Well, dear readers, I know you’ll be thrilled to hear that Tom Turkey ran away and in breaking bombshell news, Tom Turkey, despite reports to the otherwise, did NOT come home. Therefore, I had no Tom Turkey the day after Thanksgiving, which, I must tell you and will tell you did NOT feel like a Friday at all, which is why I screwed up the topic of the day. And today certainly doesn’t seem like a Saturday but that might be because it’s still Friday as I’m writing these here notes, although it still doesn’t seem like a Friday. It’s very confusing, the days of our lives, rather like sands through an hourglass. And now, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to Georges Auric’s soundtrack to Bonjour Tristesse (Hello Sadness). It makes me want to watch the motion picture again – Jean Seberg at her most beautiful, Deborah Kerr and David Niven doing their considerable best, and Otto Preminger directing in gorgeous black-and-white and Technicolor scope. The main theme is melancholy and that’s followed by a melancholy version sung by Juliette Greco, who sings it in the film. Then there’s some dance/nightclub music, and then it finally gets down to a score cue. Mr. Auric was a wonderful film composer who also wrote many wonderful classical pieces and was a member of Le Groupe des Six with Darius Milhaud, Arthur Honegger, and other likeminded composers. There’s never been an official CD release, which is a shame. If RCA hadn’t stopped licensing just as we were getting rolling with them, I would have done it – that would have given us a trio of Otto Preminger soundtracks (Advise and Consent, The Cardinal are the two RCA titles we did) with Saul Bass artwork. But alas, it wasn’t to be. If they start licensing again, that will be my first choice. Prior to that, I watched two documentaries on the Flix of Net – one about Ghilaine Maxwell and that whole Jeffrey Epstein bad business. Once again, we have a child of super rich parents, getting everything she wants and thinking she’s entitled to do whatever she pleases. The most shocking information in this is that at least one of these assaults was repeatedly reported to the authorities – who did nothing. Why they cannot be named and shamed is unknown to me. Anyway, it was just over ninety minutes and while it did have every single Netflix documentary “style” junk, it at least didn’t overstay its welcome.
The second documentary was entitled Is That Black Enough for You, a film critic’s survey of black cinema’s coming of age. The critic is Elvis Mitchell, who narrates the entire thing. This gets 100% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes – maybe everyone did love it and found no fault, or maybe they’re afraid to criticize it, but I found some of the narration really off-putting as he derides several artists, which is not only unnecessary, but doesn’t really add anything. He also uses ever “now” cliché in the book – every word and phrase and repeatedly so. But it’s certainly well put-together and someone gave him a LOT of money to do it, because it is wall-to-wall clips from major studio films. I still have thirty minutes to go because this thing runs two-hours-and-fifteen-minutes – and yes, it overstays its welcome. It’s enjoyable, certainly, and the clips are really fun to watch, and it actually makes me want to see a few of these films I’ve never seen.
Yesterday didn’t seem like a Friday and yet it was a Friday. I didn’t get to sleep until almost six, so I didn’t wake up until two, for eight hours of sleep. Once up, I had two longish telephonic conversations, then went to the mail place where I picked up two returned packages and two small checks, one from the Writer’s Guild for The Faculty (maybe I can purchase a Happy Meal with that one), and one for a CD order. I went to the bank right after and deposited both via the device known as the ATM. I then came home. I went to DoorDash to see what appealed to me – first, I always go to the “offers” section to see what deals there are. There was a jernt there called Juicy’s Cheesesteaks and that sounded fine to me, so I ordered a cheesesteak sandwich and onion rings. With the “offer” and leftover credit and fees and tip, it came to ten bucks, so that was a nice deal indeed. The sandwich arrived about thirty minutes later and was very good. The onion rings were a bit on the mushy side, but the flavor was good and there weren’t that many of them. That was basically my food intake for the day. I would have had some popcorn but was out of butter. Ah, turns out I’d been to Juicy’s before – I gave them a one-star review on Yelp – apparently that first sandwich was on stale bread and the meat wasn’t so good – so, maybe the trick is not to order it later in the evening. I may leave a better follow-up review. Then I began my viewing, during which I viewed.
Today, I’ll be up by noon at the very latest, I’ll do a Gelson’s run and get butter and stuff for whatever I feel like eating. Then we have our first Kritzerland rehearsal at three – should be done by six, I think, then I can either make something here or order in. Then I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow, we have one thirty-minute rehearsal at eleven, then I can have a ME day and do only what need to be done, which isn’t much. Monday is our second rehearsal, Tuesday, if Marshall is done with episode two I’ll go view that – if it’s not done then viewing will have to be on Friday. Wednesday is our stumble-through and Thursday we do our final show at Vitello’s before moving to our home for however many shows we decide to do next year.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by noon at the latest, do a quick Gelson’s run, have our first rehearsal, eat, and watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: Since I screwed up yesterday’s, let’s do that – what is currently in your CD player and your DVD/Blu and Ray player? I’ll start – CD, now playing, Laurence Rosenthal’s score to the film Brass Target – very good, except for the usual at the time brickwalled mastering, the kind they do for the loudest rock-and-roll – it actually is distorting the music. Blu-ray, the director’s cut of Dr. Sleep. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy that Tom Turkey ran away and did not come home.