Well, dear readers, it is Sunday, a day of rest, and yet I will not be resting, I will be working, for a BK’s work is never done. I will, of course, try to sleep as late as possible, since workers are off. Workers were not off yesterday, and I was rudely awakened at seven-twenty by very loud hammering and yammering. I was quite annoyed by it and decided it was finally time to go over there and have a serious talk about respect and manners. As soon as she of the Evil Eye got here I did the long jog (I now carry my iPhone in my pocket, because it’s nuts to get ideas or lyrics or tunes and then try to remember them for four miles, which is what I always do. So, yesterday, I came up with a cute couple of lines for my new song, and I just whipped out Ye Olde iPhone, pushed the recorder, and sang them. And then I was free to clear my mind and try to think of others. I should have done this ages ago. When I got back, I saw the foreman from the construction crew. Before I could do anything, he came up to me and asked if I lived here. I said yes, since I do. He apologized and pointed toward the lawn that runs on the west side of the house going north. I never look at that part of the lawn, but they’ve completely ruined it and broken a sprinkler. He told me that he would re-sod all that grass, and fix the sprinkler. I then asked him if Saturdays were now going to be work days, and again he apologized and said no, just yesterday, and only because they’re on a deadline for some inspection. He told me he lives nearby and that he knows how awful it’s been. I told him that it would be nice if they could start work just a little more quietly instead of banging away for fifteen minutes and THEN being quiet, which is what happens every single morning. He said he’d try to make that happen.
I then toddled over to the Bank of Bur Marriott Hotel to attend The Hollywood Show. It was jammed, so the new owners are obviously expending a lot of money and effort getting the word out. I’ve been going to these shows, either as spectator or guest since they began many years ago. And no matter how weird they’ve been, they’ve always had a certain element of fun. Well, for the first time, I felt that the atmosphere of fun was totally gone, and without that, the whole show seems a little pathetic and depressing. There were no real powerhouse names this time – lots of interesting people, but while it was crowded, no one really had much of a line. They’ve now got celebs everywhere, in every nook and cranny. Where once were dealers, now are celebs, and it’s just a bit too much, really. Most of the fun and good dealers have bailed. The whole thing seemed like a circus, and not in a good way. There’s always some rube on the PA system yakking on about what celeb is where and you can’t hear yourself think with that racket. I did have a nice little chat with my old pals Donny Most and Anson Williams, so that was fun. And I spied Rosanna Arquette, Tom Bosley, Henry Winkler, Ann Robinson, Jack Riley, Bill Daily, Marcia Wallace, Alan Young, Deborah van Valkenberg, Richard Kiel, Billie (Mammy Yokum) Hayes, Maud Adams, George Lazenby, Martine Beswicke, Luciana Paluzzi, Francine York, Edd Byrnes, Davey Jones, Tommy Kirk, Bruce Weitz, Kenny Kingston, Shelly Hack, and others. I could only take about ninety minutes and then I bailed. I did buy one book – a very hard to find out of print book called Fellini’s Films, which I got for a steal.
After that, I immediately went to Mr. Grant Geissman’s house. He’d done a lot of the preliminary layout work for the new book, so we actually got through everything in about two hours. It looks really great and I think we got eighty percent of all the format/style things, and I’ll catch the others when I proof. After we finished, we toddled over to Hamburger Hamlet, where we split their fabuloussss nachos. He had a big bowl o’ soup and I had their California Market Salad.
After that, I picked up some mail (no packages), then drove to Office Depot and printed out a copy of the book for proofing. I then came home and proofed the first three chapters – just some bad breaks so far, one spelling mistake no one caught (not really a spelling mistake, but a mis-used apostrophe), and that’s about it.
After that, I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I began watching Lost on Blu and Ray. I’ve never seen any of the show because I’d been so disappointed in the way Alias (from the same creator, J.J. Abrams) had gone to hell that I didn’t want to invest in Lost because I was fairly certain that even if it started well, it, too, would go to hell. But, hearing the continual raving from season to season finally made me want to check it out, and there’s no better way to watch these things than on Blu and Ray, and without having to wait a week between episodes. I’m not sure how the original pilot was aired, but on the Blu-Ray it’s two separate episodes. The pilot obviously had a sizable budget, and Mr. Abrams directed it. The shows are really quite brief (a one-hour show now actually runs forty minutes) and the pace was really good, the acting was good, and the plot mechanics were interesting and well done. Those first two episodes zoomed by and I quite liked them a lot. Then we got episode three (or two, if the pilot aired as one episode originally) – suddenly the credits added about ten new producers and as soon as I saw the name of the Co-Executive Producer, my heart sank – Jack Bender. Mr. Bender began as a not-very-good actor at the same time I did. At some point he gave up the acting ghost and somehow he made the transition to directing (he works the room well). And he’s no better as a director than he was as an actor. I hadn’t actually seen his name in years, until he directed what were the worst episodes of The Sopranos. And boy is there a difference in the style and feel of the show in episode three. I still liked the actors, but I thought his work really hurt the show and was dismayed when his name came up on episode four, which I’ll continue watching today. I’m sure I’ll stick with the show, but I sure hope he’s not directing many more. I think the most interesting thing will be seeing how they sustain this premise over the course of so many seasons – and I certainly hope they sustain it better than they did with Alias. The show looks and sounds absolutely amazing on Blu-Ray – it is, in fact, a poster child for what Blu-Ray is capable of. So, at this point, I really liked and enjoyed the two pilot episodes, and enjoyed but did not love the third episode. Stay tuned for more thoughts.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I’m going to go to bed momentarily because I am really overtired and have a really busy day ahead of me.
Today, I shall try and sleep as late as possible. Then I’ll do some variation on the long jog, then I’ll proof three or four more chapters (or more), and then I have to address a slew of packages and put postage on them. I’m sure all of that will take most of the day, and then I’ll go get something to eat, and then I’ll continue being lost in Lost.
Tomorrow, I have a work session with Kevin and Linda, and also a lot of other things to do. Tuesday I have a work session with David Wechter, Wednesday another work session with Kevin and Linda, as well as several meetings and meals. It’s a busy week.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do the long jog, I must proof, I must address packages, and I must eat. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topic and we all get to post about it. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, while I am Lost in Lost.