Well, dear readers, it is Sunday, a day of no rest for me. Happily, I’ve had a few days where I had at least a few hours to relax, and most of the afternoon today should be mine all mine. I had so much fun yesterday at the book fair. Normally, I hate this particular book fair with a passion, and I almost didn’t go because I was told in advance there would only be thirty-seven dealers there. But that turned out to be just fine. I could take my time going from booth to booth, there weren’t a gazillion people crowding you in, and it was just a very enjoyable three hours. Prior to going, I did do a two-mile jog and some errands and whatnot. I saw a few dealer pals and had fun chatting with them. Other than a handful of idiot dealers with the usual overpricing, everyone was pretty down-to-earth and making all sorts of good deals for the customers. And there were some very nice books there, though not a lot of the usual high-end things – dealers probably knew they had not a chance with those. I have to say that being around books, checking them out, handling them, still gives me a thrill. I also met several dealers who were new to me, and they were all really nice. My favorite art book dealer was there, Stuart Ng. He always has the latest illustration art books and there were some pretty cool ones, including a new big tome on J.C. Leyendecker and a wonderful-looking book on MAD artist Harvey Kurtzman. All in all, a good time was had by the likes of me. I then came back to the City of Studio, picked up a couple of packages, and then had a sandwich, fries, and a lovelier than lovely piece of chocolate mousse cake to take away the sour taste of a little neighborhood contretemps with one of those entitled, self-important baboons that loves to scream at people that they’re driving too fast. Apparently said baboon is not aware that the speed limit in this neighborhood is thirty-five miles per hour, and very few people are ever going over that speed because – wait for it – there’s a stop sign at every other corner. The baboon has done this to me before, and I’d had it up to hear, so when he did it yesterday I slammed on my breaks and got out of the car and screamed right back at him that he was a total idiot and that I looked at my speedometer and I’d been going exactly sixteen miles per hour when he began screaming. He kept it up, though, because I guess he wears his baboonism blatantly. After he saw he’d lost the going to fast thing, he then screamed that I’d gone through the stop sign. I screamed back that I had, in fact, not gone through the stop sign. He yelled that there were kids around. I yelled and asked him to point out exactly where they were because there was no on the street for five or six blocks in any direction. I asked him if the kids were in the house and if he was worried that I was going to drive IN his house. He was an entitled and insufferable pig as only entitled insufferable Studio City pigs can be. I shall now take every opportunity possible to drive the full speed limit when passing his house. In any case, the chocolate mousse cake put me back in a good mood and soon I was home, sitting on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched two count them two motion pictures on Blu and Ray. The first motion picture was entitled Angel Heart, starring Mr. Mickey Rourke (when he actually looked like Mickey Rourke), Mr. Robert De Niro, and Miss Lisa Bonet, directed by Alan Parker, from the novel Falling Angel by William Hjortsberg. I’d seen Angel Heart when it came out and thought it was okay but nowhere near as good as the novel, which I absolutely loved. Watching it now, I liked it a little better – it’s quite artsy in that Alan Parker artsy way, but the mood is good and unsettling, and Rourke is really quite excellent. Unfortunately, the novel’s two little plot twists which are complete surprises in the last third of the book are so blatantly obvious from De Niro’s entrance on, that the decision to have De Niro look like he does was really quite a wrong one. The transfer looks terrific on Blu-Ray and very much replicates the look of the film and the stock on which it was shot. I then watched a region B Blu-Ray entitled The Grifters. I know the film garnered pretty good reviews when it came out, so it’s odd that it’s been pretty much forgotten. I loved it when I first saw it, and I loved most of it last night. The screenplay by Donald Westlake is so wonderful in the first two-thirds of the film, but then the tone gets very dark and is much more in the spirit of the Jim Thompson story, with an ending that certainly would have to be described as a complete downer. That said, what works works splendidly, and John Cusack, Angelica Huston, and Annette Bening could not be better. The direction by Stephen Frears is terrific – one of the few directors (and a Brit to boot) that really captures LA well. And the score by Elmer Bernstein is simply fantastic, one of his best, and, with Far From Heaven, the best work he did in his later years. It’s so fresh and melodic and, at times, odd, and it just works amazingly well. The transfer took some getting used to (not as sharp as most Blu-Rays) but it’s pretty much what the film’s release prints looked like, with lots of opticals causing a lot of the softer look.
After that, I wrote the blurb for our next release, sent it and the mp3 sound clips to our web designer, and took a hot shower. Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I’m a little overtired and must get my beauty sleep.
Today, Mr. Cason Murphy will be coming over to address packages, put postage on them, and fill out customs forms. It’s probably going to take two or three hours to finish, because I want to get everything ready, including the boxes for the dealer orders. Depending on what time we finish, I’m almost tempted to go back to the book fair. I probably won’t, especially if Cason wants to have a bite to eat.
Tomorrow, I have a lot of errands and whatnot to attend to, and liner notes to write, and prepping the release announcement for Tuesday.
Tuesday, of course, is my another year older and wiser day, and other than a lunch meeting I’ll probably just take it easy – I still haven’t had confirmation that anyone is actually going to take me out for my birthday. Oh, well.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a jog if time permits, address packages, and eat something amusing. 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 topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I go look at my purchase from the book fair – a book on Communism by J. Edgar Hoover, signed by Mr. Hoover to Jimmy Durante. What could be better than THAT? And it was a steal.