Well, dear readers, our countdown to 2011 continues. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, in a mere few days we shall be having our New Year’s Rockin’ Eve partay, after which, at midnight, it will be 2011, just like that. I shall be looking back at 2010 but not quite yet because then that will leave me nothing to talk about for two days, and we can’t have that, now can we? No, we can’t and we shan’t, as sure as my name isn’t Cary or Kathryn Grant or Robert Plant or Henry Brant or Adam Ant or Gus Van Sant – well, you get the drift. I am quite enjoying being somewhat lazy and reflective this week. For example, yesterday I was both lazy and reflective and my laziness was reflected in the reflectivity. I got up around nine, answered e-mails, printed out some orders, and then shipped said orders. I got one very pleasant telephonic call about which more when the item it was about arrives. I did some errands and whatnot, picked up one package and the important envelope, did some banking, and had some matzo brei and a bagel for my meal o’ the day. Then I came home to the news that our wonderful dear reader Thom, who only came to us this year, I think, and who’d made 59 lovely posts with us, had passed away due to complications from surgery. In fact, his last post here was in September, the day before that surgery. He was a wonderful addition to our haineshisway.com family and a very sweet, warm, and supportive human being. He will be missed. I did some work on the computer, talked to our very own Alet Taylor, who is in Wyoming with her ever-lovin’ Andy, visiting his family. There was a little kugel left from our Christmas Eve Do so I heated it up and ate it – not really more than two or three bites, but it hit the spot. Then the spot hit the kugel and then all hell broke loose, rather like the rather silly drama perpetrated on this here site yesterday. It was short-lived, as it always is, and perpetrated by the perp who keeps coming back to do the same tired thing under any number of names. To the perp I say, go, live, be happy, stay away from here, vamoose or, at the very least, vamcamel, enjoy the holidays, be productive, and for heaven’s sake and all our sakes, move on. So it is written, so it shall be done – until the next time, I suppose. I then sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a motion picture on Blu and Ray entitled The American, starring Mr. George Clooney as The American. As usual, they tried to dupe the audience into believing it was a bang-up thriller like the Bourne films, which it most certainly wasn’t. Some rather helpless wag of a critic called it a surprise hit of the year – um, no. It is a film in which little happens – the filmmakers seemed to want to channel the movies of Jean-Pierre Melville, only they don’t quite know how. So, we get a very clichéd and predictable opening sequence, and then we follow Mr. Clooney’s character for another 100 minutes – we don’t really know much about him – he makes and/or designs arms (not limbs – guns – limbs would have been more interesting), maybe he’s an assassin – who knows? He takes a time out in a small Eyetalian town, where he gets an assignment to build a rifle for an assassin. So, we spend most of the film watching him build the rifle, doing push-ups, having sex with a hooker who he then begins to have a relationship with, and telling the man who commissioned the rifle job that he wants out. It doesn’t take brain surgery to figure out that the rifle he’s building will be used to attempt to kill HIM and yet not one critic that I read (and I read about ten reviews) mentions this plot point (they mention every single other plot point), and so it goes. There is no action, little suspense, lots of silent scenes and scenes with very terse dialogue, all shot in the manner of Melville but without Melville’s art. In the end, the best you can say is, I’ve just seen an existential thriller in the style of the 1970s and Jean-Pierre Melville. It’s not quite enough. There is a bit of nudity and tuneless music, not necessarily in that order.
After the movie, I listened to some more CDs, answered some more e-mails, and typed the title page of what I hope will be my eleventh book, just to have it ready for when I begin writing. Since the title involves a place, I’ve typed in a name I like but I’m still tinkering with other names – I’m going on a field trip tomorrow and that will help me decide.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because it is quite late and I am quite tired and it is only mere days until 2011 and I must have my beauty sleep.
Today, Teddy shall be coifing me at eleven. He coifs very well, if you didn’t know. I really need to be coifed – it’s been quite some time since my last coiffing and coifed I shall be, by Teddy at eleven. After the coiffing I may or may not do my field trip – if not, I do it tomorrow, prior to having lunch with dear reader Jeanne. In fact, that probably is the way it will happen, since I’ll be on that side of the hill anyway. I also must write some liner notes.
Other than the coifing and the lunching, I hope to pick up some packages and mail, and maybe even have a meeting. There will be some more packages to ship, but there will be plenty of ME time, as well.
Friday evening is, of course, our Rockin’ New Year’s Eve partay and I’m hoping for a full house here at haineshisway.com, where we will have merriment and mirth and laughter and legs and FUN! Be there or be round.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, get coifed by Teddy at eleven, maybe do a field trip, maybe do a jog, hopefully pick up some packages and mail, write some liner notes, and then relax and listen to music and watch motion pictures. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear reader any old question you like and we get to give any old answer we like. So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland so I can get coifed by Teddy at eleven.