Well, dear readers, whilst Bruckner plays, BK burns, oh, yes, while Bruckner plays, BK burns. And why is that, you might ask and I might tell you because it would be unseemly not to. Hint: I watched the first of the Roger Moore Bond films, which I’d never seen and which I hope to never see again. As much as I had problems with both Thunderball and You Only Live Twice, and as much as I had even more problems with Diamonds Are Forever, nothing could have prepared me for Live and Let Die. They should have let the series die, frankly, if this is the best they could do. I’ll just start with the wretched excuse for a script – no Richard Maibaum on this one, only Tom Mankiewicz and let’s just say it – he’s not his daddy. He is miles from being his daddy. I mean, apparently the dictum on this film was, let’s do everything wrong. It starts with the pre-credits sequence. I mean, you’re introducing a new actor in the role of James Bond. Have some fun with it. But it’s hard to have fun with it if that character doesn’t appear in the pre-credits sequence. Then, when we do meet Mr. Moore in his first appearance as Bond, it’s just so wrong. If Mr. Connery was dangerous, sexy, and steely and even occasionally vicious, Mr. Moore is a marshmallow and about as dangerous as an inert armchair. His wardrobe is awful, his sprayed within an inch of its life hair is ridiculous, he comes off as smarmy, the wisecracks have no bite and sound like lines Tony Randall might say in a Doris Day comedy. I can’t even remember WHAT the first Moore Bond film I saw was – maybe The Spy Who Loved Me, but I don’t think so. I think it may have been either Moonraker or Octopussy, both of which I walked out on halfway through. And yet, people went and people enjoyed these films. Maybe they get better at some point, but this thing is just tripe from start to finish. And let me tell you, the woke PC of today, well, their heads would explode. The film looks cheap as can be, it’s the first film since Goldfinger not in scope. Guy Hamilton is back but he can do nothing with it at all. And like Diamonds Are Forever, the supporting cast is pretty bad across the board. Jane Seymour (who gets an “introducing” credit) is certainly pretty. Yaphet Kotto seems completely uncomfortable, as he should. And the cherry on the failed sundae is the score. Mr. Barry was, apparently, busy on some other film. They spent all their dough on Paul McCartney’s song, which is okay, which left them with George Martin – a hugely talented man, but this score is just dreadful and you know it right from its first few bars. The whole thing is a debacle of the highest order, and yet it managed to get some decent reviews, which is really hard to believe. There’s a boat chase sequence that must go on for over twenty minutes – the same thing over and over and over again. And at that point, the film suddenly turns into Smokey and the Bandit with the introduction of Clifford James as a hick cop – one of the most embarrassingly unfunny performances in the history of cinema. By that point, we’re so far out of the James Bond universe it’s not even funny. Next up, The Man with the Golden Gun. I know I’ve seen at least some of it and recall not liking it, but it least it has a great title song (sung by Lulu) and a John Barry score, and at least Richard Maibaum is back as co-writer.
Yesterday was by turns frustrating and frustrating. I first got two hours of sleep, but went back to bed at some point and got another four, but that wasn’t enough. I picked up a package that I hope would be helpful, but I brought it home, set it up, and it didn’t work, so back it goes. It was a little thing that had a Thunderbolt 2 cord into my computer port and then the little device had USB ports for external devices. I plugged in the external CD drive and nothing. Oh, well, it was worth the try, I guess. And so, the only way I can listen to CDs whilst I work on the computer, is to plug the speakers into the laptop, and then use the CD drive with the laptop. There is no possible way to upload onto a flash drive so I can get it into the big boy computer’s iTunes because external drives don’t show up now. It’s a bad situation, unfortunately. I could do it via Dropbox, but the laptop’s memory is so small that Dropbox doesn’t work with it. It’s completely irritating on just about every level. If I could get it into the cloud that would work, I suppose, but I have no idea how that works, actually.
I had In-N-Out for food and at least that was good and not frustrating. Then David Wechter and I Zoomed, and had all kinds of Office 365 issues, so that was a wasted ninety minutes on the phone with them trying to solve them – we did, in a roundabout way, but we never did solve the initial problem, nor did our tech understand how it could even be happening. After that, I happily sat on my couch like so much fish, and unhappily watched Live and Let Die.
After the movie, I had a little turkey sandwich for a snack. I had a telephonic conversation, and then it was back to Bruckner and time to write these here notes.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll go to the mail place and return the gizmo, I’ll eat, and then we have a rehearsal for the play reading, working on scenes with staggered calls for the actors. Then I’ll come right home and watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow is exactly the same, Friday can be a ME day, Saturday is free, I think, and Sunday we have a longer rehearsal. Then we do the reading on Monday and on Tuesday I begin the other play.
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, go to the mail place and return a gizmo, eat. Have a rehearsal, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear reader any old question you like and we get to give any old answer we like. So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, as I continue my traversal through the battle of the Bonds.