Well, dear readers, symphony number five of Edward Rubbra is wrapping up – an amazing performance from 1951 conducted by Sir John Barbirolli – excellent mono sound. I’ve really enjoyed symphonies three and four, and five is their equal. And now six has begun with some ominous chords and who doesn’t respond to ominous chords every now and then? Ominous Chords – that’s the title of my next novel. Otherwise, I had a late-night snack to take pill three – clam chowder and a little baked potato from BJ’s. Arrived ice cold because DoorDash sent this guy on four deliveries before me and this was coming all the way from deep Burbank in the first place. I heated everything in the microwave and ate it all. I SHOULD get a refund – they need to learn to stop doing this and spread the wealth with more dashers, so they don’t do this to one person. But I didn’t because I didn’t. I did watch an entire motion picture without dozing off, an amazing feat of something or other. Of course, prior to watching I dozed off several times during the early part of the evening. Anyway, what I watched was the new 4K restoration of Hammer’s The Curse of Frankenstein, which I saw back in 1957 at the Picfair Theater on a Saturday matinee. The film only played first run for a couple of weeks and got mostly poor reviews. TRY NOT TO FAINT! screamed the ads. Now, I was a fairly timid type with horror back then and occasionally would run up the aisle of the theater if something was too much for my sensitive self. But I didn’t at The Curse of Frankenstein, not even during the reveal of the Creature’s face. I got the previous Blu and Ray and found the transfer really wanting in every way. Watching last night, I’m happy to report that the new 4K transfer is a nice step up – especially color-wise. They had the original camera negative, which had never been used for transfers, plus the YCM separation masters, which is mostly what this is from. It’s a real gab fest until the monster makes its appearance, with only some yucky eyeball and brain bits to liven things up. But we’d never really had a film like it in lurid color, and it did do decent business. It kind of ushered in a new era for horror, whose boundaries would truly be pushed over the edge just three years later with Psycho, Black Sunday, Eyes Without a Face, and Peeping Tom. The run-time feels much longer than it is, but it does have its moments, and Peter Cushing, Hazel Court, and Christopher Lee all do okay. Hammer would fare much better the following year, with the truly stylish and wonderful Horror of Dracula, and I’m sure a new 4K restoration of that is coming soon. I can’t really see what the actual 4K disc would add to the Blu-ray – maybe a bit more sharp and even more lurid color, but for casual collectors the Blu-ray should do fine. They present the film in three aspect ratios, which is patently absurd, since the only place it was ever shown in the Academy ratio is TV. In England, the party line was 1.66, but it was 1.85 in America. I watched the 1.66 version, but I’ll also check out the 1.85. James Bernard’s loud score helps the film immeasurably.
Symphony number six is very good, but I do like three, four, and five better. And I don’t care who knows it. Earlier, I got eight hours of sleep, answered e-mails, then went to the mail place and shipped a package and picked up a couple of small things – one a potential Kritzerland project. Then I had Maria’s Kitchen for the main meal – tried something new and it was very tasty – pappardelle with spicy Eyetalian sausage, fresh tomatoes, in a meat sauce with a tiny bit of cream. I ate ever bite of it as I always try to be a member of the clean plate club. I’ve always been like that – always cleaned my plate. Unless there was something I didn’t care for on it – that would just get pushed right off the plate onto the table. Then I listed a couple of items, then I watched the movie and the rest you know.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll mostly take it easy and get my mind in the right mindset for the neurologist tomorrow. I’ll eat something, I’m sure. I might even do a Gelson’s run and get some bread for some tuna sandwiches, which is what I think I’ll want to eat tomorrow. I could also get a couple of fresh bagels, but we’ll see how I’m feeling. I did prep a couple of more items to list, so I’ll get those up and running, then I’ll just watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow, I have my appointment at noon, so I’ll probably leave here around ten-thirty or thereabouts and hope there’s no real traffic all the way. I’ll come right home afterwards, although I could stop at Farmer’s Market and get some fun stuff to bring home for food. We shall see. Once back, we’ll see where we are casting-wise, we have to update the script again – there were a couple of songs left over from the original staged reading and two-nighter that I never got around to fixing the scan of – I’ve done that now and I do want to get the cast we know we have all their stuff so they can at least be familiar with it. And I still need an assistant director so I can make a schedule and a stage manager, too. I hate cutting things this close, but the show that’s before us took forever to cast and we had to wait over two weeks past when we were supposed to start. Such are the vagaries on ninety-nine seat theater. And that’s pretty much next week.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up when I’m up, do whatever needs doing, mostly take it easy and rest my poor voice, get in the right mindset for my appointment, eat, list a couple of items, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I shall TRY NOT TO FAINT!