Well, dear readers, I feel that today’s notes will have a Friday sort of vibe. That’s a good thing, since it’s Friday and it would be unseemly to have a Friday sort of vibe on a Tuesday, for example. Aren’t you feeling that Friday sort of vibe already? I know I am. I’m just all Friday right now, aren’t you? Perhaps tomorrow we’ll have a Saturday sort of xylophone, but for today we shall have a Friday sort of vibe. Well, do you think I’ve beaten this into the ground? Do you think I’m pummeled this into pounded steak with country gravy? Do you think we’ve gone about as fer as we can go? Speaking of go, yesterday came and went, like a gazelle with amnesia. I woke up early, pranced about the bedroom environment like a fairy piper, and then packaged up some CDs for shipping. I then shipped the packages, rather than just looking at them like a fairy piper. I then did a few errands, and then I proofed all the livelong day, until I had a visit from a friend. After said visit, I spoke to my muse Margaret to run a few of my little fixes by her (she agreed with all but one), and then I pranced around the kitchen like a fairy piper. Actually, everything I did yesterday was like a fairy piper and I don’t even know what the HELL a fairy piper is. I think I once had a 78rpm recording of Danny Kaye singing a song about a fairy piper, and apparently it etched itself into my conscious and subconscious. Speaking of subconscious, I had a Subway Club for lunch, and I was conscious when I ate it – hence subconscious. I tell you, I am adrift in a sea of archness. In any case, after all that I finally sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched two count them two motion pictures on DVD. The first motion picture on DVD was entitled Arthur And The Invisibles, un film de Luc Besson (he says his last). It is a combination of live action and animation (in the Pixar style). I gather this film came and went in but a mere moment, but I care not, for I enjoyed it very much. It’s always amusing the crap people will go see and enjoy, and the good stuff that they won’t put up with. Well, damn them, damn them all to hell. I will ask the following – what has Mia Farrow done to her lips, and what is that white makeup above them? She looks really odd. The young boy from the recent Willy Wonka film plays Arthur, and the voice talent are all well-known folk, and include Robert De Niro, Emilio Estevez, Chaz Palmintieri, David Bowie and others. But the thing that most surprised me was Madonna’s voicing of the lead animated character – she was wonderful. She was warm and charming and funny and endearing. Who knew? The score by Eric Serra is very big and has a lovely theme. The film looks good, sounds good, and is fairly short (about ninety-two minutes with an extra ten minutes of end credits). The end credits have a really cute curtain call, but the film’s only real misstep are the awful two end title songs, which are embarrassingly bad (and one presumes not in the French prints). The transfer is lovely. I then watched the second motion picture on DVDR, which was the polar opposite of the first motion picture on DVD. The second motion picture was entitled Mickey One, starring Mr. Warren Beatty as a paranoid comic who thinks the mob is out to kill him. I will say without fear of contradiction that Mickey One is perhaps the strangest mainstream studio film ever made. This was the film Arthur Penn directed right after The Miracle Worker. He’d obviously seen and loved Fellini’s 8 ½, and I think he was also probably a fan of Orson Welles’ The Trial, as well as Godard and other New Wave filmmakers. It’s a fascinating film – completely surreal, Kafkaesque, Felliniesque, with scenes that make no sense whatsoever, but that are so strikingly filmed that one is mesmerized anyway. There is very odd work from Franchot Tone, Hurd Hatfield, and Jeff Corey. Its final scene is, fittingly, as strange as everything that’s gone before it, and then the film just ends with a shot that is baffling but nice. The film has a really good and interesting score by Eddie Sauter, not only a terrific composer, but a great orchestrator (he did the Broadway orchestrations of 1776). The transfer on the DVDR is spectacularly good.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because soon I will be prancing around the bedroom environment like a fairy piper laurie and, after getting my beauty rest, I shall be going to the Hollywood Collector’s Show.
I’ll be spending a few hours schmoozing at the show, and then I have errands to do and more book to proof (I want to turn it over to my other proofers by Monday). I’m not quite certain what I’ll be doing this evening – I may sup, or, if I’m too tired, I may just hang out at the home environment. We shall see.
Tomorrow, I’ll also be attending the show, then I’ll be seeing a play at Los Angeles City College. On Sunday, I’ll be lunching with former dear reader Hisaka, who is back in Los Angeles, California, USA.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, jog, attend a memorabilia show, drive about in my motor car, and sup. Today’s topic of discussion: What is currently in your CD player and your DVD/video player? I’ll start – CD, the new recording of Miklos Rozsa’s The Private Life Of Sherlock Holmes, which I’m enjoying very much. Also, Philip Glass’s score to Notes On A Scandal. DVD, Commanche Station, Randolph Scott/Budd Boetticher western that I’m very fond of, and a French film entitled Bon Voyage. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, and do give them a Friday vibe. In the meantime, I shall prance about like a fairy piper.