Well, dear readers, as the days dwindle down to the last of December, I find it best to remember the lyrics of the Carolyn Leigh/Cy Coleman song, The Best Is Yet to Come. I would hate to think that anything worse than the worst of 2023 lies in store, so let us just state loudly and plainly, the best is yet to come and let us hope the best IS the best and that the coming of it is sooner than later. I am sitting here like so much fish, sipping a Canada Dry Ginger Ale Zero Sugar, still not feeling 100% but certainly doing better every day, at least the first parts of the day. True to form, I do get worse as the evening wears on and the evening does wear on, I think we can all agree on THAT. I did finish the new Indiana Jones motion picture yesterday. It’s fun to see Harrison Ford back in the saddle and the final scene is lovely, but I found it pretty by the numbers, directed by someone who has not an ounce of the Spielberg magic, even though I’m sure Spielberg was very hands on. He should have directed it himself. It wouldn’t have fixed the script problems, but he probably could have helped them. Yes, there are action scenes, but none of them are really fun in the way that they are in the first film. Whatever humor they try to insert into them like the first film does effortlessly, here it’s obvious and labored. The biggest issue for me was the Phoebe Waller-Bridge character, who is just too obnoxious for too long, so that when her turnaround comes it’s far too late. The de-aging in the prologue works okay but it’s creepy in a way because we know that’s what it is. I also thought some of the CGI stuff was borderline bad. Fun, that’s the thing that’s sorely lacking and I think that’s why the film didn’t do the business it should have. The John Williams score is good, not great – and it was a bad day when he met scoring engineer/mixer Shawn Murphy – this one is really not recorded well. It gets better as it goes along, but I said the same thing when I heard the soundtrack release. Certainly, it was worth the six bucks to stream it. I also watched Oppenheimer, a three-hour motion picture about the daddy of the Atom bomb. I don’t think it’s much of a secret around these here parts that I am NOT a fan of the director – I find his “big” films over the top and relentless, the kind of movie that screams at you, “Hey, look at this incredible direction!!!!!!!!!!” Oppenheimer at least tells an interesting story, so it held my attention, and the pacing was fine. The storytelling jumps around in time, as these kinds of movies tend to do. It certainly looks good and the acting is excellent from everyone. But it’s a bit soft in the middle, and the director’s use of music is just not for me, constant wall-to-wall sound design is what it really is. Certainly, it’s not a movie score in the sense of what I want in a movie score. I’m glad I saw it but have no need to ever see it again. I don’t think there’s any doubt it will be up for a boatload of Oscars. Then I started to watch The Turning Point, a movie I haven’t seen since it came out. I remember thinking it okay back then, but not great, and that most of the love it got was for its two leading ladies. Seeing the first thirty minutes again, I found it horribly written by Arthur Laurents, mundanely directed by Herbert Ross, but the ladies really are good together. I’ll finish it, of course. Maybe it gets better as it goes along.
Otherwise, I got about ten hours of sleep and yesterday I didn’t go back to sleep during the day – trying not to do that anymore. I felt pretty good for the first part of the day, but as time went on, the usual shortness of breath and coughing arrived. Really irritating. For food, I had Stanley’s grilled chicken pasta with red onions, broccoli, and cashew nuts. It was great. And if you want the real cure for irregularity, have pasta in a cream sauce – you’ll be regular thirty minutes after you finish, guaranteed.
I did some writing, then watched the movies, and here we are. I will admit to having a piece of chocolate cake – that was pretty good, too.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll continue to relax and hope that I’m 100% better at some point soon. I’ll make some pasta in red sauce here – that will be my food o’ the day. Then I’ll just watch, listen, and relax.
Then it’s more of that and then on Saturday, I’ll do the big shopping – might even brave Costco – we’ll see how I feel. Sunday is our Annual New Year’s Rockin’ Eve Bash right there at haineshisway.com, and then it’s 2024, the start of a New Year, a new book, followed by the raincheck Do.
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, hope that I’m 100% better sooner than later, eat, then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear reader any old question you like and we get to give any old answer we like. So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, hoping that the best really is yet to come.