Well, dear readers, I’m just sitting here like so much fish thinking of this and that and also that and this. In fact, I’m sitting here doing everything but writing these here notes. I’ve just been staring at this white sheet of virtual paper, which now, finally, has some words written on it. I could end the notes right now and go directly to the topic of the day. But then when everyone clicked on the Unseemly Button there would be white – a blank page – and we can’t have that because the universe would then be askew and Jupiter would be in Pluto and Pluto would be in Mars and Mars would be in Uranus and chaos and anarchy would ensue. Well, I prefer order and calm to chaos and anarchy and I prefer almost anything to Uranus. As long as we’re talking about all these planets, perhaps I should put on Gustav Holst’s marvelously marvelous The Planets. Then we would have harmony and peace and love and we could wear beads and we could go to San Francisco and wear a flower in our hair. We could be love children and drive about in gaily-colored Volkswagen buses. Yes, I must go put on Gustav Holst’s The Planets so that we can have harmony and peace and love, not necessarily in that order. What the HELL am I talking about? What am I, a hippie all of a sudden? I’ll have you know I was never a hippie, never a love child, never went to San Francisco with a flower in my hair, never smoked hashish, weed, marijuana, never took LS or D, never had a magic mushroom, never snorted the cocaine, and never made the peace sign. I went my own way, dammit. Speaking of my own way dammit, yesterday was a very long day. I got up early, did some revising of what I’d written the day before, then did the long jog. Then I wrote almost six pages, and then Miss Adryan Russ came over and we went to Hugo’s to have a working lunch. I had my beloved Pasta Papa and I’m happy to say that they’d had so many complaints about the nauseating gluten-free noodles that they’ve gone back to regular pasta. We were there for two hours and basically went through almost every lyric in the show, cutting, focusing, and structuring – we both love this process, so it’s really fun. Whilst doing that, I got three really good ideas that involved book structure. When I got home I e-mailed those ideas to the author and he called me and told me he really liked them and that he thought they’d implement them, so that was nice to hear. I wrote another page and a half and then finally sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched two count them two motion pictures on DVD. The first motion picture on DVD was entitled The Deep End which, according to the DVD package and quotes was a thriller that really delivered the thrills, and a film with fast-paced twists and turns. When will these yokels learn that if you sell a film like that then the film better damn well deliver what you’re selling. This particular film has no thrills, no twists, and no turns, and it is slow as molasses. It’s irritatingly directed and written, and the score was, for me, like nails on a blackboard. Tilda Swinton was certainly intense and she managed her American accent pretty well. Of course, over at the imdb this film has gotten rave after rave – I don’t know what movie they watched but it certainly wasn’t this one. But even the critics back in 2001 gave it good reviews, and Miss Swinton was up for a Golden Globe. I just sit and shake my head that films like this even get financed let alone have people who actually like them – but that’s what makes horse racing, I suppose. I then watched the second motion picture on DVD, which was entitled Blast Of Silence, an ultra low budget film from 1959. I’d heard about the film but never seen it. It was “rediscovered” in the 1990s and proclaimed a lost and now found masterpiece. Well, the film on view doesn’t quite warrant that hyperbole, but it’s certainly an interesting low-budget feature. There’s wall to wall voice over narration by Lionel Stander – it’s very melodramatic and often laughable and I wished there were less of it. The photography is actually quite striking and there are just great shots of 1959 New York all throughout the film. The writer/director, Allan Baron, is also the star, and he actually does pretty well in all departments. Also in the film is Larry Tucker, who would go on to partner with Paul Mazursky, turning out such films as I Love You, Alice B. Toklas, Alex In Wonderland, and Bob, Carol, Ted, and Alice. I enjoyed the film and the transfer is terrific.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I’m now listening to Gustav Holst’s The Planets and I’m feeling harmony and peace and love and am now wearing sandals and a caftan.
Today, I shall be doing the long jog, I shall be writing, and I also have a lunch meeting with the singer whose act I directed – we’ll be talking about her upcoming show at the Metropolitan Room (she’d like me to be there), and also about creating a new show. We shall see. After that, I’ll come home and finish whatever writing need be finished and then I’m relaxing and watching DVDs.
Tomorrow, I’m still waiting to hear if I’ll be attending the opening night of Stormy Weather – if not, I’ll just sit here and relax and enjoy a free evening. I’m not sure what the weekend holds, although I need to get together with David Wechter to go through our new draft. That has to happen very soon so I can then put together a staged reading for the end of February or early March.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do the long jog, write, have a lunch meeting, and then relax and smell the roses or the coffee or the okra. Today’s topic of discussion: We’ve done it before but not for quite some time – what were your favorite fads – which amused you, which did you take part in, which appalled you? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst Gustav Holst’s The Planets plays and the world is in perfect three-part harmony, just like an old-fashioned love song.