Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to the Mahler fifth, a fine performance by Herbert von Karajan in very good sound. That leaves only my favorite Mahler symphony, the sixth, and I’ll try and pick a performance I love – I have about ten in Music to choose from. Prior to that, I had a nice one-hour snooze, and watched the remake of a motion picture entitled Poltergeist, the remake called Poltergeist. I find these attempts at a cash grab nauseating, especially when they don’t come within a country mile of the original. It’s become very fashionable for young idiots to now trash the original, saying it’s not scary and not a horror movie. Of course, when the original came out the parents of the idiots were children (the original film was rated PG and kids got to see it). We’re talking about know-it-all idiots born in the late 1990s or early 2000s. It’s like Psycho – no one today understands how scary that film was back in the day simply because it’s been ripped off a thousand times, in the same way that Poltergeist eventually was. The screenplay for the remake is by the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, David Lindsay-Abaire. I have only seen two of his plays – Fuddy Meers and Rabbit Hole – and frankly, I didn’t care for either. Perhaps it was the productions or perhaps I just didn’t respond to either the plays or his writing. I abhorred his musical version of Shrek. His screenplay for this remake is horrible. Nothing works here. He gives away the entire reason for things happening early on, unlike the original, where you don’t find out until the ending, so that it comes as a shock. The family unit is made up of the same components but without any charm, even though the actors try hard. The “scares” if you want to call them that are all of the “BOO” variety, which become more and more annoying. There’s not one scare that approaches the classic scares in the original. They’ve turned the unique characters of the paranormal personnel into much less interesting characters than the ones played by Beatrice Straight and Zelda Rubinstein. The original works because the strange happenings begin slowly as we get to know and love the family – and at first, they’re weird and funny. Gradually, things change. The new version is twenty minutes shorter, changes the beginning beats of the story in useless ways, and then stuff begins happening. Here, we don’t get ONE creepily menacing clown doll, we get a whole slew of them. The score isn’t a patch on the butt cheeks of the brilliant Jerry Goldsmith original. All in all, a pointless, bad remake of a classic film made by people who knew HOW to make a classic film.
Prior to that, I only got five hours of sleep again – most annoying – answered a ton of e-mails, shaved and showered, then went to the mail place and picked up batteries, then met Robert Yacko at the Toluca Lake Don Cuco, the best location. I’ve been to the Burbank location and it’s good and ate frequently at the Glendale location located just down the street from Mystery and Imagination Books – that location closed long ago. Anyway, given the decline in the food at Casa Vega, Don Cuco will now be my default go-to Mexican jernt. It’s only a ten-minute drive. We got some guacamole and chips – very good – and I got the combination plate with one beef taco and one cheese enchilada and rice and beans. I began with their small dinner salad with their house Eyetalian dressing, which is really good. The beef taco was great, and the cheese enchilada was even better, especially with some of the guacamole on top. And I rarely eat the rice and beans, but these were so good I ate them all up. It’s been a while since we supped, so it was fun to catch up, tales were told, certain types were dissed, and it was such a pleasant way to spend the afternoon. I’ll be going back there this week at some point. If you choose a time like four o’clock there aren’t many diners there.
I came right home afterwards and have had no other food, before or after. In fact, I’m still very full. Then I watched the movie, had my ninety-minute snooze, and here we are, with the Mahler fifth famous Adagietto playing – a stunningly beautiful movement that’s been used quite a bit in motion pictures, like the recent Tar and Maestro. It featured heavily in Visconti’s Death in Venice.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, it will be a ME day, I’ll be a lazy lout, I’ll do some work on the Bacharach show, I’ll eat something amusing, maybe go to Gelson’s, but mostly I’ll watch, listen, and relax – perhaps I’ll watch the original Poltergeist. In case you don’t know, E.T. and Poltergeist were filmed back-to-back and each cost ten million dollars. E.T. became a box-office phenomenon, but Poltergeist was also a huge hit worldwide. I saw both films the day they opened. E.T. at the Cinerama Dome for its special premiere showing. I actually think I was invited by the film company because, you know, I play an important five-second role in the film. And I was there for the first evening showing of Poltergeist. Standing in line, the buzz as people came out of the theater was incredible and we all knew we were going to be in for a rollercoaster ride.
Tomorrow, I have an early supper with Marshall Harvey, so that will be fun. Otherwise, this week is mostly getting the Bacharach show ready, including show order, commentary, and a work session with our MD. On Wednesday, I have a phone thing with Social Security and hopefully we can get that started along with Medicaid. I’ve let this slide far too long.
Let’s all put on our pointy party hats and colored tights and pantaloons, let’s break out the cheese slices and ham chunks. let’s dance the Hora or the Pachanga, for today is the birthday of our very own dear reader George. So, let’s give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to our very own dear readers George. On the count of three: One, two, three – A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO OUR VERY OWN DEAR READER GEORGE!!!
Also, a very happy 49th anniversary to The First Nudie Musical, which began shooting on May 5, 1975. And a happy Cinco de Mayo.
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, have a ME day, be a lazy lout, do a bit of work on the Bacharach show, maybe go to Gelson’s or order something to eat from somewhere, and 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, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, hoping this trend of remakes or reboots or whatever they call them, will disappear forever – unless they want to remake The Faculty – THAT we would welcome because we’d get some big, fat checks.