Well, dear readers, Thanksgiving is over and I now have a Thanksgiving Memory. I have had my fill of turkey, stuffing, cranberries, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, biscuits, and pumpking pie. Pumpking pie? What in tarnation is pumpking pie? What a difference a letter makes – without the “g” we have a yummilicious pumpkin pie. With a “g” we have someone who’s a big deal at the gas station. Where was I? Oh, yes, A Thanksgiving Memory. Today I go on a one week crash diet so that I can fit into my clothes for the LACC benefit. I love a crash diet – I just go from room to room crashing into this and that and also that and this, and from all that crashing I lose weight. I loved my Thanksgiving day – it was filled with relaxation, good friends, good food, and pumpking pie. The only thing I did during the day was meet up with Mr. David Wechter to get the DVD from our session the other night. Unfortunately, there seems to be something wrong with the DVD – it looks quite bad, so I’m sure something went wrong in the Beta to DVD transfer, as everything looked splendidly splendid in the edit bay. We’re praying it’s JUST the DVD and not the Beta that’s the problem, but we won’t know that until I can get to a Beta machine to check it out. I’m hoping a dub place David recommended is open today, so that I can go down there to see what’s what. Otherwise, it will have to wait until Monday. We’re keeping our digits crossed that the Beta is fine – then all we have to do is have a new DVD made. David said that they have had lots of problems making DVDs at his office, so hopefully that’s all the problem is. Other than that, I did nothing whatsoever all the livelong day, until I toddled off to the Jones’s to partake of a gloriously glorious Thanksgiving dinner. There is nothing quite like being at the Jones’s – it’s very warm and cozy, I adore their kids Ben and Sophie (not kids anymore, really), and Richard’s mum is very nice and I like her a lot. After that, I simply came home and sat on my couch like so much fish.
Yesterday, I managed to watch two count them two motion pictures on DVD. The first motion picture on DVD was entitled Gambling City, one of those Euro-crime movies from the early 70s. They’re not great films, but I enjoy them, and this one was no better or worse than the bulk of them. The director, Sergio Martino, made several of these Eyetalian crime pictures, as well as some giallos and Spaghetti westerns. The film was beautifully shot in scope and the transfer is quite good. The only American in the cast is the actress Dayle Haddon, who is quite pretty. The film has a Morricone-esque score, some good poker sequences, and a few over-the-top bits of violence (nothing like today’s over-the-top violence, however). I then watched the second motion picture on DVD, which was entitled War of the Worlds, a film of Steven Spielberg. The first thirty-five minutes of the film had me completely – the pace was great, the effects were fine, and it all just moved along at breakneck speed. Unfortunately, the film sort of becomes predictable and not that interesting after that. Oh, it’s very well done, and Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning are fine, as is the score by John Williams. But the script doesn’t really deliver much, and the whole Tim Robbins sequence was simply annoying. Spielberg can direct this sort of film in his sleep, and that’s what the last half feels like. There are no scares, just lots of loud noise, and everything in the final half just has a sense of déjà vu to it. And I must say, I wish Mr. Spielberg would find a new cameraman – he’s been working with his current cinematographer for about ten years now, and I just don’t like the way his films look anymore. The transfer, as you’d expect, is flawless, and the DTS sound is quite punchy and effective.
What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? Don’t I have to start doing some crashing? After all, I am on a crash diet and I must be very strong about it, so that I look halfway decent for the LACC show. Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because the next section will be lithe and lean, exactly the way I want to be by next week.
I don’t know about you, dear readers, but I find it more than alarming that as of Sunday we’re in the final week of November, and then we’re in the final month of the year. That just boggles ye olde mind, doesn’t it? That is just a kick in the pants, isn’t it? Not only will we be in the final month of the year, but I will be turning a brand spanking new age in just one week from next Thursday. That just boggles ye olde mind. That is just a kick in the pants. I wonder if anyone will be throwing me a surprise party?
Today, I shall do nothing but watch DVDs, drive about in my motor car, and, if the dub place is open, I’ll just putter on over there to check things out.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do all the things I just mentioned in the paragraph above. Why did I mention them in the paragraph above when I knew that I usually mention them in this paragraph? I know not. I not know. Know I not. Not I know. Know not I. I think that about covers it. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player, and your DVD/video player? I’ll start – CD, Jerry Fielding’s interesting tossed-out score to Sam Peckinpah’s The Getaway (produced by our very own Mr. Nick Redman), and Bronislau Kaper’s rather wonderful score to Invitation. There have been a lot of Kaper releases lately, but other than Mutiny on the Bounty, I haven’t really been fond of any of them. But, Invitation is the real Kaper deal and I really like it a lot. DVD, a French film entitled Love Me If You Dare, to be followed by whatever strikes my fancy. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely post-Thanksgiving postings, shall we, whilst I began my crash diet by crashing into the hall closet. That alone should be a pound or two of weight loss.