Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to music whilst chewing on a Grether’s Pastille, formerly Allenbury’s Pastille. It’s sad when chewing on a Grether’s Pastille is the high point of one’s day, but I’m afraid that’s where we are right now. I am quite ready for this pandemic to be over and done with. In fact, I give a thumbs down pan to the pandemic. I am, however, ever hopeful that it will be over than the dire predictions of the doom and gloom brigade. I suppose I understand why they do what they do (better say it’s going to last a long time and then if it doesn’t say it was better to say that and be wrong than the other way around), but I’m just completely bored of hearing it. They never even give a piece of a carrot of good or better news. You’ll note that suddenly there is not a single mention of Italy this past week and I have looked, believe me. Why is that? I have my suspicions that it’s peaked there, and the numbers are going down, but why give everyone that information when they can gloom and doom it? In any case, I’ve had more than enough of this self-isolation stay at home stuff – I’m doing it, oh, yes, I’m doing it, but I’ve had more than enough of it. I don’t think people take into account that a single person living alone has no one to interact with other than an occasional telephonic conversation or being on the Internet. But, let’s keep our good thoughts in the air and universe. Positivity helps, you must believe this. To that end, I am putting here a song I wrote back in the late 1980s and which ended up in Welcome to My World. This is Sami Staitman, that show’s star, singing it. They lyric for this song appears in my new book. I print it here so you can sing along with the chorus. It’s called Everything’s Gonna Be All Right, and it will be, oh, yes, it will be, and life will go on and we’ll be able to do what we please when we please and there will be toilet paper for all.
Gettin’ through the day
When the whole world is in your way
It always seems so tough.
When things don’t work out
You want to stand and scream and shout
And say “enough’s enough”.
Every day a dilemma
How can you make it through?
Every day it’s like them against
You-know-who
But you gotta hold on
And you gotta hold tight
And you gotta take every day the way that it comes.
’Cause if you can hold on
And if you can hold tight
Then I’m telling you that everything’ll work out
You’ll find your way and
Everything is gonna be all right.
When you feel alone
And you feel stranded – on your own
And days are really rough.
Though things may look bleak
And life is kind of up the creek
You gotta call life’s bluff.
At the end of the tunnel
There’s a beautiful light…
No more gloom ‘cause the sun’ll be
Shining bright
So, you gotta hold on
And you gotta hold tight
And you gotta take every day the way that it comes.
’Cause if you can hold on
And if you can hold tight
Then I’m telling you that everything’ll work out
You’ll find your way and
Everything is gonna be all right…
Everything is gonna be all right.
Yesterday was yesterday and what more need be said, really? I slept poorly, only about three or four hours. I fell asleep quickly but once I woke up that was pretty much it. So, up I got, answered e-mails, and then went to the mail place to pick up a couple of packages. There were no customers at that early hour, so that was nice. I guess the Amazon Return Brigade doesn’t get up early. I thought about stopping at Gelson’s across the street, since there were plenty of parking spaces open, but I just wasn’t in the mood, so I came right home.
I did some work on the computer, and then I rustled up about eight ounces of Wacky Noodles and ate them all up – it was a good batch. Then I did some work at the piano, listened to music, and then sat on my couch like so much fish.
Yesterday, I decided to watch the Blu and Ray of Bell, Book, and Candle, starring Mr. James Stewart, Miss Kim Novak, and Mr. Jack Lemmon, along with Hermione Gingold and the divine Elsa Lanchester. I owned a gorgeous 16mm IB Tech print of it and always loved the look of the film and I was a big fan of the film’s director, Richard Quine. I must admit that the minute the credits were over I dozed off for over an hour. Then I watched the whole thing. It’s a beautiful film to look at and Kim is excellent as is everyone. I don’t find it all that funny, but I do enjoy it very much. I remember thinking that the transfer from Sony was not quite up to their usual stellar standards, but it’s still very good and the color is wonderful and outside of the opticals, it’s very sharp.
After that, I was in the mood for Once Upon a Time in the West, so brought in both the Paramount Blu-ray and the Eyetalian DVD, which is a good ten minutes longer. I watched the first seventy minutes of each but will only continue watching the Paramount. I don’t think the cut that’s on the Eyetalian was ever actually released anywhere. The ten additional minutes don’t really add up to all that much, frankly. In the first seventy minutes the Eyetalian is only about ninety seconds longer, with most of that happening in the opening scene with extra shots that actually harm the rhythm of the scene, and then a few extra shots at the train station, all not important. The color on the Eyetalian is horrible – all yellow all the time. I was actually surprised by the Paramount Blu-ray, which I don’t remember looking as good as it looks. Go know. I’ll finish that up today.
Then I had some pretzels and the rest of the little snack pack of salami and provolone. Oh, and I had the other mini-pizookie, which I heated up a little and had with ice cream. It was great. Then I relaxed, listened to music, and cleaned up the pots and pans and dishes. It was beginning to look like a PAN-demic with so many pans out, so now it’s all prettified.
Today, I really need to sleep in, then once up I suppose it will be another day of amusing myself. I’ll do stuff, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages although I don’t actually think any are due, I will have to go to Gelson’s and get some Diet Coke tonight as I’m down to the last few cans and I’ll need to take the motor car out for a spin anyway. Then I’ll watch, listen, and perhaps chew on a Grether’s Pastille so that I can have another high point of the day. For food, I’m thinking about having Chinese food delivered. We shall see.
The rest of the week will be the rest of the week, with many thrilling things happening, I’m sure. I will be making Levi! available for streaming for a couple of days only via a link that I’ll make available.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, sleep in, amuse myself, do stuff, hopefully pick up some packages, go to Gelson’s for Diet Coke, then watch, listen, and chew on a Grether’s pastille. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite films of Miss Elsa Lanchester and Miss Hermione Gingold? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I shall remember that everything is gonna be all right.