Well, dear readers, I hope you all had a lovelier than lovely Thanksgiving and that you are filled to the brim with turkey and stuffing and cranberries and yams and whatever other foodstuffs you stuffed down your gaping maw. I myself had turkey and stuffing and cranberries and yams, although I did not eat the yams as that would have been piggish of me and I’d already been piggish enough. I also had a shrimp cocktail and starter salad. And even though there was pie for dessert, I took home a slice of pumpkin and apple pie (Robert doesn’t eat sugar) and I have those for today should I fancy them. All this food was delivered to our table at the Smoke House. When I got their e-mail about reserving, I called the very next afternoon and shockingly all the reservation times from noon on had already been taken, with only eight-thirty being open, which I grabbed. We arrived a minute or two early and were told there were two ahead of us. This I never understand, as we had a firm reservation. By the time she’d called FOUR before us, I spoke up. She denied having said two, which was a lie since Robert heard her say two, too. She then said there were now three more ahead of us. She then proceeded to take five more before us, saw the look in my eye, and finally sat us. At 8:45. But I’m sure they were crazy busy all day and night. The turkey wasn’t as good as I thought it would be, so I kind of wish I’d just ordered the filet. Robert had some chicken dish he liked very much. We ordered the half-order of garlic cheese bread, too. It was great. We had lovely conversation about this and that as well as that and this. I think we were there almost two hours, and our waiter was great, and we gave him a nice Thanksgiving tip. And now, I am sitting here like so much stuffed fish, listening to the always weird and interesting Charles Ives – specifically his weird and always interesting fourth symphony, the “Holiday” symphony. It’s what I would call a musical potpourri and I like it because of its weirdness. The premiere of the symphony was given in 1965 by Stokowski, which is the recording I’m listening to. Earlier, I’d listened to a bit of the most well thought of recording by Michael Tilson-Thomas, but as with all that conductor’s recordings, it was a little tame and unfocused, whereas the Stokowski gets all that right – there is nothing tame with Stokowski – he gets each mood right, gets the cacophonies right, and most importantly gets the balances right – it’s raucous and rowdy and oddly touching at times.
Prior to the meal, I watched two motion pictures. The first motion picture was a 1988 TV movie entitled Side by Side, starring Sid Caesar, Milton Berle, and Danny Thomas. It was grand fun to see the three of them do their thing, but sadly they were saddled with terrible writing and Screenwriting 101 plotting, and a truly awful director in Jack Bender, who has had a successful directing career for several decades on television. But he’s awful – he did do episodes of Lost and Alias and other top shows, but those shows all had directorial templates but even so, his are always the worst episodes. He began as a terrible actor (we began at the same time), never went anywhere, then somehow bluffed his way into directing – I’ll never understand how that happens, but it does and he’s still working and doing it right now. Also, my old pal Mike Lembeck is in it – we were the closest of friends at one time – did shows together, and he was the best man at my wedding. But after we both began working professionally, we drifted apart and have stayed that way ever since, even though the few times we’ve seen each other we always have fun. When it was time to get Mackenzie Phillips a husband on One Day at a Time, it came down to him and me. Mack really wanted and lobbied for me strongly and I know a couple of producers did, too, and my manager pushed hard as can be. But in the end it was Alan Rafkin who decided and he went with Michael and frankly and I say this with no bitterness, he killed the show. And in this film, he gives a terrible performance, taking what is mostly an unpleasant and annoying character and playing just that, instead of imbuing the character with some likeability, which you must do with a character like that, so that when he comes around at the end, it’s not out of nowhere. He, like Jack before him, also left acting to become a director – in the right place at the right time – auditing three camera shows and then finally becoming the director du jour on Friends. He’s made a couple of not so good films, too, including The Santa Clause 2 and 3, the bad Connie and Carla, Tooth Fairy – well, you get the idea.
Then I watched one of those 1990s thrillers, this one entitled Chain Reaction, directed by Andrew Davis, who directed the film of The Fugitive. For a very brief time, he was a director du jour, but flop after flop finally took care of that. This one was a flop, strictly by the numbers, lots of running, ticking clocks, and Keanu Reeves and Morgan Freeman. The plot was a bit ahead of its time, but plots aren’t the hard part – coming up with interesting characters and dialogue and pace and structure is the hard part – and this movie fails in all those departments.
Then I got ready, shaved and showered, and the rest you know.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, which I hope will be nothing, I do have to adjust two parts of the commentary, possibly three due to song additions/changes, but that won’t take very long. I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, I’ll eat something fun but light, and then I can watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow, we have our first Kritzerland rehearsal starting at three. Not sure if I’ll eat before or after that, but I’m thinking after. Sunday, we have one short thirty-minute rehearsal, then I can have a ME day and nice end to the long holiday weekend. Monday, we have our second rehearsal, Wednesday is our stumble-through, and Thursday we do our final show at Vitello’s, our home for the past four years.
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, adjust commentary, hopefully pick up packages, eat, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite films/TV shows with Sid, Milton, and Danny? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happily stuffed with turkey and stuffing, the aftermath of Thanksgiving.