Well, dear readers, I sometimes forget just how read this here site is. I say this because I am constantly surprised to see things I blab about here suddenly being, well, let’s say borrowed or used elsewhere. The latest example is a good one – I posted that I’d gotten a copy of the Fellini’s Films book on eBay at a very good price. I then had a really bright idea to buy up some very inexpensive autograph cards and photos from people who’d been in Fellini films and I laid them into the book. I got Anthony Quinn, Fellini, Giulietta Masina, Broderick Crawford, Richard Basehart and a few others. By so doing, a book that is normally worth $250 is suddenly worth $1000. A few weeks ago, I get a book catalog via e-mail and guess what the dealer has done – the same exact thing. He’s never done it before, but now he suddenly has the same exact really bright idea I had. Coincidence? I think not. I know this dealer very well, he lives in Santa Monica and he obviously reads this here site and simply borrowed my brilliant idea, which I’m sure is serving him well as he buys up autograph cards on eBay. So, Dan, dearest, darling borrower of ideas, if you’re reading and we know you are, give credit where credit is due. What I think I’ve created here will become a little cottage industry for dealers of his ilk. I think there is a dealer I also know who’s most likely going to jump on this bandwagon I started, and then everyone else will follow suit, and my really bright idea will have become popular with the book dealer populace. I am, as occasionally happens, happy to lead the way.
Has anyone noticed that this week is already flying by, like a gazelle with an Uzi? And what a busy little day I had yesterday. I had a good night’s sleep, got up, got everything ready for the addressing the packages session, then toddled off to a breakfast meeting at Junior’s in the Wood of West. That lasted about ninety minutes. It was a good work session, and I had a very good chicken salad sandwich and shared a side of kishka. I then hurried back to the San Fernando Valley, did some banking, picked up a few packages, then came home. Cason Murphy arrived and we began addressing packages, then he did the customs forms while I prepared a bunch of orders that had come in, including a huge amazon.com order. He then put postage on all the packages and everything is now ready for the arrival of the CDs. He then left, and I did some other work that needed doing, and then we had the most fun little frenzy here on our discussion board, resulting in well over five hundred postings – haven’t had that in a while, but whilst we were having fun, one “person” had to show up and do her business. And that’s all I’ll say, because she obviously gets off on having the attention. After that, I did a run to the postal office and shipped about fifteen packages, went to Gelson’s and got some low-fat, low-cal ice cream, and then came home and sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a motion picture on DVD entitled Married To It. I didn’t think I’d seen it before, but, in fact, I had – the minute it began I remembered the film exactly – I’d seen it when it had come out at a DGA screening. It’s an interesting film with a horrible screenplay – one of those scripts where character speak like no people you’ve ever known just because the screenwriter wants them to. It’s no wonder she didn’t have much of a career, with only, I think, two produced screenplays, with this one being the only one with any sort of talent attached to it. And it’s the talent that makes it at least bearable. Arthur Hiller is the director, and the stars are Beau Bridges, Stockard Channing, Cybill Shepherd, Mary Stuart Masterson, Ron Silver, and Robert Sean Leonard, who all give terrific performances, all the more amazing given the clichés and stupid dialogue they are asked to deliver. The score was, I believe, the final Henry Mancini score for a feature film before his death. Therefore, it’s a little sad that Hiller used Joni Mitchell’s The Circle Game for the main and end title music (as arranged beautifully by Mancini) – the song itself is used in a children’s show at the end of the film. Why would you hire Henry Mancini and not let him write a beautiful theme? His actual scoring cues are quite good, but Hiller won’t let more than thirty seconds of them be used. It’s just weird, and letting Mancini do more music would have helped the pace of the film a lot. The DVD transfer is fine for DVD. The night before I’d also watched Attack Of The Puppet People, just for the fun of it. It remains my favorite Bert I. Gordon film, mostly because I really like the playing of John Hoyt, and, of course, it is the film debut of Miss Susan Gordon, who is, I must say, cute as a button.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below and perhaps I’ll write some more really good ideas that can be borrowed – I do enjoy leading the way, oh, yes, I do enjoy leading the way. And you know who I’m talking to, oh, book dealer out there in the dark.
Today I have a fairly light day, which I need. Oh, I have some errands and whatnot to attend to and some telephonic conversations to have and some e-mails to write, but that’s about it.
However, tomorrow is going to be unbelievably busy – in fact, I’ve had to hire a gal for four hours to help. I have 1000 CDs to ship out, most of them have to be to the post office by eleven, because Cason has to leave for the airport then. At two, helper arrives and we’ll finish any big packages that have to go, and that includes the UPS stuff. Then she and I and our other LACCTAA board member, Joanna Erdos, will go to Costco and buy all the stuff for the LACCTAA Christmas partay at LACC – we’ll then drive it all over to the school and get it set up – the party begins at five-thirty. If I get out of there in time, my friend Jim Jimirro is doing one of his Popular Song lectures at the Beverly Hills Library and he’s got some guest and a surprise and has asked me to come if possible. We’ll see how it all shakes out.
The rest of the week should be lighter, with a meal or two and a meeting or two.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, maybe do a jog, I must do some errands and whatnot, I must eat something light and amusing, and that’s about it. Today’s topic of discussion: If you could own any autograph in the world, whose would it be and why would that one be the one you’d want? And what autographs do you own that you cherish? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst we all lead the way so our ideas can find their way into the public consciousness.