Well, dear readers, I have been procrastinating. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, I, BK, have been procrastinating. I’ve been sitting here like so much fish, doing everything under the sun and the moon except writing these here notes. Now I’m under the gun (no mean feat) to finish them before midnight. Have you ever been under a gun? It’s most uncomfortable and I don’t recommend it. So, enough with the procrastinating, let me just write like the wind. The wind writes very nicely and I hope I can write as well as the wind. The first thing I can tell you is that yesterday I did no procrastinating whatsoever. I was going, going, going (that is three goings but no gone) all the livelong day, from the time I got up, to the evening. I slept until nine-thirty because it was raining outside and I always sleep late when it’s raining outside. A telephonic call from Miss Tammy Minoff woke me up. We had a lovely conversation of which I have no memory at all, other than we’re having a production meeting this very evening. Then I had to package some things up, I had several long telephonic calls and then I had to attend a meeting at the El Portal Theatre. We’re now officially booked for Kevin Spirtas’ one-man show, which we’re doing as a benefit for Katrina on October 24th. We’ll be recording the show for CD release, and also videotaping it for a possible DVD release at some point. I just love everyone at the El Portal, and I’m hoping to make it my new home away from home. I then had lunch with Mr. Kevin Spirtas, and we discussed all the details for the show for two hours. Then I went to my designer’s home environment where I saw several of the new title treatments for Deceit, several of which I like very much. He’s now dummying them up with his special “mirror” effect, and we’ll choose one in the next day or so. Then I hurried to the postal office where I shipped several things. Then I came home and answered several telephonic calls, and set up a bunch of meetings for this week. I’ll be seeing Miss Cindy Williams on Wednesday, then Mr. Grant Geissman directly after. I’ll be having lunch with Mr. Walter Willison and Mr. Kevin Spirtas on Friday. And there are several other pending meetings at various other times. By the time all that was finished it was close to seven o’clock. At that time, I began an evening of DVD watching and procrastinating.
Last night I watched two count them two motion pictures on DVD. Actually, the first motion picture I watched on DVD was Mr. Howard Hawks’ Rio Bravo, which I’ve been watching in the bedroom DVD player every night before bed. What a great movie Rio Bravo is. It’s stellar in every way – great script, great acting, great score, and great direction. I’ve loved this movie since I saw it on its initial release, and I still love it to this day. John Wayne is great, Dean Martin gives one of his best performances, Ricky Nelson is charming, Walter Brennan is hilarious as Stumpy, and Angie Dickinson is fetching as “Feathers.” It’s long at two hours and twenty minutes, and the pace is leisurely, but it’s wildly entertaining and I just adore it and never tire of watching it. The plot was so classic that Mr. Hawks redid it twice in the next fifteen years – first as El Dorado, then as Rio Lobo. And John Carpenter “borrowed” its structure for Assault on Precinct 13. I then watched the second motion picture on DVD, which was entitled A Raisin in the Sun. I’ve owned the DVD for four years and have never watched it. Not only that, I’ve never seen the film before. It’s a swell movie, a faithful representation of Lorraine Hansberry’s wonderful play, and it has the entire Broadway cast repeating their roles. The performances are all terrific – Sidney Potier is his usual great self, Claudia McNeil is powerful and moving as Mama, Diana Sands almost walks away with the film, and Ruby Dee is brilliant. There is able support from Ivan Dixon, John Fiedler, and Lou Gossett. The icing on the cake is the beautiful score by Laurence Rosenthal, one of his three 60s masterpieces, the other two being Requiem for a Heavyweight and The Miracle Worker. The most shocking thing about the film of A Raisin in the Sun was that it was not nominated for a single Academy Award, which just goes to show you how long that organization has been bankrupt. The transfer on Rio Bravo is very good, but would be better with a little color correction, and the Raisin transfer is lovely.
What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below before I start procrastinating again.
I’ve been procrastinating again. I was just staring off into space rather than buckling down Winsocki to write this here section of the notes. Damn them, damn them all to hell.
The crickets are chirping up a storm tonight. It’s like the Mormon Tabernacle Crickets or Mitch Miller and The Crickets, or the Norman Luboff Crickets. In fact, they’re so loud that it’s driving me crazy, and I think we all know what a short drive that is.
Mr. Donald Feltham, our marvelous radio show host, is having computer problems, and so we may not have a new show up for a week or two. He’s getting a new computer on Monday and as soon as he’s up and running, he’ll upload a new show.
Now wait just a darned minute. We’d all just better put on our pointy party hats and our colored tights and pantaloons, we’d all better break out the cheese slices and the ham chunks, we’d all better dance the Hora or the samba because today is our very own dear reader Laura’s birthday. So, let’s give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to our very own dear reader Laura. On the count of three: One, two, three – A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO OUR VERY OWN DEAR READER LAURA!!!
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must write, I must ship, I must hopefully pick up some errant and truant packages (I had none yesterday), I must drive about in my motor car and do errands, and then I must have a production meeting. Today’s topic of discussion: Since I enjoyed Miss Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun so much, what are your all-time favorite Black-themed plays, novels, and films? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, and let us not procrastinate because that would be most unseemly.