Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, music is off for the time being and for the time being music is off, and there are times, I realize, when I just don’t feel like writing these here notes and yet the world goes round and the notes must be written for if they are not written they will be unwritten and that will result in chaos and a world run amok with new horrors every day, mass confusion on an epic scale – oh, wait – we already have all that. Well, if there were no notes imagine how much WORSE it would be. No, there simply must be notes – of course, I could offer notes such as G-sharp or A-flat but that would just be more of the same, if you get my meaning and I know you do, for there are no smarter people on all the Internet than you dear readers, and that is a fact and a fact can be a beautiful thing. I don’t really have a clew as to what the HELL I’m talking about but at least I got through the first paragraph.
Here, in the second paragraph, I will mention that I only got six-and-a-half hours of not enough sleep. Once up, I had to listen to a track, then the next hour was spent finessing said track, but we got it done and all was well. Then I ordered the turkey, coleslaw, Swiss, and 1000-Island dressing sandwich from Daughter’s Deli. And the good news was it was not expensive because I had the credits from the two messed up orders. It arrived an hour later, and it was great. I didn’t have anything but the sandwich and a pickle. I ascertained that there was no mail to pick up, so I did some work on the computer, listened to some music, and then somehow the afternoon was done, and I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a motion picture on Blu and Ray entitled Falling Down. I liked it quite a lot when it came out in 1991 and found it captured what everyone was feeling really well. But here was are, almost thirty years later and not much has changed, I’m afraid. It doesn’t quite have the punch it had back then because the world is so different now, technology-wise – today, everything would get filmed and go viral and the cops would be onto the guy in no time flat. And you know what? Somehow, back in 1991, we all got along just fine without cell phones (which were just starting to be personal devices outside of the car), without viral videos, without social media – and as much as I enjoy the convenience of certain things today, I’m not sure that part of today’s world is so much better. Where the movie really succeeds is in the casting – great performances by Michael Douglas and Robert Duvall and the large supporting cast. The geography of De-fens “going home” from around Seventh and Alvarado does get funky and amusing in the “nobody will notice department.” But when you’re down by Wilshire and Alvarado and in the next shot you’re at Wilshire west of La Brea, well, not really possible. I’m not much of a fan of Joel Schumacher as a director, but he does well here, and the score by James Newton Howard works very well. What doesn’t work very well is the transfer – a transfer done for DVD slapped onto a Blu-ray does not a great transfer make, so this one really could use a fresh transfer because it could look a whole lot better.
Then I watched another motion picture on Blu-ray, entitled Another Woman, a film of Woody Allen in Ingmar Bergman mode, specifically Wild Strawberries mode. I’m not a fan of these serious Allen pictures, mostly because while the ideas of the writing are interesting, the dialogue is always in that stilted Allen style – no one actually talks like that. But again, what makes this at least watchable is the seventy-seven-minute running time (sans opening and closing titles), and the performances of Gena Rowlands, Ian Holm, and in a small but great role, Sandy Dennis, who almost walks away with the film in her ten minutes on screen. Transfer seems fine.
After that, I did a quick Gelson’s run and found that they have a small version of the Wolfgang Puck Caesar salad, so I got that, some prosciutto, and some melon, came home, ate the small Caesar, and had a bit of the prosciutto and melon for my evening snack. Then I listened to music and relaxed.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll probably take a little drive, I’ll eat, I’ll have a Zoom session at five, but mostly it’s a ME day of watching, listening, and relaxing. Also, since I set up the remix of the Sandy Bainum/Me album last night, if anyone would like to check it out, it’s ten bucks via PayPal the usual way. Be sure your e-mail address is in the invoice, because then you’ll be mailed a link from which you can download the album. You must listen to it loud and I recommend playing it right from the folder – there are WAV files (absolutely no compression, just the first-generation sound). If you hover your mouse over the WAV you’ll see a “play” arrow – just click on that and it will play. And listen in order so you can hear the new sequencing. Any questions, ask away.
This week is all Kritzerland show stuff, and I’m hoping to hear something about several pending things. It will be a busy week, I’m sure.
Let’s all put on our pointy party hats and our colored tights and pantaloons, let’s all break out the cheese slices and the ham chunks, let’s all dance the Hora or the Twist, for today is the birthday of our very own TCB. So, let’s give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to our very own TCB. On the count of three: One, two, three – A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO OUR VERY OWN TCB!!!
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up when I’m up, take a drive, eat, have a Zoom session at five, then watch, listen, and relax, and send out the WAV files to anyone who orders ‘em. 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, glad to have gotten past the unwritten notes.