Well, dear readers, all I can say is, whew. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, all I can say is whew. Why? Because this gloriously glorious long weekend sped by way too fast and tomorrow I begin what I’m sure will be a rather intense week of non-stop work on the LACC show. I don’t even get a full day of relaxation today, as I must go to my storage facility (I’m pulling one copy of every album I’ve produced, to include in our silent auction – a student is meeting me at the storage place, because I am not about to lug all those boxes by myself), and then I must have a little meeting with my co-director. Those meetings always go longer than I want them to, because my co-director is very talkative. My intention is to go to storage at 11:30, finish by 1:00, have the meeting from two to three, and that’s it. That’s half the day gone, but I shall revel in the other half. I just can’t believe the weekend is over, that’s what I just can’t believe, and that is why all I can say is whew. Whew. There, I said it again – sort of a whew redux. Yesterday, I slept until ten (loved that), I got up (loved that), spent a leisurely morning doing little things like brushing my teeth, and shipping a few packages, and driving here, there, and everywhere. I did some grocery shopping, bought some low-fat foodstuffs, and came home. I made two low-cal turkey sandwiches on low-fat bread (total calories around 400, if that), and later I ate a couple of egg and onion matzohs with butter, and also some low-fat cottage cheese. So, it was a reasonable day of eating. Today I shall do even better – I shall have only one meal and it will be under 1000 calories. Isn’t that exciting? Isn’t that just too too?
Yesterday, I managed to watch two count them two motion pictures on DVD. I had intended to watch more, but after doing four yesterday, I just wasn’t in the mood for more. The first motion picture on DVD was entitled Ugetsu, a film of Kenji Mizoguchi. I like the film fine, but don’t really understand the adulation this film has – it’s considered one of the ten best films ever made by some critics, and is generally considered one of the most beautiful. From my point of view, I’ve seen many other Japanese films I find more beautiful to look at, and many other Japanese films that engage me more. Ugetsu is very well done, beautifully photographed, and all its performances are excellent. It tells its story well and, as I said, I like it fine. I just don’t think it’s one of the greatest movies ever in the history of mankind. The transfer from Criterion is very good, but nowhere near some of their other transfers of Japanese films. I then watched the second motion picture on DVD, also a Japanese film, this one entitled Godzilla: The Final Wars. Now, I am a Godzilla fan – you all know that I am a Godzilla fan, even when the movies are bad. I can even watch Son of Godzilla. But, Godzilla: The Final Wars is so completely off-the-wall and wacko, that I just sat there in astonishment for all of its very, very long two plus hours. The film trots out fifteen of Toho’s monsters to do battle with the big G. That said, other than a brief appearance in the prologue (approximately ninety seconds), the big G does not appear again until about the seventy-minute mark. So, what do we get for those first seventy minutes? We get a Godzilla film sans Godzilla, but filled with the most annoying rip-offs of American films like The Matrix, Independence Day, Aliens, and others. It’s so tiresome, and one just doesn’t want that sort of thing in a Godzilla film. We also get a little borrowing from The Mysterians and Monster Zero, as well as an appearance by The Peanuts. It’s like they wanted to throw in every possible thing they could, so they threw it in. One thing they should have thrown OUT is the disgusting, wretched, awful, horrible musical score by Mr. Keith Emerson. It may well be the worst film score ever written. Once the big G appears, you get one battle after another, and that’s sort of fun when it’s just the people in suits and the model work. When they throw in the CGI, it’s terrible – completely inept. It’s deliriously bad – campy (the young villain is very amusingly over the top), silly, stupid, but oddly endearing and weird in its pathetic way. I mean, they even bring back Mina, the obnoxious Son of Godzilla – the suit for Mina looks like it came from Woolworth’s. The DVD transfer looks surprisingly mundane for a new film. Still, we must see all Godzilla films (I still have one to catch up on – the last film, Godzilla: SOS) – but, be prepared for what is possibly the oddest G film ever made, right up there in badness with some of the 70s classics.
What am I, Ebert and Roeper on a kaiju kick all of a sudden? Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below whilst I once again say whew.
Whew. There, I’ve said it again. This, of course, is the final week of November, and that just boggles my already-boggled mind. The END of November, which means that we will shortly be in the BEGINNING of December, which will then lead us to the END of 2005. That just boggles my already-boggled mind.
I’ve been listening to Rachel Portman’s soundtrack to Mr. Roman Polanski’s Oliver Twist. It’s just a perfect example of why I loathe most of today’s film music. It just drones on and on with no point, with nary a theme to be heard, just notes and patterns and today’s movie music clichés. There was a time when Mr. Polanski would never have allowed such music in a film of his. What happened to themes? Leitmotifs? Interesting music that doesn’t sound like everything else? It’s just shameless and shameful and typical of the movie industry today.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must for example, at least relax for half the day, I must go through boxes of CDs trying to assemble a full set of close to 140 CDs for the silent auction, I must gather my thoughts, which are strewn about like new-mown hay on a winter’s morn. My goodness, that was poetic, wasn’t it? Today’s topic of discussion: I hate sports. But, tell us what are the most exciting sports events you’ve witnessed – in person, and on television. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I say, once again, whew.