"Pickup On South Street" + Cold & Rainy

Happy Late Night, Sweet Baby,

This blog has turned into The Movie Report of late, as there hasn't been much else to mention, and so tonight's movie was another Noir, "Pickup On South Street" (1953) from Criterion and directed by the hard-boiled Sam Fuller. The movie opens inside a subway train. Noir stalwart and all-time movie tough guy Richard Widmark is a pickpoket with his eye on Jean Peters. As is universally known, New York subways are sardine cans. Peters and Widmark are sardined next to one another and he deftly steals her wallet from her handbag while acting nonchalant.

Little does he know that in her wallet is an envelope with some film negatives of classified United States Defense Information, some kind of mathematical formulae that Peters is smuggling to an infiltrating Communist agent on behalf of her Red boyfriend Richard Kiley.

Most Noirs didn't play politics, but this is Samuel Fuller, who often added social themes, and this was the height of the Cold War.

Still, the Commie theme is really only a subplot. The main story is pure Noir. Peters' boyfriend forces her to track down the pickpocket, whom the police and Federal agents are also looking for. She finds Widmark, and of course falls in love with him. How he turns out to be the Good Guy is a bit convoluted........now wait a minute.........didn't I mention that in last night's film review? Or maybe it was the night before last. Anyhow, this is Noir, so it's okay if all the films have basically the same plot, haha.  :) The rest of the film centers around Peters and how she tries to negotiate the dangers of her relationship to Widmark, and the problem of her boyfriend being a Commie traitor, and the cops being after all of them.

Jean Peters was very good in this film. She had a brief movie career and then went on to marry Howard Hughes, who was in those days the world's richest man. Richard Widmark was great in every film he was ever in, so that goes without saying here. The rest of the actors are Noir regulars, and when you watch several in a row, as I have this week, you see at least a few of the same faces in more than one film.

Noirs, including "Pickup On South Street", are always shot in excellent black and white, and Fuller did a great job in capturing the grittiness of the New York wharf, where much of the action takes place. The film clocked in at 80 minutes, and that's another thing I love about Film Noir : no wasted time. I love 90 minute films, because you get in there, you tell your story, and you finish it. And, if you have a good script, you can have a million things happen in between, and still not make the film feel as if it is being rushed.

The trick is a good script and good direction, knowing when to cut a scene, knowing how to edit to keep the flow going. But you can do a ton in 90 minutes, and for many film styles, that time limit works well.

I hope all is going well for you. Out here, it is cold again and raining. We are actually above normal in our rainfall since October, the first time that's happened in at least five years......

That's all for tonight. Post if you get a chance. See you in the morn.

I Love You.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Back To Work + "I Wake Up Screaming" + Ramen + Debbie Reynolds and Harry Karl

Happy Late Night, Sweet Baby,

I am back at Pearl's, writing from her kitchen where all is quiet except for the sounds of KUSC playing softly in the background. Today was mostly about getting re-situated and doing a little shopping at the produce market. It was actually warm today, about 80 degrees during the afternoon, though tomorrow the rain is supposed to return and with it, the fruh-heezing cold.

Tonight I watched another classic Noir : "I Wake Up Screaming", starring the handsome Victor Mature, the famous WW2 Pin-Up Girl Betty Grable, and the beautiful but tragic Carol Landis. Mature plays a sports promoter who walks into a restaurant and spies a waitress (Landis) who he thinks he can make into a Star, which will catapult him into high society. If you notice a theme from last night's film (man walking into restaurant and spying waitress), then you may note that this film could have been taken from the same script as "Fallen Angel", with a few alterations. Landis, the waitress in this one, is murdered just like Linda Darnell's waitress was in "Fallen Angel". And there is a Bad Cop in each film, tonight played by the hulking but brilliant and also tragic Laird Cregar, who only lived to be 30 years old. Hollywood was tough for many of it's Golden Era stars, but anyhow, Cregar is great as the bad guy, the cop who tries to frame Victor Mature for Landis' murder. Mature, meanwhile, falls in love with her sister Betty Grable. Once again there are plot twists galore, and fantastic Hollywood Glamour Lighting and b&w photography. Man, did they ever know how to crank out these Noirs in those days. Just one classic after another. But the Studio System and the sudden fame was rough on many of these early era stars. They were among the first to deal with the fame and pressures that go along with being in movies, and when you look at their IMDB profiles (which I investigate after every movie I watch), you see that a good many of them did not have long lives.

So, God Bless 'Em, I say, and God Bless all Artists and Entertainers, because To Entertain Through The Arts is, I think, one of the most noble pursuits a person can strive toward.

I hope you had a nice day. I did see a couple posts. One was Sarah's post about Ramen.........and I had to say, "hey........wait a minute! What about me"? lol.  :)  I'm a "men"........   :)

But I understand because ramen, and noodles in general, are pretty hard to beat. Men take note!

I also saw your teacher's post about Debbie Reynolds. I am assuming she was your teacher, maybe for choir? Anyhow, what a great story about DR coming through her living space - in a theater - to do a show, and what a way to meet such a person. Debbie Reynolds had a husband named Harry Karl in the 60s. Here in the west, there was a chain of shoe stores called Karl's Shoes. They were everywhere, and were owned by Harry Karl. But he was not a good guy. He was addicted to gambling, and he was a card cheat. When I was a kid, my Dad had two brothers as associates in the SMPTE (Society Of Motion Picture and Television Engineers), named Harry and Ben Tietelbaum. They were a couple of crooks, too, and they were involved in card cheating schemes in Las Vegas with Harry Karl, who was caught by ceiling cameras in a Vegas casino, as was Ben Tietelbaum. I always remembered this because the Tietelbaums were close associates of Dad's, and all of a sudden "Ben was going to the Pen", as Dad put it. To prison.

I don't know if Harry Karl went to prison, but he should have. He took most of Debbie Reynolds' money to pay off his gambling debts, and left her almost broke. Your friend the choir teacher wondered in her post why DR would be doing dinner theater, and she knew the basic reasons, but that was the specifics. Harry Karl, her no-good husband, ripped her off. But she kept going anyway, and your friend had a great story to tell.

That's Hollywood, that's Show Business. Some are no good, and some are so good they can't be stopped, no matter what happens.

That's all I know for tonight, SB. See you in the morn.

I Love You.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Brunch + "Fallen Angel" + Debbie Reynolds

Happy Late Night, my Darling,

I hope you had a nice day, as always. I didn't see you on FB, so maybe you are still doing the holiday thing (relatives, etc) or perhaps working on a project. I went over to Pearl's at noon with my sister Vickie for a post-Christmas brunch given by Pearl and her daughter Helen. We had a nice time and a lot of good food.

After getting back home I took a walk down to Northridge Libe to pick up a movie I had ordered. This evening I watched it : "Fallen Angel" from 1945, a Noir directed by Otto Preminger, who also directed last night's movie "River Of No Return". Preminger was versatile, could do many different styles, and in the Noir genre he also directed the classic "Laura", starring Gene Tierney. If I am not mistaken, "Fallen Angel" was his follow up to that film, and man is it just a little bit weird. :)

Dana Andrews (a Noir regular) stars as a flim-flam man, a wannabe promoter who gets off a bus in a small California coastal town, simply because he hasn't enough money to go all the way to San Francisco. He immediately heads for the nearest eatery (with a huge beer sign on the wall) and runs into the beautiful and tragic Linda Darnell, who works as the waitress. Many of Hollywood's famous actresses, especially in the 40s, were both beautiful and tragic, but that is another story. Anyhow, Andrews falls for her, but she shuns him because he has no money. He's a drifter. So he scams the town's Rich Lady (played by the great singer/actress Alice Faye) in order to get her money, so he can then divorce her and run off with Darnell.

How he winds up being the Good Guy is a bit convoluted, but then this is an Otto Preminger film, full of twists and psychological dialogue, and a bit of weird humor too, including a scam seance at the beginning of the film, with a cameo from the usually strange John Carradine, who was in trillions of films.

"Fallen Angel", while not as classic as "Laura", is still very good, and exceptionally weird, and it has twists and turns galore, including an ending you will never see coming. I give it a 7.5/10 and a big thumbs up.

Finally, I have just gotta say........how incredibly sad it was to hear about Debbie Reynolds. As you know, I just wrote about her less than two weeks ago, before Carrie got sick or any of this happened. I wrote about Debbie Reynolds because I had seen a movie of hers called "Susan Slept Here", in which I had found her utterly charming. I think it was made in 1954. I also remarked about the gorgeous Technicolor art direction and the overall look of the film, but none of it would have stood out as it did if not for Reynolds, who was only 22 at the time. She was the reason I was so impressed with the film, because I had not seen a lot of her early work and was not aware she was that talented. I had only just found out. She could do it all - sing, dance, act, do comedy, the works. And as I remarked on FB, she did it all with a ton of class. There was nothing trashy or even remotely so about Debbie Reynolds, which is what really struck me when watching the film, because with any other actress it could have easily turned out to be a bit prurient. It was about a 17 year old runaway who comes to live with a middle aged screenwriter and winds up marrying him. That is about as un-PC as you can get these days, but as it was made in the good old days of 1954, it is actually a clean-cut movie, and you can't get more clean cut than Debbie Reynolds.

That's why I wrote about her two weeks ago. Because of the image she put forth in that film, and it wasn't fake; she was the Real Deal, and also mega-talented.

Now we know that it's possible to die of a broken heart. She had to be with her daughter, there is no doubt about it.

And while that is incredibly sad on one hand, it is also beyond beautiful and spiritual on the other hand.

I am just kind of blown away by this year.

God Bless Carrie Fisher and her Mom. That's a love story, right there.

I don't know what else to say, but I will see you in the morning.

I Love You.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):) 

Carrie Fisher + "River Of No Return" + "Andreasson Affair"

Happy Late Night, Sweet Baby,

Another low key day for me, so not much to report. It was very sad to wake up and hear about Carrie Fisher, but I think it was not entirely unexpected, given the circumstances. It's too bad she had to get sick while on an airplane and away from advanced medical help. At any rate, as you can see she was beloved the world over, and she lived a difficult life with a lot of courage, intelligence and humor.

We had a respite from the ever-blowing Gale Force Winds today, and - in the afternoon at least - the Sub-Zero Temperatures rose a few degrees as well. Thus, I took a walk down to Northridge Libe to look for movies, and later watched one : "River Of No Return" starring Robert Mitchum and Marilyn Monroe. I had not heard of this film, so I IMDB'd it before watching, and some comments claimed it to be a classic of the Western genre, so I was excited because I am a big time Western fan and I have practically seen 'em all. It's great when I find one I haven't seen. The big surprise in this film is Marilyn Monroe. I have not seen many of her films because I always thought of her as a pop culture icon rather than an actress. Because she too died young, and because of the circumstances of her life and involvement with the Kennedys, who also died, she seems almost mythological. But here, under Otto Preminger's direction, in the scenic mountains of Montana, she does a very credible job as a saloon singer who hooks up with the always reliable and very talented Mitchum for a rafting trip down a dangerous river in order to escape a band of killer Indians. There is a whole lot more to the story than that, and overall I am in agreement with the IMDB comments as to the quality of the film. It was shot in widescreen CinemaScope, it looks fantastic, it also has super handsome Rory Calhoun as The Bad Guy, and a lot of other stuff happening. And, Monroe sings her own songs. I was surprised. She was more talented than her image would suggest, and I guess that they wouldn't put you up there with Robert Mitchum unless you could hold your own.

I saw your post this morning of Ola Gjeilo piano music. Piano and choral. I heard a piece called "Tundra" that was very beautiful, ethereal in the Einaudi mode. Right now I am listening to music played by another fantastic but less well known pianist named Geza Anda, who came from a similar time period to all my other favorites. I also finished my book this morning, "The Andreasson Affair". When I began reading it a couple weeks ago, I thought, "this is so far out that there is no way it happened". That was after maybe 15 pages or so. But then I told myself, give it a chance. After all, what about what happened to you (meaning myself)? Isn't your story seemingly unbelievable, too? So I kept reading, and now that I have finished I think it is one of the most mind-boggling UFO Encounter stories I have read. Truly unspeakably weird, and I believe true as well. Life is a strange thing sometimes, and if you open your mind and heart on a daily basis, it is always a mind blowing thing, in the best possible sense of Always Being In Awe.

For me, as you know I have one simple instruction for people who find it hard to Feel In Awe amidst the grind of daily life.

I say (as you know) : "Just look up".

Just look up, and if that doesn't put you in awe and reveal to you the absolute miracle you are living in, then I do not know what will.

But I think it will do the trick for most people. It works for me on a daily and nightly basis.

See you in the morn, SB. I Love You.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Sub-Zero/Gale Force + "Girl With Green Eyes"

Happy Late Night, Sweet Baby,

I am writing from home once again, and for the next two nights as well. I hope you had a nice day. I didn't see you on FB, so you might still be doing the holiday thing and visiting relatives, or working on a video. I did see a pic you took of The Milbrandt Boys, and that was awesome. I get a kick out of those guys (and their choice of cover tunes, Beiber et al) and also their Dad is a definite kick. He is a character, so James is just keeping in the family tradition. Good stuff.  :)

I didn't do much today myself. I went over to sit with Pearl for a little while this afternoon while her daughter went to visit a friend, but after that I was mostly inside The Pad. I did brave the Sub-Zero Temps and Continuing Gale Force Winds for a walk at 7:30, but then I came back in and hunkered down, heater on full blast. It's a Cold One this year, SB. The L.A. Cold means business this time.

Tonight I did have a movie, called "Girl With Green Eyes" from 1964, starring Peter Finch (of "Network" fame) and a young actress named Rita Tushingham who was an "It Girl" for a little while in the early 60s, for being in a few hit movies and hanging out with The Beatles. The movie is about a country girl from Ireland who falls in love with a married writer. Lynn Redgrave co-stars as her more worldly best friend. Redgrave would go on to big success as "Georgy Girl" in the movie of the same name a couple years later. I was a little kid then, and though I did not know about these films at the time - and they were for adults anyway - I was totally enamored with early 60s English culture (even though I didn't know what "culture" was), just because of The Beatles and the British Invasion of all the rock music coming to America at the time. When I was four or five, English culture was having a huge effect in America. And so now, I love to discover movies from that period that I didn't previously know about. I found this one at the Libe a couple days ago, and it is a jem through and through. There was a "realism" movement in English cinema of the late 50s and early 60s, to show the lives of working class people, to take the gloss of things, and this one has kind of a "broken Fairy Tale" quality to it. For me, as well as enjoying the movie as a whole, I also love the scenery of 60s Mod England, the way they dressed, the hairdos, the way the buildings looked. I probably should have lived in England in the Early 60s, just like I should have lived in America in the 40s and 50s.

Well anyway, a sweet little movie, a minor classic of the era, and shot in picturesque black and white.

Other than that, just reading my books : "The Andreasson Affair" and "Creation, God and Early Man". And listening to the immaculate pianism of Wilhelm Kempff.......

See you in the morning. I Love You.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Singing + A Nice Christmas Day + The Pinscher + Bach + "Mr. Holmes"

Happy Christmas Night, Sweet Baby,

I hope your Christmas was a success in all respects and full of good feeling. I was back in church this morning - as noted in last night's blog - and again the singing went very well. I am learning that exercising the voice is very much like lifting weights, you are developing a muscle, and because of my recent "car singing" I can now do things I couldn't do before. My voice has more fluidity to it, or maybe flexability. It just feels like it is much, much easier to get it to do what I want it to do. Now I wanna see where I can take it from here. Greg Lake was my all-time favorite singer - as also previously noted - and while I may never have a voice like his, he is my standard when I think of what I'd like to shoot for. Might as well set a high bar, right?

After church we went back to Pearl's for a Christmas brunch, which was very nice, with visits from neighbors and some old friends of Pearl's as well. The Doberman Pinscher was doing well, and he even barked semi-vigorously at the visitors, a rare thing in his advanced age but formerly automatic. A good sign, I think. Btw - the name thing. He has many names, most of which are easy to decipher. That may be the case with "The Doberman Pinscher" also, but just for clarity, it comes about according to the following sequence : "Kobi" (his real name), which mutates into "Kober-Dober", then just plain "Dober", and then it turned into "The Doberman Pinscher", which is fine with him because he sees himself as a ferocious guard dog anyway. But if he is anything, he is A Dog Of Many Names.

I am listening to "Mass In B-Minor" by J.S. Bach, which I think is one of the very greatest pieces of music ever written, and certainly in the choral sense. It's not strictly a Christmas piece, though like most of his work it is about Christ, and for me it is a yearly tradition on December 25.

Earlier in the evening I watched a movie : "Mr. Holmes", starring the great Sir Ian McKellan. Wait a sec, lemme switch back to non-italicised lettering.......

Okay, I'm back. So I watched "Mr. Holmes", which came out last year and is about Sherlock Holmes in his later life as he is beginning to suffer from senility. He wants to put to rest a final case that vexed him into retirement years earlier, and from there a wonderful story unfolds, interwoven with several threads.

The first thing I will say is that, if you can find a greater actor than Ian McKellan, please show him to me. He is of course phenomenal in everything he does, but this has got to be one of his best ever roles. The story is slow to develop, and thus is not made for a modern, CGI-excited audience. It is a movie with modern photographic techniques, but with an old fashioned pace and storyline, which is so beautifully rendered onscreen that it will put a tear in your eye. As I sometimes say, and wish I could say more often about modern films - this one is a 10 out of 10 in all respects. I found it at Northridge Libe yesterday and I am glad I checked it out. It is not Sherlock Holmes in the usual "hard boiled crime case" sense, but rather a movie about a long life lived, and decisions made, some that led to regret, and the need for closure and peace of mind. Highly recommended.

Well, that's all I know for tonight. It sure has been a wonderful Christmas season, I think. I love The Season, and I will miss it til next year, as always, but now we have the New Year coming up and I will look forward to it with high hopes and good expectations.

See you in the morn, SB. I Love You.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Merry Christmas!

Happy Christmas Eve, my Darling,

I just wanted to wish you and your family a Merry Christmas. I hope you had a great day and also for the holiday itself tomorrow. I didn't do much today, just hung around The Pad mostly. It was sub-zero outside, so I stayed in and read my book "The Andreasson Affair", about a lady who had a Close Encounter back in the 1970s. Man what a weird story. And, not very Christmassy, I realise.

But things got much more Christmassy as the day progressed.

At 6pm I went to Pearl's and we headed over to church for rehearsal. Our regular pianist wasn't there, so we had a Master's Degree piano student from CSUN as a substitute, and she nailed it. As for myself - sorry, SB, but I've gotta toot my own horn here - tonight was my best singing ever. All the car practice is really paying off. Also, I think there is something about singing in the evening, maybe because your voice and body is warmed up, maybe you are better hydrated (hard to drink a ton of water before 10am), and just basic biorhythms. Not that I can't sing well in the morning, because I can, and that's the normal state of things. In fact, we only sing in the evening once a year, on Christmas Eve. But it just felt like my voice was more supple and could go up and down with ease. So, it was a blast. In addition to our two songs, we also sang six carols. The attendance was good but not as full as I'd have thought, perhaps because of the cold.

I got back home at 9pm, hung out for a bit, checked my Yahoo Football Pick-Em scores, then walked across the street to Our Lady Of Lourdes Catholic Church for their 10:30 Mass. That was my Mom's church, so I go to the Christmas Eve service every year. It was jam packed, as always, so I had to stand in the lobby with the overflow crowd. I love the Catholic service, though, very ceremonial and ritualistic. It was a long service, 90 minutes, so I got back at Midnight and here I am. And I will be back in Pearl's church tomorrow morning at the usual time of 9:30 for more singing on Christmas morning.

I hope you have a great day tomorrow! Once again, Merry Christmas to you, your family, and all of your friends and bands, too. :)

I will be back home in the early afternoon.

I Love You.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Tire Shop + Pouring Rain + "Christmas Carol" 1938 version + Carrie Fisher

Happy Late Night, my Darling,

I hope you had a good day and are settling in for a nice Christmas weekend. I am writing from home. It has been raining steadily since about 5pm, and it is freezing cold outside. After leaving Pearl's at 2pm I was at Tire Pros for the rest of the afternoon, getting two new front tires for my car and new brake pads all the way around. My car is old but it was worth spending the money because it runs good. The job took 2 1/2 hours, so I was just sitting in the shop looking at magazines and watching other customers come and go.

Since I got home I've just been relaxing : reading and looking at the music for tomorrow night's Christmas Eve service. We will be singing "Sing We Now Of Christmas", which is a fairly well known modern arrangement of some older melody that is unknown to me. On that one, it's mostly unison singing. I just wanna make sure that I sing the right notes on the brief sections that aren't unison.

Wanna become a real choral singer here, SB. Gotta be note perfect; no more foolin' around.  :)

Our other song tomorrow night is called "One Small Child" by David Meece. That one is reverential, like a hymn, but with very pronounced vocal lines, so it's a great one to sing and I already know it by heart.

Tonight I did watch a movie, the 1938 version of "A Christmas Carol", which was also the first one. It was made by MGM (yay!) and starred famed character actor Reginald Owen as Scrooge. I had not seen this version before, and while I don't think Owen is quite as effective as was Alistair Sim in the 1951 classic version, it was still an excellent portrayal, and overall the film was ebullient in it's take on the Dickens story. It is the Cheeriest of all the Scrooge movies I've seen, and also the briefest, at a mere 69 minutes.

I'm tellin' ya, SB, I should have lived back in the 1930s, 40s and 50s. Or even back in the 1820s.

I am just made for Nostalgia. And I love the way in which Hollywood promoted what I will call The Sentiment Of Good Values in that era, in the movies of the Golden Age. The acting then was not as realistic as it is nowdays, perhaps, but in a way it was larger than life because the actors were portraying an Ideal. The ideals of the way we would like to be.

So, I say "Hooray For Hollywood", as the song goes, but I mean more "hooray" for then as opposed to now, even though they still make good movies nowdays. But man, the mythology of Golden Era Hollywood is something amazing......

I was in the tire shop looking at a tv in the waiting room when the news about Carrie Fisher came on the screen. That is terrible, and this year has been terrible in that way. I had just mentioned Debbie Reynolds in a blog from last week, having seen her in "Susan Slept Here" as a teenager, and then just last night I was talking to Grimsley and I mentioned that I'd been unaware that Reynolds was Carrie Fisher's mother.....

Hopefully she will recover, and kick 2016 in the rear end for taking so many beloved artists away.

That's all I know for tonight, Sweet Baby. See you in the morning.

I Love You.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Yolanda Lights + I Love The 'Ster

Happy Late Night, Sweet Baby,

I take it your computer is possibly on the blink or having problems (re: the Joel Wanasek post yesterday), so I don't know if you'll be able to see this blog, or see it tonight at least, but anyhow I hope you had a good day. Out here, the wind and rain stopped, so I was able to get a lot of errands run as well as take Pearl to her hair appointment. This evening we went to see a local Christmas light show called The Yolanda Lights, which are on the street of the same name. The Yolanda Lights are close by, here in Reseda about a mile or so away from Pearl's. They are archways of white light, running all the way down both sides of the street for a whole block. I've been going to see them for about four or five years now, but tonight was the first time I took a pic, which I posted on FB.

We have had a lot of fun going to see the Christmas lights over the past week; in Granada Hills, then last night at Candy Cane Lane in Woodland Hills, and then Yolanda Lights tonight.

Dr. von Kobenstein is feeling quite a bit better today, so he did not end up going to the vet. His nose was cold and wet, always a good sign, and for the first time in three days he pounded his dog food as fast as he could (a return to form). His foot seems better too. He is a very old guy though, and he can't really see too well, so he needs a bit of assistance nowdays. It is good to place him in front of his food bowl, and things like that. Sigh......he's such a good guy. I am grateful for all the time I get with him, and he has re-signed for 2017, in case you didn't know, so I am gonna help him to honor his contract.  :)

Tomorrow night I will be writing from home. Hope you are able to get your computer working, if it isn't.

See you in the morning. I Love You.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Perfect Portrait + The 'Ster Is A Bit Better + Candy Cane Lane

Happy Late Night, my Darling,

It must be noted right off the bat that the self-portrait you posted this morning was very beautiful, and as you mentioned, the quality of the light, and the way in which it is falling across your face and especially your eyes, is really something special. Such a great mix of light and gradual shadow in that photo. It looks like a painting, and you could be a character in a movie in that pic. It's really great! I have said that you are, among other things, an excellent people photographer. Well, one of your best subjects is yourself. Well done on this morning's photo, 10/10.

Semi-good news on the Kobi front. He seemed to be feeling a bit better today. He was walking better - though not as good as before - and this afternoon he ate all his dog food, which he had not done the previous two days. I think part of his problem was constipation, and without getting graphic, he found some relief from that tonight, lol. But he still is favoring one of his rear feet, and licking it, so - because I always analyse everything to pieces - I am still guessing is a problem of irritation rather than something more serious like a hip problem, which Bischons aren't supposed to get. I think he's just got a sore foot, either from stepping on something and hurting a pad, or from getting a burr in between pads. I checked for those and didn't find any, but a small piece could be wedged up there, and it's hard to inspect because The Kobester doesn't like it and pulls his foot away. He had a burr stuck in his foot a couple years ago and I properly diagnosed it myself and pulled it out, thereby avoiding a costly (and scary for Kobi) visit to the Vet. So once again we will play it by ear tomorrow, but if he needs to go, we will go. I'll know more in the morning, but I am much relieved that he was doing better today.

This evening, I took Pearl to Candy Cane Lane in Woodland Hills (another Valley town about 6 miles from Reseda) to see the Christmas lights. We have done this every year for the last several years, and for me personally it's been a tradition since the 90s. I think I mentioned that Candy Cane Lane is actually about four streets worth of lights in an upper-middle class neighborhood. This 'hood has been doing the lights since the 1950s, and they go all-out. It's really beautiful to see. We went at the right time this year, too, because last year we went on Christmas Night and got caught in A Traffic Jam For The Ages. Tonight was easy.

It was easy at least until I got home and tried to go on my walk, at which point the Gale Force Winds and Accompanying Rain had returned. I had brought my umbrella but when I opened it, it got bent by the wind, which I knew would happen but I opened it anyway because I didn't wanna get soaked.

Well anyhow.......bring on the 113 degrees already.  :)

I am kidding, because I do love the Christmas Season (as you can tell on FB), and I can deal with the rain and even the cold.........but not the Gale Force Wind. That part I really don't like.

One good thing is that, starting tomorrow, the daylight get a minute longer each day until June 21. But I agree with you about the quality of the Winter light, as you mentioned in your photo. It has, at least here in L.A., an orange cast, and because it comes in at such a low angle it has a soft quality. At about 4pm here, the leaves on the trees look like they are lit from within. It's simply gorgeous, just like the Christmas lights.

So that's all I know for today. Starting Friday night I will be off for five days, though I will be singing in church on Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning, which I probably already mentioned.......

See you in the morn, SB. I Love You.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

The Kobester Needs To Go To The Vet

Happy Late Night, my Darling,

I don't have a lot to report today, because Kobi has not been doing well since last night and so the focus has been on him. He is gonna turn 17 in a couple weeks, which is pretty amazing, and he's had a few age related problems for a while now : blindness (he's probably 70-80 percent blind), a slight shoulder weakness that causes a limp, and lately he's been wandering around the house. Just a day or two ago he began to stumble, and last night it got bad. One of his back legs wasn't working too good. I noticed that his nails had gotten long, so this morning I took him to Petsmart for a nail trim, hoping that might help.

It didn't help as much as I'd hoped. Tonight, however, I saw that one of the pads on his bad foot was a bit red, so now I am thinking maybe he stepped on something, like a burr, and perhaps it is caught between his toes. That has happened before. Normally I would just inspect it myself, but I am exhausted from little sleep last night, and then Pearl's cleaning lady came over at 9am instead of Noon like she usually does, so we just went to the park so she wouldn't have to work around us. She usually comes when Pearl is at Golden Agers and no one is home.

So on top of Kobi having his sudden problems, it was a bit of a stressful and sleep deprived day.

I will take my Buddy to the vet tomorrow. I am hoping his problem is just related to his foot, and not a hip problem or something neurological (which I don't think it is). It's probably just that he stepped on something or it's a bone problem. Hopefully they can help him to get better.

I know he won't be around forever, and even right now he is extremely old, but he just got a good report in October from his doggie cardiologist, so I am hopeful, pending tomorrow's diagnosis.

He isn't even my dog, but I just love the guy like crazy. We bonded right from the get go and we've done a lot of things together over the years that I've been Pearl's caregiver.

Well, I will just hope for the best. Say a prayer for The 'Ster if you might, and perhaps he will be on the upswing soon.  :)

That's all for tonight. I will see you in the morn.

I Love You.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Good Photo (new music?) + Super Windy + "The Shop Around The Corner" + Time Flies

Happy Late Night, Sweet Baby,

I hope you had a nice day today and yesterday as well. That was a good picture of John this morning. Are you guys working on new music, or maybe a video? I know I have said it before, but you both really nailed it on your cover of the Slowdive song, and that was a great video as well. If you are working on something new, I will look forward to seeing it as always.  :)

Yesterday was good singing in church. We nailed the Scarborough Carol and had a long practice for the songs we will do for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I also drove to Burbank to take my sister Sophie shopping, then straight back to Pearl's, and by the time I got home at 6:45 for my evening break, I was toast. I fell asleep, lol, but then recovered enough to do a little reading.

Today was Ultra Windy and Freezing Cold, so I entirely skipped any walking. Now that's a rarity, SB. For me to forego all exercise takes a lot, but I really can't stand wind, and tonight it was blowing gale force. So, I stayed inside and watched a great movie instead : "The Shop Around The Corner" with Jimmy Stewart and the very talented but tragic Margaret Sullavan. Man, what a great movie! It is famous both as a comedy and a Christmas movie, but I had never seen it. Jimmy Stewart plays a clerk in the "Shop" of the title, which sells various types of gift items. The owner of the shop is played by Frank Morgan, the legendary "Wizard Of Oz" himself. Margaret Sullavan is the down-on-her-luck young woman who comes in to the shop looking for work. She is hired, and All Kinds Of Romantic and Other Hijinks Ensue.

The film was directed by a Hollywood legend named Ernst Lubitsch, who specialised in romantic comedies with intelligent dialogue and social commentary. "The Shop Around The Corner" has all kinds of sub-themes, of Depression-era America, of loneliness, adultery, even suicide. It's heavy stuff for 1940, but the heaviness is all overridden by, and under the surface of, the sparkling comedic performances of Stewart, Sullavan and the entire cast. For me, Jimmy Stewart was as good as it gets - he was so great in everything he did, and if you every wonder why I go on Endless Tirades about The Golden Age Of Hollywood, well, just see this movie for a case in point. I give it an 11 out of 10 on a Ten Scale. An absolute classic. On a side note, and a sad one too, I called Margaret Sullavan "tragic", and that is because she had a tumultuous life, with several marriages, one to Henry Fonda. Two of her children committed suicide, and then she herself succumbed to a drug overdose in 1960, at the age of 50. But never a more talented comedienne ever graced the screen.....

Well, that's all I know for tonight. I saw your other post, the FB memory-post from Florence in 2014 on this same day. Yep, time flies. And that's what I've been saying about how much has happened since then. One the one hand, it seems like you were just there, in art school. And in another way, it feels like quite a while ago. And I think that's because you are in your natural state now, in your element, as it were (is it okay to say "as it were"? Sometime I hate that phrase, but I have to use it now...)

Anyway, you are "in your element", as it were, and so it just feels natural now, because you are doing what you have always wanted to do, and so everything before, even art school - which was an amazing experience - seems "before", and therefore more distant.

But that's Time for you. A really weird thing, is Time. Both slow and fast, as we have discussed.....

And that's all I know for now, at this particular time!

See you in the morn. I Love You.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxoxo  :):)

I Predict 2017 In Advance + Opera at The Libe + Mr. Reeves

Happy Late Saturday Night, Sweet Baby,

See, I'm getting my nights straightened out now, haha. I hope you had a nice day, and I must say that I loved the one post I saw earlier this evening - via your friend Sky - who talked about the opportunities he's had in a short period of time as a musician. It sounds like things are going great for him and he says he couldn't be happier. So, because I assume those could be your sentiments too, it just makes me Super Happy. :)

And since I am The Official Predictor Of Things, I am gonna say right now that your success is not only gonna continue in the New Year, but it's gonna continue to build, and by the end of 2017 you will be feeling the same things but even more so. So that's what's gonna happen.......   :):)

I had a good day myself. My sister Vickie came over and we went to Total Wine for a tasting of Holiday Champagnes (oh boy!). Then, feeling good, we went over to Northridge Libe for a 2pm concert by our favorite local opera singers, Andy and Jennifer Ann Watson, who now has the same last name as him because they got married since we last saw them. They are so good - professional level (and they sing with the San Diego Opera) - and we always love to see them. This time they combined holiday music with opera and Broadway tunes.

I think in my next life, I wanna be an Opera Singer, SB. I am enjoying singing so much, and though I am not even close to being in their league, I just feel I could go in that direction next time around. If I don't become an astronomer, that is. Or an organist specialising in Early Music.......

But today, after watching the concert, I wanted to be an Opera Singer.  :)

Tomorrow's song in church is "A Scarborough Carol", a take on the Simon & Garfunkel melody, which for all I know is a take on some ancient folk piece. Anyhow, there isn't much for me to do because the centerpiece of the song is a solo verse for soprano, but the short verses at beginning and end require precise harmonies, and very legato, so I am gonna nail 'em.

No other news, except that I watched an episode of "One Step Beyond" tonight instead of a movie. Interestingly, it had a minor Christmas theme, even though I picked it out at random. And, in the very first scene, a high-strung businessman is getting a massage, and I was watching and thinking - very quickly - "wait a minute, I recognise that guy", meaning the actor who was playing the masseuse.

You can file this one under the It's A Small World department. When I was a little kid, from birth to seven and a half years old, I lived in Reseda on the street just north of where I am typing this blog. We were round-the-block neighbors with Pearl and her family as you know, and on our own street, we had an across-the-street neighbor named Mr. Reeves. Mr. Reeves lived in a dark house, never turned his lights on very much. He drove an old, small, box-like car called a Metropolitan, which would be a very cool car nowdays (or even then). Mr. Reeves was a big, hulking man with slicked back black hair. I don't recall seeing him much, but when I did see him, I remember him wearing a suit.

This was the era of the Baby Boom, and we had a neighborhood full of kids. The kids lived and played in their own world, and did not know the nuances of the adult world. Our world was carefree, and we would knock on many neighbors' doors, hoping for a cookie, or to use a swimming pool in hot weather.

But my Mom told me early on, when I was about 4 or 5, "don't bother Mr. Reeves". I always remember her saying those exact words : "Don't bother Mr. Reeves".

Mr. Reeves seemed sad, or what we would call depressed nowdays. Kids also pick up on heavier stuff, and I surmised in my five year old mind that Mr. Reeves drank a lot. He sat by himself in his darkened house, drank a lot, but when he would come outside to drive his Metropolitan, he always had a suit on.

Perhaps that was because Mr. Reeves was an actor. Maybe he was going to the studio on any given day, in his Metropolitan.

If you look up Richard Reeves (also know as Dick Reeves) on IMDB, you will see that he had a ton of roles in TV shows of the 50s and early 60s, and even a fair amount of very small parts in some films. He always played a thug or some kind of heavy; he was a big guy, and not pretty. But he was in a ton of stuff, and that's one other thing we kids knew about him. Mr. Reeves was in show business.

We moved away from Reseda in 1968, at New Years. We moved to Northridge where I've been ever since, and I never thought about Mr. Reeves much since then, though I've seen him from time to time in old TV shows and a few film noirs. But tonight I recognised him right away, in the episode of "One Step Beyond".

Mr. Reeves passed away in 1967, right before we moved away. He was only 54.

But it was kind of cool to see him on a dvd of an old TV show all these years later.

It's a Small World, and you never forget people because some leave a mark, even for minor or unusual reasons. In Mr. Reeves' case, it was my Mom's admonition for us kids not to bother him.

That and his Metropolitan car.

And, he was in a ton of shows, our neighbor Mr. Reeves. ///

That's all for tonight, SB.

I Love You and will see you in the morning and then again after church.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)

Beautiful Theater/Latest Project + "Susan Slept Here" + Super Chilly!

Happy Late Night, Sweet Baby,

Now, I can wish you a Happy Friday Night and say that I hope your weekend is off to a good start. Boy am I out of it! Last night, I was off by a day. It was Thursday and I thought it was Friday, lol. I think it's because my job is kind of a round-the-clock thing; the days and hours just kinda blur together and I finally lost track. It's like how there is no Up or Down in Outer Space, or something like that......

I probably belong in Outer Space, haha.  :)

I was excited to see your photo this morning! Wow, that is great news, Elizabeth. That is a beautiful theater, and I am wondering if I have seen it before (I think I have), because you may have attended a concert there, or perhaps even were part of a concert or other project there? I am guessing, but I think I've seen it. It's a historic theater if I'm not mistaken.

Well, you didn't specifically mention that this latest project was a music video, and because it's under wraps until January I will just have to guess, but I am gonna guess that it is a music video, because you say you are very excited about it, and music videos are your Main Thing. And if it's a music video, who could it be?

Not Versus Me, cause they are on tour. Maybe a new client? It would have to be somebody big enough to warrant the theater, I imagine. It's a Big Deal, I am thinking, and I am also thinking that I will have to wait til January like everybody else because I can't guess who it is, and maybe it's not even a music vid.

But we will soon find out.  :)

Today I went for a slightly muddy hike at Aliso. The ancient creek had a small amount of water in it for the first time since I've been hiking there, due to last night's steady rain. No pics, but a good hike.

Tonight's movie was "Susan Slept Here" from 1954, starring Debbie Reynolds and Dick Powell. I've been looking for Christmas movies, and this one came up on Google. It does have a Christmas theme, as the initial action takes place on Christmas Eve, but what is most noteworthy about this film is how racy it was for 1954. Dick Powell plays a middle-aged Hollywood screenwriter (his character's age is 35 but he was 50 at the time), who has a 17 year old juvenile delinquent dumped in his lap on Christmas Eve by two cop friends of his. It's a convoluted script, so don't ask, haha. Debbie Reynolds is the teenager (though 21 in real life). She was at the height of her talent and star power at the time, having co-starred in "Singin' In The Rain" a couple years earlier. Anyway, the Dick Powell middle-aged screenwriter character winds up marrying Debbie Reynolds' teenage firecracker character, and all kinds of hijinks ensue. I was watching, thinking, "this kind of picture could never get made today", because it's very un-PC. But the reason it works is because it's clean-cut. Despite the age difference in the characters, they are wholesome and so is the ultimate message of the film. Another great aspect is the Technicolor art direction, which captures 1950s Hollywood in all it's pastel splendor. They certainly don't make movies like this anymore, but in a way, it's kind of ahead of it's time, even now. And the film just looks incredible from a visual standpoint.

Well, that's all I know for tonight. I almost froze on my walk. Man, it's c-c-c-c-c-cold out there SB!

We have a frost warning tonight, supposed to be in the low 30s. The dreaded L.A. cold is here.

The heater is turned up, the Kobedog is wandering back and forth, and I will see you in the morn.

I Love You. Congratulations on this big job!  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Happy Friday Night + "Only Angels Have Wings" + Grand Canyon

Happy Late Night, my Darling,

I hope you had a nice day and a good start to your weekend, even with the cold temps. It is raining here, and the rain is supposed to continue through mid-morning tomorrow, then clearing again for the next several days. Today was just a basic workday with no hikes, but I did watch a movie tonight : "Only Angels Have Wings" (on Criterion), made in 1939 and directed by the great Howard Hawks, who - on a side note - was born in Goshen, Indiana, just like my Dad. Two Goshenites who made it out to Hollywood.......  :)

The movie stars Cary Grant as the boss of a small air freight company operating out of somewhere in South America. It focuses on the heroics of the pilots, who fly mail out of a small town high in the mountains. This is the early days of flight, so there are no jets, just single wing prop planes that struggle to get through the mountain passes. Considering the camera techniques available at the time the film was made, there is some fantastic aerial footage of these vintage planes through very high and jagged mountains. I will have to check into where they filmed it. It might just be the San Gabriels (local to Hollywood), which are plenty jagged enough, but anyway, the movie was a good adventure story from the Golden Age of Hollywood, co-starring the famous and very early Movie Star Jean Arthur, who went all the way back to Silent Pictures. Also appearing in a minor role was the beautiful Rita Hayworth. The restoration by Criterion was superb, with the majority of the picture looking as good as it did when it debuted in theaters. Shot in tremendous Black & White, my favorite.......  :)

That was about all on my end, except I watched part of the Rams game, until I couldn't take anymore because of how terrible they are (yeah, sports, I know....) and I also started a new book : "UFOs and Anti-Gravity: Piece For A Jigsaw" by Leonard Cramp.

I saw the picture of James, sitting on the edge of the Grand Canyon. That was a great photo, but wow.....

You'd never get me out there, SB. Not even close, haha. It's literally like you are sitting on the edge of the World, as he said in his comment. One slip and you could Fall Off The Face Of The Earth.

So, to recap : Great pic. But I wouldn't do it for a million dollars!  :)

It even seemed to make James nervous (as per his comment), and normally it would seem like a total James thing to do.....

Well that's all for tonight. See you in the morning.

I Love You.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Jimmy Kimmel + Limekiln + "The Damned" + 100% Support Cause You Rule

Happy Late Night, my Darling,

I just finished watching The Jimmy Kimmel Show, and it looked like a humongous crowd on Hollywood Boulevard to see Metallica. Grimsley went, with my ticket, but they wouldn't let him in even though he was listed as my guest. They said the person who registered the tickets has to be there, so that sucked for Grim, to go down there and not get in. He still got to stand on the street and hear it though, and from what it looked like on TV, Metallica kicked ass. I will catch 'em when they tour the new album.

I had a nice hike at Limekiln once again. I am kind of on a Limekiln kick lately - I'm really enjoying the winter vibe there, as mentioned either yesterday or the day before - and this time I brought my cam, as evidenced by the picture I posted on FB. Now, speaking of Wintry Vibes......Good Lordy Moses, SB! I checked the weather in your town this afternoon, on Weather.com: 16 degrees was the high temp, and 7 below zero was the low temp. Yikes! That's real Winter! I'm just a Winter Wanna-Be out here. It is gonna get down into the mid-30s (at night) over the weekend, though, so we will be cold too, or as cold as we ever get.....But you guys are hard core.  :)

Tonight I did watch a movie : "The Damned" (original French title "Les Maudits") by director Rene Clement, who made some great films in the late 40s and early 50s, including "Forbidden Games", a children's view of WW2. In "The Damned", he tells the story of a small group of Nazis - Generals, soldiers and businessmen - who are fleeing to South America in a submarine at the end of the war, when it is clear Germany will lose. The movie plays like a suspense film, because the Nazis realise soon after their departure that they have no doctor aboard, and what happens if someone gets sick or injured? So they surreptitiously stop at a French port and kidnap a local doctor, who stays with them for the rest of their voyage, though he plots to escape.

It's an excellent film, with great b&w photography, and classic direction by Rene Clement. It just has that French, post-war look that all the great films of that era have. So that was tonight's viewing.

Today I saw a couple posts by you. One was of Patrick from Versus Me at the Grand Canyon. That is so cool that those guys are touring. I've gotta do some touring myself, lol. I still wanna see the Alabama Hills and eventually see the Grand Canyon myself. I'm the only one who hasn't seen it!  :)

The other post I saw was of Randy from Stitched Up Heart, pictured with his Mom at an awards show. They are another up and coming band on your roster, which is awesome, and what I thought was equally awesome was what he said about his Mom.

Those words were beautiful, Elizabeth. I myself am so glad - and I mean Super Glad! - that you chose to follow your dream - and I am doubly glad that your Mom has supported your decision also. I think your Mom rules, as I've said before. Some parents push a child away from their dream, so for her to support what you are doing is wonderful. And I will always be supporting you myself, because I have known you could do it from Day One, from the moment I saw the Autre Temps video, and then even more when I saw your first couple piano videos from your dorm room.

There was never any question that you were gonna follow your dream.

And now it's reality.

So that's the way it was meant to be.  :)

And God Bless your Mom for seeing it too.

That's all I know for tonight! I will see you in the morning.

I Love You.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Holiday Spirit + Albums Of The Year + Trump Is Toast

Happy Late Night, my Darling,

I hope you had a nice day. FB finally showed some different posts under the "posts You (meaning you) like" heading, and one of 'em - via Sarah - was about cramming two weeks of work into a few days, so maybe that means you are doing the same, or similar. I say that because all your other posts were about bands and upcoming concerts. Atilla was one, and I've seen you mention them before, so maybe they are a new client?

I am guessing that everything is going well, and I hope you are also getting into the Holiday Spirit.

You know me : I love Christmas and everything about it. I have reserved a few Christmas movies from the libe and I will begin watching 'em starting this weekend. I was looking for ones I had not seen, so I got "The Shop Around The Corner", "A Christmas Story" and the 1938 version of "A Christmas Carol", the only one I haven't seen. I need a few more too, I think.

No movie tonight, I was tired when I got home and I fell asleep for a little while, and after that I just wanted to listen to music, so I listened to Eric Johnson's new album "EJ" while I read my book ("Genesis, Creation & Early Man"). "EJ" is all acoustic, just Eric playing acoustic guitar and piano and singing his songs, with a few covers. Man, what a beautiful album, so much feeling in every song.

This has been an above average year for records. In the 70s, when I first began to buy lots of records, I would always do a "Top Ten" at the end of every year, and back then it was never a problem to come up with ten records, because there were like 50 great ones (or more) every year. Now, or in the last 15 years or so, it's been hard for me to come up with a Top Ten (or even a Top Five) because there just aren't as many new records I wanna listen to anymore (yeah, I know I'm an old fogey, haha).......

But this year, there have been some superb records, and I have been re-listening to them all week. When a bunch of albums are released one-on-top-of-another, you can kind of listen to one.....and then blow past it to get to the next one. So it's always good to go back and re-listen after a few weeks or months, with fresh ears as they say.

I have done so, and I am impressed.

The new Opeth is awesome!

The new Alcest is awesome! (and man, those vocals are incredible.....you know which ones I mean)

The new Radiohead is incredible! (man, how great are they? Who would think up such music?)

The new Eric Johnson is incredible! (as reported above)

The new Bill Nelson is incredible! (again, so much feeling and musicality, such beautiful picturesque sentiment)

The new (from last January) David Bowie is incredible! (and will put a tear in your eye)

And finally, the Anderson/Stolt album is incredible! (from Yes singer Jon Anderson and guitarist Roine Stolt)

So there's seven great albums for my Top Ten, and all are top notch. The only other things I've been listening to on a regular basis are my Sofronitsky albums and my Hana Blazikova ancient soprano music albums.

But anyhow, there's a Top Seven for you. Not bad, these days.  :)

I am holding out the briefest hope the Trump won't be inaugurated, and if he is, that he won't last through his first year.

The CIA has said that the Russians hacked the election. Not some news reporter or some conspiracy theorist.

The CIA.

So something is in the works.

Trump is Toast, one way or another.

That's all I know for tonight, SB. Post if you can.

See you in the morning. I Love You.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Excellent Photo (as always) + Metallica + Charles Dickens

Happy Late Night, Sweet Baby,

That was another excellent picture of Betty this morning, magazine quality. You are so good with portraits and you always get the best out of your subjects, so congrats on another great one. :) I hope your day was good. I went for a nice hike at Limekiln Canyon from 3 to 4pm. The wintry, overcast atmosphere created a soft cast of diffused light in the park, much different from the earthy, sun-drenched nature vibe of Summertime. When I say "wintry", of course I mean Valley style (which would be t-shirt and shorts weather for you, haha), but because we do have so much sun and heat for so many days a year, when we do have colder, overcast weather it creates a noticeably ethereal feeling, like Nature is sleeping or meditating. All is calm and the colors really stand out on the trees. I didn't bring my camera this time, because the hike was spontaneous; I'd been shopping at a nearby Trader Joe's and I decided to go to Limekiln. But I will take more pics soon.

You can file this next bit of info in the Good News/Bad News department :

First, the Good News - Metallica is gonna have a "Block Party" concert on Hollywood Boulevard on Wednesday. It's for The Jimmy Kimmel Show, and it's free. You have to have a ticket, but I was lucky and scored two free tickets for me and Grimsley. Not only that, but I got extra lucky and somehow got Priority Tickets, the holders of which are let in first. These "Block Party" Kimmel things are pretty cool. They aren't full concerts but usually last about an hour, so.......the shabularity is definitely negligible, right? Plus, I haven't seen Metallica since they opened for Ozzy in 1986, and their new album is killer. So that's the Good News.

Now for the Bad News : I can't go. For the Van Halen "Block Party" in April 2015, the start time was 7pm, so by the time I got there I still got to see most of the show. But for some reason, with Metallica, they are gonna start at 6pm, and for those with Priority Tickets, you have to be in line by 4:30. So I'll be at work and can't make it. Grim is gonna go, however, and I will watch it on Kimmel (though they'll only show one song, maybe two max). I can't complain, though. That run of shows I saw from August through November was an All-Timer for me, and I soon have Eric Johnson and Alcest coming up, so all is well, as usual.  :)

I see from one of your posts that your friend Justin also got free tix for a band called Pretty Reckless. I am not familiar with their music but I have an FB friend named Dan who is local and knows some mutual friends, and he goes to see that band all the time, pretty much every time they play. Dan is a big Sunset Strip rock club guy, he goes to tons of shows on The Strip. It sounds like Justin is making a home here in Los Angeles, and playing in a band too, so good for him. :)

Not much else to report today, except that I just finished watching a dvd of a Charles Dickens BBC series from 1994 called "Martin Chuzzlewit". A great Dickensian name, lol. As you know, I have become in recent years a Shakespeare lover because of the local stage plays in the Summer by the troupe "Shakespeare By The Sea". And even more recently, perhaps two years ago, I became an equally big fan of Charles Dickens. It started with "A Christmas Carol". I watched all the great versions of it, and then - perhaps because my appetite was whetted by the Shakespeare plays - I wanted to see more of Dickens. And because of "Christmas Carol", this seemed to be the time of year to watch him. So, in the past couple years I watched BBC series of "The Old Curiosity Shop" and "David Copperfield". And this year I watched the six-episode "Martin Chuzzlewit", which may be my favorite so far. It concerns the old man of the title. He is wealthy and everyone is after his money.

As I am becoming familiar with Charles Dickens, I have no doubt that he was the equal of William Shakespeare. Each man knew the human character with the keenest insight, and each could write in the voice and thought of any character. Each could tell the most intricate and classic stories of dramatic structure, encompassing all the human emotions and variations of conflict. Shakespeare wrote in the late Middle Ages using the most refined English (exponentially more refined than today), and Dickens characters spoke in the various dialects of the English of the early 19th century, when the language was broken up. But each writer knew the human heart and mind to the utmost degree, and I think they are the greatest, and Stephen King, too, for American writers. He is classified as "horror", but he really is a writer of the human mind and heart, like Dickens and Shakespeare.

The other thing about these BBC Dickens presentations is the acting. To say it is "good" or even "great" doesn't do it justice. These English actors become their characters, each and every one, to the extent that you are transported back to the 1840s, in England, and you live the story with them.

So that was all the news today. FB showed a few more of your posts today, like your friends in front of a church in the snow, and a couple of videos that you liked, so as I say, maybe you have been posting and FB just doesn't show it because of their format. But anyway, I am glad when you do post and I can see it.  :)

I hope all projects are coming along well, and I am always looking forward to what is coming next.

I Love You and will see you in the morning.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Happy Sunday

Happy Late Sunday Night, Sweet Baby,

Once again I am just basically checking in to say hello, due to the "no news to report" factor, and also I don't see you on FB much anymore. It might just be FB itself, as I've noted before, but whatever it is, I haven't seen too many posts by you to respond to. You know me, I'm big on communication......if you want to. And if not, I understand. All is good. It just comes down to whether I should keep writing this blog on a nightly basis, just cause it's hard for me to think up things to say. Well, you know what I mean and again, I know you have a lot of things going on, and for all I know the FB algorithm is cutting out your posts.

But anyhow......

The singing went well in church this morn. All that practicing in the car paid off, and I am gonna keep doing it, lol, because my voice felt more supple than before (cause I practised so hard for the Rutter), and as a result it was easy to hit high notes and move up and down in my range, even in a legato piece.

So that was cool. I love singing, as mentioned many times.

That's all I know for tonight.

See you in the morning.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Happy Saturday

Happy Late Night, Sweet Baby,

I hope your day was good, both today and yesterday. Not much to report from my end, except that I took Pearl and The 'Ster to see some Christmas Lights this evening. The are some streets up in the well-to-do section of Granada Hills that really "do up" the lights at every house, and on these particular streets they feature a lot of white lights, with just a few colors mixed in, so it creates a Winterlike effect. It's very beautiful and the streets look like a postcard. Next week we will go south to Woodland Hills to see the lights at the locally famous Candy Cane Lane, which is actually a whole neighborhood of (once again) fairly wealthy people who have the dough to really put on a major league light show. Last year, we waited until Christmas Night to go, and we got caught in a Humongous Traffic Jam of Trillions Of People In Cars Waiting To See The Lights. I am not kidding about the trillions; there were actually an exponential number of people greater than the population of Earth, all waiting to see the lights. The line of cars wrapped several times around The Globe..............So you can imagine it was a mistake to go on Christmas Night.

Which is why we are gonna go earlier this year.  :)

I didn't see any posts today by you, but yesterday I did see a few, about your bands and your friend's film screening. As always, I hope everything is going well.

Tomorrow morning is church, and we are finally gonna sign the "Christmas Lullaby" by John Rutter, which for some reason has been the hardest thing for me to sing in my two years in the choir. But I've been practicing it a lot, and I hope I will do a good job at the very least.

Back from church at around 1pm.

I Love You.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Greg Lake and Robert Bresson

Happy Late Night, my Darling,

Tonight was the final screening of the Robert Bresson series at CSUN. We saw his last film, "L'argent", in which he pared down his style even further than he had before, refined his photographic, editing and sound techniques like a master jeweler cutting facets on a diamond. The story, taken from Tolstoy, concerns a counterfeit note (the "money" of the title) that is passed by two kids during a sales transaction with a shopkeeper. She discovers the note is fake, but instead of tearing it up or turning it in, passes it herself in a transaction with a workman at her shop. Once he gets the counterfeit money in his possession, his life begins to change for the worse, until he is going completely down the tubes. I won't give anything away, but the film ends in what might be considered a very un-Bressonian manner : something more akin to "Friday The 13th"!

Except for that it's Bresson directing, which makes it the final minutes of a masterpiece instead of a slasher film.

I have been going to the Cinematheque for eight years now. We've done sixteen directors over just as many semesters, and this Bresson retrospective has been, for me, the very best of them all. I don't even know what to say about the man anymore, which should spare you a Bresson Tirade for the evening (though I may go on a spontaneous one at some point in the future). I was a little humbled, too, because at the end of his introduction, the Professor pointed at me and said, "this series was for you". I had suggested Bresson as a retrospective way back in.......hmmm, I think it was 2011 or so. It was quite a few years ago. But I did not know the Professor selected him because of my suggestion until tonight. So that was very cool, indeed. I have a lot of filmmakers I love, as you know. But I have gotta say once again that Robert Bresson is the Master of The Masters.....

Well, SB, it has been quite a day, and of course I am talking about the passing of one of the giants of rock music, Mr. Greg Lake. For me, he may have been The King Of Progressive Rock. I've always thought it was a choice between him and Rick Wakeman. Rick was a member of two legendary bands, The Strawbs and Yes, and he also had a solo career. I think I recently mentioned all of this after the ARW concert a couple weeks ago. But Greg Lake had perhaps an even more impressive resume, if that's possible : he was a founding member of King Crimson and ELP, two of the greatest bands that ever walked the planet.

It's impossible to overstate what he accomplished in a relatively brief - by today's standards - period of time. You may or may not be familiar with the albums I will mention, but you can take it from me that each one is a Stellar Achievement, and more than half are among the greatest albums ever made.

Starting in 1969, when he was only 21, Greg recorded the album "In The Court Of The Crimson King" with King Crimson. If you've ever heard the song "21st Century Schizoid Man", that's him singing. For many people, that album is the greatest in all of Progressive Rock. If that were all he had done, Greg Lake would be a legend for that record alone.

But he then went on to record :

"In The Wake Of Poseidon" (1970) by King Crimson, which was released a mere seven months after "Court Of...", and is a Stellar Album in it's own right.

"Emerson, Lake and Palmer", the debut album from ELP, which came out a mere six months after "In The Wake Of Poseidon". Three incredible albums in about a 14 month period, with two different bands.

"Tarkus" by ELP, which many consider to be their best album, and could easily be considered one of the greatest albums ever made. That came out a whole year later, lol, in 1971.

Then six months later ELP released their live album of "Pictures At An Exhibition", a revolutionary rock version of Mussorgsky's famous classical work.

A mere seven months after that, ELP released their next studio album, "Trilogy". That one also could legitimately be called one of the greatest records ever made. It came out in Summer 1972.

And then finally, to end my list, Greg Lake played, sang on and also produced "Brain Salad Surgery" by ELP, which took an "extra" long time to finish: It was released a whole 16 months after "Trilogy", haha, in November 1973.

I was hanging out at College Records on the day that album was released. I may have heard "Lucky Man" or some other ELP song on the radio prior to that, but I was only 13 and basically not familiar with the band. Then I saw the HR Giger album cover, and when somebody from the store put the album on the turntable, the first thing I heard from Emerson Lake and Palmer was the opening song, "Jerusalem", which is based on a poem by William Blake.

To me, it remains the greatest vocal performance ever by Greg, my favorite to this day. When you listen to it, you can hear why he was known as "The Voice". If I could sing any song and sing it well, it would be that one. His vocal reminds me of the greatest choral music on "Jerusalem".

I remember running home after hearing "Brain Salad Surgery" that night, and asking my folks if I could have the 3 bucks to buy a copy. Records were cheap then. I went back to the store and bought it, then came home. My Mom wanted to know what the big deal was, why had I been in such a hurry to buy it?

So I played it for her and my Dad. If I recall correctly, it was either the night of my Mom's 50th birthday, or just a night or two afterward. So Mom was younger than I am now, and still pretty hip, even though she didn't grow up with or really listen to rock music. She liked the classical aspects of the music, though, and also remarked on the synthesizer sounds, which as I've remarked still sound futuristic today.

I don't remember if Dad commented. He was not a rock fan, though, so I would not have expected him to like it, haha.

But I always will remember how stunned I was by hearing "Brain Salad Surgery" for the first time, how I ran home to ask for the money to buy it, then ran back home to play it on the family console stereo, which was located in the living room. You see, I couldn't just play it for myself, because our only stereo was for the whole family, and located in the living room. So that's why I played it for Mom and Dad, too. :)

Greg Lake played on all those albums I mentioned in a four year period.

Seven amazing albums from two legendary bands in four years. Plus non-stop touring.

This is why he was The King Of Progressive Music. He was also "The Voice", and was my favorite singer.

I also saw Greg, with Keith and Carl too, at my first concert ever, the California Jam in April 1974, on the tour for "Brain Salad Surgery".

I was fortunate to see ELP in later years, and to see Greg one final time on his solo tour in 2012 (which I am  beyond grateful for), but tonight I write about the heyday of an Actual Giant of Rock Music, every bit as gigantic as Elvis Presley or Paul McCartney, in his own way.

Give or take a few hours, Greg passed away on the same day John Lennon did in 1980.

December 8th.

And so did my Mom, on December 8, 2005.

John Glenn did too, also today. He was a true American Hero, the first American to orbit the Earth.

It must be a good day to go.

I am glad Greg left his voice and music behind for us to listen to in the meantime.

Wow, Sweet Baby, I am blown away........but in a good way, by how amazing the music has been in my life.

It's been a terrible year for losing people but an important year for realising what we have been a part of...

So as always, I can only say "Thank You, Lord".

And also, "Thanks Greg"!

That's all I know for tonight, Sweet Baby. I Love You and will see you in the morning.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):) 

Happy Wednesday Love + Lens Flares

Happy Late Night, Sweet Baby,

That was another great photo this morning, of Betty from Fall II Rise. Portraiture is one of your many talents, and from your comments about Betty, she sounds pretty talented too. And I agree about lens flares :  they are indeed Life. :) For me, that extends to all lighting artifacts. My best one is still the pic I got at The Meadows in 1995, of a tree with the Sun behind it. I was deliberately trying for artifacts in that one, and I think I actually got a refraction from my eye, through the viewfinder, which should be possible with an SLR.

With a little experimentation, you never know what will show up. At The Meadows, I was always trying to photograph Spirits, and I got a few of those, too. I guess it depends on what you are looking for. But in any case, a lot of different things can show up in lighting artifacts, because light is more than just illumination. :)

Today I took Pearl to the clinic for a bone density exam, a once-a-year thing for patients with osteoporosis. I am of the opinion that people of Pearl's age should just be allowed to live their lives and not be hassled with doctor visits unless they are sick, but it's not my call. Anyway, it's all done. The only other thing to report today is that I finished "The Orchard" by Charles L. Grant, and it was so good that I ordered another one by him from the Libe.

I saw your post, via Sarah, seeking a warehouse for a video shoot (and yes, I did note the "heated" qualification. I remember you talking about almost freezing on one of your shoots.) So anyhow, I am guessing that you are gonna be the one shooting the vid for Sarah's band. If so, that is awesome. :)

That's all I know for today. I hope you are enjoying the Christmas season. :)

See you in the morn. I Love You. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Happy Tuesday

Happy Late Night, Sweet Baby,

Just checking in to say hi once again, as I have nothing much to report. I am kind of half-watching "Tokyo Story" on TCM as I write, the classic film directed by Ozu and starring the great Setsuko Hara. I've seen it several times and own the dvd, so "half-watching" is okay in this case. I'm also researching purchase options for Carolina Reaper peppers. I've been hearing about them off-and-on for about a year now, and I've gotta try one. They are supposedly the Hottest Pepper In The World, surpassing the Ghost Pepper......

I guess you can't buy any of these specialty peppers in the market because only a few guys grow 'em, and they have patents on them, control all the distribution, etc. So it's not like with Jalapenos or even Habaneros, which are grown everywhere. Only one guy grows the Carolina Reaper, so the only way to buy them is mail order from him. And, they are super expensive, like 15 bucks for one ounce (which is what?......two or three peppers?). But you can also buy the powder, and also Reaper Hot Sauce, which may be the best option at $7.95 for a small bottle. But I've gotta try it, even if I regret doing so. :)

I saw one post, of the video by the director you like. He has a striking style, dark and fantastical with a lot of effects. I will leave the music in that particular vid for others to review, but that's neither here nor there. With a big enough budget, you could make such a video yourself, but using your own style. In that particular vid, he didn't focus much on the band, which is your specialty. :)

Hope your day was good.

I Love You.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Just Saying Hi

Happy Late Night, my Darling,

I hope you had a good day. I saw your post of the Versus Me photo this morning, of them on tour, and at first I wondered if you were out there with 'em. :) But then I thought that you probably would've said something. It's great that they are touring, though, and you will be too, with one client or another.

Today was just a regular workday for me. I took Pearl to the doctor this afternoon, just for a checkup. She is doing well, good BP and normal blood levels for her age, etc. They want to do a bone density test, a once-a-year thing for patients with osteoporosis, so that is scheduled for Wednesday.

Once the new year hits, and the days get longer, I will hope to be back out on the trails again.

I saw one other post, of your friend's cover version of the Florence and The Machine song. Since I haven't seen you post that girl before, I am guessing she is either a new client or that the post is a reference that you are recording a new cover yourself.  :)

Well, that's all for tonight.

I Love You and hope all is going well.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Happy Sunday + Christmas Parade

Happy Late Night, Sweet Baby,

I hope you've had a nice weekend. I haven't seen you on FB, so you are probably working on one thing or another. I did see one post earlier this evening, via Steve, about weather, "this weekend vs. last weekend", and I've also seen the temps up in your area, so I am guessing you now have snow on the ground. It's cold, but it'll make for a White Christmas, which has gotta be nice.  :)

I went to the annual Christmas Parade in Granada Hills this afternoon, as I do every year. You may have seen my photo on FB of the guy riding the John Deere tractor. That's my little "inside joke", haha - it's not The Parade without the green tractors, which are there every year, and are meant to celebrate our rural heritage, when the Valley was one big farmland. The parade started at 1:30 and had the usual multitude of high school marching bands and Girl Scout troops and Mexican Rancheros on horseback. I stayed until the Labrador Guide Dogs went past. I always make sure I see them, then I can call it an official parade.

We had good singing in church, and a good rehearsal too. All of my singing in the car is paying off, it is getting easier for me to transition to the higher register, and so I am looking forward to singing the John Rutter piece next week.

I watched tonight's lengthy episode of "The Walking Dead" a little while ago, but I am getting tired of it. I wish they'd finish this Negan character off already.

I saw another post of yours yesterday, a picture of a street at night and a reference to "Stars Hollow". I didn't know what that was so I Googled it. It is from "Gilmore Girls". That was my Mom's favorite show in the early 2000s. She never missed an episode, and she loved the fast repartee between the two.

I see the show is having a revival. Mom would be happy. :)

That's all for tonight, SB. I will see you in the morn. Post if you can.

I Love You.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Windy Day + Creationist (yeah, I mean me) + You Guys Rule

Happy Late Night, Sweet Baby,

Not a lot to report today, just hunkering down to stay out of the cold and wind. Still went on my walk, though. Can't miss that, wind or no wind. Lots of tree branches down all over the place. It's supposed to stop by tomorrow afternoon, thank goodness. No movie tonight; I was just reading my books : "The Orchard" by Charles Grant, which has one of the scariest sequences I have ever read (takes place in a darkened movie theater), and my main book at the moment, "Genesis, Creation and Early Man" by Father Seraphim Rose, of the Orthodox Christian Church. Orthodox should be distinguished from Fundamentalist in a number of ways, most significantly in the way the Orthodox Church adheres strictly to the Patristic teachings of the early Church Fathers. The idea behind Orthodoxy is to not stray from the words and teachings of the Apostles, who were actually present with Christ. They were actual witnesses.

The other big difference is the rigorous intellectual analysis of the Biblical material as it relates to the question of creation. Fundamentalist churches tend to.........well, to be polite, they do not rigorously analyse anything from an intellectual standpoint. What they do instead is just interpret the Bible according to their feelings about the world, and in doing so they create the "version" of Christianity that seems so hateful to many people, myself included.

I was never a "Bible" person, and I'm still not, really, because you have chapters in it like Exodus, in which "God" (more likely Yaweh, a physical being but not really God) is presented as a psychotic tyrant.

I won't go on a Biblical Tirade, and I am no Biblical scholar, but as I did begin to peruse the Bible in my 30s, I realised I was a believer in the New Testament, rather than the whole thing. Which is not to say there isn't some history in the Old Testament. It's just that when you get to the New, that's when Jesus appears, and He is the Real Deal. His words, truths and ideas simply cannot be disputed.

In other words, besides being the Son Of God, He was also the Ultimate Intellectual Thinker. And I like that.

And that's what drew me to this book. I am not an Orthodox Christian, nor a member of any denomination as I have stated before. If anything, I am closest to being Catholic, as my Mom was. But I don't belong to a denomination. I simply just believe in Jesus Christ, because of His words, works, truths and ideas.

I am always attracted by intellectual rigor, and also, I was raised as an Acolyte (altar boy) in the Espiscopal Church when I was five years old. So the feeling has been in me since I was a child.

But back to the book: why am I a Creationist?

Because the Theory Of Evolution stems from Naturalism, the idea that we cannot see, hear, touch or otherwise perceive God with any of our five senses, therefore, it is not logical that God exists. Naturalism says that we can only believe in God, and for the Natural Scientists (like Charles Darwin), that's not good enough. Belief is not good enough when compared to what science can show us, about Nature and the World. And so, using science, they came up with the most preposterous theory I have ever heard of in my life.

And that is The Theory Of Evolution, which states that everything began in a Primordial Soup, which is a fair enough start. But then it goes on to postulate that molecules began to bond - at random, with no rhyme or reason (because there is no God), and eventually the molecules became plants. And at some point another strain of molecules - again totally at random - became fish. And then fish became frogs and such........until finally there were monkeys, which became Man.

And all totally at random, with only the struggle for survival (of the fittest) as a motivating factor.

Excuse me while I laugh my head off.

The Theory Of Evolution totally excludes the enormity of Human Consciousness, the sheer enormity, in which the Soul is felt inside each person, in which profound emotion is felt, in which music is felt as a language of the deepest connection, and in which the ultimate question of "Why", as in why are we here?, is never far from the surface........

Yeah, tell me again that we are here because of a random collection of molecules.

So I won't go on a tirade, and I am not a Fundamentalist Christian, or even an Orthodox one. I am just a person who believes in Jesus Christ, and in some form of Creationism, because The Theory Of Evolution is a joke. I don't see how anyone can "believe in it".

And thus, because I am always on an intellectual quest for Why We Are Here, and How We Came To Be Here, I ordered this book when it was recommended to me on Amazon, and I must say that, 200 pages in, I am blowing my mind. It's not just a lot of re-interpreted Biblical hogwash, but a strict and intellectually rigorous examination of, so far, The Book Of Genesis.

I'm always in search of answers, SB. And so I don't mind saying I'm a Creationist, as a general term, meaning I am not tied down to any particular version of Creationism, and certainly not to any Fundamentalist version.

Anyhow, that's my reading material at the moment. And also The Final Report On The Bombing Of The Alfred P. Murrah Building, or the OKC Bombing for short. It's as big a deal as 9/11, and I have been studying it all year, in various books.

Well, that's all I know for tonight.

I hope your day was good. I see that Sarah & Co. are on their way back from their tour, and again, I think it's great to see all the success everyone is having, both you and your friends, as you have all moved on from school years to the present. Super cool, I say. And it's gonna keep getting better!

See you in the morning. I Love You.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

One Great Shot After Another + "The Devil, Probably" On The Big Screen

Happy Late Night, Sweet Baby,

That was a great highlight reel you posted this morning. The Dreamhouse stuff came out exceptionally well. I am assuming it was shot live because you went on tour with them, but the quality is so good it almost looks "studio". Great stuff! Are you gonna or have you already put together a video for them? Well anyway, you have a wide variety of good looking shots on that reel, including the backlit leaves on the tree (seen for just a few seconds) that looks like it was shot at night. Your camera motion is smooth as always. Very high quality shots, all around. Just keep thinking creatively, as in the way you thought up the bowl coming straight at the camera when the guy sweeps it off the table. That was a fantastic shot.

Above all, continue to maintain and refine the combined rhythm in your camera movement and editing. You are a natural at visual rhythm, and you will continue to refine it. I can't think of the technical term for maintaining visual continuity and flow of movement as the eye perceives it (it's probably a French term), but there is a science to it, and it is formatted. I am sure you learned this in school, all the POV stuff, etc. But just keep studying it and nailing shot after shot, edit after edit. Match each shot, camera position, edit and "mis en scene" (meaning arrangement of things and shapes in the camera frame, in still photography "composition"), and fit each one perfectly into the next, like clockwork.

You are well on your way to doing all of this. Just study what you have already done, and go from there.

I am all fired up about camera shots and cinema in general because we saw "The Devil, Probably" at CSUN tonight. I already wrote about this film last week, and this is my second time seeing it in a week but my first on the big screen, and it is nothing less than another Total Masterpiece by Robert Bresson.

SB, you might have to stop me here. I am gonna try extra hard not to go off on another Bresson Tirade.......

(trying........trying........trying really hard......trying to refocus thoughts.....)

Okay! I made it!  :)

I did not go off on my Umpteenth Bresson Tirade, but I've still gotta say "My Goodness, Mr. Bresson. How can you make One Incredible Film After Another"?

And since he is no longer with us, having passed away in 1999 at 98 years of age, I will answer for him and say that a lot of his creative success lies in his attention to precision.

He has his actors read their lines exactly how he wants them read.

He has their physical movements (head tilts, the way they walk, the way they stand up - everything!) exactly the way he wants them.

He has his editing and mis en scene (just call it composition) perfectly connected to one another, so that everything fits, from edit to edit, with perfect balance.

He pays so much attention to detail that the movie comes off as "all-of-a-piece" : a Whole created out of precise and specifically chosen, specifically instructed parts.

I think I said this before, a while back, but the more you go forward and the greater your resume, make sure that your vision for a client's video is the one that is desired by the client. The more respect you accrue as a director, the more you should expect a client to say, "we want Elizabeth", because of your prowess as a director. Of course a band should always have input in a video they are paying for. That goes without saying. But they are hiring you for your vision and style, and the more you take charge in that regard, the greater your profile will grow.

You have a flowing visual style that looks fantastic. Just keep studying it, and see what you wanna do next.

That's all I know for tonight. I Love You and will see you in the morning.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Tours & Projects (for you) + Limekiln (for me) + Piano Tirade Inspired By Trifonov

Happy Late Night, my Darling,

I hope your day was good and that any projects you are working on are coming along well. I am still looking forward to your personal project that you filmed a few months ago. I know you were working on the music for it, and that probably takes a while, especially if you are working on client's projects as well. But I will be glad to see and hear it when you do put it out. I saw a few posts today, too, mostly having to do with bands on tour, including Versus Me, so it looks like a lot of things are in the works. :)

It was a gorgeous day here, so I took advantage of it by going up to Limekiln Canyon at 3pm. Limekiln, as reported in past blogs, is the "other" preserved nature canyon on Rinaldi Street. It is located about two miles west of Aliso. I don't go to Limekiln as often, as I've also mentioned before, just because Aliso is closer and a bit more awesome. But as I am reminded whenever I do go to Limekiln, it has it's magical qualities too. One is that it's a little more like being out in the mountains, because of the pine trees. Another reason is the creek, which I have photographed before. But also the colored leaves, as in my picture today. You won't see such leaves at Aliso, which has mostly ancient oak trees, and just looks more ancient in general....

So, a nice hike, though quick and local. I am glad to be getting back out there! You inspired me with your birthday photo. 

Tonight at home I was listening to KUSC because Jim Svejda (famous classical host) had Daniil Trifonov as a guest. Trifonov is a young Russian pianist whom I may have posted before, and who some are calling the best pianist of his generation. I was interested because a) I love piano music as you know, and b) I had seen Trifonov on Youtube about three years ago and thought he was pretty amazing. So I listened to the radio show tonight and heard more of his music.

His playing really is astounding, but the more I listened, I thought : "there is something missing".

This is not to take away from him at all, because his playing is flawless, even beyond supershredders like Yuja Wang.

I listened to the whole show because ever since I first heard Trifonov, who is still only 25, I have wanted to like him, and I was ready to buy his new double-cd Liszt recording. But then as the show went on, I backed off, because there was something missing. Don't get me wrong; Trifonov is way beyond just being a piano shredder (and they are a dime a dozen). His playing is so flawless that it's ridiculous.

And I think that's the problem.

I wonder if some of these musicians over rehearse. I know it's not unheard of now for some top level pianists to rehearse up to 14 hours a day. With players like Yuja Wang (who does nothing for me) the technical ability is off the charts. What I like about Trifonov is that he is a least attempting to move beyond sheer ability. But I think with these newer players, they have gotten so far removed from what made the piano (and piano music) such a wondrous vehicle for the expression of music in the first place....

And that is it's emotive capability.

Good Lordy Moses, SB. We have already been through, several times over, why the piano is the most emotive of all instruments (including the guitar, which I love). But maybe when you practice 14 hours a day, you refine all the emotion out of it. That's Yuja Wang, and Marc-Andre Hamelin and Lang-Lang (who isn't all that good anyway, imo).

I want to like Daniil Trifonov, because I have never heard a technique like his. It's really amazing, so smooth and so tonal. He is also not a Piano Banger (thank goodness!) like Sviatislav Richter, who many think is the greatest pianist of all time. I am not of that opinion. To me, Richter is the Ultimate Piano Banger, lol. Trifonov has a softer technique, but with all his tremendous ability, he is missing the emotive magic of the players I consider to be the true greats.

Sofronitsky. Lipatti. Kempff. Cortot. Clara Haskil. Arturo Michelangeli Bennedetti. Mauritzio Pollini.

And a few others.

They were all players from the past century, when technique was very important to be sure - of supreme importance - but of even more importance was to convey the music.......

And when I listen to my Big Three, the first three mentioned above, I am swept away. Carried away by the playing of the music, rather than just the playing of the instrument.

That's what I think about Trifonov - who I still really want to like. He plays the instrument perhaps at a level that it's never been played before, or at least with few peers.

But he doesn't play the music as well as he plays the piano. He plays the music well, no doubt.

But I will still take Sofronitsky, Lipatti and Kempff, who not only play the music well, but connect it to God.

That's great playing, for me.  :)

That's my Piano Tirade for tonight. :)

I will see you in the morning. I Love You.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)