Well, dear readers, I hate to break it to you, but February is more than half done. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, February is more than half done. I mean, does that boggle anyone else’s mind, because it certainly boggles mine. I simply cannot fathom where the first fifteen days of this oh so short month went. They just flew by like a gazelle with a Brazilian wax. Oh, I don’t like that image at all, do you? I just don’t want to know from a Brazilian wax, do you? I don’t even want to know from a Cuban wax or an Armenian wax, or even a Latvian wax. In any case, February is more than half done and Ye Olde Minde is boggled. Speaking of boggled, yesterday was a day that just began and then was over, just like that. I remember getting up, and I remember having a lovely breakfast meeting with Miss Merissa Haddad. I like these early discussions because it’s how the groundwork for an act gets laid. Is that last sentence English? After the meeting, I did some errands, including Xeroxing the first forty-one pages of my new book, which I then delivered to my muse Margaret. Then I came home, did a few things around the home environment, and was, I’m afraid, a bit lazy, just because I needed to be. I then heard from my muse Margaret, who loved what she read. Now I can move on with confidence. As most of you know, I began this book last September, I think, and wrote the first thirty-six pages rather quickly. I gave them to Margaret, and while she loved the idea of the book, she really didn’t care for its tone, and she felt the leading character (a fifteen-year-old girl) wasn’t likeable. I was taken aback, but then I reread it and she was absolutely correct. She made a great suggestion, which was not to write the book until after the first of the year. So, I began it again in early January, basically starting from scratch and keeping only the structure of what I’d previously written. I figured out how to make the lead character likeable and with a much better personality, and I made the other characters clearer and cleaner, plus I finally got the tone of the third person narrator right – that was surprisingly hard for some reason. I also added pages and pages of detail, and that all really helped. I remember writing a bit early on and as soon as I wrote it I knew I’d solved the tone problem. So, I’m happy with her reaction and I shall now begin to write every day, in earnest. After that, I made myself some eggs (it was an all-egg day yesterday), which I attempted to but in a couple of tortillas – but the tortillas were weird. They all stuck to each other and it was impossible to pull them apart without ripping them to shreds. They also didn’t taste that good, so I didn’t finish them. Then I bought a box of Milk Duds, and those were quite stale. It was a very disappointing food day. Finally, I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a motion picture on DVD entitled A Hen In The Wind (not the sequel to A Dead Herring In The Moonlight), a film by Yasujiro Ozu, one of my favorite directors. He hadn’t quite gotten to his masterpiece phase yet – that would come just a couple of years later. But, A Hen In The Wind is a lovely film. It takes place in post-war Japan, where a mother is trying to raise her young son on very little money (her husband has been away in the war for four years). She sells her clothing and just gets by. But when the boy is taken ill and must be in the hospital for a week, she cannot pay for it, and in order to do so, she prostitutes herself for one night. The husband comes back, and, for an Ozu film, there is a surprising amount of physical drama because the husband finds out and isn’t happy about it and becomes surly and, at one point, violent. He is finally able to forgive her and put it behind him, and they make a new start. As usual, the camera placement in every shot is always at seated level, and things play out slowly and simply, with quiet elegance. Mr. Ozu’s films have themes that travel from film to film, but watching them is like comfort food, and even though the stories may be similar, they never seem repetitive.
What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? Why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I’ve got a big day ahead of me and I must have my beauty sleep.
This morning I have yet another breakfast meeting (the third one in a row), this time with Miss Joan Ryan. It should be a quick meeting, just to discuss uptempo songs. Directly after the meeting, I’ll be heading over to the Ray Courts movie memorabilia show, where I shall finally meet and hang out with Mr. Bert I. Gordon. I’ll have other friends there, too, so I’m looking forward to it. After the show is over, I’ll be taking Mr. Gordon to dinner.
Tomorrow I’ll also be attending the show, but I’ll be doing quite a few other things, as well, including writing. I believe I have Sunday all to myself, and I need a Sunday all to myself.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, write, meet, eat, attend the memorabilia show, eat again, and hopefully pick up a few packages and some overdue letters and such, which I’m sure are late because of the snow. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player, and your DVD/video player? I’ll start – CD, Raintree County. DVD, next up is Ozu’s Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family, which I gather is the precursor to his masterpiece Tokyo Story. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, and let us not ponder the Brazilian wax or any other wax from any other countries. Otherwise we shall have waxy buildup and that would be most unseemly.