Well, dear readers, I have been busy all day and evening preparing two count them two new Kritzerland releases announcing on Monday morning. Interestingly, of the two we were planning to announce only one could be but happily I got approval on the project that was meant to follow the two, so I just switched those two and the other project will now follow. I had to write blurbs, I had to prepare the audio samples, I had to get everything to the web guy, and it took quite some time to do. I also had to do the Facebook event page for the Kritzerland show and thanks to Facebook’s endless stupidity and making things difficult that should be easy, that took over an hour. I still have to send out my eBlast and I still have to prepare the eBlast for the two Kritzerland releases – I may stay up this evening and get all that done so that I don’t have to think about it over the weekend.
I did get over eight hours of sleep and that was very helpful to my weary bones. I had many telephonic conversations yesterday, answered tons of e-mails, ate some lunch – I had chicken tenders and some tap tap tapioca pudding. My original order was a cup of chili and a sandwich, but the chili was not the usual great Jerry’s chili, which does not have beans – this sorry concoction had beans – the waiter told me they’d run out of their regular chili and had to do this chili all day. Hopefully they’ll have their regular chili back soon. After that, I picked up one package, came home, did some of the work outlined above and then sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched two motion pictures. The first motion picture was on DVD and entitled Red. There are a surprising number of motion pictures entitled Red – this one starred Brian Cox and was based on a book by Jack Ketchum, an author (it’s a pseudonym) I know nothing about, but whom Stephen King loves. Apparently there was trouble in the making of the film – the fellow credited as co-director was replaced after shooting was shut down for six months, and one of the actresses was also replaced. However, the film is a good one – not great, but very good – and Mr. Cox’s performance is terrific, as are everyone else’s. They tried to sell it as a thriller but it really isn’t that – the pace is much too measured. One day a nice gent is sitting with his dog and fishing when three surly teens show up, one of whom has a rifle. They taunt the man, ask him how much money he has, which he tells them is about thirty bucks and he tells them it’s in his truck. That’s not enough for these surly teens and the one with the rifle, for no reason whatsoever, shoots the dog, whose name is – Red. They leave, and later the man finds out who they are and goes to visit the father of the kid who shot the dog. Naturally, the snotty kid comes from wealth, lies and says he had nothing to do with it, and the father, who is one of the scummiest characters ever (played by Tom Sizemore) believes his son. So, the man goes to a lawyer, then the authorities. He gets no satisfaction but he cannot let it go. But there is no winning, really, not with entitled rich kids with idiot parents – in the end, it does not turn out well for some of the characters and the man questions his inability to have let it go. It’s mostly a character study of the man and a good one. The film is competently directed and I liked it.
I then watched a motion picture entitled Alone With Her, one of those movies that uses video camera footage (like Blair Witch and all those films) – I read that the budget of the film was $1 million dollars. Sorry, but unless the filmmakers took humungous salaries, I just don’t see how that’s possible. It’s all spy cam stuff on video – how much can that cost? Ten grand? Twenty? But it doesn’t quite have verisimilitude because it’s conventionally edited and there are several scenes where the person who planted the cameras is in the person’s house, so how exactly are we watching it and who exactly is changing the camera angles. The plot is simple – a nerdy fellow is obsessed with a girl who he later says reminds him of an ex-girlfriend. He has an ever-present camera in a bag he carries – it’s unclear whether it’s just on for no reason whatsoever or if he’s taping, but why would he be doing that. There’s just no logic to any of it. He buys surveillance cameras, breaks into the girl’s apartment and plants cameras everywhere, so that the editor can conveniently edit the film with multiple angles. He sits and home and watches her – showering, peeing, talking on the phone, playing with her dog, playing with herself – and then he contrives to run into her at the video store or a coffee place or wherever. And on it goes, with him insinuating himself into her life. Again, there’s no real logic to it, so it becomes tiresome and finally devolves into thriller clichés. The film made exactly ten thousand dollars at the box-office, so even though it cost only a million bucks (unless that’s a complete fabrication, which it may well be), then it’s still a total money loser.
At some point I went to Gelson’s and got a tiny bit of seafood salad and the little tiny egg roll things for my evening snack. The rest of the evening was doing all the work I did.
Today and tomorrow, I will be spending several hours going over the And the World Goes Round mixes with a fine tooth come, so that on Tuesday night, we can finesse whichever tracks I feel need it – I don’t actually think there’ll be that much to do, frankly. Then we’ll get it to Mr. Kander and then prepare it for release. I’ll also write the Kritzerland commentary this weekend, which also means I have to make the show order.
Next week is very busy with meetings, meals, seeing a couple of shows and trying to figure out the Kritzerland releases for the next couple of months.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a jog, listen to mixes and make notes, hopefully pick up some packages and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What’s the last book you read? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have finished all the preparations for Monday’s releases and the getting the word out for the Kritzerland show.