I Can't Get 'A Time For Us' Out Of My Head!

Today, I was doing my volunteer work for Garden Grove's Meals on Wheels program and upon walking into the Senior Center to drop off my empty cooler, I was surprised to hear music I had not heard in years.  Every Monday a pianist comes to play a wide variety of slow, atmospheric tunes - like something you'd hear in the background at Nieman Marcus - but never in the three years I've been delivering meals on Monday's have I heard the pianist play 'A Time For Us'.  Well, I just stopped walking and stood to wait for him to finish as if I had just happened into a concert at the Hollywood Bowl.

Before this morning, I cannot remember the last time I heard Nino Rota's romantically devastating theme for the 1968 film version of Romeo and Juliet, a brilliant film that I've seen many times; the first being in my 7th grade English class.  The best days at school were always the days we watched movies in class but when the movies were actually enjoyable, it was the cherry.  I remember being just as enthralled with the score as I was with the film.  In fact, I had become so obsessed in my search for this piece of music, it took me weeks to eventually find it on a 1968 Billboard compilation CD.  (You have to think back before the internet, if you're old enough, to a time when it took more effort than just flipping open your laptop or pushing the Safari App button on your iPad to find information).  Of course, it would have helped if I knew what the title of the score was called or who the composer was rather than just approaching music store employees with Bauhaus t-shirts, saying, "You know, that theme from Romeo and Juliet".

Anyway, here it is with some clips from the 1968 film Romeo and Juliet (in my opinion, the best film version):

Of course, I must also give a little background about the Milan-born Italian composer Nino Rota, who I believe was the catalyst to my obsession for film scores beyond John Williams.  Nino was also notable for the films scores of Federico Fellini and Luchino Visconti.  He also composed the music for the first two films of Francis Ford Coppola's Godfather trilogy, receiving the Academy Award for Best Original Score for The Godfather Part II (1974).

Grazie mille, signor Rota.

I Can't Get 'Pretty Women' Out Of My Head!

Sorry Roy Orbison fans, not that song.

I have a 5-star playlist on my iPod and when I feel like escaping from the shackles of my desk and stretching my legs, I listen to my iPod while going for a walk.  More times than not, this is how it get songs stuck in my head, and that's how it happened this time.

'Pretty Women' is not only one of my all-time favorite Stephen Sondheim songs or favorite Broadway songs, but favorite songs.  From those who personally know me, they know I worship the ground Stephen Sondheim walks, with 'Assassins' being my #1 favorite musical.  And though 'Pretty Women' comes from "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street", "Sweeney" in musicals is comparable to "Jaws" in film for me; it's flawless and exceptional, but just misses being in my... let's say top three.  The fact that they are both horror is merely a coincidence.

And thanks to Tim Burton, I believe more people are now familiar with this song's beautifully haunting melody and superlative lyrics as 'Pretty Women' was sung in the 2007 film version by Johnny Depp and Alan Rickman:

Although it is an admirable rendition, there is nothing like the original version by Len Cariou in the title role and Edmund Lyndeck as Judge Turpin from 1979.  This version also includes a small prologue and the Epiphany song,  and it is worth listening to the entire piece:

To add your own version of "Pretty Women" to your iPod/iPhone/iPad/etc, I've supplied links in the right side bar.

I'm baaaaaaaaaack! So this is why I disappeared...

You could call it an obsession, or you could call it work.  When you love your job, it can go either way.

Immediately after my last post back in October (2010), I published a children's book called "The Night After Christmas" that pretty much took up all my time in marketing, publicity, guest readings, etc.  Most authors hate, hate, hate this part of the process because whether you're a self-publisher or one of the lucky few who are published through a publishing house, you still have to do your own marketing.  Considering I have a background in publicity, I don't hate this part at all.  In fact, I kind of enjoy it.  For me, it stirs up the pot and satisfies both sides of my brain, of which I've always believed I've been evenly split down the middle.

So once Christmas and the holiday hoopla was over, I thought about picking up this blog where I left off... until I needed to help my mother move the rest of her belongings to Alabama (by the way, moving is definitely NOT, NOT, NOT an obsession of mine).  This pretty much took the whole month of January, plus a few extra days.

So, February roles around and my sweet little sister, Melissa, a stage diva, asks me if I will perform in a show with her because one of the actor's was having health issues.  Now, being an ex-theatre geek, turning down roles that are offered on a golden platter is difficult, but I DID turn her down... initially, which is why they found another actor, who ended up having heart issues and thereby making the role available again.  So, I took the role in "Man of La Mancha".  Not one of my favorite plays, but I had a lot of fun in the show that swallowed my blogging time.  By the way, that actor is doing fine.

However, (in my very bad Shakespearean accent:) amidst the glory the being on the stage again (end accent), I decided that I had so much fun writing "The Night After Christmas" that I was going to write an anthology based on the legendary creature, el chupacabra!  You would think I would start lite with just a novel, but no.  When I become obsess about something, I go the whole hog.

Hence my time from March to July was pretty much engulfed by writing, rewriting, writer's block, more rewriting, more writer's block, prelim marketing, and more writing.

And now, currently writing my second novel while my first novel is in the process of being edited, and after completing a short story that leads to the events of Book I, "Night of the Chupacabra", I decide to add more food to my writing plate and rekindle this blog that I had once been so obsessed about.

So, I'm back, and I'm not planning on going anywhere.  I'll continue juggling my chupacabra anthology while posting messages here because that's what obsessed writer's do.

So, like any good publicist, I would be remiss to not plug my books right about now:

"The Night After Christmas" - www.thenightafterchristmas.net
The Chupacabra Series - www.wix.com/michaelhebler/chupacabraseries

By the way, my short story "Hunt for the Chupacabra" is actually a free download that works on iPhones, iPads, Kindle, PDF, etc. Just follow the links on the website.

You can also view the book trailer for the first novel here: