Well, dear readers, here is the most important thing we can all do right now: Pray for the A/C. The A/C man will purportedly be here at seven this morning. And hopefully, not too long after I’ll be able to finally cool the house down and won’t that be loverly. It will, it will be loverly. So, pray and send excellent vibes and xylophones for the new coil to work and for everything to operate as it should. After I finish these here notes, I may step outside for a few minutes. Maybe I’ll just sleep out there, although I could be eaten by a squirrel and we don’t want THAT, do we? I did manage to watch a motion picture last night after watching way too many irritating videos. It was entitled Room for Rent, a super low-budget movie that doesn’t really know quite what it wants to be and therefore it doesn’t work. The star is Lin Shaye, who I used to see on commercial auditions all the time. She began playing tiny roles but somehow began doing cult horror movies – it didn’t hurt that brother Robert Shaye, head of New Line Pictures, told Wes Craven to put his siter in Nightmare on Elm Street. Then she lucked out and the Farrelly brothers, who, I must tell you, I find about as funny as a squirrel eating me (I know, heresy, but we all like what we like) cast her in a bunch of their movies – so that was her career for a while until she was back to low-budget horror, at which point one of them really took off, something called Insidious, which I have never had the slightest desire to see. That was a hit and now it’s a damn franchise with three or four films and she’s somehow become a Scream Queen at age eighty-one, the same age as the temperature in the house. Nothing like a little late in life resurgence and enough of a reputation to ask for and get a co=producer credit. It didn’t do her much good since I can find no evidence that it had a theatrical run anywhere outside of one week in a small town in Florida. Apparently, that qualifies as a “limited release” per imdb. Please. Room for Rent – is it a satire, black comedy, thriller, camp – who knows, who cares? The film runs, sans end credits about seventy-eight very long minutes. Neither writer nor director understand the mechanics of a film like this to understand pacing or even plotting. Decide on your tone, commit to it, and then give us a satisfying ending, which this movie does not have at all. Lin Shaye is good, everyone else is okay but have no real characters to play. Mechanics – that’s the big fail here. You’d think they’d figure it out, given the number of movies like this that DID understand the mechanics.
I only got about five hours of sleep, if that, and once up I answered e-mails and really began choosing songs in earnest because the theme of the show finally revealed itself to me. After that, I ordered from a Chinese jernt called Fortune Dragon Café, because I thought I’d had pretty good won ton soup there. I ordered the CRISPY orange chicken – yes, the CRISPY was writ large in the description. I writ even larger in the special instruction box, EXTRA CRISPY, please. I also ordered the appetizer popcorn chicken. It all arrived in about twenty minutes. First, I opened the orange chicken. Warning bells should have sounded because it had little to no smell, and let me tell you that orange chicken should have a lovely smell to it. I forked a piece and knew instantly that it wasn’t EXTRA CRISPY. I popped it into my gaping maw and knew instantly that it wasn’t CRISPY at all. It was anti-CRISPY, there was no CRISPY to be found, CRISPY didn’t enter into the picture. It was also completely flavorless – I mean, there was no flavor at all, it was anti-flavor. It was like eating a mildly flavored sponge. I tried, I really did, but I only ate about six pieces of it before depositing the flavorless, not CRISPY mess into the trash. I then tried the popcorn chicken. The salt and pepper seasoning was certainly present but it was like eating seasoned erasers. I managed a similar number of pieces and then deposited it in the trash, too. I then finally realized that I’d ordered from the wrong Chinese restaurant. This one had mixed reviews on Yelp, but the one I’d gotten soup from was the similarly sounding Dragon Street Café. Anyway, the meal was a bust. Then I watched all the irritating YouTube videos I could stomach, after which I ordered some fried rice from Green Apple Chinese – it’s not a great place, but I knew I was safe there with the fried rice. It arrived and it was very tasty. I only hate about twenty percent of it, so I can heat it up today and have the rest. It was pretty good. Then I watched the movie and here we are.
Today, I’ll be up just before seven and hopefully the A/C man will be here on time and do his job and get this thing working again. I have no idea how long that will take. When he’s done and it’s working, I’ll cool the house down to seventy-two and then go do some errands and whatnot during the cool down. I need more Diet Sodas and a few other things for she of the Evil Eye. She goes through Tide and Bounce way too fast – I really don’t understand it. I’ll come home, eat something fun, and then finish choosing the bulk of the songs. I may have to go see a play reading in the early evening, but I also may just stay home in the cool house. We shall see. At some point, I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow, she of the Evil Eye comes and I’ll go breakfast with Robert Yacko. Other than that, the rest of the week is busy with getting the Kritzerland show’s final gal cast and finalizing the song choices, doing a flyer and getting tickets on sale and doing whatever else needs doing.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up before seven, hope the A/C man is here on time and gets the unit working properly so I can cool the house down whilst doing errands and whatnot, including a Gelson’s run, I’ll finish choosing the bulk of the songs and get music to the singers and musical director, maybe see a play reading, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your best and worst Chinese food experiences? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I shall pray for the A/C.