Well, dear readers, the final day of the weekend was restful, slightly irritating for a brief time, and then I had fun with my meal o’ the day and I actually, surprise, saw an excellent motion picture on the Flix of Net.
I only got six-and-a-half hours of sleep but that was okay because I’ve gotten so much every other day. Then we began the tale of the end of an eBay auction. I’d had a very rare piece of illustration art up a couple of weeks ago, but we’ve already discussed that selling things on eBay is nigh unto impossible unless you just get lucky, as I did with a book two weeks ago, which is the only reason I re-listed this piece in a ten-day auction. As usual it didn’t get that many views, but it did have a “watcher”. The watcher e-mailed me and asked me a few questions, which I answered, and which gave me a spark of hope that he was a serious bidder. And yet, the auction closed with nary an attempt at a Best Offer, which is what these fixed price things are all about. But he e-mailed me immediately and said he wanted to make an offer but had to consult with his wife first and she wasn’t available prior to the auction close. So, at his request I re-listed it as a three-day auction. Meanwhile, another interested party asked some questions, but disappeared after that. Then, no offer arrived. I began to sense what this guy’s game was and that’s exactly how it played out. One hour before the close at one o’clock he made his offer – he did this thinking that because no one else had stepped up to the plate that I might be vulnerable to perhaps accepting his offer. Well, no, I’m never vulnerable about the value of rare illustration art. His offer was so insulting I could not believe it, literally 80% less than the asking price. Normally I price things so that I can come down 20% – that’s very standard and had anyone offered 20% less as a Best Offer it would have automatically been accepted. But 80% less? I don’t think so. I immediately felt that he was a dealer, disguised as a regular buyer. I had that happen a few months ago with a book dealer. He figured if I was desperate I might accept his low-ball offer and then he could wait a few months and then attempt to resell somewhere about thirty times what he paid, which is exactly what he would do. I wrote him back and told him to get real, that he was sorely mistaken if he thought I was going to give this thing away – and I told him the bottom line. Needless to say, that was that and the auction closed and I will never re-list this on eBay again and probably nothing else because it’s just turned into a sad joke.
So, that was the irritating hour of the day. Then I went to Gelson’s and got some hamburger patties, low-calorie buns, lettuce, a good onion gone good, and came home and made two excellent cheeseburgers for my meal o’ the day – total calorie count for the two was 700 calories. Much later I ate the last of the bagels, so probably 1000 calories or thereabouts.
I listened to a lot of music, mostly on the Lyrita label, and then I sat on my couch like so much fish and finished watching The Haunting, starring Julie Harris and Claire Bloom. There are certainly some effective sequences and the photography is great as is the score by Humphrey Searle, but I guess I’m never going to find it a great film, much as I have tried.
Then I watched a motion picture on the Flix of Net – I had put it in my “list” but didn’t know if I wanted to watch it, but I decided to because I kind of like the director, Paul Greengrass. 22 July was the name of the film, and it was about a terrorist attack in Norway back in 2011. I knew nothing about it so I was riveted as it unfolded. It’s a really good movie – visceral, hard to watch, powerful, emotional – everything you’d want out of a movie like this. And for all the grandstanding Oscar-bait performances that are now beginning to show up, the acting in this film by the Norwegian cast is absolutely great – you won’t see finer, more subtle acting anywhere. What a pleasure to see those kinds of performances. Anyway, I really liked it a lot and recommend it.
After that, I had a telephonic call and then I just relaxed and listened to music.
Today, I have a few things I must do, then I’ll eat something light, and then at six o’clock we have a production meeting, at six-thirty our leading lady arrives so I can stage her first solo number (simple stuff), and then we begin rehearsal at seven and I have to create and stage a big nightmare sequence. Our musical director will be there so he can get ideas about how we’ll approach the underscore to it – it will involve a lot of cacophonous singing and noise and I also want it to be fun and weird.
The rest of the week is rehearsals, meetings and meals, and I hope to finish staging everything by Wednesday or Thursday and then I’ll begin to assemble the show so we can begin rough run-throughs.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a few things, eat, hopefully pick up some packages, have a production meeting, and then rehearse. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite films dealing with real-life events? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to be past the insulting offer and the games people play.