Well, dear readers, I have breaking bombshell news for you. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, I, BK, have breaking bombshell news for you: It is Easter. Or, as we on this coast like to call it, Wester. I am listening to what is billed as a church opera called Tobias and the Angel by the composer I mentioned the other day, Jonathan Dove, who wrote that lovely flute concerto. This, like the concerto, is very tuneful. Chamber orchestra and very spare and excellent orchestrations. It’s short, in one act, about sixty minutes long. At times, it veers into musical comedy territory, so that’s fun. I also have his Peter Pan opera on Blu and Ray so I’ll probably watch that later tonight. Prior to that, I finished watching Chaplin, starring Robert Downey, Jr. He’s quite good in this, save for his mumbling – I literally couldn’t understand half of what he was saying. But he’s got the physicality down really well. His Chaplin accent comes and goes frequently – it’s best when he’s playing the older Chaplin. I really don’t care for Richard Attenborough as a director – he’s pretty ham-fisted for my taste. I really hate the framing device of a book editor going on about Chaplin’s My Autobiography manuscript. It’s a cliched device and tiresome, even as played by Anthony Hopkins. Apparently, the scenes of the older Chaplin were written by William Goldman and, in fact, Hopkins rather resembles Goldman. The period detail is done well, and the actors are fine save for the guy who plays his brother, who irritated me. Dan Aykroyd is also kind of amateurish as Mack Sennett. I really liked Moira Kelly as the first and last loves of Chaplin. The film does have a lovely score by John Barry. It’s two-and-a-half hours long, which is a little long. James Woods plays to the rafters as a horrible prosecuting attorney. Attenborough makes the curious decision to have all the classic Chaplin clips in the film BE Chaplin himself – doesn’t quite work because in reality he has one of the most unique faces in the history of cinema and while Downey’s make-up is excellent, it’s not Chaplin and one is taken out of the film every time a clip is shown.
After that, I tried to watch a movie I always try to watch – sometimes I make it to the end because it’s like watching a horrible train wreck, and sometimes I simply can’t believe what I’m seeing and I bail, which is what I did last night. You would never imagine, watching this film, that the director would go on to make one of the best thrillers ever made, so inept is his work. It’s one of those look at me I’m making a Hitchcock homage, but without really having a clew as to what Mr. Hitchcock is really about. It’s actually unintentionally hilarious many times. It’s called Last Embrace, stars Roy Scheider and Janet Margolin. The first scene is unbelievably ludicrous and is the first of the not meant to be funny laugh riots. Scheider has a breakdown because of it, but is ready to go back to work, whatever work is – some undercover thing I don’t remember now. He’s paranoid and thinks people are trying to kill him. At a train station he’s convinced that someone pushes him toward the train track just before the train barrels through and he attacks the guy he thought did it – a chubby young actor named Mandy Patinkin. The writing is infantile, the dialogue risible, and the overly dramatic score by Miklos Rozsa, good as it is musically, tips the film over into over-the-top melodrama. My memory of my other viewings is that it gets even stupider as it goes along. And to think that the director, one Jonathan Demme would go on to make the brilliant Silence of the Lambs. Go know.
Then I watched the first half of Black Caesar, an amusing Larry Cohen blaxploitation picture. I had to do a quick Ralph’s run to get more Pepcid, though they didn’t have my flavor and I hate the mint flavor I had to buy. I also picked up a box of Chicken in a Biskit crackers. Then I listened to the opera.
Yesterday was okay. I got about five hours of sleep, was out of the home environment at nine, stopped at the ATM, then went to Art’s Deli for an omelet and bagel. Then I went to the mail place and picked up a couple of tiny packages, then went to Gelson’s and got a chicken Caesar salad for later, then came home. I had a nice and long telephonic conversation with Sami Staitman about the plan for her to start promoting the show. She’s not the kind that promotes, but she understands that she really has to because this show, if we get people to watch, could really be a benefit to her. We’re sending an email to the entire cast and crew about promotion, and I’ll be talking to Karim Hazime, the other regular, having a similar conversation about promotion. I had a couple of other telephonic conversations, did some work on the computer, then had the chicken Caesar and that was fine. Then I watched the movies.
Today, I’ll be up by eleven, I’ll shave and shower, then Doug Haverty is picking me up and we’re going to see a matinee of a play, after which we’ll probably grab a bite to eat. Then I’ll write some commentary, then watch, listen, and relax. I don’t think I’ll be having any gaily colored Easter eggs or Peeps as I’m a Jew, but I always liked Easter and having to find the gaily colored Easter eggs.
Tomorrow is our first Kritzerland rehearsal and I’m very much looking forward to that. The rest of the week is meetings and meals, I’ll be getting together with Marshall Harvey and we’re gonna see if we can find any funny outtakes – I tend to move along at a fast clip and I do few takes so I’m not sure what we’ll find, but we’ll see. Thursday is our second rehearsal, Saturday is our stumble-through, and then Sunday we do sound check and then show.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by eleven, shave and shower, see a matinee, eat, write commentary, then 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 postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, wishing everyone gaily colored Easter eggs and a happy Easter.