Well, dear readers, is it possible to be in both a pissy and pithy mood? I, for example, am in a pithy mood, but, you know, if I have any mine fields that get in my way I could end up in a pissy mood and can the two co-exist? Certainly one doesn’t want to piss on their pith or, conversely, to pith on their piss. Can one be pithy and pissy at exactly the same time? If so, would that be called pithssy? In any case, I am in a pithy not pissy mood so I don’t know what the HELL I’m talking about. I’m sipping sparkling wild cherry-flavored water and that cherry flavor IS wild, and it makes ME wild, and when I drink it I shake my bootay and do the Lambada (The Forbidden Dance). Speaking of the Lambada (The Forbidden Dance), yesterday was a perfectly pleasant day in which I did perfectly pleasant things. For example, I got up. That was perfectly pleasant. I then did the long jog on a new route, and it was longer than I thought because I’d calculated the distance incorrectly – hence, I ended up running five miles, something I haven’t done since 1983. I thought that last mile was a little nuts and I thought I was going to expire right there on the sidewalk, but I persevered and made it back, but boy was I tired and boy did my back hurt. Now that I know the proper calculation for the run, I shall do that same new route but it will involve going a half-mile less each way. And that’s a good thing. After that, I had no oomph left, so I sat on my couch like so much fish and watched four Adam 12 episodes. They were fine, but unfortunately there weren’t many good location shots – lots of back lot in those four episodes. However, one very interesting cast member – Mr. David Cassidy. I then ate a Subway turkey sandwich, no cheese, lots of veggies, and a little mustard. That was quite filling and a very reasonable 560 calories. I’m quite sure I ran off about 200 of those during the five-mile run. Later, during the evening, I had a couple of chicken tenders.
Yesterday, I watched two count them two motion pictures on DVD. The first motion picture on DVD was entitled The Inglorious Bastards, a movie that almost no one had heard of until that bastion of “cool”, Mr. Quentin Tarantino, decided to make it his next film. Suddenly, we have a three DVD set of this Eyetalian rip-off of The Dirty Dozen (made about twelve years later), and suddenly it’s hip to know all about this film. Sheep are really amusing sometimes and I mean that in the nicest possible way. The first thirty minutes of the film made me very tired and I could barely keep my eyes open. Once we find out the mission, then things get a lot better and it ends up being somewhat entertaining. I’m sure Mr. Tarantino will make it very smart-ass and filled with gore and his acolytes will fawn at his feet. The film stars Bo Svenson and Fred Williamson, along with a few dubbed-into-English Eyetalians, along with a guest appearance by Brit thespian Ian Bannen (he, too, being dubbed by an American – rather stupid, since Mr. Bannen is fairly well known and has a very distinctive voice). The director, Enzo Castellari, does a good job of moving the film along. I watched one of the extras, a conversation with Mr. Tarantino and Mr. Castellari. Mostly it’s Mr. Tarantino being a complete obnoxious geek, making it all about him. He’s totally annoying, with a voice that makes you want to hit him. Mr. Castellari, on the other hand, is charming, when he can get a word in. The transfer, off the original camera negative, is a little washed out with weak contrast – a few tweaks would have fixed it but that seems beyond most people who do transfers these days. I then watched the second motion picture on DVD, which was entitled The Executioner’s Song. I remember seeing the overseas/cable version of the film, which had a lot of nudity and cursing. The original TV version ran close to three hours. Then there was the overseas/cable version that ran around 152 minutes. This version, a so-called director’s cut, runs 136 minutes and I didn’t really care for it much at all, whereas I remember liking the overseas/cable version pretty well. Gone is almost all of the nudity, the cursing is still there, but in shortening the film so much it’s just become this little film that meanders along to its foregone conclusion. The actors are excellent – strong work from Tommy Lee Jones, Rosanna Arquette (who had most of the nudity in that overseas/cable version), Christine Lahti, and others. One thing I found off-putting was all the country-and-western music – the story takes place in Utah, not Texas or Nashville. There is a good background score by the underrated John Cacavas. Transfer is fine for a TV movie of the early 80s – the photography is by the great Freddie Francis.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because if we don’t pithy could turn to pissy and we don’t want that, do we?
Today, I must do several errands and whatnot, in addition to jogging, doing work on the computer, and making a whole slew of telephonic calls. I’m also expecting some important things in the mail and I really hope they arrive or I shall be in a pissy mood for sure.
The rest of the week is more of the same. I’m seeing a reading of a new musical tomorrow night (our own Lauren Rubin is in it), and I have some other meetings during the week, plus Scent Of Mystery should be arriving on Wednesday or Thursday (if they’re on schedule).
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, jog, do errands and whatnot, work, eat something interesting, and try to avoid mine fields – all excellent vibes and xylophones appreciated. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s everyone’s favorite – The Initials Game™. Remember, you’re on the honor system – no looking things up – you must know who the person is whose name you’re using – you can look up to make sure they’re who you think they are. Celebrities, sports figures, characters in books, plays, and movies, cartoon characters and those sorts of folks. Today’s initials were provided by dear reader Jose, sent to me in a hermetically sealed e-mail, which I didn’t look at until just now. And the initials are M.T. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I try to stay pithy rather than pissy because pithy is ever so much more fun.