of the Evil Eye is here and I'm off to prance about like a horn toad with a hotfoot. Keep the home fries burning until my returning.
-
You bois....you bois.
And remember DRJAY - you will also see Tennesee Ernie Ford extolling the virtues of the new 1957 Ford! No apologies necessary.
I am watching the 1966 remake of STAGECOACH. I remember seeing a BIG two page ad for this movie in LIFE magazine....and then later that summer when it was on a double bill at the drive in with FANTASTIC VOYAGE, I don't think we stayed passed the first couple of scenes.
Now I can see why, but I think I will stay with it for awhile. I like a LOT of the people in it.
-
Well, JMK, as Frances/Jean wrote in WILL THERE REALLY BE A MORNING? - "...at the end of my month, the bill for the liquor store had only gone up by $20, or one bottle of vodka a week. All in all, I think I was handling it pretty well...."
-
The constant sound of the lobotomy drilling?
Oh, my, DR Elmore, now you've done it--I have another excuse to mention my web article. When you have a free half-hour or so ( ;) ), go here:
http://hometown.aol.com/jmkauffman/sheddinglight.html
to discover that Frances was not lobotomized.
-
Though I have a concert this afternoon, I have nothing (nothing, I tell you!) on my schedule for this evening.
DRJay and Hero, what is the afternoon concert, pray tell?
-
So, tonight begins a World Series between a team from New York
Um, Noel.....
I know you Yankees fans are in denial, but this is ridiculous. :)
-
Oh, my, DR Elmore, now you've done it--I have another excuse to mention my web article. When you have a free half-hour or so (;)), go here:
to discover that Frances was not lobotomized.
DRJMK, thank you for the article. I didn't know the lobotomy was a myth. I do stand my flippancy over why it might be a weird album, mere speculation, however verified inaccurate it may be. It's always good to try to get a jump from DRJRand54.
-
LOL
-
Actually, DR Elmore, it's a long-running inside joke. There is no such album--it was listed years ago (as a misprint) in the All-Music Guide and it struck JR and me as incredibly funny. We have often referred to Frances' "lost" Ed Sullivan episode where she swings Fats "live," so to speak. :)
-
DRJay and Hero, what is the afternoon concert, pray tell?
The Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by Mr. James Conlon. (It was recently announced, by the way, that Mr. Conlon will become the Music Director of the Los Angeles Opera, following the departure of Mr. Kent Nagano, in 2006. Though I will miss Mr. Nagano, I am pleased with the selection of Mr. Conlon.)
Mr. Conlon has been involved over the past few years in reviving music from Europe from the '30s and '40s either suppressed by the Nazis or written by composers who were imprisoned (and many of whom were killed) in the concentration camps.
Today's program opens with such a piece of music: Viktor Ullman's Symphony No. 2. The second half is comprised of Mahler's Symphony No. 1.
The notes from the L.A. Philharmonic's website offer some interesting insight into the selection of the program:
For anyone who claims art and politics are somehow separate, that the artistic endeavor somehow hovers in the ether, floating above the grime and filth of politics, a comparison of the lives of Gustav Mahler and Viktor Ullmann offers a rude awakening. The reality of Europe in the 1920s and '30s meant that art was political. It always had been, but the shrill demagoguery of politics and rulers between the wars - Stalin in Russia and Hitler in Germany - brought political pressure to bear in every sphere of creative life, music included.
Gustav Mahler's and Viktor Ullmann's careers followed roughly parallel trajectories for their first 30 years. But in their fourth decade of life, the two men's paths diverge. Mahler became director of the Court Opera in Vienna, a leading post in European musical life, at the age of 37, and spent the remaining years before his early death as music director of the New York Philharmonic. The performance of his Eighth Symphony in Munich in 1910 was probably the most important musical event in German-speaking Europe in the years leading up to World War I, and it marked the culmination of Mahler's work as a composer. Ullmann entered his thirties just as the Nazis were consolidating their grip on Germany, a stranglehold that would soon extend throughout central Europe. This included Prague, where the composer settled after the Nazis rendered unfeasible his continued presence in Germany. But Prague proved no safe haven. On September 8, 1942, the Nazis sent Ullmann to the concentration camp at Terezín (Theresienstadt), where he composed, among other things, the Symphony on these programs and his chamber opera The Emperor of Atlantis, the work that spurred the rediscovery of his music following its performance in Amsterdam in 1975. Ullmann died in the gas chamber at Auschwitz on October 18, 1944, a fate that could also have been Mahler's but for a difference of 38 years.
-
For DR Elmore... The Guest Room! Of course it will have more than two chairs. And the purple curtains will soon be history....
-
Mr. Conlon has been involved over the past few years in reviving music from Europe from the '30s and '40s either suppressed by the Nazis or written by composers who were imprisoned (and many of whom were killed) in the concentration camps.
I recognized the name Ullman, but I did not connect it with THE EMPEROR OF ATLANTIS. One of the "Entartete Musik" series of recordings for Decca was the gorgeous DIE VOGEL by Braunfels, whose pupil at the Cologne Conservatory Trude Rittmann came to the USA and wrote great Broadway dance arrangements for Agnes de Mille, Jerome Robbins, Fritz Lowe, Richard Rodgers and others, not to mention her incidental music and songs for Mary Martin's PETER PAN. If you don't know DIE VOGEL, look for a copy. A glorious opera!
-
For DR Elmore... The Guest Room! Of course it will have more than two chairs. And the purple curtains will soon be history....
How do I love you? Let me count the ways, another Duchess of Windsor quote?
-
Good morning.
TOD: Although I do not actually own any of her CDs, I find "Wing" to be, uh, interesting. "I Want to Hold Your Hand" is especially, uh, interesting.
http://www.wingtunes.com/public/samples.aspx
-
I believe those are Lavender, DRPANNI....
-
I believe those are Lavender, DRPANNI....
You say lavender, Frances Farmer might say different.
-
I meant to ask earlier, is anyone besides me having a hellish time with eBay searches this morning/afternoon?
-
BK, I have never heard the Derek and Clive album by Cook & Moore, but have heard about it for years, particularly about the bit of extracting lobsters from Jayne Mansfield's posterior. You'll have to burn me a CD of this album.
Another weird album I have is a Helen Merrill album (a Japanese import) where every song is prefaced by a French narrator speaking French gibberish. The songs are nice, but it's tough to sit through the French.
Speaking of weird lounge music, I do have a CD of Esquivel's space-age bachelor pad music.
-
DR JRand54, sorry about your Ebay DVD situation...don't you hate it when that happens. I won a Bollywood DVD set and only received one of the two DVDs from the set. He is now an unregistered user and I guess I will never see that second disc. And if you guys have luck with Paypal helping you out let me know...they have always ignored my troubles in the past.
And if you and/or BK still need a DVD of HORROR OF PARTY BEACH just give me a holler and I will wing complimentary copies your way...of course they are the MST3K versions...but the commercials ARE cut out!
-
There is plenty of wonderful children's theatre that kids can go to and be indoctrinated into theatre. Also I don't personally don't think young, young children belong in a theatre. They should be of an age old enough where they can behave and understand the proprieties and obligations of being an audience member and appreciate and pay attention to what's happening on stage.
I quite agree with that!
But then, when they behave as such, I don't think they can be called "children" anymore, since so many so-called "adults" don't even react and act that way!
-
BK, my favourite weird recording is Marcel Marceau Live...long tracks of silence, with intermittent bits of enthusiastic applause.
I have the studio cast recording of it!
I don't like it and I won't say... a word about it! ;D
-
Play Julie Andrews singing Stay Awake from MARY POPPINS - works for me everytime.
You mean.... Dame Julie had a soporific voice then??!! ;)
Maybe we should call you Michael, and Panni, Jane!
-
I am nonplussed.
-
I'll have to go out and find which of the sixty unpacked boxes has the LPs.
I'm back, and she of the Evil Eye has left the home environment. On my travels I visited Larry Edmunds in Hollywood. I have never liked their new store and it's just a sad thing to walk in there and see 0 customers. Their old store (the original Larry Edmunds), just a block to the west, was one of the great bookstores - all cinema and theater books, and in those halcyon days you could walk in there and see the likes of Francois Truffaut (saw him twice), and many other well-known director/writer types, as well as the creme de la creme of film historians, who would all hang out there regularly. I walked down the boulevard to kill time, and it's criminal what it's been allowed to become. Even in the mid-sixties it was starting to go down that route, but somehow all through the seventies there were still wonderful stores spread from Higland to Vine. Now it's basically crap - tattoo parlors, souvenir shops of the sleazy kind, t-shirt shops, lousy fast food stands - blechhh. I keep hoping some wealthy conglomerate will fix up Highland to Vine in the way they have La Brea to Highland. It would be so wonderful to have that miracle mile or so walkable and fun.
In other distressing news, the ice cream emporium that housed C. C. Brown's redux has already folded its tent. They were in business a total of three weeks. Shame on them for even thinking they could run a business without sufficient capital to last until the official opening of the complex. Stupid.
-
Three weeks?!!!
Is that the place that served the ice cream in the glass that tipped over and broke?
-
Yep, a portent of things to come.
-
François, “They should FIRE Trump!” I’m ROTFLOL-I love it!
Michael Shayne there are pain specialists out there and I wish you good vibes finding something that helps.
Panni I like the window in your living room. I also like the robot, etc. collecton. After MBarnums post I went back and took a second look at the old style oven. I miss those. Your new place looks lovely.
Matthew hope the rehearsal went well. THE SECRET GARDEN is a show I would like to see again.
-
So, tonight begins a World Series between a team from New York, where I've three shows in rehearsal, and a team from Missouri, where DW Joy will soon be performing,
Since when is Boston located in New York state?
-
Also, be careful with the shelves and remember my calamitous experience in August. I had my friend who rebuilt the one wall come and look at the opposite one where the bookshelves are beginning to sag, and hopefully, he'll be working on it by the end of the week.
Unless your friend lets you sleep at his house, please be sure he doesn’t use your bed to store the books this time. Don't want you sleeping on the floor again.
-
Finally today my PBS DVD set of BROADWAY - THE AMERICAN MUSICAL came, so I watched the first two hour disc plus extras. Yep, there are definite omissions that make it less than definitive, but what's there is a nice overview and the clips are a tonic. Nice to see that Turner has located a little bit of the movie of SALLY in color. The one time I watched it on TCM some years ago, the whole thing was only the black and white master.
I wish they could find the color versions of "The Wedding of the Painted Doll" and other early Technicolor sequences.
-
I'm not a Yankees fan, but last I looked they'd won the first three games...
Wait a minute, wait a minute: WHAT HAPPENED?
The Kerry rally was billed as a Victory Party, for whatever that's worth.
All of a sudden, my mind's pulled in a zillion different directions:
There's the musical I've been writing.
Two old friends have just pitched new ideas for musicals at me, and one's pretty intriguing (reading the play on which it's to be based, now)
On Wednesdays, my Advanced Song Improv group marches towards our goal of completing a completely improvised "And Then I Wrote" revue of the works of a non-existant (made-up) songwriter.
Saturdays, there's the Second City revue. I've just created the world's catchiest tune for them to improvise to, and nobody can get it out of their heads. We also improvised some other songs.
Monday night is the reading of the play based on Shakespeare sonnets for which I've contributed two songs.
DW Joy's leaving town in a handful of hours, so I must do her laundry so she can fill her tremendous suitcase.
I think the Cardinals will win.
-
Unless your friend lets you sleep at his house, please be sure he doesn’t use your bed to store the books this time. Don't want you sleeping on the floor again.
Your memory is too good! No way this time, baby! As you might remember, the other side isn't as laden with books! Did you get VANITY FAIR yet?
-
I'm not a Yankees fan, but last I looked they'd won the first three games...
Wait a minute, wait a minute: WHAT HAPPENED?
I would think for someone living in NYC, the last four games of that series would have been headline/front page/lead-off news on every paper, radio, and TV news broadcast, especially since what Boston pulled off was a first in playoff history. Can't believe it would totally have escaped your attention.
-
Today I also got ALEXANDER'S RAGTIME BAND in the Fox Studio Classics series and LATTER DAY, recommended by several DRs here. Don't know what to go to next. Nice to have such problems. :)
-
Such was my scattered mind-set this morning. I was actually doing match-ups in my mind: Matsui & ARod vs. Rolen and Puljols. Then I thought, what a shame that it's two teams I really don't care about.
But curse-breaking? I'm all for that!
Maybe some other DR has the time to spell out the true story of what the Red Sox curse has to do with a famous Broadway musical.
-
Maybe some other DR has the time to spell out the true story of what the Red Sox curse has to do with a famous Broadway musical.
I've always wanted to read the novel "The Year The Yankees Lost the Pennant," which became DAMN YANKEES.
-
Panni I’m relieved you will not be putting that shelf together by yourself. Sometimes, for a fee, stores will do it for you.
JRand I often have the same problem listening to those high notes. Instead of analyzing why, I simply take advantage of modern technology and fast forward. :)
Panni how could you not like those purple/lavender curtains? ;D
Bruce my condolences over the loss of your dear C.C. Brown’s.
-
Yes, but there's a true story involving Babe Ruth and another famous musical
-
elmore we currently have 4 DVD’s from Netflix. Four is our limit. What is yours? I should have Keith move it up on the queue. Tonight we will probably watch PERSUATION.
-
LOL DRNOEL....a VERY famous story about the Babe! Even I know it!
Is there a game in the Series tonight?
-
elmore we currently have 4 DVD’s from Netflix. Four is our limit. What is yours? I should have Keith move it up on the queue. Tonight we will probably watch PERSUATION.
Three, and I'm very slow in watching as Michael Barnum can testify, since I've got a DVD he sent me that he's been browbeating me about watching. PERSUASION, based on Jane austen's best novel (my opinion) is fantastic. Judy Cornwell of "Keeping Up Appearances" plays Mrs Musgrove. I still prefer PRIDE AND PREJUDICE as a read, but PERSUASION as a novel breaks my heart.
-
LOL DRNOEL....a VERY famous story about the Babe! Even I know it!
Well, I don't so tell me!
-
OMG - I almost forgot Corky & the Juice Pigs.....hehehehehe
-
Tell him DRNOEL!
-
I am quite tired this afternoon. I woke up at eight today and didn't get to bed until two last night.
I am looking forward to the Cinerama documentary tonight.
-
I'm too busy.
Maybe after the laundry's in the dryer, but, by then, assumedly I'll be figuring out what to do for our final dinner together (prior to Christmas week).
-
Dear Friend BK, the first time I came to LA to mix a recording, you took me to see PEPE with Catinflas in a garage/studio? Where was that?
Yes, DRNoel, tell me!
-
Oh, I'm so thrilled!
I've been talking my head off with the following lady, who's a guest tonight at "my" hotel!
JUDY HENDERSON & Associates Casting
330 West 89th Street
New York, NY 10024
-- I do a little promo for her at the same time!
She knows Jason Graae -- picked him for Forever Plaid! -- Marc Kudich, Judy Kaye, Rebecca Luker, Tony Roberts etc, etc, etc...
She also works for Dame Andrews' daughter's Bay Street Theater -- She cast directed Julie's Boyfriend there!
Oh, again, I'm so thrilled!
She was surprised I know so much about Broadway theater!!
I had to share!
Bruce, I gave her your name but it did not seem to ring a bell!
Do you know her?
-
Will look forward to hearing about the Cinerama documentary. I look back in fondness to the hours spent in viewing Cinerama travelogues and, of course, their two features. As I mentioned here before, going to the Carolina Theater in Charlotte back then to see something in Cinerama was a BIG DEAL. We dressed in Sunday clothes and had to be on our best behavior. To be "surrounded" by picture and sound back in those days was something like a dream.
-
In 1918 or 1919 the owner of the Boston Red Sox (who won the World Series in 1918) was producing the musical, Irene. You know it, Elmore . . . a pretty good score. As often happens when new musicals are coming to town, an influx of cash was needed. So, the Sox owner decided to sell, for cash, a chubby left-handed pitcher on the team to the Yankees.
As I'm sure you've guessed by now, the lefty was Babe Ruth. The Yankees went on to win more championships than any North American sports franchise in the 20th Century, and the Red Sox have never won one since.
But now's their chance.
(Many a musical-writer, using Boston as a pre-Broadway try-out town, has attributed a tepid audience reaction to Bostonians' hatred of musical comedies due to the Ruth deal.)
Reverse the curse!
-
Another weird album I have is a Helen Merrill album (a Japanese import) where every song is prefaced by a French narrator speaking French gibberish. The songs are nice, but it's tough to sit through the French.
You're telling ME! :D
-
François François -great story. It is wonderful when your work is so much fun. :)
-
One of the strange discs I've collected over the years was released on the Delos label. Basically the work of arranger Donald Fraser, it's called HEIGH-HO! MOZART: Favorite Disney Tunes in the style of Great Classical Compsers. Some of the stuff really works, such as "I Wanna Be Like You" in the style of Vila-Lobos. Some of it is pretty obvious, like "Under the Sea," a la Joplin (Scott, not Janis, although the latter might have been fun). I'd play the set on my discman at work on occasion, and my co-workers would wonder what I was giggling about.
-
François François -great story. It is wonderful when your work is so much fun. :)
Thanks, Jane!
It really made my evening! :)
But, I'm so easy to please! ;D
Right, Tomovoz?? ???
Oh, also! -- I'll be briefs... umm, brief! Not BVD!... Rachelle York!
Well, that lady had cast her in a York Production and gave her "York" for her stage name!
Now, only at HHW can one learn such things!
Ain't that just de trop? Nope, too too! Sorry! ;)
-
One of the strange discs I've collected over the years was released on the Delos label. Basically the work of arranger Donald Fraser, it's called HEIGH-HO! MOZART: Favorite Disney Tunes in the style of Great Classical Compsers. Some of the stuff really works, such as "I Wanna Be Like You" in the style of Vila-Lobos. Some of it is pretty obvious, like "Under the Sea," a la Joplin (Scott, not Janis, although the latter might have been fun). I'd play the set on my discman at work on occasion, and my co-workers would wonder what I was giggling about.
I know that "no one's asking me!" but I have that cd! Oh yes!
There's also one with the same repertoire but played country style! Don't have it!
So.... if you look for something to get me for next Xmas.....
Just joking! ::)
-
I know that "no one's asking me!" but I have that cd! Oh yes!
There's also one with the same repertoire but played country style! Don't have it!
So.... if you look for something to get me for next Xmas.....
Just joking! ::)
I have the CD as well! And I look fantastic in anything expensive . . .
-
Thanks for telling the story DRNOEL. Have a nice dinner with Mrs. Claus!
-
Oh my - I remember once on Garrison Keillor's show they had a couple who played mandolins and they played show tunes....it was one of the funniest things I have ever seen/heard.
"Shall we day-unce..." and "To-naaaaaat. to-naaaaaaaaaat..." were a couple of my particular favorites.
-
Mentioned it a long time ago but I have an album produced my Snuff Garrett which combines some well known Classical themes with classic country songs. A good idea at the time - but it doesn't work and I usually love Tommy "Snuff" Garrett's work.
Snuff Garrett's Texas Opera Company - Arranged and conducted by Ernie Freeman.
Examples:
Today I Started loving you again/Chopin Polonaise
Make The World Go Away/Clair De Lune
For The good Times/Musetta's Waltz
-
Another really strange album in my collection: Mike Oldfield's Amarok. I'm not sure how to describe this one, other than that Oldfield seems to shift gears about every ten to fifteen seconds, with loops and repetitions, strange things being said or twanged, and every sound imaginable including the kitchen sink and a Margaret Thatcher impersonator. Assuming the listener can actually last through the first forty-five minutes into the final fifteen (and, yes, it's all one track so you can't just jump in and out to find the really great bits), it all begins to gel into a triumphant finale that may or not be about what happiness is.
I love this disc, but I've never worked up the courage to play it for der Brucer, it's that bizarre.
-
Mentioned it a long time ago but I have an album produced my Snuff Garrett which combines some well known Classical themes with classic country songs. A good idea at the time - but it doesn't work and I usually love Tommy "Snuff" Garrett's work.
Snuff Garrett's Texas Opera Company - Arranged and conducted by Ernie Freeman.
Examples:
Today I Started loving you again/Chopin Polonaise
Make The World Go Away/Clair De Lune
For The good Times/Musetta's Waltz
I can only imagine what would people would call it if Mr. Garret provided the soundtrack for a film at some time.
::) :o 8)
-
Congrats to DR Francois, who I just noticed is now a Dieu Deux! (A HHW God twice over, of course!)
-
The vet tech forgot about me today. It didn’t matter I did Bogie’s fluids just fine with Keith brushing him and keeping him happy. :) All went well until I tried removing the used needle. It wouldn’t come off until I used pliers. . I was told the prick I gave myself is harmless. ;D Next time I won’t shove it on so hard.
Echo’s new ramp to help her on and off the bed arrived by Fed Ex today-
MBarnum it was some old guy (sorry if I’m insulting anyone, but he was old and moved slowly for a delivery person) who does the non-express deliveries. I didn’t know Fed Ex had non-express and I missed your brother.
-
SWW- ;D
Congrats to our Dieu Deux!
-
I had the name of the band wrong - it's The Neon Philharmonic - so no one has ever heard of them?
-
JRand the following link should answer your question-it goes to William.
http://www.brainyencyclopedia.com/encyclopedia/l/li/line_of_succession_to_the_british_throne.html
-
I think this gets us to page Five, so in honor of DR Francois' reascention, I suggest
[move=left,scroll,6,transparent,100%][size=20]A TWO-STEP![/size][/move]
-
Gee! Thanks for the cheers -- I'm blushing! -- but I don't feel different from when I was a mere God! DoG, spelled backwards/sdrawkcab spelled dogwards/sdrawgod.... oh, stop me!
-
One good thing: we don't have to wear briefs when Godx2!
-
I don't remember Neon Philharmonic, although I keep thinking I should. Running through some of the audio samples over at Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000003GZA/qid=1098575671/sr=2-2/ref=pd_ka_b_2_2/103-7087482-4711019), I distinctly remember hearing "Cowboy" before...but I can't place where, or by whom. It's definately in the style of music I would have listened to at the time.
-
Uh, wait a sec, yes I DO remember where I heard that song. It was on a compilation record put out by Warner Bros. at the time, tracks by various artists. I have no idea how I got my hands on the record, or what happened to it. It was strictly intended as a promo item.
Given the location of the Warner Bros. offices, and in a satire of the logo the band Chicago used on all of it's albums, WB used the exact same typeface and called the promo disk Burbank.
-
Danise-I'm just now receiving email. Our satellite was down again.
-
Evening all! In the spirit of the day, I shall be brief.
Michael, so glad that you back among us. I just wish the doctors had been able to help you out more. I know how frustrating it is to have a problem with not answers.
I picked up several DVD’s while I was out and about today. Les Miserables (Liam Nelson version, I have never seen it), Van Helsing (which I have never seen), and an oldie but a goodie, Mysterious Island.
Panni, you mean you really don’t want to have the “fun” of putting something together? The joy of trying to put slot A into slot B when you know good and well it’s not going to fit? The trying to figure out which nut/bolt the instructions are referring to because there is NOTHING to tell you which one to use where?
I just love putting things like that together. Have I mentioned I also have some wonderful [size=0]swamp[/size] land I’d like to tell you about ;D .
And that's all the news I have.
Have a nice evening
-
Just saw your post, Jane. That's ok. It happens to me at times as well.
-
Orchestra read -through was great, was down a trumpet, clarinet and flute... oh and bass (students had a major test) everything is good. I'll need to re-orchestrate "Wick" because the orchestration pretty much stinks. Long day, time for ice cream and carving pumpkins!
-
Good news Matthew. Enjoy your ice cream and pupmkins.
-
Tonight is the last night that I need to house-sit! I'll stay there tonight and be home (for good) tomorrow. I'm not sure what time the home-owners will be back, and I need to give them their key, so I may stay there for a while.
Today I have done nothing...other than shower, eat and tape my laserdisc of "Sarafina" to VHS for a friend. However, in a very short time, I have to be a chaperon for a high school dance! WHAT WAS I THINKING?? The daughter of a friend of mine helped organized this dance for her school and called a lot of parents. The kids of these parents didn't want them to be there so Alexis (the daughter) has been having a hard time getting people to be chaperons. I'll actually be going to my very first high school dance (I never went when I was in high school, 20 years ago). I'll finally find out what I missed...maybe.
-
Have fun tonight George. I think it was very nice of you to agree to this dance.
-
It's true...I'm a pushover. :)
-
My concert was good. I happened to run into James Conlon in the street as he was making his way toward the concert hall and I congratulated him on his Silenced Voices effort. I think he was pleased that I recognized him and genuinely appreciative of my comments.
The Ullman piece was interesting. The first few movements were reminiscent of Bartok (not my favorite composer) here and Saint-Saens there, but the final movement was a noisy Mahlerian sort of thing that I enjoyed a great deal. The Mahler symphony was very well done. Mr. Conlon strove to bring out the individual orchestral colors--in a piece filled with them and played in a concert hall very conducive to such an approach--and succeeded magnificently.
Unfortunately, I had very, very, very (that is three verys) poor seatmates at the concert. She wore bangle bracelets. I am not sure how much shit one must have for brains to wear bangle bracelets to a symphony concert, but bangle bracelets she wore. He kept snorting phlegm throughout the entire concert. (Sorry, I had to listen to it, you get to read about it.) He also spent the better part of the last movement of the Ullman symphony attempting to unwrap a cellophane-wrapped candy. There ought to be a requirement that each patron must pass a basic concertgoer ettiquette (i.e., common sense) certification before being allowed in the auditorium.
And, on a politically INcorrect note, a lot of people yammer about kids today (oh, a Bye Bye Birdie reference), but, if we're going to generalize, my observations indicate that the worst behavior in concert halls and theatres these days comes from the senior citizen set.
-
The surprises continue to flow on LOST. In stead of watching the recorded standard defintion version from Wednesday night, ABC very thoughtfully repeated the episode tonight, and I was able to see it in high definition. This is such an enjoyable series anyway with unending surprises about these characters. Seeing it in high definition definitely gives it the feel of a feature film.
-
Also watched and enjoyed LATTER DAYS. I think in a few days, I will revisit it. There is enough about the film to make additional viewings necessary and, hopefully, rewarding.
-
And, on a politically INcorrect note, a lot of people yammer about kids today (oh, a Bye Bye Birdie reference), but, if we're going to generalize, my observations indicate that the worst behavior in concert halls and theatres these days comes from the senior citizen set.
I haven't seen a lot of the younger generation set at many of the concerts I've attended and definitely the audiences for the musicals I've been in in the last couple of years have not included young audiences at all. Maybe it's different in California.
But until you've chaparoned a middle school/junior high dance in this day and age, DR Jay, you don't know the meaning of the word "inappropriate." I can give you specific details if you need, but I think you know what I'm talking about. On the dance floor, they leave nothing to the imagination.
-
Also watched and enjoyed LATTER DAYS. I think in a few days, I will revisit it. There is enough about the film to make additional viewings necessary and, hopefully, rewarding.
I'm sure you will.
I showed it to a friend from Cincinnatti last weekend, and she bought her own copy later this week.
I rented from Netflix, and had my personal copy before returning Netflix' copy.
I have watched it several times on my own, and still haven't listened to the commentary!
-
I've always wanted to read the novel "The Year The Yankees Lost the Pennant," which became DAMN YANKEES.
I read that, and all I remember is that there was a stripper named Sandra. Somehow, she didn't make it into the musical.
Today, I was supposed to write the proposal for a term paper. But somehow, I find that all I've done today was buy yogurt with my mom. I'll do it tomorrow.
-
Just got in a little while agp. Caught up on the posts - no posts for an hour. Skammen!
-
Speaking of weird lounge music, I do have a CD of Esquivel's space-age bachelor pad music.
So do I! An ex-boyfriend who was heavily into lounge music (and Esperanto) burned me a copy.
-
I'm back, and to prove it, I'm here. Must write the notes now.
-
I've been busy posting at another site.
Well, it keeps me out of trouble. ;)
-
Posting at another site??? How unseemly.
-
I went furniture shopping. Now I'm confused. There's a lotta furniture out there. I was going to buy a bed for the guestroom. But it occurred to me that if anyone should have a new bed, it should be ME. My mattress is only a year old, but my bed is 20 years old! I could put it in the guestroom and get myself something spiffy. But first I have to measure the guestroom and see if my bed will fit nicely in there. As I said... confusing. Then I have to figure out if the bed I liked would look good in the bedroom. I also saw a sofa for the LR. But will it go with... You get the picture.
-
Bedtime for Panni. I'll read the notes when I wake up in the middle of the night.
-
Oh - I just looked at the clock. Might as well wait for the Notes.