Well, dear readers, there I was, driving about in my motor car whilst she of the Evil Eye cleaned the home environment. I stopped at a local (Burbank) used record and CD and video store called Atomic, where I found a couple of cheap LPs I needed for cover art, just in case I end up doing certain titles for Kritzerland. Just before I left, I checked my home voice mail and I had a message from she of the Evil Eye saying she couldn’t finish drying the clothes because the power had gone out in the entire house. Needless to say, I was more than alarmed and I managed to get home very quickly, about eight minutes later. She was still there, getting ready to leave. And sure enough, the power was out – in the house, the pool, and the garage. I went and looked at the meter and it was sitting there like a dead herring in the moonlight. Now, all the signals in my neighborhood were working, so I found it all very odd. I immediately called the DWP and after doing the dance of the seven veils with all their stupid voice prompts, I finally got a person on the phone. I told her the power was out. She asked my address. She then informed me that my power was indeed out and so was the power for about 600 other Studio City people, due to a blown transformer. I asked her when it would be fixed. She put me on hold and then came back – the workers were already on site and working on it, and the ETA was midnight. I then went just a little berserk. I told her that was not acceptable. I informed her that we were living in a little year I like to call 2009, and that I didn’t understand how the DWP, whose rates are in the stratosphere and keep going up, didn’t have a backup system. She said they did, but they weren’t using it for this problem. I thought I was talking to someone who’d escaped from The Snake Pit. I then insisted she put me over to a supervisor, which she did. The supervisor actually got the workers on the phone, who told her they were working on it and that the ETA was midnight, but that it could get fixed before – or later. I then went just a little berserk and told her that the customers deserved a little better and that it was more than a little shocking that this could happen and that they had no backup system to go to. She didn’t care one way or the other – why would she – it wasn’t affecting her. I got off the phone, got my laptop, and went over to Panera so I could a) get on the Internet, and b) plug my cell phone into the computer and get it charged. I’d already had bacon and eggs and a side of fries and it was not my intention to then eat yet more food, but I didn’t want to just sit at the table with nothing purchased, so I bought two little chocolate chip muffin tops. I ate them – they were lousy and it was a total waste of calories. Fortunately, I’d jogged before breakfast. I hung out at Panera for an hour, did a few other things and then went home because I did not feel like driving about aimlessly. As I got out of my motor car, I saw a mail truck half a block down and I heard the driver say to two people passing by that the power had been restored. I hurried inside and plugged in the laptop and sure enough, power. I was most petrified that the modem and wireless router would have lost signal and wouldn’t be able to lock on without me having to call Apple, but when I came into the kitchen I could see the router was green and the modem was working. I turned on the computer and happily all was well. So, we had a rough few hours (about four) but in the end power was back at two o’clock.
I then tried to relax, listening to music, and then I finally sat on my couch like so much fish and watched two count them two motion pictures, one on DVD and one on Blu and Ray. The first motion picture on DVD was entitled Ricky, a film by Francois Ozon, whose work I enjoy. This was a French film from France, and I must say it was very peculiar. In fact, I still don’t know quite what to make of it, and having read a few reviews now, neither do the critics, none of whom really have a handle on the film at all, and all of whom are cadging from the press materials and/or each other, as the exact same phrases and sentences are being used by multiple reviewers, including Mr. Stephen Holden in the New York Times, whose review seems to be cut and pasted from other reviews. I think there’s more going on this movie than a straightforward reading of it would imply. It’s more of a parable and could even be a fantasy. The performances are wonderful, especially the young actress who plays the leading lady’s daughter (she’s probably around nine and gives an amazing performance). It’s a very short film, around eighty minutes – it just sort of stops, but again, I think there’s something going on that’s not that apparent on first viewing, and I think I’ll be watching it again just to see if anything pops out at me. The score by Phillipe Rombi is another gem by this gifted composer. The DVD transfer was lovely and looked great upscaled.
I then watched a motion picture on Blu and Ray entitled Godzilla. No, not the original Godzilla, but the American 1998 Godzilla, starring Matthew Broderick. I’d stayed away, but thought I’d give it a shot on Blu-Ray. Well, the image looks splendid, and the sound is punchy and robust. And then there’s the film. Simply put, Godzilla is one of the worst movies ever made. It’s mind-boggling in its awfulness. The script is beyond stupid – one of those let’s keep throwing in more kitchen sinks because five isn’t enough when you can have five hundred. And then the “comic” one-liners, which land with a thud. The CGI is no more convincing than a 1950s Ray Harryhausen film – in fact, the Harryhausen films are much more convincing. In fact, the Toho Godzilla man in a rubber suit is more convincing. The scale never seems right, and it’s all preposterously staged, unlike the original Godzilla, which was actually quite believable in its own way. It’s just one relentlessly bad action scene after another, and when they think the big boy has run out of steam, they go to Alien land and hatch two-hundred little Godzilla eggs, unleashing two hundred little nasty Godzillas, who rampage like crazy, all to the thumping, tuneless score by David Arnold. Note to David Arnold: Just because 100 instruments are all playing notes and issuing sound does not make it music. The film, basically, is a complete waste of a huge budget and celluloid. Even though the final shot of the film implies there will be Godzilla II, thankfully that never happened. As noted, the Blu-Ray looks and sounds splendid.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because it is late and I need my beauty sleep.
Today, I shall try to do some sort of jog, then I’ll send out the rest of my Christmas cards, then I’ll go pester my mail place, because I’m pretty sure I got a package yesterday despite the fact that they told me there were no packages other than the two they handed me. There were hundreds of boxes piled up that they’re shipping for people, and I just think they’re overwhelmed and don’t know what they have. At some point, my darling daughter and her husband will be coming over and I’m hoping we’ll all go have a meal somewhere fun. I’ll give her her Christmas gift and then I’m sure she’ll toddle off to her mother’s.
Tomorrow, I’ll be up at six in the morning to announce the new Kritzerland titles. Then I have nothing until the arrival of Miss Juliana A. Hansen. She wants to eat Chinese, so I think we’ll probably mosey on over to Genghis Cohen.
Tuesday or Wednesday I’ll be lunching with Mr. Jason Graae, and then I have to do my shopping for the Christmas Eve Do.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a jog, relax, prepare the eBlast announcement for our releases, and then see the darling daughter and eat. 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 we give thanks that the power has come back to the City of Studio.