Well, dear readers, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. I just felt everyone should know this rather interesting fact. Conversely, what’s good for the gander is good for the goose. This saying came up in a post yesterday and I rather liked the saying even though I have not a clew as to what the HELL it means. I mean, who really cares WHAT is good for either the goose or the gander? It’s not like any of us see a goose all that often or a gander, but even if we did, I’m sure we’d just say hello and be on our merry way. Certainly we would not ask what is good for the goose because the goose would make a goose noise and we wouldn’t know what the HELL the goose was saying anyway. Same with the fershluganah gander. But enough about the goose and the gander other than to say that goose spelled backwards is esoog and gander spelled backwards is rednag. And, I suppose, that what mean that what’s good for the esoog is good for the rednag.
Yesterday, was an odd little day. I got up early and had to leave the home environment so that she of the Evil Eye could do her work in peace. Then the helper returned and had to do some shipping as well as begin doing the postage and labels for a lot of Pirates CDs. I was feeling quite sketchy, with allergy problems, a headache, and a tummy in turmoil, so I decided not to go to the reunion thing for David Wechter’s film and instead I just got a sandwich, did some errands and whatnot, picked up an important envelope and then came home to just relax. Waiting for me when I got home was a lovelier than lovely blurb for my new book by Mr. Charles Pogue. Here it is:
Whatever’s in, Adriana Hofstetter is out with…and she’s cool with that. She’s cool with not being cool. She’s hep to not being hip. Popularity at Hollywood High holds no allure. Time is always blissfully out-of-joint for Adriana…and never more so when she sticks her eccentric nose into a musty old mystery.
She may not have a clue about the current arcane culture of her peers, but Adriana finds plenty of them in Murder At The Masquers as she probes the murder of an inspired, but despotic acting coach…still unsolved after forty-five years. With her usual tenacity, she uncovers the geriatric suspects from the deceased’s long ago acting class and motives galore for doing him in.
With his trademark whimsy and wit, Bruce Kimmel writes a love letter to teenage misfits and the Hollywood of today and glorious yesterday.
CHARLES EDWARD POGUE
Screenwriter of THE FLY, DRAGONHEART, DOA
Isn’t that a lovelier than lovely blurb? I’m still waiting on one other, but if that doesn’t arrive by Tuesday, then we’ll make do with the Pogue only. After that, I had no energy whatsoever, so I sat on my couch like so much fish and watched three count them three motion pictures – two on DVD and one on Blu and Ray. The first motion picture on DVD was entitled The Green Slime. I saw The Green Slime at the Picwood Theater in Westwood at a sneak preview. Even back in the mid-1960s it already felt rather retro and I don’t know that I made it through the entire film. But it’s good green fun seeing it all these years later – completely silly, poorly done and obvious models, and the silliest creatures ever, very much in the vein of what we’d ultimately do for our Creature in The Creature Wasn’t Nice. The film was made in Japan with a Japanese director for a Japanese studio and yet there are no Japanese actors in the film, which stars Mr. Robert Horton, Mr. Richard Jaeckel, and Miss Luciana Paluzzi. The Warner Archive transfer is actually very nice.
I then watched the second motion picture on DVD, which was entitled Two Weeks In Another Town, a film I’d never actually managed to see. It’s like a second cousin to The Bad and the Beautiful, but not nearly as good. It, too, is directed by Mr. Vincente Minnelli, and stars Mr. Kirk Douglas. It’s a stylish behind-the-scenes Hollywood melodramatic potboiler and very enjoyable. It’s hard to miss with a cast like Kirk Douglas, Edward G. Robinson, George Hamilton, and other really good character people. Dahlia Lavi is fetching, but poor Claire Trevor is so over the top that you want Eddie G as her husband, a director, to tell her to stop overplaying the melodrama. The film was shot mostly at Cinecitta Studios in Italy and the scenery is very nice. Right up there with Miss Trevor in the needing some direction department is lovely Cyd Charisse. The score by David Raksin is wonderful. The transfer on this Warner Archive disc is also quite nice.
I then watched the new Blu and Ray of Taxi Driver. I love the film, which just gets better every time I see it. And with a transfer this good, I noticed things I’ve never really noticed before. The film looks better on the Blu and Ray than the release prints. Everyone shines in this film, and Mr. Scorsese’s work has never been better. I saw Taxi Driver at a very early screening (a friend worked for Mann Theaters and frequently brought me to these private screenings, usually held in private studio screening rooms) – it was a rather shocking film back then, and it really hasn’t lost an iota of its power, despite being ripped off by any number of lesser talents. One can only imagine Taxi Driver being made today – you could not have the twelve-year-old hooker, they’d give Travis more “backstory,” probably showing flashbacks to his childhood and his marine days. Thankfully, it was made in an era when one could actually make original and interesting and occasionally brilliant films that weren’t like any other film. Highly recommended by the likes of me.
I then listened to the master for our new release, and it sounds great. I sent the audio samples to the webguy and all should be ready to announce on Monday morning at six.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must get my beauty sleep and hope that I’m feeling less lethargic and icky in the morning.
Today, Mr. Donald Feltham is coming by briefly in the morning, and then I’ll be joining Mr. Grant Geissman at noon to put the finishing fixes in the book, so that it can go off to the publishers by Tuesday. After that, I’m sure I’ll eat something light but amusing, and then try to relax some more.
Tomorrow, I’ll be up at six to announce our new title, then CDs and helper will arrive and we’ll get as many Pirates CDs shipped as we have boxes for – unfortunately, since she was away she forgot to remind me we needed boxes – the new batch won’t be here till Tuesday after noon, so whatever doesn’t get shipped on Monday will go out by the end of day Tuesday – but most of the US single discs are going out Monday. Hopefully, I will also be printing a LOT of orders throughout the day. I think I’m lunching with my friend Lauren Rubin, and then The Singer and I have a rehearsal with her New York accompanist, Mr. Ron Abel. So, it’s a busy little day.
The rest of the week is filled with meetings and meals and errands and whatnots, and a lot of ’em.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, see Mr. Donald Feltham briefly, put the fixes in the book, eat, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the subjects and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, as I hit the road to dreamland, where I shall dream of the goose and the gander and what is good for them.