Well, dear readers, I don’t know if anyone has noticed, but it’s August. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, it is August which, frankly, boggles my already boggled mind. This year has flown by, like a gazelle listening to the new mix of Follies. In any case, it is August and it is my fervent hope and prayer that August will be a month filled with health, wealth, happiness, creativity, and all things bright and beautiful. August is a month of so many things – the whales of August, or, in the case of some Internet types, the wails of August, or in the case of Richard Burton, the Wales of August, or in the case of haineshisway.com, the tales of August. I suppose what I’m trying to say here is, it’s August.
However, yesterday was not August. Yesterday was July. What a difference a day makes, twenty-four little hours. One day it’s one month, the next day it’s another. Go know. The final day of July was perfectly pleasant. I got about eight and a half hours of sleep, but that didn’t quite catch me up. I had a lot of orders waiting for me, so I printed them out. Then I answered some e-mails, did some work on the computer, then went to the bank, where I did some banking, which is a good thing to do in a bank, after which I had an omelet (with cheese, mushrooms, and onions) and a bagel. Then I went to the mail place and picked up nothing of importance. I ended up going back one more time to pick up an amazon package. I came home, had a few telephonic conversations, then finished reading the script of Psycho. The last third of it, with the exception of some truly bad dialogue, is exactly the film. Then I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I finished watching The Artist on Blu and Ray. It’s just a wonderful, sweet film, beautifully done in every department. I remember when the first screenings happened and the word on the film was great. The reviews were great. And then the brainiacs on the Internet, mostly teens, began the backlash. “Why did it have to be silent? They could have told the same story with sound. It’s just a gimmick.” I kid you not, that is exactly what one of these people said. Suddenly it was all “It’s okay, but not THAT great.” It’s like people just have to tear something down that is getting universally praised. Well, long after many of last year’s bigger-grossing films are forgotten, The Artist will be around, entertaining people because it does so beautifully what the teenies action pictures can’t and don’t care to do: It tells a wonderful and human story, and tells that story with style and heart but not bathos. And it tells it without dialogue. It tells it without flashy and au courant camera moves. The director lets the movie be the movie, rather than saying, “Look at all this stuff I can do in the computer.” The art direction doesn’t show off – it’s just perfect. The director knows his silent films and never winks at us and is never clever to be clever. And the score is just a delight and I don’t even mind that they used a cue from Vertigo by Bernard Herrmann. The transfer is great. There are some extras about the making of the film, but I only watched one about the locations where they shot. I do not care to have the magic ruined by watching a making of.
Then I did a three-mile jog. Then I watched the first half hour of The Seven Year Itch on Blu and Ray. I love the film – it’s quite amusing thanks to a droll screenplay by Mr. Billy Wilder and George Axelrod (adapted from Axelrod’s play), with great direction by Mr. Wilder, and a cast to die for – Tom Ewell is absolutely hilarious, Marilyn Monroe is beyond beautiful, and the supporting cast is great, especially Robert Strauss, and the incredibly funny and great Doro Merande – this woman, like Jack Benny, can just stand there and you laugh. Thus far, the transfer, I’m afraid, gets a big fail from me. The color is just too damn brown (I owned an IB Technicolor/scope print that was gorgeous and the color on the Blu and Ray resembles that color not one or even two whits), and the whole thing is just flat looking. I’m hoping the rest of the films in this Marilyn Monroe set look better.
Then I read some more of the book written by the West Side Story film’s dancers – it continues to be extremely repetitious, but then you suddenly find an interesting and new nugget, so I’ll slog on. Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below, because I need another good night’s beauty sleep.
Today, the first order of business is to jog, after which the second order of business is to write all the blurbs for the three releases we’re announcing at one time – the Blu and Ray of David Wechter and Michael Nankin’s award winning short musical film, Junior High School, the companion CD (which has all sorts of interesting bonus tracks), and the long-awaited reissue of the Baja Marimbas, again with many interesting bonus tracks. Hopefully I’ll pick up some packages, then I’ll try to do some writing on the liner notes, and then at five I’ll be having an early supper with my musical director, his lovely wife, and his adorable daughter.
Tomorrow is our second Kritzerland rehearsal, after which I’ll be seeing Stacy Sullivan’s new club act at Vitello’s. Haven’t been there since the last Kritzerland show we did there in March. Friday will be a clean up day – finishing liner notes and stuff, and getting ready for the busy weekend.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a jog, write a lot of blurbs, get audio samples to the web guy, hopefully pick up some packages, write, and then have a lovelier than lovely dinner with nice folks. 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, after which I shall awaken in August – and it is my fervent hope and prayer that it will be a month filled with health, wealth, happiness, creativity, and all things bright and beautiful.