Well, dear readers, let’s begin with the good and the good was so good it took my breath away, actually. Yesterday, I had a belated birthday lunch with dear reader Jeanne at our usual birthday jernt, Louise’s Trattoria in Westwood. The first good thing was finding a meter with time left on it. The jernt wasn’t that crowded and Jeanne was already seated when I arrived. At that point, there were just two other booths that had people, but as we were ordering two other sets of diners arrived. I alerted our server immediately that it was a birthday lunch. Jeanne ordered her usual pasta primvera and minestrone soup, and I ordered my usual pappardelle with sausage, but switched out the sausage for a meat ball, as the sausage is a little too spicy for me these days. The food was excellent, I gave Jeanne her birthday gift, and we had a high old time. Then our server brought her a birthday dessert and sang happy birthday. The two gentlemen seated in the booth behind us sang along and were very sweet. The bill arrived and I put my credit card in the folder and went and used the loo (ool, spelled backwards). I got back and saw the server hadn’t taken bill and card yet so I held it up for him. He came over and said, no, it’s paid for. I said what? He said, the two gentlemen paid the check. I couldn’t believe it and I thanked them profusely, as did Jeanne. I shook their hands and thanked them again. I was so taken aback by it all because these days everything is just so negative, and people have forgotten how to be nice to people. As dear reader Iris said in response to the story, it restored my faith in people, and it really did. A perfect example of the kindness of strangers and it was especially lovely because the day had begun with an obnoxious text which was the exact opposite of that. And we can all use a little more of the kindness of strangers, can’t we? Here’s the birthday girl.
On the way to the restaurant, the classical radio station I listen to was doing their usual Saturday thing, playing on opera from the Met. It was obviously one I’d never heard and I figured it had to be fairly new because it was an opera about a boxer. I really liked what I heard – very jazzy, nice melodies, so when I parked, I Googled opera about a boxer and found it – commissioned by the Met, it was called Champion, with a libretto by Michael Cristofer and music by Terence Blanchard, based on the life of boxer Emile Griffith. I think it’s Blanchard’s second opera. As soon as I got home, I went to the Tube of Your and thankfully found a complete audio of it, so I grabbed that. The person who uploaded the audio also included a link to a complete video of the production. So, I went to the link and began watching, but it was wildly out of sync between video and audio and therefore unwatchable. Then I got a good idea and downloaded the video, which took almost three hours. I then put it on a thumb drive and will give that to Marshall Harvey and he can load it into his Avid and sync the audio correctly to the picture, then he’ll export that and give it back to me and voila. And as I write these here notes I’m listening to the audio of Champion and really enjoying it.
I also watched a documentary last night, a three-parter about the Armie Hammer business and the long history of that awful family. Sadly, it’s “directed” in the style I cannot stand and it basically kills everything. Recreations with actors but completely meaningless other than that “director” not trusting the story their attempting to tell. It’s disruptive and stupid and just adds boring and unnecessary minutes. Then the usual slating the interviewee and letting them sit their looking awkward while they wait for the “director” to actually ask them something – anyone who does that should never be allowed to direct anything again. It was bad and, of course, as of the time of the documentary, not a damn thing had been done, investigation-wise. In fact, the investigation is still ongoing but no charges have ever been made. Very unsatisfying documentary and highly NOT recommended by the likes of me. I did get some good napping in, however.
Yesterday was, save for the obnoxious morning text, a very lovely day. I got almost eight hours of sleep, arising at eleven o’clock. I showered, answered e-mails, and then at noon-fifteen began the drive to Westwood, taking Beverly Glen all the way down to Pico and then directly to the restaurant, which wasn’t far from there. No traffic at all and the drive was pleasant due to listening to the opera. It took about twenty minutes to get there, I parked, checked some stuff on the phone, took a little walk, and then went to Louise’s and the rest you know.
I took the same route home, went directly to the mail place and picked up a couple of small packages, and a surprise envelope with a check I wasn’t expecting for two more weeks, so that was good. I went directly to the bank and deposited it in the ATM. Then I came home and had a couple of tiny cupcakes for a sweet treat. Then I began my viewing and that was that.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, and I’ll definitely finish writing the commentary, which I didn’t feel like doing yesterday, I’m thinking about actually going out to a restaurant for food – I’m bored of always eating here and I need to get out a bit more than I’ve been getting out. I’ll do a quick Ralph’s run for Diet Coke, but mostly I’ll have a ME day.
Tomorrow is a holiday so that will be a ME day, then next week is Sami stuff, having a work session for the Kritzerland show (only about twelve seats left, then it’s standing room only), meetings and meals, and hoping for all manner of miracles.
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, finish writing commentary, go out to eat at an actual restaurant, do a Ralph’s run, and 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 topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, still touched by the kindness of strangers that occurred yesterday.