Well, dear readers, I hope everyone had a beautiful and happy Jewish New Year. I, myself, tried to be a good Jewish boy and have a nice Jewish New Year dinner at the best deli in town, Langer’s, but it was closed. Apparently, Langer’s now closes every day at four o’clock in the afternoon. Seems might strange to me. But, I’m getting ahead of myself which, I suppose, is better than getting astomach of myself. I awoke yesterday, and immediately had to leave the home environment to do several errands. Those led to more errands, which led to a few more errands, which led to some writing. It felt wonderful to get back to my short story, which I’m having fun writing, and which is, for me anyway, a very emotional story. I packed eight hours worth of day into five hours, so that I could gather up dear reader Hisaka, who was languishing away in her hotel room. I picked her up at two-thirty, and she accompanied me to my designer’s home environment, where I had to go over the packaging for The Last Starfighter, which we’re starting to put together. Speaking of The Last Starfighter, I’m hopeful of preorders beginning somewhere around October 15th – stay tuned. After that, we headed over to the Farmer’s Market, where we spent over two hours walking hither and thither and even yon. Hisaka went shopping crazy, and picked up two jars of C.C. Brown’s hot fudge, a smart move because, sadly, I’m told that the Schumacher family has completely given up the business, and even their website is gone – sad, and the final end of that wondrous era. She also bought some caramel popcorn with nuts (or whatever they call that), and several jars of fresh peanut butter. The other day, I introduced her to red licorice, which she’d never had. Today, I bought her some chocolate licorice, which she really liked. We then walked through The Grove, looking at various stores. We went into the Apple Store, and I marveled at the new iMacs, especially the 20″ screen version – so smooth, so thin, so speedy. I looked at the Powermac, too – it’s a bit more expensive, but I don’t really know why. They both seem to do the same things, and they both look swell, although one is silver and one is white. We then headed over to Langer’s Deli, as Hisaka wanted a Jewish meal and Langer’s is the best in town. It was closed. We ended up going to Genghis Cohen, my favorite Chinese jernt, where we had a spectacularly good meal. There was another component to the meal, regarding another person, that turned the evening slightly surreal, but I don’t want to go into it, and dear reader Hisaka was a lady and smart and charming, as always. After that, I deposited her back at her hotel, and I came home and sat on my couch like so much fish. All in all, a fine day, if you ask me, and I know you did ask me, and so I answered.
Last night, I watched a motion picture on DVD entitled Demon Seed. At the time of its release, the film was quite interesting and suspenseful because computers were not something the average person knew about, and certainly no one had such a thing in their home. Watching it now, seeing where things have developed, it’s a little loopy but still effective in certain ways. And certain of its notions have come to pass – voice recognition technology foremost amongst them. The story is about a run amok super computer whose greatest desire is to impregnate Julie Christie. Julie Christie has the difficult task of making everything seem believable, which she does admirably. Robert Vaughan as the voice of Proteus, the computer, is quite good. The rest of the cast, including my pal Gerritt Graham, does fine. The director, Donald Cammell, infuses the film with a good deal of style, and it’s beautifully scored by Jerry Fielding. So, while the film is definitely dated, it’s still fun to watch. The transfer is very good indeed.
What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? Don’t we have an Unseemly Trivia Contest to provide answers for? We do, and we shall. But first I must ponder being impregnated by my PowerBook G4.
Yes, Virginia, we have some answers to provide, and I think several of our usual players will kick themselves when they see the answers or, at the very least, they will attempt to become impregnated by their computers. The question was:
There was a time when straight plays could actually have a cast as large as a musical. Those days are gone. This particular straight play had a cast as large as a musical. It was, in fact, directed by someone who’d done a musical or two. The play’s star would go on to become an iconic TV star. However, he would not repeat his role in the film version of the play and neither would his leading lady. Interestingly, the play’s title was used to comment (unfavorably) on another show that season. Our contest’s bonus question: There was a cast member in a small role that would later go on to appear on an album produced by yours truly. So –
Name the straight play.
Name the director.
Name the show’s star and his leading lady and name the two actors who played those roles in the film version.
Name the show that was commented on (unfavorably) by using a reference to this play’s title, and tell us the comment.
Name the cast member who would go on to appear on an album produced by yours truly.
And the answers are:
The World Of Suzie Wong
Joshua Logan
William Shatner and France Nuyen, William Holden and Nancy Kwan
Flower Drum Song. In the headline of his review, a critic called Flower Drum Song – The World Of Woozy Song
Kathleen Widdoes – featured on our After the Ball cast album.
We had only one guess, and it was correct. Hence, this week’s Highest Winner is Michael Shayne. If he will send us his address, we will send him a sparkling prize. Is everyone else kicking away?
Today is dear reader Hisaka’s final day here in Los Angeles, California, USA. I will again endeavor to pack eight hours of work into five, so that I can collect Hisaka and escort her hither and thither and yon before she is on her way home to Tokyo, Japan. I have no idea what we’ll be doing, but I will try to provide her with one final unique dining adventure.
I’ve been enjoying reading about the New York hainsies/kimlets exploits, so keep the stories and photographs coming, won’t you?
I’m feeling so Jewish right now, that I just sang Hava Nagila (in Eb) and danced the Hora all around my living room. I also said the prayer for the wine, just because I like the way it sounds.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must write, I must do errands, I must pick up various and sundried packages, I must stay on top of things, and I must gather up dear reader Hisaka so that I may entertain her in royal fashion (purple tunic, red tights, and a crown made of rubies and gold). Today’s topic of discussion: Even though we’ve done this a couple of times, we have so many new dear readers, I thought it would be fun to do it again, and besides, I always find this topic fascinating – when did you first become aware of computers, what was your very first computer, what year did you get your first home computer and what was it, and what was your first experience getting on the information superhighway now known as the Internet? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we? My computer is being very flirtatious right now – if I didn’t know better, I should think it was having thoughts about impregnating me.