Well, dear readers, today’s notes will be in Sensurround and will be all shook up. I’m all shook up, you see, having just watched the first half of Earthquake, the first motion picture in Sensurround, although it was in TV sound as I streamed it and the Firestick only plays through the actual TV speakers. I saw Earthquake on its opening day at the Chinese Theater in Sensurround. I vividly remember looking up at the ceiling before the movie began and seeing that they’d hung a huge net up there, presumably to protect the audience from falling plaster. I’m pretty sure the net was a gimmick and unnecessary. The minute the film began it looked just like so many Universal movies – they all had the same kinds of main titles and look and sound, rather like a TV movie. The script is almost laughable, with stock characters, scenes that last mere moments where we meet all of them prior to the titular earthquake. It takes place in a city called Los Angeles and the film begins with aerial shots of the city circa 1974. Downtown had four or five skyscrapers back then. Now it’s nothing but, and that goes for much of the city. We get a few Universal contract actors, like Kip Niven, and then the stars like Charlton Heston and Ava Gardner and Genevieve Bujold, and then the usual array of aging guest stars like Barry Sullivan, Lorne Greene, Lloyd Nolan, John Randolph, and George Kennedy. And we also get Richard Roundtree, Victoria Principal (sporting an AFRO), Marjoe Gortner (in a performance that has to be seen to be believed), Scott Hylands, Donald Moffat (with whom I’d just worked at the Mark Taper Forum), and in a one scene tiny role, Lonny Chapman, the founder of the Group Rep. It’s not as good as The Towering Inferno, also released in 1974, but it’s fun in its own silly way. The earthquake effects were very good for their time and they hold up pretty well nearly fifty years on, save for one ludicrous shot as an elevator crashes to the ground and we get some animated blood splotches – ridic. What’s really astonishing is that one the earthquake happens there’s still almost an hour to go. Anyway, during the earthquake sequence I pretended the couch was shaking and I shook, too, until I was all shook up.
Yesterday was baffling. I’d taken my allergy pill, but at two in the morning, as I’d just gotten in bed, I had a five-star allergy attack that lasted almost two hours. By then I was so irritated I couldn’t sleep. I tried several times to no avail, and I didn’t actually fall asleep until eight in the morning. Horrible. I slept until two-thirty, so six-and-a-half hours of not enough sleep. Once up, I answered some e-mails and then ordered pasta Monica from nearby Antonio’s. It was something I’d never tried before and it was pretty good – basically, spaghetti in red sauce with chopped up meatballs, garlic, and onions. It wasn’t an especially large portion and there couldn’t have been more than four ounces of pasta, if that. Then I watched some irritating YouTube videos and heartwarming dog rescue videos, had several telephonic conversations, and then began Earthquake in non-Sensurround. And here we are.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll pray for a modern major miracle, I’ll do some prep work on the remaining stuff we have to do for the show, I’ll eat, but mostly I’ll try to take it easy. I’m still a bit sore from the little silly tumble I had on Saturday, nothing terrible, and then at some point I suppose I’ll watch, listen, and relax. I have zero doubt that I’ll wake up to an irritating text. I’d be happily surprised not to, however.
Tomorrow, we’re back in the saddle again. My friend Cheryl Baxter is coming to choreograph a tap-dancing section for Coffee in a Cardboard Cup, and I’ll let her have the stage and we’ll go upstairs and continue blocking the rest of act two or as much as we can. There’s about ten to fifteen pages left. Then the rest of the week is more of the same, with the addition of a Friday evening rehearsal. And two rehearsals on the weekend. I also have to do some writing and I’m pondering both the imponderables and the future.
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, do whatever needs doing, pray for a modern major miracle, do some prep work, eat, take it easy, and watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What YouTube rabbit holes have you gone down – which did you like, which irritated you, and which would you recommend? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I shall hopefully not be all shook up.