Well, dear readers, I felt it was time for a little Shostakovich and why not – it’s always a good time for a little Shostokovich. I recently downloaded his ninth symphony from Apple Music, the old Everest Stereo recording transferred from the mater tapes. Everest made some fine recordings over the years, in excellent stereo, beautifully recorded. I have many great Shostakovich symphony sets by any number of great conductors, plus many one-off recordings. This one on Everest is conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent, a fine English conductor. This is one of Shostakovich’s lighter symphonies and it’s very enjoyable and this performance is a favorite. The sound really is astonishing – Everest made many recordings using 35mm film and when they’re mastered from that source you just cannot believe the quality. If you have Apple Music+ it’s free to download and I recommend it. I did manage to watch a documentary yesterday, entitled RomCon: Who the F**k is Jason Porter, about a serial con artist who lied to heaven knows how many women, carried on simultaneous relationships, and causing much emotional distress, not to mention theft of money and jewelry. All this happened in Canada and after watching this two-part ninety-minute documentary I have to say the Canadian justice system is as screwed up as ours occasionally is. He was finally caught and charged and he and his lawyer managed to keep delaying the trial for three YEARS, which is absolutely outrageous. In the end, he was sentenced to only two years in jail and then probation. That is way too light a sentence for what this creep did. Your heart goes out to the victims but also, it’s just hard to understand why they put up with it for so long – but that’s manipulation for you. I hope he violates his parole when he’s let out and that they then give him his full ten years. He’s the kind of con artist who probably will do exactly that. After that, I began watching a Dario Argento film from the early 1980s called Tenebrae. I have stayed away from his films after his first four because he went to hyper violent land, but he’s visually interesting so I decided to give this a try. I stopped after twenty minutes because they’re showing a heavily edited (not just for violence) version of ninety minutes, which is missing ten minutes of plot stuff. So, I’ll find the uncut version. I’ve read what the violence is so I’m ready for it. I have no idea what the transfers are like or if the uncut version is streaming – the cut version is free on Prime. It stars Anthony Franciosa and John Saxon. I do enjoy revisiting his Bird with the Crystal Plumage and Cat o’ Nine Tails films – those are my favorites, and they hold up quite well. They also have great scores by Ennio Morricone, while the later films have scores by a rock band called Goblin and I don’t care for that stuff.
Prior to all that, I got eight and a half hours of sleep, but I completely forgot we had to turn the clocks back, so I guess it was seven and a half hours of sleep. I reset the stove and microwave clocks and will have to do the same for the motor car tomorrow, so I don’t get confused. For food, I’d preordered a sub sandwich from a legendary sub jernt in Burbank called Giamela’s. Well, between that and the other legendary jernt called Santoro’s, it really puts to shame any fast-food sub jernt. This is the real deal – everything really fresh, great Eyetalian dressing for the Eyelian sub I had – and there was only a one-dollar difference between the regular and large, so I got the large – why not? And boy was it large. I simply took a fifteen-minute break between sandwich halfs and that was just the right break. Here is an actual photograph of the actual large Eyetalian sub. I mean, just look at this thing.
Speaking of photos, and who wasn’t, I promised photos of the small package items from Saturday, so here they are. First, an ashtray from Kelbo’s, one of our family’s favorite jernts – I think I’ve used Kelbo’s in several books, most recently the first or second Harry Stearns book.
Next up, I think this will make dear reader Jane happy – it’s the first thing I’ve ever found from this restaurant, a matchbook from our favorite coffee shop, Stat’s on Pico. Fun to finally find this.
But I’ve saved the best for last. As you know, my grandparents on my mother’s side (called the Gelfinbaums in the Kritzer books) lived at the St. Regis Hotel and Apartments on the Ocean Park boardwalk, right across the street from the Pinochle Parlor until they built Pacific Ocean Park, which I watched being built from their third-floor kitchen window. We visited there once or twice a week since I was very young. Over the years, I have only seen a couple of photos that showed the building and never really clearly, although you could see where it was. So, on eBay, I occasionally search Ocean Park Pier – it’s all stuff I’ve seen before, but this time a post card came up from the 1930s, I think – and the post card IS the official post card of the St. Regis Hotel and Apartments. I believe the kitchen window I speak of are the first two on the left on the third floor, which is NOT the top floor, it’s the one below. This is a beauty. Someone actually sent this – it’s stamped and has a long message on the message side, but I haven’t tried reading it yet.
Isn’t that amazingly amazing? I just love it. Now all I need is a photo of my grandfather’s roulette wheel stand – Wheel-O – and there is one and I would love to have it, but I don’t know who got all those photos my Aunt Lily had. I may try to find out. I had a tiny bit of ice cream at five and took pill two, and then after the documentary I had some won ton soup and a tiny side of fried rice, both excellent, and pill three was taken. And here we are.
Today, I’ll try to be up by ten, I’ll do banking, check with the mail place while I’m down that way, then come home, eat, spend the rest of the day prepping for our meet and greet and first rehearsal. I forgot to mention that I was productive yesterday and got our cast the piano plunk tracks, the orchestrated tracks they’ll be singing to, and the latest version of the script. I also printed that out for me. After I’m done prepping, then I really need to rest up and watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow, I’ll take it easy until it’s time to mosey on over to the theater for our meet and greet and first rehearsal. I’m going to attempt to stage the opening number. We’ll see how that goes. Wednesday, we’re meeting our lighting designer at the theater so we can talk about the play, and he can see the theater and lighting equipment. We still need at least two ensemble boys and I’m just not sure how to find them. I’ll keep trying, though. But mostly it’s a rehearsal week.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by ten, do banking, check with the mail place, eat, prep, rest, then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite kinds of sub sandwiches. Where did you have your very first sub sandwich (I think mine was Blimpie’s in New York). Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have had an Eyetalian sub that was the definition of the real deal.