Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much Saturday evening fish, listening to a potpourri of Arthur Fiedler and his Boston Pops doing all manner of things, including Mr. Scott Joplin at this particular moment. So, I shall write this paragraph in ragtime. I don’t know what that means but I’m doing it. Ragtime is saucy and snazzy and aren’t I always saucy and snazzy, not necessarily in that order? Saucy, baby – I’m like the Bearnaise or Hollandaise of this here site. I did manage to watch two motion pictures last night – good segue, huh? The first motion picture was entitled Empire of Light, a film written and directed by Sam Mendes. Taking place in the early 1980s, with much of the action taking place in a movie palace run by Colin Firth. The film stars Olivia Colman as the duty manager. She’s getting it on with Mr. Firth until one fine day, a new young Black fellow comes to work there – eventually they get it on. But the duty manager has some serious mental issues. The one thing that’s clear is that Mr. Mendes should leave the writing to others. It’s very well directed, looks splendid, but the dialogue is no good, it gets lost in what story it’s trying to tell, and wants to hit every target in sight. The film has about four endings and meanders a good bit of the time, but it’s under two hours and we’re always grateful for that. Ms. Colman is very good as is Michael Ward as the young Black employee. But the film simply never quite achieves whatever it is it’s trying to say – it’s trying to say cinema is magic, but it never lands in that way like, for example, Cinema Paradiso. Anyway, a disappointment that has garnered mostly poor reviews. Then I watched The Son, from the writer/director of The Father, which, as you may remember, I loved. I’d forgotten I’d watched the first forty minutes or so three weeks ago, but I watched it from the start, and it truly is a terrible movie in just about every way, which is shocking considering how good The Father was. The Son is completely humorless, has risible dialogue, characters who are truly ignorant as to what’s going on with the titular son, a teen with clinical depression and an ending that is so ham-fistedly telegraphed and following that a manipulative scene that is so bad it defies credulity. Hugh Jackman does what he can, Anthony Hopkins has one brief scene and he’s the best thing in the film, Laura Dern does what she can, but I found the fellow who plays the titular teen son to be grating and one-note, but that’s also the writer’s fault. And both films are so clearly designed as Oscar bait. Then I began watching a third motion picture, this from 1971, entitled Red Sun, which I’ve never seen. It stars Charles Bronson and Toshiro Mifune. I dozed off, so I’ll start over today at some point.
Yesterday was pleasant enough, I suppose. I was up at eight after seven hours of sleep, then I met Robert Yacko for an early birthday breakfast at Art’s Deli. We yakked, ate, and it was good fun all around. Then I went to the mail place and picked up zilch. I stopped at Gelson’s and got a couple of things, then came home. She of the Evil Eye was just wrapping up and getting ready to leave. She told me the Omaha Steaks package hadn’t arrived. She left, and about ten minutes later, the package arrived. Good timing. I unpacked everything – four teeny-tiny filet mignon steaks, some burger patties, some hot dogs, some scalloped potatoes, some kind of apple tart thing – I think that was it. I took two of the filets and the pack of four hot dogs and put them in the refrigerator to defrost and the rest went in the freezer. Then I did a few things on the computer, had some telephonic conversations, and then began my viewing. The rest you know.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, and then I’ll mosey on over to Marshall Harvey’s abode to see the first cut of episode four. I’m nervous about one sequence, only because I shot a lot of takes because I needed to get the exact performances I needed to make the dialogue work. I know we did, and I’m sure Marshall got all the good stuff, so I’m just hoping it works the way it should. After we’re done doing whatever little adjustments I may have, I’ll come home and I’ll make one of the filet mignon steaks and see how they are. If I’m still hungry, I may grill one of the hot dogs. They look a bit weird to me, frankly, but I’m sure they’re okay. Then I’ll go back to all the e-mails that have our young people’s tapes so I can watch them and then I will absolutely finish assigning and getting folks their stuff. After that, I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
And then we’re into my two weeks of ME. It’s going to be a little crazy around here because the four titles I was counting on announcing can’t be announced until Doug gets back from Florida, which isn’t until January 9. Kind of a disaster, actually. But we do have our Christmas Eve Do and then the Darling Daughter will come here on Christmas Day, and then we’ll have our Rockin’ New Year’s Eve bash, and then it’s 2023.
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, see the first cut of episode four, make an Omaha steak, eat said Omaha steak, watch videos and finish assigning songs, and then watch, listen, and relax. 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, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, as I post these here notes in ragtime.