Well, dear readers, has anyone realized that we’re almost done with May? How did THAT happen? This month has flown by, like a gazelle playing the French horn whilst doing an Irish jig in the middle of Switzerland. Otherwise, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to a Gounod opera entitled Mireille, a 1954 recording starring Janette Vivalda and Nicolai Gedda, conducted by Andre Cluytens in monophonic sound. It’s a bit old-fashioned, musically, of its time, of course, but it’s melodic and very well sung and enjoyable. I must hear the Romeo and Juliette and there’s a recording with Freni that’s supposed to be very good. I also listened to Previn do the Messiaen Turangalila, and while I enjoy some of it, I really don’t cotton to it much no matter who it’s done by. Also, a lovely album of Janet Baker singing Chausson and Duparc, with Previn – really liked that a lot. And prior to that, I watched the final two Dirty Harry movies, Sudden Impact and The Dead Pool, both of which I saw on their respective opening days. I really liked Sudden Impact for the most part. But as seems to be the case with all the sequels, it fails with the villain – too many of ‘em and the main one is just too cliched. They really got that right with the original film and have never come close since. But Sondra Locke is excellent as a woman out for revenge, and Clint is a lot of fun and has some very good dialogue. He directed this one, too, so it looks good and has some style to it. And Lalo is back for the score, which is a good thing. Critics weren’t too kind to this one or The Enforcer – they seemed to be kinder to the truly awful second film. And is there any explanation how they actually liked the final film in the series – that one they mostly gave good reviews to, calling it the second best in the series, which just goes to show you how truly stupid most critics are. Why? Because there is not a single redeeming thing in The Dead Pool, that’s why. The script and dialogue are ludicrous – they try really hard to come up with another catchphrase for Harry and fail miserably. The story makes no sense, the villain is a joke and actually irrelevant, and the supporting cast is not good, and that includes Liam Neeson – it took many films for me to start liking his performances, all because of The Dead Pool. Much of it is the script, but Clint also let his stunt coordinator direct it and the film has no style, it’s the only one that’s not in scope, and to show you just how lame it all is, sans end credits, it runs eighty-eight minutes that seem like two-and-a-half hours. I remember seeing it with a pretty full house – we were all so excited, and you could just feel the disappointment after the first ten minutes and that feeling just kept multiplying and multiplying. Perhaps Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel had both gone senile by that point, but they both gave it thumbs up. And the scene with the tiny car operated by remote control? You have never seen anything worse; I guarantee you. In the theater, the audience was howling with laughter – not good laughter, but derisive laughter. I hated every minute of it all over again.
Yesterday was a little, I don’t know, kind of a nothing day. I did get over nine hours of sleep to compensate for the six-and-a-half hours I’d gotten previously. Once up, I answered e-mails, we did have a few orders and that was the best part of the day, I had some telephonic conversations, got more materials for the next Kritzerland release, which I think will make a lot of people happy, I got another master to hear, but haven’t heard it yet – I will today at some point, I went and picked up a package and a small residual that will buy two or three meals, came home, and then made two of those tortilla things with guacamole, sour cream, onions, and cheese – very low calorie count and no net carbs. They were good, just as they’d been the night before. Then I did a few more things on the computer, got more Indiegogo stuff together, and then I watched the two Dirty Harry movies.
After that, the helper told me she ran out of two titles, so I have to go to storage today, which I’d much rather not do, to pull those boxes and hopefully I’ll be able to find them without any trouble. But I’ll bring with me several Indiegogo perks that we can ship because they don’t involve the Tonight’s the Night stuff. So, that will be good. I’ll try to do that before noon. I tried another Factor meal – chicken breast in some kind of sundried tomato sauce with stringy zucchini. It was better than the other two in that I didn’t have to deposit in the trash. It wasn’t great but I didn’t mind it too much. Then I began listening to music and the rest you know. Now playing, Previn doing the Dvorak Cello Concerto with cellist Paul Tortelier. It’s very good.
Today, I’ll be up by eleven and out the door by eleven-thirty. I’ll go to storage, hopefully find the two boxes easily, leave the Indiegogo stuff to ship, and then wend my way back home. I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, I’ll eat something, and then I’ll watch, listen, and relax. I’ll also be getting a new check disc, just to hear the new menu sound levels. Then I should be able to approve and off it goes to get the stampers made and then to replication and then we’re a mere two to three weeks away.
Tomorrow, I’ll make sure everything’s ready for Sunday’s Kritzerland show, I’ll do more posting about it, and that should be about it. Sunday, I’ll relax until it’s show time, then we live stream our show and afterwards we have our little cast partay that I hope you’ll all attend. Then next week I have to concentrate on the little playlet, plan a reading of Nothing in Common for June, cast our July 28 Kritzerland show and nail down exactly what it’s going to be, and get two new releases ready to announce.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by eleven and out the door by eleven-thirty, I must find two boxes in storage, I must leave Indiegogo stuff for shipping, I must hopefully pick up packages, eat, get a new check disc, which I’ll check, 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 player? I’ll start – CD, more Previn. Blu-ray, I’m thinking The Red Shoes, since I’m in a ballet mood. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, wishing the Dirty Harry series had gone out on a better note (Eb) – they should have stopped after Sudden Impact and “Go ahead, make my day.”