Well, dear readers, May is but a thing of the past and without so much as a how do you do, June has stepped in to replace it. Yes, Virginia, it’s June, and I, for one, hope it’s going to be a wonderful, sweet, happy and prosperous June. I certainly hope we don’t have any June havoc. I hope it’s a dainty June, too, don’t you? I hope it’s so dainty that we eat cucumber sandwiches and have tea, like civilized people. Of course, June will be busting out all over, but that’s just because it’s June, June, June. But, before we get to June, why don’t we reflect on the final day of May, a little day we like to call Mayday. For example, I woke up feeling better. For example, I did some errands in the early morning hours, made an important telephonic call, and also had to give someone a bunch of Kevin Spirtas CDs to sell at some Days Of Our Lives thing this weekend. Then I jogged, and today’s jog was different in that I didn’t have a shirt on. I felt that was quite bold of me, but I think I need to lose another five to ten pounds before doing THAT again. Still, it was nice to have the sun shining down on my naked upper half. After that, I had two eggs in two small taco-sized tortillas, and some pineapple. After that, I did more errands, and delivered the tapes for the Kevin Spirtas DVD. After that, I did some work at the piano, then ate more fruit and some low-fat cottage cheese. Much later, I went to Jerry’s and got their house chopped salad, because someone told me that eating as little as I’ve been was actually precluding me from faster weight loss. So, we’ll see if this extra bit of food helps. It was just a big ol’ salad with garbanzo beans, lettuce, a little mozzarella cheese and cucumbers and green peppers and scallions. I just put a teeny bit of oil and a lot of red wine vinegar on it, so the dressing had almost no calories. I ate a little over half the salad, along with two small pieces of rye bread. Hopefully, I won’t actually gain weight from it, but I thought it was worth trying, and if it didn’t work, then it’s back to a little less food today. And that was my final day of May – thankfully, there were no horror stories to report.
Last night I watched two count them two motion pictures on DVD. The first motion picture on DVD was entitled Guns at Batasi, starring Mr. Richard Attenborough as a tough-as-nails officer serving in Africa. It’s really not a very good film, but it’s well-directed by John Guillerman, and the time passed quickly. It did have a rather awful score by John Addison. I then watched the second motion picture on DVD, which was entitled Coup de Torchon, un film de Betrand Tavernier, starring Mr. Philippe Noiret and Miss Isabelle Huppert. The film is based on a pulp novel by Jim Thompson called Pop. 1280. What a striking film it is – I’ve had the DVD for over three years and never got around to watching it, so it was nice to finally see the film. Mr. Tavernier’s direction is impeccable, and when Mr. Philippe Sarde’s brilliant score is added to the imagery, well, it’s quite magical. The film is a bit long for its own good (128 minutes), but the performances are excellent, and it’s very engrossing and quite amusing in a vicious way. The transfer is fine but not great – contrast is a bit milky.
What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? Why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because, after all, it’s June, and that’s simply what one does in June.
Those who were around yesterday know that we did indeed have a Mayday around these here parts. The site was working poorly, and then, when I complained to our host, it was discovered that the message board had something set wrong and it was causing server overload, and they took the entire site off-line while they tried to figure out the problem. Mr. Mark Bakalor got involved and was on the phone with them, and after about forty-five minutes, they isolated the problem and fixed it. Like a lot of technical problems, once they found it, it was easy to fix. Now that it’s fixed, we should have no more of the recurring problems we’ve been having and that is cause for dancing a jig in June.
Today I have a few things to do, including maybe having a lunch (a lunch I’m somewhat dreading if it happens, for various reasons), I’ll continue making notes on my new book idea (I also have to move a bunch of heavy boxes to find a book I need for research – hate that), I have to sit down and go through the Deceit DVD and make chapter stops, then get that info to the authoring fellow, and I must find time to jog. I may or may not try and see a play this evening. A little theater company is doing Chayefsky’s The Tenth Man down on Vermont near LACC. As those who’ve read Kritzer Time know, that show was very important to Benjamin Kritzer, being the first professional play he saw. The cast of this production has some interesting folks in it, including one of my co-actors from the long ago Dinah Shore and Her New Best Friends TV series. Not sure if tonight will be the night, but I’m thinking about it for sure.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do all of the above and more, and then I must be prepared to start editing the Kevin Spirtas DVD either tomorrow or Saturday. Today’s topic of discussion: There have been some classic book cover designs – what are your favorite dust jacket covers and paperback covers? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst we welcome in June with open arms.