Well, dear readers, I am full of beans. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, I, BK, am full of beans – refried beans to be exact. I don’t usually eat such foodstuffs as refried beans, but whenever I want to fill my tummy with something so calorie friendly and fat gram friendly, I simply pick up a can of Rosarita no-fat refried beans, but it in a pan, heat ’em up, put some onions in, and top it with a bunch of low-fat shredded cheddar cheese. Entire calorie count – 400. And believe me, after you finish you don’t want and/or need anything else to eat. Hence, I am full of beans, and will probably lose a pound by the time I arise in the morning. Wow. These here notes are already full of beans, too. Perhaps we should change the subject to pre-refried beans. Yes, let’s change the subject to pre-refried beans. Yesterday was a perfectly okay day. I got a decent night’s sleep, got up, answered e-mails and did some work on the computer, then walked over to Art’s Delicatessen to have a meeting regarding the long musical. We all had breakfast (bacon and eggs for me), and spent ninety minutes hashing out some important business. When that was done, I walked home, answered more e-mails, then picked up four count them four little packages from the mail place. I then did some errands and whatnot, then came back home. I did some work on the computer, packaged up a few orders (which will ship today), made some refried beans, ate said refried beans, then finally sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a motion picture on Blu and Ray entitled It’s Complicated, one of those Nancy Meyers things, this one starring Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin, and Steve Martin. Now, with a cast like that one is bound to enjoy at least the performances and that I did. But Nancy Meyers’ films all sound the same, look the same, and feel the same, and are therefore predictable in form and even in humor. I find her “girlfriends” scenes excruciating, and a lot of the dialogue is really weak. And while the film might have had a chance as a ninety-minute concoction, at two hours it feels endless. Still, it’s always a pleasure to watch Streep strut her stuff, and Alec Baldwin does very well with a very obnoxious character. Steve Martin is pretty down-to-earth in this, save for one scene in which he and Streep – wait for it – smoke a marijuana cigarette. Isn’t that original? It’s about as hilarious as you might imagine, i.e. not at all. It would have maybe been amusing back in 1972, but in 2010 – no. The film looks fine, but Meyers has absolutely no visual style – everything looks like a page out of a trendy magazine, just like all her movies. The transfer looks quite good. The score by Hans Zimmer and someone else I’ve never heard of, is irritating.
I also started to watch something called Tetro, a “film” by Francis Coppola. I put the quote marks around “film” as a way of saying that so far that’s what this screams – A FILM. I don’t know whatever happened to the man who made the first two Godfather films and The Conversation, but thirty minutes into Tetro he sure isn’t in evidence. Instead we have pretty black and white scope photography, characters speaking to each other leisurely and without much drama, and a performance by my least favorite actor maybe in the history of film – the person known as Vincent Gallo. I have to say, I find him more repulsive to watch than Quentin Tarantino, and that’s saying something. I’ll try to finish it, but it’s really a slog.
I also took a look at a little of the Blu-Ray of Dr. Zhivago – I was expecting something miraculous from what I’ve read (especially Robert Harris), but from what I’ve seen so far (and I’m not judging the entire transfer yet), it’s a little too brown, and not as sharp as I would have hoped for. We’ll see how I feel when I watch the entire film, but it does not give me hope when I see tan snow and flat, beige faces.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because frankly the notes and I are full of beans.
Today, I shall get up, do my online check in and print out my boarding pass, buy some travel-size toothpaste, pack (only a change of undergarments – that’s all I’m bringing, so packing should take all of three minutes), and then I’ll do just a couple of errands and whatnot and eat something fun, and that will be it. Otherwise, I’ll relax, write the notes and post them early, and get to bed by ten.
Tomorrow, Mr. David Wechter will bright and early and we’ll be on our way to the Burbank airport. Then we will fly to Seattle, take a car to Olympia, and check into our hotel. I’m sure we’ll take a walk and check out the area, then at five we’ll meet George, TCB, MBarnum, and hopefully Ann and Jed for a little pre-show dinner. Then it will be on to see George in The Brain From Planet X. At the end of the performance, David and I will do an audience talkback for a little while, then I’m hoping that we can go out with the cast and crew and musicians for a drink.
Saturday, I’ll be up bright and early and on my way to the Seattle airport, and I’ll be on my way back home – I get in a little after ten, and my helper will be picking me up from the airport.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do my online check in and print my boarding pass, I must buy some toothpaste, I must pack, and I must eat something light but amusing. Today’s topic of discussion: What is the best Mexican meal you’ve ever eaten? Where was it, when was it, what did you have, and what made it so damn good? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, full of beans.