Well, dear readers, how can we possibly be heading towards the end of March? That is just wacky, isn’t it? This month has flown by, like a gazelle doing an interpretive dance to the music of Milton Babbitt. And I am sitting here, having gone back to sample the wonders of the monophonic Eugene Ormandy box set – what incredible treasures, along with many one-off recordings. Of course, now we need the complete stereo recordings, but they span his Columbia AND RCA recordings, there would probably be 200 CDs – it would be huge. I’d be perfectly satisfied with just the Columbia recordings, however. I did watch two motion pictures during the evening hours. The first motion picture I watched during the evening hours was entitled The 10th Victim, a film of Elio Petri starring Marcello Mastroiannni and Ursula Andress, set in the future where there’s a game played where one person is a hunter and one a victim. The idea being the hunter hunts and kills the victim. The opening of the film takes place in New York, then we go to Italy as Andress, the hunter, goes after Mastroianni – former hunter, now victim. It’s a weird movie with an extremely weird score by Piero Piccioni. Color is great in this film but it’s certainly no masterpiece. I did see it a couple of times when it came out at the Four Star Theater on Wilshire Boulevard, where it had a surprisingly long exclusive run of three months, opening at the end of December and playing through the end of March. It was fun to see it again and it does have its moments. Then I watched Top Gun: Maverick. I really didn’t like the original Top Gun movie, a real Simpson/Bruckheimer testosterone fest. And that’s what this one is but amped up about a hundred times. It’s a real nostalgia throwback to the 1980s, which I believe is why it was the massive hit it was. It follows the same playbook and pushes the same buttons. Tom Cruise’s love interest is now Jennifer Connelly, who looks a bit emaciated now and not to the better. She barely even looks herself anymore. Jon Hamm hamms it up, and there’s the usual camaraderie and rivalry amongst the muscled young cast of men and women. It moves right along and it’s certainly enjoyable and very loud, I found it patently offensive that Lady Gaga was listed as one of the three film composers because – she didn’t composer the score – give her a song credit, sure, but she composed no score, even if the score used her banal song music every now and then. No one gave the songwriters of things like An Affair to Remember of Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing score credit, even though their tunes were used throughout. Patently offensive, but that’s the movie business today. It’s well directed (and loud) and exciting, but interestingly the most affecting scene in the entire film is the Val Kilmer scene, due to all his horrible health issues. Anyway, not a great movie, but an entertaining one, in two aspect ratios – scope and 1.85, which I presume was due to its IMAX showings.
Yesterday was really peculiar for reasons I can’t really say because I have no idea why it felt so damn peculiar. I got eight hours of sleep, was up at noon, I’d pre-odered bagels and those arrived at 12:15 and then at 1:00 I made two count them two tuna sandwiches on onion bagels – really good. Later, I had another bagel with cream cheese and that was good, too. I napped for a bit in the afternoon, did some proofing, which I really have to finish doing today, and then I watched the two movies. After that, I just listened to music and answered some e-mails.
Today, I’ll be up by eleven at the latest and hopefully earlier, and I’ll continue proofing until I’m done. I’ll eat something fun, hope for a hugely huge gigantor modern major miracle, do some Sami stuff, and then at some point I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
The rest of the week is more of the same, some meetings and meals, setting a date to cast this workshop thing I’ll be directing at some point in very late April or very early May, and I’ll do whatever else needs doing.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by eleven at the latest, proof, hope for a big ol’ major miracle, eat, do some Sami stuff, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite movies of Mr. Tom Cruise? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, not really desiring any more peculiar days.