Well, dear readers, it’s already Thursday, which seems to have come quicker because of Columbus Day. That means that Friday will come quicker because of Thursday coming quicker. Had a few more silly book issues to deal with today, which I find totally draining and which clogs my mind when I should be totally concentrating on this fershluganah script I’m writing. I had a serious talk with my executive at the publishers, and he is personally going to deal with getting me what I need tomorrow so I can approve things and be done with it. We could not have made it easier, delivering a fully designed book and cover, and yet they have managed to screw things up twice, once in the front matter of the book and now with the front cover. We sent them the cover for both soft and hardcover in the original Quark files. Can’t be ruined, can’t be done incorrectly. So, what did they do? They somehow took a sample low rez jpeg I sent weeks ago just so my executive could see the cover, and that’s what they used. How stupid can you be? Well, apparently pretty stupid. Now that we know what the problem is they should be able to go into the Quark files and just upload the designed cover into their specs and voila, I can approve it. I warned the executive that today it all has to be approved or I would pull the book. Even the executive couldn’t believe what the idiots had done and he will be dealing with it all himself this morning. I’ll keep you posted, but I told him I didn’t have five more minutes to spend thinking about this ineptitude. He heard me loud and clear. Other than that, I had a nice lunch with my friend Penny Peyser, and I wrote a couple of pages, although my mind was not really focused, so I’ll probably have to redo them today. And, even though I wasn’t planning to, I’ll write a bit on both weekend days to catch up or, at the very least, ketchup. Isn’t that exciting? Isn’t that just too too?
Last night I watched most of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers on the newly released Special Edition DVD from Warners. What a truly delightful film it is – wonderfully written, wonderfully directed, with a wonderful score by the wonderful team of Gene de Paul and Johnny Mercer who, just a few short years later would create one of my personal favorite scores, Li’l Abner. The choreography is wonderful, too, in fact, the whole damn thing is wonderful, including the entire cast. The dancing is wonderful, as well. The DVD presents two versions of the film – as shot in Cinemascope and as shot “flat” to be projected in approximately 1:75 for theaters that couldn’t show Cinemascope. Now, there have been people on certain silly Internet DVD sites who’ve actually had the silliness to say they prefer the flat version. Well, first off, the flat version has entirely different performances than that of the Cinemascope and they’re simply not as fresh. Second off, the flat version was never actually released to theaters. It’s interesting to see it once, as a curio, but the film, every single shot of it, was designed for Cinemascope. Flat, you lose the scope of the film, you don’t get all seven brothers in the frame or the blocking has been changed to accommodate the flat frame and the sound mix is bland. The transfer is as good as we’re likely to get – not perfect, a bit soft at times, and with color that fluctuates (all because of problems with Ansco Color and the negative), but still lovely to behold. A must-have. I also looked at a bit of Damn Yankees, which was raved about on that same silly website as if it were the second coming. It looks yards better than it ever has on home video, but it’s hardly the second coming. It can never be the second coming because there are so many opticals in the film that the grain is really heavy throughout (as it is in every 35mm Technicolor print I’ve ever seen). The colors are nice and vibrant and it’s reasonably sharp – just not the second coming.
What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? Why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I’ve got lots to do.
Has anyone noticed how quick Thursday came upon us? I believe Thursday will be a very quick day and that Friday will be upon us before we know it. I feel it’s very important that an occasional Thursday comes upon us quickly and then goes by quickly. I think we’ll call this phenomenon Quick Thursday.
Tonight I’m supposed to sup with my pal David Wechter, but our dinners always seem to get postponed or cancelled, so who knows if I will be or not.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must have a Quick Thursday, I must do a few errands, I must do some writing, I must do some planning, I must answer some phone calls, and then I must either sup or not. Today’s topic of discussion: Let’s talk about meat – what are your favorite meat dishes, and I’m talkin’ meat – beef, baby (and, I suppose, pork and that sort of thing). What are your favorite ways to prepare meat, your favorite meat dishes in restaurants – all things meat on this Quick Thursday. Let’s have loads of lovely meaty postings, shall we?