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[DERBRUCER]

DR derBRUCER actually SS #51 has hit the stands - so you are behind the times.

Some might say that as a Conservative I personify "behind the times".

And, as a country bumpkin with no access to "the stands", I must await the arrival of the trusty mail. But when #51 arrives, I shall comment; oh yes, I shall comment.

der Brucer

[Jrand74]

Hehehe, I just read the quote at the bottom of MBARNUM'S posts.  Very nice.

[Matt H.]

Thanks, DR JRand, for validating what I thought I remembered seeing many moon ago. Don't know why it doesn't pop up occasionally. The show, while very slight, is a good bit of fun, esecially if you like the old Agatha Christie motif-for-murder scenarios.

[DERBRUCER]

Hehehe, I just read the quote at the bottom of MBARNUM'S posts.  Very nice.

"It is ok to say you don't like apple pie, but isn't it unfair to say that apple pie is bad"

Apple pie can be put to very immaginative uses (A Jason Biggs reference)

[bk]

Ask BK:

In "What If", what song(s) are by Rupert Holmes?  I am a great fan of his work.

Also, thank you for  responding so quickly to my previous "Ask BK" questions.  I appreciate it.

The Rupert Holmes song we do is called I Don't Need You.

[bk]

For DR Readers BK and Jose:

Do you do dinner before or after the show on Friday and would you like to meet for said dinner?

I'm sure we can grab a bite to eat.

[bk]

For Ask BK - Not really a question, but I'd like your comments on the problem Decca Broadway seems to be having in getting correct tracks on their CDs the first time around.  As I posted yesterday, this week's release of MEXICAN HAYRIDE/MARY MARTIN SINGS COLE PORTER has been recalled because one of the Martin tracks was replaced with a track from her LUTE SONG album.  This same type of problem happened with MERRY WIDOW and SONG OF NORWAY as well.
BK, what is your opinion on this and how do you think they can keep it from happening in the future?

Well, these things, of course, do happen, but in this particular instance it seems that somebody doing the QC is not paying attention.  My feeling is that if whoever is putting this stuff together, i.e. "producing" the reissue, doesn't know enough about the material, he/she should send a test pressing to someone who does.  If the material is coming from a lot of different source tapes then it's understandable if the "producer" isn't at the mastering session.  Still, you have to approve the master and, as I said, if they don't know the material they should just send a copy to someone who does.  Once is forgivable, of course.  Twice is something else again.

[MBarnum]

The Rupert Holmes song we do is called I Don't Need You.

I used to have that 45! Love that song!

[bk]

LOL WEL!

More good vibes to MR BK.

Hmmmmmmmm....my question for ASK BK day - you have heard the recordings made by Miss Patty Duke for United Artists.....if you had been the producer-conductor-arranger, would you have done anything differently?  How would you have recorded her particular singing talent?  What do you think they did right?  What do you think they did wrong?  

On her first few albums, they did what they could do - they double tracked her vocals, which always helps.  But, in those days, they simply didn't have the tools to do what we do today, i.e. pitch control, comping vocals.  If it were today, it would have been better - not perfect, never perfect, but better.  The VOTD album seems to be from the end, and by that time they'd stopped the double-tracking for the most part and it's pretty bad.  Again, more takes, more comping and it could have been better.  There doesn't seem to have been anyone there to help her all that much, in terms of playing the mic and her "acting" of the songs.

[Jrand74]

My thoughts, exactly, MR BK.  Where were the people to help her?  Especially VOTD, as you say, at the end of her contract...(and of course the unreleased "folk song" tracks)...  So today, you could take a lot of takes and get some pitch control?  Whew!  who knows what we're hearing today?  You know....oh well.

Double tracking makes great sound.  I know it was used on a lot of girl singers....most notably of course Miss Annette Funicello ...

[Panni]

Thank you for answering my question, bk. I shall no longer wonder why people do bizarre things.

[Jrand74]

DRPANNI, as strange as it may seem, some people might think WE are bizarre and do bizarre things....crazy isn't it?

[Jrand74]

And of course there is the Quaker saying:

All the world is crazy except thee and me, and sometimes I wonder about thee!

[William E. Lurie]

The DVD of "Broadway the Golden Age" is promised by the holidays (and I assume they don't mean next Easter or Memorial Day).  It will have a lot of bonus material including a large section of today's Broadway performers talking about the Broadway of yesterday.

[DERBRUCER]

Regarding the above comments on "Scarlet Street" - the only issue I have ever seen was the one with the article on recording "Jeepers Creepers" and the interview with a former DR who has requested her name not be mentioned any more on this here site.  As for the rest of the issue, I felt it was soft core gay porn pretending to be a magazine on serious horror movies (much in the way "In Touch" claimed it was a magazine about show business but was full of semi-naked men).  Many of the ads in "Scarlet Street" seem to bear this out.

The Issue (#50) I commented upon has an overwhelming abundance of female bodice cleavage and "Show a Little Leg, Dearie" and only a few male "semi-naked men". The rear cover ad has Misty Mudae popping out of her lacey unmentionable, there is a full page ad to meet Mamie Van Doren, and a half-pager exhorting me to buy the "Wild Girls" in 3D series ("Blonde Emanulle", The Playmates", and "Wildcat Women") - hardly targeted at a prurient gay audience. I am sure you would appreciate the great busty Monroe shot accompanying Tony Dale’s review of "The Marilyn Monroe Diamond Collection" - it balances the one of James Mason (on the same page) in Robin Anderson's review of "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea". The Book Ends section shows three views Benjamin Kritzer's tightly garbed butt-cheeks balanced by an opposite picture of 4 very scantily clad females "showing their virtues" in "Follies".

Perhaps you would enjoy Issue #31 with a "come-hither" scantily clad MMonroe on the cover, or the fetching damsels in distress covered in Issues #28,29,33,37, and a great garter-shot in #45. Unfortunately, out of 50 issues, there is only one “:boy-toy” on a cover, Issue #23 where the poor lad has to book-end a monster with a cheese-cake pin up blonde damsel.

der “wishing you were right” Brucer

[Dan (the Man)]

Hehehe, I just read the quote at the bottom of MBARNUM'S posts.  Very nice.

That's the kind of message that needs to be crammed down the throats of a couple of r.a.t.m.'ers.  But it would probably be to no avail...

[Dan (the Man)]

Question for BK--do you have any screenplays kicking around in your head?  

[Panni]

DRPANNI, as strange as it may seem, some people might think WE are bizarre and do bizarre things....crazy isn't it?

Us? Bizarre? My 8 foot invisible sloth, Leo,  and I protest.

[Stuart]

The DVD of "Broadway the Golden Age" is promised by the holidays (and I assume they don't mean next Easter or Memorial Day).

I am thinking Tu B'Shvat.  

[MBarnum]

Regarding the above comments on "Scarlet Street" - the only issue I have ever seen was the one with the article on recording "Jeepers Creepers" and the interview with a former DR who has requested her name not be mentioned any more on this here site.  As for the rest of the issue, I felt it was soft core gay porn pretending to be a magazine on serious horror movies (much in the way "In Touch" claimed it was a magazine about show business but was full of semi-naked men).  Many of the ads in "Scarlet Street" seem to bear this out.  This is not a criticism of the publication, but I am wondering just what readership they are going for... true fans of horror films or gay men who aren't comfortable with buying full-fledged gay magazines?  Both are good target markets, but I found the combination a little strange.

DR WEL, there has been no such interview published in Scarlet Street...you may be thinking of a different publication, like FANGORIA.

I don't think that Scarlet Street has any more titillations (male or female) than most other film related magazines around...but that is just the opinion of someone who has read numerous issues of the magazine....albeit there may have been more then the usual shots of semi-undraped actors in the issue (#49 if anyone would like to order a back issue of it! LOL!) that had my 1960s sword and sandal actor interviews in it...but then that is the nature of that type of film. Those actors and actresses just can't seem to keep their clothes on in that humid sandy landscape.

[William E. Lurie]

Der Brucer... The issue I saw had a lot of gay-oriented material (not a complaint... a comment) but your description of other issues makes it seem like a low budget PLAYBOY.  Again I have no problem with that, but isn't it supposed to be a magazine about the horor film genre?  Are there not enough potentiial readers for this type of magazine that they need to try and attract them with soft core porn of either gender?  Since much of this was in the advertisements, ad agencies must have some idea of the magazine's readership.

By the way, none of the films in the Marilyn Monore Diamond Collection (nor any of her other films) are remotely in the horror genre.  So why were these films even reviewed?

[Ron Pulliam]

...those humid sandy landscapes DO inspire shedding of layers, don't they!

LOL

[William E. Lurie]

M Barnum - There was an article about the recording of "Jeepers Creepers" in the issue of Scarlet Street that came out the same time the CD was issued (they sponsored the CD).  In conjunction with this there was also an article about one of the singers on the CD who had been in the film that her song came from.  At the time, she was a regular reader and poster on this here site, and one of the reasons that the site was changed to a password-protected site was at her request.  The only reason I bought that issue was for this article.

[bk]

Question for BK--do you have any screenplays kicking around in your head?  

Yes, and they hurt when they kick.  I haven't been thinking about screenplays much - I do have another novel in my head (no mean feat) and at some point in the next few months I hope to start on it.  

Now, might I ask where in tarnation IS everyone?  It has been very rare the times one can come to this board and not find at least someone here.  But, it's been happening a lot lately.  Weird.  Strange.  Spooky.

[DearReaderLaura]

I don't believe I have a question today, nor do I have anything in particular to say today. No walk, because it has become hot again -- 111F today.

[Jay]

My question for Ask BK Day.  Dear Readers are invited to respond, too.

(By the way (BTW in internet lingo), I've had this question for weeks, but I could never remember it come Wednesday.  Today I finally did remember it.)

What are your thoughts about color-blind casting?

Color blind casting has been the norm for some time in opera.  (Though Miss Leontyne Price did say for the record that she would never play Desdemona in Verdi's Otello on stage, even though it was perfectly suited for her voice.  She did, however, record the Act I duet.)

I have seen productions at the East West Theatre here in L.A. in which most of the parts in standard Western plays and musicals have been taken by Asian-Americans and they worked just fine.

I have seen shows like the Carousel of a few years ago in which the leads were Caucasian and the secondary roles were taken by African-Americans and it worked just fine too.

I saw a production of The Grapes of Wrath recently (at the tiny West Coast Ensemble) in which Ma Joad was African-American and most of the rest of the cast was Caucasian and that worked, too.

If mixed race casting is accepted in opera, and to some degree in smaller theatres, why not in larger and commercial theatres?  Film would be an even greater leap for the practice.

Your thoughts?

[bk]

I have no problem with color-blind casting.  I like green people and red people and purple people and yellow people and black people and white people and brown people and all other shades, too.  

[Matt H.]

I think there are times when it works and times when it is a disaster, clearly anachronistic to the project at hand. And it never seems to be used except in one direction. For example, I have a bass voice which is well suited to "Ol' Man River." I don't think there is a director or casting director in this business who would cast me as Joe in SHOW BOAT.

[JoseSPiano]

Good Afternoon!

Sorry for not checking in earlier, but I've been working on getting the new number charted.  The charting is going well.  Unfortunately (there's that pesky word again), I just (duh!) realized that I have no way to print it out here.  I was using my Chris' printer when I was staying with him... Oh, Kinko's!    -Nevermind...

As I was saying...

Thanks, DRs, for all your comments about my comments about L.A. and "Broadway: The Golden Age".

The audience reaction to "Broadway: The Golden Age" seemed to be pretty much how I felt about it - well, that's what I sensed from the relatively sparse audience around me.  There were a couple of "oohs and ahhs" when certain people would appear on screen the first time, and there were a couple of "Who is she/he?" - some people weren't identified in their intial clip, so it became kind of a fun guessing game at times.

As I stated before, this is the last week for the movie in L.A., HOWEVER, the guy at the box office said it may hang on for a little bit longer since it's one of the few authorized theatres for the various Academy voters and other awards organizations to see the film.  They may just change the time slot.  Check the paper tomorrow.

[JoseSPiano]

RE: The Pantages - Thanks for the info!  I guess I had never really come across such ornate - and abundant - Art Deco styling.  -I guess it was all the gold leaf that threw me.