Well, dear readers, I must write these here notes in a hurry, for she of the Evil Eye will be here all too soon and I need to get a good night’s beauty sleep. So, here we go. I was up at 6:45 in the morning and at 7:15 the doorbell rang. Instead of being greeted by the A/C guy who’s been doing everything, I was, without any warning, greeted by three or four people I’d never seen before. I asked the guy who seemed to be in charge where the boss was. He said HE was the boss. I asked about the coil. He said in as much English as he could muster that he didn’t know from a coil. At that point, I texted the owner of the house with high dudgeon that I didn’t know who these people were, and they didn’t know from a coil and after six days of way too little sleep and a way too much heat irritation that some advance notice that it was going to be a different crew would have been nice. To say that the volley of texts from both him and his wife were nasty and frankly insulting would be the understatement of the year. And I am still irritated by that volley, which ended when I typed the single word, “Enough.” Sorry, THEY were in their nice, comfy home with working air-conditioning, and I guarantee you had this situation been reversed they would have been just as irritated as I’ve been, with the main difference being they would have probably checked into a hotel or gone somewhere. Anyway, I just ignored everything in terms of what the people were doing and two and a half hours later it was all working properly. The guy put a new filter in at my behest and the house began finally, mercifully cooling down. I then did a quick Gelson’s run whilst the home environment cooled down. I got some cleaning items she of the Evil Eye needed, plus some soy sauce. I came home, chose a few more songs, booked a musical director for the show I’ll be directing next year, got the news that the newly beautified Benjamin Kritzer hardcovers had shipped, which means I’ll most likely have them by the end of the week, and then talked to Spectrum as my bills have increased. We worked out something so that it went back to the way it was – they were very easy to deal with. I had my leftover fried rice – heated up beautifully and was really good – a little soy sauce to perk it up. I’d also gotten a small Caesar at Gelson’s and I had that around seven o’clock. It was good and small, not necessarily in that order.
Then I watched a motion picture that I wouldn’t go anywhere near when it came out, entitled Black Christmas, a Canadian horror movie whose ads made it seem like it was going to be hyper violent. It stars Margot Kidder, Olivia Hussey, Keir Dullea, a VERY young Andrea Martin, my old friend Art Hindle, and lots of other folks from Canada. Oh, and someone named Doug McGrath, who’d go on to be a writer and who ties into the other movie I watched part of. Anyway, Black Christmas wasn’t a big hit, but it became a cult thing and was reissued and ultimately did okay. They tried it out in a couple of cities in early 1975 under the title Silent Night, Evil Night, but it tanked, so they used the title the director, Bob Clark, liked, which was Black Christmas. It opened here later that year and surprisingly played the Pantages, a huge movie palace. Is it a great movie? Certainly not. It’s not a little minor classic like When a Stranger Calls, with which it has something in common, although it did that device four years before that movie was made. It’s not brilliantly directed, the pace is sort of flaccid and for a film that was supposed to be the precursor of the violent slasher films, there’s not much slasher or violence on view. And the ending is beyond bad. But horror buffs are like no other buff – they love it all, they lap it up like honey. And so, Black Christmas is now considered a classic. The one thing you can definitely see is how it influenced John Carpenter’s Halloween.
After that, I watched the first thirty minutes of Sullivan’s Travels, one of my favorite movies. I love the banter between Joel McCrea and Veronica Lake and boy do they have what the wags call chemistry. McCrea was one of the great screen actors – he could do anything. Lake was unique and never gets enough credit for her comedy chops in this film. Preston Sturges’ dialogue is golden. The movie has, for me, a couple of missteps – really, one big one – but it doesn’t matter – it’s a wise, hilarious, moving motion picture, and if you’ve never seen it, it’s on Max in a beautiful transfer. I did doze off during some of it, including the bit I don’t care for. Then I began watching Bullets Over Broadway, the Woody Allen movie who’s co-writer was the very same Doug McGrath who’d acted in Black Christmas. I saw Bullets when it came out and while most people loved it, I thought it was second tier Woody, with some great stuff and some middling stuff. The cast is terrific, though. I had to stop because I kept falling asleep, but I’ll go back and watch the whole thing.
After that, I had a telephonic conversation, and here we are.
Today, I’ll be up by eight and out the door by eight-forty. I’ll be joining Robert Yacko for some breakfast, then I’ll go over to Macy’s, as I need to buy new socks. I haven’t bought new socks is eight years. It might just be time. Then I’ll come home, finish choosing songs and getting everyone their music, and since the person I’m waiting on who’d be the final cast member hasn’t replied to my last message, I’ll move on to someone else. I’ll pray for a few more modern major miracles, I’ll have something really light in the early evening, maybe even some fruity fruits, like cherries and grapes and melon balls. We shall see. Then at some point I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
The rest of the week is more of the same, and then we’ll see what’s what on the weekend.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by eight and out the door by eight-forty, have a breakfast, buy some socks, choose songs, set our final cast member, pray for a few modern major miracles, have something light to eat in the early evening, then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: In the modern horror genre, say from 1975 to now, which horror films have you liked and have you seen stuff like Nightmare on Elm Street and those kinds of slasher films? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have air, glorious air.