Well, dear readers, the weekend is but a memory, and now it is time to buckle down Winsocki and try to get this final funding check business squared away. The head of the theater department will be dealing with it today, and he’s very good at that stuff, so hopefully that can all proceed now that people are back from unfortunately-timed vacations and the holiday. Even though I have tried to keep the rest of the year relatively clear, there is much to do on many fronts. There is even much to do on many backs and sides. This past long weekend was very helpful in terms of catching up on sleep and relaxing and letting my Brain cells have a rest, even though I did do some things that needed doing. I am now on a mission to lose at least ten pounds before my birthday, a tall order, but one that’s doable if I’m focused on the task at hand. If not, I’ll have someone do some CGI on me. Wouldn’t that be nice, if we could just CGI away unwanted pounds? Wouldn’t it be nice if I could CGI these here notes? Speaking of CGI, yesterday was a blissfully restful day. I got up at nine, did some work on the computer, then had some lunch, then came back and read some magazines, then someone came by and picked up a CD order, and I played around at the piano. I then sat on my couch like so much fish.
Yesterday, I watched two count them two motion pictures – one on DVD, and one that I TIVOd. The motion picture on DVD was entitled Meet The Robinsons, a Disney film in the Pixar mode (even Executive Produced by Pixar’s John Lasseter), but, for me, without some of the Pixar magic. It’s yet another one of these computer animated things, done very well, but where the story is just so by the numbers, and its messages so blatantly put across, that it just becomes annoying after a while. This film, especially, wants to have it all ways – treacly, edgy comedy (for this type of film), with a rapid pace, loud wall-to-wall music along with a loud sound design – in fact, it’s rather like a Spielberg film as done by Joe Dante and I feel the same way about this as I do about Dante’s films – they’re fun for a time, then grow extremely tiresome by their end. There are plenty of things to enjoy, however, and the time passed quickly. The worst bits were the unnecessary and really bad songs – one during the film, and three back-to-back songs in the end credits. The transfer is excellent, although for whatever reasons, the end titles were extremely soft. I then watched the motion picture I TIVOd, which was entitled Decision At Sundown, an oater starring Mr. Randolph Scott and directed by Mr. Budd Boetticher. They made about six films together, and while Decision At Sundown isn’t among the best, it’s still entertaining and interesting. I can’t get enough Randolph Scott – what a unique screen presence he was, and Boetticher was a wonderful director. Their films are occasionally marred by some mediocre scores, but Decision At Sundown has one of the better ones by Heinz Roemheld. I really wish Columbia would get off their complacent butt cheeks and release all these Scott/Boetticher westerns, but that doesn’t seem to be happening.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I’ve got things to do, people to see, and places to go, not necessarily in that order.
Today, I shall be writing some checks, paying people who worked on the fundraiser as best I can until the final fundraiser check arrives. I also have a bunch of errands to run, and I may go see Nick Redman’s John Ford documentary – I haven’t really seen the finished, final version.
Tomorrow night, I have some event I have to go to, and I have much work to do on a few other projects, plus I need to order some copies of How To Write A Dirty Book and Other Stories, which has, for whatever reasons, turned out to be one of my biggest selling books, biggest selling being relative, of course. And I will be seeing Little Fish this Friday night.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a bunch of stuff, and then do even more stuff. Today’s topic of discussion: I don’t think we’ve done this for a long time – what are your all-time favorite conventionally animated films, and your favorite CGI animated films? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I begin to lose ten pounds via CGI (Curbing Gluttonous Intake).