Well, dear readers, this week is flying by, like a gazelle trying to look inconspicuous at a party for Armenian vipers. I myself have never seen an Armenian viper, have you? Why am I going on about gazelles attending a party for Armenian vipers? Don’t I have some notes to write. I do and I am, not necessarily in that order. I am currently listening to a suite from the opera Merry Mount, by probably my favorite American composer (sorry in advance, Mr. Copland), Howard Hanson, a composer whose music is everything I love harmonically. We issued quite a few albums of Hanson’s music back in the Bay Cities days. His symphonies are wonderful, especially the most well-known and popular of them, the second symphony, the Romantic. I did finish watching a motion picture I’d begun before going to bed – it’s one I never tire of watching and I actually was only intending to watch an hour but got hooked as I always do and watched the first 90 minutes of it before dozing off and having to go to bed. As you may have gleaned over the years, I’m not much of a fan of most movies made post-1990 – there are some I like very much, a couple I think are really fine, but only one that, for me, is a bona fide masterpiece, a perfect film in every department without a single false step. Perfectly cast down to the smallest role, a great screenplay (based on a best-selling novel), brilliantly directed, photographed, and with a great score that serves the film flawlessly. The year? 1991. The film? The multiple Oscar-winning The Silence of the Lambs. There are many fascinating things about the film, the biggest of which is whoever’s idea it was to hand the film to Jonathan Demme to direct. There is not a single film in his prior work, whether you like it or not, that would lead anyone to believe he’d be the right director for a thriller like Silence of the Lambs. The closest he’d come was Last Embrace, which I thought was a terrible movie. I did like his film Something Wild, otherwise I found his movies ordinary and not that interesting. And yet, I cannot imagine a single director who could have made a better movie out of The Silence of the Lambs. His work is brilliant – everything – its style, its ability to be subtle and quiet, its never once pandering to thriller tropes like fake scares, loud music jumps, none of that. It’s a master class in filmmaking and of course many have tried to copy it, and none have succeeded. The script and dialogue are so good, and why? Because it had VERY few revisions beyond the first draft, that’s why. No other writers, no twenty drafts, no studio BS. And I’ll just add that it has THE best fake out scene in the history of movies – I remember in the theater it actually got audible gasps. If you, for whatever reason, have never seen this film, hie you to Prime (it’s free for Prime members) and watch it immediately.
Then I began watching Red Dragon, the second movie version of the book that preceded The Silence of the Lambs. Turns out I’d seen it and written about it back in 2018. I don’t remember anything about it, so I’ll keep watching. I didn’t like at all the first movie version of the book, Michael Mann’s Manhunter. The other Hannibal movie based on a Harris book was the sequel to The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal. I’ve never wanted to see the movie version directed by Ridley Scott, mostly because I found the novel so disgustingly over the top, violence-wise, almost like Harris was trying to purposely write the most disgusting book ever written. Maybe I’ll finally watch it after Red Dragon. I can always look away, I suppose, or shut it off.
Earlier, I got nine hours of good sleep, arising at 12:30. Due to a couple of really bad meals that really messed with me, I decided to be safe and order from Stanley’s – my beloved grilled chicken pasta with broccoli, red onions, and cashews. Well, it never arrived. I’m sure it was delivered somewhere, just not here. So, I got a full refund from UberEats and reordered and that one got here pretty quickly. Food was of very high quality and excellent as always. After that, I did a quick run to the mail place and picked up a small package. Then I came back and re-recorded two songs twice – that’s it. No more recording. I’ll choose the take I like best and then will send it and the script to Doug Haverty and we’ll see where things go from there. I got no major modern miracle, although I did get a six-dollar residual that wouldn’t be me a filet ‘o’ fish sandwich at McDonald’s. Shocking. After that, I did some work on the holiday show song choices, answered e-mails that I’d neglected from earlier, and the rest you know.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll choose the song takes I like best and send that along to Doug, I’ll continue choosing songs and gather up the sheet music for the singers, I’ll eat something safe and fun, I’ll pray harder for a modern major miracle, and then at some point I can watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow, the sound guy and I go to the Arboretum to scope things out. That’s at noon o’clock and I will not leave there later than one-thirty, as traffic will be insane any later than that and I really do not want to deal with insane traffic. I will have to put gas in the motor car – first time in five or six weeks. The rest of the week is reading two scripts that I have to offer notes on, one of which I’ve already begun.
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, choose song takes and send the stuff to Doug, continue song choices for the holiday show, eat something fun and safe, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite films starring Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I shall dream of hosting an Armenian Viper party.