Well, dear readers, timelines are funny. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, timelines are funny but not really funny. As most here know, I have a pretty amazing memory as regards my past and I’m rarely wrong about things. That is not to say I’m infallible or even outfallibe – I’ve been wrong, oh yes, I’ve been wrong. In the first three Kritzer books, I was not a computer person and the Internet as we know it today was still in its growing stages. So, to make sure I had all the when and where I saw movies stuff correct, I’d have to go to the downtown library and get microfiche for all those years and tediously go through them and I do believe I was only wrong maybe twice. Now, of course, it’s much easier to check that stuff and I had to do a LOT of it for Preview Harvey. In fact, I’d say I spent just as much time researching places and dates as I did writing the book. When I was writing There’s Mel, There’s Woody, and There’s You, most of the time I was right in the details but then there was a whole section where I was wildly off about what took place when, but thankfully I had ways to check those dates and places and stuff. For Album Produced by I also had timeline things, but most of that I remembered pretty well, although a couple of times I was off. Luckily, all the booklets had the recording dates for each album, so eventually I got all the right. Kritzer Time had some real timeline issues that surprised me because all my memories of those times are so vivid, but I was off several times and that really surprised me. Anyway, I’m fascinated by what things I remember accurately and what things I don’t. There’s no rhyme or reason to it, really but I will say that when, for example, I got the mistaken timelines straight then everything falls right into place. Sometimes I reminisce with friends from the old days and they’ll remember something one way and I another and frequently they’re right and I’m not. I guess we all confuse things in our head and the clearest example of that sort of thing is when people swear that they saw a certain movie at a certain theater and when you point out to them that what they remember is not possible, they double down, they become belligerent, and downright nasty. This happens a lot with the Cinerama Dome. I’ve gotten into huge arguments with people on Facebook who swear their father took them to see How the West Was Won at the Cinerama Dome when that movie came out. It’s their most cherished memory and if you call them on it they turn into banshees and name callers. When you offer them irrefutable proof, they still refuse to believe it. It’s like nothing you’ve ever seen. Well, they couldn’t have seen How the West Was Won at the Cinerama Dome when it first came out for the simple reason that the Cinerama Dome wasn’t built yet. Oops. And everyone knows the first film to play there was It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, and that played for over a year. In fact, the first time How the West Was Won was shown in Cinerama at the Dome was in the 2000s, because prior to that they didn’t have the three projector set up in the booth.
Another popular one is Jaws, which people also swear they saw at the Dome when that movie came out. Well, they didn’t because it played a half-mile away at the Pix. 2001: A Space Odyssey, however, is the poster child for people who think they saw THAT one at the Dome during its original release. Nothing you say will dissuade them and you’ll be called a liar and worse. They KNOW they saw it there. They didn’t, of course, not during its original run because it played at the Warner Cinerama on Hollywood Boulevard, also for over a year. It didn’t get to the Dome until the mid-1970s. Fortunately, for all the films mentioned here, I have photographic proof – the original reserved seat ad for 2001 at the Warner Cinerama, a photo of the opening night premiere at that theater, a photo of How the West Was Won also at that theater, a photo of Jaws at the Pix – all accompanied by their newspaper ads with dates. And you know what these people do when you post those things? They disappear because on Facebook no one EVER admits they’re wrong about anything. Anyway, timelines.
I did finish the Warner Bros. four-part self-loving documentary and it’s fascinating to see them be a major part of the demise of motion pictures, even though they all thing they’re the greatest. Seeing a thriving studio making amazing movies, unique movies, devolve into doing nothing but “tentpole” movies, origin stories, DC universe stories because while they go on and on about “telling our stories” and “art” in the end they’re only interested in movies that will make many millions or billions of dollars – and that’s fine but don’t shovel the horse manure about telling our stories and art. I also watched the second episode of a documentary about a serial killer in the 1990s who targeted gays. I knew nothing of the story so it’s interesting to watch, but we’re only getting one episode at a time, I guess every week, and that’s kind of irritating.
Yesterday was something or other. I did get nine hours of sleep, got up, answered e-mails, had an expected annoying text, bit my tongue and walked away from the computer so I wouldn’t respond with a barrage of nastiness in ALL CAPS. I went to AT&T to talk about my closing bill, but my wait would have been thirty minutes, so, no thanks. I’ll go to their corporate offices either today or tomorrow – that’s in North Hollywood.
For food, I decided to make Wacky Noodles again, and this batch was perfect and excellent. Then I did some rearranging of the thing I’m writing, wrote a couple of new paragraphs, but nothing else because I was researching some stuff. I may try to write once the notes are posted, at least a page or two. Oh, and Muse Margaret called to tell me she’d watched the first three episodes of Sami, which she loved.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll write, I’ll eat, I may go to the AT&T corporate store, I’ll write more, and then maybe have a Zoom thing with David Wechter. Then I can watch, listen, and relax.
The rest of the week is writing, a lunch on Friday, doing whatever needs doing, but mostly just writing.
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, write, eat, maybe go to a store, do a Zoom thing, write, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite movies from the Golden Age of Warner Bros. which, for me, would be the late 1930s to the end of the 1970s or early 1980s. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I shall dream about timelines.