Well, dear readers, somehow it’s Friday. Last I knew, it was Monday, and thus another week has flown by, like a gazelle singing Climb Ev’ry Mountain. The fact that we’re coming into the final week of March is rather shocking, isn’t it? We’ve been marching through March with the speed of a gazelle in an Oldsmobile. As I write these here notes, it is once again raining – well, drizzling is more like it. I am quite sated because earlier I ate some low-fat, low-calorie frijoles or refried beans. The whole deal is only three hundred calories and five grams of fat or less – the downside is that you want to vomit on the ground after eating it. But that is neither here nor there nor there nor here and, of course, there is but a here with a “t” attached. Yesterday, I got quite a good night’s sleep and was quite lazy once I got up, since I was stuck here until the picker-uppers came to pick up what they were picking up – they actually showed up a little after noon. I’d already answered e-mails and had some telephonic business calls. The picker-uppers were here for about forty minutes, after which I got in the motor car and did some errands and whatnot, ate some lunch, and then picked up two count them two packages (there were actually five count them five packages, but the other three were three boxes of shipping boxes – four hundred in all – the helper actually picked those up a bit after I left there). I made an appointment to get the motor car serviced next Thursday (which will hopefully coincide with shipping Carnival), I sent the packaging for our next release in for approval, had a visitor, and began writing liner notes for the release that follows Monday’s release. My intention is to get three or four sets of notes done so that I don’t have to worry about notes for about three months. Then I finally sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I was a Huston sort of night, as in John Huston. First, I watched the premiere release from our very own Mr. Nick Redman’s new DVD label Twilight Time, John Huston’s film of The Kremlin Letter. I thought I’d actually never seen the movie before (I was living in New York when it came out, during a time when I saw less movies than I was usually seeing back then), but as I watched it, certain scenes were very familiar to me and I realized that I must have seen it at some point. Mr. Huston was a wonderful director, even on the films that didn’t quite work. The Kremlin Letter has a wonderful cast – Richard Boone, Max von Sydow, Bibi Andersson, Patrick O’Neal, George Sanders, Barbara Parkins, and others. The film is a little problematic in that its plot is very hard to keep up with, but even so, it’s so well made that you just sort of go along with it. It was a critical and box-office failure, but that has as much to do with it coming at the end of the “spy” cycle as anything else. The plots of many of the 1960s espionage films are very hard to follow, but most of them were hits anyway – however, what those films had that this film lacks is a strong central presence – that should be Patrick O’Neal in this film, but it never quite works out that way. The esteemed Jean-Pierre Melville loved this film and it’s easy to see why if you’ve ever seen his films. It’s great to have it available in a swell scope transfer with excellent color and it’s an auspicious debut for the label. The disc has only two menu options – the film, and an isolated score (Robert Drasnin is the composer). There’s a nice booklet with notes by Julie Kirgo, too, which is very unusual for DVDs today. If you’re a fan of espionage thrillers, give it a try.
After that, I watched the first half of a motion picture on Blu and Ray entitled The Bible… In The Beginning, which is also directed by Mr. Huston. The Bible is a movie I owned on laserdisc and DVD and yet I never watched them, other than the first ten minutes. I missed it when it was first released. I remember being in Cleveland, staying at a hotel on Euclid Avenue. That street was lined with movie palaces and playing at one of them was the roadhow release of The Sand Pebbles, and just a block away was the roadshow release of The Bible. I’d planned on seeing both on the same day, but I saw The Sand Pebbles first and loved it so much that I got a ticket for the evening show and didn’t see The Bible. The Bible has gotten a bum rap since its release (the movie, not the actual Bible), but I have to say having seen all eighty-something minutes of its first half (up to the intermission) I am really sort of enjoying it. It doesn’t hurt that it’s a really excellent transfer of a large format film. The whole Noah segment, in which Huston plays Noah, is really good, and I liked the whole Adam and Eve section and the Cain and Abel section. It’s beautifully shot, and the score by Toshiro Mayuzumi is wonderful and sounds incredible on this Blu-Ray. I’m looking forward to the second half.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because it’s after midnight and I’m gonna let it all hang out, whilst I get my beauty sleep.
Today, I must pick up my clothes at the dry cleaners – they’ve been ready since Tuesday, but I keep forgetting to go over there. Then I’m lunching with my friend Lauren – we’ll go to the local Hugo’s. After that, I’ll try to finish writing my liner notes, and then I’m not sure what’s happening.
Tomorrow, she of the Evil Eye will be here, but so will I, as I have to be here from eight to noon for something that’s being delivered. If it comes early, then I’ll hit the road, if not, I’ll just sort of hang out in the book room and read until the delivery people get here. Sunday, I do a book signing at the Mission Hills paperback show and I hope some of our very own dear readers and lurkers will stop by at eleven and say hello to the likes of me.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, pick up clothes, write liner notes, lunch, hopefully pick up a package and an important envelope, and then do whatever needs to be done. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player, and your DVD/video player? I’ll start – CD, various and sundried soundtracks and some Kritzerland projects. Blu and Ray, The Bible, then Kansas City Confidential and a few other things. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland where I shall hopefully not dream of frijoles.