Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, not listening to music, and having spent the last hour revising dialogue and making further cuts on the screenplay. Ah, I just turned on some more Korngold music to accompany the writing of these here notes. As with yesterday, it was a slow news day for the Indiegogo campaign – just one contribution for one of the CDs, so not enough to change the percentage, so today we’ll try to do that and hope we can change it by at least two or three percent. To that end, I’ll be visiting the garage to find some more fun perky perkilicious perks and there are plenty to be found. Not that there aren’t plenty of perky perkilicous perks still available and hopefully some folks will grab those. Here’s then handy-dandy link, accompanied by the Korngold Sinfonietta.
I did manage to watch an actual motion picture, a 2022 Liam Neeson action picture – he already has two out this year. His good films are usually with the same director – Juame Collet-Serra or with a one-off like Pierre Morrel and Taken. This film was called Blacklight and it’s really poorly written and directed by Mark Williams, who produced a couple of Neeson films and whose main claim to fame is executive producing Ozark. A director he really isn’t and the script, which he co-wrote, is just awful – one horrible cliché-ridden sequence after another and really not well cast, which is, after all, something a director should know how to do. For me, the most interesting thing in the film was the villain – a kind of low rent Martin Sheen type. I had no idea who the actor was and was positively shocked to find it was Aidan Quinn. Had I not read that I would never have known – he looks nothing like he used to in films like Desperately Seeking Susan (which I must watch again soon). But all the other actors are just barely passable. I’m guessing that after Mr. Neeson’s salary there isn’t much left for the other actors. Anyway, this one was a disappointment. And Mr. Neeson seems to be doing less and less action in each film.
I also watched a bit of After the Fox, which I haven’t seen in some time. I did see it on its opening day back on December 16, 1966 at the Vogue in Hollywood, where the year prior I’d seen What’s New, Pussycat? which was a favorite. So, I couldn’t wait to see After the Fox – Peter Sellers doing his thing, Neil Simon screenplay – what could go wrong? Well, Vittorio de Sica, a wonderful director who should never have been let anywhere near this film. Just the wrong director doing the wrong film at the wrong time. When Sellers finally becomes Federico Fabrizzi, film director, his ruse to steal gold, then things are better because he’s in wonderful form and it’s also the section of the film that has Victor Mature as a has-been actor, and his performance is the film’s strongest asset. Along the way, there are definitely some amusing touches, but there are long stretches of the film that are just horrible and don’t work at all. However, the film is somewhat redeemed at the end when the townspeople all watch the footage of the film within the film – that is genuinely touching. Of course, despite the flaws, I did see it about six times and then in January of 1967, I left Los Angeles for six long months, touring with the play Do You Know the Milky Way, all over the United States of America. I’ve written about every aspect of my life, from my birth through 2005 when Album Produced by ends, but of course completely up to date in these here notes. But I’ve never written about the missing three years between the end of the Kritzer books and where the first memoir picks up in September of 1968. Maybe someday I’ll do a short mini memoir because those three years are chockful of interesting things.
Yesterday was okay, I suppose. I did get eight hours of sleep, got up, answered e-mails, saw the Laura Wolfe sizzle reel with the final stuff added and I thought it looked good and wasn’t bad at all, given what we had to work with. I sent it on to Laura and we’ll see if she likes it.
I decided to have the same pepperoni pizza I’d had on Saturday, and it was every bit as good. And as of right now, that’s all I’ve eaten. Then I sat on my couch like so much fish and dozed right off. Over and over again. Finally, I decided on Blacklight (a title that has nothing to do with anything) and watched it and the bit of After the Fox.
Then I did the hour of revising on the screenplay, and, of course, realized I had to get these here notes written.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll put up some new perky perks, and I’ll cheerlead vociferously throughout the day and evening, not necessarily in that order. I will mosey on over to the mail place and see if anything’s there, then I may stop at Gelson’s to get something for food. I’ll eat, I’ll continue revising and also try to finish the script for the first episode of a potential web series. Then I can watch, listen, and relax.
The rest of the week is more cheerleading and trying to get our percentage up as much as possible as we end week two and begin week three. Lots and lots to do, and I think I’m seeing a cabaret show on Friday or Saturday night. And, of course, we’ll start a new month, which is just mind-boggling.
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, put up new perky perks, cheerlead vociferously, hopefully pick up packages, eat, revise, perhaps finish a script, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite films of Mr. Peter Sellers? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, as we try to up our percentage.