Well, dear readers, how can it be February 9th already? That is just so wrong. It’s madness that these weeks go by so damnably fast. I tell you, this way madness lies, for soon it will be March and then soon it will be 2008. It’s crazymaking, and it didn’t use to be this way. Time took its time, but now time speeds by like a gazelle with the vapors. I just want to relax and smell the roses or the coffee or the turnips, but nooooo, there is no time because time marches on and, conversely, on marches time and there is nothing we can do about it but grin and bear it or, if we’re feeling randy, grin and bare it. Speaking of randy, perhaps I should tell the story of The Randy Vicar and The Q-Tip. That’s a good story. Where was I? Oh, yes, this way madness lies. Speaking of madness, yesterday was a day that went by very fast. I woke up at a reasonable hour, finished addressing the packages in preparation for today’s hopeful arrival of the Brain CDs. I then began writing and got past a difficult patch and was very pleased with the four pages I got done. In another six pages I’ll be to the point where I left off last September. I’m so glad I stopped writing back then and waited until now – it’s so much better than it was. Even though the setting, characters, and plot remain the same, everything about it has changed – its tone, all the dialogue, and all the descriptive prose. By Monday, I should be able to give my muse Margaret about forty pages to peruse and I’m hoping she will like them better. I also got a lovely box of fudge from dear reader Laura. I still have a couple of errands I haven’t gotten to, and those I must deal with today at some point. After all that, I toddled off to sup with Mr. Cason Murphy. We went to the Pig and Whistle, where, once again, the food was most excellent. We shot the breeze, talked about work-related issues, about the Brain, and just had a lovelier than lovely time. After that, I came home and sat on my couch like so much fish, where I realized that time is moving way too fast and that this way madness lies. Madness also lies that way, but that’s another story for another day.
Last night, I watched a motion picture on DVD entitled Blume In Love. I saw it back in the day and liked it okay. While some films of the 70s have held up beautifully, and some seem better than they were, films like Blume In Love haven’t aged that well. I found it a bit annoying and whiny and it just goes on too long for its own good. The performances are all fine, although I’ve never been that partial to Susan Anspach. It’s entertaining in certain ways, but I ultimately grew weary of it. The transfer is what has become Warners standard – brown. The color is all there, certainly, there’s just too much yellow and not enough blue and red. The credits say Print by Technicolor, and this transfer in no way represents what those prints looked like. One wonders just how many films the less-than-brilliant Warners telecine transfer people will screw up. As much as I want certain films from their catalog, I’m now petrified to get them, because it’s really pot luck as to whether they’ll be okay (The Yakuza and a few others, like Petulia) or whether they’ll be just another brown mess.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because time is knocking at my door telling me to get a move on.
Today will be another busy little day and evening. We are, of course, expecting the Brain CDs to be delivered – one never knows for sure, but as of three days ago we were on schedule. I can say with a certainty that if they, for some reason, don’t arrive, I shall not be pleasant about it. If they arrive, I shall package up all orders except for the signed copies, which won’t go out until next Tuesday – that way they’ll have at least four to five signatures. I also will continue writing, and I also will do errands, and then I shall sup and go see a musical comedy entitled Tip Toes, which features Miss Merissa Haddad, whose act I will be directing very soon.
Tomorrow, I have to give a talk at some writer/director function at some hotel in West LA. That’s at eleven in the morning, and then they’re feeding me. And tomorrow night, I have to see a play that features my pal Penny Peyser. I’ll be attending with mutual friend Miss Barbara Deutsch. Then Sunday I’m going to a comic book convention with Mr. Grant Geissman and Miss Adriana Patti, then to dinner with a friend. In other words, I shall have no time to myself the entire weekend. Some of us will be signing CDs tomorrow afternoon, as well.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, write (jogging is going to be out until it warms up, I’m afraid), package up CDs, do errands, eat something interesting, and attend a musical. 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 newly-mixed Kritzer CD, the American symphony of George Antheil (after having listened to his interesting Jazz Symphony and his two piano concertos), and a newly-released CD of Mantovani’s wonderful instrumental versions of Stop The World – I Want To Get Off and Oliver. DVD, The Appaloosa, starring Mr. Marlon Brando. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, and let’s try to slow down and stop this hurtling forward, for this way madness lies.