Well, dear readers, today I will do do that voodoo that I do in preparation for the Do. And therefore I will write these here notes in a hurry for I must abed and get my beauty sleep so that I am fresh as a daisy for the doing of the Do. I must say I’m enjoying this week leading up to Christmas. Yesterday was a nice, relaxing day. I mostly stayed in save for the times when I went out. I got up at nine, went back to bed and got up at ten after some particularly peculiar dreams. I printed out some orders, answered some e-mails, and resumed cleaning, this time working on the den, and then the dining room. Around eleven I went out for some bacon and eggs. Then I came home, finished cleaning the den and dining room and save for two boxes in the dining room everything is done. Those two boxes will go out to the garage tomorrow – they’re CD boxes and I’m keeping them there just in case any orders come in tomorrow. I then swept the patio and that all looks very nice now, and the wind finally seems to have abated. I then went and picked up a couple of packages, did some errands and whatnot, then came back home. I did some work on the notes for the new book, I gave some more notes to the co-author of the long musical, and did what little cleaning needed to be done in the book room. I then sat on my couch like so much fish.
Yesterday, I watched two count them two motion pictures on Blu and Ray. The first motion picture was entitled The Monster Squad, one of those 1980s films that’s so beloved by people who were kids when it came out, despite the fact that the film on its initial release was a box-office dud. But there’s a whole slew of these kinds of films that are now beloved, things like The Goonies, and they all seem to be cut from the same cloth. The Monster Squad is okay – it’s never really funny enough, never scary enough, and never enough enough. The cast is filled with then unknowns and lesser lights. There are two things that really work – the Frankenstein monster (the actor is wonderful and what they’ve done with him is very clever and even a little touching), and the score by Bruce Broughton, which is terrific. Fred Dekker’s direction is certainly professional and gets the job done and the effects are fun. And it’s very short, only about seventy-eight minutes of actual film time (sans end credits). The transfer looks pretty terrific and the sound is punchy.
I then watched the second motion picture on Blu-Ray, which was entitled Billy Jack. If you can believe it, I’d never seen the damn thing. I did know it was a huge hit and cultural phenomenon, but somehow I’ve just never sat down and watched it. Well, it’s really a film defined by its era, but some of its concepts and ideas still resonate today, probably even more so. Tom Laughlin does well as Billy Jack and Dolores Taylor (his real-life spouse) is heartfelt in her role. But boy is the film flabby – almost two hours of what should be a ninety-minute movie. There are endless improvised scenes with the comedy troupe The Committee (which includes a young Howard Hesseman and several other familiar faces), none of which are necessary. The villains are painted in bold colors and one is happy they get their comeuppance, but the obvious improvisatory feel of the film eventually gets very wearying and you want to just shout, “Shut up, already and get on with it.” But like kids of the 80s, young people who saw this back in 1971 felt it spoke to them in the same way Easy Rider did (Billy Jack was actually filmed in 1969). It was a film Warners, according to the little documentary on the Blu-Ray, tried to kill, but they couldn’t. It ended up grossing $32 million in its first release, and the Laughlin was allowed to do a new campaign two years later and it grossed huge again. Laughlin was a bit of a visionary about marketing, and when Trial Of Billy Jack came out, he somehow got it booked in 1000 theaters, which was unheard of in those days. This Blu-Ray isn’t actually released until the second week of January, but I managed to get an early copy. It’s from Image Entertainment and the transfer is terrific. It’s a low-budget film ($800,000), so one has to occasionally take that into consideration, but the color is perfect and the mono sound is crisp.
After the movie, I went to Gelson’s and picked up the dinner roles for the Do. I was so happy with myself for getting everything done and being so organized, until I realized I’d forgotten Parmesan cheese. I made the tuna pasta salad and got that all done, and then I just popped over to Von’s, which is open all night, and got the Parmesan cheese, so now I really have everything, and other than one brief trip to the mail place, I’m staying put in the home environment.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because there is much to do for the do and therefore I must abed.
Today, there will be much ado about the Do. I will get up when I get up and I will immediately begin chopping. One has a lot of chopping to do for a Do. For example, I shall be chopping garlic, I shall be chopping onions, I shall be chopping mushrooms, and then I’ll be sautéing and mixing and all manner of things to prepare my famous spaghetti sauce. That whole process takes from two to three hours, and then I just let the sauce simmer until the Do begins at six. I have no idea how many people will be coming – sometimes it’s a handful and sometimes we get up to twenty or so, but rarely all at one time. I prefer it a little smaller, frankly, but we shall see what we shall see. I know of at least ten who are coming.
Tomorrow is, of course, a little day we like to call Christmas. I’ll be opening my presents, and then I’ll be attending Cissy Wechter’s annual Christmas partay, which I’m very much looking forward to.
Saturday I’ll be getting booklets signed, and Sunday we’ll be addressing packages, but otherwise the weekend is pretty free and that’s the way I want it to stay.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do for the DO, I must, for example, do some sort of jog (I may just jog up to the mail place in the early afternoon, as I’m not keen on driving during this holiday season – we’ll see how I feel), I must chop, slice, and dice as I have no Chop-O-Matic to help me, I must sauté and simmer, I must stir and stir some more, and I must get the serving table ready. Today’s topic of discussion: What were your favorite books of 2009? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whiles we have much ado about the Do.