Well, dear readers, these will be the amazing colossal notes, because last night I supped with Mr. BIG. As always, we went to Genghis Cohen – I introduced him to the restaurant when we first did the Hollywood Collector’s Show together, and then we went again the second time we did the show. Mr. BIG loves Genghis Cohen as much as I love Genghis Cohen and dinner last night was a barrel o’ fun. He always lets me order, so we had the usual dishes – orange chicken (extra crispy), green beans, steamed sole in ginger, and crackerjack shrimp (his favorite). We decimated every dish, I must say. He seemed happy I was going to do the soundtrack to one of his films and I asked a couple of questions about the film itself. He’s finished his book, which should be coming out next year. He showed me the cover and it’s terrific. We talked of his boat, his new screenplay (he’s tireless and never stops working), he asked what I was up to, and it was just grand fun. It’s like we’ve been friends for a long time. And they just don’t make them like Mr. BIG anymore. And that’s not a good thing. The business is so different now even from when I was working in the 1970s. Now low-budget independent films are slick and cookie-cutter, not really independent films at all, at least in the way they used to be. I was telling him that I could not make The First Nudie Musical today in the way we did back then – it simply could not happen. Everyone would interfere, there’d be 100 cooks in the kitchen and all its originality would be sucked out of it. And that’s what Mr. BIG’s career was all about. He made FUN motion pictures and it was clear he was having a ball doing them and he knew his audience and his market. If you’d told me back when I was nine and seeing Attack Of The Puppet People at the Wiltern theater that fifty something years later I’d be supping with its director at Genghis Cohen I would have said, “Yeah, right.” We were talking about the David Cassidy debacle at The Hollywood Show and how his publicist said “That was then and this is now” about the fact that he wouldn’t sign any Partridge Family material. Well, there would be no now for David Cassidy if there hadn’t been the then, at least not the now he has. Mr. BIG lives in the here and now and doesn’t dwell on the past, but he understands the past and its importance and how his films live on and on and delight generation after generation. Was he Orson Welles? Hitchcock? John Ford? No. And so what? He didn’t need to be. He made films, one after another. He worked. He was creative. His films were shown and seen and played on TV and have lived on via Cable, and VHS, and DVD. There are whole cults around Puppet People and Beginning of the End and Village Of The Giants and Food Of The Gods and Picture Mommy Dead and The Amazing Colossal Man and all the others. I was always a huge fan of his, and getting to know him, in the same way I got to know and love Harvey Schmidt, has been a special treat. Mr. BIG is in his 80s but you wouldn’t know it from looking at him or talking to him – he’s sharp as a tack, had great energy, and he LOVES good food. I’m going to visit him next at the Marina, where he has his boat. And next time we sup, which will be soon, we’re going to try a new place for him – Ruth’s Chris, which I told him he’d love. I can’t wait to read his book, too. All in all, it was just a delightfully delightful dinner from start to finish. And I wish the business was still fun in the way it used to be – when someone could gather together a hundred thousand bucks and make a movie and have that movie play and live on and entertain, and do so over and over again. We took it for granted then. We shouldn’t have.
The winds were a little calmer yesterday, but still a little too heavy for me to jog (it was also quite nippy). Instead, I turned on the heat, and did a lot of work on the computer, listened to some music, and then did errands and whatnot. I sat on my couch like so much fish and kept dozing off because I am so overtired. Finally, I got ready to go and toddled off to join Mr. BIG – Bert I. Gordon, at Genghis Cohen.
When I got home I watched a TV show on Blu and Ray entitled The Prisoner. I’ve only seen two episodes of the show, the first two aired, which are the two I watched – Arrival and The Chimes of Big Ben. It’s an enjoyable show, and Patrick McGoohan is terrific. I obviously was never a fanatic about it like some of its fans – had I been I’m sure I would have watched the rest of the episodes, as I had them on DVD. But I’m so glad I didn’t because this Blu-Ray set is spectacular. The image is so beautiful and crisp and detailed, as if the show were shot yesterday, and the color is fantastic. It’s The Prisoner looking better than it’s ever looked and for anyone who loves or even likes the show, it’s a must-have. Even though I’ve seen these two episodes it was like watching them for the first time. I can’t say enough about the detail – everything is so crystal clear it’s just breathtaking. Highly recommended by the likes of me.
After that, I listened to more of the Beatles box set – this time getting through Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band and Magical Mystery Tour, both sounding incredible. I’m very interested now to listen to the mono box, which I also have – I understand it’s a very different experience and in a really good way. It’s hard to even say to people how daring and incredible these albums were, and how fresh and alive they were and how we all ran to the record store the day they were released and then put them on the stereo and discovered each brilliant song and then played them over and over again and watched them become hits and then part of the culture. And it wasn’t just kids – it was adults. This music simply crossed all generational lines, and it’s still astonishing to listen to it all these years later, and to just be amazed at the production, the technical end of it in a time when they didn’t have ProTools or twenty-four track or digital or automated mixing.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I am bound and determined to get to sleep right after I post these here notes at midnight. Of course, I’ll have to unbind me before toddling off to the bedroom environment.
Today, I shall try to get up by nine and do the long jog, then I’m meeting Miss Lauren Rubin at the California Pizza Kitchen for an early lunch. I like the CPK because they list calories for every dish on the menu and there are many that are quite filling and under 1000 calories, which is fine for my meal o’ the day – in fact, it’s more than fine, especially if I jog. After that, I’ve got some liner notes to write, some errands and whatnot to attend to, and then I’m going to the Mark Taper Forum to see the musical entitled Parade, which I got invited to at the last minute.
Tomorrow, I’m lunching with Mr. Jason Graae, and then Mr. Cason Murphy is coming by to address and postage a large number of packages – double our usual because it’s two releases. And I will be getting together with Mr. Grant Geissman at some point between now and Monday to finish mixing our Nudie Musical demo. Speaking of Nudie Musical, I entered all our new changes into the script and will proof that today so I can send it off to the fellow who’ll be helping produce the staged reading in New York come February or early March.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, try to do the long jog, I must have an early lunch, I must do errands and whatnot, I must write liner notes, and I must see Parade. Today’s topic of discussion: Since yesterday was supposed to be Ask BK Day, feel free to ask your questions today. Also, who were your all time favorite low-budget exploitation filmmakers – the ones who didn’t make the A pictures. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I dream of colossal people and giant ants and mutant orange chicken.