Well, dear readers, might I just point out that we are almost halfway through a little month I like to call December? And therefore we are but mere moments from a little year I like to call 2010? I don’t know about you, dear readers, but this boggles may already boggled mind. In a few days, I shall begin my look back at the year 2009 – that’s always fun for me. But for now, I suppose I’ll write some notes. Bb. G. D#. There – those were fine notes, weren’t they? Actually, if only I’d made the D# an Eb we’d have an Eb chord. As it stands, I don’t know what the HELL chord we have. I think what we have, in fact, is a mutant chord. But enough about me. Yesterday was quite an okay day. I got up earlier than expected, printed out some orders, answered some e-mails and then did a brisk two-mile jog, the first time jogging in over two weeks. I must now try to be regular again, jogging-wise. After that, I went and had a sandwich and onion rings and then I went to a neighborhood store, and then I came home. I forgot I had to put labels on boxes, so I did that and that took quite some time as there were quite a lot of boxes. I then approved the packaging for our second release, and then I finally sat on my couch like so much fish and finished watching a motion picture on Blu and Ray entitled Zulu.
After the initial fifteen-minute set up, and then another thirty minutes of scenes, the film becomes one long relentless battle. It’s all quite enjoyable, with excellent performances from Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins and introducing some actor named Michael Caine. The music is sparse, but effective – it’s by someone named John Barry. The transfer on this disc is breathtaking – really spectacular. There have been many complaints from the usual idiotic armchair experts on various forms, saying the image has been scrubbed clean of all grain and that people look like waxworks. Then they post even more idiotic screen shots, which bear no relation to anything on view on this disc. Then ninety percent of the complainers chime in without actually having seen the thing. They base everything they criticize on the screen shots. And when you try to explain that if the camera negative were used for this transfer (which I’m sure it was), then there would virtually be so little grain you wouldn’t even notice it. Why? Because it was shot in Technirama, a process similar to VistaVision, which yielded an incredibly sharp and pretty much grain-free image – at least on the negative. And they keep pointing to these waxy faces and talking about something called “fine detail,” a term they read somewhere, and loss of high frequency detail, another term they read somewhere. And when you explain that any waxy quality on faces is due to the very heavy makeup (you can see scads of blue eyeliner on Michael Caine) in the very bright sunlight – well, they just don’t get it. And, of course, they haven’t actually seen the disc at all. Brilliant. We’ll take those people seriously. I find it hilarious that in every review on Blu-Ray sites they talk about a “natural film-like image with good grain” as if they had a clew as to what they were going on about, which they don’t. This expression “film-like” and “grain” was never used in most DVD reviews – it’s a product of the Blu-Ray era, and most of the time it’s just nonsense. I mean, one of these wags said they liked the French 1976 King Kong Blu-Ray because it looked film-like and had natural grain. No. It looks like it’s about ten generations away from the camera negative is what it looks like and the grain is huge and a lot of it is, in fact, digital noise and NOT grain. I gotta tell you. In any case, I enjoyed Zulu very much.
I then watched another motion picture on Blu-Ray entitled New Police Story, starring Jackie Chan. After not really succeeding here in the States, Mr. Chan returned to Hong Kong to make this updated version of the series he did way back when. While the script is pretty wretched and Mr. Chan overdoes the angst by about 5000%, the action scenes are amazing and the stunt work, which really IS stunt work done by Mr. Chan, who is not a spring chicken anymore, is thrilling to watch. The transfer is great, the sound is robust, and I liked it fine.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I have more notes to write in the next section, notes such as A and F# and E.
Speaking of music, be sure to check out Donald Feltham’s The Broadway Radio Show, the official radio show of haineshisway.com – this week he interviews Tina Maddington, the original star of Mamma Mia – really fun so check it out.
Today, I have an eleven-fifteen breakfast meeting with the co-author of the long musical. We’ll go over some notes and then he can finally begin the new draft. After that, I come right home and Cason Murphy will be joining me to do a LOT of work – addressing, stamping, and preparing every box for The Children’s Hour, which will hopefully ship out Wednesday. Cason is leaving town and has to be out of here by eleven or so, which only leaves ninety minutes to get everything done, which is virtually an impossibility. We’ll do as much as we can, and then I’m on my own – and after all that I have to now deal with the LACCTAA Christmas party by myself. Not good. Not happy. Trying to get someone in here to help.
So, it’s a very busy week, but then that’s about it other than announcing the double-header titles somewhere before Christmas.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, maybe do a short jog, have a breakfast meeting, address and stamp and prepare a LOT of packages, and then relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are the most breathtaking stunts you’ve ever seen in movies? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I finish the notes with C, D, and F#.