Well, dear readers, I was spirited away to the magical land known as Genghis Cohen for my first meal there in two years. Our very own Marshall Harvey gathered me up at four o’clock yesterday and off we went. We took Laurel Canyon over the hill and there was, rather surprisingly, no traffic at all. When we walked into Genghis Cohen there were zero diners. We were asked if we had a reservation and I had to laugh, which no one could see since we had masks on. We had to show not only proof of vaccination but IDs, too. That seemed excessive to me and more than a little annoying. For the past eight weeks or more cases have been WAY down, hospitals are, once again, fairly empty, and the one word that seems to have disappeared from the English language is – Delta. But instead of letting us all know that they keep acting like things are terrible and making it more difficult for establishments. I understand the why of it – they want to force people into getting vaccinated by making it more difficult to go anywhere, but for those of us who have, all along, done as we were asked, it’s just irritating at this point. I ordered for us – orange chicken (extra crispy), crackerjack shrimp, and garlic chicken. The food arrived rather quickly and we both loaded up our plates with the various and sundried foodstuffs. The garlic chicken was simple and excellent, as was the crackerjack shrimp. But, as always, it was the orange chicken that took the day – done just the way I love it, it was as good as it’s ever been, and that’s saying something. What a treat and now I just want to go back as soon as possible.
After that, we were both really full, like REALLY full. We headed over to the May Company at Fairfax and Wilshire, parked in their new parking facility, and then took a little walk over to the museum to the east. There’s almost nothing left of it, actually, since they’ve torn down the main building now and it’s just dirt at the moment. Why they felt they had to do it is anyone’s guess. Then we walked back to the May Company, which is now the Academy Museum. Of course, when I walked in I wanted to go up to someone and ask where the notions were, but I refrained, oh, yes, I refrained. We saw several exhibits – it’s nice and all and should be considering the hundreds of millions they spent on it, well, $482 million to be exact. There are some curious choices there and the most curious is film music, of which there is virtually one person named and it’s the woman who won the Oscar last year. You’d think that an artform that has literally “made” movies into hits or made them iconic, would deserve a major thing there, but that’s how stupid the Academy is these days, too busy, I suppose, trying to be as PC and woke as possible. Celebrate the artform, people, and be woke elsewhere. If I listed the inaugural exhibits, you’d know exactly what I’m talking about – well, a couple are Me, too, racism and sexism in animation – well, you get the idea.
Then we headed into the big theater there, which is actually in a dome-like building adjacent, where the May Company parking lot used to be. It’s quite ugly, but inside it’s nicely appointed, it seats around 1,000 people, and the seats are comfortable and they’ve done a great job of making sure no one blocks anyone. There is something in front of the screen that resemble shutter kind of blinds rather than a curtain. These rise to reveal the screen. The screen is quite large. We and about a hundred others were there to see a brand new 35mm print of Hayao Miyazaki’s film, Spirited Away. Before it began, we had a nice text lecture about the Native Americans who lived on the land there. I do love to be lectured at a movie theater. And then we were treated – and it was a treat – to Spirited Away. I’d only seen it once before, on DVD and really enjoyed it – in fact, it was my first Miyazaki film and I was instantly hooked and soon thereafter caught up with all his others. It’s such a terrific movie – perhaps ten minutes too long for its own good, but with memorable characters, a wonderful story, great animation, and an amazing score by Joe Hisaishi, which I’m listening to as I write these here notes.
But the most interesting thing was the print. It was a great-looking thing in a way Blu-rays and now 4K aren’t and you want to know why? Because I’m sure it was made off a printing internegative, which means you’re two generations from the camera negative. That’s what we saw when we saw movies shot on film, although some film prints were made from the camera negative, especially in 70mm releases. That’s why when they do these new transfers from the camera negative, we’re seeing things you would never have seen in movie theaters via projection. Yes, the images are razor sharp, but the camera people knew what the release prints were what people would be seeing and that those release prints hid any number of things. And seeing this as it should be was magical, what film should look like and something that digital will never capture. And, of course, doing 4K transfers from older films is just silly in most cases as there’s nowhere near 4K on the negatives – but people do like their buzzwords and believe all that hype, but are surprised when the uptick from Blu-ray isn’t really all that apparent. And then there are the people who equate film with beautiful, heavy grain – the DVD Beaver guy says that constantly and it’s just ridiculously inane. Spirited Away had such light grain you barely even noticed it. It had texture, yes, but the film grain was extremely fine. But this new theater is state-of-the-art for projection and sound, and I have to say that the sound was amazing. It was a wonderful way to revisit this lovely film. What wasn’t so lovely was wearing a mask inside for over two hours – no, that’s not lovely at all, especially when you’ve had smelly Chinese food. After the movie, Marshall drove me home – no traffic at all – and then I caught up with e-mails and began listening to Joe Hisaishi’s lovely music.
Yesterday was not much of a day. As mentioned, my achy feeling had vacated the premises early last evening, but my tummy was not up to snuff and while I fell asleep quickly around three, I was up at four-thirty until six. Then, thankfully, I fell back asleep and stayed asleep until one, so definitely eight non-consecutive hours. Once up, I answered e-mails, let the motor car’s engine run for a few minutes, since I wasn’t going to be driving anywhere, then shaved and showered, Marshall arrived, and off we went. It was amazing to look down Wilshire Blvd. with all its monstrous office buildings and mixed-use spaces, as well as what’s been torn down to make room for the new subway station that will purportedly be open next year. Compare that to those 1951 driving videos I posted. Guess what? It’s not better now. What a lovely world it was – people dressed well, walked, streets weren’t overcrowded, and Wilshire in the Miracle Mile had gorgeous department stores along with a lot of empty space. In fact, the guy who posts these posted a new one. Here’s the link.
This one drove me rather crazy for ninety minutes, trying to figure out what was playing at the Ritz. I got a couple of things pretty quickly, but nothing that helped me figure out the movie. All I could get from the marquee was “Major Studio Feature Preview”, which took up one line and one word on the second line – followed by a word that looked like “Treasury” and a shorter word I couldn’t make out, other than it looked like it ended in “T”. And then below that I was able to get the word “Mark.” People were guessing late 1940s or right around 1950, based on the motor cars. The camera, which is first traveling east, stops just short of the 4-Star Theater – far enough away that it wasn’t possible to read anything on the marquee. Then we go west and it’s similar to the other videos – had I had my thinking cap on I would have realized just HOW similar, which might have helped me figure it out. But all I could think about was the Ritz and what was playing there. Then I went to Google and searched all movies released in America in 1950. The only “Mark” was Mark of the Gorilla and there was no film with the word “Treasury” in the title. I quickly ascertained that Mark of the Gorilla never played the Ritz.
Then I searched the same thing for 1951 and found a film called Mark of the Renegade. It was released in July of 1951, which was the year of the other videos. I went to newspapers.com and searched that title and July 1951 and voila – found it and it did indeed play the Ritz. So, I had that and from there I simply searched each day that week and sure enough, the following Tuesday, the day before the bill would change, was the Major Studio Feature Preview and I’m fairly certain the two words that followed it on the marquee were Tuesday night. So, I was able to post that this driving video was shot on July 31, 1951, which means the video that had the El Rey playing a double bill of The Frogmen and another film would have been shot the next day, as that’s when that opened. Ninety minutes, but I did it.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll relax until it’s time to mosey on over to the theater for our three-hour rehearsal. After that, I’ll get something to eat and then I’ll come home and watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow, it’s another three-hour rehearsal, and then on Monday we do the staged reading. And then it’s on to the Kritzerland holiday show.
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, relax, have a rehearsal, eat, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite anime films from Japan? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have been spirited away to Genghis Cohen.