This is it, this weekend; this is the end of summer. It's the only season that ends. Spring gives way to summer without a visible seam; winter ebbs away; fall vanishes until only bones are left, but sometimes leaves us before winter begins. Fall without any leaves isn't Fall. It's not winter. It's just purgatory. But! I will not put out the Now It's Fall book until the trees start to turn. Why do I put it out? Tradeezhun! Why is it tradeezhun? Because it was done before and hence must be done again. Perhaps daughter will notice it; some years she does, if only to note "there's that book again."
It's a small volume from 1948, by Lois Lenski. She published almost 100 books and illustrated more, including this very Medieval work for a Kenneth Grahame book. Doing a little research made me realize how many children's books and series - and authors - are simply forgotten, as times and tastes change.
Which reminds me of something else I forgot. I watched Citizen Kane the other night because I found the Blu-Ray in a closet I was cleaning out, and hadn't watched it in years. I love every frame of the movie, and it's endlessly fascinating no matter how many times I've seen it. There's always something about this scene that makes you happy, even though Jedidiah has his old friend's number by this point.
Before you click: notice the lighting. If you've read anything about the movie, you know how they used cloth for the ceilings, illuminated the room from above and put in a bank of high-power lights in the floor (visible in the lower left hand corner.) It gives everything a lurid, hallucinatory appearance. One thing I never noticed: the girl on the right flubs her lip-syncing at 1:15.
One thing I wondered about after a few viewings. Listen at :57 for a trumpet part before the singing starts. It occurs again at 1:54, and all the men sing along. Now. Bernard Herrrmannn wrote that song, we're told. But the fact that the men sing along, and the way everyone knows that riff, leads me to wonder whether this wasn't a standard element in boozy smokers. So maybe it wasn't an original song.
CHARLIE KANE (from 'Citizen Kane')
Lyrics: Herman Ruby - Music: Pepe Guizar ('A Poco No')
Ah HAH. A Spanish-American War relic! Because that's the era in whcih "Kane" is set. Wikipedia says:
Orson Welles heard "A Poco No" in Mexico, and the tune was used for the jaunty campaign song, "Oh, Mr. Kane", in Citizen Kane (1941).
Alas, the composer didn't write it until the 30s, it seems. So it can't be old. Perhaps they just made up the singing along to make it seem like a piece of they past they would know, and we wouldn't.
If that's the case, I'm impressed.
Sorry, but that's it today, aside from the updates and LISTEN. It's been a week.
Back to music cues for "The Little Things in Life," Peg Lynch's last continuously running sitcom. The cues run from substandard 60s cues to cringingly 70s, and I'm surprised at how few there were. I think I'm already repeating what I previously played. In fact I know I'm already repeating the fact that I think I'm repeating myself, but on we go: this is the sound of narrative radio in its strange last gasp.
Have I played this one for a while? There are so few, yet there seem to be so many. It's echoey and unpleasant.
Who would write this? Why?
This is better - music to light up a B&H by, perhaps. Here we get a bit more than usual.
Perhaps a silly millimeter longer.
As long as we're doing the 70s again, and God forgive me for bringing it back in any form, here's a 1975 Clairol ad of astonishing dullness.
Most were like this.
Tex, known for his ancient and smelly cowboy suit, pays a visit.
Mary's Inn.
And therein hangs a larger tale, which we'll get to eventually.
In order for it to be a cliche, it first had to be real. CAVALCADE!
You'd hate to be the artist who got a copy, looked at the cover, and felt their blood run cold.
Stars of today.
Stars of yesterday.
Say the line, Al! C'mon, say it!
Enjoy some Aldens 1966, if you wish. I finished scanning the catalog today, and you might think "gosh, didn't you have that done months ago?" No. Lazy. It would make my life easier if I had spent a day scanning 150 pages, but I do about five and I'm sick of it. 2017 will be a 70s catalog, because I'm annoyed at websites that put up six pictures rom a '75 catalog and say OMG and get a billion links because OMG 70s.
See you Monday with a little something, and then the Fall Bleats begin. Warning: pretty much like the Summer Bleats, with 23% more bittersweet rumination.
