Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening now to the film music of Benjamin Frankel, specifically Night of the Iguana, a very nice score. I enjoy his film scores – Battle of the Bulge is quite good, I love So Long at the Fair, one of his early scores, and Curse of the Werewolf is good loud fun. I did find a motion picture to watch that I hadn’t seen, something called High Crimes, a quasi-legal thriller with Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman, from 2002, directed by Carl Franklin. I didn’t mind it until the “twist” I knew was coming because it was the twist in way too many quasi-legal thrillers from that era. And the twist makes you shout because it makes hash of everything that came before it. Ms. Judd and Mr. Freeman are good, but any film that makes you twist and shout is ultimately a fail. It’s not the worst of this genre, it’s just smack in the middle. For evening food, I had a top sirloin steak from Ralph’s that was too big, followed by the little mini-bundt cake thing I’d saved and that was very good. Also, I didn’t really talk about the all-female Japanese cast album of Promises, Promises, which seems to be based on the revival, which is a shame. Let me start with the premise that Promises, Promises didn’t need anyone’s help, least of all the director/choreographer of the revival, Rob Ashford. First, he adds I Say a Little Prayer and A House Is Not a Home, presumably to satisfy the revival’s leading lady, but both songs are ridiculous in the show. The Japanese production only kept Prayer, but it’s still ridiculous. Also ridiculous in the revival, Mr. Ashford’s awful staging during the overture, surely one of the great overtures that should just BE an overture – it’s called trusting the material, a lesson Mr. Ashford apparently never learned. We won’t even bother talking about his putting a chorus of men in what should be a joyous solo for the leading man, She Likes Basketball, and we’ll talk even less about Turkey Lurkey Time. No one would ever accuse the all-female Japanese cast of subtlety – it’s very loud – the two-CDs contain the entire show, recorded live and very well recorded at that. There is no subtlety at all but there is an awful lot of overdone schmacting. The band sounds great, but they’ve added bars to music that didn’t need extra bars, and I think the orchestrations are slightly revised by Mr. Tunick. The original production was simple, beautifully choreographed, and had a great cast. But sure, revival dopes, throw in more songs that have zero to do with the characters or the show or the show’s tone, throw ‘em in to appease your leading lady who is so miscast it’s not even funny. Let me repeat the three words that all people doing revivals need to learn: Trust the material or don’t do the damn show.
Yesterday was okay. I was up at eight-fifteen after seven hours and fifteen minutes of sleep, and out the door by nine. I went to Hugo’s for a light breakfast and got there in the nick of time because fifteen minutes after I arrived the jernt was jammed. I had an omelet and a side Caesar salad, both very good. Then I moseyed on over to the mail place and picked up a small residual check that will pay for a couple of dinners, then I did a Ralph’s run and got the too large steak and a frozen Benihana chicken and rice in hibachi sauce. And, in fact, that’s what I was going to have for my evening meal – I made it, took one bite and into the trash it went – truly horrible. After Ralph’s, I went to the gas station and filled the motor car up with gas – first time in four weeks or more and prices have gone up another fifty cents here, which is absolutely outrageous and how are idiot governor allows it is nauseating. All he has to do is threaten the oil companies with price gouging and the prices would come done so fast it would make everyone’s head spin. But noooo, he does nothing as he’s always done. After gas, I came home and she of the Evil Eye was already gone.
Then I did a few things on the computer, then mostly relaxed until I finally found the movie.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, and I’ll have me a ME day and that will be loverly. I’ll do a quick Gelson’s run to maybe get some of their good creamy tomato soup and see if there’s anything of interest in the deli case – otherwise, I’ll just get a can of tuna and make tuna sandwiches. We shall see. Then I’ll just watch, listen, and relax.
This week shall be finding a pianist for the March Kritzerland show, some meetings and meals, working on a trailer for Sami, and trying to survive yet another week, and hopefully I’ll have a blurb or two at some point this week and once I do, we’ll go ahead and announce the new book.
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, have a ME day, get food from Gelson’s, and then I can watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, tired of overdone twists that make you want to shout.