Well, dear readers, yesterday’s notes had a certain brio I thought, didn’t you? And today’s notes shall have more of the same, because I’m in a brio mode now. Add to that the fact that the mowers have arrived and they too have brio, well, it is impossible not to have continual brio. I promised you two more announcements and two more announcements you shall get. One today and one either tomorrow or Thursday. Isn’t that exciting? Isn’t that just too too?
Last night I watched a DVD entitled The Dead Zone. But not The Dead Zone that I know and love. This was a brand spanking new The Dead Zone made for the USA Network. What I watched was an eighty-seven minute pilot for what became a short-run series (I think it was short-run, but for all I know it could still be on), starring Anthony Michael Hall. I have no idea what the actual series episodes are like, but the pilot covers much of the material from the book, especially the book as adapted by Jeffrey Boam for the David Cronenberg film. Now, let me just say here and now and also now and here that I think the Cronenberg film (with Christopher Walken) is wonderful – one of the top three Stephen King adaptations. This thing I saw last night tries to ape several scenes from it, right down to aping specific shots. I find that quite annoying. The leading lady is very reminiscent of Brooke Adams in the film (their mouths are almost indentical). But it’s all been made silly and the attempts to be hip and Matrix-like are stupid. How these things get made and approved are beyond me (well, it’s not beyond me – it also apes several network shows in both style and content), but that’s how the TV world works – they keep buying series from only people who’ve done other series (and I don’t mean the odd original idea either – I mean the same old, same old) and the whole thing just propagates itself with mediocrity after mediocrity. The bits of the story that are still emotionally powerful are the ones lifted directly from book and Cronenberg/Boam, but they all feel like some amateur theatrical group doing a classic play. They say the words, and do the scenes, but it’s just not very good.
What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button because I’ve got an announcement to make and trivia answers to reveal. Click away, my pretties.
My goodness, those mowers have brio. I have never heard or seen such brio from mowers. They are mowing with spunk, with pizzazz, with razzmatazz, with all that jazz, with élan, with spirit. They are the June Taylor Dancers of mowers these mowers are.
Well, we had several High Winners in last week’s trivia contest, and I didn’t think the question was so easy, and yet you trivia mavens got it quite handily. Here was the question as posed here in these very notes (with brio, of course) last Saturday:
A classic play, later turned into a film.
The two leading actors in the play also played their roles in the film adaptation. These two actors had something very interesting and unique in common.
The play was directed by an Academy Award-winning director. The film was directed by a different Academy Award-winning director.
Two of the supporting cast in the play went on to appear in two hugely successful comedy series on television.
Name the classic play.
Name its two leading actors and what they had in common.
Name the two Academy Award-winning directors
Name the two supporting cast members and their classic comedy television series.
And here are the answers (with brio, of course):
The classic play: Tea and Sympathy
The two leading actors: Deborah Kerr and John Kerr, who happened to share the same last name but are no relation to each other.
The two directors: Elia Kazan (stage), Vincente Minnelli (film)
The two supporting cast members and their classic comedy series: Dick York (Bewitched) and Alan Sues (Laugh-In). As some trivia players pointed out, Florida Friebus would have also been a correct answer for The Bob Newhart Show.
Our High Winners were Michael Shayne, Mark Rothman, JMK, Steve Gurey, Tim Hedgepeth and Jed. And our handy-dandy Electronic Hat has randomly chosen Jed as our Highest Winner, and he will be receiving a sparkling prize very soon.
Speaking of trivia, I will tell you this: I received an e-mail from one of our dear readers, with the header “trivia”. This was followed by two other e-mails from the same dear reader, which also had that header. Now, that first e-mail had an attachment – in other words it was one of those e-mails that when you click “read” it won’t open it without opening the attachment. Of course I did not open it and the dear reader confirmed that it wasn’t sent by him. That is the first time I’ve received a virus-infected e-mail with a header cloned from a real e-mail. So, please please please (that is three pleases which, of course, make a plea) do not open any e-mail with any attachment without checking with the sender first, to make certain that it is safe to do so.
So far I have made two count them two announcements – one, that I will begin work on a new Showtime TV series next week. Two, that I am more than half-way through the sequel to Benjamin Kritzer. Today’s announcement is very exciting to me. I will not go into any detail at this time, but can assure you that details will be forthcoming very soon and that you will be the first to know them (there will be press releases shortly for today’s announcement on the announcement that will be made in a day or two). So, I’m happy to tell you, dear readers, that I have made a deal to write and co-direct (with my pal, Nick Redman) a brand spanking new film which, if all goes according to plan, will shoot early next year. It’s a very low-budget film, but one that will be a lot of fun to do. You dear readers will especially like what it is. As I said, it’s too soon to give you the details, but I will say that my intent is to use many of the people I’ve used on my albums. I’m very excited about this, but I’m also smart enough to know that until we actually start shooting, things can change. But papers have been signed and we are moving in a forward direction. Isn’t that exciting? Isn’t that just too too? I will have further details very soon, I promise.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must lunch with a friend, I must sit at my handy-dandy laptop computer and write words, words, and more words. I must watch more DVDs this evening. Don’t forget, tomorrow is Ask BK Day, so get ready to ask your excellent questions. Today’s topic of discussion: If you, each and every dear reader, were given the opportunity to run Encores! for one season, what would your season be comprised of, and who would be in your productions. I believe the Encore season is four shows, so let’s make it four shows. I’ll start – of course they’ve already done Li’l Abner, damn them, damn them all to hell – so I’d do The Most Happy Fella, Lolita, My Love, Drat! The Cat! and either Carnival in Flanders (I have no idea if the book is workable or not – but the score is very intriguing) or Subways are for Sleeping. Your turn.