Wonderfully-Detailed Description of 'It's Showtime' Montage in "Better Call Saul" (Musical Tribute to One of My Favorite Movies of All Time: "All That Jazz")

Amazing, the Vivaldi rearrangement:

The original montage in “All That Jazz” runs for less than a minute, the Vivaldi piece - “Concerto in G For Strings, RV 151 “Alla Rustica”: Presto” - runs just over 1 minute. Our sequence runs over 4 and a half minutes long. This presented a challenge: how to reference the music playing in the “All That Jazz” montage while keeping it interesting running over 3 times the length with a constantly shifting narrative.

The Continued Evolution Of John's E-Mail Regarding The Tres Lagunas Fire

Wrote to John in OKC:

John:

Two years ago you sent a (highly-amusing) YouTube video regarding the Tres Lagunas Fire, and I made a blog post about it. Interestingly, this article about the Fred Harvey girls makes reference to that blog post:

Basically, from the 1880s through the 1940s, Fred Harvey (the company went by the founder’s name) was the dominant food-service entity in America—the country’s first national chain of restaurants, of hotels, of anything, stretching from Cleveland to California. And up through the early 1970s, it remained important in the Southwest, predominantly in Santa Fe, where it had run La Fonda Hotel since 1926; in Albuquerque, where it ran the Alvarado Hotel from 1901 until its demolition in 1970; and at the Grand Canyon, where it had run all the hotels on the South Rim since 1905. The company also ran all the Santa Fe railroad dining cars from Chicago to California until Amtrak took over in 1972, and restaurants in major city union stations.

Its all-female restaurant service staff was legendary—especially after Judy Garland became the most famous of the 100,000 single women who served as “Harvey Girls,” in her 1946 MGM musical of the same name. But the Harvey Girls were just the most appealing part of an empire that lasted for generations, offering access and perspective to a saga of cowboys and Indians and railroads and politicians and how the Southwest was won—a wholly alternative version of our nation’s past through the prism of a completely different set of multicultural founding fathers and mothers.

Changing the world one E-Mail at a time!

Marc

John replies:

Hey Marc,

There is no end in sight for the fires in NM until, I suppose, the trees are pretty much gone. Chaco Canyon once had white pines on the rim--the last one died in 1927. Will the rest of the state wind up the same? Quien sabe?

The reference to Harvey Houses made me wonder about the old Val Verde Hotel in Socorro (a favorite hangout of Will Rogers in the 1920's and 30's) and whether it was one. It wasn't but there was one in San Marcial. I need to read up more on the history of that town:

San Marcial was located on the banks of Rio Grande in Central New Mexico. Today nothing exists of what had once been the fourth largest city in New Mexico with a population of 4000. The city was completely destroyed by a series of floods during the month of August 1929. This is what happened the day of the final flood that removed the city from existence. As the water level rose many people were trapped on the second floor of the hotel, both customers and employees. There were no formal rescue teams at that time and the trapped folks were in great danger. On that day along the banks of the Rio Grande there were many spectators watching the situation getting worse as the water level kept getting higher and higher. The hotel structure was beginning to break and many parts of the building started to float away. Whatever small boats that had been in the city had already been swept away by the raging river.

See ya,
John

Nha Nguyen From "Good Day, Sacramento" Visits The Cast of DMTC's "Sweeney Todd", and Gets Quickly-Dispatched

Here's the fun video from this morning's telecast on "Good Day, Sacramento" featuring the cast of DMTC's "Sweeney Todd" singing portions of the 'Prologue'. DMTC Producer Steve Isaacson first discusses the background of the musical. Then CBS 13/31 reporter Nha Nguyen is quickly dispatched by Sweeney Todd (played by John Haine). Nguyen was game: she ran up onto the Cube and went down the chute without any prior practice at all!

We had a good weekend of shows, with two more weekends to come. I'm relieved we managed not to squash Karina Selvaggio with the Cube this weekend (although something else happened on the "God, That's Good" exit that got her into a similar jam stage right).

I'm the Stage Manager of this bloodfest, which features Kyra Zablotsky as Blood Manager. (And where does all that blood come from, after all?)

In The Safeway Parking Lot With E.

E. parked her 2001 gold-colored Ford Taurus SE in the parking lot at the Safeway on Greenback and went inside to shop. After a time she returned and noticed something odd with her car. A passing Good Samaritan overheard her and attempted to help:

E.: Oh, no! My key won't open the door! There is something strange about the lock! See, it looks odd there, as if someone damaged it!

GS: Oh, no! I wonder if other cars are damaged too?

E.: There are criminals around, always looking for any chance to take something.

GS: Even on a Saturday morning! It's terrible!

E.: I wonder if it's the homeless? They scare me. Always taking things.

E. decided to walk around the car and try to come in on the passenger side. On the other side she noticed the car parked immediately adjacent: a 2001 gold-colored Ford Taurus SE. Much laughter ensued.