Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to Francis Lai’s score to Claude Lelouch’s 1969 film, Love Is a Funny Thing, one of the only Lelouch films I’ve never been able to see, until last night, that is, thanks to Amazon Prime. Sadly, it’s open matte AND dubbed into English, which is absolutely ludicrous for this particular film, as both leads must speak French because they’re in Los Angeles working on a film and everyone keeps asking them if they speak English, which they are in impeccable English at that. It kills the film and I also think whoever did the English dub killed all the jokiness between Jean-Paul Belmondo and Annie Girardo. But even had it been in French and its proper ratio, it’s really an off day for Mr. Lelouch in terms of its style. Why set a film in LA if you’re not gonna, I don’t know, SHOW LA? They were here, of course, but other than two driving scenes, one on Wilshire Boulevard and one on Hollywood Boulevard, that are filmed so tightly that you can barely tell where you are – I only knew because I spotted Lee Towers on Wilshire and the New-View Theater on Hollywood Boulevard. They go to Vegas at some point, and you at least see a bit of that. It’s nothing like when Jacques Demy came and shot The Model Shop here – in that film you get a real sense of the beach and other parts of the city. It’s a slight film about a film composer and an actress who have an affair. There’s not much to the score, but it’s typical Francis Lai and enjoyable. The only really recognizable person in the film is Farrah Fawcett, whose first film this was. Oh, and Richard Basehart is in it for about four minutes. And Kaz Garas, for anyone who remembers Kaz Garas. I’d like to see it in French to see how that feels. I also began watching a totally perverse little low-budget affair entitled The Strangler, starring Victor Buono, directed by Burt Topper. I’ll finish that up before going to bed.
Yesterday was certainly a Saturday. I was up at eight-thirty and out the door before nine. I went to Hugo’s – haven’t been there in a while – and had a bacon and cheddar omelet and a tiny side Caesar as my side. Then I went and picked up no mail or packages at the mail place. Then I did a few other things to kill time, then came home. I did some pre-organizing and then the helper person came over and we dove into starting to get everything done, perks wise. There are thirteen printed out pages of perks and who gets them. We began with all the 10-CD perks, of which there were around forty-three. Some had already e-mailed their lists, but I e-mailed everyone who hadn’t and hopefully they’ll get their lists in. For those who took that perk and had other things, too – if they were additional CDs I added those to their lists and all that got forwarded to the helper. After that, we went back to page one and began pulling perks, putting post-its on them with the address and making piles. In all, we got about five pages done, so that’s a good start. As mentioned, we’re saving the big stuff for last. I took the helper person back to her apartment, then stopped at Gelson’s. As I arrived, our very own Robert Yacko was leaving, so we had a nice chat. I bought a small amount of seafood salad, and some cucumber roll, came home, and ate that. But I’m really hungry right now and it’s taking all my willpower not to order something, but I’ll be strong, oh, yes, I’ll be strong. By that time, I’d gotten some lists in, so forwarded those and checked them off the list. Then I sat on my couch like so much fish and watched Love Is a Funny Thing.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I may do a few perk things on my own, just to get more out of the way – easy ones, like the booklet thank yous and books and stuff and the other signed musical quotes – I have to write those people and see what song they want. Otherwise, I’ll eat, have a ME day, and then watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow and the entire week is casting the various web series roles, getting more perks pulled and addressed and then the helper will come and begin to ship everything this week. The bigger art stuff is probably going to have to go to the mail place for packing up. Also, I have to prepare two new releases and get all that done. So, a very busy week.
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 a few easy perk things, eat, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have started the perks ball rolling.