Well, dear readers, it is late and therefore I must write these here notes in a hurry so I can post them, otherwise chaos will ensue, and the world will run amok, and turnips will disappear from the face of the earth but will remain on the knees of the earth. In other news, I am sitting here like so much fish listening to Elmer Bernstein’s Film Music Club recording of To Kill a Mockingbird, even though I don’t care for it all that much. I prefer the re-recording released when the movie came out, but that’s missing a good deal of music. Elmer recorded it a third time for Varese Sarabande, but I think that one came out on RCA. The sound on the CD of the Club release is not so hot – it may have been one of the albums that had a vinyl transfer. It’s just boxy sounding, but it does have more music. What’s criminal is that the actual film tracks have never been released. One does wonder if they actually exist anymore. Prior to listening, I watched the first fifty minutes of the movie on Blu and Ray. I haven’t seen it all the way through in years. I saw it on opening day at the Wilshire Theater and went back at least five times. Opening day happened to be Christmas of 1962. Also opening no that day was another great motion picture, Days of Wine and Roses at the Vogue in Hollywood, but you knew that from Preview Harvey. You could also see Gypsy at the Pantages, Jumbo at the Paramount, Lawrence of Arabia at the Stanley Warner Beverly Hills, West Side Story in its second year at the Chinese, Taras Bulba playing citywide as was Barabbas, Two for the Seesaw was at the Beverly, The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm was at the Warner Cinerama, Mutiny on the Bounty was at the Egyptian, The Longest Day was at the Carthay Circle, Freud was at the Beverly Hills Music Hall, and if you were in the mood for Jerry Lewis, It’s Only Money was there for you, and Disney had In Search of the Castaways. Add to all that, all the movies at neighborhood theaters in second and third runs. Compare and contrast that with the movie releases of today and you’ll see just how far we’ve fallen. If you wanted theater you could go to the Coronet as I did and see Billy Barnes L.A., or Under the Yum Yum Tree in its sixty-seventh week at the Ivar, Come Blow Your Horn at the Las Palmas, and The Tenth Man at the Civic on La Cienega. There is a film playing for Academy Award consideration that I’ve never even heard of and now I’m most interested to find it – The Reluctant Saint, starring Maximilian Schell, directed by Edward Dmytryk.
Yesterday was pretty okay overall. I only got about four or five hours of sleep, I answered e-mails, and then I began futzing and finessing, which took a little over two hours. I wrote a new half a page, then went and got In ‘N’ Out for food and that was good. Then I began writing in earnest and wrote six pages pretty quickly. Then I wrote another three pretty quickly. I finished the section that I was worried could consume fifty or sixty pages, but I brought it in at twenty-five pages and I think it plays pretty well at that length and you get a sense of everything without belaboring anything.
I took a little break, did a few things, then just barreled ahead and did five more pages, for a total of fourteen, plus whatever I added to the futzed and finessed stuff. The air conditioner is still blowing hot air, so it was insufferable at eighty-two degrees, and I finally did something I’ve never done in this house – I opened the kitchen window and that did help a bit because it’s nice and cool outside. Then I watched the first fifty minutes of the movie and then saw that it was quite late.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll futz and finesse, I’ll write new pages, and that’s most of the day. Then it’s dinner with Cousins Dee Dee and Alan and friend Saul, then I’ll put gas in the motor car and then I’ll probably write some more pages.
Tomorrow, I’ll futz and finesse and then send Muse Margaret a new batch of pages. Then this week is probably going to be difficult and irritating in certain ways, but I must stay positive and in the groove, writing-wise. I’m guessing I probably have another hundred pages or so before I finish this thing.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, futz and finesse, write new pages, have a dinner, put gas in the motor car, and write more. 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, nostalgic for a movie Christmas like that of 1962.