Well, dear readers, I must write these notes in short order and then head off to a little paperback book show that’s going on today. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, I must head off to a little paperback book show that’s going on today, where I shall see several people I know and where I shall peruse little paperbacks. Isn’t that exciting? Isn’t that just too too?
Yesterday, I watched the whole of Fahrenheit 451, the film by Francois Truffaut. It really is a wonderful transfer, the color is excellent and the film is still really good. This film was hated by almost everyone on its initial release. I was in Chicago when it opened and hadn’t read any reviews and knew very little about it other than it was based on a book by Bradbury and was directed by Truffaut, who I liked. I went to the first early morning screening at a huge theater in downtown Chicago. Well, from the opening chords of music I was hooked (and by then I could immediately recognize that said music was by Bernard Herrmann) and I loved every minute of the film, so much so that I sat through it a second time, and then went back and saw it a third time at the evening show. I have loved it all these years, and now, like Marnie, people have finally come around to it. I also watched West Side Story – I’d already watched the supplements, which are fine but not brilliant (the book that’s included is lovely, though). Sadly, MGM/UA has used the exact same transfer they used for the original DVD release in 1998. Now, there was nothing wrong with that release – it was enhanced for widescreen TVs and looked fine. However, there have been quite a few advances in transfer technology since then, and they should have done a new transfer, even if they used the same source, it would have looked even better. I don’t really understand this kind of laziness, especially with a $40 list price. And I think it, like the 1998 disc, contains a strange color shift in the Overture that I’d swear was not in the original – I saw this film over twenty times in its initial engagement and my memory (which may be faulty) is that during the Dance at the Gym music in the Overture, the screen color was red, and then went back to blue. Here it’s almost a light orange, then it goes green for about three seconds, then blue. It just seems different to what I remember, and although I’d question my memory now, I rarely question it for things in the past. If you don’t have the original DVD, the set is well worth it. If you do, it depends on how much you want the book and the supplements.
Tonight is our Unseemly Live Chat and I do hope you all can make it. And we are going to have a special celebrity chat with our very own Alison Fraser on Wednesday at six o’clock Pacific Mean Time, so mark your calendars. Tonight’s chat will also begin at six o’clock Pacific Mean Time.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I really must hurry off to the little paperback show.
I have been on a mission to organize my CD closet – things had gotten so ridiculous in there I could barely even walk in, let alone find anything. There were hundreds of CDs lying in piles on the floor. Well, I’ve gone through them all, and I’ve also gone through everything that’s filed and I’ve got rid of a bunch of useless things that I will never listen to again as long as I live, and I’ve filed all the piles and now it is clean as a whistle and I can find everything handily and easily, not necessarily in that order. Isn’t that exciting? Isn’t that just too too?
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must go to a little paperback show, I must then come home and write and proof and eat and watch DVDs. Such is the life that late I lead. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you get to discuss any topics of your collective choosing. So, choose away and let’s have lots of interesting posts for me to look at when I return from my little paperback show. See you all at tonight’s chat.