Well, dear readers, I must write these here notes in a hurry because it is later than late and I was having a long telephonic conversation, so I must jump right in with verve and a pep in my step, notes-wise, whilst I listen to the sax player Phil Woods play The Windmills of Your Mind with M. Legrand and his orchestra. It’s quite a lovely album of mostly Legrand tunes marvelously done. Prior to that I was listening to the musique of Philipe Gaubert, a very good French composer from France. And prior to that I watched a motion picture entitled The Forty-Year-Old Version. The title alone was so arch and awful that I held out no hope for what I was about to see. Now, this film has a 98% Rotten Tomatoes rating and after I watched I read one laudatory review after another, proclaiming a brilliant new film director/writer was born. I guess I’m just not seeing the same movie they are. The movie I saw was someone putting their life on film, in black-and-white scope yet, with a few color inserts. Lots of shaky cam and jump cuts for no reason, and I found not any of it very interesting. I suppose it’s a nice catharsis to work out your life issues on screen and I suppose there’s an amusing moment or two, but mostly what we get our cliches about playwriting and producers and actors and I just didn’t care about any of it. The director/writer also stars, of course, since it’s about her. She seems personable enough, but I just don’t get the adulation, frankly and I certainly don’t get the critics, but what else is new and what do I know? I’ll tell you who knows – the summer knows, which Phil Woods just happens to be playing on the saxophone. I wonder who named the saxophone and I wonder if the telephone stole the phone part? These are the questions that are roaming around in the windmills of my mind even though Phil Woods and M. Legrand aren’t doing that song right now. I also tried to watch a bit of Hansel Und Gretel from a Scottish opera company that was linked in yesterday’s posts. I could take only about ten minutes of it – modern dress, no attempt to make the female playing Hansel look like, I don’t know, a boy, and staging that looked like bad grade school. Before it began, we had to listen to the director telling us her thoughts – she looked like she was just out of college. Maybe this is an amateur company, and the reduced band didn’t do Mr. Humperdinck’s music any favors.
Yesterday was okay, I suppose. I got about seven-and-a-half hours of sleep, the helper never showed up nor did she e-mail me, there were no packages to pick up, and so I just did stuff on the computer and waited for food to arrive, which I’d ordered before going to bed. This is a Chinese jernt in Studio City that I’ve been by a gazillion times since it’s directly next door to my Bank of America. The reviews on Yelp are all over the place, but I got a $25 off coupon from Uber Eats, who I’ve never used before for food delivery. So, I ordered orange chicken, extra crispy, and cashew chicken, along with egg rolls and white rice. Even with the $25 off it still came to slightly over $21. Amazing. Anyway, the food arrived around three and I began eating. The verdict? Okay. The orange chicken was not extra crispy or even crispy, but it was decent enough. The cashew chicken wasn’t like any other cashew chicken I’ve ever had. What I’ve had usually has a darker brown sauce, but this had a light, clear sauce. But I ended up liking that best and ate all of that. I had a couple of helpings of the orange chicken but didn’t eat more than half of that. The eggrolls were pretty okay. I don’t think I need to go back. It’s such a shame that Genghis Cohen is so far from here – the food would be cold by the time I got it home, but I might try it all the same.
After eating, I took a short drive around the neighborhood, then listened to music and relaxed a bit, but I was so stuffed that I had to go sit on my couch like so much fish.
The movie you know about, and after the movie I took another short drive and then I listened to more music and then had the long telephonic conversation.
Tomorrow, I want to be up by ten or ten-thirty at the latest to deal with scheduling stuff for project two, and then it’s just more of the same as yesterday – I may watch Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom on the computer, since we didn’t get a screener for that. I just get really weary sitting in my computer chair (stool) and I like sitting on the couch like so much fish much better for the watching of motion pictures. Sometimes Amazon delivers packages that are due on Monday on Sunday so I’ll check to see if they were, otherwise, I do have to write two sets of liner notes, which will probably take up the entire day. I’ll go out and pick something up to eat, perhaps pasta papa or perhaps I’ll give a new place a try. There’s a little sub shop not too far from here that gets high marks, so maybe that. Monday, I have several brief visits to do, and then we’ll get everything ready for the new Kritzerland CD announcement, and the rest of the week will be book stuff, I hope, although I didn’t see Grant’s car here so I doubt he got to it when he said he would. And then getting tracks done for the March Kritzerland.
Let’s all put on our pointy party hats and colored tights and pantaloons, let’s all break out the cheese slices and the ham chunks, let’s dance the Hora or the Peppermint Twist, for today is the birthday of dear reader Matthew. So, let’s give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to dear reader Matthew. On the count of three: One, two, three – A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO DEAR READER MATTHEW!!!
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by ten-thirty, deal with scheduling stuff for project two aka project two, do whatever needs doing, ascertain whether there are any packages to pick up, 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, wondering if I just don’t know from most of today’s most lauded motion pictures – but happy to know that the summer, at least, knows.