Well, dear readers, here’s the thing I’d like to know: Who are the morons who sit and program signals so that you hit a red light every time. I mean, EVERY TIME. Even if it’s one block to the next signal, it’s red. Red. Too much damn red. This happened yesterday on the way to the storage jernt and I wanted to strangle an ostrich it was so irritating. I guess one could say they were in the red-light district. Miles and miles of red lights with no damn respite. By the way, I looked and looked, but there were no ostriches in sight because THEY got all the green lights. In other news, I finally finished making the tracks, doing the most difficult one last and nailing it on the first try, thank goodness. And now, Ormandy is doing Haydn and I’m still trying to like the music – if Ormandy can’t make me love it no one can, but his versions are at least not making me run for the hills. Currently, it’s symphony number 7 – the guy wrote 107 of ‘em. Prolific he was. But next up is a piece I really like by another “H” composer, Honegger, Arthur. Jeanne d’Arc au Boucher (Dear reader Jeanne and the Butcher). Looking forward to hearing that again. And prior to that I watched a motion picture I hadn’t watched since it came out on Blu and Ray a decade ago, Boogie Nights. As I said back then, I like the first third of the film quite a bit, the 70s stuff. They capture the look and feel of that era pretty well and as I also said back then it’s clear to me that the director saw The First Nudie Musical because there are certain moments in the first third that are shot just like our film. Burt Reynolds really is quite good in this, but so is the entire cast, which introduced a lot of people who’d go on to do a lot of film work, like Philip Seymour Hoffman, John C. Reilly, Heather Graham, and others, plus terrific folks like William H. Macy, Alfred Molina, and Julianne Moore. Mark Wahlberg does a good job, too. There’s a little too much improv for my taste. The middle third of the film is okay, but, for me, the final third just devolves into too much drugs and negativity – I get it, but it’s just a slog to get through. Most of it was shot on location in the Valley, where the director is from. It’s a little long at two hours and forty minutes. The Blu-ray looks good for being a decade old but could probably look a bit better now. I saw the film on its opening day, first show, at a multiplex on Hollywood Boulevard west of the Chinese and C.C. Brown’s – I don’t think it exists anymore. I felt then exactly as I felt now.
Yesterday was kind of an almost restful day. I only got about seven hours of sleep, got up, answered a lot of e-mails, got dressed and moseyed on over to the storage place, hitting every red light along the way. I had to find two titles for the helper, and thankfully I found them pretty quickly, one in the room on the same floor, and the other in the downstairs room. Whilst finding what I needed, I also found a full box of Two for the Seesaw, which has been out of print for years. So, I put it up on Amazon at a cheaper price than the gougers. I also found about ten copies of Subways Are for Sleeping, and that goes for really big dough these days, so I put that up, too. I also found a whole box of The Night They Raided Minsky’s/Gaily, Gaily, too. So, it was a worthwhile trip. Next time I go, I’ll stay a couple of hours and see what other treasures I might turn up.
I was there about thirty minutes and then headed straight home. Once home, I had more e-mails, some telephonic conversations, then I ordered a cobb salad from Stanley’s but using Grubhub – even though I had a five-dollar off coupon for Postmates, they’re fees are so ridiculous that it was eight bucks less via Postmates with no coupon at all. It arrived about thirty minutes later and it was really good and quite filling. Then I made the last of the tracks, found we just have one more person to cast for the reading, so I’m on the hunt for that now, and then I finally sat on my couch like so much fish and watched Boogie Nights.
After that, I had a little cheese and salami snack and an Atkins thing. I did a few things that needed doing, then listened to music and the rest you know because you know the rest.
Today, I’ll be up by eleven, the Blu-ray wraps are arriving soon thereafter, and I’ll sign them so that when we get the actual product those will ship with the extra wrap – that’s so much easier than me having to remove all that shrink wrap and take the wraps out of the packaging. That will probably take a couple hours, I’m sure. I’ll probably go somewhere for food prior to our four o’clock rehearsal at four o’clock and I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, too. Then we’ll have the first hour by ourselves, to run the thing several times, then our author will come and watch. He’ll then leave, and we’ll continue running the show. After that, I’ll come home and watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow, we have an early rehearsal for two hours, then I’m having an early meal at four with Robert Yacko, followed by a later snack with a friend prior to our 9:30 tech. Then I have to come right home and get some sleep, because she of the Evil Eye comes early the next morning and I have another eleven o’clock rehearsal. Once that’s done, I can have some time to myself. Sunday, they’re having a run-through of all the plays, but we can’t do our show since one of our two actors can’t be there. I’m thinking we’ll come in on Monday and do a few runs then, then on Tuesday we play our one preview, and on Thursday we open. Our schedule is Thursday and Saturday for six weeks.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by eleven, sign Blu-ray wraps, eat out, hopefully pick up packages, run our playlet several times, do it for the author, run it more, and then I’ll watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite films of Mr. Burt Reynolds? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, hoping to not visit the red light district for some time.