Well, dear readers, here we are, the start of a new week, and we can only hope it’s better than last week. We want a whole new vibe this week. Yes, Virginia, we want a whole new vibe this week and by gum and by golly and buy bonds I hope to heaven we have a whole new vibe because I certainly don’t need a repeat of last week’s vibe (ebiv, spelled backwards). I’m still feeling quite under the weather and frankly I’ve had it with that, too. I want to feel over the weather. Speaking of the weather, yesterday there was weather but I have no idea what it was like since I never left the home environment. No, I did exactly what I should have done – nothing. I cancelled the meeting with Cason and I just sat on my couch like so much fish all the livelong day and night. I’d gotten ten hours of very necessary sleep, and I must say I probably dozed for two hours during the day, which is very unusual for me. For a good deal of the day I actually felt a bit better, but by evening I felt the same as yesterday, which was most unseemly. But, I had a huge vat of chicken soup and while it was sort of gross, I ate it all up in hopes that it would help heal me. I took a thirty-minute really hot shower, which was the best thing all day. And I once again sat on my couch like so much fish.
Yesterday, I watched a motion picture on DVD entitled The Intruder, a film by Roger Corman, starring William Shatner. Prior to this DVD release this film was very hard to find. It’s atypical Corman – serious, with serious issues and a story that is told with great economy and which pushes all the right buttons. It takes place in the rural South on the eve of school segregation. Mr. Shatner comes to town to rile up the townsfolk and to stir the fires of racial hatred. It’s a very difficult film to watch at times because it has real verisimilitude, which is not something you can usually say for Mr. Corman. It was obviously a film he wanted to make and, ironically, it was his only money loser for years. The script by Charles Beaumont (who also appears in the film along with fellow Twilight Zone scribe George Clayton Johnson) is concise and well written. Shatner is really good and all too believable as a horrible bigot. Many of the roles are played by real townspeople, and it’s surprising how good they are. The source material for the transfer is beat up and it’s in the incorrect ratio of 1:33 rather than 1:85, but it’s nice to have it on DVD after all these years.
I then watched Legally Blonde, which I’d TIVOd during its afternoon run. I’d been looking forward to seeing it, and the fact is I’d still like to see it onstage, but this MTV taping was just not to my taste – I didn’t like the endless cutting or the shots, I didn’t like that the audience was lit, I really didn’t like that there were cheerleaders in the audience prompting them to scream as if they were in a middle school gymnasium, which, for most of the audience, is something they would have acute knowledge of. When they recruited the audience, said audience could not be over eighteen (or maybe twenty), had to wear pink, and had to be VERY vocal. Not only is it bogus, but it completely ruins the experience of watching it – that, and the commercials every seven minutes or so. On tape, I found the show unfocused and forced and filled with moments that were designed to take you out of the show – once that happens, I simply stop investing in the people onstage. The music and lyrics didn’t do much for me and the book was fairly perfunctory, hitting all the notes of the film, but in a not very graceful way. My least favorite numbers were the critically lauded Bend and Snap, which I found to be typical of today’s choreographers, who have no idea how to build and sustain and then send a number over the moon. The Irish step dancing was a complete waste of time and should have been cut, and the gay number was so out of place I just sat and scratched my head. All that said, I thought the cast hard working, I liked Laura Bell Bundy, my pal Mike Rupert, and Christian Borle. Not a horrible show, by any means, but not one that’s inspired in any way. I know it’s just supposed to be entertaining, but there are ways to be entertaining and also be great – like Guys and Dolls. I do wonder just how much longer the Broadway production will last now that this thing has aired.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because it is time for me to knock back some Ny-Quil and hit the road to dreamland.
This morning I’ll have the meeting with Cason, but I don’t know if I’ll keep my two o’clock meeting at LACC or postpone it another day – it will depend on how I feel. I do have to make a brief appearance at the Alex Theater tomorrow night, but it won’t be long – and while I’m there I’ll go to Mystery and Imagination and book a signing for the new book. Also, I’m hoping the new Kritzerland CD will be up for preorder by mid-week, and it’s a great one and a limited edition that I’m pretty sure will ultimately sell out.
Yes, a new vibe, that’s what we need around these here parts. And perhaps even a new xylophone. I heard from the University in England that’s doing the Brain and apparently they’re having quite a good time doing it.
Much as I’d like to I cannot be verbose this day, oh, no, I cannot be verbose. I can hardly take a breath without launching into a tiresome fit of coughing, and all that has caused me to have a constant headache. I gotta tell you. A new vibe – that’s the ticket. I promise wonderfully witty notes tomorrow.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, feel better, have a meeting with Cason, decided if I’ll keep the meeting at LACC, and attend a brief thing at the Alex. Today’s topic of discussion: What is the single most entertaining musical and play you’ve ever seen – the one that caused delight from start to finish, that had craft, brilliant direction, brilliant choreography, a well written book, but that was just designed as an entertainment and nothing more. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, and while we’re at it, let’s have a new vibe.