Well, dear readers, the rain has abated and the sun is peeking through the clouds and the gardeners are noisily doing their gardening. Luckie is breakfasting after her morning walk and I am sitting here writing these here notes. Yesterday was the first real rain we’ve had in ages, and naturally the entire city reacted as if it were Hurricane Elsa or Irma or Fosca who whoever the hell it is, or Flood Wilma or Gracie or Fern – this city craves, wants and desires rain, this city cries drought and then when they get one day of a good hearty rain they go, “Oh, my God, it’s raining so hard, whatever shall we do.” Melrose Ave. was totally flooded because the drains backed up and didn’t work. Apparently this happened last time it rained – now, wouldn’t you think they would fix the problem? The drain system in the Valley is equally as bad and streets were flooded here as well. I only went out once yesterday, to my Mail Boxes, Etc. to get my mail, and Luckie did not like walking in the rain or even singing in the rain. And, of course, it took her forever to do her business so we were both drenched. Instead of taking her into the house, I took her into the yard so I could dry her off first. She thought I was going to pull her toenails out with a flaming hot pincer and she started yelping a peeing. I went in and got a towel and wiped her off while she yelped and peed some more. This is what she does, yelps and pees as if I were giving her the Chinese Water Torture. Last night, on our final walk, I decided to run with her. We’ve done this before and she’s very fast and we had fun. Last night we’re running along and I decided to show her what speed really is, and I actually kept pace with her, was running right along side her quite speedily. She reacted to this as if I were kicking her in the eyeball, as if I were giving her electroshock therapy and she began yelping and peeing. I mean, honestly, should I commit this dog? Anyway, we stopped running and I told her to stop, that we were having fun, fun, fun (that is three funs) and she simply rolled over on her back as if I were giving her rabbit punches below the belt and yelped and peed some more. Then we came in the house and she was happy as a clam (malc, spelled backwards) and promptly went to sleep.
Last night, after quite a bit of writing, I finished Back to the Future and also listened to the commentary track, which isn’t really a commentary track at all. It’s a question and answer session recorded with Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale after a showing of the film. The moderator and producer of the DVD is Laurent Bouzereau who is my least favorite of anyone who does supplements for DVDs. His “documentary” (in three parts spread over the three movies) is awful. I watched a bit of each of the sequels and remembered how much I did not like them at all (they both have assorted moments, but they’re both trying really much too hard) – the first film should have been it, it’s just a wonderfully perfect little gem.
There is a terrible rumor abounding that our beloved Dave’s Video, the first store here in the Valley to carry laserdiscs and then DVDs, the flagship mom-and-pop DVD store, may be shutting its doors, perhaps even before the end of the year. I’ve been a customer since the day Dave opened his doors in a tiny little shop on Ventura Blvd. near Whitsett. I’ve followed him from store to store and this is shocking news. His store is literally one minute from my house and now it won’t be there anymore. I totally understand it, however, because there is very little loyalty in the world and he simply can’t fight huge stores run by huge corporations who put out DVDs as loss leaders and sell them for so much less than he can. That and the Internet – frankly, I’m surprised he’s lasted this long, but then he had it to himself for the first eighteen months, before DVD really began hitting the mainstream.
My goodness, has anyone noticed how long this fershluganah section is? It is too too long, so let’s all click on the Unseemly Button below so that the next section isn’t too too short.
Tonight I may watch the new DVD of Mr. Martin Scorsese’s The King of Comedy, a movie that, while not perfect, I’m quite fond of. I’ve already watched the little retrospective documentary, and at one point Mr. Martin Scorsese says this film was really the last film that was made in the climate that encouraged personal films from major studios. And, basically, he’s right. Even though there are still personal films, they’re most certainly not from the majors and The King of Comedy probably wouldn’t be made today.
Today I will pass page 250 in the sequel to my very own novel. Isn’t that exciting? Isn’t that just too too? Now, the first book, in this format, ran 267 pages. When I consolidated the format (took out the double double spaces) the first back ran 234 pages or something. The published book runs 204 pages I think. Since I am only on Chapter Four in Part Two, I think this book will end up about 325 pages, so it will be about sixty pages longer than the first book – at least this draft will be. When I say “draft”, of course, I don’t mean that this is a first pass, because I consistently go back and rewrite as I go, sometimes six or seven times per chapter, until I’m totally happy with the dialogue, structure and pace. So, I’m hopeful that with minor changes this will be it. I’ll be giving it to the same people who helped me edit the first book, and they all had valuable suggestions which I addressed very quickly. The good news is that I’m far enough along that I know where everything goes from here on in so if I keep up my pace I’m hopeful of finishing it by December 31st, 2002. That is my goal, anyway.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do and so on and so forth and also so forth and so on. And today starts our Christmas celebration. We are going to get our collective selves into the Christmas spirit, by gum and by golly. We are going to sing carols, both burnett and channing, we are going to hang our sparkly tinsel, we are going to have colored lights and pantaloons, we are going to have fruitcake and grog and whatnot, oh, yes, we shall have whatnot. Today’s topic of discussion: If you could only hear one Christmas song this Christmas, what would it be and why? You already know my answer – Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, a wonderfully beautiful, heartfelt and touching song. Your turn.