Well, dear readers, I don’t know about you, but I am feeling very foolish right about now, and in a good way. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, I, BK, am feeling very foolish right about now, and in a good way and that is because today is a day for being foolish and foolhardy and just being a plain old-fashioned fool for its own sake. You see, today is April Fool’s Day and being April Fool’s Day that means it is the first day of a new month, namely April. And it is my fervent hope and prayer that April will be a month filled with health, wealth, happiness, creativity, and all things bright and beautiful. La dee DA da da da. Let’s all skip around our home environments like idiots run amok, for today we have leave to do such things. In the meantime, I am sitting here like so much foolish fish writing these here notes.
Yesterday was the final day of March and it was fairly innocuous. I slept until eleven-thirty – just under eight hours as we had a little jolt of a minor earthquake at four in the morning. Once up, I answered e-mails, did a few things on the computer, and listened to music until the phone rang for my phone interview.
I think the real purpose of the interview was to talk about Leslie Neilsen, but we covered Nudie Musical stuff and a lot of The Creature Wasn’t Nice stuff. I think it went okay and I was quite lively. It lasted about forty-five minutes. Then I was really hungry but wanted something quick and easy so I just went to McDonald’s and got stuff, brought it back and ate it all up. It was fine and hit the spot. Then I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Yesterday, I watched more episodes of Auquarius, finishing season one, which I thought would never end – thirteen episodes it was and too many subplots that have nothing to do with what the movie is purportedly about, which is Charles Manson, albeit a heavily fictionalized version. It did not do well in the ratings and I’m surprised they renewed it, although they probably had no choice, since they were nowhere near getting to the infamous murders. So, some wag at the network I’m sure dictated that season two had to start with that, which it did, in a few flash forwards. But we’re back to the subplots in short order and the whole thing just feels completely schizophrenic. My favorite thing in each episode is when they cut to a record player, which has about six LPs stacked on the turntable (I can pretty much tell you that by 1967 no record player was really doing the stacked thing, but that’s another story), with the needle dropping down on the record. It’s the same shot in every episode, no matter what location we’re in. So, if your watching this all at once, I guess the takeaway is that every person has the same turntable with the exact same records stacked on the platter, with the exact same stylus. I will commend this show and say that it took nine episodes to get to the first vomit scene, but the second episode of season two makes up for lost time.
That was most of the evening, and then I listened to music. I mentioned that someone gave me a DVD with two old commercials on it – one I had no memory at all of shooting, but as I watched it I kind of remembered being in a pool in something. The other one I absolutely remembered because the poor actor playing opposite me, the wonderful F. William Parker, was made to do take after take after take, because the clients, the ad agency, and the director were not in agreement about what he was doing. We did over 100 takes of the last part of it, with the problem for me being that I was improvising at the end and had to keep it funny and fresh. I do believe they ended up using take four or five and as you’ll see, Mr. Parker is just fine. Anyway, because I had the exact product names I was able to find them on YouTube and shall share them forthwith or at least withforth. Here is the commercial for AquaChem, some pool cleaning thing, I guess.
And here is the AirCal commercial.
Weren’t those fun? I’d love to find more of them. I do have a 16mm reel somewhere in the garage or storage that has my classic Filmex commercial for their horror movie marathon – really funny, and a few others. I need to find that and get it transferred, because that same real has the full version of the Dirty Harry Strikes Back “trailer” from The Creature Wasn’t Nice, and it has some other fun stuff, too. I know where the 16mm reels box that’s here is, so maybe I’ll rummage through that – if it’s not there, then the other reels are in storage.
Today, a day in which we get to act foolish, I shall hope for good news about the book order shipping, I’ll eat, I’ll hopefully pick up packages, and then we have our first Kritzerland rehearsal, which I’m very much looking forward to.
The rest of the week is meetings and meals, our second Kritzerland rehearsal, then our stumble-through, and then sound check and show.
Well,dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, act foolish, hopefully get good news about the book order shipping, eat, hopefully pick up some packages, do some banking, and have a rehearsal. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite movies and TV programs about doctors? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy that it is April and that spring is here, and April fools rush in. And it is my fervent hope and prayer that April will be a month filled with health, wealth, happiness, creativity, and all things bright and beautiful.