Well, dear readers, I’ve seen weeks fly by before, but none that flew by as quickly as this week – this week, in fact, has flown by like a gazelle eating a chili size. I mean, I’ve got whiplash from the week flying by. Aren’t a whip and a lash the same thing? Is the lash mightier than the whip? Is the whip mightier than the lash? If one metes out forty lashes can one mete out forty whips? These are the things that keep me up nights and that keep the windmills of my mind turning like a wheel running amok. I don’t know what the HELL I’m talking about, but hopefully someone will enlighten me or, at the very least, endarken me. In any case, it’s Friday even though it feels like it was just Friday. Speaking of Friday, yesterday was Thursday. And it ended up being a busy little day. I got up, did some work, answered some e-mails, and the phone began ringing and the calls came in, one after another. Then I had a work session that went very well, then I had some lunch at Jerry’s Deli, where I ran into Mr. David Wechter’s wife, Mrs. Wechter, as well as Mr. David Wechter’s mother, who is also Mrs. Wechter. After having my creamy tomato bisque, rye bread, and Buffalo wings, I had to do several errands. I had to, for example, drive to the Bank of Bur to deliver some CDs. I had to pick up mail from the mail place. I had to ship a package from Fed Ex. When I finally got home, I kid you not, the phone began ringing and didn’t stop for two hours – it was literally one call after another and sometimes two calls at the same time. I was at the point where I wanted to give the callers forty lashes or forty whips or whiplash, but then the phone went on hiatus, and there was blessed quietude. I don’t know about you, but I like a little blessed quietude every now and then. For example, I never give attitude to quietude, nor do I give quietude to attitude. I finalized the revised Brain script and sent it to all members of the production staff and the creative team, as well as a couple of cast members. I’m still waiting to hear on our costume and lighting and sound designers, otherwise we’re just about fully staffed. Finally, after all that, I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a motion picture on DVD entitled That’s Dancing. Unlike That’s Entertainment, which was a fresh idea well done, the sequels to That’s Entertainment were successively less successful, and by the time they got around to That’s Dancing, no one cared. It’s haphazardly put together, the new footage looks dreadful, and some of the choices for dance numbers are very peculiar. It’s a tired film with little joy, despite the occasional well-chosen clip. Some of the clips look good, some don’t. I saw the film the day it opened and I remember how bad it looked in the theater and how far the theater-going experience had fallen in the ten years since That’s Entertainment. When the latter came out, there were no multiplexes, and moviegoing was still an experience. By the time of That’s Dancing, the big movie palaces were closed or closing or being demolished, and the shoe boxes were everywhere. What’s hilarious about the final ten minutes of That’s Dancing, though, is how they try to make it seem that the 80s are still thriving with great cinema dance. They then show that horrifyingly bad glop known as the title song from Fame, which, unlike the beautifully choreographed clips we’ve seen, is just a bunch of people doing whatever they feel like, shot by twelve cameras and put together in the editing room, instead of being designed for the cinema. They then show the clip from Flashdance and Gene Kelly even says that the dance double does a great job. And that’s how far we’ve fallen – the dance double. The star can’t move to save her life, and the dancing in a dance film is not done by the star. In any case, a film that has numbers from The Band Wagon, West Side Story, Sweet Charity, It’s Always Fair Weather, Kiss Me Kate and a few others, can’t be all bad, but it’s close, very close. The transfer is okay, I suppose. I then began watching another DVDR sent to me, this one Karel Reisz’s film, Isadora. I’m really enjoying it, mostly because of the great performance by Vanessa Redgrave. I fear it’s the shortest of the three versions, as it seems very disjointed. The original roadshow version ran close to three hours – I believe this is the 130-minute version and I’m sure the forty missing minutes make everything smoother. I’ll have a full report when I finish it.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below and for those who don’t, I’m afraid there will be forty lashes or forty whips or the combo platter of whiplash.
The Whip Or The Lash – that’s the title of my next novel. I knew a girl once who had forty eyelashes. Does that count for anything?
Today, I have an easier day. I have to go down to LACC to fill out some paperwork that needs filling out, and then I have errands and whatnot to do, and then I’ll finish this round of proofing (hopefully the final round), and then I’ll go see a documentary, which was postponed from last night to tonight.
I don’t think I have any plans for tomorrow and I’m going to try to keep it that way. Same with Sunday. Monday begins a very busy week, with meetings and whatnot almost every day and sometimes in the evening as well. And then, the following Sunday I leave for New York trip number one.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, fill out paperwork, do errands and whatnot, proof, and then see a documentary. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player, and your DVD/video player? I’ll start – CD, Mirrors, the Lieber and Stoller song cycle sung by Peggy Lee and arranged and conducted by Johnny Mandel. What a strange album it is. DVD, den, Isadora, bedroom, Divorce, American Style. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, for if we don’t not only will you feel the back of my boot, you’ll get forty lashes or forty whips for one all-in-one whiplash.