Well, dear readers, the tree trimming is done and everything looks so much better. Flower planting will apparently have to wait until all the other work is completed, since people will be stepping everywhere and there will be painting and so any new flowers will not be safe. It’s good to have this portion done and I’m hoping they decide on whatever contractor they’re going to decide on by next week so that the work can begin.
Otherwise, I suppose that yesterday was a nice enough day. I got up around ten (I didn’t get to bed until two), did a three-mile jog right away, then made some tuna for lunch, which I put on those nice, fun and sweet Hawaiian roll things. That was just what I had a hankerin’ for. While I ate, I continued proofing the final four chapters – I found another thing that got by everyone and I fixed that. As I’ve said before, it doesn’t really matter how many people proof, some error will still be there. I finished proofing, then heard from Mr. Grant Geissman that today is the day we can enter the fixes and then get all this to the publisher. Once they have it, everything will move VERY quickly. At some point I finally went to the mail place, where I picked up a couple of packages. I came back home, did some more song choosing, ordered up some more sheet music but still have to choose two more songs. The problem with this show is that 90% of what Newley and Bricusse write work best for male singers – not surprising since Newley himself sang most of the songs. So, I struggle on. I don’t know Bricusse’s Sherlock Holmes musical at all and I may try to find that today. After all that, I finally sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a very long motion picture entitled Django Unchained. I grow weary of Mr. Tarantino’s endless pastiche pictures – is he a good filmmaker? Sure. Is he a decent writer? Sure. But until he makes a film that is truly his own, then all this stuff is just hipster filmmaking for the current generation of filmmakers who hang on his every hipster comment and who then run out and watch all the films he’s riffing on. That said, I certainly enjoyed portions of the Kill Bill films, I enjoyed Jackie Brown, and I thought his last film, Inglorious Basterds had some okay stuff but wasn’t all that interesting. And now we have the almost three-hour Django Unchained. Clearly one thing that Mr. Tarantino doesn’t know how to do well is edit himself. He is not Sergio Leone, sorry. The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly and Once Upon a Time in the West are both films close to three hours, but they are both films with a LOT going on in them, and Mr. Leone was unique and a wonderful filmmaker. So, here we get Mr. Tarantino in spaghetti westernland. And there’s no denying he’s made an entertaining film for it’s first two-thirds. The cast is terrific, especially Christoph Waltz. Some of the music choices are incredibly irritating – if he’s going to do his usual needle-drop score consisting mostly of Morricone and Bacalov, we don’t really need the anachronistic rap crap, do we? At the two-thirds point, something happens and unfortunately it affects the rest of the film and I wish Mr. Tarantino had not gone down that predictable road. The film would be better if it was shorn of ten or fifteen minutes. But, I enjoyed it and it was, in its way, satisfying. The transfer is, as you’d imagine, excellent, as is the sound.
After that long viewing, I had to listen to another Hofstetter audition, and then some music. Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must get a good night’s beauty sleep.
Today, I arise, do a jog, maybe eat a little something and then I must be at Mr. Geissman’s home at one to do work that will realistically take about ninety minutes or so. The fixes aren’t really anything difficult – mostly a few bad breaks, two little rewritten things, and that’s about it. After we’re finished, I’ll go hopefully pick up some packages, then I’ll come right home, finish choosing the final two songs, and get everyone their music.
Tomorrow I have a lot of stuff to do, Saturday night I’m seeing West Side Story, Sunday I may see Inside Out, and I hope to get some relaxation in at some point.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a jog, enter fixes with Grant, hopefully pick up packages, eat, finish choosing songs, get singers their stuff, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite western film scores? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I shall be BK Unchained.