Well, dear readers, this week is flying by, like a gazelle playing croquet whilst sipping a Lime Rickey. Of course, the Lime Rickey has gone the way of the dodo bird, although some luncheonette in New York tried to bring it back in the 1990s. Did you know, for example, that right now there are 200 croquet clubs in the United States? And here I thought that croquet, like the Lime Rickey, had gone the way of the dodo bird. That’s good because we can now play croquet and then follow it with a meal of chicken croquettes and a Lime Rickey. Well, I have no idea what the HELL I’m talking about and I do have to get to bed as soon as possible, because I only had about three hours of sleep and I must be on my way to get coifed by Teddy at about nine-twenty in the morning.
I did not fall asleep until almost six in the morning. Part of that was, when I’d made the bed the morning before, I took note that she of the Evil Eye had put the bottom sheet on backwards. So, I went to bed at two last night and all I could think about for HOURS was that the bottom sheet was on backwards and it was giving me the willies. So, I finally just got up and fixed that problem, and then I was able to finally fall asleep, albeit for only three hours.
Once up, I had to get ready and them mosey on over to Genghis Cohen for a lunch with Richard Sherman. He’d wanted to do a lunch with just he and I, just to yak and have fun, and that’s exactly what we had, two hours of yakking and laughing and fun, not to mention orange chicken (extra crispy), Kung Pao chicken, green beans and white rice. Richard LOVES Genghis Cohen (as with many people, I introduced him to its glories).
After lunch, I came right back to the Valley, but Laurel Canyon was jammed up near me so I decided to forego going to the mail place, and just came home. I had a lot of e-mails to answer, we got our musical director – someone new and hopefully she’ll be fine – and we’re now trying to secure a guest star. Then I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a motion picture on Blu and Ray entitled Absolute Beginners, a film from the year 1986 that I’d never seen. It was a huge bomb, most critics didn’t care for it (although Variety and the New York Times, despite reservations, did like it), and while it’s developed a little cult following over the years, it’s a movie that really isn’t on anyone’s radar. It’s almost sans any kind of real plot, but concerns Brit teens in the late 1950s, and also issues of race – there were race riots in Britain long before the ones in the United States – all done with music, singing, and choreography. It’s kind of a musical in the way Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge is a musical, although I found Absolute Beginners a lot more entertaining and invigorating than Moulin Rouge. The film is a one-off, wacky, insanely stylized piece of work, and at times it prefigures Mr. Luhrmann’s excesses. The color in this thing is mind-blowing, as are the sets and the camera moves (the opening shot, which appears to be one very long take, but isn’t, is astonishing in what it achieves). When the race riots turn into West Side Story time, you just sit there amazed at the chutzpah of it. It’s a phantasmagoria of color and sound and I had a great time watching it. The Twilight Time disc sports an MGM/UA transfer, so you’re dealing with something that is several years old. So, out of the gate, yes, it could look better, yes there are a handful of dirt specks and no, it is not off the camera negative. The film has a lot of opticals, so those shots are softer than the rest. The detail ranges from excellent in closer shots, to improvable in the mid-to-long shots, but there’s nothing in disaster territory here or anything approaching that. A new transfer off the negative would be incredible, but since we’re not getting that, this will do just fine. If you’re looking for something completely off the beaten track, I recommend this Blu-ray, accompanied by a plate of chicken croquettes and a Lime Rickey.
After that, I went to Gelson’s and got some balls of melon of the honeydew kind, and some cherries of the cherry kind. I also had some close encounters of the third and eighth kind. Then I came home, began to think about a show order, did some more stuff on the computer and that was that.
Today, I shall get coifed by Teddy, then I have a three o’clock meeting, followed by a dinner meeting – I don’t know where the dinner meeting is taking place but I hope it’s somewhere fun. I’ll hopefully pick up packages, too.
Tomorrow is unknown to me at this point, Saturday night I’m seeing a show, Sunday there’s something happening here in the early afternoon and then I’m going to a Father’s Day partay.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, get coifed by Teddy, have a meeting, have another meeting, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What sports like croquet have you played and enjoyed? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I shall dream of chicken croquettes, croquet, and a Lime Rickey, along with quite a few Oxford commas. And today I promise I will upload to You Tube some of the performances from the last Kritzerland show.