Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to a symphony by Johan Svendson, a Norwegian composer from Norway. It’s very attractive music. I’d never heard of him before yesterday, but his symphonies have several recordings, so he does have some popularity with the populace. This symphony I’m listening to is from 1867 and certainly is of that era, but I like it better than most from that era. I did manage to watch a movie last night entitled The Temp. I saw it back in 2007 or thereabouts but remembered absolutely nothing about it. I looked up what I wrote about it, and I thought it was a completely dreadful movie devoid of everything it wanted to be. Well, actually, that’s the problem – it didn’t know what it wanted to be, and I guess everyone knew it at the time. It started out as a dark and humorous thriller, but The Hand That Rocks the Cradle had come out the year before and had been a big hit, so naturally the morons at the studio tried to shoehorn The Temp into being like that, even though – it wasn’t like that. The dialogue is ludicrous, the characters behave in completely ludicrous ways, I’ve never liked the director, Tom Holland, and his work here is worse than most of his bad films. There is so much schmacting going on – really over the top schmacting from almost everyone. And then there’s the ending or whatever you want to call it. It’s totally confusing, and then it just ends with a thud and up come the end titles. The original ending was scuttled for being too violent, but this ending is literally so stupid and so ineffective – basically about eight lines of weak dialogue and that’s it. Well, the studio got exactly what it deserved – a complete box-office and critical failure. They never learn, these meddling incompetents, and then they lose their jobs and end up at another studio doing the same incompetent meddling. Timothy Hutton is a good actor but has nothing to play here, Lara Flynn Boyle has to play a complete cliché of a non-character, Steven Webber has to navigate around a role that is a red herring, and Faye Dunaway thinks she’s still doing Network, only she’s had the first of her many face works here and just looks peculiar. As I said back in 2007, the only good thing is the score by Frederic Talgorn.
Yesterday was a busy day. I did get nine hours of sleep, I think, but it wasn’t all at once. Once up, I answered tons of e-mails and texts, was asked once again to wait another day for an answer about our duet girl – since I’ve been asked to just wait another day every day for the past five days that did not go down well with me. Supposedly, by the time I arise this morning we should have our answer and I hope it’s a positive answer after all this. I went to the mail place and picked up no packages and a check from Vitello’s, which was lower than I thought it would be, which made no sense to me, but such are the way of things. I went to the bank and deposited it, then came home.
I ordered a chicken salad sandwich and fries from the Cheesecake Factory and that arrived. I like their chicken salad very much but every time I order this sandwich there’s less chicken salad, and there certainly wasn’t much yesterday. It was fine, but not fulfilling, and the fries were a small amount and were okay. They also gave me bread, and I ate a bit of that later in the evening after the movie. Then I made a small revision to episode one – I realized that some information the audience needs to know was only in a stage direction, so I just wrote a line of dialogue to give that information to the audience. I saw a test of some business that’s involved in one of the episodes and it worked perfectly. Then I got everything ready to pack, did laundry, and then packed. The only thing I need to add today is a hairbrush. I will have to buy toothpaste and a few other things after I have my sleep. Then I watched the movie and the rest you know. Boarding pass was sent to me in a text, and I guess that’s all I need to show and they just scan the bar code.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, pack the hairbrush, go to the bank and get some cash to have on hand, I’ll have something light like a sandwich or something, and then at some point Sami’s mom picks me up and we go to the airport and then we’ll be on our way to New York, New York, the city that never sleeps.
Tomorrow, I’ll try to get five or six hours of sleep, and then I’ll meet up with Sami and mom and we’ll go have a beginning of shoot dinner somewhere, perhaps even Joe Allen. Sunday, we begin filming at ten and go to five, after which we’ll eat. I think once I see the apartment, I’ll be able to figure out all the angles we’ll need and then it’s just a matter of doing all the scenes that take place on the couch at one time, then all the scenes that take place in another room at once. We have three days to do all that stuff. Monday morning, we shoot a restaurant scene in a jernt that’s three doors from Sami’s apartment, then it’s back to the apartment scenes, and Tuesday we wrap up the rest of the apartment scenes. Wednesday is a full day in one location to do a physical comedy sequence – it’s complicated so we wanted all day to do it – it involves several principals and about twenty others. Thursday we’re in a green screen studio for part of the day and then a recording studio for the rest of the day. Friday we’re in a club all day, Saturday and Sunday we’re in a rehearsal hall, and then our final day we’re at a different club. Whew!
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, pack the hairbrush, get some cash from the bank, eat something light, then we’ll be on our way to the airport and then New York. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player and your DVD/Blu and Ray player? I’ll start – nothing. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, as the new web series journey begins. Please send your strongest most excellent vibes and xylophones for a safe, on-time flight.