Monday, September 03, 2007

End of Summer

The official, astronomical end of summer is still a few weeks off at the autumnal equinox, but this week brings fall upon us in a number of ways. Classes started at USC last week, Labor day is today, USC football started Saturday, and most of all to us, we went to our last Hollywood Bowl concert tonight.

It was a fantastic end to the season. David Newman conducted an evening of film music from Paramount. Leonard Nimoy hosted the evening. There were many highlights, almost too many to mention, including hearing a live orchestra accompanying the climax to the 1928 best picture winner, WINGS. Jerry Goldsmith was represented with both STAR TREK and, one of the best scores ever written, CHINATOWN. One of my favorite composers, Franz Waxman, was represented with his beautiful theme from A PLACE IN THE SUN and the twisted SUNSET BOULEVARD.

Bernstein's TRUE GRIT and Mancini's BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S and Nino Rota's THE GODFATHER were also great. Hearing a live orchestra play the opening of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK was worth the price of admission alone.

The evening ended with a sing-along tribute to the hot weather with my favorite Jewish Christmas carol, WHITE CHRISTMAS.

It's a bittersweet ending, as I'll miss the summer. I look forward to the fall classes, the football season, and the cooler weather, but I'll miss the concerts.

This year I also worked on a summer series for Lifetime television, STATE OF MIND. The show mixes their final episode of the season this week, and it airs next Sunday. The show was a complete pleasure to work on. It was well-written, very intelligent, and everyone involved was great to work with. I'll miss that too.

1 comment:

ZiggyMustard said...

Amy Bloom, the creator and writer is a pretty amazing woman. It would rock if she brought another season to the table. Hopefully one longer than eight episodes.