Well, dear readers, April is flying by, like a gazelle eating an Impossible Burger made out of linoleum and boy is it impossible to eat so the gazelle just got a Possible Burger from In ‘N’ Out. Speaking of In ‘N’ Out, I am sitting here like so much fish listening to the soundtrack music of Mr. Ryuichi Sakamoto, a marvelous composer of great melodic music, whether soundtracks or his non-soundtrack music. Sadly, he passed away a few days ago at only seventy-one but he leaves behind a wonderful legacy of music. He was a pioneer in electronic music and then ventured into film as a composer with Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, in which he also acted. But his score for The Last Emperor really put him on the map as a film composer, although while he did score subsequent films, he never really became mainstream as a film composer because he was busy trying other things musically. But he did write excellent scores for The Sheltering Sky, Femme Fatale, Snake Eyes, High Heels, The Revenant, and others. He won the Oscar for The Last Emperor. If you’ve never heard any of these, YouTube is your friend. I did manage to watch two motion pictures last evening. The first motion picture was entitled Night People, starring Gregory Peck. I’d never seen it, an early Cinemascope film written and directed by Nunnally Johnson, who was a very good writer but a terrible director. Night People is very well written, a good story, compact and with a very good role for Mr. Peck. But it could have worked so much better if the film had a score, but other than some military marches at the beginning and end and a short main title composition by Cyril Mockridge, there’s not a note of music and it’s a classic example of the worst decision Johnson could have made because the film cries out for one of the Fox house composers of the time and any one of them could have made the film much better – think Herrmann or Friedhofer or Raksin or Harline. But I did enjoy it and it’s only ninety-three minutes long. The second movie was entitled Lethal Weapon, which I hadn’t seen in twenty years, I think. Yep, I’ve never written about it in these here notes, so not before 2001. It’s very entertaining and well-acted and directed and the script is fun. Mel Gibson and Danny Glover are great together. There is some very amusing geography bits where there’s a chase happening in Hollywood and they turn the corner and they’re on Broadway downtown, which is no mean feat. Anyway, it was fun to see it again.
Yesterday was certainly a ME day. I got up at one-thirty after nine hours of sleep. I answered e-mails, then did a Gelson’s run and got some roast beef and some turkey and two onion rolls, came home and made one roast beef sandwich and one turkey sandwich with cheese and Russian dressing (which I’d gotten in my Langer’s order). The sandwiches were very good. That was basically my food for the day, save for an apple, some carrots, and about two ounces of Gelson’s very good chopped liver, so not a bad calorie day.
I got the corrected dust jacket, so that’s done and if I get the finished designed book I’m hoping it can be proofed quickly and then it can go in to the publisher by Friday. As soon as Doug Haverty is back from Florida we’ll put it up for pre-order and copies that come from the Kritzerland site will come with a really fun bonus the likes of which we’ve never done before and of course they’ll be signed. Then I watched the two motion pictures.
Today, I’ll be up by eleven at the latest, I’ll shower and get ready for my lunch but first I’ll stop and cash a check at the bank and get that out of the way. Then lunch, then the mail place, then, if there’s time, I’ll stop at my local branch and make a deposit and then I’ll come home, do whatever needs doing, send vibes and xylophones that we’ll finally hear from Amazon, and then I can watch, listen, and relax.
The rest of the week is more of the same – book stuff, Sami stuff and tomorrow I do a Zoom podcast thing about Laurie Beechman, I need to finish liner notes, make a show order for the Kritzerland show, write commentary, have some meetings and meals and hope for another major miracle.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the thing I do, I must, for example, be up by eleven, shower, cash a check, have a lunch, hopefully pick up packages, make a deposit if there’s time, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite films of Mr. Gregory Peck? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, sorry to hear of the passing of the wonderful Ryuichi Sakamoto and his magical music.