Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much tired fish, listening to some Alex North film music, namely All Fall Down, which is what I’m about to do, due to overtiredness. So, let me get right to the point, as Dorothy Fields put it in Sweet Charity.
Yesterday was a fine day. I was up at eight-thirty, she of the evil eye arrived fifteen minutes later, and since I was not going to eat breakfast, I hung around here until almost ten. At that point, I drove the two-minute drive to the Westfield Mall on Riverside and spent some fun time there, looking around and checking out various and sundried stores. Of course, I went into the Apple Store and played with stuff, and I went into some candy shop and looked around, but boy was it overpriced, like triple what you’d pay anywhere else. I looked in See’s Candy but didn’t wish to be tempted. Then I did something I’ve never done in any of my visits there: I checked out the food court. And I must say, I think I’ll be visiting there next week – there’s a Philly cheesesteak place, a Panda Express, two Japanese places and a few other interesting jernts. Who knew? I managed to kill almost two hours there, then I came home. A few minutes later, the Millers arrived – Hadley Belle, dad Dan, and mom Kendra.
We all moseyed on over to Barone’s for lunch. I wanted to be a good boy and I suppose I was, for me. We ordered an antipasto salad for the table. I’d been wanting to try it and that seemed a good way to do so. We ordered a medium square pepperoni pizza for the table, and then dad Dan also ordered carbonara, mom Kendra ordered Chicken parmesan, and Hadley ordered – well, I can’t remember what she ordered, actually. So, I had just a bit of the antipasto salad with their yummilicious Eyetalian dressing – it was actually great and I’ll be having it again. But I am definitely NOT ANTI-pasto, I’m PRO-pasto. And of course, I had four pieces of the pizza, but the pieces are very small – you can basically finish a little slice in two bites. I’m sure that four basically add up to two normal slices of pizza. It was the best the pizza’s been in ages, too, and it was all gone by the time we were finished.
Hadley and I talked about her plans, hopes, and goals. She’s a talented young ‘un and she has to transition from being a kid actor to being a young adult actor. It’s amazing how many young kids don’t do that successfully. After that, we came back here, then they went on their merry way back to Orange County or wherever they live in that direction. I went and picked up two packages – sadly, both were Kritzerland packages that were returned to us. I got a couple of mini-cupcakes from the cupcake place, then came home.
I spent some time with the Group Rep commentary, and got a good deal of act one done – it’s mostly a cut and paste job and then finessing it to make sense for the Group Rep. That took a bit of time. Then, on the computer, I watched a new “Netflix” “special” about Laugh-In – kind of a now tribute to the show, featuring some of today’s comic actors and three Laugh-In regulars – JoAnn Worley, Ruth Buzzi, and Lily Tomlin. And let me tell you, they were the only funny thing about the show, which was taped at the Kodak. Well, Billy Crystal was also funny, but these other “comics” – wow. An abundance of the “F” word – that’s about the height of their humor. But the clips were great, and much of them were as funny today as they were back when they originally aired. And the guests Laugh-In got back in the day were amazing. So, it was partially enjoyable, and if I never see any of these sorry “comics” again it will be too soon. To me, there’s nothing unfunnier than someone who smugly thinks they ARE funny. I then sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I finished watching Yanks, the John Schlesinger film starring Richard Gere, Lisa Eichhorn, Vanessa Redgrave, William Devane, Rachel Roberts, and lots of other good folks. I love this film. There – I’ve said it and I’m glad. I loved it when I saw it originally back when it came out and it works just as well now. The writing is wonderful, it’s a beautiful film to look at, courtesy of Dick Bush’s cinematography, and the performances are just great. I certainly was no Richard Gere fan back then, but he’s charming in this, and Lisa Eichhorn is incandescent and it’s shocking she did not become a major star. Vanessa Redgrave is great and even William Devane, who normally rubs me the wrong way, is fine in this. Rachel Roberts is also great, and Tony Melody, an underappreciated Brit actor gives a fantastic performance as Rachel Roberts’ husband. And the score by Richard Rodney Bennett is so wonderful – the most heartbreakingly beautiful music – its two major themes for the two romances are just magical and stunning. It’s one of my favorite film scores ever. The transfer on the Twilight Time Blu-ray, via Universal, looks really excellent, with perfect color and clarity. This one’s highly recommended by the likes of me.
After that, I made some rice and put some butter on it for my evening snack. And of course, ate the two mini-cupcakes.
Today, I have to be in the Hills of Beverly for a noon o’clock lunch, so won’t get to sleep in much. But I’m sure it will be fun. After, I’ll come back to the Valley, do some more cutting and pasting for the Group Rep commentary (I’m leaving holes for stuff where I have to actually write new commentary for stuff we’ve never done at Kritzerland), and then I’ll just relax.
Tomorrow is the first half of the Group Rep rehearsal – I think it begins around three-thirty. I’ll probably go to that food court around noon and get a sandwich or something. After the rehearsal, I’ll relax and begin to prep our next two releases. The rest of the week is meetings and meals, finishing the commentary, then there’s the second Group Rep rehearsal. Not sure if I have to see anything or not, so hopefully someone will remind me if I have to.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, have a noon o’clock lunch, do more commentary, and then relax. 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, happy to be PRO-pasto rather than ANTI-pasto.