Well, dear readers, casting is finally complete on the Kritzerland anniversary show and quite the cast it is. I’ll announce as soon as our flyer is done, which will hopefully be very soon. Sooner than soon. In case you haven’t noticed, it is Friday and I’m hoping Friday will be my day so do send some excellent vibes and xylophones that that is the case. But before we get to the Friday that will hopefully be my day, can we talk about Jaws? I finished watching it last night and it remains the classic it’s always been. But I’ll tell you something – while watching it at home is still fun, it simply has none of the true wallop it had when it came out. Why? Because unless you saw it back then with an audience you cannot know how amazing the reaction to it was. Moviegoing used to be a shared experience. If you went to a comedy that was actually funny, the laughs would be loud and long and affect everything so that laughs could actually build and go on for days. If you went to a movie like Jaws, there were laughs, there were screams, you could feel the tension in the audience and that was the fun of it. Same with Psycho, same with Alien and Carrie and on and on and on. Comedies at home might get chuckles but it’s just not the same as the shared experience. I was lucky enough to see so many classics with audiences, in every genre. In any case, no need to dwell on Jaws – it’s a classic and will always be a classic no matter its inept sequels or its many rip-offs. It’s perfectly cast, the script works in every way – it delivers everything you’d want in a movie. And Spielberg and editor Verna Fields do perfect work. Spielberg simply cannot be given enough credit for the film – of course, some executives wanted him fired, which says all you need to know about those idiots – of course, when the film turned into the huge blockbuster it became, those same executives somehow forgot all about how they wanted him fired. The movie has great characters, excellent dialogue, the pacing is great, the structure is great, and the score by John Williams ties it all together beautifully. It knows exactly when to deliver thrills and when not to, when to let us know the characters better. And then came Jaws 2, because greed knows no bounds with studios. Did Jaws need a sequel? Of course not. So, they hire a writer, get a script, hire a director who’s never helmed a big movie before – John Hancock – then they fire him, they bring in one of the original film’s writers to rewrite, and hire a TV director to take over. Yes, we get Roy Scheider, but only to fulfill a contractual obligation. He hated doing it, hated the director. The film has no center other than there’s a shark. It has endless teenagers who are obnoxious and scream, their only two ways of behaving. You don’t care about anyone or anything, and because we have the same cameraman from the first film, you get lots of faux Spielberg tracking shots, only with Spielberg they have a point. The dialogue is awful, there’s no pace, but at least John Williams is back, but even he can’t save how boring the film is.
And from the little I’ve seen of Jaws 3 (or 3-D) and Jaws: The Revenge, we’re in complete looney land with those. I will watch them, as I only viewed the credits and openings of each of those. After all that movie watching, I had an English muffin with cherry jam and that was a lovely treat. Prior to all that, I slept seven hours, got up, answered a lot of e-mails. I’d done an Amazon Fresh order before going to bed, so I knew that would be arriving around three o’clock. The Amazon Fresh prices are pretty amazing, and I think I’ll do that more often because it’s same day delivery and you save so much dough even with a tip. I didn’t have a delivery charge, so that was nice. For food, I had my small Marco’s Pizza pizza and that was very good. That was it for food until the veddy veddy English muffin. I had some telephonic conversations, I’m working out the song choices for the gal who’s joined our cast, and then I finally watched the movies, only dozing off once for about forty minutes. And here we are.
Today, I’ll be up by ten, I’ll know pretty quickly if Friday will be my day, I’ll do whatever needs doing, the helper is coming by to get the newly beautified Benjamin Kritzer books to ship, I’ll go to the mail place at some point, I may make hot dogs for food – either that or perhaps pasta – and then at some point I can watch, listen, and relax.
Saturday can perhaps be a ME day, although I’ll have to start figuring out the show order and getting the commentary done. Then next week will be very busy with figuring our rehearsal schedules and meetings and meals and such.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by ten, hoping that Friday will be my day, do whatever needs doing, give the helper books to ship, go to the mail place, eat, and then watch listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player and your DVD/Blu and Ray/streaming player? I’ll start – CD, nothing in particular. Streaming, the last two Jaws sequels or as much as I can take of them. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, hoping hugely that Friday will be my day.