Well, dear readers, try to remember the kind of September, and since today is September this is the kind of September to remember. First off, welcome to the kind of September we’ll remember. The first thing we should remember on this kind of September is that our handy-dandy Discussion Board seems to be down (“Too Many Connections”) and unfortunately there is no one to do anything about it until the morning. Hopefully, they’ll fix it then. When this sort of thing happens late at night, there’s simply nothing one can do. Thank goodness these here notes are working. So, we’ll just have to make up for lost postings during the day. Speaking of the day, yesterday was the final day of August and a busy little day it was. I woke up, jogged, did a bunch of errands, attended to things that needed attending, and then had auditions for The Brain From Planet X. We had about thirty people audition. There are some callbacks next Tuesday, but I basically know who’ll be doing what. I may also have some very exciting news, Brain-wise, but I’m not ready to mention it yet. After the auditions, we had a meeting between all the directors, to figure out which student would be doing which show. After that, I finally got to eat dinner, and was joined by Miss Adriana Patti and Mr. Kevin Spirtas – we went to the Hamburger Hamlet in Hollywood. And now I am home with a roaring headache, which will hopefully abate soon.
Last night, I finished watching a motion picture on DVD entitled The Radioland Murders. Simply put, one of the worst movies ever made – a complete and utter waste of celluloid. Of course, pay a visit to the imdb and you’ll find a bunch of ten-star “reviews” saying it’s the great undiscovered or misunderstood comedy of all time. It’s undiscovered for a reason – it stinks. There’s no misunderstanding this pile of dreck. The script had been kicking around since before American Graffiti and no one would touch it with a ten-foot pole or even a five-foot Armenian, despite the fact that it was a project of George Lucas. They wouldn’t touch it after Graffiti, and they wouldn’t touch it after Star Wars. But, somehow in 1994 Universal bit the bullet and made it. They hired a completely inept director, had two terrible writers do a rewrite on the already terrible script, and then shot it. They shouldn’t have. The cast is comprised of actors who have done fine work elsewhere – here, under the incompetent guidance of Mel Smith, they all overact shamelessly, and it’s all most unpleasant. I finally gave up the ghost about two-thirds of the way through. The settings are nice and the transfer is excellent – there’s just this little thing that keeps getting in the way – the film.
What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below whilst we all try to remember the kind of September.
I hate when our discussion board is down, don’t you? And I hate when it happens after hours when nothing can be done about it. Terrible.
Today, I must drive over the hill to attend a little morning meeting with one of my singers and her accompanist. Then I must come back to the Valley to do a bunch of errands, then I must check out a theater that we’re thinking of using for one of the things I’m working on (not sure I’ve even mentioned this particular thing, actually), then I must drive a long drive to Mr. David Wechter’s home environment, where he’s hosting a poker game. Tomorrow morning I’ll be meeting Miss Alice Ripley for coffee. I haven’t made any other plans for tomorrow or tomorrow evening. Sunday, Mr. Kevin Spirtas and I will be working on his twenty-minute presentation for bookers, then we’ll be attending the dress rehearsal of Reprise’s My One and Only.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, jog, meet, do errands, check out a theater, and play poker. 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 Le Parfum d’Yvonne, a Patrice Leconte film with a score by the marvelous Pascal Esteve. DVD – next up, a region 2 DVD of Stanley Donen’s Arabesque. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst we try to remember the kind of September.