Well, dear readers, what is it with all these balls? I ask you, where else on all the Internet can you read such an opening salvo as what is it with all these balls? Nowhere, that’s where. In any case, I’ve been eating a lot of balls lately. For the last few days it’s been melon balls and meatballs, and a lot of them. Melon Balls And Meatballs – isn’t that a Johnny Mercer song? In any case, I’m up to here with balls and I think I need to take a break from said balls or I’ll become all balled up. Speaking of balls, yesterday was quite a lovely day from start to finish. For example, I woke up. That was lovely. I then reread the last twenty pages of the new novel, just to make sure I was happy with them. I found a few typos (I wrote those twenty pages in a frenzy), and adjusted just a couple of things, then I printed out the last sixty pages of the book for muse Margaret. Then I did the long jog and did it at just the perfect time, as it started to rain soon after I finished. Then I took the sixty pages, had them Xeroxed, and drove them over to muse Margaret. I then came home and wrote about two-thirds of the liner notes for the upcoming Kritzerland CD, and then I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Yesterday, I watched a motion picture on DVD entitled Hotel des Ameriques, a French film from France, starring Miss Catherine Deneuve, directed by Andre Techine. It’s a very slow-moving but interesting character study, with a terrific performance by Miss Deneuve and equally excellent performances by the rest of the cast. The direction is elegant and simple and this Deneuve box set is turning out to be a total winner. The film has yet another fantastic score by the fantastic Philippe Sarde and the photography is really top-notch. The transfer, like the other two films I’ve watched in the set, is flawless, with gorgeous color and a very sharp and detailed image. I’m looking forward to the last two films in the set, Manon 70 and Fort Saganne.
I then decided to have a celebratory dinner and I went to Barone’s. Barone’s has always been one of my favorite Eyetalian restaurants in the San Fernando Valley. I lived just up the street from the Sherman Oaks branch in the mid-1970s. The Burbank branch closed many years ago, but the Sherman Oaks branch hung on until about three years ago, at which time they moved to Van Nuys. I’m happy to say that the food is as good as ever. I had a little dinner salad (great Eyetalian dressing) and rigatoni with meat balls (those balls again – one would think I had a balls fetish), and an order of garlic bread. Their meat balls are the best I’ve ever eaten, their red sauce is excellent, and the rigatoni was perfectly cooked. I wish I could say the garlic bread was great, but it wasn’t – but that’s a minor fault – I know now to never order it again. The party at the next table over had a big pizza and I may have to go back there to have their yummilicous square pepperoni pizza – it’s totally unique and really great. After that, I came home to a message from muse Margaret, who I then called. I’m happy to say she loved the last sixty pages of the book – she thought it all worked really well and she said she thinks this is the best Hofstetter book so far – she found it had a lot of warmth in addition to the central mystery, and she really liked the characters. The ending, which really took some work, worked for her completely. Needless to say, I was very happy. She asked for one little additional bit of descriptive prose about an article of clothing, which I did very quickly. Anyway, the conversation put me on clouds nine, ten, and eleven. I then, once again, sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a motion picture on DVD entitled Righteous Kill, starring Mr. Al Pacino and Mr. Robert De Niro. I’d heard nothing but awful things about this film, and, for the most part, I’d have to agree with them. The film has a clever central conceit that isn’t revealed until the last ten minutes, but the script is just one awful cliché after another and the “direction” by Jon Avnet is just terrible, very much in the “style” of today’s films. One just wishes for a Sidney Lumet, a director who knows where to put a camera and how not to overdo things and to just let the story tell itself, without all those bass-heavy “whooshes” every time there’s a camera pan, or all that background noise to indicate “drama” – note to Jon Avnet – tell the damn story and stop trying to be a “today” filmmaker, because, you know, it gets really annoying after a while. There’s a bad score by the once-talented Edward Shearmur – nothing like the Hollywood studio system to drain every ounce of originality from a composer. All that said, the two stars really are fun to watch and I enjoyed that aspect of the film very much, so it wasn’t a total bust for me, which, frankly, I was expecting it to be. The transfer was fine.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I am filled to the brim with Johnny Mercer’s Melon Balls and Meatballs and I need to go get my beauty sleep.
Today, I have the lovely task of going to Century City to pick up a whole slew of tapes for the next two Kritzerland projects. I’ll look them over, and then I’ll send them up to my mastering engineer so he can get them transferred into his computer and get the tapes back to me so I can get them back to MGM. I shall also do the long jog (weather permitting) and I’ll finish the liner notes, the credits, the track listing, and the blurb and get all that off to both designer and web gal so we can get this sucker up for preorder, hopefully by the end of the week. Other than that, the day is mine all mine.
Tomorrow, I have a very important meeting at three o’clock. I will also actually start on the liner notes for one of the two next Kritzerland releases (the cast album notes are being written by someone else) – I want to get as much of that release prepped in advance as I can, as the end of February and beginning of March are going to be very busy. I have a few other meetings and work sessions, but it’s a lighter week than the last few have been, which is a good thing.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, pick up a slew of tapes, send said tapes to the mastering engineer, do the long jog if possible, finish all liner notes and attendant credits, eat something amusing, and watch more motion pictures on DVD. Today’s topic of discussion: Mr. De Niro and Mr. Pacino have both given some superb performances. What are you favorite De Niro and Pacino films and performances? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I dream of balls.