Well, dear readers, I must write these here notes in a hurry for she of the Evil Eye will be here all too soon and I must try and get to sleep at a reasonable hour. And so, I am sitting here like so much, listening to the music of one Alexandre Tansman, a fine composer of both classical and film music. And prior to that, I watched a motion picture I somehow had never seen before, an oater called Horizon’s West, an early film by director Budd Boetticher, starring Robert Ryan, Rock Hudson, James Arness, Julie Adams, Raymond Burr and Dennis Weaver. It’s no great shakes as an oater, but it’s short and to the point and well directed and I’m happy to have finally caught up with it. The Blu and Ray from Kino contains an old transfer that Universal had laying around – this was a Technicolor film but in this transfer the matrixes are off, resulting in color fringing and out of registration shots that are very annoying. The color is fine, but too much of it is simply too soft due to the matrixes being misaligned. I also watched four episodes from season six of Adam-12. I’m not sure I even had season five – I know I had the first four, but I’ll have to make sure I didn’t have five. I knew I didn’t have six as I didn’t even know it existed. The first two episodes were oddities for this program – much of them shot in LA proper rather than the Valley near Universal. Most of the time, I had no idea where in LA we were, save for Echo Park lake and a couple of Santa Monica shots. But thankfully, by episode three we’re back home and there are some really wonderful shots of 1973 Ventura Blvd. – one great shot of Du-Par’s neon lights lit at night. We have one of the original Carl’s Jr. locations (still there) on Cahuenga Blvd. West, an entire sequence shot at the little Sherman Oaks mall, which used to be an outdoor mall, and that’s located two minutes from the home environment (now called Westfield mall). At the time of this episode, the two big department stores there were Desmond’s and Bullock’s. And all the shops had entrances on Riverside – all that’s closed off now. One episode had a lot of it on Wrightwood, the street I take to get to Nichols Canyon – I recognized many of the houses there. There was one scene at a movie theater, a small one, but we never saw much of the outside of it, and the interior, which was very small, didn’t ring any bells. The only thing that came to mind was the old Sherman Theater in Sherman Oaks, but this didn’t really look like that, at least not my memory. So, that was baffling. The show is eminently silly, but I really enjoy watching it. In the episode I’m currently watching, episode five, we’re back at the beach, where a hubbub is occurring because there’s a totally nude woman on the beach – played by – Edy Williams.
Yesterday, I got over ten hours of sleep, which I really needed and, of course, there went most of the day. I answered e-mails and then went to the mail place and picked up some packages, including new DGA screeners – The French Dispatch and Belfast. I stopped next door and got a foot-long Subway pastrami, came home, and ate it all up. I did a few things on the computer, then I watched Horizon’s West and then the Adam-12 episodes. And then it was listening to Mr. Tansman.
Today, I’ll be up at eight-thirty and out the door by nine. I’ll have a light breakfast somewhere, then do stuff until I come home at noon. I’ll have to take a quick shower, then get everything set up for our two o’clock stumble-through, which will occur at two o’clock. Bill Hayes will be here at one-fifteen to run his song. After the stumble-through we’ll run whatever is problematic and then some of us will go grab a bite to eat somewhere. Then I’ll come home and watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow, I’ll be up when I’m, I’ll relax and rest my voice until it’s time to mosey on over to Vitello’s for our sound check and then we do our show. After, some of us will go downstairs for a bite to eat. I will, of course, have a full report for you. Then next week is writing stuff, meetings and meals, a delayed birthday luncheon, and whatever else may or may not come up.
Let’s all put on our pointy party hats and our colored tights and pantaloons, let’s all break out the cheese slices and ham chunks, let’s all dance the Hora or the Monkey, for today is the birthday of our very own dear reader Ginny. So, let’s give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to our very own dear reader Ginny. On the count of three: One, two, three – A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO OUR VERY OWN DEAR READER GINNY!!!
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up at eight-thirty, have a light breakfast, have a stumble-through, have a meal afterwards, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite films featuring that wonderful actor Robert Ryan and your favorite films of Rock Hudson. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I’m sure I will hear a voice continually saying, “One Adam-12, see the man.”