Well, dear readers, it is already the middle of February. How can that be when it was just the beginning of February? I swear to Minerva these weeks just fly by and they are over before you know it. Doesn’t it seem like we were just having our live chat, and yet tonight we will be having our live chat once again. I do hope that many of you will be able to be with us tonight, because there are so many things to chat about, for example the way these fershluganah weeks just fly by and are over before you know it.
Last night I watched a very loud and frantic motion picture entitled The Bank Shot. It stars George C. Scott as a bank robber. It’s most interesting because it was directed by Mr. Gower Champion, and he directs everything as if he were staging it, if you get my meaning. For example, there’s a lovely bit shot at the Van Nuys Drive-In where all the actors are in silhouette against the movie screen. But most of the time he has everyone running around crazily talking as if they were playing to the balcony of the St. James. Especially amusing is the one-scene performance of Mr. Harvey Evans. Mr. Evans played Barnaby in the national tour of Hello, Dolly! and if you’ve ever wondered how he was here is your chance to see how he was because even though he is playing the owner of a trailer park he plays it as if the owner were Barnaby Tucker. The biggest problem with the DVD, however, is that it is pan-and-scan of a scope film. I’m sorry, but there is just no excuse for this from a major company (MGM/UA) – it’s a budget-line DVD, but I’d rather pay five more dollars and have it in its proper ratio. It’s one thing to pan-and-scan or open matte a 1:85 film, it’s another to do it to a scope film, where you are literally subverting the director’s work by lopping off nearly half the film image. The other interesting thing (at least to me) is the fact that you can shoot a film in Los Angeles and never show one thing of interest (the entire film seems to have been shot in a three mile radius between Van Nuys and Tarzana).
I then began watching a new Criterion DVD, a wonderful film noir by Robert Siodmak entitled The Killers, from the story by Ernest Hemingway. It’s a great film, and the DVD also comes with Mr. Don Siegel’s 1964 remake, starring Lee Marvin, Clu Gulager and Mr. Ronald Reagan (whose last film it was). Both films look great. The remake is full frame because it was meant to be the very first made-for-television movie – however, it was deemed to violent and it was released to theaters instead.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below, because I feel, for example, that we need to do something new and exciting.
For example, something exciting we could do is to run around our homes in our underpants. Oh, that would be exciting. Or, we could all eat a piece of halvah at exactly the same time. Or, we could all paint our toenails shocking pink. What the hell am I talking about, for example?
Has anyone noticed how many times I’ve used the phrase “for example” for example? It is really starting to be annoying, don’t you think? For example, I should start using another phrase like, “Whassup” or “That’s what I’m talkin’ about”. For example, I could say, “Well, dear readers, whassup? Isn’t this month going by fast? That’s what I’m talkin’ about.”
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must prepare for our live chat, I must sit with a pad of paper and make notes about various and sundried things, I must eat foodstuffs, I must watch the rest of The Killers, and then I must watch Mr. Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, about which I will have plenty to say in tomorrow’s notes, for example. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you get to discuss any damn thing you like. Now, traffic was a bit sparse here yesterday – we need fine discourse today and plenty of it to make up for the shortfall of yesterday. Remember, February is a short month and we must keep the traffic on high or we shall not reach the heights to which we have become accustomed. Well, I’ve grown accustomed to the heights, they almost make the day begin, so post often, you people. And I will see lots of you at our Unseemly Live Chat this evening. If you don’t show up, you will not know whassup, that’s for sure and that’s what I’m talkin’ about.