Well, dear readers, I don’t know if anyone else has noticed this little factoid, but this is the last day of February. How can that be? February has flown by, like a gazelle singing Ooh, My Feet. I simply cannot believe that March is upon us. And yet I must, for tomorrow it will be true. In the meantime, let us enjoy the last of February for we shall not see its like again until a year from now. That was deep, wasn’t it? I had an interesting yesterday and conversely yesterday had an interesting me. I got up early and was out of the house early and did errands and whatnot, came home, had three very long telephonic conversations, and then went to Hugo’s for a nice late lunch. Whilst there, I did some proofing and some eating, not necessarily in that order. I then came home and did some work on the computer, including some prep work for our next release or what we hope will be our next release – it depends wholly on how quickly the approval process goes, but they’ll be getting everything they need by Tuesday, so we hope it will not take more than a few days. After all that, I finally sat 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 M. I’d planned to watch L, but M was sitting there so I watched M. M is a film by Fritz Lang, one of my favorite directors, although I must say that M is not one of my favorite Lang films, despite its classic status. Oh, I really like it fine, and for its time it’s really well directed, but it’s very talky and a little too long for its own good. Frankly, in this particular period of time I much prefer Murnau and Von Sternberg to Lang. For me, Lang became a true master in the United States. The Blu-Ray of M is quite nice – contrast seems a little on the gray side and also seems a bit light, but it’s very sharp and looks swell for a film of its age, although not nearly as swell as Murnau’s City Girl. M is not region-free (the Blu-Ray is from the UK), but it’s coming from Criterion and will most likely be the same transfer. I then watched the second motion picture on Blu and Ray, which was entitled The Phantom. The Phantom was, of course, a complete critical and audience bomb, so naturally one reads nothing but ten-star “reviews” on the imdb, written by wags who must have seen it when they were tykes. Make no mistake about it – going from M to The Phantom is the sublime to the ridiculous. The film wants to be too many things, the title character spends too much time watching the action and getting knocked around, and the story is a bore. It also has a supporting cast of some of the most boring actors I’ve ever seen in a major film. Not that the leads are so brilliant either – Billy Zane is okay as The Phantom and Kristy Swanson is okay as his love interest, even though she basically has no character to play. In fact, the only two people who come off slightly better than okay are Catherine Zeta Jones and Treat Williams, but again, their material is just bad. The transfer and sound are excellent, so that’s a plus.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below whilst we bid a fond farewell to February and prepare to welcome March with open arms and hopes for health, wealth, happiness, creativity, and all things bright and beautiful.
Today, I may have a work session with a film composer, although I also may try to push it to tomorrow, as I’d rather have the day off. I’ll probably be attending a little art show opening in the Oaks of Sherman, but that won’t take long, and then I think I’ll have something fun to eat. I’ll also do a little more proofing.
Tomorrow, I have a work session for the long musical, and then depending on today, maybe a work session with the film composer. We’ll see how it all shakes out.
The rest of the week will be filled with work sessions, proofing, meetings, and meals. I have to finish prepping the new release, I have to begin work on the release that follows it, and I have to book some LACCTAA events.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, maybe have a work session, attend an art opening, 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 bid a fond farewell to a little month we like to call February.