Well, dear readers, due to circumstances beyond my control… do you know what I almost wrote? I almost wrote due to circumcisions beyond my control, that’s what I almost wrote. How unseemly. Of course, the two words both begin with circum and sometimes one goes to stances and sometimes one goes to cisions, but what a difference between the two. In any case, due to circumSTANCES beyond my control… now I’ve totally forgotten what I was going to say. I hate when that happens, don’t you? Oh, well. I think my point was that I awoke very early because of severe stomach cramps, and therefore I am beyond the valley of the tired and I must write these here notes in a hurry, due to circumstances and circumcisions beyond my control. After my early morning of severe stomach cramps, I went back to bed and slept till ten, so I at least got a couple more hours of sleep. I then got up, felt much better, answered e-mails, had a telephonic call with a producer in New York, New York, printed out orders, began printing out postage (I’m beginning to think I’ll be doing most of this huge shipping by myself – I will have to have someone help on the actual shipping day, though – but my former helper is all over Facebook saying how happy she is and how much fun she’s having, never mentioning, of course, totally screwing someone over and leaving them in the lurch), and then it was time to mosey on over to Mo’s for a lunch meeting. I had lunch with a lady I haven’t seen since 1974 – she found me on Facebook. She was in my show Feast at the Morgan Theater. I’m afraid I don’t really remember her other than peripherally, but she’s a very interesting lady who now makes her living doing a one-woman show about Lucille Ball. Apparently, she’s uncanny at the impression – so much so that Lucie Arnaz came on board a few years ago, gave her suggestions, and ended up directing the current incarnation of the show. Anyway, we had a very nice time, and my lunch was just perfect – a great Chinese chicken salad. After the lunch, I went to the mail place and picked up two count them two packages and no count them no mail. Then I came back home, printed out more postage (I’ve done a third now and will do a third today and the final third on Friday), did some work on the computer, and began doing an edit road map for a potential upcoming project. I also am having tapes pulled for three more potential upcoming projects, all of which would be fun if the tapes are long enough and in good condition. After all that, I finally sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I finished watching a motion picture on Blu and Ray entitled A Star is Born. I must say, I’m a sucker for this film, every minute of it. Judy Garland is so real and raw and moving – for me, it’s the best thing she ever did. And James Mason is beyond brilliant. James Mason is a textbook example of great screen acting – he never WHISPERS like today’s crop of terrible “actors” – but he’s more real than any of them – his drunk scene at the Academy Awards is amazing, but every word he speaks is amazing. Note to young “actors” today – LEARN from your betters. George Cukor, who has never been one of my favorite directors, here delivers the goods in spades. His one-take The Man That Got Away is breathtaking. The inclusion of the fifteen-minute Born In a Trunk sequence against his wishes is very interesting. The sequence was meant to be Judy and Mason at the preview – it begins, and then we cut directly outside the theater to the reaction. That would have worked splendidly. As it is, the number, while iconic and fun, stops the plot dead in its tracks. On the other hand, it SHOWS us Esther Blodgett’s incredible talent, so there’s that. All the supporting players are aces – Charles Bickford, Tommy Noonan, and Jack Carson are all memorable. And those Arlen/Gershwin songs (excluding Born In a Trunk) are fantastic, as are the orchestrations and that great Warner Bros. sound. The restoration is a mixed blessing for me – I enjoy all the scenes that got put back, but the dialogue over stills just becomes tiresome after a while. But the stuff where they actually found footage is quite marvelously marvelous. The transfer is mostly great – happy to say they got the color perfect, unlike Dr. Zhivago, which is a brown mess. Here we get saturated and wonderful IB Tech-like color and it’s a thrill. Note to Warner Bros. – this is what real color looks like. Some areas of certain shots are out-of-focus in a very peculiar way I never remember seeing before, so I don’t know why that is. It’s especially evident in the Academy Awards sequence. But mostly it’s very sharp and very wonderful-looking. The sound doesn’t fare as well, at least for me. Apparently, the restoration used all sorts of different sources to cobble together the soundtrack – several mag prints, a French music and effects track, etc. If someone with good ears had really taken the time with today’s technology, I’m guessing they could have opened up the sound so it was much better – here it sounds like there’s a blanket over the high end for a good deal of the film. The songs sound better because they came from that French music and effects track. In any case, even with its few faults, it’s a terrific Blu-Ray and well worth getting. Highly recommended by the likes of me.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because due to circumstances beyond my control I am falling asleep as I type these here notes.
Today, I’ll be printing out postage, writing, finishing the edit road map, and doing several important errands and whatnot, including what will probably be a bit of a wait to return my iPhone 3GS and get the new 4G iPhone. Tonight I’ll be going to Paramount Studios with Mr. Barry Pearl to see the sing-a-long Grease. I’ve actually never seen the film on the big screen, so it should be fun.
Tomorrow, I finally get to return all the boxes that have been in my living room since last October – this makes me VERY happy – it’s a lot of stuff – all the Promises, Promises tapes, Busting, Married To It and others. My living room will finally feel like a living room again and I say hoo and ray. In the evening I have a dinner to go to.
The weekend will have to be filled with actually putting the postage on all the packages – I have to find someone to help me with this, otherwise I shall simply go insane.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, print out postage, write, finish an edit road map, get a new iPhone, and see Grease. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite classic rock-and-roll songs from the 1950s. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, because due to circumcisions – sorry – circumstances beyond my control I must now hit the road to dreamland.