Raining On My Parade

It was rainy, chilly, and gray when I awoke this morning. I loved it. It felt like fall...and it made me feel better about being stuck at home. This was no day to go anywhere, even to Dad's house, if I actually could. I got up around 10AM and immediately put on Brunch With the Beatles. Listened to them while reading, and then while making Apple-Sweet Potato Pancakes. John Lennon, whose birthday was this week, was in the spotlight this week. Solo songs heard included "Power to the People," "Cold Turkey," "Imagine," and his version of "Stand By Me." Songs he did with the Beatles included "Ain't She Sweet," "Revolution," "I Am the Walrus," "Help!," and "In My Life."

I listened to the soundtrack from Xanadu and cleaned up after breakfast, then switched on the radio to hear today's Eagles-Steelers game. Calling it "ugly" would have been very, very kind. It was insane. There seemed to be a penalty flag thrown on both teams every two minutes, and probably half of them were for unnecessary roughness. When the dust cleared, the Eagles just barely lost in the fourth quarter, 16-14. 

Had the last of the leftover soup during lunch, then spent most of the game messing around with that Fashion Stencil Pad thing I bought a while ago. I'd used it once or twice, but I thought it would give me something fun to do during the game. I designed outfits based on decades of the 20th Century. The one for the 70s came out the best. I had to wing her bell-bottoms from scratch - the pad I bought was supposed to be for fancy dresses and came with no pants stencils. I came up with the idea of fading her blue jeans into purple on the bottoms when I accidentally grabbed a purple colored pencil instead of a blue one. Added a few stars for the applique look that they loved in that era.

Some of the others didn't come out too badly, either. I also improvised a suit dress for 1908 from an evening gown and a jacket - the gown had ruffles and a high collar added to the top, the jacket became sleeves for the dress, and the long skirt was trimmed with ribbons on the bottom. Also improvised a beaded skirt and collar for the 1929 flapper outfit, and combined stencils to make a Carmen-Miranda-style showgirl gown for the World War II model. (The 40s model also had the best-shaded hair and skin.)

Ran the original Carol Channing Hello Dolly! cast album while finally getting a hold of Mom. I tried calling her earlier, but she was apparently out running errands, and Dad-Bill  had Skylar. She was fine. She, too, was happy that we're finally getting some fall-ish temperatures. I told her about my week, about the reception yesterday, and my appointment tomorrow.

I enjoyed Dolly so much, I ran two more Jerry Herman cast albums as I made leftovers for dinner, Mame and Mack and Mabel. Mame and Dolly were massive hits on Broadway in the 60s and are still pretty well-known. Mack and Mabel,  however, was a huge flop in the 70s. It wasn't the fault of the music, which is probably Herman's single best score. The title characters are silent comedy director Mack Sennett and his most popular comedienne, tempestuous Mabel Normand. Mack can't love anything but his Keystone Kops comedy features. Mabel thinks she understands...but what she really wants is to act in features. Their long-time love affair ends no happier in the musical than it did in real life, no matter how many promises of a happy ending Mack wants to give the self-destructive Mabel.

Worth having for the gorgeous ballad "I Won't Send Roses" alone, which is what sold me on this CD in the first place. This downer of a musical doesn't seem to have ever worked onstage, no matter how often it was revised, but the score is a real gem.