Well, dear readers, as I sat down to watch a Blu and Ray last night, I had to sit through seven trailers for new movies. When I was a wee sprig of a twig of a tad of a lad of a youth, I used to love coming attractions. I couldn’t wait to see them. They were fun and simple and always made me want to go see the films. Now, coming attractions are so predictable, with either the pompous narration, or the little one-liners punctuated by dialogue or visual snippets, all accompanied by exactly the same music (never from the actual film), the same damn thumping, pretentious music, and not a one of them made me want to see the films they were hawking. In fact, they did the opposite – made me want to stay as far away as possible. Every movie looks the same, sounds the same, and why would anyone bother? I’ll take those old, corny coming attractions with the wonderful Art Gilmore or Les Tremayne narration any day of the week.
I had quite a nice day yesterday. I didn’t get as much sleep as I would have liked, as I had to toddle off to a ten o’clock meeting in the Bank of Bur. It was a fun and informative meeting and I got the answers I was looking for about this little personal project I’ve been working on. Then I went to see Barbara Deutsch. She’s publishing a book based on her self-help, life coach teachings and I’ve been helping her with the publishing end and she’s having Grant Geissman design it, so it will be a fine-looking book. After that meeting, I came home, but wasn’t here long as I had to toddle off to the Wood of West to have a little post-birthday luncheon with dear reader Jeanne. We went to some jernt she likes, a French place called Soleil on Westwood Boulevard. The food was very good (I had a small Caesar salad and a little salami sandwich, which came on a roll with butter – I quite liked the combination. There were only three slices of salami on the sandwich so it wasn’t that filling, which was good. Jeanne had some sort of crepe thing. For dessert I had chocolate mousse, which was also very tasty. We had fun and then I headed back to the San Fernando Valley. I then answered some e-mails, and sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched two count them two motion pictures on Blu and Ray. The first motion picture was entitled Casino Jack, based on the true story of some out-of-control Washington lobbyist who bilked a lot of people out of a lot of money. It’s an interesting story, and is par for the course in terms of our wonderful country and government and how corrupt Washington, politicians, and lobbyists are. I wish I could say the film was good, but it’s not. It’s just standard issue for this type of film, with the same cookie-cutter direction and writing and a musical score that is typical for this genre of film – jazzy, with vibes and voices, retro-chic, and not at all doing what a film score is supposed to do. Kevin Spacey is always good, but I really didn’t like the other actor, Barry Pepper, who was just irritating. In fact, the whole film was just irritating and I cannot recommend it at all. The transfer was fine, so there’s that.
I then watched the second motion picture on Blu and Ray, which was entitled Taps, a film of Harold Becker, starring George C. Scott, Timothy Hutton, Ronny Cox, Tom Cruise, and Sean Penn. I’ve always liked the film, despite some not so wonderful contrivances. The script is good, and there are some actual scenes that play like scenes and not just a few lines. Scott is terrific, as are all the young actors. The online “reviewers” praised the transfer, while they knock other really good transfers – this transfer is okay – not great, and that’s about it.
After that, I buckled down Winsocki and wrote the liner notes for our next release. So, that’s all the writing that I had to get done, and now I can go back to the other two projects without this stuff hanging over my head.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must get some beauty sleep. Thankfully, tomorrow is a holiday and I can get up whenever I feel like it.
Today, I shall get up whenever I feel like it. Then I shall be lazy but I will do more writing on my personal project and then maybe even do some of the Wechter/Kimmel project if I’m up to it. I may have some visitors or I may not – I won’t know until I know. And I’m sure I’ll watch a motion picture or three.
Tomorrow, we have our stumble-through, and Wednesday is sound check and show. I do believe we’ll be shipping CDs, and I’ve got to prep everything for the new release as well as jump on the release after that as well as jump on the next Gardenia show. A busy week, but one I hope that will be fun. And, of course, June is just around the corner.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, get up whenever I feel like it, be lazy, write, perhaps do a jog, eat, perhaps have some visitors – or not – and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite films with a military background or setting? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I shall dream of the Golden Age of Coming Attractions.