Well, dear readers, it is the Day of the Do and I will be doing stuff for the Do all throughout the day, because that is simply what one must do for a Do. The fact is I’ve already done for the Do even before the Day of the Do, but more about that later because we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, Do-wise.
Yesterday, I got about eight and a half hours of sleep, woke up, answered e-mails, printed out a few Kritzerland sale orders, and then got a call from a lady trying to deliver me flowers – at the old house. I gave her the new address and she came by ten minutes later with a beautiful floral arrangement from the Pogues. I have placed them in a perfect place in the kitchen, where they look absolutely lovely.
Then we get into murky territory. I don’t know about you, dear readers, but murky is not a territory I’m terribly fond of. But at some point I realized the day was mostly done. So, here’s what I remember of those six hours. I called the mail place and was told there were no packages, so therefore there was no need to actually leave the home environment. I unboxed one box of Blu-rays and put them on shelves. I had two count them two tuna sandwiches and some of Margaret’s cookies she’d given me.
I wrote more of the commentary and am down to the last five songs. During the later evening hours I made a huge batch of tuna pasta salad for the Do so that Do thing is a done thing. Otherwise, all I can remember is sitting on my couch like so much fish, where, as it turned out, I watched two count them two horror movies. The first horror movie screener was for the new version of Stephen King’s It, which really only covers the first half of the book, the kid’s story. This thing was a huge critical and audience hit and I’m not quite sure why. It’s been reset in the 80s and we do know that that nostalgia factor is high right now and amusingly not only from the children of that era, but from the new generation. I don’t get it, really, but there it is. The new version of It is better than the TV movie version, but I found it all very surface, I found the characters pretty standard and filled with scenes and dialogue we’ve all seen in a hundred other movies. The clown stuff was fine, but it just feels like every other “now” horror movie or even more like Stranger Things, which is amusing on some level, since that’s paying homage to Mr. King. There’s just nothing original going on, and, for me, nothing all that interesting. But people loved it, it’s apparently the most successful horror movie in history, and so what do I know about anything?
Then I watched the second horror movie screener, this one entitled Get Out. Now, I’d heard nothing but raves for this thing – love letter raves, saying it was one of the great horror movies, but headlining it in such a way that it kept me from wanting to see it – in other words, making it sound like a Saw movie or something like that. One stupid review’s headline was “A jolt-a-minute horror movie” while another called it a “Scarefest” and another used the word bloody several times. So, I had zero interest in it, other than I was intrigued why everyone was raving so. So, with a mixture of dread and more dread, I began watching. The first sequence was done well, rather like a John Carpenter movie – no violence to speak of. And then as it began to play out I realized that these reviewers are just stupid and craving their reviews to be quoted. Because there is no jolt-a-minute anything in this film EVER. Not one jolt. I’m talking to you, Peter Travers of Rolling Stone – not one jolt, you silly person. So what do we get? Well until the film’s final fifteen minutes you get no blood at all, no jolts, no scares. What you do get is an occasionally very funny thriller, a screenplay by someone who obviously likes Ira Levin (can’t have a better role model), and a really well done film that is actually leisurely paced but never feels like it. During the last fifteen minutes there is some violence and blood but by today’s standards it’s nothing you haven’t seen and it’s not something that even made me look away. The actors are all very good, save for the mumbling actor who plays the brother of the leading lady – there encapsulated in one single performance is everything I hate about today’s actors. I didn’t mind his take on the character, I minded that I could not understand one single word he said. Some of that I have to lay at the feet of the director, who should have stopped him from that crap, since not one other actor in the film did that. And he did the same in the two other films I saw him in recently – The Florida Project and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. I also liked the score. But this is one movie that lives up to its hype and I highly recommend it. Certainly will end up in my top five of what I’ve seen this year.
After that, I made the tuna pasta salad, then it was time to write these here notes and as soon as they’re posted I shall begin the slicing and dicing and mincing, not necessarily in that order.
Today, I shall sleep in, then, when up, I shall do a jog of some sort, set out the plates and eating utensils, napking and cups for the Do and then I shall begin the spaghetti sauce for the first time in this new house. It’s amazing to think that I have never missed having a Do since 1988, I believe. That will, of course, simmer all the livelong day, and I’ll probably watch this Wonder Woman movie. Then the limited number of guests begin arriving at six. I’m hoping for no more than ten to fifteen people this time. Next year I’ll have the full contingent, but I just couldn’t do that this year. There will be photographs of food and people, not necessarily in that order.
Tomorrow, of course, is Christmas. I have not heard from the Darling Daughter so don’t know if I’ll see her that day or later in the week. I’ll probably just relax here until it’s time to go to a little Christmas dinner that Barry Pearl and his ever-lovin’ Cindy are having at a local Eyetalian restaurant. The rest of the week will be finishing the commentary (although I’ll try to do that today, actually), making new book notes, and trying to keep my head above water, as the saying goes.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do things for the Do, I must jog, I must watch a motion picture, and then I must have the Do. 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 topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, ready for The Day of the Do Redux.