Well, dear readers, it’s full speed ahead for the next three days, and then I get a gloriously glorious four-day break. Oh, I may have to rehearse for an hour or two next weekend, but basically I get the Thanksgiving weekend to myself, and for that I’m givingThanks. After that, it’s really full speed ahead, as we are then in our final week before the show. I find that a little hard to believe, frankly, but if everyone in the group numbers have done their homework, we should be okay. If they haven’t, I can only tell you there will be a LOT of rehearsals that final week, both day and night, until the group number are sharp and tight and to my liking. I am rarin’ to go this week, as I spent a most relaxing weekend and got some well-needed sleep. The next three days are jam-packed (grape and blackberry jam) from morning into evening, and will contain enough meetings, errands, rehearsals, and whatnot, that I’ll be doing five days worth of work in three. Just to give you a hint of what’s coming up in these three full speed ahead days – this morning, I have a breakfast, then have to go out to finally get the Kritzerland resale number so that I don’t have to pay tax when I press CDs or when I record here in town. That will save hundreds of dollars. I then have to do banking, and some shipping, and some picking up of packages, and then I’ll be immediately heading over to LACC to rehearse all afternoon and evening. When I get back home, I may or may not have some VHS dubs of our celeb clips – if I do, I then have to go through those and try to narrow down what I’ve already narrowed down, this time with real time codes. On Tuesday, I have another meeting with Linda Purl, to discuss songs for her show that I’ll be helping her with, and then I also have a meeting with our lighting designer for the play. I then go directly to edit the celeb video with Mr. David Wechter (somewhere near LAX!), which I have no doubt will take us until midnight or later (we start at seven). On Wednesday, I have to attend to a lot of LACC show details, because that’s our last day until the following Monday. And I’ll be rehearsing all afternoon and evening. Isn’t that exciting? Isn’t that just too too?
This was quite a lovely weekend. I had a faboo signing (for those who were errant and truant over the weekend – it’s all in the posts), my best turnout ever, and it just made me very happy indeed. And yesterday, I actually slept in very late, and I really needed it (I was also having some of the most peculiar dreams ever). I did a little grocery shopping yesterday – the only time I left the house.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below and go full speed ahead to the next section.
Yesterday, I managed to watch two count them two motion pictures on DVD. The first motion picture on DVD was entitled Howl’s Moving Castle, a film of Hiyao Miyazaki. As most dear readers know, I am a huge fan of Mr. Miyazaki’s films (not a bum one in the bunch). So, I was looking forward with great anticipation to his latest, and thanks to our very own dear reader Hisaka, I got a four-disc DVD set on Friday. The minute the film began I knew I was in for a treat. The visuals are so lush, so beautiful, so breathtaking and, in certain ways, so touching, that my mouth was agape for the entire movie, just like a kid in a movie theater of old. To put it plainly and simply, not necessarily in that order – Mr. Miyazaki makes magic. He makes it in a way that Disney doesn’t seem to be able to anymore. That is because he’s not bound by index cards or Screenplay 101 banalities; he’s a real storyteller, only he tells the stories (this one’s adapted from a children’s book) in his way – without caring about the conventions of the day or what the audience may or may not think. In other words, like it or not, he makes the film he wants to make and he doesn’t test it, he doesn’t do market research, he doesn’t redo the ending five times to please some focus group. Howl’s Moving Castle is what it is – sometimes enigmatic, sometimes a bit hard to follow, but filled with wondrous wonders, beautiful scenes, and real characters with real problems and real goals and real feelings. Happily, Disney has just announced that it’s coming to region 1 in April, so the wait isn’t too long. As always, one must watch it in the original Japanese, with subtitles. The American dub (with Christian Bale, Jean Simmons, and a whole slew of “names”) is just crass and has none of the feeling and nuance of the original. You’d think, somehow, it wouldn’t be that way, as the characters and milieu of the story don’t take place in Japan, but there’s just no subtlety in the dub, and it just makes the film so much less than it is in its original language. The score, by Miyazaki regular Joe Hisaishi, is one of his best – filled with wonderfully wonderful themes (again, completely unlike the current American film music scene of thumping and droning), gorgeous orchestrations, and beautiful playing. It is, in fact, my favorite soundtrack of the year, and the CD is available very cheap on eBay every day. The first DVD in the set is the film in DTS, but they made a little boo boo and didn’t include any other options – no subtitles, no dub, no nothing. The second DVD has the film with subtitles and/or the dub, but the sound is Dolby Digital 2.0. It’s excellent sound, but nothing like the DTS track. I’m sure the Disney release will fix that problem. I’ve no idea what’s on discs three or four – I’ve been trying to find online translations of the content, but I’ll probably just stick the discs in and nose around. I’m sure one of the discs includes the film’s storyboards, and I’m sure there are trailers and a making of documentary and such. The transfer is flawless.
I then watched the second motion picture on DVD, which was entitled Hara-kiri, a film of Kobayashi. I’ve heard about this film since I was a teenager. I don’t even remember who told me about it (it came out in 1962), but I remember someone I knew saw it at the Toho La Brea in Los Angeles, California, USA, and had raved about it. At that time, the only Japanese film I’d seen was the Americanized version of Godzilla. I remember to this day that the person told me that the scenes of hara-kiri were so violent they had to turn their head away. And that is why I didn’t go see it. And that is why I guess I’ve avoided it all these years. My loss, but now I’ve finally seen it and I am here to tell you it is a great, great film – powerful, tragic, compelling, beautifully and austerely directed, and with brilliant performances (especially the film’s leading man, Tatsuya Nakadai). And yes, even now, forty-three years later, the main scene of hara-kiri is still pretty violent. The Criterion DVD transfer is excellent, and there’s a whole second disc of extras. I was going to watch another movie after it, but it’s a fairly devastating film, so I decided not to.
Have I mentioned that it’s full speed ahead for the next three days? Have I mentioned that this week is Thanksgiving and that we’ll be having our annual haineshisway.com Turkey fest, wherein all dear readers give full reports on their Turkey Day meals and partays, with every little detail filled in. Oh, yes, our Thanksgiving Day partays are legendary.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, leave early and return late, doing many, many things in-between. Today’s topic of discussion: As a child, what was the first place you visited outside of your hometown? Why did you go? Where was your first childhood vacation? And what was your most memorable childhood trip? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we – full speed ahead, matey.