Sunday, November 09, 2014

Bath of the Moment

First thing I did this morning was finish out Emily Climbs. As much as I love Anne, I think I'm enjoying Emily even more. I can relate to her in many ways. I'm a quiet writer who doesn't always feels like she fits in, only has a few really close friends, and frequently feels misunderstood by other people who don't get the need to write. I wish the stories weren't leaning closer and closer to concentrating on romance, but Emily is a teenager as of the end of Climbs, and she's already interested in one of her old guy friends, Teddy. There's one more book in the series, Emily's Quest. If I can't find that one at a book sale, I'll pick it up after Christmas.

I put on two patriotic Disney records as I made Cranberry-Apple Pancakes for breakfast. Yankee Doodle Mickey looks like an early 80s release. Molly Ringwald is one of the kids singing on this collection of American folk and pop songs. My favorite is the Armed Services Medley, with Mickey representing the Air Force and Marines, Goofy representing the Army, and Donald naturally representing the Navy. Also did a book-and-record version of The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band, presumably from when the movie came out in 1968.

Work was insanely busy for almost the entire four hours I was there today. We're out of turkeys again, despite just re-stocking them yesterday! A lot of people were not happy about that. You'd think we were closer to Thanksgiving than three weeks. Other than this, there were no really major problems, and my relief was on time.

I went straight home and into the bath. Did I ever need that! It felt so nice, after how crazy work was. I haven't had a bath in ages. I listened to the quiet New Age/Jazz recording On a Winter's Night and read It's a Wonderful Christmas, on how the years from 1940 to 1965 shaped our current holidays.

When I finally got out, I decided to start catching up on the backlogged Broadway cast albums I have from all the finds I made this spring and summer. Did Lady In the Dark tonight while I had leftover chicken soup for dinner. British stage star Gertrude Lawrence played Liza Elliot, a successful magazine editor who can't decide what man she wants to marry. She undergoes psychoanalysis to figure out the root of her problem. The musical numbers are a part of a series of mini-opera dream sequences, including a circus dream that features her head photographer (Danny Kaye) singing tongue-twisters about Russian composers.

Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin wrote some lovely music for this unusual show. The odd format and lavish production requirements (and questioning of psychoanalysis in general) may be why we don't see this more often nowadays. While there was never a genuine original cast album, Lawrence and Kaye put out enough separate recordings of songs from the show to make up something like one. (They also including German star Hildegarde singing "The Saga of Jenny.") Not a well-known show today, but definitely worth a look if you're a fan of Lawrence, Kaye, or adventurous musicals.

Oh, and while the Eagles play tomorrow and I think the Redskins are off, the other two NFC East teams were quite visible today. The Giants were mauled by the Seahawks 38-17, while the Cowboys ran all over the wayward Jaguars 31-17.

No comments: