Well, dear readers, here we are on a Sunday. And they say these here notes never have any important content. Phut, I say, to those, whoever those may be. I have frankly had it with those and shall only be dealing with these from now on. Actually, if truth be told, it isn’t officially Sunday yet, it is still officially Saturday but by the time I finish writing these here notes it will officially be Sunday. The one thing I can tell you is that it is not easy writing these here notes whilst listening to Symphony No. 5 by Mr. Ralph Vaughan-Williams. Whilst listening to this music, one wants to romp about in the fields and smell the pastoral smells of the summer flowers, whilst wearing gaily colored pantaloons and drinking berry juice from an antique goblet encrusted with emeralds and rare jewels from the exotic land of Long Beach. One wishes to be a sprite and a nymph, not necessarily in that order. One wishes to sing folk songs such as Puff, the Magic Dragon whilst one eats seeds and nutmeats and is at peace with nature and the shrubs and bushes. Yes, listening to this beautiful symphony, one feels as if they should romance a turnip and dance with a faerie and twirl about in unfettered freedom, unconstrained by man nor girdle. What the HELL am I talking about?
Yesterday, which was Saturday (and is actually still Saturday, but not for long), was a very pleasantly pleasant little day of which I remember little. I ended up with nine hours of sleep and was up at eleven. I answered e-mails, wrote new e-mails, had some telephonic conversations, and did some writing. Then I did a jog. The helper came by to take care of some stuff, and she’ll now be gone for ten days, but should I need things shipped we have our old interim helper. After that I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Yesterday, I decided to watch the marvelously marvelous French motion picture from France entitled The Red Balloon. I love this short motion picture, which I believe won an Oscar for best screenplay, no mean feat for a film that runs thirty-five minutes and has about four lines of dialogue. The short film was a huge sensation everywhere it played. I became aware of it when it played on a double bill at my beloved Lido Theater – the main feature was Diabolique. So, that was very odd – a film that children would love playing with a dark and disturbing and scary thriller (by the authors that would write the book on which Vertigo was based). In fact, they would not let children in to see Diabolique. But I told the box-office person I only wanted to see The Red Balloon and that I would leave right after. They did let me in and of course forgot I was there and therefore I did see Diabolique, which did scare and disturb me, although I quite enjoyed it. But The Red Balloon was magic, pure magic, and its ending, even at that young age, made me get teary-eyed and I wanted to be Pascal flying over Paris with balloons.
Of course, there was no video, and I don’t recall the short film ever being shown on television, so one had to live with one’s memories. And that I did, until the late 1970s, when I purchased an IB Tech print of it. And I fell in love with it all over again. I owned every video incarnation of it, and then bought the Region B Blu and Ray when it came out. It was just as magical as ever and I got just as teary-eyed at the end, one of the most moving and breathtaking endings in the history of cinema. The direction of Albert Lamorisse (who also wrote the screenplay) is simple and perfect. The titular balloon is a real character with a real personality, and little Pascal Lamorisse is wonderful and completely natural as little Pascal. If for some reason you’ve never seen the film, it’s on You Tube and you should watch it immediately. It also features a wonderful score by Maurice Le Roux.
After that, I watched the special features on The Manchurian Candidate Blu-ray – not great. And then it was time to get ready for the birthday dinner with Mr. David Wechter. I took him to the Smoke House, a restaurant we both love, and one he hasn’t been to in ages. We had a lot of fun. We were very good boys – two pieces of garlic cheese bread only, we split a small Caesar salad and a shrimp cocktail. He had the ribeye steak and I had my filet. We split a baked potato and for once I didn’t overload on the butter. The steak came with sautéed asparagus. Neither of us had dessert. It was a lovelier than lovely evening.
After that, I came home, relaxed, and listened to music, as you already know.
Today, I shall sleep in, then arise, do a little work on the computer, see if any packages came in yesterday, go to Gelson’s and get something light but fun for my meal o’ the day, perhaps some chicken for a little chicken stroganoff kind of thing, perhaps something else. I’ll come back, eat, watch a movie or three, then do a jog in the afternoon.
This coming week is very busy with meetings and meals, several rehearsals and work sessions, seeing several shows, and beginning to assemble the ALS show.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, sleep in, relax, do some work, see if any packages come in, get food, eat, jog, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to be unfettered and unconstrained by man nor girdle.