Well, dear readers, this week is flying by, like a gazelle playing with Colorforms. Does anyone still play with Colorforms? I remember Colorforms very well, and although I think it was kind of a girl thing, I had a set and loved playing with Colorforms. Holy moley on rye, they still make the damn things. I may have to buy a set, just to see if they’re the same. Did you know, for example, that the very first licensed character to appear on Colorforms was Popeye? Did you know, for example, that the Colorforms 1950s slogan was “It’s more fun to play the Colorforms way.” I wonder which set I had when I was a wee bairn? It would have been the late 1950s, I’m sure. Perhaps this one.
There were a lot of different sets, and later they did Sesame Street and Star Trek and Superman and even Welcome Back, Kotter – today they have Hello Kitty whatever that is. It’s fun to look back at the toys of our youth, isn’t it? I have most of the board games I had in the 1950s, and I have a spud gun and pick-up sticks and View-Master reels, and a few other cherce items. I still need a Fanner 50 pistol – I used to love that one and I can’t tell you how many times I used it to “kill” my brother (insert smiley face here). Why the HELL am I talking about Colorforms?
Yesterday was certainly a day. Yes, one can say yesterday was a day and then some. I got up late because I didn’t get to sleep until after two. Once up, I got all the singers their music, after which I went and had a chili, cheese and onion omelet and no potatoes. For the second time five days, sitting at the next booth was Dick Gautier, the original Conrad Birdie. He smiled at me so I took the opportunity of telling him we had many mutual friends, including our very own Barry Pearl. He’s a very nice guy. After that, I picked up no packages or mail, but had a couple of things that arrived at the home environment, including a new screener, a gift from cousin Dee Dee and Alan, and a few Christmas cards. I began a new set of liner notes (for the first release of the New Year) and then it was time to mosey on over to the Pasadena Playhouse for a meeting regarding the benefit.
It lasted a bit over an hour and we got the lay of the land in terms of our two days in the theater – the day before the show we’ll be there for four hours doing a band rehearsal, and the day of show I’ll be there most of the day doing tech stuff and then sound check. I liked the lighting gal very much. I was back in the motor car by four-thirty and was shocked that I was home in no time at all – absolutely no traffic at any point. I thought it was going to be horrid, so what a pleasant surprise that was.
Once home, I realized I could not make the trek to the Twilight Time partay in West LA because I had two telephonic calls I had to deal with, which I did. I also finished watching The Mirror Crack’d, which, aside from the bitchy and campy stuff between Elizabeth Taylor and Kim Novack, just isn’t very good. The real problem is that Miss Marple, until the very end, is kept out of the proceedings – it’s mostly a relation of hers from Scotland Yard, played by Edward Fox. So, Miss Lansbury only has the occasional scene at home where she gabs to Mr. Fox. Of course, she gets to solve the crime, but it’s just not as much fun as it should be and would have been if it was truly a Miss Marple film with her as the focus. But because of the bitch-fest, which really is not germane to the story, the focus is split and there’s no real tension. So far, this is the best transfer, with reasonable detail and excellent color.
I then hunkered down and watched the screener that had arrived – The Wolf of Wall Street, the story of convicted stock trader Jordan Belfort. I can’t say I liked it very much, since it’s peopled with nothing but reprehensible, drug-using, sex-crazed jerks for the entirety of its three-hour running time. In fact, it plays a bit like Martin Scorsese’s Greatest Hits, with Leonardo di Caprio talking to the camera, narrating, with mounds of cocaine and Quaaludes, tons of nudity, mountains of profanity, and characters who really learn nothing at all. The fact that Mr. Belfort only served a small amount of time for bilking people out of 200 million dollars by ratting out his friends, is kind of pathetic. But that’s the kind of world we live in – where “people” like that can abuse the system, wreak havoc with people’s lives, and make millions upon millions of dollars all the while being high as kites and complete cretins. At three hours, it feels repetitious and also feels totally designed for its big moments, as if they were thinking those moments were so classic that they’d become iconic enough to be used by Chuck Braverman in great scenes montages. The film looks good, as you’d expect, and while it kind of held my interest I ultimately found it not much to my liking.
Today, I shall try to do very little – I do have to make a show order and begin writing the commentary, and I’ll work some more on the liner notes. I’ll eat, hopefully pick up some packages, and then relax, save for a telephonic conversation in the evening.
The rest of the week is more of the same. We resume performances on Thursday and I think I’ll attend that one since Jane will be back with us. I’ll probably not go on Friday night, may go on Saturday night, and won’t go on Sunday. But that’s all up in the air right now.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, write, make a show order, eat, hopefully pick up packages, have a telephonic meeting and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What were your favorite favorite childhood toys and did you ever have a Colorforms set and if so which? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I shall have Colorforms dreams.