Well, dear readers, some days, I suppose, are melancholy and yesterday was such a day. Had I had some cantaloupe it could also have been a meloncholy day, but that’s another story. I don’t know why yesterday was a melancholy day but it was and I just sort of went with it, since I didn’t really do anything but relax. I did get about nine hours of blessed sleep, then just lounged around the home environment, answering e-mails and such. I got a lovelier than lovely text from the darling daughter, wishing me a happy Father’s Day. Then I went and had a meatless Cobb salad without meat and a bagel. I was told it had been very crowded prior to my arrival, but by the time I was there it had thinned out considerably. Then I came home, played on the computer, felt a little melancholy, sang My Melancholy Baby, wrote some lyrics, and then sat on my couch like so much fish.
Yesterday, I began with, yes, another Netflix Experience, this time a “thriller” entitled 6 Souls, starring Julianne Moore. It started out promisingly and kind of reeled me in. That lasted about twenty minutes, when it took a turn it shouldn’t have and it was all downhill from there. What seemed like a good premise was quickly turned into something so stupid it was just mind-boggling, actually. The film was directed by two Danish gentlemen, both of whom were writers on both seasons of the Danish The Bridge. But they didn’t write this thing and it’s too bad. Miss Moore is always good, so that part was okay. Apparently, this is yet another film that never actually played anywhere – I think it had a few days in one or two theaters, but it went straight to DVD and cable, yet another $30 million write-off. I then decided I’d had it up to my ear lobes with these crappy movies, so instead I watched two motion pictures on Blu and Ray.
The first motion picture on Blu and Ray was entitled The Mechanic, starring Charles Bronson and Jan Michael Vincent. I’d actually only seen it once before, when it came out and I’d enjoyed it as I enjoyed all Charles Bronson movies back then. Seeing it after all these years was fun – it’s a real early 1970s movie and, for me, that’s a good thing. It’s directed crisply by Michael Winner (with whom Bronson did several films) and it has an interesting script by the interesting writer Lewis John Carlino, who recently passed away. Bronson is his usual self, and it’s a self I always enjoy, but Jan Michael Vincent isn’t quite up to the task as his co-star. There are some wonderful views of 1972 Los Angeles, and the film has a wonderful and strange score by Jerry Fielding. They would never allow such a score in a movie today – they wouldn’t even know what they were hearing. No, today we’d get thumping and pounding and it would be relentless. The Mechanic’s music works so well because it knows when to be there and when not to be there. The transfer is perfect and replicates exactly that 1972 look.
I then watched the second motion picture on Blu and Ray, entitled The Train, a film of John Frankenheimer (the title card actually reads John Frankenheimer’s The Train), starring Burt Lancaster, Paul Scofield, and some wonderful French actors, most of whom I’ve seen in tons of movies, and most of whom are dubbed in this film, which takes some getting used to. The Train is one of the few movies I missed back in the day (surprising, as I was a huge fan of Frankenheimer), and I’ve purchased it on every home video format, watched the first ten minutes and never gotten beyond that. Well, it’s a terrific movie with wonderful performances and great direction, with a good Maurice Jarre score. The black-and-white transfer is excellent and they just don’t make ‘em like that anymore. Both Blu-rays are from Twilight Time.
I had some popcorn as my snack and one of those Skinny Cow ice cream things. And then I did a mile-and-a-half jog around seven o’clock. After The Train, I relaxed and did stuff on the computer.
Today, I shall not be singing My Melancholy Baby and there will be no melancholy whatsoever. The helper will be by to pick up some invoices (if anyone reading these here notes has been waiting to purchase It’s a Wonderful Life – purchase now or your opportunity will have passed – we’re very close to selling out. Sandy and Lanny will be here at some point in the afternoon and we’ll have our rehearsal and work session, after which I’m going to see some show at the Fringe Festival in Hollywood.
The rest of the week is rehearsals, meetings and meals, writing the Kritzerland commentary and figuring out the show order (I’ve done a third of it already), seeing a couple of shows, and then Sunday is Sandy’s show at The Federal.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, eat, rehearse and see a show. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite snack foods? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, after which I shall arise with no melancholy, baby.