Well, dear readers, if you must know the truth, everything is killing me. It began with my feet, as you know, and then came the pile on, oh, yes, then came the pile on. Or was it the pylon? And why is that? That is because I, BK, after insisting there would be no way to do a four-mile walk again one day later, and after deciding to do a one-mile walk, which I thought was doable – I did a four-mile walk, albeit in the opposite direction – my house all the way to Ventura Blvd. and Sepulveda. Call me crazy, call me irresponsible, call me madam, or call me bwana, but I did it and I was actually okay until the final mile, at which point everything was killing me – the entire body revolted and said, “What a revoltin’ development this is.” My entire body began killing me – feet, legs, back, chest, ears – I kept passing massage places and seriously thought about stopping and getting one, but I was sweaty and gross so I did not. It was a brisk walk, though, although I hobbled for the last three blocks or so. I hobbled, I tell you.
I was up early, at eight-thirty, she of the Evil Eye arrived and I went to Jerry’s Deli for my she of the Evil Eye light breakfast, which consisted of a bacon and cheese omelet, fruit, and an English muffin, all good. After that, I drove to the mail place, but first took a bit of a walk as I knew the mail wouldn’t be out yet. It didn’t matter, since there was nothing for me at all. Then I went to our Westfield mall near the home environment, to kill a little more time. The most interesting discovery was that there’s a kind of mini-Ben and Jerry’s there and I looked at the flavors, and they have a froyo version of their toasted coconut fudge almond chip thing and boy it was tempting. I will try it this very week for sure, perhaps even this day. I wish they’d package that one and sell it in stores, because being froyo it’s many less calories and much less fat.
Then I came home, answered e-mails and stuff, then I sat on my couch like so much fish and watched a motion picture on DVD entitled Splendor in the Grass. I know people LOVE this film, but I’ve always found it an overheated and overwritten potboiler, but that’s William Inge for you, and I don’t mean that negatively, as I like his style. What works are the performances – Natalie Wood is excellent, Warren Beatty makes a fine big-screen debut, Pat Hingle leaves no piece of scenery unchewed, it’s fun to see a young Gary Lockwood, and Audrey Christie and Fred Stewart are wonderful as Natalie’s folks. Barbara Loden radiates carnality, and Phyllis Diller has a small role. Elia Kazan’s direction is mostly excellent – a bit clunky here and there – and David Amram’s main theme is an absolute classic. The DVD transfer isn’t so great.
Then I walked the walk but did not talk the talk whilst walking the walk save for a couple of minutes when I ran into the Befeler family, who were sitting enjoying some Coldstones. Roger, wife Kim Huber, and their two lovely kids – Roger and Kim are both in the upcoming Kritzerland show. After the walk, I collapsed on my couch, trying to prevent everything from killing me. I watched a wretched film called Pretty Maids All in a Row, directed by the rather terrible Roger Vadim, starring Rock Hudson, Angie Dickenson, Telly Savalas, and lots of nubile teen girls, mostly undressed. I would love to show this film to a full house of “woke” PC people, just to watch an entire audience turn red, have heart attacks, and then run home to their computers to do their Facebook and Twitter outrage. Oh, yes, I’d love to do that. In essence, this film is a murder mystery about teachers having sex with underage high school girls. That’s pretty much the plot. The leading kid was John David Carson, who gives a performance of mind-numbing boringness. I’ve never understood his appeal, but his career didn’t last all that long, either. His last credit is some role in Pretty Women in 1990 – before that, it’s a lot of TV guest shots. I had no idea his father was western star, Kit Carson. John David Carson died in 2009 at the age of fifty-seven. One thing to know: Quentin Tarantino thinks Pretty Maids all in a Row is one of the ten best movies ever made. I think he says crap like that to watch people then ape what he says – you can see that on the iMDB reviews.
After that, I relaxed.
Today, I can sleep until around ten-thirty, then at noon o’clock I’ll arrive at Marshall Harvey’s home environment to see the last bit of changes to our master. One thing I’d come to not be happy with, although it took me a long time to figure it out, was the letterbox mattes. Back in early 1982, no one was really transferring 35mm prints to 3/4″ video. And long before the aspect ratio armchair experts would appear, I wanted to make sure that the print could not be screwed up by a projectionist, so I had the 35mm print hard-matted at 1.85. But on the tape, those mattes aren’t black – they have no contrast and they’re kind of a gray/maroon-ish kind of color. So, Marshall has replaced them with actual black mattes and I’m guessing that will be very helpful. We put back the tag of one scene and we removed one little line he’d added. He’s also judiciously used stuff from the DVD, which has a clearer image, where he can. And he’s done it in such a way that it’s not jarring. After that, I’ll eat, I know there will be a package at the mail place, I will probably not walk the walk unless it’s just a mile or so, and then I need to relax.
Tomorrow is our first Kritzerland rehearsal and I’m really looking forward to it. The rest of the week is meetings and meals, our second Kritzerland rehearsal, maybe attending an opening night, 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, see what will hopefully be the last bit of changes for The Creature, I shall eat, pick up a package, 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 have walked the walked, but not happy that everything is killing me.