Well, dear readers, somehow it is Friday. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, somehow it is Friday. This week has flown by like a gazelle in pink underpants and a training bra. Oh, well, the weekend is here and I, for one, will be luxuriating in said weekend. Yesterday, for example, I luxuriated in yesterday. First, we had our final musical theater workshop (MTW) class – it was fun, and I discussed the class, our musical, and then a few people sang songs. All in all, the class has been a rewarding experience for me. I then came home, did whatever I had to do, jogged, and then sat on my couch like so much fish. I had a conversation with the Music Center about the little gig I’m doing for them, I had a conversation with my designer re the Deceit cover, and I had several other telephonic conversations. Finally, my actors showed up for the second reading of my new play. One of my students came to read the stage direction. Well, the reading was fascinating on many levels. I felt it important for me to hear the play with different actors, because at this point I am unsure as to whether I’m going to use the people I modeled the characters after – there are reasons for this, and they’re reasons I have to puzzle out carefully. So, for this reading we had me, Miss Jessica Rush, Miss Susanne Blakeslee, and an actor named Peter Musante, who’s done a lot of local LA theater. So, my initial comment is that I still like the play a lot, and the different actors brought interesting things to the characters and the lines. Jessica went places that weren’t gone to in the initial reading (for a whole slew of reasons) – she’s not really right for the role physically, but she sure understood the character and it was fun to hear a completely different voice doing it. At the minimum, I know that whichever young gal ends up doing it, the part works, the dialogue is solid, and it’s a fairly complex role. Peter did just fine as the young gal’s best friend. I must say, Susanne Blakeslee nailed every single laugh on the page, and found some that I didn’t even know were there. She’s completely opposite from what I had in my mind in terms of her physical look, but man was she nailing the laughs and the character. And reading the part I read just made me realize more that this is a part I need to do myself. Everyone seemed to like the play, and it ran the same as last time, time-wise, which is good. So, whatever happens I’m glad I did this, because it gives me confidence that if I have to move in a new direction with the young gal’s part, that I know that will be easy to do. And given what’s transpired the last few weeks, I must say that that is the direction I’m leaning in. Things change, of course, and who knows how it will play out, but right now that is where my head is. After the reading, Miss Jessica Rush and I went to the California Pizza Kitchen and had dinner. I ate a small pizza with pepperoni, sausage, and mushrooms, we split some spinach artichoke dip, and she had a half barbecue chop salad. She’ll be leaving town on Sunday and will be gone for quite some time, first doing The Last Five Years in Sacramento for thirteen weeks, and then going directly to Maine to do Cinderella.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below, because I have several appointments this morning and I must get my beauty sleep.
Yesterday, I watched two count them two motion pictures on DVD. The first motion picture on DVD was entitled Cheyenne Autumn, a film of John Ford, made in his twilight years. The film was critically lambasted by almost everyone, and it was a huge box-office bomb. I’d never seen it, so I was interested to see how I felt about it. Well, I must say I rather liked it a lot – yes, it’s slow and long, but the performances are terrific (especially the relationship between Richard Widmark and Carroll Baker), and there’s a real melancholy to the film. I sometimes get weary of Mr. Ford’s endless use of American folk tunes in the scores of his films, but here he had Alex North doing a great score and it really informs the film and makes it sort of a one-off Ford film. The film was shot in Super Panavision 70 by William Clothier – it’s a handsome film and the transfer is quite good, in fact better than the transfer they’re saying is one of the greats, the transfer on The Searchers. The latter looks very sharp indeed, but there are weirdnesses in either the transfer or DVD authoring (it’s Warner Bros. so those things are either ignored or brushed aside), and the color is NOT as good as the laserdisc. No one believes me when I tell them, but it’s plain as day – watch the new DVD, then put on the extras disc and watch The Searchers: An Appreciation. The clips are from the older master, and even though it’s a lot less sharp than the new transfer, just look at the color of the sky in the first few clips – if that doesn’t tell you everything you need to know then I’m afraid these dweebs who just accept that the color is what it should be are living in a fool’s paradise. In the famous low-angle shot where the Duke unsheathes his rifle, in the new transfer the sky is almost white – in the older, more correct transfer, color-wise, the sky is blue as can be. But, I digress. Cheyenne Autumn is definitely worth seeing, and it looks and sounds great. I then watched the second motion picture on DVD, which was entitled Sergeant Rutledge, another film of John Ford and another critically lambasted box-office failure. And I rather liked it, too, up until the truly awful ending, where the film turns into an episode of Perry Mason. Still, I always enjoy Jeffrey Hunter, and Woody Strode has a wonderful, quiet majesty about him. The source material is okay, nothing to write home about (the film was originally printed in IB Technicolor, and this transfer is obviously taken from a not very bold-looking interneg).
What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? Today, I must go to Mr. Grant Geissman’s home environment to work on the Music Center project, and then I must confer with our designer for the Deceit DVD, and meet up with Matt Ashford at some point. Then it’s off to see the current show at LACC. Speaking of LACC, I must also turn in my grades for the students. I’ll be doing that this weekend.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do, do, do and go, go, go, not necessarily in that order. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player, and your DVD/video player? I’ll start – CD, the soundtrack to Checkmate by Mr. Johnny Williams. DVD, another Ford film, this time The Wings of Eagles. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I get my beauty rest and then tend to the day’s events.