Well, dear readers, it’s a day for all you fathers out there in the dark. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, today is Father’s Day, a day even I, Father BK, get to celebrate. In fact, I received a beautiful Father’s Day card from my very own errant and truant darling daughter. So, to all those fathers out there in the dark, this is your day, baby, so celebrate it with merriment and mirth and laughter and legs – I know I will be.
I’m happy to report that Ye Olde Book Signing was a success. We had about twenty-five people in attendance and it was all grand fun. I read from the book, I answered questions (and some interesting ones), I met some people I didn’t know, we served CAKE and it was all eaten up very quickly – in fact, I only got one tiny bite, which was fine. We sold quite a few of the new book, plus some of the other books in the series and even a Benjamin Kritzer book. And I signed the Wall O’ Authors for my eleventh time, the only author to do so that many times. The Wall O’ Authors is really quite fun and there are hundreds of signatures there – but no author can say they were the first to sign the Wall O’ Authors but my very own self, back in 2002 with Benjamin Kritzer. I was, in fact, the first author to ever sign at Mystery and Imagination Books. And lest anyone try to say otherwise, what I wrote back in 2002 was “I LOVE being the FIRST.”
After the signing, dear occasional readers Amy and Mark, dear reader Sam, and I went next door to Don Cuco’s for some food. Since it was my meal o’ the day, I ate a nice, large meal. The food is so-so there, but the company was splendidly splendid. Prior to all that, I finally managed to have the motor car bathed and it looks all shiny and new now. The day started out gloomy and gray but by ten-thirty it was sunny as all get out, and I think we all know how sunny all get out is. In fact, it was about ninety degrees.
After the meal break, I picked up one little package and an important envelope, then came home. I did a mile and a half jog. I listened to the rest of the new Kritzerland master, approved it, looked at the item test page, approved that and we’re ready to go tomorrow morning at six. Then I 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 on Blu and Ray was entitled The Adjustment Bureau, starring Mr. Matt Damon and Miss Emily Blunt, along with John Slattery and Terence Stamp. The art on the box (and the ads) would lead you to think you were in for a thrill ride, a Bourne Identity thing – even the quote from some idiot critic reads “A stylish thriller.” Perhaps that’s why the film tanked at the box-office. This film may be many things, but a stylish thriller isn’t one of them. Note to idiot critic – go back to school and learn what a thriller is, stylish or otherwise. What The Adjustment Bureau is is a whimsical tale (based on a short story by Philip K. Dick) about fate, defiance, love, and destiny. It’s really a preposterous little movie that means well, but it wears out its welcome pretty quickly and it just plods along until its easy-to-see-coming conclusion. The transfer is terrific.
I then watched the second motion picture on Blu and Ray entitled Unknown. If one thought that The Adjustment Bureau was preposterous, it doesn’t hold a candle to this turkey. Trying to cash in on Liam Neeson’s unexpected action hit Taken, Unknown is so unrelentingly idiotic at every step, one just cannot take one’s eyes from the screen, although one should. The actors are all fine (January Jones – what’s with every supporting part in films these days going to the cast of Mad Men, a barely recognizable Aidan Quinn, Frank Langella, and a very good performance by Bruno Ganz), but the script is ridiculous, and the direction is just what you’d expect, i.e. awful. There are not one, not two, but THREE inane car chases that are so cartoonish that the film never has a chance. And the editing is so fast in those and in the fight scenes that you cannot tell who’s doing what. And this piece of unmitigated dog snot got a pass from most critics. They acknowledge the stupidity but give it three stars anyway. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone, who apparently will give any piece of unmitigated dog snot a good review so he can have his name in the ads, has turned into a sad joke, although, for me, he’s always been a sad joke – same with Mr. Ebert and the rest of the lot. Transfer is excellent, but why wouldn’t it be?
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must get my beauty sleep after a long but fun day, and when I awaken it shall be MY day, as well as all the fathers out there in the dark.
Today, I hope to sleep in, and then I shall jog, relax, and do stuff until our two o’clock rehearsal with the thirteen-year-old. After that we’ll go sup, and I’m still waiting for someone to contact me about what else is going on later in the day. Maybe it’s nothing, but I just have this memory that someone booked something with me. If not, I’ll watch more motion pictures, I suppose.
Tomorrow, we announce the new Kritzerland title at six, and then I’ll hopefully print out a LOT of orders, which I really need to do. Then I have lots o’ other stuff to do, and the rest o’ the week is meetings, meals, rehearsals, and hopefully back to the lab to complete the Nudie Musical color correction, at which point we’ll transfer to the hi-def whatever one transfers to. I’ve pretty much decided to keep the original 1.85 theatrical framing – it’s so tempting to leave it at 1.78 as most of the shots look a little better looser, but there are a couple of other shots that have a bit too much room at the bottom of the frame and that ruins certain compositions, not that this film has many compositions that are so brilliant.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, sleep in, do a jog, do stuff, rehearse, sup and then figure out what else is happening. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I, Father BK, hit the road to dreamland.