Well, dear readers, the heat here is unbearably hot, with no sign of abating anytime soon. Someone forgot to tell the weather people that summer is over. Done. But noooo, not here, here is like a sauna bath outside, even now as I write these here notes. I’ve had to cool the home environment down repeatedly yesterday and am about to have to do it again. There, I’m doing it again because it was currently 79 in the home environment. As soon as I turned on the air, I did something I haven’t done since heaven knows when, probably 2020 – I jogged around the home environment twenty times – living room to kitchen to den, back-and-forth and, I must say, at a brisk pace. Very interesting. Why, when it cools down, I may even try doing it around the block or two blocks or three blocks. I need to get the damn blood flowing and my metabolism working and in shape for the show I’ll be directing early next year. Enough is enough, as my close personal friends, Barbra and Donna so eloquently said. I’m gonna start doing some form of exercise every day, whether it’s that or jumping jacks or leg lifts or sit-ups. After all, in spirit I am younger than springtime, spry as a sprite on the fourth of July, sharp as a tack in a tacky saloon, bright as a brass band playing Glenda’s Place from Whoop-Up, nimble as a thimble, lively as a bouncing ball on the beach, twitchy and bitchy and manic, but alive, but alive, but alive! What am I, Lauren Bacall all of a sudden. I am a man on a mission and it’s not a Mission: Impossible or a mission to mars, it is a mission to getting a spring in my step and a snap in my fingers and a shot in my put. I have no idea what the HELL I’m talking about, but it sounds good and heaven knows I’ve turned into a walking blob (bolb, spelled backwards), so whatever it takes it takes and I’m there for the taking of whatever it takes. I did manage to watch a recent motion picture that was released briefly in June, entitled Thelma, starring 94-year-old June Squibb. As I watched it, I kept thinking how wonderful Cindy Williams would have been had she lived to this age and that I probably would have written something like this for her and I to do. It’s certainly a likeable film with a great hook that it never quite delivers on, the hook being a grandmother gets a call from her grandson saying he had a bad accident, is in jail, and needs ten-thousand-dollars for bail. She gets a call from someone at the jail telling her it has to be cash and sent to an address in Van Nuys. She’s, of course, is old, doesn’t think to verify or call her the boy’s mother who’s her daughter, and just mails the money before realizing she’s been scammed. Well, she’s mad as hell and she’s not going to take it. The way they tried to sell the film was an old folks taking revenge film and had it gone that route it could have been a super audience pleaser, because who doesn’t want to see these scammers get their comeuppance. But while it goes that route ultimately, that part of the movie isn’t as satisfying as it should be. But during the credits we see why this writer/director, whose first film this is, made the movie he made – because it’s based on his grandmother and the scamming incident happened to her, although she DID realize it was a scam BEFORE sending the money. The premise is so rich for fun stuff, but he wanted to do a character piece and that’s what we get – it has its moments, and the cast is certainly terrific straight down the line. And I suppose he succeeded in terms of making the film he wanted to make. It got mostly good notices, although more than a few “fresh” reviews on Rotten Tomatoes really lean to the negative, which is why I never take those reviews seriously. Ms. Squibb is terrific, the late Richard Roundtree, whose final film this was, is great, and Malcolm McDowell is amusing as the elderly scammer.
Otherwise, yesterday was fine. I got eight hours of sleep, got up, answered e-mails, made the faux chicken stroganoff, an excellent batch, but with much less chicken than usual, so it wasn’t as filling, it was broiling out so I just stayed in, did some work on the computer, set the work session for Saturday at one, had a few telephonic conversations, had a cheeseburger in the early evening – not too great – and then watched the movie and here we are.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’m sure I’ll mosey on over to the mail place, and then I’ll see what I feel like for food, and then at some point I can watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow is more of the same, Saturday is the work session and then a visit to a bookstore I always forget is still in existence and a meal down the street at a jernt I always forget that I like very much, Sunday is a ME day and I’ll need it, because then we’re into the Kritzerland rehearsal week.
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, go to the mail place, eat something fun, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite books, movies, and plays that have elderly folks as major characters? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, determined to have a spring in my step sooner than later.