Well, dear readers, my head is swimming with ephemera. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, my head is swimming with ephemera. I don’t know what that means, but I like the sound of it, don’t you? I’ve just come home from a lovelier than lovely dinner party thrown by cousins Dee Dee and Alan. No one throws a better dinner party than cousins Dee Dee and Alan (Alan being the actual cousin). In attendance were my friend Nancy Lee (she did all the caricatures used in the main titles of The First Nudie Musical), neighbors Anthony Slide (www.anthonyslide.com – I promised I’d plug his site) and Bob Gitt, dear reader Maria, who has become friendly with cousins Dee Dee and Alan (Alan being the actual cousin), and Cindy May, the daughter of the late, great Billy. Oh, and of course their beautiful and very smart dog Casey was in attendance, as well. I must say, the conversation flew fast and furious, and while I tried to remember everything, the details are now a jumble and if I try to recount the various topics of discussion it will sound mighty insane. I do remember we discussed at length The String Theory – I know it’s a theory, that’s about all I remember. I don’t know if someone named String came up with it, but it’s called The String Theory. Mr. Slide and Mr. Gitt told us about their crazy neighbor, who throws things over the fence. Casey, in the mean time, got whatever toy he was being asked to get. I mean, this dog knows each and every toy and there are a LOT of them. There was some conversation about Casey having sex nightly with a toy sheep. I thought that sounded interesting, and I may try it myself. I know there was lots more discussed but those are the things that are coming to mind. The food was, as always, excellent. The main course was sweet and sour cold salmon, and I must say it was ever so yummilicious. There was rice, and some garlic artichoke hearts. Then, for dessert, we were served up quite a wonderful strawberry/whipped cream/meringue sort of thing, which was excellent. Mr. Gitt poured wine into his glass of water – that was something else that happened. And a few of us decided that we are going to take the subway and visit Olvera Street this week so we can eat and I can buy a serape. Perhaps they’ll even have a toy sheep that I can purchase. Oh, yes, now I remember – I was going to title these here notes, The Big Sheep, and write them like Raymond Chandler. I guess it’s too late for that. In any case, a fun time was had by all – I forgot to mention that all was there, didn’t I? But, all had a fun time and so did the rest of us. Now, about The String Theory…
Speaking of The Big Sheep, I had a nice day yesterday, prior to the dinner party. I went to Mr. Grant Geissman’s and he began laying out Cissy Wechter’s book. Then we toddled off to the Santa Monica Book Fair – for a report on that, see yesterday’s posts. We had fun, but I was very bored of the overly high prices on everything. We saw some nice books, but, you know, much too pricey.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below whilst I think about The String Theory and The Big Sheep, not necessarily in that order. Or maybe it’s The Sheep Theory and The Big String – I can’t remember anymore.
Yesterday, I finished watching a motion picture on DVD entitled Playtime, un film de Jacques Tati. I’ve only seen the beginning ten minutes of the film before, so it was fun to finally see it all the way through. It’s a completely one-off film – there has never been anything like it. I found it completely entrancing, and some of the staging takes the breath away. There’s no plot, just a series of visual setpieces. There is so much going on in every inch of the frame, it’s really fascinating how your eye goes to where Mr. Tati wants it to go. I laughed out loud many times, but other times I just sat there mesmerized by how brilliantly choreographed everything was. You will wonder how Mr. Tati shot this film, because it all takes place in high rise buildings, and fancy restaurants, all of which look like real locations. Well, everything is a set, including all the high rise buildings – he built everything on the back lot, and that alone makes the film worth watching. The design is incredible. Criterion issued this film on DVD years ago (along with Mr. Hulot’s Holiday and Mon Oncle), but it was horribly cropped (with about 17% of the film’s 1:85 image missing – the film was shot in 70mm, one of the few 70mm films in 1:85), and the color was nothing to shout about (the color in the film is very deliberate and must be perfect). This time around, Criterion has got it perfectly – it’s a great-looking DVD in every way. It’s properly framed and the color is glorious. The film starts out almost devoid of color – everything is in shades of gray. As it goes along it begins to have more color, until by the end it’s just gorgeous to look at. The final ten minutes of the film is one of the greatest marriages of music, sound, and image in all of cinema. Playtime isn’t going to be for everyone (the film was basically a disaster), but if you love film and you love things unique, give it a try.
What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? Don’t I have a toy sheep to buy?
Today, I must prepare the big boxes for shipping as well as a few orders that came in yesterday. Other than that, I don’t think I have any plans, and that’s just the way I want it. I may try to write a bit (I went back to the play the other day and started writing again – and reading what I’d already written, I was very happy), otherwise I just hope to watch a few DVDs.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, jog, write, package, and watch DVDs – and eat. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely sheep – sorry – posts, shall we? Now, about The String Theory…