Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much sad fish, because we lost a treasured dear reader, the beloved TCB aka Tom Birkeland. He’s been with us pretty much from the start and was always a unique, fun, and wonderful voice here on our discussion board. One always looked forward to his posts. In recent years he had many health issues to deal with, but somehow through all the pain, he still managed to be with us most late-night evenings and despite all the issues, still kept his sense of humor. Everyone here adored him. And with some irony, on the day of his passing his review of Sami showed up on Amazon. He will be much missed around these here parts by me and I know everyone else. If there’s interest in doing a little haineshisway.com wake on Zoom, I would be happy to make that happen, and we can all share our favorite TCB stories and moments. RIP, dear TCB.
Right now, as I write these here notes, I’m listening to the original cast album of A Little Night Music, for me one of the most perfect cast albums ever made, thanks to superb producing by Goddard Lieberson. The scores orchestrations remain my favorite of all Tunick orchestrations. And the cast is perfection in every role. Now/Soon/Later remains one of the most unique opening numbers ever written, Liasons – was their ever a number in a musical like it prior to this show? I don’t think so and Hermione Gingold’s performance is superb. You Must Meet My Wife? Laugh out loud funny, with a great tune to boot. Every Day a Little Death is another unique song unlike any other and is certainly in my top ten Sondheim songs – especially the performance here, which, in my opinion, will never be bettered. A Weekend in the Country, one of the greatest act-enders ever. And on and on, culminating in the intensely moving Send in the Clowns.
From the sublime to the ridiculous, I did watch a motion picture last evening entitled Trauma Center for reasons that I certainly can’t discern. It’s a 2019 film with a cliched plot, a Bruce Willis picture barely – he’s in about fifteen minutes of the film, looking awful and his speech seems to have been affected by his maladies which has caused him to retire from acting. He’s made a ton of bad movies in the last three years, I’m sure for monetary reasons to insure he’s comfortable for the rest of his life. First billed is some Australian actress called Nicky Whelan, very much in the Sharon Stone/Naomi Watts vein, looks-wise, except not in their league. And why is it that American movies keep using Australian actors to play Americans? There aren’t American actors who could have done this nonsensical and certainly not difficult role? The direction is amateur and typical, and the script is simply laughable, filled with inane dialogue and terrible writing. Screenwriters (and I use the term loosely in this instance) who have their characters behave so stupidly because they don’t have the brain power to have them behave smartly, using hoary contrivances like having no cell phone signal just when it’s needed most. If one deducts the four minutes of end titles, the film runs eighty-three of the longest minutes you can imagine. Horrible.
Prior to that, I watched two episodes of The Twilight Zone, streaming on Freevee. I have the whole series on Blu-ray, but there they were and it’s really the first time I probably realized exactly when I began watching the show. I’ve always thought I was there from episode one, and yet for many years I thought episode one was The Hitchhiker. It was, in fact, episode 16. So, I’m convinced that’s the first one I saw and I saw all the prior episodes that summer in reruns. So, I didn’t begin watching until January of 1960 and that makes sense because when this went on the air in October of 1959, I’d just begun junior high school and that was such a nerve-wracking experience that I’m sure I just hadn’t heard about it. And I watched episode 17, too, and I know that’s the second one I saw – The Fever – one of my favorite episodes. It remains one of the greatest TV shows ever made and I’ll whip out the Blu-rays and watch from the start, as I’ve never watched the Blu-rays and I haven’t seen any episodes in over fifteen years, maybe twenty.
Yesterday was sad for the reasons in the first paragraph. I did have another nice thing happen and hopefully something nice will happen today. I got almost eight hours of sleep, answered e-mails, decided to have Pad Thai for that jernt I discovered, and it arrived pretty quickly. The first time it was great, the second time a bit less so, and this time it was lacking because the chicken was kind of gross and I had to eat around it, just the noodles. I also put that I didn’t want the slice of lime or the cilantro – that was honored the first two times, this time it was not, so I had to pick out the cilantro. After that, I had several telephonic calls, I did some stuff on the computer, then I watched stuff and the rest you know.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll check to see if books have arrived and if they’re there or if anything is there I’ll go pick it up, I’ll eat something, perhaps pasta here, we’ll do some more Sami stuff, posting another song clip or two on Instagram and TikTok, we’re now up to twenty-nine reviews – if anyone hasn’t reviewed it yet, please do, they really help. Then at some point I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow is more of the same and in the evening I may go see a play if I’m feeling up to it, otherwise I’ll see it either on Saturday night or Sunday matinee. Matinee may be best, actually. We shall see.
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, check with the mail place and pick up whatever may be there, eat, do Sami stuff, then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite Bruce Willis movies? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, hoping that our TCB is up with the angels and pain free.