Well, dear readers, the sun is out and it’s quite a pretty morning here in Los Angeles, California, USA. Actually, the sun is “in” not “out”, hence the sun is in the sky. Sometimes the sun goes “out” and a cloud comes in for an hour or two to replace it while the sun is “out” galavanting all over town. In, out, let’s get crackin’. Don’t I have notes to write? Here I am, being pedantic on a Monday morning. One must never be pedantic on a Monday morning. Tuesday morning is fine and dandy and also dandy and fine for being pedantic, but never on Monday which, of course, is the sequel to Never on Sunday. What the hell am I talking about?
Last night I watched a DVD of a very old Jackie Chan movie called Dragon Fist. I have no idea why I even own such a movie, but I put it in and watched it because frankly, or even Rickly, I was feeling a bit pedantic and felt that a Jackie Chan movie would Kung Fu that feeling right out of me. This motion picture entitled Dragon Fist was made way back in 1979. It has a good story, although this DVD runs a brief 76 minutes and I read that the film originally ran quite a bit longer. It does seem to jump erratically from scene to scene, and there are entire plot points which go unexplained. The best thing about this film is that it has a wonderful score by Jerry Goldsmith. Now, I know you Goldsmith experts are sitting there scratching your collective and pedantic heads thinking, “Jerry Goldsmith scored a 1979 Jackie Chan movie called Dragon Fist?” Pish tosh, you are saying, and also tosh pish. Well, so much for you Goldsmith experts. Now, I will admit that Mr. Goldsmith only wrote 80% of the score and that he probably isn’t aware of what Dragon Fist is, but I can assure you that Mr. Goldsmith, although uncredited (the music is credited to Franky Chan, brother of Charlie and sister of Jackie, or Jacky as he was known in those days), his music most assuredly graces this fine motion picture. Unfortunately, it is his music for the film The Sand Pebbles. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, they have just taken Mr. Goldsmith’s score for The Sand Pebbles and stuck in onto Dragon Fist with a Ham Fist, which is the cousin of a Ham Chunk. They’ve even used a bit of Planet of the Apes, too. The other 20% of music seems to be from some action TV series from the sixties – it sounded like Billy May or Earle Hagen. After I finished watching Dragon Fist, I started the film of Mr. Stephen King’s Needful Things. I’d missed it in theaters, and I should be missing it on DVD. It’s like a bland TV movie, and I don’t much care for the direction of Mr. Fraser Heston who, shall we say, was not to the manner born.
Has anyone noticed that I am being pedantic on a Monday morning? Perhaps if we all click on the Unseemly Button below, I shall no longer be pedantic on a Monday morning.
No such luck, I am still being pedantic on a Monday morning and it looks like there’s nothing any of us can do about it. I feel that today’s notes should be read whilst listening to Jerry Goldsmith’s score to The Sand Pebbles, don’t you? After all, the soundtrack to The Sand Pebbles is used for everything else under the sun (which is out, by the way – BTW, in Internet lingo), so we may as well use it for these here notes.
Don’t forget, you have until midnight tonight to get your answers in for the trivia question. After that, you will turn into a pumpkin and we do not accept answers from pumpkins, except on Halloween. I know that’s a bit pedantic, but it is Monday morning, after all, and that seems to be the what is going on here at haineshisway.com, so we’ll just go with the flow or, at the very least, flow with the go.
I’ve got a very busy day today. Soon I will reveal why the days have become busy and then you will know all. No one else will know all before you know all because all will be revealed here at haineshisway.com before all will be revealed anywhere else. All has a clause in its contract about only being revealed here at haineshisway.com. Why “all” has a clause in “it’s” contract is a mystery – certainly “it” doesn’t have a clause in “all’s” contract. What the hell am I talking about? As Miss Barbra Streisand and Miss Donna Summer once said, Enough is Enough.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must continue to be pedantic on a Monday morning and there are only a few hours of morning left in which to do so. I must get in my automobile and drive about without purpose. I must make phone calls from my cellular telephone so I can look like everyone else in the city of Los Angeles, California, USA (United States of America, in Internet lingo). In, out, let’s get crackin’. What am I, a Jet all of a sudden? Why do I keep saying “In, out, let’s get crackin'” as if I were Tony Mordente on a Monday morning. How can I be a Tony Mordente on a Monday morning when I am clearly being pedantic on a Monday morning? I wonder if Tony Mordente eats his pasta al dente? I wonder if Al Dente eats his pasta more dente? I wonder when I will finish these here notes so I can go do the things I do. Today’s topic of discussion: Since we were talking about The Twilight Zone over the weekend (for those of you who didn’t bother to show up here over the weekend, you might just want to use the handy-dandy Unseemly Archive Button so you can go back and catch up and be with it and in with the in crowd) I thought it would be interesting to find out what your all-time favorite episode is. That show is so embedded into the consciousness of everyone that it is always illuminating to see which episodes really got to people. I’ll start: Walking Distance – one of the most heartfelt, chilling and wonderful television shows ever produced. Brilliantly written and directed, with a marvelous lead performance by Gig Young, and a stunning score by Bernard Herrmann. I don’t know that I’ve seen a better half-hour of television. My other favorite has always been Eye of the Beholder. If you can’t remember the title of the episode, just describe it. Your turn.