Well, dear readers, it’s Sunday, the beginning of a new week, and I’m hoping that this week will have some restful and relaxing moments because I need some restful and relaxing moments. I do know that we need a ton of excellent vibes and xylophones for the fundraiser show, and for sublet options and for a whole slew of various and sundried other things. Send ’em this way, send ’em often, ’cause we need ’em, baby, we need ’em. I wish I had some Sugar Pops right now because, after all, Sugar Pops are tops. Did anyone notice that out of the blue or, at the very least, out of the brown, I suddenly went to a cereal place. I don’t even have a clew as to why I went to a cereal place, but the proof is in the pudding and there for all to see. Sugar Pops are tops. Well, Sugar Pops don’t exist anymore because Kellogg’s killed them. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, Kellogg’s killed Sugar Pops and quite a few other cereals that I loved. I guess you could say that Kellogg’s was a cereal killer. Remember the days when cereal was fun? Remember the days when it didn’t have to all be so serious with healthy, politically correct cereals. I, for one, miss such glorious cereals as Sugar Pops, Sugar Smacks, Frosty-O’s, Jets, Sugar Coated Rice Krinkles, Twinkles, Apple Jacks, Crispy Critters, Trix, Sugar Sugar Crisp, and many more. I loved all the major brands – Kellogg’s, Post, and General Mills (now a character in The Brain From Planet X). Actually, I never really liked cereal as a child because I hated milk, but I loved the idea of cereal, and I made my mother buy box after box, especially when they had prizes in them. And I liked eating them sans milk, right out of the box. I liked the big boxes, and I liked the individual boxes. I’m actually not sure if all the cereals above are defunct, but I do know they don’t use “sugar” in the name anymore. I am on a cereal tangent now, and I shall have to go to Gelson’s soon to see what classic cereals are still made. For example, do they still make Cocoa Krispies? Speaking of Cocoa Krispies, yesterday was a pretty okay day. For example, I got up. That was pretty okay. I then had a rehearsal with Miss Joan Ryan, then I went to the Hollywood Collector’s Show, which, like the day before, was lightly attended. I fear that unless Mr. Courts shakes things up, this show’s days may be numbered. I did find out that a book I got yesterday via a trade is worth a considerable amount of money, so that was a really good deal. I only lasted about an hour, and then I came home, where I answered some e-mails, I made some telephonic calls, and I proofed more of the book. I had some foodstuffs, and, more importantly, my box of approximately 100 Cherry Ripe candy bars arrived. I ate two of them – as good as I remembered. I like them frozen. I Like Them Frozen – that’s the title of my next novel. Finally, I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a motion picture on DVD entitled Miss Potter. I’d read marvelous things about the film, and, of course, on the imdb it’s a ten-star great film. So, imagine my surprise to find a great big bore of a film, filled with everything I loathe about today’s films. Not the studio big-budget, big-bang films, but the independent medium budget “art” film that really isn’t an art film. I’m sure Beatrix Potter was an interesting person, but you sure wouldn’t know it from this bland, lethargic nothing of a film. The direction is graceless and the film is shot in scope for no reason whatsoever other than that seems to be in favor. If you’re going to shoot in scope, you should at least have a point of view and visual sense – and, as per usual, the CGI is annoying. Not as annoying as Miss Renee Zellwegger doing her British accent once again, and scrunching up her face and being mannered. And her makeup is beyond amateur. And, she’s the executive producer of the film, too. The other actors are okay in that today way of actors. I don’t think there’s eight minutes of this film that doesn’t have droning music with not a tune in sight. The look of the film is yellow – once again, that seems to be a today thing. Blue has been banished, and it needs to be brought back because I cannot stomach these yellow, drained of color films. These Weinstein films are just colorless, odorless, style-less, and pointless. The transfer seems fine and seems to replicate the yellow very well.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below whilst we dream of Wheaties, the breakfast of champions.
This morning I may have a visitor, and then around noon a town car will arrive to take me, Boswell, and my newly-returned assistant, Miss Patti, to Newport Beach, where we will have a sound check, run as much of the show as we can, and then perform the show for the first time in front of a real audience. I’m hoping Joan remembers the patter and the lyrics – if she does, I think she’ll be terrific.
It will be nice to have the show behind me for a while – we’ll go back into rehearsal at some point, when we get a booking or two. I know we’ll be replacing the second song, which was designed especially for the Newport Beach audience. It’s been a real journey, this show, and I hope it was a rewarding one for Miss Ryan – she wrote me a nice e-mail saying it was. We won’t return until about nine o’clock and I will, of course, have a full report.
Tomorrow, I intend to do only the most urgent things, but basically I’m taking the day off. I’ll ship a couple of packages, and I’ll finish proofing the book (only about twenty pages to go), and make a couple of telephonic calls, but that’s it. Then, come Tuesday, it’s back to the busy days.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, see a visitor, be driven to Newport Beach, do the first performance of Joan’s show, and then return to the home environment. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, and I’ll start the topic with favorite childhood cereals and the best prize you ever got in a cereal.