Autumn, Hal and Count

In The Wall Street Journal this week, I interviewed director Autumn de Wilde for my "House Call" column in the Mansion section (go here). Autumn is the director of Emma, which opened on Friday. The 1815 Jane Austen novel was brought to life by Autumn in a remarkable film shot beautifully in rich pastels. Autumn talked with me about her bohemian parents, how John Sebastian of the Lovin' Spoonful sang her to sleep when she was little, and why being normal was never an aspiration at home. [Photo above of Autumn de Wilde]

Here's the Emma trailer...

SiriusXM. If you missed me on Feedback last week talking about Huey Lewis and the News's The Power of Love with co-host Nik Carter (Lori Majewski had the day off), you can hear me on the show in its entirety for free here...

Hal McKusick. Last week, John Ludlow sent along an email about saxophonist Hal McKusick:

Hi Marc, I just came across this recording of Hal playing in Jimmy Giuffre’s group in 1948. He’s on the first two tracks, with solos on both. Very cool to hear. Thought you might enjoy...

Horn-o-rama. In researching Red Nichols last week, I stumbled upon two killer trumpet clips at YouTube:

 

Here's Red Nichols, Pete Candoli and Al Hirt (pictured above)...

And here's Al Hirt, Pete Candoli, Don Ellis and Dizzy Gillespie...

Director Raymond De Felitta sent along the following:

This month I posted a mini-tribute to the late character actor Kevin Conway on my Movies Til Dawn podcast. Kevin passed away earlier this month, and I had the pleasure and honor of working with him twice—once on my movie Two Family House and more recently in a reading that we did (and recorded) of Murdering Michael Malloy, a movie that we’re planning to make in the near future. I’ve included short audio clips from both.

The reason for the recording of the reading is that my writing/producing partner, David Zellerford, and I are planning on releasing it as a podcast, in the hopes of both entertaining an audience with what amounts to an old-time radio show version of a movie (albeit a yet-to-be-made one) as well as gaining some traction for the production funds for the movie once people hear how wildly entertaining it is. We’ll start airing the podcast of Murdering Michael Malloy this spring. I hope you’ll look for it.

2011 Japan earthquake. Jimi Mentis sent along a link to footage of the 9.1 magnitude earthquake that took place at 2:46 p.m. local time 231 miles northeast of Tokyo in March 2011. The earthquake caused a tsunami with 30-foot waves that damaged several nuclear reactors in the area. It is the largest earthquake ever to hit Japan. The six-minute quake and subsequent tsunami resulted in nearly 20,000 deaths and 2,500 missing. Absolutely terrifying. Go here...

What the heck: Here's the Count Basie Band on the road in 1962 playing Freddie Green's Corner Pocket...

Oddball album cover of the week.

 

Looks like a promotional album for Swissair. Not only are the Batman outfits all wrong (should have been gray tops), they're all wearing Robin's masks. Special thanks to music publicist Michael Bloom.