Last minute burst of stuff that’s due tomorrow, and I am kicking myself for letting everything pile up until the last minute, but everything always piles up until the last minute, and then it gets done. Otherwise it wouldn’t get done. The Last Minute is a time of immense productivity. At least you have the satisfaction of knowing I won’t be playing the game, and hence will not ramble on interminably about that again. No, save that for next week.
But it’s been a good week on the Bleat, no? I measure that by the quantity of stuff, of course, not the quality. Undercooked and cold, but what a buffet! BTW, if you came early yesterday, the link for the Bobby Sherman comic book was actually next week’s link; the perils of working too far in advance, I guess. You may have missed the Sad Birthday of Lionel the Gluttonous Hoarder. Here.
No action across the street today; just looks like a war zone. That’s what you always say when there’s been destruction or mayhem, right? Looks like a war zone. That would be apt if there were bodies and occupying troops, and the obligatory old lady picking out an heirloom from there rubble. In this case it’s just guys in hard-hats looking at plans, figuring out what comes next. Perhaps the service core is harder to take out than the rest.
Anyway: in a 24 hour period I have due: two columns, one personal profile, a video interview, two blog entries, and a magazine article. So I’m off to work until 1 AM and then get up for a miserable day. But ah, the moment when I hit SEND on the last thing, and Friday night looms with its boon.
And now for something slightly different. The show “A Case for Dr. Morelle” was a BBC number in the 50s, and revived a character that had been popular some years before: a cranky old guy who solved crimes in a very low-key British fashion while insulting everyone and being tediously acerbic. I mention them here for three reasons. One:
Morelle #1 OVERLY DRAMATIC SOUND CUE #1
Morelle #2 I swear, I absolutely swear, that Monty Python used this at some point. They would have had access to the BBC musical cue library, no? I just can’t place it. No, it’s not the Spanish Inquisition skit.
Morelle #3 The theme. It’s in the same vein as the Alfred Hitchcock theme, upbeat and mordant. Captures the mood of the show with absolute perfection - or at least the mood the show wanted. You hear those notes, and you know you're in for amusing mystery with a touch . . . .of MUHDUH.
Now, this week's batch of "Couple Next Door" cues, taken - I believe - from the depthless CBS EZ Cue music library. They'restill in France on the long European trip.
CND Cue #391 Lushness; if it had gone on longer, it might have turned into rueful Bernard Herrrmannn music. You can almost hear it want to do just that. Scene: French cocktail party.
CND Cue #392 Basic busybody stinger.
CND Cue #393 Off to war - or in this case, a duel, because the Husband popped a Frenchman right in the nose for putting the moves on his wife, and the Frenchman DEMANDS SATISFACTION.
CND Cue #394 It’s not getting any better, this possible duel situation.
CND Cue #395 If Holst wrote “The Hyperventilator’s Suite”
CND Cue #396 Again and again I hear the motif of the two crossed lines, one up and the other down; whoever the composer was, he leaned on that a lot.
CND Cue #397 This one seems disappointed it doesn’t lead up to anything, but resigned in the end.
CND Cue #398 And now circus music will stand in for the Gaiety of French Nightlife.
Took me a while to identify the name - Beverly Cummins? No, it's Dorothy Collins. For . . . Trushay.
Tru-shay. 1959. Lovely voice, even though the recording is spotty. Fun fact: she was married to Raymond Scott, electronicl music pioneer AND the guy who wrote "Powerhouse," the music Warner Brothers cartoons always used when there was machinery around.
