Well, dear readers, I’m getting very excited about my upcoming New York trip, which will occur this Sunday. I do hope we’re all having a splendidly splendid get-together at some point, and I’m looking forward to participating in The Last Starfighter staged reading, as well as supping at Joe Allen with a plethora of my New York acquaintances. I still haven’t decided if I really have time to see a show, but I have the offer of house seats to Jersey Boys should I so choose. I know little about my hotel, so that will be most interesting. Hopefully, they will have high-speed Internet and wireless. Speaking of wireless, yesterday was a busy little day, as I decided to get as much as possible out of the way so that I would have today and tomorrow in which to relax and prepare for the jaunt. So, after my morning doings, I picked up friend Jessica and she accompanied me to my storage facility, where I pulled all the needed charts for the upcoming Emily and Alice concert. That took a while, and then we went to my other storage facility, where I attempted to locate a reel-to-reel tape of The Creature Wasn’t Nice score. It may be there, buried somewhere, but I certainly couldn’t find it. I did find about four different tapes of the songs, however. I also found the original session tapes of Mr. Broderick Crawford’s voiceover session as the computer, Max. If we end up doing this Special Edition DVD, we’ll include all the stuff on the tape, as we didn’t use all of his lines in the finished film. Then we supped at the California Pizza Kitchen, after which I shipped a few packages, and then took Jessica home. I did a few other things, and then picked up all the Xerox copies of the charts, which I then shipped via Fed Ex. I finally got home at five and was quite exhausted from all the running around and lifting of heavy boxes.
Last night, I managed to watch two count them two motion pictures on DVD. The first motion picture on DVD was entitled Calling Dr. Death, and is part of a new Universal set called the Inner Sanctum Mysteries – six films, I believe. I’ve never seen any of this series, and I must say I completely enjoyed Calling Dr. Death, which runs a brisk sixty-one minutes. It stars Lon Chaney (he appears in a few of these) and beautiful Patricia Morison, with J. Carroll Naish as a police inspector. I must say, I was surprised at how stylishly it was directed by Reginald Le Borg (he directed three in this series). The transfer is really excellent, too. And the price is right – I got it for thirty bucks (well, free – using credit) – that’s about five bucks a movie. I then watched the second motion picture on DVD, the new Special Edition of The Dead Zone, directed by David Cronenberg, starring Mr. Christopher Walken, Miss Brooke Adams, and Mr. Herbert Lom. It is my favorite of all the Stephen King film adaptations, and is also my favorite David Cronenberg film, even though it’s a bit atypical for him (my other favorite is The Fly – interesting that they both have scripts by other writers – in the case of The Fly, by our very own Pogue). Mr. King was then at his height (it was good to be the King), and I looked forward to every new book with great anticipation. The Dead Zone became an instant favorite. I’d seen The Shining, which at the time I thought was a horrible film (I have since learned to accept it as its own thing and I now like it – but it ain’t the book). Basically, just about everything works really well in the film of The Dead Zone. I find this film’s emotions powerful and quite moving (it has that in common with The Fly). Part of that is Jeffrey Boam’s excellent script, and part are the wonderfully realized performances and Mr. Cronenberg’s understated direction – there are virtually none of the excesses that he’s known for. The score by Michael Kamen is perfection (plus an uncredited assist from Sibelius), as is Mark Irwin’s camerawork and Carol Spier’s production design. It’s one of those films I never tire of watching. Interestingly, there is a moment in the film where Herbert Lom and Christopher Walken have a discussion that is exactly our topic of the day from yesterday. Speaking of those two fine actors, both of them should have been nominated for Academy Awards. I didn’t see much difference between this new DVD and its previous incarnation, but I don’t have the previous incarnation anymore so cannot actually compare – I’d be surprised if it was a different transfer. The film never looked that good when it was originally in theaters (just mediocre printing back then), but I was hoping for better with this new DVD. I watched the first bit of the retrospective look back featurettes – some decent people in it, but that awful Laurent Bouzeareau style (haven’t gotten to the credits yet, so if it’s not him it’s someone who wants to be like him – which is a pity) – you know, people say something, and then there’s a clip where someone says, “Yeah” as if they were agreeing with what the person just said. And it’s filled with wall-to-wall music – I just wish they’d stop doing these things or just do them differently. Anyway, it’s a must-have for King fans and Cronenberg fans.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I really must get to bed and get my beauty rest – when you’re of a certain age, one needs their beauty rest, you know.
This morning I’ll be meeting with Miss Alet Taylor, and then I have the rest of the day to myself, to do whatever I wish. I will probably try to write a page or three (I certainly intend to write on my two plane flights), and I probably have to do a couple of errands, but other than that, I intend taking it easy and looking over my Last Starfighter lines (and I’m still listening to the tape of the music – I’ve certainly got my two solos down pretty okay, but there’s a short third thing (it precedes the bigger second solo) that I’m having a bit of trouble with – I just have to hear it over and over and at some point it will make sense to me. I’ve only been learning it musically, but today I shall start putting the lyrics with it, which will make it easier, I think.
Tonight, if I feel up to doing the drive, Mr. David Wechter is showing his kids the Martin and Lewis film, You’re Never Too Young (based on the Billy Wilder film, The Major and The Minor). We’ll see how I’m feeling and how much traffic there is.
I had a really good talk with dear reader PennyO about the show and its future and I think we’re now on the same page about everything. We went over my handful of notes, and she had her own set, and we pretty much agreed on everything. I’m looking forward to the next part of the journey, which will happen sometime next March.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, jog, meet, eat, write, and do whatever the hell I feel like doing. 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 new Elmer Bernstein Filmmusic Collection box set. It’s a wonderful set – and is comprised of all the albums Mr. Bernstein conducted for his Film Music Collection. The first CD included the Max Steiner scores to Helen of Troy and A Summer Place. I’ve just moved on to Mr. Bernstein’s own score for The Miracle. What a delight to finally have these on CD. DVD, more Inner Sanctum Mysteries, and the new SE of Grease, which comes in a really creative package. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we?