Haines His Way

Last night, after I got back, I [snip]watched a couple of episodes from POPULAR, a series I somehow managed to miss in 1999.

A man of ineffable tastes.

Don't you just ADORE Nichole...and isn't Mary Cherry a HOOT?


And how many "Miss Bobbie Glass"-es do you personally know?

I spent a quiet evening last night, sating nostalgic longings by watching my DVDs of  "Tales of the City."  I got through four of the  6 parts of the first adaptation.  I'm looking forward to viewing the remaining two in the coming days.

It is already warm outside

This is something I did not know before.

How did you ever survive the original "Jose's Manhattan Tours" with all the stops at sweets stores?  I know you did, I was there, but good golly!

I have mentioned it before DR SWW, perhaps you forgot.

I think I ate fairly ok on the eating walking tour and didn't indulge too awfull much...and the walking probably helped keep the blood sugars level...I know that this year I will have to be a bit more careful on what I eat while I am in NY as I am having more difficulties with highs and lows these days....dang it!

Great news for fans of the macabre!  I quote from an item at creepyclassics.com:

"Three classic horror box sets are coming to DVD this fall. One from Columbia and one from Fox. The Columbia set will include THE WEREWOLF (1956 with Steven Rich), CREATURE WITH THE ATOM BRAIN (1955 with Richard Denning), ZOMBIES OF MORA TAU (1957), THE GIANT CLAW (1957) and one other title to yet announced. The suggested retail price will be around 24.95. They will not be released separtately.

"The Fox set will include CHANDU THE MAGICIAN (1932 with Bela Lugosi as Roxor), THE UNDYING MONSTER (1942, Fox's answer to THE WOLF MAN), THE LODGER (1944 with Laird Cregar), HANGOVER SQAURE (1945, also with Cregar) and MAN HUNT (1941 with Walter Pidgeon, Joan Bennett, George Sanders, John Carradine and Roddy McDowell)."

The third set is from KINO, and will be a collection of previously released single titles.



I'm particularly excited by the Fox set and "Hangover Square"....an intense film with a superb film score by Bernard Herrmann, including a magnificent concerto that is a key part of the exciting ending of the film.

It is hot here as well DR Adriana....it will be in the 90s...just last weekend it was cool, cloudy and drizzling.

The Bay Area is cooling its heels under the marine layer (i.e. fog) that will make its presence known through the week into the weekend.  Forecast for the day indicates the fog will probably NOT burn off appreciably.

Oh yes Trix and Lucky Charms were both quite tasty...!!

Unfortunately, now that I am diabetic I tend to eat only cereals that are low in carbs and high in protein and fiber.

DR Tomovoz, I see Weetbix at the store all of the time, although I have never tried it.

Yeah, you and me both, DR MB.  It's a bowl of Cheerios for me every morning.  Sometimes with a banana if I'm good.

the pantry of DR JoseSPiano's childhood home:

Hmmm...

Star Wars has a General Mills "G" affixed, while C-3P0s" is a Kelloggs product.

That's merchandizing!

Workies.

I don't remember that cereal.

My all-time favorite cereal:  Kellogg's Corn Flakes.  Just good, simple cereal, with butt loads of variation possibilities...bananas, nuts, fruit...all go with corn flakes!

NPR's Elizabeth Blair reports that many famous artists admit to drawing creative inspiration from the work of others. Take, for example, Stephen Sondheim, the prolific Broadway composer and lyricist. A few years ago, he told Library of Congress music specialist Mark Horowitz one such inspiring moment came while watching the 1945 movie Hangover Square at age 15. He saw the movie twice to memorize the score, composed by the legendary Bernard Herrmann.

"When Sondheim wrote Sweeney Todd, he -- at least to some degree -- was trying to imagine, 'What would Bernard Herrmann do?'" Horowitz says. "And he talks about how there are certain Bernard Herrmann chords that he uses that are inspired aspects of the score."

Wow!  Thanks for sharing this info.  I had never read/heard of this.  

There is a wonderful suite from "Hangover Square" in the Charles Gerhardt-conducted album "Citizen Kane: The Classic Film Scores of Bernard Herrmann."  It was originally released in the early- to mid-70's as part of that wonderful RCA series that was kicked off by "The Sea Hawk: The Classic Film Scores of Erich Wolfgang Korngold."  The entire series has been issued on CD.  Don't know if any are still available.

I saw 'Hangover Square" on TV once...as a young adult.  Can't remember where I was, but I was riveted by the story and the music.

DR Ron Pulliam, here's SS himself on this:


***SPOILERS***[/size]



"It's an open secret that the music for Sweeney is an hommage to a film composer named Bernard Herrmann. When I was fifteen I saw a movie called Hangover Square, an American movie which took place in London, starring Laird Cregar as – wait for it – an insane composer who was musically way ahead of his time in 1900. Every time he would hear a high-pitched note, his mind would go blank and he'd go out and murder the nearest person. He doesn't know what he does in these blackouts, and he goes to George Sanders, who is the police psychiatrist, who says, “Dear fellow you're in a lot of trouble”. He's arrested right in the middle of playing his piano concerto, but insists on finishing the concert, and sets the entire concert hall on fire. Everyone leaves and he's left playing surrounded by flames. Bernard Herrmann wrote the concerto in such a way that it ends with solo piano with low chords. It's a brilliant score, a one-movement piano concerto. When I was fifteen I sat through the movie twice because in the middle there's a three-second shot of the score on the piano. I memorised it and I can still play it. As a matter of fact, when I visited the Library of Congress, they showed me a number of Bernard Herrmann manuscripts, including Citizen Kane, and they said that they're going to try and get me a photostat of the score for Hangover Square.
 
Herrmann had a way of making suspense lushly musical, and he had a harmonic line which I thought was just right for Sweeney. I didn't consciously copy him, but it was Hangover Square that started that kind of thought process in my head.

The reason there's so much music in Sweeney is that I thought every time the music stops the audience will remember they're in a theatre and that these events are ridiculous. That's what good film scoring does. I remember when I saw Jaws, the moment those double basses started, and all you saw was water…. I was so frightened. I didn't know what was going to happen, all I knew was I was scared to death. Music can do that to you and it can sustain suspense even when nothing is going on on stage. Herrmann's harmonic language is always unresolved, so something is always going to happen. There's constant motion but the harmony is never quite resolved."

My goodness, I slept late, until ten.  I really must have needed to sleep yesterday and today, and now I must play ketchup for the next hour or two.

Tonight we have a new episode of SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE.

I wonder how many more audition episodes there are (hopefully this is the last one).  I much prefer the episodes where all the winners train and we see who can do what.