Well, dear readers, another workweek has bit the dust. I cannot believe that in one short week I will be back in New York, New York to record the Emily Skinner/Alice Ripley concert and to hopefully have a little hainsies/kimlets gathering. I have so much to do before leaving because upon my return I immediately begin Brain rehearsals, but also must mix Susan Egan and the Alice/Emily CDs with our very own Vinnie. It’s going to be very hectic, but I kind of thrive on that, so I’m actually looking forward to it all. And I shall do it all with extremely white teeth. My goodness, was that a non sequitur or what? That just came out of nowhere, like a gazelle coming out of the closet. To explain: A few weeks ago I was buying toothpaste and decided to try the super-duper handy-dandy extra-special whitening toothpaste by Rembrandt. I also noticed that they had what they called a whitening stick, so I bought that, too. I’ve been using the whitening stick every night, and my teeth are now dazzlingly white and it actually hurts to look at them, so dazzlingly white are they. That and my newly buff look (with abs and buns of steel) make me quite the sight to see when walking down the street. Heretofore, I simply looked like the aging Jew that I am, but NOW I look like an aging Jew with dazzlingly white teeth and abs and buns of steel. It is truly frightening, all this whitening and tightening. Where was I? Oh, yes, it’s the end of another workweek. Yesterday, I had a non-stop day filled with non-stop activity. I started off by getting out of bed, always a good activity. I then jogged, also a good activity. I then answered e-mails and telephonic calls, and then Miss Cissy Wechter arrived and we had our conference call about her book. That went quickly and smoothly because I made sure she had the same handler that I had for my book. After that, I did a couple of errands, and then I toddled off to LACC for a series of production meetings. The first one was with a sixth semester costuming student who was “auditioning” to do The Brain. Given that we’ve never had a conversation, some of her ideas and sketches were right on the money, and some were not what I wanted. But, she’s very talented, and the heads of the costume department will oversee what she’s doing, so she’s a go. We’re having another meeting today to discuss all the looks for the show in detail, most especially The Brain itself. After that meeting, we had the general production meeting, mostly to discuss the tech schedule – I think we came up with something that works well, thanks to Fred Fate, the head of the department. We’re trying to give the various departments a little more time than they usually have, since this is a heavier show than they’re used to. I’m also meeting with our set designer today to go over various and sundried things, because I still think a couple of things can be simpler and I think that will make his job easier. I then met with my stage manager and we assigned all the smaller speaking roles to the various actors and actresses in our company. After that, I finally came home and had some Eyetalian food with former dear reader Hisaka – I had spaghetti and sausage, but one bite of the sausage made me want to vomit on the ground, so I only had the pasta, and only about half of it. We also split a small pizza, and that was very good indeed. After that, I came home and sat on my couch like so much fish.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must use my whitening stick right now.
I have used my whitening stick and today my teeth shall be even more dazzlingly dazzling. Last night, I did manage to watch one motion picture on DVD entitled There Was A Crooked Man, a film by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, starring Mr. Kirk Douglas, Mr. Henry Fonda, Mr. Warren Oates, Mr. Burgess Meredith, Mr. John Randolph, and Mr. Hume Cronyn. I’d never seen the film, because at the time of its released it was a critical and box-office disaster (the film had been on the shelf for a year prior to its perfunctory release). I’m sure audiences of the time didn’t quite know what to make of it – it’s a comedy western with a very uneven tone, but I must say I found its first two-thirds delightfully entertaining and very funny. Its final third is the problem, when the film can’t make up its mind as to what tone it should have or what it wants to be. The musical score by Charles Strouse doesn’t help matters – I think they were going for an anachronistic sound ala Burt Bacharach’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, but Strouse is just all over the place. There are a couple of very nice cues, but some other cues are just so outré as to be slightly mind-boggling. The cast is wonderful, though, and there’s enough entertainment value to make it a worthwhile viewing experience. The DVD I watched is from France, but it’s coming out here in December and I can only hope they improve the piss-poor transfer that I viewed. The source material is very clean, but, once again, some idiot at Warners sits in the telecine room and has no clew what the color should look like. Therefore, we get a drab-looking transfer with pasty brown skin tones and milky contrast. The transfer is reasonably sharp, but the DP on this film is the great Harry Stradling, Jr. and believe me if he were alive to see this sorry-looking pallid color on view it would kill him. One can only hope they’ll do something about it for the region 1 release, but I don’t hold out much hope, frankly. It’s amazing that Warners can get half their transfers right and half completely wrong.
What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? Well, as I said, today, which I thought I had somewhat clear, I must now have two meetings at LACC and a meeting with our publicist. I think, however, that my evening is free. And then tomorrow I’ll attend the Ray Courts Hollywood Collector’s Show at the Burbank Hilton. I will, of course, have a full report.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, jog, meet, eat, drive about in my motor car, and do whatnot. 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 latest batch of Universal France soundtrack releases, which include the soundtrack from Jean Pierre Melville’s Le Samourai, and Nino Rota’s score to Purple Noon. The Universal France series (forty titles so far) has been fantastic. DVD, next up is Vittorio de Sica’s Shoeshine, to be followed by Raoul Walsh’s A Distant Trumpet. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, as my teeth turn even more dazzlingly white as I sleep.