Well, dear readers, this week is flying by, like a gazelle doing the hokey pokey whilst eating a large turkey dinner with stuffing and all the trimmings, especially the trimmings. This year I’m not eating the trimmings because I wish to remain trim and get trimmer. Trim and Trimmer – that’s the title of my next novel. Since I know you’re interested, as I write these here notes I am listening to some ravishing Ravel – the complete Daphnis et Chloe which, in English, means Daphnis and Chloe. This is not something I know all that well and I’m not sure I’ve ever listened to this complete recording before, as opposed to the two suites, but it’s Charles Munch conducting. I usually like to listen to Charles Munch while I’m having a hunch and lunch or even brunch. And I am really liking my new speakers now that the tweeter is aimed at my ears. One simply cannot have a tweeter at non-ear level – it simply isn’t done. In any case, this music is rather ravishing, as is most Ravel. Let’s face it, the guy was ravishing.
Yesterday was a perfectly okay day with no bad stuff but no Major Miracles, so please keep those strongest most excellent vibes and xylophones coming for stress-free days and some Major Miracles. We need ‘em. I was up at nine-thirty after eight hours of sleep, and I had a telephonic call from a person in the United Kingdom. That went fine, and then I did some work on the computer, mostly getting all the stuff for our next release to the designer aka Doug Haverty. After that, I went and had an omelet and a bagel and took home a little cupcake for a treat. Cupcakes are less calories than donuts and I enjoy one every now and then as well as every then and now. Then I did some banking, picked up no packages, and came home.
Once home, it was back to the packaging stuff, which I finally got on its merry way. When I arrived home I found a screener waiting for me, this one for a motion picture that recently played, entitled The Girl on the Train. The book was a hit, very much in the new genre of stories like Gone Girl. I hadn’t read the book and I can’t imagine I would have liked it based on what I’ve read about it. I’d already heard the movie was bad, but nothing quite prepared me for just how bad. It was BAD bad. When you boil down these unreliable multiple narrator things they’re just all standard issue stories that have been done a zillion times before. And this story especially is like a TV movie, like a Lifetime thing. Emily Blunt and most of the cast are fine but they have no characters to play, not really. The screenplay, whose wretched dialogue I understand is pretty much from the book, is terrible and predictable. Everyone speaks of how twisty it is, but it’s not twisty at all – it IS completely convoluted (with some things added that aren’t in the book that make it convoluted, especially its time shifting), trite, and anyone who doesn’t know the villain ten minutes into the film needs to turn in their thriller card. How anyone is taken in by these kinds of films is anyone’s guess. But any chance the movie had was totally undone by giving it to the person who directed it, who made the film The Help – a former mediocre actor turned mediocre director – I honestly don’t know how these people get jobs over and over again. He’s the worst possible choice for a film like this – with Gone Girl you at least had David Fincher, who is, whatever one thinks of him, an interesting filmmaker. This person has no style at all, no idea how a thriller functions, no sense of storytelling or pace, and one has to lay a lot of the blame at his feet. Of course, if you look at the grosses they would have us believe that worldwide this picture did over 150 million dollars, to which I say bosh and piffle, which is also the name of my accountants. The film opened at twenty-three million or something, which was, I have no doubt, inflated, and it dropped over half its second weekend so, I don’t believe it grossed anywhere near that, and even if it might have no one saw a dime. I think everyone was very cocky about it being the next Gone Girl, but most of the critics weren’t having it. And it certainly wasn’t helped by the awful, droning score of Danny Elfman, the worst I’ve ever heard from him. It’s just noise and acts as pad to almost every scene, but after ten minutes it does exactly the opposite of what a film score should do – it puts you to sleep, it numbs your mind and it makes the film seem much longer than it really is. I’d be interested to hear other opinions.
After that, I went to Gelson’s and got some shrimp and salad for my no-calorie evening snack, which was really filling. Then I listened to several Shostakovich symphonies, all of which I enjoyed (all conducted by Eugene Ormandy in prime Columbia recordings – how this amazing conductor isn’t considered one of the all-time greats I’ll never know – he’s as good as anyone but people perceive him as some kind of lightweight – well, he’s great). Then it was onto ravishing Ravel and I just relaxed until it was time to write these here notes.
Today, I shall probably be up by ten, then I have to write some commentary and make a show order, I’ll eat, jog (weather permitting), hopefully pick up some packages, and relax.
Tomorrow I shall do more of the same, then it’s Thanksgiving Day and I have no idea what I’m doing, then on Friday I have a work session for the Kritzerland show. I’m hoping the weekend remains pretty open, and then we start our Kritzerland rehearsal week, which also includes rehearsals for the Richard Sherman event.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, write, do a show order, eat, hopefully pick up packages, maybe jog, and then relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite modern thrillers – both books and films? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have decided that this year I shall not be eating all the trimmings.