Well, dear raders, this week is – well, dear RADARS? What in tarnation are dear RADARS? I think we have a missing letter, that’s what I think. I think an E has gone astray, that’s what I think. I think an E is flying under the RADAR is what I think. Let’s try this again: Well, dear readers, this week is – whew, that was a near catastrophe. You know what’s near catastrophe – apostrophe – pretty close. I seem to have wandered off the point, haven’t I? I think there was a point, something about how this week is – is what, for heaven’s sake. This week is a potato? This week is a Blimpie? Oh yes, this week is flying by, like a gazelle eating a Blimpie. Does anyone still eat a Blimpie? Do they even have Blimpie any more? I had quite a lot of Blimpies in my time, back when I lived in New York. Blimpie was all the rage back then, the precursor, of course, to Subway. Let’s just see.
Well, color me amazed, Blimpie is still with us and thriving and they even have some right here, the closest being about fifteen minutes away in Calabasas. I do believe I’m going to have to drive out there and have me one. That just boggles my already boggled mind. Blimpie. Who knew? I’m not sure they have them in New York anymore – but maybe they do. Here’s what a New York Blimpie used to look like when I lived there in 1969. The short, pregnant ex-wife and I used to love our Blimpies.
Anyone else have a Blimpie? Oh, and there’s still at least one in mid-town on 40th Street and Seventh. I’m sure there are others, too. This is so exciting. I may have to go get a Blimpie over the weekend. It will be worth the drive. Blimpie is definitely back on my RADAR (RADAR, spelled backwards). Now, don’t I have some damn notes to write?
Yesterday was quite a day. I was up way too early at seven, then out of bed around eight. I had a lot of e-mails to read, then had some publisher stuff to deal with, which took a bit of time. Then I finished up the liner notes and got them on their merry way. Then I did some banking, then picked up some packages. After that, I made some popcorn and decided I deserved a nice, restful day after my long week, so I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Yesterday, I watched two count them two motion pictures on Blu and Ray. The first motion picture was a new import disc of the Ealing classic film, Dead of Night. It’s one of those portmanteau films – different stories, tied together by a framing story. This film was quite the trendsetter, though and it’s still quite wonderful today. First of all, the framing story is almost my favorite thing about the film – I just love watching it. The best of the interior stories is the one about the ventriloquist, played by the brilliant Michael Redgrave. One can only imagine just how potent that story was back in 1945 before it had been ripped off way too many times. There’s also a very short story that I like that was also a Twilight Zone episode called 22 (“Room for one more, honey”). The Dead of Night version is quite different but the basic plot is the same. There’s one story that’s a shaggy ghost story – most folks don’t care for that one, and it was, in fact, cut from the film when it played in the United States. But it’s all beautifully done and atmospheric as all get out and I think we know how atmospheric all get out is. And it’s fun to see a VERY young Sally Ann Howes. The transfer is a bit of a mixed bag. There’s a “restoration” featurette, but I don’t ever recall the previous video incarnations looking as bad as the “before” in the featurette. The fact is, the contrast is a little bland and it’s never really as sharp and detailed as you’d like. One wonders what elements were used. Still, great to have it on Blu and Ray.
I then watched the second motion picture on Blu and Ray, entitled Somewhere in Time. I’m a huge fan of time travel stories, so I did enjoy this film when it first came out. I’m just a sucker for time travel stuff – the year before this film came out, we’d had Time After Time, which I liked much better. But Somewhere in Time had a nice, fuzzy feeling about it and a gorgeous John Barry score (with a little Rachmaninov). I’ve never thought the film’s director was that talented and that’s always been part of the problem for me thinking the film was great – his work is just too mundane. The camerawork is also nothing special, although I was fond of the cinematographer, with whom I worked on my very first pilot, Young Love – Isidore (Izzy) Mankovsky. I’ve always enjoyed Christopher Reeve but I find him awkward in this film. Jane Seymour is okay as the object of his affection. For me, the performance honors go to Teresa Wright who, in one scene, basically walks away with the film, at least for me. The film was not a success with critics or audiences, but thanks to home video it developed a rather large and loyal fan base that’s kept it alive all these years, so much so that people think it was this huge hit it never was, or some classic. I still enjoy it, but classic it isn’t, at least for me. It’s surprisingly sloppy in its period details and right from the get-go. When Mr. Reeve finds himself in the hotel room in 1912, the gal in the room is singing You Made Me Love You, which is a neat trick for someone in 1912, since the song wasn’t published until mid-1913. It’s a tiny detail, but telling. There are all kinds of other stuff like that – an American flag with too many stars for 1912, sprinkler valves in the ceiling in a 1912 hotel (not), and then surprisingly inept continuity details. When Reeve finds the guestbook he needs to see, to see if his name is in it, he finds the page and there it is – and the page is clearly on the LEFT hand side of the guestbook. Later, when he’s signing the guestbook when he’s back in 1912, he signs it on the right hand side. Where was the script person? But none of that matters if you buy into the film’s plot, which obviously many people do. The transfer is odd. I shouldn’t think it’s any kind of new scan – it just looks older to me, is never quite as sharp as it should be, and has some very odd color in the 1912 sequence. I realize the director was going for two different looks, but just don’t remember the 1912 stuff every being quite that orange and yellow. Whether it was or not, it’s a shame they couldn’t have done a new scan, since it’s a film that people love.
Then I had a really fun meal with our very own Alet Taylor, who’s out here reading for some pilots. We caught up and had a lot of laughs. I had my meatless Cobb salad with 1000-Island dressing. Then I went to LACC to have a small casting session, meeting the eight or nine people who weren’t in the workshop we did a few weeks ago. That was fun, and then I came home.
Today, I shall be up no later than ten, then I have stuff to do, after which I have a lunch meeting at one-thirty. I’m also having another short meeting either right before or right after that. Then I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, and then the rest of the day should be mine all mine.
Tomorrow is a very busy day – first up, a meeting at LACC to go over the cast list for Li’l Abner. Then I come back home and we have a work session with Sandy and Lanny, which I’m sure will include a meal. After that, my Li’l Abner stage manager is coming here and we’ll go over our final cast list, so that it can be posted the following day. Not sure what’s happening on Friday, but I’m going to try and see a show on the weekend, my friend Lissa Levin’s play, Sex and Education over at the Colony Theatre. I’m also having a lunch meeting with our Daisy Mae, Maddy Claire Parks, which I’m looking forward to. I also have to choose songs, finish casting and get singers their stuff, as well as get ready for the new Kritzerland announcement.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do stuff, have a lunch meeting, have another meeting, hopefully pick up some packages 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 happily imagine myself eating a Blimpie very soon.