'Return to Paradise' - after 18 months of being home, I'm finally back at work and making plans to return to my Paradise - France

 In 1953, Dimitri Tiomkin wrote a score and a song for a Gary Copper movie of the same name 'Return to Paradise'. Nate 'King' Cole made a hit with his recording and I remember playing it over and over again, dreaming of my travels to 'Paradise.'

Although the move and the song were about a South Seas Island adventure, the song always in my mind was about any locale that too me was Paradise. In this  case, Europe, but more importantly, France. 

I think we all harbor a dream of our Paradise and hope that the awful Covid days will be a long ago past, that you now are thinking about traveling to your paradise. 

So, as the song says:

" Come with me and find,

Your peace of mind. Return to Paradise' 

 

Glyn Houston - One of England's great character actors dies at 93 - 'Soon long, Bunter'...

Glyn Houston, a versatile actor who often played soldiers, sailors and police officers in movies and television dramas on BBC passed away today.
His best roles and my favorite was the perfect valet in the Lord Peter Wimsey mystery series on BBC.

Mr. Bunter served as Lord Peter Wimsey's Butler during  WW1 and remained in his service long after the war. 
Mr. Houston ( Bunter) had everything right. The lower class look combined with the upper class hauteur-,his character had special talents and impeccable  service in all contingencies, whether mixing the perfect cocktail, reciting railway timetables or acting as a sounding board during trips in one of the Lord's sports cars, an of course the most able assistant during murder investigations. 

I watch over and over, all the Lord Peter Wimsey television shows, it was still to this day, my favorite TV series!

Where is the life I lead, the life I ate? Green Goddess dressing

In the 1950's, one of my favorite ( still is) was the Green Goddess dressing.

The origins are a bit of a mystery - It may have been invented at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco during the 1920'as or whipped up in the court of Louis XIII in France - but it has endured ( at least in the Lewis history) as one of the most delectable concoctions to put on salads.

I think the truest story is that it was invented by chef Philip Roemer  in 1923 to honor the actor, George Arliss, who stayed at the hotel ( San Francisco) while performing in the William Archer hit play "The Green Goddess".

The secret of this fabulous dressing is of course  Anchovies...

Oh! how I miss seeing that dressing on menu's today..

The little pleasures of the Bow Tie, BUT...

To wear a bow Tie is something I have done for most of my life and has given me great pleasure.
I love bow ties in its many hues and colors and patterns. Ir has been and remains a great source of aesthetic pleasure. 
BUT, sporting a  bow tie and a pocket square in the same pattern is something that I don't (and anyone into men's fashion would agree) one does not approve!!!

Very, very non-upper!

Edwardians (and I think of myself as a 21-Century Edwardian) never stop eating

From the time they rose, to even the times they awoke in the middle of the night, food was ready and available. It ran from hors d’oeuvres, soups ( cream and clear) salads, vegetables, meats-poultry, game, beef, pork, seafood, puddings, breads, savories ( ah! White Spanish Sardines on toast I die for) and fruits and of course wine to compliment each course. If this seems too much, then a week or two at the German watering spots like Baden-Baden would take the  'cure' for  any malady you might have from over-eating.

Oh! To have lived at the turn of the 19^th Century in London and yes, even France.

That was the time of the Golden Age of Gastronomy , not the lack luster, silly, pretentious  meals we are presented today.

For god’s sake, stop dressing like a child…

Its not only in American, but worldwide, the triumph of global grunge – from the cafes of Europe to Beverly Hills and even staid Boston, everywhere in fact, the slovenly look is indeed in. It’s not only in, but it is the new chic look for those who dress for success.

From cargo shorts to tank tops to flip[-flops, people have forgotten how to dress – they turn up everywhere as though they’d just walked in from a tailgating party.

What the hell is going on in the world with men? Not only that, men no longer know how to behave; but what can I say, if you dress like a child (Do you hear me Silicon Valley and Mr. Zuckerberg), chances are you’re going to act like one.

Oh, OH! How I miss the days of high-end restaurants, when they had loaner ties and blazers for forgetful men and you could be turned away from a club for a slack outfit.  Style, low budget and comfort are not mutually exclusive, so keep that in mind if you’re older than 12. And yes, get a shave and comb your hair, it's then and only then that I’ll talk to you.

Andre Previn – He was a constant genial presence on the Podium

The loss of Andre Previn hit me today a bit more harder than usual; when a personality of my past and present passes away. More and more today it seems.

Mr. Previn with his ease and charm and his immense musical gifts, was a presence in my life for many years.

He bestrode three worlds of music- the Hollywood scoring, jazz and the classical world.

As a child of the movies in the 1950’s/60’s, I was well aware of the glorious music coming out of Hollywood. In fact, I believe that music for the movies is an important part of our musical culture as is the world of classical music.

I rate the great pioneers of Hollywood music – Steiner, Waxman, Young, Bernstein ( both Elmer and Leonard), Goldsmith, North, Gold, Newman, Tiomkin, Friedhofer and so many more, right up there with Handel, Beethoven, Mozart..( forget Mozart,)  and my all-time favorite – Ravel.

I have attended in my 70 plus years – hundreds of classical music concerts and yet there is only one that has stayed with me as so fresh and so earthshaking as the one conducted with the Los Angeles Symphony orchestra with Andre Previn on the podium, it was Ravel's ‘Daphne and Chloe.’

Musically speaking, classical music that is, for me, that was the greatest performance in my life, do in no part to Andre Previn’s conducting. Maybe because Ravel is highly romantic, and Mr. Previn came out of the Hollywood romantic era of films, that he had that gift.

I will miss him dearly….

Once there was a city here and now its gone, there are almost no traces of it anymore...Beverly Hills

...but a few of us knew it, because we lived in it and loved it..

In Beverly Hills , Carroll and Co,for over 70 years , the iconic men's clothing store that set the bar for classic menswear ( a store I shopped at since I was a teenager) as did my father and grandfather is closing its doors. It was founded in 1949 by former Warner  Brothers publicist Richard Carroll ( whom was a pal of my uncle, Elliott Gordon) whose clientele was the who's who of Hollywood. 

For years Beverly Hills has been going downhill  in so many ways and this puts the final nail in it's coffin.

I loved this city;  in the 1950's it was not a city really, but just a village, one might say. But now the classic stores, restaurants and bars are  long gone. The good life, lived so well is also gone; the city has become vulgar, if you must know. 

Beverly Hills is gone...hammered into the dust by time, progress, accident and especially greed.

Harry Warren and MGM musicals - they don't make them like this anymore

Eating ( or dining that is) and sleeping are the only activities that should be allowed to interrupt a man's enjoyment of his cigar - Mark Twain

One of the great pleasures and memories of my life is having a cigar with my grandfather. He took its upmost pleasure of it, sitting in his den and quietly smoking it  (it took about 45 minutes) smoking should be done alone or with someone you admire and in quiet and in reflective state of mind.
He always said and impressed on me, that a cigar ought not to be smoked solely with the mouth, but with the hand, the eyes and with the spirit.

As a teenager ( too young to smoke at that point) one of my highlights was to accompany my grandfather to his favorite cigar store and see a visiting member of the Ramon Allones ( his cigar of choice) factory from Cuba (before the embargo)  showing patrons how they rolled their cigars. What a craft!
One of the great memories and one of the great civilized things to do.  

"By the cigars they smoke and the composers they love, ye shall know the texture of men's souls' - John Galsworthy

Robert Burns night at my favorite restaurant in the world.

Wiltons in London is my all-time favorite restaurant in the world and later this month they will celebrate as they have done since 1801 (the restaurant has been open since 1742!,) Robert Burns night. They will as always have their six course dinner to honor the life and poetry of Scottish born Robert Burns.

Just a few dishes to be presented

Loch Ryan Oyster

Tartare of smoked salmon

Cock-a-leekie soup

Haggis with neeps and tatties

Scottish venison and more

...Wines and single malt whisky of course to accompany

"The snowdrop and primrose our woodlands adorn and violets bathe in the wet o' the morn'

I'm back after a long time away...

Actors who have given me much pleasure - we lost one this morning - Saeed Jaffrey - a Jewel of the International Cinema

I grew up; a child of the movies  having much love and respect for many foreign actors, especially ones whose voice and diction thrilled me to no end. Such actors as Philip Ahn, Phillippe Noiret, Alistair Sim, Terry-Thomas, Jean Rochefort, Sydney Greenstreet and so many others. The death this morning of the British/Indian actor, Saeed Jaffrey has sadden my life a bit more.
Mr. Jaffrey was a character actor of enormous accomplishment, urbane wit and avuncular charm.  His very unparochial career let him straddle two different kinds of cinema - Hindi and English language and to all her brought intelligence, a lifetimes' accumulation of technique and style and a seduction, resonant voice. I shall miss him,, but was happy that I was alive to experience his screen performances. 

I am off to France on Saturday............What ho!, What Joy!

And as one of my favorite childhood literary characters ( Mr. Toad of Toad Hall) put it so well, I leave you with this:
"AH! The open road, the dusty highway, the heath, the common, the hedgerows, the rolling downs! Camps, villages, towns, cities! Here to-day, up and off to somewhere else to-morrow! Travel, change, interest, excitement! The whole world before you, and a horizon that’s always changing!

The Full English - One of Life's Simple Pleasures

Sid Caesar rembered

Today is the 1st anniversary of Sid Caesar's death.
I grew up watching in the early 1950's his ' Your Show Of Shows' and still to this day , I find him one if not one of the funnest performers I ever saw. His classic sketch ( done in April of 1954) a take of on 'This is Your Life"; still remains one of the funnest moments in television.
But looking back this morning. Sid Caesar did more than just make you laugh.

When people remember the shows, they not only remember the comedy, they remember their parents, grandparents, brothers, sister, aunts and uncles.
They remember a time when everyone was together and everyone was laughing.
...whatever was going on at home,for at least an hour and a half on Saturday night, people got to laugh and they got to see their parents laugh.
A shared laughter that we don't see anymore.

They don't make em like this anymore and they don't have stars like this anymore....SIGH!!!!!!!

That Face!- Audrey Hepburn

The world today is a bit sadder for the loss of Tom Magliozzi - Part of the Car Talk Radio out of Boston on NPR

Tom Magliozzi, one of public radio's most popular personalities, died on Monday of complications from Alzheimer's disease. He was 77 years old. Tom and his brother, Ray, became famous as "Click and Clack the Tappet Brothers" on the weekly NPR show Car Talk. They bantered, told jokes, laughed and sometimes even gave pretty good advice to listeners who called in with their car troubles. If there was one thing that defined Tom Magliozzi, it was his laugh. It was loud, it was constant, it was infectious.
In a world of madness these days, here was two gentlemen, on every Saturday morning, who made you laugh with delight and I even don't care about cars, but listened in, because they brought humor for a few hours to a world of distress and sourness. 

House of Cards, the best political thriller ever on BBC.

  Forget the USA version with Keven Spacey, it could not hold a candle to it 

"You might think that, I couldn't possibly comment"