Well, dear readers, this year is flying by, like a gazelle in pedal pushers. Does anyone still wear pedal pushers? Does anyone care? I think it’s time for a pedal pusher comeback, don’t you? I think we have gone long enough without the pedal pusher pants, don’t you? Have they ever come back in style? After all, there is still quite a bit of nostalgia for the 1950s and I feel the pedal pusher pants have been given short shrift. I think it’s time to give them long shrift, don’t you? What the HELL am I talking about?
So, the first day of the New Year was a very nice and productive day, which is just what I wanted. It took quite a while for me to fall asleep due to an overcrowded-with-thoughts brain. Eventually I did, and I slept until the telephonic device rang at eleven o’clock. I think I got close to eight hours of sleep. I got up and looked at the temperature of the house, which was fifty-nine degrees. I turned on the heat, but I must tell you it literally too ten hours to get it back up to seventy-two, which I’m not really understanding, so I may have to have someone come check the filters and make sure everything is working properly. Even though I don’t like to leave the heat on overnight, tonight it’s staying on because fifty-nine is just too damn cold and it takes too damn long to get heat and I need heat and comfort when I’m writing. And speaking of writing, as soon as my brain was functioning properly, I opened the new book Word document and began my new novel. It started off slowly and difficultly because I am senile and didn’t realize I’d written two different openings – one three months ago and one about two weeks ago. I like to write two paragraphs prior to starting a new book, because it just gets me off on the right foot and gets me going. So, I spent about thirty minutes trying to rewrite the first two paragraphs because they were really bad. When I got to the end of the second paragraph and looked at the next paragraph, I realized that I’d stupidly saved the original two. As soon as I read the revised two I nuked what I’d done and just typed those in with very minor changes. And then I was off and running. This book starts with a prelude of sorts, so I’m not calling it a chapter or a prelude or a prologue, it just stands on its own. I finished that and dove right into Chapter One, writing a total of ten pages throughout the day, which is a lot of pages for me on the first day of writing. I’m always happy if I do three to five, because it just takes me time to get into the swing of things and you know it don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing. So I was very pleased with the page count and also with the way it was turning out.
At some point, I took a break and did a two-mile jog and I am really going to try to keep doing that regularly. Then I got ready and moseyed on over to the Barry Pearl/Cindy Dellinger New Year’s Day partay. It started at four, but I didn’t get there until about 4:45. It was a very nice grouping of folks, most of whom I either knew or had met before. It was especially nice having Kay Cole and her ever-lovin’ Michael Lamont there and Kay and I spent a lot of time merrily gabbing away. The food was excellent. I had a teeny-tiny bit of pasta with meatballs, and one pasta shell stuffed with cheese, as well as some sausage and peppers. The latter were my favorite and I had seconds of that. There was also a good salad I had a small amount of, and some tasty bread. For dessert, there was some kind of pound or coffee cake that was really good. I was there almost four hours and then I took my leave.
I was home about 8:45 and I sat down and wrote another two pages for a total of almost twelve pages. Then I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I finished watching a motion picture on Blu and Ray entitled Yentl. Yentl is a motion picture that stars Barbra Streisand. It is co-written by Barbra Streisand. It is directed by Barbra Streisand. It is co-produced by Barbra Streisand. And it has musical staging by Barbra Streisand. It’s based on a short story by Isaac Bashevis Singer called Yentl, the Yeshiva Boy. Apparently Miss Streisand was very taken with it decades ago and finally got to make it in 1983. I saw it back when it opened and I enjoyed it in certain ways. I think I’ve only seen it once since then, when the DVD was released. Now Twilight Time has issued it. I still enjoyed it in certain ways but the film is problematic – it’s too long, it’s too much of Miss Streisand and too much of the music has a sameness about it, which is not helped by having a good deal of it be sung as interior monologues. Once or twice would have been okay, but the device becomes wearying and by the two-thirds mark, every time it would happen I would think, “Here they go again.” Some of the music is lovely, but a little variety would have certainly helped. The lyrics also have a sameness about them and they could have used more variety, too. Miss Streisand was in her early 40s when the film was made, and as good as she looks, and she does look good, the character should be younger as a woman her age as that character doesn’t really make any sense. I had to laugh at a comment on the imdb where someone, discussing the age thing, actually said, “It’s stated that the character is 28 and Barbra looks that young.” Why did I have to laugh? Because nowhere in this film is it stated that the character is 28. But I understood as soon as I saw the name of the person who wrote the comment – something like babsbiggestfanever. We get it. It’s obvious it was a labor of love and one has to admire the tenacity of Miss Streisand. She must have been truly devastated not to get a best director nomination or a best actress nomination. In fact, the film won only one Oscar – for Song Score. The direction is certainly fine and she had a great cameraman in David Watkin, but I, at least, grew tired of the yellow/brown/orange look of the film, which was all Miss Streisand, who admits that she doesn’t like the color blue. Removing all of that just makes for a film that has only one visual texture that it has to sustain for over two hours and ten minutes. The author, Mr. Singer, was none too happy about the movie or Miss Streisand’s work, and he did an infamous interview in the New York Times, where he interviewed himself. He was, perhaps, a little too unkind, but one can certainly understand his points. The transfer is excellent and the music sounds lush. All the DVD extras have been ported over.
Today, I shall see the helper in the morning. She’ll pick up invoices, go and ship stuff, and then come back so we can have our little meeting and chat – I hope everything will turn out well, but I have to be comfortable about her schedule this year. I will, of course, write, eat, jog, hopefully pick up some packages, write and relax.
The weekend will be a lot of writing (I hope), maybe a dinner out, watching some motion pictures, and getting as much relaxation in as I can before the big week ahead begins. Monday is our first Kritzerland rehearsal, Tuesday I have some kind of meeting that I have no memory of but that will hopefully come back to me, and I’ll write every day, too, and then Thursday is our second Kritzerland rehearsal, Sunday is our sound check and Monday our show.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, see the helper, write, have a meeting with the helper, hopefully pick up packages, eat, write and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player and your DVD/Blu and Ray player? I’ll start – CD, The Grand Budapest Hotel. Blu-ray, maybe Funny Lady. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have begun a new novel that I hope will turn out well.