Well, dear readers, I was just listening to John Wilson’s Ravel album and methinks that Mr. Wilson should stick to the film and theater music recordings. I don’t know what his other classical recordings are like, but these Ravel performances, while perfectly average, will never stand up besides the classic recordings, especially Munch and Cluytens and Ansermet and frankly almost everyone else. There’s no magic here and if there isn’t magic in Ravel then it’s missing that key ingredient. Munch is my favorite for Ravel – for me, no one comes close in Ravel. It shimmers, it glistens, its gentle, its exciting, it weaves its magic spell from start to finish. I has spoken. And so, now I’m listening like so much fish to Eduard Tubin’s wonderful fourth symphony, conducted by Neemi Jarvi on the BIS label. I do remember buying a few of these symphonies back in the 90s – no idea if I have them or not but will have to now find the rest on Apple Music or YouTube – this one has the fourth and the ninth. It’s a beautiful piece. In other news, I did manage to get through a movie last night – terrible direct to video thing, although I’m sure that wasn’t the intention – from 2003 starring Michael Keaton and Michael Caine. I’d guess the entire budget was spent on them. The script is a little too incoherent for its own good and it’s also just not good period. The movie is called Quicksand and frankly I couldn’t even tell you what it’s about – something about money laundering and Keaton investigating and then being framed for murder. The money is apparently being laundered through a bogus film production company filming a movie that never seems to finish. The star of the movie is played by Caine and he’s always fun to watch but one can only imagine that the payday must have been sufficient to accept such a piece of dreck as this. And then, I found the answer – he wanted to spend the winter in the south of France and get paid for it. He seemed to do that a lot. I suppose the writer thinks his twists have never been done before, but you can, of course, see them coming from a mile away. Prior to that, I got nine hours of good sleep, got up, ordered food from Maria’s Kitchen with a 50% off coupon – had the farfalle with sausage and little tomatoes. Very good. Then I really didn’t do much of anything – just a tiny bit of prep work and that was that. I did get my first eBay return request, for the La Cage Aux Folles signed window card. The buyer sent photos saying there was a crease across the entire middle of the card that wasn’t mentioned in the description. That is correct – it wasn’t mentioned because it wasn’t there. And that is clearly evident in the photo I posted of it. You can enlarge it and there is no crease. So, while I accepted the return, I asked if the packaging was bent in any way that would cause a crease and if so I needed a photo of it to file a UPS claim, as it was insured. Now, this guy who bought it is a notorious window card collector and a major poster on the Facebook window card group. So far, I have not had a response. If I don’t get one, I will, of course, go right on that group and call him out there. If he doesn’t respond there or if there’s no response by the time I get home from lunch tomorrow, then I call eBay, have them look at my photo and then the ones he posted, and ask them to rescind the return unless he can prove there was damage to the packaging. Because the only other way that card got a full-length side-to-side crease is if he bent it while taking it out of the package, although it was packaged very well. We shall see what happens. If and when I get it back I’ll see about trying to sell it again, mentioning the crease, which, BTW, doesn’t really stand out in any way.
After that, I dozed off for a bit, did a bit of prep work, watched some irritating YouTube videos, then, after the movie, I had some clam chowder and a baked potato – both ice cold due to the DoorDash idiocy of sending this guy to other deliveries. No other service I use has ever done that, only DoorDash. The soup thing was not even three-quarters full, so I’m deciding whether to get a refund or not. And here we are.
Today, I’ll be up by eight-thirty and out the door by 9:15. From ten to eleven it’s me and the dance captain and maybe the actor involved doing a duet with staging. Even if the actor isn’t there, I just want to get it done so he can learn it tomorrow night. Then from eleven to one we’re reviewing everything we’ve done thus far and I’m blocking one other little scene just to get it out of the way. After rehearsal, I’ll probably go have a sit-down lunch somewhere nearby, then go home, catch up on stuff, and then watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow, I’ll just rest and relax until I leave at 5:15 for our 6:00 three-hour rehearsal with all my leads, and that will be a marathon blocking session, trying to get as much done of the big scenes as possible, and maybe even all of them. I’m not going to overblock the scenes. After that, I’ll come home. Monday, I’m being taken for a very early birthday lunch at a really excellent jernt, and then I can relax after that, and then Tuesday we’re back rehearsing at an off-site rehearsal room.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by eight-thirty and out the door by nine-fifteen, rehearse, eat, come home, catch up on stuff, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your all time favorite films of the two Michaels – Caine and Keaton? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, as I think about watching the good movie called Quicksand, a little noir starring Mickey Rooney and the ending of which was all shot at Ocean Park Pier.