Well, dear readers, my lids are heavy and when one’s lids are heavy one must write like the wind before one’s lids become so heavy that they close and one is lost in a deep sleep dreaming of gazelles cavorting in a field filled with daffodils and faeries. Yes, Virginia, my lids are heavy after a long day of doing nothing. Oh, I did a few things, like package up CDs that I apparently cannot ship today as today is some sort of day in which there is no mail or banking – at least, that’s what I think someone posted. I did drive about in my motor car, I did eat lunch at Astro Burger, I did stop here and there and also there and here, but mostly I stayed home, did a little work on the computer, made a few telephonic calls and relaxed, which is what I needed to do. I also did a long interview about our fundraiser with a woman from the Tolucan Times. I did listen to a few CDs. Have I mentioned that my lids are heavy? My Lids Are Heavy – that sounds like a Mickey Spillane Mike Hammer book, doesn’t it? Where was I? Oh, yes, my long day of doing essentially nothing or, at the very least, nothing essentially. At some point, I did sit on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a motion picture on DVD that I’d TIVOd, entitled The Angel Levine. The Angel Levine is a film that I’ve always wanted to see, but it was a huge flop and disappeared from theaters and if it was ever on video I sure missed it. I knew it was going to be a problematic film in the first two minutes, with all the cross-cutting and confusing time shifts for no reason – hard to know if that was done in post by frightened producers, or if it was part of director Jan Kadar’s “style” – but it begins the film in confusion, which is never a good idea. There are wonderful scenes in the film, but again the direction and editing and writing keep things very confusing, even for a fable. I really wanted to like it better than I did, but I am glad I finally saw it. What the film does have going for it is possibly Zero Mostel’s finest performance – understated, real, poignant, funny, and it makes you understand just how stupid Norman Jewison was to not let him recreate his Tevye for the screen (I, for once, cannot stomach the performance of Topol, and therefore I cannot stomach the film). Ida Kaminska is wonderful as his ill wife, Milo O’Shea is, as always, excellent, and there’s even a cameo by Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson, basically lasting about twenty seconds. Harry Belafonte’s company produced the film, and Mr. Belafonte plays the title character – he’s just not a wonderful actor and it really hurts the film. Too bad someone like Lou Gossett or Paul Winfield didn’t play it. The musical score by one of Mr. Kadar’s people, is particularly annoying.
I then watched a motion picture on DVD, one I’ve had for many years but had never actually watched – The Car. Well, I was prepared for a bad film, but nothing could have prepared me for the tripe that was The Car. Of course, I immediately went to the imdb and, as always, the usual fools and simpletons praised this piece of excrement to the skies, because they saw it as a kid, like that means the film has intrinsic worth. The script is beyond bad – filled with stock characters doing completely idiotic things, but what can you expect in a film where the antagonist is, yes, a car. A demon car – where it came from, why it’s doing what it’s doing, well, why would we want to know that? It just shows up one fine day and starts killing people. No driver, just the car. The dialog is filled with one howler after another. And then there’s James Brolin, who really is an indescribably bad actor, mumbling his way through, and Kathy Lloyd trying to say dialog that is so inane it makes you want to vomit on the ground – the scene where she taunts the car has to be some sort of camp classic. R.G. Armstrong has to play a wife beater who ends up helping to save the day. Ronny Cox stands around looking embarrassed, and John Marley chews up the scenery royally. Leonard Roseman’s score tries to work up some suspense, but it’s all just so stupid that you sit there marveling that some idiot at Universal actually greenlit the film. Elliot Silverstein’s direction is bad – I think I only like one of his films – Cat Ballou. The DVD transfer is pretty good for its age, but the Chace Studios remix is completely inept – dialogue is ridiculously low and the music is ridiculously loud and never the twain meet. I wanted to take a twain out of town after seeing this pathetic mess.
What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because My Lids Are Heavy and I must finish these here notes and get my beauty sleep.
Today, if anyone lets me know the time and place, I’ll be having one last rehearsal with the new people in The Party Animals. Then I have to do a whole bunch o’ stuff that will keep me busy right into the evening. Also, keep your excellent vibes and xylophones coming regarding the two fundraiser checks we’ve been waiting on.
The rest of the week, I’ll be having performer rehearsals with our music director, and casting more people, and choosing songs, and just moving ever onward. We’re exactly four weeks from the show and there is so much to be done that it is mind boggling and is making my lids even heavier.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, rehearse, do a whole bunch o’ stuff, and like that there. Today’s topic of discussion: How many DVDs do you own, and how many of them have you not watched and why? And how many CDs do you own and how many have you not listened to and why? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst my heavy lids and I toddle off to the bedroom environment.