Well, dear readers, this month is flying by, like a gazelle fawning over a fawn whilst singing You Could Drive a Person Crazy as a tribute to the late Stephen Sondheim, with whom the gazelle had a somewhat tenuous relationship because the gazelle changed the lyric of Send in the Clowns to Send in the Fawns, just because the gazelle is clearly obsessed with the damn fawns. What the HELL am I talking about? Otherwise, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to the music of John Veale, who was both a classical composer and a film composer of great worth who seems to be virtually unknown. He was unknown to me until I found him on YouTube, although I had seen some films that he scored. His classical music is very attractive and sounds rather like film music. But I’ve talked about him before, so no need to do so again. I wonder if anyone has listened to John Veale whilst having a meal of veal? Currently playing is his violin concerto, which REALLY sounds like film music. Prior to that, I watched the latest DGA screener to arrive, The Power of the Dog, a film of Jane Campion, who, for me, is one of the best female directors working and far better than any of these new flavors. In fact, in The Power of the Dog, the photography is gorgeous and actually has a point – it’s not, like Nomadland, comprised of fifty shots of an actress staring at the sunset, which is literally the only thing I remembered from Nomadland. Campion, unlike Nomadland’s director, is the real deal, with a really strong and interesting visual sense and an understanding of how to tell a story. The film is not what you’d call fast-paced – it’s slow and measured, but it creeps up on you slowly and keeps you interested because you never quite know where it’s going. It takes place in Montana in the 1920s when there were still vestiges of the Old West. I don’t really want to give away too much, so I’ll just say that I really liked it and the actors all do really well. If they can get the Academy members to actually watch it, it might just get up for some Oscars. Nice to see a movie that I liked, oh, yes, it was nice to see a movie that I actually liked.
Yesterday was certainly an okay day – a little odd at times, but certainly okay. I got about seven-and-a-half hours of sleep, got up, answered e-mails, did a few things on the computer, and then at one we had our little work session for the Kritzerland show, which went smoothly and quickly, not necessarily in that order. After that, I moseyed on over to the mail place – the car did start but I think if a few more hours had gone by it would not have. But it behaved the rest of the day, so that was good. The important envelope was there, thank goodness, along with the screener. From there, I went to the first bank to cash a check – that took, as always, less than five minutes from start to finish. Then I went to my bank and that took, as always, about twenty minutes because – one teller for the first ten minutes, then finally we got a second one. By the time I finally got out of there (there were only two ahead of me) there was a long line and apparently both ATMs were behaving poorly.
From there, I took note of how many cars were on the road. I was taking Riverside home and there’s a school near where I turn and anytime you have the misfortune to be driving when school lets out, you’re dealing with all the parents picking up their kids and blocking lanes. It was ridiculous and equally ridiculous were the four or five drivers who, earlier, had just pulled out of parking spaces without even looking to see if a car was coming – all those people would have caused accidents with a less aware driver than myself. And even if you honk or give them the finger, they’re just blithely unaware. These people shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near a motor car, let alone have the ability to drive them. I gotta tell you.
Then I came home, made tuna sandwiches for food, which were very good. Those were followed by a piece of cherry pie, and I have now satisfied my craving and don’t need another piece of cherry pie for a year. Then I sat on my couch like so much fish and watched The Power of the Dog. And the rest you know.
Today, I’ll be up by nine so that I can take possession of The Creature Wasn’t Nice video files. All that need to done is to pull them from that hard drive onto the one that already has Nudie Musical on it. Then I’m going to the storage place to find a few things and to bring a returned box of stuff that the helper needs. Our very own Donald Feltham is meeting there because it will be easier to find stuff if there’s two of us, at least that’s the hope. After that, I’ll try to find a reasonable gas station, price-wise, as the motor car will need some gas, and then I have to hie myself to a Fed Ex place to send off the hard drive with the video files. After that, I’ll write some commentary, then I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, then I sup with Robert Yacko, and then I can watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow is another meeting in the afternoon, but mostly I’ll be finishing the commentary and doing a few other things. The weekend has a few things happening or not happening – just need to decide which. I will be seeing the upstairs show at the Group Rep on one of the weekend days. And then we’re into our big Kritzerland rehearsal week.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up early, grab video files, go to storage, put gas in the motor car, ship via Fed Ex, write some commentary, hopefully pick up packages, sup, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What year-end movies are you most looking forward to, if any? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have seen a movie I actually liked.