Well, dear readers, it’s only three count them three days till Christmas. Have you bought your chestnuts? Have you bought your open fire? Did you know, for example, that Santa Claus is comin’ to town? Is everyone feeling festive and fine? We are going to be having such a party you won’t even believe it, so make this the place to be on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We’re going to have more merriment, mirth and laughter and legs than you can shake a stick at.
Last night I went to see our very own Juliana A. Hansen in The Wizard of Oz. The theater where it was being done consistently gets nominated for Ovation Awards and won its third last year for Crazy for You. They tend to do big musicals and simply ape the original productions – I’m never really quite sure what the point of that is, but there are a whole slew of directors who do nothing but copy other productions. Juliana was very good as Dorothy and she sang it beautifully. The rest of the production, in my opinion, was fairly lifeless and bland. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – this is a show that I think could work marvelously on stage if someone who wasn’t strictly trying to ape the film would do it. For example, I would love to get my hands on this thing – it could be so much fun to work on and I was bursting with ideas as I watched it. You know how the band plays the famous “witch” music every time the Wicked Witch appears? After the fourth time I would have the Wicked Witch stop, look at the conductor and then go to him, grab his baton and break it in half.
Today, my very own daughter will be visiting with me for awhile, and then I shall attend a little Christmas party. Isn’t that exciting? Isn’t that just too too?
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because it is high time we do so. Not low time we do so, mind you, no it is high time we do so so let’s do it – oh, a Cole Porter reference.
I can’t remember when Mr. Donald Feltham is supposed to return, but it should be soon, and then we’ll have our brand spanking new radio show up and running. Also, our Unseemly Live Chat is tomorrow, and will take place at six p.m. Pacific Mean Time. It will be ever so festive and you simply must join. For those of you who’ve been inquiring, we’re now in the process of getting our very own haineshisway.com chat room – we’re just ironing out the details, and then all Hainsies/Kimlets can join in the fun without having to deal with AIM and such nonsense. Until then, I hope to see as many of you as possible tomorrow night.
Have I mentioned that Santa Claus is comin’ to town? I got three count them three new PAL DVDs yesterday, although one of them will be going back because amazon France had an incorrect description of it. I got Mr. Orson Welles’ The Magnificent Ambersons (unavailable here, for some inexplicable reason) a movie I truly love, even with its studio “fixes”. It’s a lovely edition and comes in a beautiful box with a large booklet (written in French, of course). The transfer is fine and there are a lot of extras, including a put-together commentary track from Peter Bogdanovich’s taped interviews with Welles. I also got Vertigo, because here it’s not enhanced for widescreen TVs but in France the DVD is enhanced. And then I got Guys and Dolls because the description said it was enhanced but they lied, damn them, damn them all to hell. It is the same old US transfer. But no other packages arrived – perhaps tomorrow.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must Xerox the latest batch of book pages and take them to my friend Margaret for her mental delectation. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day so whip out those topics and discuss anything you like. Let your minds roam wild, roam free, traverse the galaxies, hold nothing back, go the distance, do your best and remember, Santa Claus is comin’ to town. Post away, my pretties.