Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to Francois Poulenc’s organ concerto, a concerto for organ and it’s quite a piece of music and I mean that in a good way and Mr. Previn is doing quite the job of it, as is Simon Preston, the organist. I’m not sure this recording is well thought of although I cannot imagine why – I’ll have to sample a few others to see about that. Earlier in the evening, I watched two motion pictures with similar titles. The first motion picture with a similar title was entitled The Terminator, a film, believe it or not, I’d never seen. I may have seen some of the sequel but I’d never seen a frame of the original. It was the film that put James Cameron on the map and I must say it’s quite entertaining in its way. Released in 1984, it’s vision of Los Angeles in 2029 is, in 2023, most amusing in a most amusing way. Shot in Los Angeles, there are some fun views of downtown LA, as well as three locations here in the San Fernando Valley. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, and Michael Biehn are all excellent, and Paul Winfield is always a pleasure to watch. It moves right along, has only a couple of silly things in it, and it’s not hard to see why it was a hit. It was pretty low-budget at six million and change and is impressive for that budget. Author Harlan Ellison sued the producers, saying it was a rip-off of his story (and Outer Limits episode) Soldier. Rather than go to court, Orion settled for an undisclosed amount of money and in later prints of the film gave Ellison some kind of lame credit. Ellison was known for being litigious and of course a gag order was stipulated. Only recently has Cameron finally talked about it and was furious at Orion for settling, as he’d neither read Soldier or seen the Outer Limits episode. But Orion didn’t want to take the chance in court – of course, they should have and I believe they would have won. But Ellison got a nice payday and a credit on a film he literally had zero to do with. It’s not like Orion didn’t have the money to fight this in court. The second motion picture with a similar title was entitled The Exterminator, a grade-Z piece of trash starring Robert Ginty, a Death Wish x 1000. Horribly photographed and sleazily directed, it’s another vigilante picture set in New York. It opens with an astonishingly bad prologue in, where else, Vietnam. When we finally get past that, we get the plot going on when a dopey gang beats up Robert Ginty’s best friend and Vietnam buddy. Mr. Ginty immediately becomes the title character and exterminates lots of baddies in violent ways. It was enough of a hit to get a sequel which, of course, bombed. I just couldn’t get over how horrible the film looked, like whoever shot it never quite learned how to load film in a camera. I read up on Ginty and he had a fascinating career – worth looking him up. The other “stars” are Christopher George and Samantha Eggar. It came out in October of 1980 and the L.A. Times opined, “This is the kind of movie that makes sadists of us all.” I would have used that in a quote ad. And it’s a good thirty minutes too long.
Yesterday was a day. I got eight hours of sleep and once up I answered e-mails, shaved and showered, and then moseyed on over to the Group Rep to see Morning’s at Seven, a lovely little play. Interestingly, the original Broadway production was a flop, running only 44 performances, whereas its two Broadway revivals were hits, with the first revival running over 500 performances. Director Joshua Logan is blamed for the failure of the first production because he didn’t keep it in the year the author set it in – 1928 – moving it up to 1938, which, if you’ve seen the play, you know is not the right time period for the play. The 1980 revival, which had an amazing cast, was filmed by Showtime and I’d sure love to see that.
After the show, I went to the mail place and picked up some trash bags I’d ordered, the small kind for kitchen trash containers. These are my favorite trash bags. I discovered them at Bed, Bath, and Beyond, who are now out of business, but found them on Amazon and really cheap. Then I went to Gelson’s across the street and got two count them two hamburger patties, a small head of lettuce rather than the large foot of lettuce, and a tomato. I came home and made two very tasty burgers on those sesame burger buns. Very good they were, too. After that, I sat on my couch like so much fish and the rest you know.
Today, I’ll be up by eleven, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I have some organizing to do and I’m thinking of closing up the Amazon third-party thing and listing on eBay, so I’ll make that decision. I’ll probably have tuna sandwiches again for lunch and I may try them with some lettuce and tomato on them to see how that is. Then at some point, I’ll watch listen and relax.
Tomorrow, Wednesday, and Thursday, I have meetings and meals, I’ll probably have a Zoom with David Wechter and I need another major miracle at some point soon and am trying to make that happen.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by eleven, do whatever needs doing, organize, decide whether to stop selling on Amazon, eat, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite burgers to have in restaurants and fast food, and how do you make them at home? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I shall dream of The Exterminator exterminating The Terminator or vice versa.