Well, dear readers, the birthday is just about over and it was nothing but a pleasantly pleasant day, with just one irritant to deal and it was dealt with strongly, an apology was tendered and all was well and well was all. So, where should we begin? At the beginning, of course, a very good place to start. The birthday began beautifully with eleven hours of glorious sleep without any interruptions – just what I needed. I got up at noon-thirty, began “liking” as many Facebook birthday wishes as I could, answered lovely e-mails and texts, and swiftly dealt with the irritant, which had to do with U-Haul Storage. Once that was all straightened out, then I was just the laziest gal in town – sorry, the laziest guy in town. At five, I showered and got ready for my birthday evening with friend Marshall Harvey. He arrived at six sharp and we drove over the hill to Daughter’s Deli on Sunset near La Cienega. That’s the hole in the wall deli run by the daughter of Langer’s. We both had the papa sandwich – pastrami (we both got extra lean), coleslaw, Swiss cheese, and Russian dressing. We also split a short order of latkes – one and a half for each of us. They arrived first and were great. It’s only outdoor seating but there was a heater and we and the two ladies next to us were the only ones there. The pastrami was a little rubbery for my taste, but still good. I had to finally not eat the bread on the second half of the sandwich, as I was ready to burst.
Then we moseyed on over to the Landmark Theaters on Sunset Blvd. where Virgin Records used to be. They’re renovating and it looks like they’re doing so in the nick of time. Our movie was in theater four, which had about 100 seats. There were twelve of us. The movie was entitled May December, the new Todd Haynes film. I’m a huge fan of his, so I’ve been looking forward to seeing it, despite the somewhat negative comments I’ve occasionally seen on the Facebook. True to form, the film is really well directed by a classicist who doesn’t care about being trendy. Shot on film, for starters. And after the relentless Mission Impossible movie, how nice to watch a movie that has actual characters and depth. It’s a fiction film, very loosely based on the teacher who had an affair with a twelve-year-old and went to jail, had his baby in jail, and when she got out, married him.
I think that’s why some people don’t like it, because that’s not what it’s really about – it’s really about Natalie Portman playing an actress who’s going to be playing the role of the thirty-six-year-old woman. That part is played by Julianne Moore and both give award-worthy performances of great subtlety. Portman, especially, captures the manipulative qualities that many actors have – Marshall and I both felt it was almost like watching Bergman’s Persona. I found it engrossing and terrific – maybe ten minutes too long, but that’s minor stuff. It’s on the Flix of Net if you have that service and I’d recommend it. It’s slow, but never SLOW. Also, they obviously temp-tracked the movie with Michel Legrand’s score to The Go-Between and they ended up using that music, rearranged by another composer. It works really well, I thought.
After the movie, he took me back to the home environment, and I ate the cupcake he’d given me. I caught up on “likes” and e-mails and that was basically the birthday and here we are.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I may do a little writing, I’ll do either a Ralph’s or Gelson’s run, I’ll either make some pasta with sweet Eyetalian sausage and peas or I’ll order something in – we’ll see how I’m feeling. Otherwise, I just intend to watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow is more of the same, then Cousin Dee Dee and her ever lovin’ hubby are taking me to dinner at one of my favorite jernts, so that’ll be fun. Then next week is writing, some meetings and meals, a brush-up rehearsal, and then we play our final three shows. I so wish we hadn’t had to miss two weeks, but that was the deal we had to make due to our leading lady being out of town on two weekends. I’ll miss it, for sure.
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, maybe write, get stuff for pasta if I decide that’s what I want, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: End of year topics begin. What were your favorite movies of 2023? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have had a Happy Birthday.