Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, having a late night sandwich of my own making whilst writing these here notes, which will be about having a late night sandwich of my own making – a turkey and cheese on an onion roll with 1000-Island dressing of my own making. I am a little tired from only five hours of sleep, but I did doze off for a while. I also watched a motion picture last evening – earlier in the day, I went to the mail place and there was a little surprise package there – the first two DGA screeners. One of them didn’t sound too good, but I gave the other one a whirl. It was entitled Anora, and it sure is a critics’ darling and it one the Palme d’Or at Cannes this year because seemingly it was right up Greta Gerwig’s alley – she was heading something at Cannes. The writer/director is Sean Baker, whose film The Florida Project I recall not being that fond of. That’s the only one of his films I’ve seen. Apparently, several revolve around sex workers, and this is one of those. I will say that the lead actress is terrific – Mikey Madison – and the supporting cast of mostly Russian actors is also good. The film goes to a very strange place halfway through, almost becoming a screwball comedy in its own way. Some of that is amusing but at two hours and fifteen minutes there’s too much repetition and it just goes on too long, at least for me. But boy do the critics, save for two dissenters, LOVE it large. There’s quite a bit of nudity and too much drugs for my taste, and, of course, there’s a ubiquitous vomit scene, although it humorous, rather like the God of Carnage vomit scene. After that movie, I watched the Twilight Time Blu and Ray of Otto Preminger’s Bunny Lake is Missing. I saw it the day it opened and I think it was the first Preminger movie that disappointed me, even though I loved the look of it and the performances of Olivier and Noel Coward, as well as Anna Massey, Martita Hunt, Clive Revill, and Carol Lynley. The problem with the film is, I’m afraid to say, Keir Dullea, although it’s really Preminger’s problem for casting him. It throws the entire film off balance because everyone knew him from playing a mentally off person in David and Lisa, so we sense from frame one there’s something not right about him. It needed an actor you believed was completely normal. But Preminger, just in case you didn’t notice something was off in the first scene, after Dullea says one of his lines, a cuckoo clock goes off, saying “Cuckoo.” VERY subtle, Otto (Otto, spelled backwards). VERY subtle. I also love the Paul Glass score. The ending gets rather silly and drags on for too long, but it’s got enough enjoyable things in it that it’s fun to watch. And the Blu-ray is beautiful.
Prior to all that, I got five hours of sleep, got up at eight and was out the door by eight-thirty. I met Robert Yacko at our little breakfast jernt. I ordered the chili, cheese, and onion omelet again, only they brought me a cheese and onion omelet – who would ever order a cheese and onion omelet? Anyway, rather than send it back, they brought me a dish of chili, which I spooned onto the omelet – not ideal, but it was fine. After that, I picked up the DGA screeners at the mail place and then came home.
I had a LOT of e-mails to answer and other things to catch up on, which I did. Then this whole BroadwayWord Awards thing happened, so I made the one and only pitch for people to vote for all the categories that have 70, Girls, 70. I’ve been told quite a few people voted and yet the positions haven’t moved for anyone the entire day and evening, so something is clearly wrong. We’ll see if they fix it. I’ve been told we’ve sold 137 tickets so far for the holiday show and we still have almost four weeks to go, so that’s very good. Then I watched Anora, the Bunny Lake is Missing, made the sandwich of my own making, and here we are.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll do just a bit of writing to finish out the little sequence I’m on, which I must say is grand fun to write, I’ll check with the mail place to see if any screeners have arrived, eat something fun, and then at some point I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow is the Richard Sherman concert thing and I’ll have a full report for you when I get home. I’ll go there a bit early and have a meal prior to the thing. The rest of the week is holiday show related stuff, including setting the rehearsal schedule, and then I think I can have ME days on the weekend.
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, do some writing, eat, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear reader any old question you like and we get to give any old answer we like. So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have written notes of my own making.