Well, dear readers, I have just had a bowl of wor won ton soup from P.F. Chang’s – I needed something and that seemed like a good thing to have – soup – so, I ordered it and it came very quickly and was good. Not great. P.F. Chang’s has never been great – their food is so-so and yet there are folks who swear by it. But it’s hard to mess up wor won ton soup and it certainly hit the spot and was calorie friendly. And now, as I write these here notes, Carmen Dragon is having his way with the Swedish Rhapsody and then an orchestrated Rachmaninoff prelude. Subtlety is not in Mr. Dragon’s wheelhouse, I’m afraid, but some of these Capitol recordings really were state of the art stereo, so that’s always fun and one can only imagine what the actual stereo masters sound like. Prior to the soup, I wrote for a couple of hours and am almost finished with the climactic scene and then there’s just a short epilogue and I’ll let David Wechter write that. Prior to that, I watched a new documentary thing on the Flix of Net – entitled The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel. It’s an interesting case – a Chinese girl, Elisa Lam, visits LA and disappears. The police are baffled, but in reviewing camera footage from the hotel, they can see that Elisa is agitated, going into the elevator, pushing a lot of buttons, but the doors don’t close, stepping out, looking around, going back in, and finally exiting and going off to the left. They decide to release the video and then the Internet takes over, with all those nutjob Internet wannabe sleuths, who come up with every conspiracy theory under the sun, including blaming a rock singer for her death – I’ll get to that in a minute – and ruining this guy’s life without a shred of evidence. They eventually find her body on the roof in one of the hotel water tanks. An idiot policeman accidentally gives the media wrong information that causes even more conspiracy BS from these YouTubers – who are a major part of the documentary. They love the attention, love making money on their YouTube channels spouting their bull pucky, and then never apologizing for being wrong and hurting innocent people. They are reprehensible and if you watch this you will feel exactly as I did and perhaps you’ll even find them on YouTube and leave them the comments they so deserve. The real cause of death is fairly simple once the girl’s family tells the police of her issues. As to the documentary itself, as I’ve said many times and as one of the negative reviews states, there’s a template all these Netflix things follow – they’re all the same. Reenactments, moody, dim lighting, ominous music – it’s like the directors are auditioning for a feature film. It doesn’t serve anything and, in fact, makes it seem like the filmmakers don’t trust the story they’re telling, which, of course, is real life, not fiction. But in the case of this, the story should be all about Elisa, but it’s not – it’s about the YouTubers, it’s about the Hotel Cecil, it’s about too many things. But since I didn’t know anything about the person or case at all, I found all of that stuff interesting, just as I found all the stuff about the YouTubers completely irritating. I believe this is part of a series of true crime documentaries, the second of which is about the Times Square killer of the 1970s. If you don’t know about Elisa Lam, you might enjoy parts of this.
Yesterday was okay. I got eight hours of sporadic sleep, arising at noon. Grant never came over – perhaps today will be the day or I’ll simply have to make his life a living HELL – I answered e-mails, did some stuff on the computer, had hot dogs for food, did a little bit of writing, then watched the four-episode documentary. Then I wrote for a couple of hours, ordered the soup, and the rest you know. And now, Mr. Dragon is having his way with the Warsaw Concerto by Richard Addinsell, one of my favorites, and it’s a very good performance. I wonder who the pianist is. I have my guess – let’s see if I’m right, shall we? And give that man a kewpie doll – Leonard Pennario – and I do believe this is the performance that introduced me to this piece and it’s really as good now as it was then because Pennario and Dragon are perfect for this kind of music. How many dear readers know that Carmen Dragon wrote the film score to a classic sci-fi film – he did – Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
Here, for your mental delectation, is a little teaser trailer the Group Rep did for our show.
L.A. NOW AND THEN – a Sixty Second Sizzle
That was perky, wasn’t it?
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, hopefully Grant will come hang pictures, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, I’ll eat something light, then I’ll finish writing, after which I can watch, listen, and relax.
The rest of the week is more of the same and then we resume performances on Friday, which I’m looking forward to.
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, hopefully Grant will hang pictures, hopefully I’ll pick up packages, I’ll eat, write, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What true crime case has fascinated you most? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to be back in the swing of things, writing-wise.