Well, dear readers, last night I went to Islands with the entire Wechter clan. Everywhere I looked there was a Wechter. Here a Wechter, there a Wechter, everywhere a Wechter Wechter. Since I like the Wechter clan it was fine and dandy and also dandy and fine. What was not fine and dandy was our waitress. It takes a lot for me to become bored and annoyed with a waitress. The first thing that always puts me onto the bored and annoyed road is when the waitress (or waiter, but last night it was a waitress) has no sense of humor. I happen to think I have my amusing moments and most waitpersons I get sense it and are grateful to have a table of nice people who are fun. Not this girl. I said something witty as she was taking the drink order and she stared at me as if I was a hermaphrodite with a club foot. Not that there’s anything wrong with a hermaphrodite with a club foot, some of my best friends are hermaphrodites with club feet. In any case, she just didn’t get it, even though the rest of the table laughed and laughed. Anyway, when that happens, I just tune the waitperson out, they are no longer in my field of radar unless I need to order something or have a food-related question. So, we order and our food comes. I have ordered what I always order – the Big Wave with cheese and bacon. What she brings me is a Big Wave with no cheese and no bacon. What am I, a hermaphrodite with a club foot? I notice this and I point it out to her. She apologizes, and takes it back to the kitchen where some chef slaps a piece of cold cheese on it with some undercooked bacon. It is then brought back to me. I ate it, like a good soldier, but I will not be returning to Islands, at least not that Islands. Also, the hamburgers were noticeably smaller than in past visits, more a medium to small wave rather than a Big Wave. So, I gave a Big Wave Islands – I bid a fond farewell to Islands and the young sourpuss of a waitperson.
I then watched two episodes of an HBO show called Curb Your Enthusiasm. It’s occasionally very funny – it stars Seinfeld co-creator Larry David, who plays a character named Larry David. It’s really just a collection of little scenes – there’s always some vague theme for each show, but things are rarely resolved by the end of an episode – things just happen and then there’s another episode. I then watched the rest of City of Lost Children, un film de Jeunet and Caro. It’s a quite weird affair, but I ultimately liked it very much. I am quite partial to films about and with children, especially when the children are as good as they are in this film. The lead girl, Judith Vittet, is wonderful, and so are all the other kids. Ron Perlman does a very good job as One (yes, Virginia, he plays a character named One), and the rest of the characters are portrayed by some of the strangest looking people you will ever see on the screen (the way they’re photographed makes them even stranger) – especially the two twin sisters who play the evil Siamese twins (they are the stuff of nightmares – be warned). The score, which I mentioned yesterday, is by David Lynch regular, Angelo Badalamente, and it is great.
The response to our brand spanking new handy-dandy The Unseemly Interview Section has been wonderful. We’ve got some great ones planned for upcoming weeks – we’re just trying to figure out how long to leave each one up for. You can look forward to interviews with some pretty great and some pretty eclectic folks from all walks of show business life. Not just performers, but writers, directors, arrangers and orchestrators, too.
Well, shall we all click on the Unseemly Button below? When in doubt, this is always the best thing to do. I know this section may seem undone and I know that we should think about sending it back, but all I’ll do is slap a piece of cheese on it with some undercooked bacon and then where will we be? Then it will be The Big Wave that’s where we’ll be. The Big Wave. That sounds like a Raymond Chandler novel, doesn’t it?
By the way (BTW, in Internet lingo), if you missed any of this weekend’s babble be sure to catch up, otherwise you will feel like a hermaphrodite with a club foot and you will feel out of sorts. Of course, if you feel out of sorts you can do what I did and go buy some sorts. I bought some sorts and now I’m not out of them and the world is a better and finer place, frankly or even williamly. What the hell am I talking about?
Those of you who are waiting on your sparkling prizes, I have not forgotten about you and I’m going to try to get them out in the next day or so. When I do, I’m going to double check right here in these here notes to make sure I’ve sent everyone who needs to be sent, so if you don’t see your name here when I do said double checking, just drop me a note to say I have inadvertently given you The Big Wave.
There is a very exciting event coming next Saturday, here in Los Angeles, at the Alex Theater. They are showing Bye Bye Birdie on the big screen and then they are showing home movies taken by the mother of one of the young kids in the film – these movies have never been seen before, and include visits to the set by Gregory Peck and Alfred Hitchcock, as well as Ann-Margret’s 21st birthday party. I shall be there with bells on. Also, in attendance will be some of the dancers in the film. Isn’t that exciting? Isn’t that just too too?
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must give these here notes The Big Wave for today. After all, I must get in my automobile and drive up and down the streets of this fair city, giving The Big Wave to passersby. I must see people, do things, eat foodstuffs and work, work, work (that is three works – I am really worked up). But I shall return to see what you dear readers are posting on today’s topic of discussion, which is: We haven’t done this in a while, and it’s always illuminating and fun – what CDs are currently in your handy-dandy CD player, and what do you like and what don’t you like that you are currently listening to. I’ll start – I am listening to my very own show, Together Again, which dear reader, Mr. Robert Armin, was kind enough to put on CD for me. I haven’t heard this thing in years – I hate the sound of it, that’s for starters. It sounds like it was recorded in a toilet bowl. If I were to ever think about issuing this on CD I would have our beloved Vinnie do a little work on it. The multi-track masters have gone missing, but I could still shape the sound and add a bit of well-needed reverb to the whole thing. That would help it immeasurably. As to the score, it has some cute stuff in it, and a couple of things I could live without. Also listening to the soundtrack to Point Blank by Johnny Mandel (great music – disappointing album), and my Big Box of Kurosawa soundtracks (I have played the soundtrack to High and Low about twenty times already). Your turn.