Well, dear readers, I’m afraid to tell you that the hoarders are at it again. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, the hoarders are out in force once again and doing their nasty little business. I’d heard tales of this from other places around the country but had seen no evidence of it here until last night doing a Ralph’s run. As I parked, I saw a lovely man and woman loading up their car with what must have been five hundred bucks’ worth of stuff, two completely stuffed carts of stuff. I will never understand this mentality. The “stay at home” order we’re currently under is really no different than it was six months ago save for outdoor dining being shut down for three weeks (being challenged in court, by the way). But these crazies storm the shelves and the first thing I noticed at Ralph’s last night was there were zero paper towels. Now, maybe someone can explain the necessity of having to have huge rolls of paper towels because I’m not getting it. Toilet paper I understand, but they had some of that, but no paper towels. I find it mind boggling. There were plenty of apples, various brands, but my brand, Honey Crisp – almost nothing left, like Honey Crisp is the only brand they could buy. Onions? Decimated. Folks, it’s apples and oranges, not apples and onions. Tuna? Picked over. Small things of sour cream. Not in evidence. People are, I think, basically panic-driven and nuts, but there’s nothing to be done about it and it was predictable. The fact is, if you’re in need of paper towels or toilet paper, Amazon has them in bulk and reasonable prices and they’re delivered in just a day or two. I was able to get three Honey Crisp apples that didn’t look bruised or even Bruced, and the one onion that didn’t look like the aftermath of Hiroshima and had no trouble with the other items I wanted. The fact is, I tried to do this online at Pavilions and their sorry site would not process the order – constant error messages. I called them and they had me log out and log in, do Safari and then Chrome, same story for both. She filed a ticket, and I went to Ralph’s. The other thing that amused me yesterday was looking up The Queen’s Gambit, the 40-year-old novel by Walter Tevis, the first edition of which could be had for about twenty bucks just one year ago. Now? Cheapest price for a decent copy – $900. Thankfully, no one’s buying those copies. I wouldn’t mind seeing it but I’m not joining Netflix again ever, so will have to wait until it comes out on Blu-ray, should that day ever arrive. In any case, the return of the hoarders has begun, just in case you’re interested. Otherwise, I’m just sitting here like so much fish, listening to two symphonies written by a Dutch composer called Jan van Gilse, written when he was twenty. I like ‘em. He had a very interesting life, defied the Nazis, and died of pneumonia. Thankfully, the label CPO, as they’ve done for so many unknown composers, has recorded his four completed symphonies and his opera. Oh, and he studied composition with – Engelbert Humperdinck.
Yesterday was a busy little day. I got eight hours of sleep, got up, had a lot of e-mails to answer, then went and picked up a package and was surprised to find a little royalty check for the latest book and not a bad one at that – I can buy a few meals with it. I then came right home and made hot dogs for food. After that, I did a little work on project two, but the rest of the day was taken with getting the music cues for Doug’s playlet done. We also found out that we’re missing one close-up that we need – apparently the camera didn’t get turned on or glitched or whatever – we have the sound, just not the shot. So, I’m hoping we can grab that again, as it’s really needed. Happily, it’s a close-up and you don’t see much at all but the face of the person whose close-up it is, so we don’t need to recreate the set at all. And the close-up is only about ninety seconds long, so it would all go very quickly. We’re canvassing everyone to see when we could grab that. If we can’t, we’d have to play everything in a two-shot, which would lose some emotion you’d have by going to a close-up for important dialogue. Anyway, we shall see what we shall see.
After we finally finished all the music cues and I got them on their merry way to Marshall Harvey, I did a Zoom rehearsal, then I finally sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I finished watching 8 1/2. I must say, it’s still a brilliant film all these years later – very moving at times, always audacious, style-wise, with great performances, and one still marvels at how completely unique this film was when it came out, a complete one-off at that time. It’s also amazing to see how many filmmakers were not only influenced by it but who completely ripped it off in loving homage. The two that immediately come to mind are Anthony Newley’s blatant rip-off, Can Hieronymous Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness and then, of course, Woody Allen’s even more blatant “homage”, Stardust Memories. Anyway, it’s a classic and will always be a classic and it looks and sounds great and has a great Nino Rota score to boot.
After that, I checked out a bit of the Juliet of the Spirits transfer, which seemed just ever so slightly on the yellow side to my eyes, but which does have vivid colors that don’t quite sparkle like the amazing dye transfer prints. Then I watched the first twenty minutes of Nights of Cabiria. The restoration information that’s shown at the beginning of each film in the set, says this is from a 4K scan of a 35mm interpositive rather than the camera negative. I’m pretty sure I read a rave review about this transfer, but thus far it seems a little soft to me – I’ll watch more and see if I still feel that way, but it was nowhere near as sharp as La Strada or The White Sheik.
After that, I did the Ralph’s run. For my evening snack, I got two tiny pieces of ham and a tiny bit of potato salad from their deli and ate that, and it was fine. Then I had an apple. I bought a bunch of Healthy Choice frozen dinners of very low calories, just to have them in the house. After that, I listened to music. Earlier, I’d finished Tristan und Isolde, which I mostly enjoyed, but which does go on a bit long. For example, Strauss’s Salome is under 100 minutes while the Wagner is over three hours.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll do fixes on a chart I was hoping to do fixes on last night, and then I’ll send off the final two to get done, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, I’ll eat something light but fun, I’ll work on project two, I’ll hopefully hear if we can go grab our missing close-up, and then at some point I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow and Sunday I’m not sure what’s going on, other than she of the Evil Eye will be here and since there’s no more outdoor dining I have no idea what I’ll do to kill time. If we’re going to be able to get the close-up that will happen at some point, and then it’s project two, finishing up the charts and proofing and fixing them, and doing Kritzerland show stuff.
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, do whatever needs doing, do fixes, get the stuff for the final two charts where it needs to go, hopefully pick up packages, eat, work on project two, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player and your DVD/Blu and Ray player? I’ll start – CD, some William Alwyn string quartets. Blu-ray, the Essential Fellini Collection. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, not so thrilled that we’re having The Return of the Hoarders.