Well, dear readers, I have survived the first full day of food poisoning and I am here to tell the tale. Thankfully, I slept right through the night, for nine hours, and that was really helpful. I got up at nine-thirty and felt okay, but then the queasiness came back and has been back the entire livelong day and night. I haven’t had any recurrences of the dry heaves of last night, so that’s good, but I just hate the queasy feeling. I couldn’t eat at all, save for about five Saltines late in the evening. It’s the first time in I don’t know how long when I have gone an entire day without a Diet Coke – I didn’t suffer withdrawal either. Late in the afternoon, I started nursing a Diet 7-Up and that one can is all I had yesterday. Other than That Queasy Feeling, the day was fine – I picked up my Christmas cards, did some errands, picked up some mail and then just relaxed and watched a DVD in the afternoon whilst laying on the couch like so much fish. I then attended rehearsal last night, and we ran all of act one. We did some detail work, with me stopping and starting things to give suggestions or work on a bit of business or whatever. I’m still futzing with some of the blocking, but I am an endless futzer and I will be futzing right up until opening night. It took two hours to get through the act with all the starting and stopping and rerunning things (the act runs just under an hour normally). At that point, I was just too queasy to want to stay much longer than that, so I ended the rehearsal early and came home, where I sat on my couch like so much fish and ate five count them five Saltines. So far the five Saltines have stayed down. Isn’t that exciting? Isn’t that just too too?
Yesterday and last night I managed to watch two count them two motion pictures on DVD. The first motion picture on DVD was entitled Blonde Venus, another of the von Sternberg/Dietrich movies, and my favorite of them all. Like Morocco, Blonde Venus is a one-off motion picture – it’s just completely unique in its style and watching it is a complete pleasure, no matter how many times I’ve seen it. In addition to Dietrich (at her absolute best), the film also stars Herbert Marshall, Cary Grant, and young Dickie Moore. This film contains one of my all-time favorite musical numbers ever committed to film – Hot Voodoo. If you’ve never seen it, you will not believe your eyes. Miss Dietrich’s unveiling of herself from inside and ape suit is one of the most sublime moments in all of cinema. The film runs a crisp ninety minutes and is jam-packed with incredibly filmed set pieces. The transfer is amazing, with rich black-and-white images, incredible sharpness, and terrific contrast. Again, it’s a region 2 disc, but I’m sure that Universal will get around to releasing these films here very soon. I then watched the second motion picture on DVD, which was entitled The March of the Penguins. I’ve been hearing that this film is the be-all and end-all of documentaries. I’m afraid to say I found it less than that, although I really enjoyed it and it has amazing photography and images. I gather that the American version of the film is a completely different experience than the French, in which there are three actors’ doing voices. I found the American narration, spoken by Morgan Freeman, to be very cloying and somewhat annoying, and I found the score to be a bit intrusive (the French has a different score) – but, even with those caveats, it’s a well-made documentary and it holds one’s interest for all of its eighty minutes. And the penguins are quite adorable.
What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below, whilst I keep fighting That Queasy Feeling.
Today I simply must start attending to things I should have been attending to the last two days but didn’t because of the dreaded food poisoning. I must, for example, sign and send out many Christmas cards, I must pay a bill or three, I must do a few errands, and I must pick up some expected mail. Tonight I’ve been invited to see Amahl and The Night Visitors at the El Portal, but it depends on how I feel. Tomorrow, she of the Evil Eye will be here bright and early and I sincerely hope I’m completely better and over That Queasy Feeling by then. Tomorrow night, I’ll be going to the Gardenia to see Miss Linda Purl, and then Sunday night I have a dinner to attend, so pray for Rosemary’s Baby that all this food poisoning madness is past.
My goodness, we are close to Christmas, aren’t we? Thank goodness my true love hasn’t started delivering all those insane gifts of years’ past – at least so far. That’s all I need – another partridge in a pear tree, or five turtle doves, or calling birds.
Why does That Queasy Feeling get worse when I’m writing these here notes? Isn’t that odd? The same thing happened last night. Well, perhaps I’ll wrap up these here notes then, because I really don’t want to start dry heaving again.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, get over That Queasy Feeling as soon as possible, and I must do all the other various and sundried things I must do. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player, and you DVD/video player? I’ll start: CD, various Academy promo soundtracks, each worse than the last – Chicken Little, Shopgirl, Proof, Chronicles of Narnia – it’s really some of the worst filmmusic ever written. Add to that the CDs of King Kong and Memoirs of a Geisha, both truly not to my liking, and it’s been a rather bleak week for soundtrack listening. DVD, next up is Next Stop, Greenwich Villiage, and then the rest of the Dietrich films – Dishonored, Devil Is A Woman, and A Foreign Affair. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, and here’s hoping that by morning That Queasy Feeling will be all gone.