Well, dear readers, I am entirely frustrated from doing what I’m trying to do, which I was trying to do before writing these here notes, but clearly I am not succeeding, so I’m writing these here notes so I can get over being entirely frustrated doing what I’m trying to do, not that I can really talk about what I’m trying to do simply because I mustn’t. Frustration can be frustrating, that much I’m learning. Frankly, I get frustrated when I’m frustrated, in addition to several other “F” words like flummoxed and flabbergasted, not to mention fricasseed. This has been going on for the past forty minutes if you must know. But, I’m calming down because calm relieves frustration. Now, before I go on, can someone please explain to me in a rational way why people have been setting off fireworks right now. This has become a thing over the past few weeks and if I can find the perpetrators, I would take said fireworks and illuminate a place that would make said perpetrators very uncomfortable. I think these morons simply do not understand what the noise of fireworks does to dogs and other animals. I mean, the sound of these fireworks has been going on for as long as I’ve been frustrated this evening. Thus ends paragraph one, one of frustration and fireworks, not necessarily in that order.
Yesterday was actually a frustrating day. I didn’t get to bed until three-thirty but rather than the sound of fireworks we had the sound of helicopters, about ninety minutes of helicopter noise. I finally fell asleep around five, I think, but was awakened by my idiot neighbors at ten-thirty, their obnoxious children screaming outside at the top of their lungs and the elders just as loud. I got up, did a few things on the computer, and went back to bed around noon and getting two more hours of sleep – eight hours but it sure didn’t feel like it. Once back up, I moseyed on over to the mail place to pick up a package, then came home and ordered a Chinese chicken salad from Stanley’s, which arrived about twenty minutes later. I ate it all up and it was, as always, excellent. It was too late already to do any garage hunting, so I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Yesterday, I finished watching Inside Daisy Clover. I was so excited to see it when it came out – I was at the Pantages on opening day. But for whatever reason, something about it didn’t click with me. I loved the director, the cast, the composer, but in the end, I walked away a little unsatisfied. I’ve seen it many times since and that’s basically how I always feel. It’s not the performances – they’re brilliant straight down the line. It’s not the direction, which is excellent. It’s not the score, which is one of my favorites. And the writing is excellent. So, what is it? I really don’t know. But because this new Blu-ray is so terrific, I kind of just bought into the entire thing this time because so much of it is so good. 1965 was an unusually strong year for actors, so Natalie Wood wasn’t even nominated. You can’t really argue with the nominees, although I can argue with the winner – Julie Christie, who won over Julie Andrews, Simone Signoret, Elizabeth Hartman, and Samantha Eggar. I would have actually nominated Wood over both Eggar and Christie. It may well be Wood’s finest performance. Robert Redford oozes charm, playing a cad, Christopher Plummer is also great, as is Ruth Gordon in her comeback film. One of the best performances in the film, and one which is never talked about, is by Katharine Bard as Plummer’s wife, all smooth surfaces and perfection until we finally see the real her. She didn’t have much of a career – lots of TV, but only five or six movies. And the score – one of the all-time greats by Andre Previn, and his and Dory Previn’s songs work very well in the musical sequences. Charles Lang’s photography is gorgeous, too. Interestingly, the film was a critical and box-office failure. But it was pretty brave for its day in the Redford character – not from his portrayal, mind you, but where it’s spelled out pretty clearly in dialogue. In the end, if you like this film at all, the Blu-ray is a must.
After that, I watched the first hour of The High and the Mighty on DVD. Haven’t seen it since the DVD came out and I’m enjoying it. Then I tried to do what I wanted to do, it wasn’t working, and frustration set in and here we are. And still the damn fireworks are thudding away in the distance. Damn them, damn them all to hell.
Today, I’ll get up when I get up, I have a two o’clock Zoom thing, I’ll try to get into the garage to hunt, I’ll make a show order, I’ll maybe even start writing commentary, I’ll eat, and then I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
This week is all Kritzerland show stuff – getting tracks done, a Zoom work session, a Zoom rehearsal, and then doing whatever else needs doing.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, get up when I get up, have a Zoom thing, try to hunt in the garage, make a show order, maybe start writing commentary, eat, and then watch, listen, and 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, where I shall try to have neither frustration nor fireworks.