Well, dear readers, you won’t believe it, but Tom Turkey ran away – but he just came home, and therefore we can safely celebrate this day known as Thanksgiving, a day for giving thank and warmth and love and a big ol’ meal designed to give you heart palpitations. This has been, in certain ways, a very difficult year, while in other ways it’s been a very rewarding year, and since we should always accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative, let us give thanks for all the good things that have happened, whilst banishing the bad and the ugly to the netherworld in which they belong. Be gone bad and ugly, and stay the HELL away, that’s what I say. In any case, it is Thanksgiving and let us all give thanks however we may.
Yesterday wasn’t a turkey of a day – it was rather pleasant, in fact. I was up at six in the morning to announce our new title, then I went back to bed and slept another couple of hours. Then the newest helper came by to pick up invoices and do some stuff, then I went and had a patty melt on rye with no fries or onion rings. Since there were no packages to pick up, I came directly home.
Once home, I did some work on a new song, I did some writing, I read through the Kritzerland commentary and made a few adjustments and then I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Yesterday, I spent the afternoon finishing up the TV series Humans, a co-production of AMC here in the U.S. and Channel Four in Britain. I watched the final four episodes (their first season consisted of eight episodes). I was really transfixed by this series – it may not be anything startling, but it’s very well done, looks great, and the performances straight down the line are excellent. During the first two episodes I really hated the mother and daughter characters, but as the show went on you began to understand them and then ultimately like them. A couple of things were drawn out past their expiry date, but that’s something that seemingly can’t be avoided in this type of television, but it’s nothing as bad as some of the drawn out storylines on Downton Abbey. The show deals with very interesting issues in a very adult and thought-provoking way and I was never bored, it never resorted to stupidity or horrible cliché, and I will look forward to the second season whenever they get around to it. The show is based on a Swedish show called Real Humans – from what I understand, though the two shows share characters, the plot and/or situations are a bit different. I have the Swedish version on its way to me – I watched a bit of it on You Tube, where it’s ONLY in Swedish, but the style of it looked quite different. There are episodes, probably all of them, of Humans on You Tube, so you can sample it for free, but only do it if you watch them in show order beginning with the pilot. Highly recommended by the likes of me.
I then watched a motion picture on a DGA screener, entitled Steve Jobs, a film about Steve Jobs, which you might have surmised from the title, Steve Jobs. Now, I’d already seen the TV movie called Jobs, which was also about Steve Jobs and that one was okay but nothing special. This one is written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by Danny Boyle, and stars Michael Fassbender, an actor I really have no knowledge of at all. He’s a good actor, but doesn’t really look anything like Steve Jobs. Aaron Sorkin loves the sound of his own voice, and so this is a real talking picture – words, words, and more words, non-stop words. The writing is certainly good, but a little silence every now and then wouldn’t hurt. His structure is divided into three distinct sections – each for the launch of a new product. The dialogue is pure Sorkin and apparently bears no relationship to reality, and that’s fine. But a certain sameness begins to creep in during the second act and it stays until the end and actually began to get on my nerves. That’s the danger of each section being structured exactly the same and even kind of with the same beats to play. Jeff Daniels is terrific, Kate Winslet’s very good, Michael Fassbender is also very good, as are the various young actresses who play Lisa, the daughter he insists isn’t his. I don’t know the actress who plays the daughter’s mum, but she was also really good. It’s not a great movie, but I enjoyed it pretty much and it held my interest. Danny Boyle’s direction gets a little precious at times, but it’s fine.
After that, I went to Gelson’s and got some shrimp cocktail shrimp for my evening snack, along with some Envy apples. And all during this time I was printing out whatever orders had come in.
Today, I shall hopefully arise after a good night’s beauty sleep, and then I’ll just sit and watch things – I have many things to watch, but for sure one of them will be Ex Machina, which was highly recommended to me. Then I’ll get ready and mosey on over to the home of Barry Pearl and his ever-lovin’ Cindy, where I will have Thanksgiving Dinner, which has become a kind of tradition.
Tomorrow, I hope to do nothing at all but maybe work at the piano, eat, hopefully pick up packages and just be a lazy boy all the livelong day and evening. Saturday, we finally have that postponed birthday dinner for Jenna Rosen at the famous Dal Rae restaurant. I will, of course, have a full report. And Sunday I’ll have the birthday dinner I was supposed to have last night – I just wasn’t really feeling up to it. Then we begin the Kritzerland rehearsal week. I will have to have a work session prior to that but it hasn’t been scheduled yet.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, relax, do a jog, watch things, and then have a Thanksgiving dinner. Today’s topic of discussion: What are you giving thanks for this year? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I wish each and every one of you the loveliest of lovely Thanksgiving days. Frankly, I give some of my thanks for you.