Hmmm... Is the "Quote" button not showing up for anyone else too?
And the word of the day is: LODESTAR!
It certainly feels like a Monday morning. :-\Amen.
I have enjoyed visits with my sister in Maine.What part of Maine?
She's in Portland.I love that state. Well, in the summer. I doubt I'd want to be there during a snowstorm.
Is there any possible reason why anyone would want to pre-order the Blue-ray version of BEACHES, which is not coming out until November? Does anyone really believe that there will be a stampede to get this movie when it is released? Perhaps a limited edition?It'll be marked down at Costco about two weeks after it's released. Even Costco is scaling back the DVDs/Blue and Rays that it's selling. Rather depressing.
Vibes request. My co-writer and business partner, Bonnie, is having her gall bladder out today. They say it will not take long and she'll be hope in just three hours. Still, vibes and prayers would be greatly appreciated.
Phyllis Diller (http://www.tmz.com/2012/08/20/phyllis-diller-dead/)95 was not good for Joan Roberts or Celeste Holm, either.
passed away at 95 years old.
The real song by Pasek and Paul is a very funny funny song, but it's fiction, like - say - I Don't Remember Christmas by Maltby and Shire.Or, to make it creepier, an anonymous person who may not be a stranger.
it just has no place directed as a real person in a creepy, hostile, inappropriate post by an anonynous stranger.
Is anyone familiar with the group Celtic Thunder?
They are an all-male group from Ireland that have nice harmonies.
Just heard from Bonnie's husband that surgery went well and she should be on her way home in an hour or so. Thanks for all the vibes.
Just heard from Bonnie's husband that surgery went well and she should be on her way home in an hour or so. Thanks for all the vibes.
TOD:
It would have to be one of the many theatre trips to London that The Lovely Wife and I have been taking over the years since 1994, almost yearly, where we see ten to twelve shows. We both know the city very well by now, and go and just live in a holiday flat with a kitchenette. The flight over is always nice too, because I will not fly overseas in coach. We usually fly business and nothing less than premium economy, which has wider seats and lots of the perks of business. Perhaps the best trip was the one where we flew shortly after 9/11 and got bumped to upper (first) class on Virgin Atlantic. Flying in style. And, of course, we're seeing the greatest theatre in the world and brilliant actors. I've seen close to 150 plays now in London.
But my favourite trip to London may have been my first one when I was going over as the writer of my first two films, HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES and THE SIGN OF FOUR, to see them filmed with Ian Richardson as Holmes. I stayed for three months, the first month in a great boutique posh hotel, The Duke's, off Picadilly and only a stone's throw from St. James Park and Buckingham Palace. Then I was moved to a high-rise flat right down the street from Westminister and the Houses of Parliament. From my window, I could watch the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. A chauffeured car picked me up every monring to take me to the studio and then back at night. I had three months to explore and get to know the city like the back of my hand. It is the greatest city in the world. I never tire of it and it's really the only place The Lovely Wife and I ever want to travel to.
TOD:
It would have to be one of the many theatre trips to London that The Lovely Wife and I have been taking over the years since 1994, almost yearly, where we see ten to twelve shows. We both know the city very well by now, and go and just live in a holiday flat with a kitchenette. The flight over is always nice too, because I will not fly overseas in coach. We usually fly business and nothing less than premium economy, which has wider seats and lots of the perks of business. Perhaps the best trip was the one where we flew shortly after 9/11 and got bumped to upper (first) class on Virgin Atlantic. Flying in style. And, of course, we're seeing the greatest theatre in the world and brilliant actors. I've seen close to 150 plays now in London....
Had a nice long weekend and am now all caught up with the happenings on HHW. It seems like everyone here is traveling about! What fun!
Since I missed DR Vixmom's birthday......
(http://i.ebayimg.com/t/D418-Vintage-Tri-Fold-Belated-Birthday-Greeting-Card-Funny-Lady-Green-/00/s/MTQ4NlgxMjE0/$(KGrHqJHJE0E-uq,jIdsBPu+qOr3Kw~~60_57.JPG)
(http://i.ebayimg.com/t/D418-Vintage-Tri-Fold-Belated-Birthday-Greeting-Card-Funny-Lady-Green-/00/s/MTUxNVgxMjI4/$(KGrHqZHJ!4E-c,ubw(HBPu+qUMf(Q~~60_57.JPG)
(http://i.ebayimg.com/t/D418-Vintage-Tri-Fold-Belated-Birthday-Greeting-Card-Funny-Lady-Green-/00/s/MTUxMVgxMjIw/$(KGrHqRHJCIE-p,rMjeNBPu+qYmm0!~~60_57.JPG)
Is anyone familiar with the group Celtic Thunder?
They are an all-male group from Ireland that have nice harmonies.
The real song by Pasek and Paul is a very funny funny song, but it's fiction, like - say - I Don't Remember Christmas by Maltby and Shire.
it just has no place directed as a real person in a creepy, hostile, inappropriate post by an anonynous stranger.
Phyllis Diller (http://www.tmz.com/2012/08/20/phyllis-diller-dead/)Sorry to read that.
passed away at 95 years old.
Please send vibes that Ann Miner and Mike reynolds of All That Chat decide to reveal the identity of the person they are inexplicably protecting who thought it would be cute to post a taunting lyric saying "I really hope you die" yet claims in another post taht he's a friedn of Skip and mine, yet won't identify himself. It's just extremely creepy, and All that Chat just doesn't get why this is disturbing.Wow, that IS scary. I don't understand why anyone would shield someone who posted that--if only for your peace of mind.
I'm putting the complete post here. The person in another post says "I'm someone you've dined with and consider a friend' but knows I'm upset by this and won't come forward to reassure me, some "friend" that is! that leads me to believe it really is someone menacing who is pulling the wool over ATC's eyes and Ann and Mike just really want to believe it because they want to be hurtful.
Here's the post with the violent lyric. It feels creepy in light of the other incidents such as the "Fred Landu is Dead" newspaper links, and those strange "stalks" on the Times comments.
Brooklyn Boy, you've changed the subject yet again (not that there's anything wrong with that). Before addressing your new topic, I'd like to "like" Chromolume's peeve --
contemporary lyricists (or composer/lyricists like Brown) - again, so many of today's composers are influenced by contemporary pop, and the dense, overwritten lyric style of rap, and what I'd call "rant" songs ("One Week" being a good example) that this is seemingly all they know how to write - so we have these long overwritten marathons by the likes of Brown, Kerrigan/Lowdermilk, Gealt, etc, which tend, to me, all to become "more is less" songs. No one these days trusts the economy of, say, the lyric to a Hammerstein ballad, where often there is ONLY ONE REFRAIN to listen to, digest, and embrace - and in general, that kind of economy of writing can very easily be "less is more" - with the words NOT being sung just as important as the ones that are. But these days, a good number of lyricists feel they need to just vomit out all the subtext and everything else into one huge-ass song. And for me, that's often a tedious, masturbatory, wholly unsatisfying thing to listen to.
-- "They pack their lyrics 'til they're so damn dense, you could put 'em in your yard and you could use 'em for a fence." These songs/writers are extremely popular among performers under a certain age, and that has nothing to do with who is or isn't winning awards. Take for example: the Pasek and Paul song called In Short, which is really anything but. It includes these charming lines:
I wanna stick pins your eyes
I pray you get a rectal rash
I hope your Visa’s declined
Your children are blind
Get broke and have to do porn for cash
Become epileptic and violently shake
Find out that you were conceived by mistake
Fall out of a roller coaster
Take a warm bath with a plugged in toaster
In short
I really hope you die
but the real problem is that the song goes on and on, making the same point, which never develops, all at a thousand words per minute, never giving the ear a chance to rest, devoid of subtext. Listen to it back to back with Hammerstein's The Gentlemen Is a Dope for fun.
There's also Miller & Tyson's Spring Cleaning, Brown's Hopalong Heartbreak, plus countless other epics with countless words and notes. But when Chromolume says no one today is writing with economy, leaving things unsaid - well, it sounds like he's unaware of the better songsmiths of our day, such as the fine and diverse group who've won the Ebb award.
Is anyone familiar with the group Celtic Thunder?I think they are great! I love that kind of music.
They are an all-male group from Ireland that have nice harmonies.
Today went well. We have two duets to record, "Bye and Bye" and "Here's A Kiss," both with the two romantic leads, and we'll do them tomorrow. We have two sessions to record them, the Overture, Entr'Acte, Bow, and Exit Music and we are finished. I got all teary saying goodbye to the cast and chorus this evening.
DR JohnG, I'm happy your friend is okay. I'm sorry I missed sending her vibes.
DR Dakotacelt, I bought a book on the Book of Kells last year when I was here. I hear thye lines to see the pages the College elects to show the public is long, and I have no patience and too much to do in my brief time here. Still, I might get to it one of these days.
DR FJL, the whole situation is creepy and I think your curiosity and anger are probably delighting whomever this oaf may be. There's someone who claims to be an acquaintance of mine pulling something similar. I want to know who it is so I can give him a tonsillectomy with my bare hands, but I refuse to obsess about this ass. At some point I'll find out and kill the sonofabitch. Until then, I don't need to think about it.
Since I missed DR Vixmom's birthday......
(http://i.ebayimg.com/t/D418-Vintage-Tri-Fold-Belated-Birthday-Greeting-Card-Funny-Lady-Green-/00/s/MTQ4NlgxMjE0/$(KGrHqJHJE0E-uq,jIdsBPu+qOr3Kw~~60_57.JPG)
(http://i.ebayimg.com/t/D418-Vintage-Tri-Fold-Belated-Birthday-Greeting-Card-Funny-Lady-Green-/00/s/MTUxNVgxMjI4/$(KGrHqZHJ!4E-c,ubw(HBPu+qUMf(Q~~60_57.JPG)
(http://i.ebayimg.com/t/D418-Vintage-Tri-Fold-Belated-Birthday-Greeting-Card-Funny-Lady-Green-/00/s/MTUxMVgxMjIw/$(KGrHqRHJCIE-p,rMjeNBPu+qYmm0!~~60_57.JPG)
Thank you Mike! You look lovely in this frock!
The whole incident is very strange, DR FJL. One would think that if the comment and lyrics were perfectly innocent the poster would happily identify themself and explain. Perhaps it is not really someone you "know and have dined with", but the poster is trying to make you paranoid.I agree.
I'm working too hard to get any work done. I hate Mondays like this.
TOD:
One of the two best trips that I ever took was when my sister, my niece and I went to London. It was shortly after 9/11, also...we went in December, 2001. We saw Starlight Express (before it closed in January 2002); Kiss Me Kate with Brent Barrett and Marin Mazzie; and the first two acts of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof with Brendan Fraser, Frances O'Connor and Ned Beatty.
Good evening, all.
Am I really the only DR to take MR BK up on his invitation to observe the recording session? I spent five -- count'em -- five hours there today, and here's what I can tell you: this is already an album I want to put on repeat play. Lanny's arrangements are wonderful and the 20-piece orchestra blew me away. Or maybe the orchestra was wonderful and Lanny's arrangements blew me away. One of those. I also happen to think the East Coast Singer is sounding luscious on these songs.
It was especially gratifying to walk in as they were doing BK's own number, because it's a beaut.
Many thanks to BK for the invite. I took a few snapshots on my phone and will pull them off later and post them here. If I'd known picture taking was de rigeur at these things (or so it seemed to be today), I would have brought my very decent but unobtrusive REAL camera and gotten a few things worth enjoying. Next time!