Well, dear readers, I must admit and will admit that it was a little weird not to be at the show last night, but I really needed some ME time, and I got it. Plus, I’d only slept three hours, so I just wasn’t up for driving down there. My friend Maegan McConnell texted me that she was there, and she said it was pretty full, about seventy people, and then Doug called and told me it was a really great audience, and the show went well, save for a light going out before the show began so that stage right was a little darker than it should have been. The lighting guy came after the show to fix it so at least we’ll have it for today’s matinee. There were quite a few Group Rep members there, plus Jeffrey Rockwell, who was in L.A. Now and Then, and everyone seemed very effusive in their compliments. I, on the other hand, just relaxed and watched a new motion picture entitled Miranda’s Victim, based on – wait for it – real events. About an eighteen-year-old girl who was kidnapped and raped by a jerk named Ernesto Miranda. She’s able to name him in a lineup and the police get him to confess and sign a confession, but without a lawyer present. Thankfully, he’s found guilty and put away. But then the ACLU gets involved and appeals, giving their services to the rapist for free, alleging that his rights were violated because there was no attorney present nor was he offered the chance to have one there. And so, the Supreme Court agrees, and the trial has to happen all over again, with the very aggressive and irritating ACLU lawyer really giving it to the poor victim, who has to relive everything again. But he’s found guilty again and gets twenty years but gets paroled after eight. And, of course, you’ve probably figured out that this is the case that created the cops having to read people their Miranda rights. Abigail Breslin is the girl, Donald Sutherland is the retrial judge, Ryan Phillippe is the ACLU loudmouth, Kyle MacLachlan is Justice Earl Warren, and Andy Garcia is the rapist’s first lawyer. So, was it a good movie? Nope. Why? By the numbers script, for starters. But mostly the direction. The woman who directed it is mostly an acting coach and teacher, one of those method types and it shows in the way she’s directed the actors. She’s made a few movies that no one has seen, and I doubt this thing will do her any good. She’s like any novice – she just copies other today movies. It’s in scope for no discernible reason, I think there may be four or five shots in the over two-hour movie where the camera is stationary. Otherwise, it’s constantly moving for no discernible reason, other than maybe she thinks that makes her a film director. When you constantly move the camera then it means nothing, it serves no dramatic purpose and therefore when you need the move to be dramatic or make a point, it doesn’t. Then she uses awful rock-and-roll songs of the period (the 1960s) to tell us what the characters are feeling, a horrid device that should go the way of the dodo bird. And the score is one cliché after another. I have no idea who gives these people the money, but they obviously run in the right circles. I also saw the complete production of Prince of Broadway, the revue reviewing the work of Harold Prince. I didn’t think it was very good.
As mentioned, I only got three hours of sleep, then she of the Evil Eye arrived and I went and had a breakfast with Robert Yacko. I had eggs Benedict, and they were very good. We caught up, gabbed, told tales out of school, and then I walked over to the Von’s in the strip mall and got some food for later. Then I came home. I answered e-mails, had telephonic conversations, did some work on the computer, finally downloaded the DMV driver’s test booklet to study, watched the Harold Prince thing, then I made an eight-ounce top sirloin and that was really good. I had some potato salad for a side dish and some rice pudding for a sweet treat. The rest you know and here we are.
Today, I’ll be up by ten-thirty, and I’ll mosey on over to the theater around twelve-thirty. Dear reader Jeanne will be seeing the show and I’m sure I’ll know a few others, too. Then we play our matinee. After, I’ll probably just come home and make some food here. Then I can study, then watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow, I study, I write, I think I have two brief visits happening, the helper comes early in the morning to pick up the books and get them shipped. The rest of the week is more of the same and then on Friday I do believe I turn a new age. It’s amazing that you can turn a new age and be an old age.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by ten-thirty, mosey on over to the theater, see the matinee, come home, eat, study, 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, as I hit the road to dreamland, having written these here notes for no discernible reason.