Thursday, August 22, 2024

On a Summer Afternoon

Began the late morning with breakfast and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Clarabelle sends Mickey and the gang on a scavenger hunt to find the ingredients she'll need for a special treat. Goofy doesn't think he'll be able to think well enough to figure out the clues, so Professor Ludwig Von Drake gives him "Goofy's Thinking Cap" so he can help out, too.

Made my grocery list quickly and messed around a little on the laptop before heading out. It's still too nice to be hanging out inside. Though it's warmer, it also remains sunny, windy, and dry. Since I had to hit Sprouts later anyway, I thought a trip to Westmont wouldn't be amiss. I hadn't been over there in a while, not since Lauren visited in June. 

I forgot I had no paper money on me, so I passed on Samaritan Thrift and went across the street to Que Ricos for lunch. The small Venezuelan restaurant focuses on "street food" like enchiladas and arepas - sandwiches with fillings stuffed into cornmeal bread pockets. I had a Curvy Queen chicken salad arepa with fried plantains, Gouda, and a Diet Pepsi. Oh yum. I've had this before, and it was just as good this time around, filled with avocado and juicy chicken.  

Headed a block down to Phidelity Records next. I hadn't been there since Lauren visited in June. No good cast album or DVD finds this time, but I did dig up a couple of rock and jazz records and one CD. The machine used for the credit cards refused to sync with their system. It took so long for the owner and his assistant to fix it, they knocked $5 off my price, making it $15 for six records and a CD. The records were:

The soundtrack from The Cotton Club

Billy Joel - Streetlife Serenade

Sammy Davis Jr.'s Greatest Hits (with a very different song selection than the CD I picked up last year) 

The Dave Brubeck Quartet - Dave Brubeck at Storyville: 1954

The Cannonball Adderley Quartet - Country Preacher

Wonder Woman children's record featuring three stories

The one CD was:

Bon Jovi - New Jersey

Headed down Cuthbert next to Sprouts to begin this week's grocery shopping. I really don't need much, especially since I'll actually have the time for the farm market this week. Found two bags of their larger chocolate chip and trail mix cookies on clearance for $1.29 each. How could I resist that price? Restocked coconut milk, too. Those Olyra breakfast sandwich cookies were buy one, get one. I got two of the softer filled cookies. I hadn't seen Olipop Crisp Apple soda before, and it was 2 for $4. Presumably, it's a seasonal flavor for fall.

Went straight home after that. Watched the second half of the 3 PM Price Is Right episode while getting organized, then went into Annie Get Your Gun on YouTube. I go further into the 1957 TV version with Mary Martin in the title role at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.


Worked on the inventory for a while after that ended. Put Streetlife Serenade and New Jersey on the rock inventory and The Cotton Club in with the soundtracks, then moved on to the cast albums. Additions to the cast albums inventory included the 2018 Carousel revival, the original Broadway cast of Cats, the Katherine Hepburn vehicle Coco, Come From Away, Dames at Sea, the original cast of Damn Yankees, and A Day In Hollywood/A Night at the Ukraine. I've had Cats and Damn Yankees for so long, I have no idea where they came from anymore. I think Yankees was a thrift shop find, but I'm not sure. I picked up Come From Away on Amazon in 2021 when I couldn't find it locally.

Switched to Match Game Syndicated for a really quick dinner around 7:30. Eva Gabor tries to help a gentleman with "__ Loss" in the Head-to-Head. The contestant's answer recalls how Eva lost her toenail when another contestant accidentally kicked her foot...but it wasn't the right answer...

Finished the night with two more of the soundtracks and cast albums I picked up last week. I have no idea why the 1940 Alice Faye/Betty Grable movie Tin Pan Alley is so hard to find now, outside of its 1994 video release. The story of a sister act who is promoted by two ambitious songwriters in the early 20th century doesn't seem all that different from other Fox musicals of its era. To be honest, the music is only ok. Faye does a nice "You Say the Sweetest Things, Baby" with John Payne and Jack Oakie, while Grable gets a medley of the "rose" songs "Honeysuckle Rose" and "Moonlight and Roses."

On the Twentieth Century wasn't a huge hit in its original production with Madeline Khan that I have or in a recent revival with Kristin Chenoweth. It certainly isn't the fault of the music. This comic operetta makes the most of the opportunities for wacky farce in the story of a producer who is so desperate for his former diva flame to star in a new dramatic musical, he follows her on the train. Kahn and John Cullum sound terrific in  "I Rise Again" and "Our Private World." Imogene Coca has a blast playing a religious nut who insists everyone on the train should "Repent." I really hope this gets a third chance on Broadway someday. As it is, the cast album sports many delights. 

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