Well, dear readers, I have learned another food life lesson the hard way and it is this: I’ve been right all these years to stay away from El Pollo Loco. I’d eaten there exactly once many years ago because there was no other choice near the theater we were attending. I had a soft taco, which, if you loaded it up with their salsa was decent. I needed a snack last night and I didn’t want it to be over 300 calories, since I’d already eaten 900 and I didn’t want it to be a sweet as I’d like to lay off sugar for a short time. So, El Pollo Loco popped up on DoorDash with a ten-dollar off a twenty-dollar order thing. So, I ordered a chicken breast and wing, salsa, coleslaw, rice, and to get it up to twenty bucks, some corn. So, it was not too expensive and no more than if I’d driven over there, which I would soon come to wish I had. Anyway, it arrived very quickly, in about ten minutes (it’s only a quarter of a mile from here). I opened the bag – no corn, no salsa, just the chicken and two sides. I took one bite of the rice – nope. A couple of bites of the coleslaw – nope. And then came the chicken breast sans salsa and it was so awful I can’t even describe it to you without wanting to vomit on the ground. I paid for it, so I ate it. And am still regretting it. So, lesson learned – no more El Pollo Loco EVER. I shall be writing a most amusing Yelp review in a little while, oh, yes, I shall be writing a most amusing Yelp review. Other than that, I did watch one of those limited series documentary things – this was a Showtime thing showing on Netflix – entitled We Need to Talk About Cosby. Four episodes. Directed in exactly the by-the-numbers cookie-cutter blueprint everyone uses, which I find so irritating. Slates, people just sitting there staring at the camera, the comedian who directed it both doing occasional narrating and talking off-camera (I take these things less seriously if the filmmaker is inserting him/herself into the proceedings) and some talking heads that I just found peculiar. I think most of you know what it’s about, but what was surprising to me, since I already knew about the allegations and the trial and prison and release, was just how much this man has done that’s actually positive and life-changing for people and institutions. I never watched The Cosby Show, but the clips they showed are genuinely funny. Yes, he apparently did horrible things and admitted to them in his deposition. So, it’s a weird netherworld where you can loathe him for what he did but can’t negate the good he did either. Obviously, the documentary is what it is, but there are a handful of people who do talk about both sides of it. And one legal person explains why the sentence was overturned – and the Supreme Court really had no choice because the first DA made a deal with Cosby and when that DA left, the new DA didn’t honor it and therein lies the problem. But the man is eighty-whatever years old, served some time, has no life or career, so he sits at home instead of a low-security prison. The victim stories are, of course, heart-wrenching, so it’s good there was at least some price to pay, and in the aftermath, several states changed their statute of limitations on sexual assault cases. I do wish that the people who make these things would find their own voice and way, style-wise. They’re all so predictable. This one’s four episodes and could probably have been three.
Yesterday was okay. I got seven-and-a-half hours of sleep, had a telephonic conversation, went out and got two In ‘N’ Out cheeseburgers for food (nine hundred calories for the pair), came home, ate them up (and miraculously, they were still warm), and then I did the last of my screenplay adjustments. I’m not sure they work wonderfully, but when two or three folks give the same note, you really should try to address it and that I did. I think it works the way I did it, and it didn’t add to the page count, which is what I’ve been trying to do all along when having to add. David hasn’t finished his stuff yet – end of week for him – but he’d already gotten it down another ten pages to 127 and I’ve gotten it down to 123, so I think when he’s done it will run a very okay 115 to 120 pages. Considering we started at over 170, I’d say cutting 50 pages is pretty damn good, without killing the story and the characters.
Then I had another telephonic conversation, finished casting the Kritzerland show and will now start choosing songs – already have two – and then I watched the Cosby thing and had that grotesque food from El Pollo Loco. And that was the day and evening.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll choose songs, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, I’ll eat something GOOD and light, I’ll put out more asks for the web series cameos, and then I can watch, listen, and relax.
The rest of the week is more of the same and then some more of the same, after which there’ll be some more of the same.
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, choose songs, hopefully pick up packages, eat something GOOD, put out more asks, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s really an age-old question – can you separate the art from the artist, presuming the artist wasn’t such a good person? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, nauseous to have learned another food life lesson.