Well, dear readers, Christmas 2004 is over, and now we can look forward to Christmas 2005. Since we don’t wish to suffer from post partum Christmas depression or even kellogs partum Christmas depression, we must keep our celebration going through the end of the year. That way, everything will be festively festive and there will be no post partum Christmas depression. Can you even have post partum Christmas depression? Can you have multiple partums or is it only one partum? That’s the partum I don’t understand, frankly or even stevely. I, for one, will be enjoying all the giftees I received from the lovely gifteegivers. I received several interesting books (all non-fiction, since I don’t “do” fiction whilst writing fiction), which I’m looking forward to perusing, including the 3D naked women book, the lyrics of Frank Loesser book, the new edition of Jim Kitses’ marvelous film book, Horizons West, and a book of film essays by Jonathan Rosenbaum. I’m also looking forward to eating all the leftover food that is in my refrigeration machine. No, there will be no post partum Christmas depression here at haineshisway.com or environs. I had quite a strange Christmas Day, I must say. I actually awoke quite early, around seven, because I was quite nauseated from that final large plate of spaghetti and sauce I had at midnight. One simply can’t eat sauce with that much garlic and cayenne in it that late in the evening. In any case, I was up at seven, I cleaned up the kitchen, and then got into bed and finished watching the DVD that was in the bedroom player, about which more in a moment. After that, I shut the TV off and put my head on the pillow and immediately fell back asleep and I did not awaken until just before noon. I got up and sat around like so much fish, in my lounging pyjamas and my smoling jacket. Has anyone noticed that I just typed “smoling” instead of “smoking”? These things happen occasionally, these little slips of the finger. In any case, I sat around like so much fish, in my lounging pyjamas and my smoling jacket, whilst nibbling on pinwheel sandwiches (brought by PennyO) and Parisienne Cake. I then went off to our own St. Nick, the Redmans, where I had a lovely Christmas meal, including the English dessert, mince pie. After eating the mince pie, I found myself mincing around like a gazelle in a tutu. I was simply too too in my tutu. I then came home and began watching the third Edgar Wallace movie in box set four. And that was my Christmas Day and Evening.
The DVD I watched in my bedroom DVD player, was a little motion picture entertainment that I like to call Dial M For Murder. I know it’s considered “lesser” Hitchcock, but I don’t see it that way – I see it as one of my favorites. I love the plot, the acting, and most of all, the direction. I never remember the exact mechanics of how the thing works, so I’m always interested and surprised. The dialogue is wonderful, and Grace Kelly is hopelessly beautiful. Ray Milland is always suave and urbane, never more so than here, and John Williams is one of my all-time favorite character actors, and this is one of his great parts. Anthony Dawson also acquits himself splendidly. The only thing that doesn’t quite do it for me is Robert Cummings, who is just too lightweight and smarmy for my taste. As most of you know, the film was shot in 3D but never projected that way during its initial release. In fact, it wasn’t projected that way until the eighties. But even without the 3D, the depth Hitchcock achieves is astonishing, and in 3D it’s really amazing – no cheap 3D tricks, he actually makes it subtle. This DVD is from Germany. It utilizes the same transfer as the new Warners Hitchcock set, with one key difference. That difference is that the film is presented in the ratio of 1:85 rather than the US (or UK and France) release which is 1:37. I have only seen this film in the latter ratio. However, this film and Rear Window were both shot in 1953, and in that year the studios, knowing widescreen was coming (both Cinemascope and the new 1:85) instructed their directors to frame for the new ratio and protect for the old ratio. As I said, I’d only ever seen Dial M in 1:37, and, until the new DVD, I’d only seen Rear Window in 1:37. That DVD, of course, is in 1:85 and looks great – hence, Dial M is very interesting to finally see in 1:85 because it’s a whole new movie. The framing seems perfect, and there’s a bit more picture information on the sides. Gone is the large amount of headroom at the top of the frame, and every shot looks more dynamic for it. If you love this film, I really recommend this German DVD – I got it from amazon.de – it’s very inexpensive, and it’s a total winner (it also has the same extras as the US DVD).
My goodness, I went off on a tangent, didn’t I? Was my tangent tangential? Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because if we don’t we might start suffering from post partum Christmas depression.
Yes, we have no post partum Christmas depression, we have no depression today. I am not seeing my darling daughter until Monday. I do not like that I did not see my darling daughter on Christmas Day. That has always been the way – my ex-wifelet sees her Christmas Eve, I see her Christmas Day. But, that changed last year, and the change continued this year. I have put my foot down, however, and my daughter promises me that she will tell her mother that next year she will either be with me on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. If you give my ex-wifelet an inch she will take a mile. If you give her a mile she will take ten miles. She must be stopped. Any more of this gluttony and I will give her a face lift without any surgery whatsoever.
I am going to try to eat reasonably today, which I think is Sunday. Having Christmas on a Saturday is decidedly weird, and yesterday didn’t feel like a Saturday at all, hence today doesn’t feel like a Sunday at all.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, not suffer from post partum Christmas depression, I must be light and gay and carefree, and I must mince about like a gazelle in a tutu. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics, and we all get to make with the posts about the topics. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings whilst we sit around in our lounging pyjamas and smoling jackets looking ever so.