Well, dear readers, April is flying by, like a gazelle doing the Peppermint Twist. Yesterday was, of course, April Fools Day, but I am here to tell you that no one fooled me, I remained unfooled for the entire day and evening. I didn’t attempt to fool anyone as I do that every other day. In any case, it was mostly a fine day, and I did get eight hours of sleep with some of the wackiest dreams ever. Once up, I answered e-mails, ignored a text, then went to do my banking. Both banks had no lines at all, so I was in and out of each in about two minutes. That done, I went to the mail place and mailed something. Then I went to Gelson’s and got a six-ounce New York steak, a couple of artichokes, and their hot food bar had roasted broccoli, so I got some of that. I came right home and made the steak. I’d seen a couple of YouTube videos about cooking steaks, so I tried one way that I’d seen – season the steak and broil it on both sides. When it’s done the way you like, take it and put it into a frying pan with butter and let it have a quick sear. It worked like a charm and the steak was yummilicious in the extreme. The broccoli was terrible, so that went mostly in the trash. After that, I did some work on the computer, heard from the glasses place that they won’t be here until Wednesday, watched some irritating YouTube videos and a high school production of Hello, Dolly! that was surprisingly fun, using Gower Champion’s original choreography without any of the Warren Carlyle “improvements” (hint: you don’t improve Gower Champion) or the addition of Penny in My Pocket, which was completely unnecessary. The kids, while not really dancers, did a fine job of it, giving it their all. The Dolly had a very strong voice but needed some direction for the comedy stuff. Anyway, I’m always happy to see kids doing their thing and really committing to it. And kudos to the director for doing a classic rather than yet vomit up another Newsies or Shrek or The Addams Family, and others of that ilk. I also skimmed a high school production of Phantom of the Opera. The gal who played Christine posted it and said the school was not well funded, the theater department had very little money, but they made the most of what they could do and while it obviously wasn’t a Phantom that resembled any other, it was very sweet and I have to see the girl was a very good Christine.
Then I made the artichoke and melted butter, and it was great – I always forget how much I love artichokes with melted butter. So, the steak was 199 calories (per several calories sites), the broccoli was nothing, the artichoke was 76 calories – so, it was the butter that brought the calorie count up to about 800. That’s what I have to do every day – whether a steak or a salad or whatever. No desserts either. I must be strong. I must, I simply must. Then I watched a motion picture from 1999 entitled Payback with Mel Gibson. It’s a remake of Point Blank and I never watched it because it got pretty bad reviews. Turns out, there was a lot of post-production tinkering – rewrites, reshoots (by a different director) all at the behest of the star. It ran 101-minutes. Well, the original director was allowed to go back and do his version of the film, sans all the rewrites and reshoots (which was about 30% of the film), using a new score, and that’s the version that was streaming. It’s no Point Blank but it has some enjoyable things in it and there’s some decent humor along the way. I may try to watch the original at some point. Along with Mel, we get Maria Bello, William Devane, Gregg Henry, James Coburn and a voice only Sally Kellerman. Gone completely is the performance of Kris Kristofferson, which I gather was part of the reshoots. It moves along very quickly and is ten minutes shorter than the bastardized version. Then I listened to the Bach Mass in e-minor in an excellent Ormandy performance in great stereo sound.
Today, I’ll be up at eight and out the door by eight-thirty, for she of the Evil Eye is coming to do her thing. I’ll go have an omelet somewhere, but no bread or potatoes. After that, I’ll go to Gelson’s and get either a Caesar salad for later or do the salad bar with oil and red wine vinegar as the dressing. I think the Caesar is probably simplest. Once back home, I have to catch up on a few things, and I’m waiting to hear back on a few things and I’ll pray like crazy for a modern major miracle.
Tomorrow, I’ll go pick up my glasses whenever they arrive, I’ll check with the mail place to see what’s what, and then it’s more of the same, as the rest of the week will be.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up at eight and out the door by eight-thirty, I’ll breakfast, I’ll go to the mail place, I’ll go to Gelson’s, I’ll come home and catch up on things and hopefully I’ll hear back on a few things and pray like crazy for a modern major miracle. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite and least favorite remakes of movies? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have made myself an excellent steak and to have begun in earnest the diet I must stick to.