Well, ladies and germaniums, I've been trying to hide from reality for a couple of hours with Dracula II [is that a title? I mean is that a title, Irving?], a nice second-rate clichéed (1) gory flick--which makes me think of Joe. Uh, let me clarify that. We've gotten to spending Saturday nights watching just such cinematic germs gems. And what do you do on a Saturday night alone? (Oh, a... need I say it?)
And now I am listening to the OCR of Seesaw on my computer CD player, which I think has the best sound in the house--perhaps because it is the only one with a subwoofer. But it skips whenever I download a new page.
And by the bye, how did they get away with "Welcome to Holiday Inn"? Shouldn't it have been "Welcome to Holiday Inn™" or else a big, fat law suit?
I'm going through a Cy Coleman phase since he was at the Musical Theatre Conference here at Hofstra last March. There are so many scores of his I didn't really know, and I am developing a great admiration for him.
I know I didn't really report on the conference at the time, because I missed a lot of it, having a truly horrible tooth-ache that week. But I did see Cy talk,actually just tell anecdotes about all his shows and personalities; I know I've quoted a couple of his stories here.
And there was also an evening concert (for all of $10 a seat), "Cy Coleman and Friends". His "friends" consisted of his combo, Michelle Lee, Greg Edelman, Carolee Carmello, and a fourth singer whose name escapes me at the moment. Michelle, of course, sang "Nobody Does It Like Me" and "I'm Way Ahead/Seesaw".
One of the highlights was his combo playing "Three" from I Love My Wife, which is an incredible jazz piece, but I never realized it, because I was always so absorbed in Michael Stuart's lyrics.
So what am I missing from my Coleman collection now? The Will Rogers Follies, Wildcat, The Life OCR (I only have the weird concept album) Julie Wilson's Coleman album, and a bunch of movie scores which probably aren't available. Oh, I see on amazon that Cy also has a solo album, different from the old one I have on vinyl.
And what does all this have to do with Sinatra? Well, "Witchcraft" for one, and "The Best Is Yet to Come" for another.
(1)Although one could make a case for spelling the participle clichéd, it is normally only silent e that is elided with the suffix, and I therefore elected the additional e. Or whatever. --wfo