Well, dear readers, I am still mighty full from the lunch I ate at noon o’clock yesterday. I find that astonishing, don’t you? I believe this is called The Fullness Factor. I am suffering from the Fullness Factor at midnight, a full twelve hours later. I mean, holy moley on rye, that’s a lot of Fullness Factor. So, let’s just get to the nitty gritty and also the gritty nitty of the Fullness Factor. I tried a new jernt yesterday. I’d walked by it the other night and it looked pretty damn good, so I checked it out on Yelp, and yesterday I just moseyed the HELL on over there to see what it was all about. It’s called Sweetie Pie’s and I believe you’d call it soul food. I’d already perused the menu online so I basically knew what I wanted, which was the fried catfish filets and a side of mac-and-cheese, and then my plan was to also order a chicken breast to take home, because I definitely had to try the fried chicken. Happily at that early hour there was no line. I ordered and then sat at one of the tables on the patio, since the inside is just a counter and tiny little two-top tables. The food took about fifteen minutes, which is as it should be. The service was terrific – really nice folks. The people sitting at the next table, who must’ve gotten there right when it opened at eleven, were having the catfish and chicken wings and the catfish looked amazing.
Then my food arrived. There were two catfish filets in a basket, and then the little bitty side of mac-and-cheese. The latter was pretty good. They didn’t look all that huge to me, the two filets, so I figured I’d polish those off handily. Well, I took my first bite and it was spectacular – perfectly cooked and the breading was fantastic. They’d brought me some packets of tartar sauce at my request, but these didn’t need any help at all – the seasoning was wonderfully wonderful. So, I ate and I ate and I ate and after thirty minutes I’d finally finished the FIRST filet. By that point, I could not have put another thing in my stomach. I thought I was going to explode right there, like a David Cronenberg movie. So, I put the other filet in with my fried chicken breast (and leg – you couldn’t just order one piece) and I waddled to the motor car and drove directly home. Now being me, I couldn’t really wait to taste the fried chicken, so I just tore off a tiny piece of the breading and it, too, was spectacular and totally different than the breading on the catfish.
Then I did some work on the computer, a bit of futzing and finessing of the new song, some writing, and had an important telephonic call. I also got one of those endless calls one gets from scammers, this one from a scam for American Vets. But this one was something wholly other – I’d actually read about it when I Googled the number and I just had to hear it for myself. So, this time when that number showed I answered. I heard a voice say my name, and I said, “Yes?” and then the voice said, “Is that Bruce?” and I said “Yes” and then the line disconnected. Apparently this robo call really is robo – a programmed voice that tries to sound real and has the ability to respond to things you might say. Note to robo-call people: We really all wish you a painful karma. Then I sat on my couch like so much fish and ate the chicken breast, which was pretty amazing, and I picked at the leg – I don’t really care for any chicken parts other than white meat. I still had the Fullness Factor and it was even worse. And I still had the other catfish filet and I thought I might have that later, on a bun, a sandwich version, but I couldn’t and I ended up tossing it. Had I eaten it, I would have tossed it a different way.
Last night, I watched quite a few things. I began with my SAG voter duties by watching the pilot episode of Younger. I know this is what TV comedy is these days, but I don’t find it funny, that clichéd, hip, arch style of writing – in ten years time it will be looked on as a relic. I do like Sutton Foster and she’s very good in it – the supporting cast has all been directed to put quote marks around their characters and I just hate that style of sitcom playing. Miss Foster plays real and is fine because of that. The show lasts exactly twenty minutes. Remember when a half-hour TV show lasted twenty-six minutes? And when you can’t write a cohesive episode that’s twenty minutes long, well, I just don’t get it, frankly.
Then I watched a mindless piece of sci-fi moviemaking entitled Impostor, from the year 2001, starring Gary Sinise and Madeline Stowe. The film was originally meant to be part of a three-story film, but instead this story was expanded and shouldn’t have been. It’s based on a short story of the same name by Philip K. Dick, author of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, which became Blade Runner. The story’s fine but stretched out to infinity and beyond. And unfortunately for everyone concerned it was directed by the fellow who made the horrible movie Kiss the Girls. He is one of the worst – I remember writing about his “work” in Kiss the Girls and noting how every time the camera panned it was accompanied by a hugely loud WHOOOSHING sound. And that happens repeatedly in this movie and I assume every other movie this guy’s been lucky enough to make. I liked the actors and that was about it, but there are two interesting things in the movie, both production design things – remember, made in 2001, and yet there’s a big curved widescreen TV that looks just like the new Samsung and LG curved 4K TVs. And Ms. Stowe and others use what looks and acts exactly like an iPad. Pretty good, art department.
Then I watched a documentary entitled Famous Nathan, made by the grandson of the man who owned and operated Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs in Coney Island. He shot this over a thirty-year period, basically interviewing the family members over a long period of time. It’s a great story and aside from some cutesy directorial things, it’s very well done. And there was some really fun footage of the Nathan’s that had just opened when I moved to New York in late 1968. My ex-wife and I used to eat there all the time and it was pretty damn good. The interviews are fun, some of it is touching, and it moves along at a steady clip.
I then watched another documentary about career jewelry thief Doris Payne. It’s really fascinating and at times laugh-out-loud funny, as Miss Payne cons everyone, including the filmmakers, over and over and over again. At the time of the film she was eighty and was awaiting the verdict on her jury trial about robbing a Macy’s store of a diamond ring. While she admits to all her past crimes, she steadfastly says that this one wasn’t her. But, she’s found guilty and the sentencing hearing is amazing – the DA wants her in jail for five years – the woman’s attorney asks for no jail time (she was actually offered a plea deal where she would have only spent three months in jail and she refused it because she said she would not plead guilty to something she didn’t do). The judge ultimately says that he’s giving her the five years because she won’t change and she’ll just keep doing what she’s always done. Once she goes to jail, we get one additional scene where the director goes to talk to her – she admits to him that she did, in fact, rob the Macy’s. That’s the end of the film proper, which was made in 2013. In the postscript, we’re told because of jail overcrowding, she only served half her sentence. She got out, immediately robbed another jewelry store and went right back to jail, where she again served only about a year because of her age and overcrowding. I looked her up on Google and she got out of jail earlier this year and is already wanted in a new robbery case. I mean, I suppose it should be shocking, but it just makes me laugh. She’s charming and funny and obviously set in her ways. I really enjoyed it.
Then I listened to some music, took a shower and that was that, and yes, I still suffered from the Fullness Factor.
Today, I have to do some organizational things, pulling together a big list o’ stuff for someone, then I’m having a one-thirty lunch with the Staitman folk – haven’t seen hide nor hair of them in three weeks. Then I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, make a show order, do some writing, and relax.
Tomorrow, I’m having a late lunch meeting with our very own Kay Cole – our plan was to go to Sweetie Pie’s, but it’s really not the place to go for a meeting, so I’ll figure out somewhere else or we’ll just meet at Jerry’s Deli. Friday there’s something going on but I can’t remember what – hopefully someone will remind me, then I think I have some show to see over the weekend.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, have a lunch, pick up packages, make a show order, write, make a big list o’ stuff, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear reader any old question you like and we get to give any old answer we like. So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, and hope that the Fullness Factor finally abates.