Well, dear readers, I have had some green grapes and a red apple and now I am feeling very colorful, green and red-wise. I am also sitting here like so much fish, listening to various and sundried music. I have drunk some purified water for my health, and I am wending my way through Grant Geissman’s epic Taschen book, The History of EC Comics, which is about the history of EC Comics. It’s quite an impressive tone and if you lift it ten times a day you will build up your muscles. What else can I tell you? I can tell you I’m quite ready for this pandemic to be over and I am quite ready for life to resume, but sadly it appears that won’t be happening for several more months. I’m quite bored of all of it, I’m quite bored of not having much personal interaction, and I’m quite bored of not being able to go to my local hangouts and sit IN the damn restaurant, even though indoor dining was supposed to already resume. Everyone seems to have forgotten that, even though the cases and deaths have been steadily declining in California for almost two months. No one wants to hear that, however, but if they’d gone up by two percent, THAT would be everywhere. And let’s add that to the pile – I’m so bored of the social media negativity that so many seem to adore. As I’ve said before, a great form of solace comes from music, for which I’m grateful and I’m grateful to have built up such a large collection of music for the past forty years. I don’t think I could ever run out of stuff to listen to, frankly. And then there’s the Tube of You, which is a treasure trove, music-wise, and thanks to Clip Grab, it’s incredible to save anything that takes your fancy. If something takes my fancy, however, I immediately demand my fancy back – who wants to be without their fancy, for heaven’s sake. What else am I bored of? Ordering from the same three or four jernts on Grubhub – time to try only new jernts this week, although I do have food here for several days so who knows what I’ll do this week? And perhaps I’m a wee bit bored of the glut of online streaming stuff by a few folks who seem to want to make the pandemic about them. Of course, they could say to me, what are the Kritzerland shows? To which I would, of course, say the Kritzerland shows are what we’ve been doing for the past ten years, month in and month out. We’re not trying to make a pandemic about us, we’re not trying to stay relevant, we are doing what we’ve been doing and hopefully entertaining a few people. In fact, I think the pandemic has pretty much brought out the worst in many people – not ALL people, and certainly not you dear readers, but a lot of folks on social media. I think it’s why what happened the other day with that person who took me on happened. Everyone is on edge, it seems, and even I, BK, am sometimes on edge. I could go on, but this paragraph has become most unseemly, length-wise.
Yesterday wasn’t much of a day. I got seven-and-a-half hours of sleep, answered e-mails, then did some futzing and finessing for project one. Then I did more work on it, work at the piano, and more at the computer. Then I ascertained that there were no packages and no mail, so I made my food for the day. I made six ounces of pasta, maybe a little less, sauteed onions and chopped hamburger meat, made red sauce and dumped the onions and meat in and I went to add a little cayenne pepper – unfortunately, they changed the design of the container and I unscrewed the top because that’s what one used to do and one could tap out a bit. But now, it’s a flip-top, which I forgot about, so I inadvertently dumped a huge amount of cayenne pepper in. I was able to spoon out the majority, but it still was way too spicy for the likes of me and I’m still paying the price ($5.98, no tax). But it was pretty good save for the too much cayenne and I ate it all up.
That was very filling, and it rendered me full. After that, I did a little more work on project one, had a lovely telephonic conversation with dear reader Jeanne, and then finally sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a bit of Marnie, from the Hitchcock Blu-ray box, but the transfer is sickening, and I shut it off. It’s the worst of the batch and Universal should be ashamed of themselves for foisting such a thing on the paying public.
Then I decided to watch the Blu-ray of Big Eyes, the story about painter Margaret Keane and her butt cheek husband. I think I liked it better the first time I saw it back in 2015 but this time through Mr. Burton’s direction was just too cutesy and Christoph Waltz is just absurd – whether that’s what Burton wanted is unknown, but apparently he is nothing like the real Walter Keane. He’s all over the place and at times it seems like he thinks he’s doing a loud farce or even vaudeville. Amy Adams is great, and the supporting players are okay. I really hated the music Danny Elfman, just meandering, meaningless music that has nothing to do with what’s happening in the story, which is, of course, film music’s purpose. Transfer looks and sounds great. I’m fascinated by the Keane paintings and have been for fifty years or more.
After that, I started to watch Fritz Lang’s film, Cloak and Dagger, which I’ve only seen once before, but I just wasn’t in the mood, so perhaps I’ll finish that today. Then I did a quick Ralph’s run and got some green grapes and red apples (Honey Crisp, of course, although some fine soul had pretty much decimated the supply. There was not a single can of Diet Coke in the entire store, not even in bottles. I did get some Lean Cuisine frozen pizza bread things, some Marie Callender’s chicken pot pies, which I’m very fond of, and a couple of other calorie-friendly things from Marie – a mac-and-cheese thing and even lower in calories, surprisingly, fettucine Alfredo with chicken and broccoli. I assume it’s not a huge portion, but I find the Calleder frozen things really quite good, especially the chicken pot pie. I came home, did the dishes, then had an apple and some grapes as my snack and that was pretty much that.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll work on project one at the piano and the computer, I’ll make food – I think pasta again, this time with the rest of the ground beef (four ounces, if that), onions, farfalle, and a little butter and cheese – I’m thinking that will probably be good. Then I have another Zoom thing, for which I have to read something and hear something before I do it, and then I can watch, listen, and relax.
This coming week is a lot of Kritzerland show stuff – getting the singers the rest of the tracks, and hopefully hear from our errant and truant guest. I’ll work on project one and try to get halfway through it, which I think will be a good goal for the week, and at some point we’ll do a Zoom rehearsal for the group number and the duet so we can get those on track.
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, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll work on project one at both piano and computer, eat, read and listen and then do a Zoom thing, and then finally 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, happy to have gotten what I’m bored of off my chest.