Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, overtired, but enjoying the music of Alexandre Tansman, a fine Polish composer of fine classical music, who came to the US and also wrote some fine soundtrack scores. Nine symphonies, although symphony one seems to not exist, several concertos for piano, winds, violin, and cello, ballets, eight string quartets, and assorted other pieces, including a lot of well-known solo guitar music that is quite popular with guitar players. Thankfully, for such an off the radar composer, almost his entire output is available on CD. I already had the bulk of it, but last night on the Tube of You I found about fifteen things I didn’t have. I’m also looking forward to watching the most famous movie he scored – Flesh and Fantasy, which I’ve never seen. Currently playing is Six Etudes for Orchestra. Tansman can be extremely lyrical, playful, dramatic, and even a bit avantgarde for his time, but it’s all accessible and a lot of it could work well in a movie. I haven’t listened to his stuff in several years, so this is a nice rediscovery. Other than that, I dozed off quite a bit last evening, watched the first thirty minutes of the new Superman movie, which I really wanted to like but I just think I don’t respond to any of these new iterations of Superman. There are, in fact, only three iterations that I love, and they are in reverse order – number three, the Max Fleischer cartoons, which I absolutely loved when I was a young fellow, at number two would be the marvelous Richard Donner film starring Christopher Reeve, which, despite some bad special effects, works really well, script-wise, and especially acting-wise. And obviously, at number one would be the George Reeves TV show, which I watched from the very early 1950s all the way into the 1970s and never ever tired of. Of course, I’ve owned all home video releases, including the wonderful DVD sets, and I wish they’d get around to releasing those on Blu-ray. I may have to whip out the DVDs and watch the first two seasons again. Anyway, I just couldn’t get with the film and so spent the entire evening adding CDs to the eBay listings – about twenty more and I have another twenty ready to go. I’m not putting up anything that’s selling at reasonable prices – no reason to, but most of our stuff goes for pretty good money, so this lets people get them at almost list price – I just add a couple of bucks to help cover the eBay fees. Certain really rare OOP titles I’m listing at 30 bucks, but that’s as high as I’ll go on our titles. Also, in a day or two, I’m going to put up some rare memorabilia – I want this eBay thing to be full service with all kinds of fun stuff, so you may want to go to eBay and save my listings to your favorite seller page because there might be something that winks at you there, memorabilia-wise.
After I post the notes, I’ll probably put up another ten CDs, but I want to get to sleep by two at the latest. Other than that, it was an ordinary day, with just one bit of irritating news that I knew was going to happen due to a lot of wrongheaded moves by those who should have known better – can’t say more at this time. I got six hours of sleep – better than five – answered a ton of e-mails, had some telephonic conversations, had a tiny Numero Uno pizza and tiny salad – not what it used to be, sadly – had a quick discussion about the next track for the play, dozed off for about two hours, tried to watch the movie, took thirteen pills, had an English muffin for the third pill – with peanut butter and jam, of course – listed a whole slew of CDs, and here we are.
Today, I’ll be up by ten-thirty and I have a phone thing at eleven to discuss the first attempt at a new mix with the stripped vocal for the Sherman Brothers – it’s so much better than the idiocy that was done for the album, but I have some nitpicks and one overall note that has to do with the strings, which sound a bit tinny and strident to me – it’s just an EQ thing and a bit more reverb and the problem should be fixed. After that, I’ll either make Wacky Noodles, tuna sandwiches, or just go over to the Cheesecake Factory for a nice meal. I do think I’d just rather stay here and add more CDs to eBay – I’m trying to have enough on there that we have some kind of regular weekly sales to count on, as I did at Amazon, but not really because there were some weeks where I made nothing or seventeen bucks or something. It’s a pain doing all this adding stuff, but once it’s done, it’s done. I’m expecting an Amazon food order – mostly just Diet Coke and some chocolate licorice because for some unknown reason two items I’ve ordered before and have shipped to the house, suddenly for reasons the don’t explain, can’t be delivered here. Why? Last week they could, this week they can’t? It makes no logical sense, but then again – it’s Amazon. And then at some point, I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow is my eye doctor appointment. Bloodwork isn’t happening tomorrow – that I have to book myself and can do it here in the Valley and not far from here, so that’s good, Friday is an opening night, and then the weekend seems free, although I may or may not try for a reservation at the about to open redo of Genghis Cohen – if not, I’ll definitely do it at some point soon. They’re not open for lunch like they used to be during the week. They open at four during the week.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by ten-thirty, have a phone thing, make food here or order in or go out should there be anything at the mail place, add more CDs, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite iterations for Superman on film and TV and when did you first discover the character and were you an avid reader of the comic books? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have reminisced about the days when there was a Super in Superman, at least for me.