Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to Alexandre Desplat’s atmospheric score to Roman Polanski’s film, The Ghost Writer. I like Mr. Desplat, but find most of his US output not so hot because he’s always forced to ape the temp tracks used, which is why we get nothing but scores that sound the same or like other scores. That’s the stupidity of today’s directors and producers and studios. They literally have no brain power or the ability to, I don’t know, TRUST their composer to come up with something interesting and unique. Now, Mr. Polanski is of another generation, and while he may have temped his film, I’m guessing that Mr. Desplat got to be creative and use HIS brain. Because it doesn’t sound like every other score. Anyway, I listen to this quite often. I watched a movie last night with the memorable title of Kill Chain – so memorable that I forgot it by the time the movie was over and, in the course of writing this paragraph, looked it up and forgot it by the time I got to this sentence. It’s yet another pathetic direct-to-Netflix movie starring Nicolas Cage. They simply must pay him a ton of money to get his name, but I just don’t understand why he would do these movies – they are career killers. This one is one of the most ineptly written and directed movies ever – I honestly could not tell you what it was about – that’s how bad it is. You never understand who is who, why anyone is doing what they’re doing or what anyone’s motivation is. Cage appears for five minutes at the start of the film, then isn’t back until the forty-five-minute mark. He’s in the rest of it, but apparently is in some movie only in his mind. It was shot in Colombia and features not a single other actor that you’ve ever seen, mostly because they probably blew their entire budget on Cage. After that, I began watching a Spanish limited series called The Girl in the Mirror (original title was Alma but the Netflix title leads people in the wrong direction and therefore gets viewers who will invariably not last through the series. I watched the first episode and part of the second – not sure I’ll stick with it because it’s a supernatural thing and I tend to get bored with that stuff. The actors are pretty good.
Yesterday was okay. I slept until two, for a total of nine needed hours of sleep. Once up, I answered e-mails, revised the casting notice that’s going out today, checked off another few perks on the list, and then finally ordered food from a chain of Eyetalian jernts called Maggiano’s, the most well-known of which is near Du-Par’s in the Farmer’s Market. I ate at that location once but remember nothing about it. This one was located in Encino according to the DoorDash map, but I could find not a single thing about it on Yelp or anywhere else, which I found odd. Anyway, I decided to take a chance on it. They have a very limited kind of menu on DoorDash – about seven or eight main items and that’s it. The one that looked best was baked Penne with sausage and melted cheese, along with one bread stick. Here’s what the dish looked like in the photograph.
Looks yummilicious, right? So, despite saying it would take an hour, it arrived in about thirty minutes, so that was nice. I took it out of the bag and it was still really hot, so that was nice. I opened the top and was rather taken aback to find some penne pasta in some thin marinara sauce – not baked, no sausage, no cheese, no breadstick. I couldn’t believe it. Here’s what the dish looked like in reality.
I was, needless to say, hopping mad. I could find no way to contact the restaurant, no way to leave a bad review, except on DoorDash, so I called DoorDash, explained the issues, and they refunded me the entire amount instantly as a credit. I then ordered from Maria’s Kitchen, my usual pappardelle with sausage. While waiting for it to arrive, I finally found something the clued me into the fact that there was no actual Maggiano’s in Encino. It’s yet another ghost kitchen located in Chili’s restaurant – they own Maggiano’s. So, I called the restaurant, got the manager, and told her what happened. She would have refunded had I not already gotten the refund and she was very apologetic about it and assured me she’d be speaking to the chef immediately. But I mean, how do you take one of eight dishes and screw it up like that. It says BAKED penne with sausage and cheese. Surely, anyone but a moron could look at the photo or ingredients and proceed accordingly. The pappardelle arrived twenty minutes later, piping hot, and was excellent. Here’s what that looked like.
After that, I sat on my couch like so much fish, and the rest you know.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, then I’ll send some more e-mails about perks where people need to tell me what they want – the signed musical quotes – and do more of the CD stuff, but we’re definitely making headway. Our casting notice goes out in the morning and hopefully that will bring us some nice self-tapes, I’ll eat something light but fun or, conversely, something fun but light, I’ll finish up song choices and get everyone their music, and then at some point I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow, Kay Cole is coming over and we’re going to film two musical numbers for the web series that have some movement in them – easy stuff, really – I’ve done one and she’s done one, but we’ll film her doing both and then send that off to our lead to learn from. And no, it’s not a musical but there is one song per episode. I shall say no more. But you’ll know everything right after Labor Day, as that’s when our initial press release hits. The rest of the week is more perks stuff and the helper person coming back to help. Then the real helper will come pick up stuff she’ll need to ship, and we’ll be well on the way. Also, I’ll finish preparing our two upcoming releases and getting that all ready to announce. 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 whatever needs doing, send more e-mails about perks, our casting notice will go out, I’ll choose the last of the songs, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite films of Nicolas Cage? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, still amazed at just how a simple meal can go so wrong.