Well, dear readers, we had a veritable deluge here in the City of Studio. The rain has been rather wild and wooly and also wooly and wild, and we’ve had flooded streets, and branches falling and my pool has almost overflowed twice now. Of course, the entire City of Studio goes insane when there’s more than five minutes of rain. People forget how to operate their motor vehicles and they are much too dangerous to be around, so I spent most of yesterday happily ensconced in the warm home environment. I got up early only to find that the Handy Man was canceling. Then I got a call from Mr. Kevin Spirtas asking if we could lunch at noon, and I said yes. I then smoothed out what I’d written the day before, made a couple of small additions, and then wrote a few new pages. Then I met Kevin for lunch and we had fun catching up. He then came over and got some CDs to sell at several gigs he’s doing over the next few days. After he left, I wrote about eight pages whilst watching the deluge happening outside my windowpane. I then made the short trek to the mail place only to find no mail or packages. I came home, wrote about five more pages and then finally sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a long motion picture on Blu and Ray entitled Magnolia. I saw it when it came out and I rather enjoyed it – it seemed long at three hours, but I was never really bored and I thought all the performances were terrific. Well, I liked it even better ten years on. It’s an episodic film, but it’s put together very well and for a three-hour film the pace is somewhat amazing, especially the first two hours. As soon as you pass the two-hour mark, then things slow down and a few scenes go on a little too long, but then the ending is so weird that it just catches you in its spell again. The visual style of the film has none of those awful show-off quick cuts or futzing with the camera speeds – it’s classically-styled direction, the kind people are so afraid of these days. The performances are still terrific – everyone does stellar work, especially Tom Cruise, who has never been better. The score by Jon Brion is perfect for the film, as are the songs by Aimee Mann. The transfer is just about perfect. I’ve read a couple of on-line reviews that take away points because there are a couple of instances of softness. One of these yokels even understands that those instances are not transfer problems, they’re photography problems, where the focus-puller was slightly off. Note to brainiacs: If it’s a production problem, don’t take points away from the transfer. This transfer perfectly replicates what the film looked like and that’s the end of the story. I don’t think the film is everyone’s cup of tea, but I couldn’t take my eyes from the screen for the entire three hours.
After the movie, I wrote one more page, and did one little addition, took a hot shower, and had a small amount of pasta with butter and cheese for my snack. Yesterday was the first day I have not eaten some sort of candy bar or sweet. I’m going to really try and cut back on that stuff for a few weeks.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below, whilst we hope that the deluge subsides for a while.
Today is mine all mine. I shall write, eat, and write, not necessarily in that order. I’m spending a lot of time writing about the editing of Nudie Musical because it was so interesting to me, and I hope it will be interesting to others. Some of these stories I’ve told in brief little snippets, but many of them I’ve never told, and that’s really fun for me.
Tomorrow I think I have a meeting of some sort, but otherwise I’m just merrily writing away. Saturday night I’m hoping for a nice dinner out, and Sunday I’ll be delivering another eighty pages or so to muse Margaret for her mental delectation.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, write, eat, write, do a couple of errands and whatnot, and then relax and perhaps watch a motion picture. Today’s topic of discussion: If you could write a non-fiction book about any era in history, what would it be and why would you choose that era? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, and let us hope that the deluge is down for the count.