Well, dear readers, this week is flying by, like a gazelle eating pickle and pimento loaf. Does anyone still eat pickle and pimento loaf? That was quite a popular product when I was a wee bairn – I believe it was an Oscar Mayer product. Holy moley on rye you’re not going to believe this – they still make pickle and pimento loaf and yes, it’s still and Oscar Mayer product and you can purchase it, although I don’t recall seeing it in a market since 1959. I’m going to have to see if Gelson’s has it – if not, I may have to order a package online. I believe we had this heinous (heinous, do you hear me) concoction in our refrigerator back in the day, although I don’t recall anyone ever going near it with a ten foot pole or a five foot czech.
I know we did eat Oscar Mayer bologna, which I thought was dreadful and amusing at the same time (I believe I talk about that in the first Kritzer book). Another product of that era that used to give me nightmares was something called head cheese. I mean, really? Who would eat anything called head cheese? Holy moley on rye you’re not going to believe this – they still sell head cheese. And do you know what’s amazing – there’s no cheese in head cheese. Head cheese is actually a meat jelly made with flesh from the head, foot, heart and sometimes the tongue of a cow or pig and often set in aspic, whatever the HELL that is. It’s bad enough just hearing that – I mean, do you know anyone who, upon hearing those ingredients, would say, “Hey, I feel like some head cheese right now.” But if hearing the ingredients didn’t do it, do you know anyone who would eat anything that looked like THIS.
I mean, that just makes me want to vomit on the ground, and yet I have a memory that we also had THAT in our refrigerator, too. Oh, and it was also an Oscar Mayer product – aha – of course we had all this stuff in our refrigerator! Those who’ve read Benjamin Kritzer may remember that I guessed the correct number of jelly beans in a contest and got to go on a sci-fi TV show, where I was given a year of Oscar Mayer products. Now it all comes back again. What the HELL am I talking about? Don’t I have some notes to write? I do and I shall, whilst singing the hit song “I Wish I Was an Oscar Mayer Wiener.” I don’t think that kids today would be allowed to sing it, do you?
Yesterday was a day I don’t remember at all. It seemed like a Monday because we usually do our shows on Sunday but since we did it on a Monday the Tuesday felt like a Monday because we usually do it on the Sunday. I think I got around seven hours of sleep, after which I got up and did things I have no memory of. I think I answered some e-mails and I think someone may have even come over for some reason. I decided early on in the day that I would take a day off this week from the jog, so I didn’t do that. I did have a grilled cheese and bacon sandwich and saw my director pal, Joel Zwick and we had a most amusing chat. I got a call from Terry Trotter and we’re going to lunch tomorrow, so that will be fun. I picked up one package and did a little work on the computer, but mostly I just tried to take the day off. A local dealer picked up some CDs in the afternoon. I also had a nice telephonic conversation with our very own Mr. Nick Redman, who is back from an interesting trip to Viet Nam, where I’m sure they must serve head cheese. At some point, I finally sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched the new Twilight Time Blu and Ray entitled The Other, starring – well – it doesn’t really star anyone other than the Udnavarky twins. It co-stars Uta Hagen and other good actors, but it’s the twins who occupy most of the screen time. I absolutely loved Tom Tryon’s novel, which has one of the great hat tricks in all of literature, right up there with the hat trick in Ira Levin’s A Kiss Before Dying. But both of those hat tricks are literary and can never work as well in a film. And that’s certainly the case with The Other because film is literal and since we’re being shown literal images on the screen you just can’t make it work as well as a literary device in a book, where people are creating their own imagery. Still, The Other has many pleasures – it’s wonderfully directed by Robert Mulligan, although he does shy away from really presenting the horror aspects of the story, and he probably shouldn’t have. It’s also beautifully photographed by Robert Surtees and it has a classic score by Jerry Goldsmith. Mulligan gets great performances from everyone but especially the Udnavarky twins. I saw it many times upon its original release and owned a lovely 16mm print. I’m happy to report that this is a virtually perfect transfer – it could not be better. In fact, I can tell you that this film never looked this good in its release prints. The color and detail is just amazing and it’s really as good as it gets. If you’ve never seen the film, I can say that it and this transfer is highly recommended by the likes of me.
I then watched another Sherlock Holmes episode, and as with the others I’ve seen, it’s just a wonderful series. Jeremy Brett’s line readings are so fresh and unexpected and he is obviously having the time of his life. This particular episode had a stronger supporting cast than the others I’ve seen. I also watched the first thirty minutes of one of my all-time favorite guilty pleasures, Shack Out on 101, about which I’ll have much to say when I finish watching.
After that, I just nosed around the Internet, looking at this and at that and that was about it for the day and the evening.
Today, I shall do a jog, I shall write, I shall try and figure out the show order of the November Kritzerland, and we’ll do a Facebook event page for the show, which will most likely sell out in a few days. I’ll eat, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, and then I’ll relax.
Tomorrow I lunch with Terry Trotter, and I have an evening meeting about the benefit I’m directing in January at the Pasadena Playhouse. I think I’m also being asked to put something together for the LACC Foundation, too, and I’ll have a meeting about that very soon and we’ll see if anything comes of it. I’m also hoping to set our final cast member for the And the World Goes Round recording. Friday I’m seeing some show somewhere, and the weekend is busy, too.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a jog, write, figure out a show order, hopefully pick up some packages, eat and relax. 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, where I shall dream of pickle and pimento loaf, head cheese, and Oscar Mayer’s wiener.