Thursday, September 25, 2014

Singin' and Bakin' In the Rain

Today was my first of two seven-hour work shifts in a row. Maybe it was just as well. It rained almost the entire day. It was showering heavily when Jessa picked me up around 8:30. The Acme was dead pretty much the entire morning. I spent 9 AM through the lunch rush hour standing around. By the time things did start picking up around 1:30-2, the managers sent the third cashier to do stock work. They kept having to call him back every time the lines got long. Not to mention, my relief was late. They sent the self-checkout cashier in for me so I could get out on time. Jessa met me outside. She had things to get for a lasagna for dinner. It was still lightly showering when she drove me home.

As soon as I got in, I jumped in the bath. That felt wonderful. My legs are still kind of sore from all the running around I did last week, never mind today's work! I just kicked back for an hour, listened to the last of the shower, and finished As Time Goes By.

Since I just bought a ton of records, I spent the night spinning wax as I had leftovers for dinner and made a Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake for dessert. I started the Tommy Steele Singin' In the Rain before work and finished it during dinner. The original British stage version of the famous MGM movie expands one number in the film that was originally a background instrumental ("Temptation"), but also replaces several others with songs from other movies, or even other time periods. (I'll pass "Be a Clown," which "Make 'Em Laugh" was modeled on, but "Too Marvelous For Words" is from a Warners movie from 1937.) This was cute - "Moses Supposes" and "Good Morning" were especially fun - but I think it's out of print on CD and not exactly something you need to go out of your way for unless you're a really big fan of Steele.

Oh, Kay! is a bit closer to its source material. In fact, I believe this was done by the same producer, Goddard Lieberson, who also did my Roberta LP. This frothy Roaring 20s tale of the sister of a rum runner who falls for a society playboy while her brother hides his liquor in the playboy's mansion is only remembered today, if at all, for introducing some of the Gershwin Brothers' most famous music. The stack includes three lovely ballads, "Someone To Watch Over Me," "Maybe," and "Heaven On Earth," along with the bigger numbers "Do, Do, Do" and "Clap Yo' Hands." Jack Cassidy is the playboy; Barbara Ruick, who was Carrie Snow in the film version of Carousel, was Kay. It is on CD, but may also be out of print; check Amazon and used music shops if you're a fan of the Gershwins or Cassidy.

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