Well, dear readers, this month is flying by, like a gazelle wearing knickers on a cold winter’s day. And I? I am sitting here like so much fish, not listening to music, with only silence to stir my inner imagination and outer Mongolia. Sometimes silence is fine. With my books, I always write in silence – no music allowed, ever. Other authors I know like to have music playing. Whatever works, say I. I did watch a motion picture last evening, one I’d only seen the trailer for but wanted to see because it was all set in Los Angeles and shot in 1972 by director Jacques Deray, with star Jean-Louis Trintignant. The movie was entitled The Outside Man, but I would have titled it Geography Run Amok. There are some wonderful shots of LA as it then was and before they’d ruin it in so many ways, but French people don’t really know how to frame shots in movies they make here. Still, there are some truly tantalizing views but with the most hilarious geography-bending display of thinking no one will notice. Certainly, anyone who lives in LA would notice and laugh out loud. The film opens with no music over aerial shots of downtown, the best of which shows the Music Center when across the street where the ugly Disney Hall lives was an empty parking lot where all the people who were doing shows there parked, including me, just one year later. In Los Angeles, the movie only played on the bottom half of a double bill in late 1973 – other cities had it top of the bill in August and September. It’s the story of a French hit man sent to rub someone out, which he does. Only someone’s trying to rub him out and it all gets very convoluted, with a languid pace, but good actors throughout – including Roy Scheider, Ann-Margret, Angie Dickenson, a VERY young, pre-teen Jackie Earle Haley, Talia Shire (one scene), Playmate Connie Kreski, who I worked with at Playboy, Georgia Engel, character actor Ted de Corsia (one brief scene, one line), John Hillerman (one brief scene), Ben Piazza (same), Alex Rocco. FIVE writers are credited with the mish-mash of a screenplay, in which people say dialogue written by people who’ve never spoken a word of English. Musique is Michel Legrand, but there’s not more than ten minutes of it and what there is is completely irritating. In fact, the most entertaining thing about it is the geography run amok. A few examples. Georgia Engel lives in an apartment in the heart of the Sunset Strip, in fact, next door to Tower Records – only it wasn’t an apartment building it was an office building with a glass elevator facing the street. At that time, across the street was The Classic Cat, formerly the Jerry Lewis restaurant, where Tower Video would end up and the block that would also feature Book Soup and Videotheque. Anyway, so far so good. He leaves there and drives and in the next brief shot is on Moorpark two blocks from the home environment, followed in the next shot by being on Ventura Blvd. two minutes from here, in front of the La Reina movie theater. But they’re supposed to be in the vicinity of The Sunset Strip. See what I mean. Next, he kidnaps Georgia Engel at the Sherman Oaks Ralph’s market. They’re next seen back on the Strip at here “apartment” building with her carrying her groceries. Wacky and wonky. Not very much Hollywood, interestingly, just a short sequence at Hollywood and Vine, after which he makes a u-turn and drives east on the boulevard, going downtown.
Then at some point, he and Ann-Margret end up at the Heritage Motel, which he says is in Culver City. Well, no, the Heritage Motel was on Ventura Blvd. in Sherman Oaks, a couple of blocks west of Sepulveda – and guess what? It’s still there, now called The Sojourn (Hotel rather than Motel). There are amazing shots of the remains of Pacific Ocean Park after the fire in 1971 that burned almost all of what remained to the ground (there was one more fire in 1973 that finished the job, then it was finally cleared away in 1974 and early 1975). Seeing it in such a shambles was very sad – there were still a couple of rides standing, but most of it was ash and rubble. And standing basically where my grandparents lived? The Shores, the two high rises that rose as part of an urban renewal project that began in 1965 and why my grandparents had to move to the Wilshire district, all chronicled in Kritzer World. The Shores was built in 1966 and signaled the end of Pacific Ocean Park, which closed six months later. There were a few other fun locations downtown, too. Anyway, I did a free trial for seven days on the KINO channel, so you can do the same. They have those early Maigret movies and lots of other interesting stuff. I’ll watch as much as I possibly can within the seven days.
Prior to all that, I got nine and a half hours of good sleep, got up, answered many e-mails, had a Tom’s bacon cheeseburger and fries, which is thus far all I’ve eaten today. I did some work on the holiday show, made a few more notes about the central plot device of the new book, and then finished watching the Maigret movie, Picpus, which was certainly entertaining. Then I watched The Outside Man and here we are with late notes because of my nostalgic ramblings run amok.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll finish the show order and start organizing the commentary, I’ll see if there’s anything at the mail place (had to order more Melatonin, which should arrive today), and then I can watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow and Sunday are more of the same and then next week is super busy with many things.
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, finish the show order and start organizing the commentary, see if there’s anything at the mail place, 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, four CDs of William Steinberg’s complete output for Deutsche Grammaphon with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Streaming, more Maigret and a few interesting looking documentaries. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have noted all the Geography Run Amok in The Outside Man.