It's My TV….It's My Peanut Butter

I am a big, big, big fan of The Sound of Music.  The kind of fan who has seen the film over 87 times (I stopped counting when I was about 14…).  A fact that, Kristy does not seem to hold against me, to her extreme credit.

To MY credit, I didn’t go out and buy the 45th Anniversary Blu Ray edition with bells, whistles and schniztel with noodles.  I was tempted, but I hear the 50th anniversary will come with the schnitzel, the noodles, the copper kettle, the woolen mittens, and a brown paper mystery package tied up with string (I’m hoping it will contain a kitten with whiskers).  And, since I’ve already had two different VHS versions (wore one out completely, the other partially) and the 40th anniversary DVD release, I thought I could stand to wait for the big 50.

What I failed to realize was that they also re-released the album.

The album, that, after nearly half a century, finally has my favorite track included.

For years the album to the 1965 movie didn’t have every song.  In most cases, that’s okay, but in this case, it was my favorite that was missing.  I have long had a love for the version of “Edelweiss” that appears first in the movie–as a simple duet with Captain VonTrapp (voiced by Bill Lee–in case you still didn’t realize that wasn’t Christopher Plumber) and Liesel (who really is Charmian Carr, lest the previous parenthetical had you questioning everything)–but it was never on any of the copies I had of the album (I wore out two cassettes).  The only version there was the reprise at the Festival that has the whole fam-damily, a pit orchestra with a bell player who definitely picked up the hard mallets, and half the population of Austria.  The song’s still good, but it’s not the intimate little take that I love from the earlier scene.

When I first got my DVD of the film several years back, I kept saying I would go in and rip that track to an Mp3 for myself so I could finally over-indulge in the good version.  Of course I never got around to that.

But lo, what should appear in the Amazon $5 offering list today?  Is that a different cover to the album I spy?  And, ZOMG, NEW TRACK LISTING?

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.  And he likes the good version of “Edelweiss” too.

But there’s more!  In addition to that, we also get the music to the “Laendler” and the expanded version of the “Sixteen Going on Seventeen” reprise with the opening that I never knew existed until the DVD special features and the music from the interlude…..

Christmas came early for me this year and the hills are definitely alive with the sound of the tracks I’ve been missing….

Would I drink coffee with crazy French actress Sarah Bernhardt?

This coffee with suggested by loyal reader Bridget

Kristy: Yeah.  Though I have a feeling I would be quiet and intimidated the whole time.  You just get the sense that she was one of those people with an enormously powerful presence.  She was “the divine Sarah” after all.  I can imagine her being a little scary.  But, also really cool.  My experience is that actresses tend to be really good storytellers, and this is a woman you know had a couple of great stories to tell.  More than a couple, actually.  This is a woman who may have had affairs with nobles from multiple countries.  Add to that her close associations with authors and painters I’ve studied.  I can imagine myself hanging on every word.

There’s something else to my willingness to have coffee with her.  Performers from her day (and earlier, of course) are such a mystery.  It seems to be universally agreed upon that she was a brilliant actress with a golden (or silvery voice) but all we can watch today are the clips from primitive silent films.  Between the limitations of cameras in those days and degredation over the years it’s hard to get a sense.  I’d like to have coffee with her so I have a visual and auditory image to go with the stories you hear about her brilliance.

Cammy: Sure.  I’m game to hear what a silent film actress sounded like–honestly, how often to do you get a shot at that (although, for a lot of these, the opportunity to hear any dead person is kind of novel).  I’d also like to get a little inside information on how a film set ran back in the day and what real expectations she had as far as what that motion picture meant (and what she thinks of how we’ve allowed old films to be treated–or mistreated).  Her personal life sounds like a bloody soap opera, so if Kristy can get her telling stories, I’m sure those will be absolute gold.