Well, dear readers, it’s the final Friday of 2007. Yes, Virginia, you heard that right – it’s the final Friday of 2007. In other words, to put it another way, there are no more Fridays to be had in 2007. You will never again be able to say, TGIF in 2007. Friday is kaputsville in 2007. Friday is a thing of the past in 2007. Friday in the year of 2007 is done, finished, through. So, spend this Friday as if it were your last in 2007, because it IS your last in 2007. You know, I feel this whole first paragraph is somehow redundant and folding in on itself, don’t you? It seems to be a theme with few variations. It is a paragraph going nowhere fast. However, one must savor it, for it is the last first paragraph that will be written on a Friday in 2007. Speaking of 2007, yesterday was the last Thursday of 2007 and I spent it doing a little this-a and a little that-a, with an emphasis on the latter. First of all, I got up. I always feel that’s an important step. I then immediately did things on the computer and then had to hurry and get ready for my noon lunch at Hugo’s. I chose noon because I figured we’d beat the lunch crowd. However, we did not beat the lunch crowd, even though I would have liked to beat the lunch crowd – with a tire iron. It was jammed. Thankfully, a table opened up right away and we were seated. I was lunching with the very nice creator of the show Town Without Pity, Mr. Richard Hochberg. We talked about his show, and many other things, and the lunch stretched on for two hours and was very enjoyable. After lunch, I headed back to the Valley and went to my mail place where there was no mail – at least for me. I then came home, answered e-mails, had a few telephonic calls, and did some work on Ye Olde Computer. I then sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a motion picture on DVD entitled A Man And A Woman, a film about a man and a woman, written and directed by one of my favorites, Claude Lelouch. This was the film that put Mr. Lelouch on the map. He was a little tall for the map, and they had to buy a seven-foot map to put him on. Where was I? Oh, yes, A Man And A Woman and how it put Mr. Lelouch on a giant-sized map. Mr. Lelouch’s head may have been in France, but his feet were in Greenland. What the HELL am I talking about? Anyway, this movie was so successful that it allowed Mr. Lelouch to make films exactly as he wanted to make them for his entire career and that continues to this day. It’s a lovely, sweet film, but why it was the sensation it was is fascinating. I think it was all just timing – the right film at the right time with the right music and the right style. It was, in the years following, much imitated. The film is literally about a man who meets a woman, their conversations, their pasts, and their falling in love, but without a real linear story. Somehow it all works, even the switching from black-and-white to color which may seem arbitrary but in reality IS arbitrary, since a distributor managed to get Mr. Lelouch $40,000 for television rights on the proviso that the film be in color. So, it switches back and forth, since he couldn’t afford to do it all in color. Interestingly, Lelouch says that the interiors are black and white and the exteriors are color, but a close viewing of the film tells otherwise. Anouk Aimee and Jean-Louis Trintignant are wonderful as the titular man and woman, and the score by Francis Lai goes perfectly with the imagery. It’s not my favorite Lelouch by a long shot, but it’s excellent nonetheless. The 2003 DVD’s transfer is fine. There is an English dub of the film that is basically awful with one exception – the songs are in English and it’s nice to hear what they’re about, since they remain un-subtitled in the French version.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because, after all, I must make the most of this final Friday of 2007.
I have just found out the most shocking news: Today is the final Friday of 2007. I am agog, simply agog (goga, spelled backwards). I’m not quite certain of all I have to do today, but I know there are things that must be done, and by gum and by golly and buy bonds I shall do them. And then this evening I must attend a large holiday partay for the Chance Theater, where The Brain From Planet X will be playing come May of 2008. It’s quite far, but I’m thinking I should make an appearance. It’s at someone’s home and I’m hoping that the eVite has very clear and concise directions to said home. I will, of course, have a full report upon my return.
Tomorrow, of course, she of the Evil Eye will be here bright and early for her final cleaning of the home environment in 2007. The next time she cleans will be in the year 2008. And I’ll be seeing Sweeney Todd at the DGA and I’ll have a full report on that, too. The Sweeney screening is followed by a screening of There Will Be Blood, but I’m not sure I’ll have the stamina to see a close to three-hour film after Sweeney, but, then again, you never know.
Well, why don’t we just put on our pointy party hats and our colored tights and pantaloons, why don’t we break out the cheese slices and the ham chunks, why don’t we dance the Hora and the Fox Trot, for today is the birthday of a newer dear reader, Julie. So, let’s give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to newer dear reader Julie. On the count of three: One, two, three – A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO NEWER DEAR READER JULIE!!!
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do whatever it is that needs doing and then I must attend a partay in Anaheim, California, USA. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday (the final Friday of 2007) – what is currently in your CD player, and your DVD/video player? I’ll start – CD, Vince Mendoza’s Epiphany CD, which is stunningly beautiful. DVD, next up, that ol’ turkey buzzard itself, McKenna’s Gold. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, as we bid a fond farewell to the final Friday of 2007. However, we look very much forward to all the Fridays of 2008.