Well, dear readers, this week is flying by, like a gazelle eating a turkey burger on a bed of wilted arugula, with a side of fish fingers. Well, that combo makes me want to vomit on the ground, I must say, and therefore I did say. When you must say, you must say, I must say. Howe can it be almost the middle of March already? Slow the HELL down, year, can’t you? I’m trying to plan the damn Kritzerland April show and it’s less than three weeks away. I’ve cast two people so far and am working on the others. Nuuuuuurse.
Yesterday was a day that existed. I didn’t get up until noon as I didn’t fall asleep until four. Once up, I answered e-mails and did the usual morning stuff even though the morning was a thing of the past. Then I made two tuna sandwiches and ate them all up – very good they were, too, these two tuna sandwiches that I ate all up. I had a couple of long, heartfelt telephonic calls, and then I went and picked up one package, and got a couple of teeny-tiny cupcakes from the teeny-tiny cupcake place next to the teeny-tiny mail place. Then I came back home.
I did some work at the piano, ate the two teeny-tiny cupcakes, which were the equivalent of not even one normal-sized cupcake – they were both good. Then I did some work on the computer and finally sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched the last of the films in the Hammer crime films box set, entitled Cash on Demand. Shot as a bottom of the bill filler, it actually opened in the US first and didn’t hit the UK until two years later in 1963, where it played the bottom of the bill with Bye Bye Birdie, a curious combo if ever there was one. I am happy to report that Cash on Demand is a terrific little B-film – tense, taut, beautifully directed, with superb performances by its two leading men, Peter Cushing and Andre Morrell, and the small supporting cast is equally good and filled with recognizable faces from that era. It’s basically a one-set film and basically takes place in real time. It’s cleverly plotted, the dialogue is excellent, and happily the transfer is tops. So there are two really clear winners in the set: this one and Never Take Sweets from a Stranger. The Snorkel is decent, and the one dud is The Full Treatment.
Then I watched the new Arrow Blu and Ray for Dario Argento’s Cat O Nine Tails, starring Karl Malden, James Franciscus, and Catherine Spaak. This film is usually the whipping boy of Argento films of this period, mostly because he’s denigrated it, and film aesthetes parrot him because, well, they’re dopey. The fact is I like this film better than The Bird With the Crystal Plumage – in fact, this is my favorite of the Argento films I’ve seen, mostly because I like the cast and it’s directed interestingly, and has a terrific Morricone score. I had the previous Blu-ray release on Blue Underground and thought it pretty good – until I saw this new 4K transfer from the camera negative. This is a terrific transfer that actually looks just like a dye transfer Technicolor print would have looked like of this Techniscope film. The color is perfect – reds are really red rather than orange/red, blues are blues and so on and so forth and so forth and so on. So for anyone who likes this film I cannot imagine disappointment.
After that, I had a couple of pieces of salami and provolone cheese for my evening snack, and I just tried to relax – I also watched one extra on the Cat O Nine Tails disc – with the little girl from the film – she was nine when it was shot and she’s in her mid-fifties now and that was fun to watch.
Today I have no idea what will happen, but other than that I have to finish casting the show and begin choosing its songs, because we have to actually announce the damn thing by Friday. And I have to think of a different What If idea because I forgot I did one that’s too close to what I was thinking of. I’ll probably make some kind of pasta for my meal o’ the day – could be Wacky Noodles, as that’s the simplest and easiest to do. Or I could do spaghetti with red sauce, mushrooms, and onions, but I’m out of butter and would have to buy the mushrooms so we’ll see how I feel when I get up. I’ll hopefully pick up packages, hope for some kind of miracle, and do work at the piano, after which I’m sure I’ll watch something.
The rest of the week is meetings and meals, seeing a show on Friday night at a local high school, and then I don’t know what is happening on the weekend.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, finish casting, choose songs, eat, hopefully pick up packages, work at the piano, then watch something 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, whilst shouting Nuuuuuurse.