Well, dear readers, it is Friday and I am getting very excited about my New York adventure. I’m really going to try to relax today and tomorrow because I’m really overtired and I know that I won’t be able to sleep on the aeroplane and I do have a really early flight Sunday morning. Part of the overtiredness is that I woke up at four in the morning the previous night and couldn’t get back to sleep until six, at which point I got another three hours of sleep. So, I spent parts of yesterday in a haze of a daze and also a daze of a haze. If you’ve ever spent your days in a daze then you know whereof I speak. I had no time to do any sort of jog, which annoyed me. In fact, I had to hurry to make my ten o’clock appointment to listen to tapes. I listened to tapes, but just as we were starting to listen to the most important one the tape machine stopped working, which was most inconvenient and most annoying. Hopefully, he’s got it fixed and will make me a CD copy so I can hear what we’ve got, which I actually think is going to be phenomenal – whether I’ll get that reference CD before I leave is anyone’s guess, as I never heard one way or the other about the machine getting fixed. Directly after that, I went to our casting session. We only saw four people – they sang and read and two of them were right for their roles and will be brought back when we do the next round. I was there for about three hours, and then I hurried back to the Valley, picked up no packages, and came home, where I printed out orders, returned a couple of telephonic calls and then headed over to pick up Mr. Barry Pearl for our meal and movie.
Barry wanted Chinese so we went to one of his favorite Valley jernts, Yang Chow on Topanga Canyon Blvd. I’d been there once before with the Wechters and remembered it being really cherce. Well, it was a grand meal and I ate way too much food, but how could you not when every single dish was so yummilicious. We started with some cold sesame noodles, which were great. Then came some moo-shoo pork, also great. Then came our two main dishes, orange chicken (extra crispy), and something called slippery shrimp, which Barry recommended. The latter was amazingly amazing – just a mélange of brilliant flavors, and the former was as good as orange chicken gets – very different from the Genghis Cohen orange chicken, but every bit its equal and every equal its bit. I will say that between the two of us we didn’t actually finish anything, so that’s good. I let him take the leftovers for his ever-lovin’ Cindy. We sat there for quite a long time having a sparkling conversation about this and that and also that and this. I told him what’s been happening with me on all fronts and even a few backs, and he told me what he’s been up to. Most recently, he did an episode of House, and he’s going to be playing Senex in a production of A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum. Barry’s a good ear, too, and we discussed many things and it was good to just have a nice chat with someone.
After the meal, we toddled over to the AMC theaters in what used to be the Topanga Canyon mall. I didn’t really know what we were in for – all he’d told me was that it was a screening of the colorized Plan Nine From Outer Space with commentary by some comic fellows whose names and group name I can’t remember. That led me to believe they’d actually be there, but that was not the case. It was supposedly a “live” feed from some movie theater in Nashville, and this “live” feed was being shown in over 100 theaters across the country. Well, it most certainly wasn’t a live feed since the DVD they were showing froze several times. It was just weird. In any case, the bottom line is that Plan Nine doesn’t really need the help of smart-ass comics – it’s really funny all on its own. We don’t need to be told every minute about the bad sets, bad line readings, effeminate actors, and such – we get it, and that’s part of the fun. Still, they scored a few good ones, but none as good as what’s actually on screen. Of course, they were showing a colorized version, which is terrible, and it was an open matte transfer, which is mostly what’s always been shown in revival houses and on home video. Well, brainiacs, the film was made in 1958, shot in 35mm and was not meant to be shown in Academy ratio – it’s meant to be shown in 1.85:1 and it’s clear as daylight if you just look at the mile of headroom in every shot, along with the stray microphone popping in and out, none of which would be visible if the film were matted to its original theatrical ratio. Ed Wood gets blamed for so much ineptitude, but the head room and extraneous bottom of frame room is not his fault and shame on these video companies for being this stupid, stupid, stupid. The film, of course, is giddy fun from start to finish and does contain one of my all-time favorite lines of dialogue ever, spoken by the brilliant actor, Dudley Manlove – “I, a fiend?” Of course, I appropriated several things from the film for The Brain From Planet X – most especially Zubrick and Yoni, who, while completely different characters, are clearly modeled on Mr. Manlove and Joanna Lee. It was about a half-full house and there were quite a few laughs, most of which were directed at the film itself rather than the commentary. Next to me was a gentleman who at two hot dogs during the film – smelly hot dogs, at that. And that is why I don’t often go to regular movie theaters.
After the film, I came right home. I had a telephonic message inviting me out, but I was just too tired to go anywhere. I actually turned down a couple of dinner things this week, but I’ll do them upon my return.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below whilst I just reiterate – “I, a fiend?”
Today, Mr. Handy Man will be here at eight, so no sleeping in for me. He has to leave by eleven, so he’ll fix the one thing I need fixed right now, and then he’ll take measurements for some shelving I want put in the garage so I can get the Kritzerland CD stock better organized and off the floor – that will give me a better place to keep all the shipping supplies, too, and I’ll even be able to store some CDs, books, and DVDs out there, which will be faboo. He’ll get the stuff while I’m gone (you know, those metal shelves), and then he’ll install when I get back. My breakfast with Miss Juliana A. Hansen got cancelled – she’s under the weather with a sinus infection and we’ll see each other upon my return. Therefore, the rest of the day and evening will be mine all mine. I’ll definitely do the long jog and may even go an extra half-mile to make up for yesterday. I’ll try to relax, I’ll eat a very light and diet-friendly meal, and I’ll watch more episodes of Lost, Season Five, and maybe even a motion picture or three. I’ve been recording a lot of movies on MGM-HD, things that have very bad non-anamorphic transfers on DVD, like Elmer Gantry and Inherit The Wind, and they look great in their HD presentations.
Tomorrow, I shall try to sleep as late as I can, and then I shall pick up some toiletries, pack, do some laundry, and be done with everything no later than four. At that point, I’ll eat something light, watch something, and then post the notes early and be in bed and hopefully asleep no later than ten o’clock. My transportation should be here at five sharp, and I should be at the airport by five-thirty or so.
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 see the Handy Man, and then I must relax and have a restful rest of the day and evening. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player, and your DVD/video player? I’ll start – CD, the next Kritzerland release. Blu-Ray, Planet Earth. DVD – Lost, Season Five. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, and whatever anyone says to you today, your response should be – “I, a fiend?”