Well, dear readers, not mentioned in any of our postings yesterday on late, lamented restaurants, but mentioned in an e-mail and always on my mind, was Ontra Cafeteria (or any of the cafeterias that dotted the LA landscape of the 1960s (there were cafeterias before then, of course, but they were not known to me – but most specifically Clifton’s in downtown LA). A trip to Ontra Cafeteria (those who’ve read the Kritzer books know all about my love for Ontra) was always a special treat for the likes of me. I just loved having a tray and choosing any old food I felt like, always too much (“Your eyes are bigger than your stomach” my mother would say – I would, of course, inform her that that was not possible). I would always take cottage cheese and Jell-O and usually not eat either – I just felt comforted that they were on my tray. I would always have and eat macaroni and cheese, I’m sure I’d have turkey or meat loaf, and while the food wasn’t really that good, it was just the whole experience that made it fun. Our favorite Ontra was located on Beverly Drive in Beverly Hills – one block north of Wilshire on the southwest corner. Our other favorite branch was in the Miracle Mile, also on Wilshire, and between Fairfax and La Brea. And much later, at LACC, Cindy Williams and I would often go to the Ontra on Vine Street in Hollywood, just north of Hollywood Boulevard. When they’d all closed, the only cafeteria I went to was a one-time visit with the wife and darling daughter to Schaber’s in North Hollywood (on Victory near Laurel Canyon) – it wasn’t very good, though. But I think the cafeteria is poised for a comeback, if done right. I’d certainly go if one opened in my neck of the woods or even in my elbow of the woods.
Yesterday, I was up early, she of the Evil Eye arrived, and I went and had some bacon and eggs, after which I bought some printer ink (man, is printer ink expensive – ridiculous, actually), went to K’s Donuts and got two chocolate peanut butter things for the rest of my day and evening eating, and then I came home and sat on my couch and began a marathon day of movie-watching.
It was an all-Netflix day, even though I’d intended to watch a couple of Blu and Rays. First up was a cheeseball movie entitled The Philadelphia Experiment, one of those poorly-made 80s things – I wanted to like it, but it was too awful to even enjoy. After that, I got on my disco shoes and watched 54, the story of the club and peripherally its owner Steve Rubell. In fact, that’s the problem with 54, which was a huge bomb – it’s really about other characters rather than Mr. Rubell and the other characters are not interesting. There was a lot of turmoil on this film, with it not testing well and Miramax making the director reshoot forty-five minutes of new footage while cutting about twenty-five. The original cut was two hours, the final version an hour and thirty minutes. The longer cut has been shown, but I don’t care what’s in it, because it has to have the same problem, maybe even worse: It doesn’t have Rubell at its center. I will say that Mike Myers is very good as Rubell, but I really didn’t like most of the other actors. They’re just the new breed of narcissistic players and they bore me to tears. The era was, of course, interesting, but it wasn’t anything I was ever into – I never went to a disco in my life, and even if I could have gotten in to 54 I would not have wanted to.
Next up was a motion picture entitled In the Cold Light of Day, based on a play by Fredrich Duerrenmatt, which was turned into an interesting German film of 1958 called It Happened in Broad Daylight (I know I have that DVD somewhere and I want to watch it again, but it would probably be easier to buy it again than to find it), about a pedophile who’s killing young girls. It’s a somber film, this version, with a good deal of suspense and a creepy performance by the actor playing the pedophile. Richard E. Grant is very good as a cop and then ex-cop obsessed with catching the culprit. It’s not a great movie, but I was kind of riveted throughout.
I then watched the final motion picture of the evening, which was entitled Cop Land. I’d never had any interest in seeing it, but there it was and it had such an interesting cast ASIDE from its leading man, Sylvester Stallone, that I decided they were all worth a look-see – they being Harvey Keitel, Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro, Edie Falco and a lot of actors who, a year later, would be in The Sopranos. The big surprise for me was Mr. Stallone, who is superb in the film – one sometimes forgets that he was a real actor in his early career – here he is understated and likeable and ultimately heroic, but a far cry from the cartoon stuff. Amusingly, he blames the film for about eight years of difficulty doing films that made money, which is nonsense. Everyone is very good and the film itself is surprisingly good – and everyone gets what’s coming to them.
So, besides the bacon and eggs, the only other food entering my mouth were the two donut things. I think I have had that particular fix for a while now and I shan’t revisit the chocolate peanut butter thing for at least a few months. I did do a bit of writing, too.
Today, I have a late lunch meeting at two o’clock – I think it will be an interesting meeting on at least one level, perhaps not the level that will be desirable, but we’ll have to see how it all goes. I think I’m just going to have something very tiny and light, because I have a craving for a chicken salad sandwich, so I’ll do that later in the day. I haven’t heard anything else about seeing a show this evening, so I guess I won’t be doing that, which is fine.
Tomorrow is our first Kritzerland rehearsal, so that will definitely be fun. But prior to that we are shipping out a boatload of It’s a Wonderful Life CDs. The rest of the week is writing, prepping a new release, meetings and meals, our second Kritzerland rehearsal, a fourth of July partay, our stumble-through and then sound check and show.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, have a lunch meeting and then write and then relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland where I shall dream of Ontra Cafeteria.