Well, dear readers, here we are on a brand spanking new Monday, and a busy Monday it will be. I have many book details to attend to, then I must spend a bit of time working on the script, then I must go see a video program our very own Mr. Nick Redman has been slaving over, and then I must come home and do more work here. My throat problems are almost all gone but the cough persists, although not nearly as much or as bad as it was yesterday and the day before. Speaking of yesterday and the day before, if you missed the notes or any of our sparkling posting repartee do check out all the merriment and mirth and laughter and legs. We had us a time, that’s all I can say. A time was had, that’s all I can say and, in fact, I’ve said it twice, so much a time was had here at haineshisway.com. Isn’t that exciting? Isn’t that just too too?
Yesterday I finished watching the “documentary” Super Size Me. I put documentary in quotes because to me these aren’t really documentaries – they’re entertainments in the guise of a documentary. It’s definitely from the Michael Moore school of these things, but I found the director/star a bit smarmy, and I always felt he was playing to the camera and basically performing. I didn’t really buy any of it, although it has some interesting interviews and presents some interesting information, some of which I agree with and some of which I don’t. But his general thesis is preposterous – no one eats at McDonald’s three times a day, super size meals, for thirty days running. The same thing would happen (or worse) if you ate steak and potatoes three times a day for thirty days. Certainly fast food corporations are to blame for the fast-foodization of kids, but responsible parents don’t let their children eat fast food all the time. Of course, not all parents are responsible, but that goes with anything, not just fast food. As I said in my post yesterday, the film, rather than making me say, “I’ll never eat McDonald’s again” made me want a Big Mac right then and there. In any case, it’s enjoyable in a certain way, but certainly not brilliant or even that thought-provoking. The best thing in the film is the bits with the obsessive Big Mac eater (he’s eaten over 19,000 Big Macs over the years), who, by the way (BTW, in Internet lingo), is thin. After that, I watched Mr. Buster Keaton in another masterpiece, Seven Chances. Often remade (either officially or un) but never equaled, the last twenty minutes of the film is as breathtakingly designed as anything made today. And Keaton’s dead-pan playing has never been equaled either. If you’ve never seen these Keaton films you owe it to yourself to check them out. Next up, I’m finally going to start running the Laurel and Hardy DVDs (a region 2 21 DVD box set). Also will be checking out The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, which I imagine will look as stunning or better than the first Star Wars film. Right now, I’m finishing up Orca, The Killer Whale.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below, because the day awaits.
Have I mentioned that we had us a time here at haineshisway.com over the weekend? Have I mentioned that tonight is our Unseemly Live Chat at six o’clock Pacific Mean Daylight Savings Time? I hope to be there on time, but if, because of the video screening, I’m a bit late, the room will be open, so keep the home fries burning until I arrive. I do think I will be there on time, though.
Last night, dear reader Panni took me to see a singer/comedienne who I’d never heard of, Roxanne Reese. The venue was an Eyetalian restaurant in NoHo called Marcello’s. Not really a nightclub, but just a restaurant with a piano in the corner. First we ate – I had the carbonara and Panni had some kind of pasta with chicken. I thought the food was fairly dreadful and I don’t think Panni liked it much better than I. Then came Miss Reese. Miss Reese is a very talented performer but did herself no favors by performing for two solid hours with absolutely no structure, no forward momentum and no real thought as to what songs would work with what songs. I’m sorry, but no matter how talented a performer is, two hours is just too much, even though most of the audience are friends. I think Miss Reese could do a bang-up one hour ten set if she’d put some real structure and thought into it. The audience likes her, she’s funny and personable, but there’s no discipline right now and it needs it.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must go hither and thither and perhaps yon and then I must come home to chat with you dear, dear people out there in the dark. We’ll have us a time, that much I can tell you. Today’s topic of discussion: Animals have been appearing in films since the beginning of the film industry – what are your all-time favorite performances by animals? The most amazing, the most touching, the funniest? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, so that we can once again say, “We had us a time.”