Well, dear readers, it is the final Friday of the year 2006. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, it is the final Friday of the year 2006 – can you believe it? This past year has flown by like a gazelle in pantyhose, hasn’t it? But, what an interesting year it’s been – fun, energizing, infuriating, frustrating, and very creative. After the closing of Deceit, I dove full force into finishing the final short stories for the book, then had them edited by three people. I also wrote a new play, a comedy, and did two readings of it, but because of a falling out with the person for whom I wrote it, I became disinterested in it – I may take it out and do another reading at some point and revisit trying to do it somewhere. I also decided to write a gaggle of songs for dear reader PennyO’s Jewish Thighs On Broadway, and I had a grand time doing that, I must say. We did a reading of it that went very well. I also directed Miss Linda Purl’s act, reconceiving what she’d been doing for many years, and it worked beautifully. All of that brought me to the summer, at which point I produced the cabaret series at Los Angeles City College. That ended up being wildly successful, and I had a blast doing it and hiring talented friends like Linda, Jason Graae, Kevin Spirtas, Heather MacRae and others. Of course, from February to June I also taught a musical theatre workshop at LACC, which was very interesting and lots of fun and also frustrating in its own way. But, at the end of it we did a fully-staged reading of The Brain From Planet X, and it went really well and the powers that be decided to do a full production. So, for the summer, David Wechter and I set about rewriting what we felt hadn’t worked, and we really strengthened the show – I wrote two new songs for it, as well. More ruminations tomorrow.
Speaking of tomorrow, yesterday was a lovely day. It began with my arising. That was lovely. I then jogged, and then had to hie myself to an early lunch meeting with Miss Julie Stevens. She’s an interesting gal and I had a good time and the food was yummilicious. Many things were discussed and then I headed back to the San Fernando Valley. I shipped a few packages, then came home, where I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Yesterday, I watched a motion picture on DVD entitled Un Coeur en Hiver, un film de Claude Sautet, starring the marvelously marvelous Daniel Auteuil and Emmanuel Beart. I’ve been a big fan of Mr. Sautet’s films since the early 70s – they are gentle, humorous, warm, and touching. Un Coeur en Hiver dates from 1992 and I’d never seen it. It’s a wonderfully wonderful film and the fact that it succeeds is something of a miracle and a testament to both the director and his star. The leading character of the film is passive – and self-admittedly does not have the ability to love. That makes for an interesting leading man, but they pull it off beautifully. Miss Beart is luminous and the music (all Ravel chamber pieces as supervised by Sautet’s usual musical collaborator, Phillipe Sarde) is gorgeously performed. The transfer was lovely and it was one of my favorite viewing experiences of the year. I then watched one of the new Superman mega-set documentaries, called You Will Believe. I thought it was pretty interesting, and it was done simply without any of the awfulness of the usual Warners special features. I mean, if you’re going to do talking heads, this is the way to do it. And I liked that the person who did the documentary took only a producer credit – not a director credit. Mr. Donner comes off very well in the show, and Ilya Salkind is very amusing throughout. It’s fascinating to hear about how the series creatively crashed and burned after Mr. Donner was replaced and how disastrous that decision ultimately was.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I’ve got to get my beauty sleep and get my taste buds awhirl for a luncheon at my favorite restaurant.
Today, I shall be lunching with Miss Lauren Rubin at Musso and Frank, always a cause for rejoicing. I suppose I’ll also ship the two orders that came in late yesterday, just to go into the New Year all caught up. Other than that, I have no plans whatsoever.
I am, however, making ready for our annual New Year’s Rockin’ Eve Do here at haineshisway.com. I always like to have the perfect meal, although I haven’t decided what it will be. I am invited to Tony Slide and Bob Gitt’s annual New Year’s Day Do, and that’s always fun. I’m hoping we have a full jernt here on New Year’s Eve because this is the safe and fun way to spend the evening. We will, of course, watch our haineshisway.com ball drop, midnight being West Coast midnight (although that shouldn’t stop the East Coasters from toasting their midnight).
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, jog, lunch, and watch motion pictures on DVD. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player and your DVD/video player? I’ll start – DVD, Claude Sautet’s Cesar and Rosalie, starring Yves Montand and Romy Schneider (and a VERY young Isabelle Huppert). CD, many Oscar promo film score CDs – currently World Trade Center, an awful score with no personality by Craig Armstrong – like all scores today, he was clearly instructed to ape the temp track score and that’s what he’s done – so it sounds like every other score written in the last ten years. Terrible. But I also have some wonderful classical CDs to dig into, including three symphonies by Brit Alan Rawsthorne, a disc of Ernst Toch orchestral music, a disc of Alexander Tansman symphonies, and two Howard Hanson CDs that I’d never seen before. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, as we continue our countdown to 2007.