Well, dear readers, let me put it to you this way: I’M TIRED! Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, I, BK, am TIRED. This is due to having gotten four hours of sleep two nights ago and three and a half hours of sleep one night ago and even my attempts to get another hour twice yesterday didn’t work. Damn them, damn them all the HELL. I was in bed and falling asleep by three but I was up at six-thirty and I could not fall back asleep, which was soooo irritating. I just did book stuff, my final time through before it goes to Grant Geissman for designing. My work on the project with David Wechter is done so I’m just waiting on him to finish his stuff and he’s close so hopefully today we’ll go through it all and remove all our margin notes and color highlights for the changes, cuts, and additions. I had a few telephonic calls, sat here like so much zombified fish, shaved and showered, had a major miracle, which will alleviate some stress for the next week, and then I had a lunch meeting with the playwright whose play I’ll be directing in a workshop. He’s really a good guy and he’s also a terrific novelist and I even have a couple of his novels, including the very funny and outre Pest Control. I directed a one-night reading of the play a while back and he’s done two revisions since then and I gave him a few suggestions to think about and he liked them and I think they’ll be helpful in setting up what kind of evening we’re in for. It’s kind of a throwback to 1960s absurdist plays that have reality underpinnings and I’m very fond of those kinds of plays from when I was a teen, plays like Oh Dad, Poor Dad and the very funny Red Eye of Love. So, that will be happening either late April or early May. It’s only a couple of weeks of my time, so that’s fine. The lunch meeting was at Casa Vega and I had my usual beef taco and cheese enchilada and rice and beans. All very good.
I came right home, had more telephonic conversations, then sat on my couch like so much fish and watched A Shot in the Dark, the second film featuring Inspector Clouseau, who debuted in The Pink Panther. I loved it when it came out, but while it has many inspired sequences and a final fifteen minutes during which Peter Sellers is at his most brilliant, some of it just kind of lays there. It’s never bad, but the pace in the early part of the film is just a little off. There’s a great recurring gag with Clouseau being arrested, and Herbert Lom makes his first appearance as Inspector Dreyfuss, and so do several other folks who’d be in all the sequels. Elke Sommer tries hard but she’s kind of irritating. But there are some wonderful supporting performances aside from the folks who’d become regulars and my two favorites were the always excellent Martin Benson (he played the Kralahome in the film of The King and I) and George Sanders is absolutely hilarious as a millionaire. He never has gotten his due in terms of how wonderful an actor he was and how unique his whole persona was and how one-off his voice was. And it must be said again and again, no film director ever directed comedy in scope better than Blake Edwards. He was a genius at it.
I ordered from Rite Aid some Pepcid, some chips, and a couple of other things, because I was out of Pepcid. I had a handful of chips for a snack, but never had a second meal or anything. Oh, and I’d had one of those Marie Callender’s frozen dinner things the other day, a cheesy chicken thing over rice, and it was very good. But a day later, I made the Marie Callender’s frozen dinner of meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and corn and that was a four-star disaster – one bite of the rubber shoe purporting to be meat loaf was enough and I spit it out and tossed the rest. I think beef and frozen dinner is an oxymoron. But the cheesy chicken over rice was quite tasty so I’ll do that one again and maybe try a couple of other chicken dishes they do.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll get the new book to Grant for designing, then I have a Zoom with David Wechter at two that will probably last ninety minutes or so, and then I’m doing nothing but relaxing. Oh, and I got the final song mix I was waiting on, so Marshall will lay that in and that will be that and the show will go in for close captioning, which takes about ten days, I’m told. And now, I have to write a brief general thing about the show, and a short synopsis for each episode, which I’ll probably do tomorrow or Monday.
Tomorrow will be mostly a ME day and since Monday is a holiday, that will be, too. And I’m hoping I get at least one of the blurbs for the new book this week and as soon as that happens, I’ll put that in the notes and reveal the cover. When I’m asked what the title is by friends, I tell them and they don’t have a clew as to what it means, which I like. I also have to write flap copy for the dust jacket, so all that will happen this coming 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, get the new book to Grant for designing, have a Zoom, eat something amusing, and then I’ll start working on the show synopsis things, after which I’ll watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite films of Peter Sellers? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, hoping to get over being the sleep deprived me.