Well, dear readers, August is already flying by, like a gazelle reading Silas Marner. Silas Marner was, of course, required reading in my high school English class, and yet I could not get through Silas Marner. Oh, I tried and tried, but I simply did not want to read a book entitled Silas Marner, nor could I get into its prose or plot. Instead, I read books like Lord Of The Flies, To Kill A Mockingbird, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Animal Farm, Psycho, and any paperback movie tie-in book I could lay my hands on. But Silas Marner? Not on your tintype. The Orwell books especially instilled in me a love of language and plotting. I loved Lord Of The Flies and read it about five times in a row. And To Kill A Mockingbird was and remains my favorite book ever. I also loved Rod Serling’s short-story versions of his Twilight Zone episodes, and I bought collections issued under the Alfred Hitchcock name, which had many interesting and excellent short stories. I went off on a book tangent, didn’t I? And all because of Silas Marner – who knew that Silas Marner would be good for something, me-wise? Speaking of me, yesterday was a pretty okay day. I got up early and did the long jog, then went and did some errands and whatnot until she of the Evil Eye left. One of the errands was to satisfy another craving for the combo Louis at Musso and Frank, which was, as always, ever so wonderful, even though I was told by the waiter that the lobster wasn’t good – they put more shrimp and crab and left the bad lobster out. I then came home and watched two episodes of Lost. They were the usual combo platter of really fun and compelling scenes, coupled with characters behaving certain ways because the writers needed them to, even though it didn’t really make any sense. And the actor who plays the leader of The Others (not sure if he’s really the leader, but he sure acts like it), seems to be doing a Kevin Spacey-lite imitation, which I find a little irksome. I also occasionally find myself getting ahead of the story, and I haven’t been wrong yet. And I’m still really impressed by how good these shows look on Blu-Ray, and how wonderful Michael Giacchinos’ music functions in the episodes. I got a couple of the soundtrack CDs and as a straight music listen they’re not so hot.
I also watched a motion picture on Blu-Ray entitled Repulsion, a film of Roman Polanski. Count me as a person who has always, since the day it was released, considered Repulsion a masterpiece. Catherine Denueve’s performance is astonishing, and should have received an Oscar nomination. Chico Hamilton’s score is quite sparse, but works well. The script is fantastic, and Polanski’s direction is brilliant. The film itself creeps me out every time I see it – there are moments where, no matter how many times I watch them, I jump out of my chair. The Criterion Blu-Ray is wonderfully detailed, with great contrast and very crisp black-and-white images. And the interviews with Polanski and some key crew members are definitely worth watching. Very highly recommended by the likes of me.
After that, I had a hankering for some dessert, so I moseyed on over to Jerry’s and had a small slice of their yummilicious chocolate mousse cake.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below, for if we don’t then I’ll just have to start a discussion about the book entitled Silas Marner. Of course, not having read it, I won’t be able to contribute.
Today, I must polish the liner notes and send them off, I must do a final look-see at the finished book to make sure that our fixes didn’t cause any other problems, and then I must read the long musical, make a bunch of telephonic calls, and do some errands and whatnot. In other words, Sunday, a day of rest, will have no rest for the likes of me.
Tomorrow, it’s a visit to the dentist in the morning – that will probably take a couple of hours and I’m quite certain that I will not feel like doing much of anything else after that. Tuesday is a busy day, as is Wednesday and Thursday. After that, I know not. Of course, we’ll be announcing the new Kritzerland release on Thursday, but opening it up for pre-pre orders as early as tomorrow.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do some sort of jog, give the new novel one more look-see, read the long musical, and lots of other stuff. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst we all quote our favorite passages from Silas Marner.