Well, dear readers, let us be festive and gay for today is the first of May and therefore we shall play and make hay and say yay. I hate to be the one pointing this out, but has anyone noticed that this year is almost halfway over? I mean, April flew by, like a gazelle eating sweetmeats. I’m hoping that May will be fabulously fabulous for one and all and also all and one – a merry month of May filled with lucre and more lucre and then even more lucre, and creativity and merriment and mirth and laughter and legs, not necessarily in that order. So, let’s just say “Hey, May, I’m comin’ your way!”
April ended quite oddly, I must say. I got up and did the long jog, then had to go look at an item. It has become increasingly clear to me that I may need such an item in the very near future for reasons beyond my control. So, I began doing my research for said item and it was very interesting. Sorry to be enigmatic, but enigmatic I must be. I then went and picked up the tapes lent to me by a composer’s estate and I picked up the CDRs of the music that was on them, hoping that they’d be filled with unreleased music as well as being good-sounding for the rest of my needs. Unfortunately, that did not prove to be the case. In fact, the tapes were basically non-starters. Oh, there’s music on them, all right, but the music is accompanied by a very loud hum and a lot of what they call bias crackling noise. Some of it we can fix, but most of it we can’t. I found it impossible to tell if there was, in fact, any music that was not on the original LP release of this title. I’ll figure that out over the next few days and if there are any additional cues then we’ll do our best to clean them up. But for the album proper, we’ll simply go from the sources I already had, which will be just fine. After that, I got some food, picked up one lonely package, shipped out several packages, entered all the fixes for the new novel, and had a very disturbing telephonic call from the head of the theater academy at LACC, about which more in coming notes (or you can read what I posted about it yesterday). After that, I finally sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a very strange motion picture on DVD entitled Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders, a foreign film (Czech, to be exact) filled with very foreign things. I’m not sure WHAT the HELL it was about, but it seemed to be about a young girl’s awakening (sexually and otherwise) – the gal was very cute and very good and looks to have been about fourteen at the time of filming (I suppose she could be older and/or younger). The film is filled with dreamlike surreal images, some of them disturbing, some of them weird, some of them weirder than weird – it’s like Alice In Wonderland has her first period and has strange adventures. There are vampires, incestuous fondlings, religious fondlings, and even a bit of nudity (and yes, the young girl is quite nude a couple of times). As odd as it was, I found it fascinating and was involved for all of its brief seventy-two minutes. The film also has an interesting musical score. What the film doesn’t have is a good transfer, at least here in the US via Facets Video. It looks like it was taken off an old VHS master and is quite ugly. There are two region 2 releases, both of which, according to the screencaps I’ve seen, look far superior to the US transfer. An odd film, but interesting and very well done.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because, after all, it’s the merry month of May and I must get my beauty sleep.
Today, I must do the long jog (maybe), I must return tapes to USC, I must have an early lunch at Langer’s (since I’ll be nearby), and then I must do a lot of errands and whatnot prior to going to the Bank of Bur to see Doug Cohen’s No Way To Treat A Lady – I will, of course, have a full report.
Tomorrow, mercifully, I have no plans whatsoever, other than writing liner notes for the next Kritzerland release. In the evening I’m heading over to LACC to see a new play directed by my pal Leslie Ferreira. Sunday, is also mercifully free.
Next week, of course, I’ll be on my way to New York come Wednesday and will be there until the following Monday morning, at which point I will return to LA and begin work in earnest on Nudie Musical, as well as announcing the new Kritzerland release, and prepping the two releases that will follow on its heels. It will be a busy, busy May – and I’m jiggy with it.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do the long jog (maybe), return tapes, eat, do errands and whatnot, and then see a show. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player, and your DVD/video player? I’ll start – CD, various upcoming Kritzerland things, as well as the soundtrack to Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders. DVD, the Max Fleischer Superman Cartoons boxed set from Warners. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings shall we, whilst we welcome in the month of May with high hearts and high hopes and high achievements. And lucre. Let’s not forget the lucre.