Well, dear readers, I am sitting here, back in the eight grade, music appreciation class with Mr. Williamson, listening to my first piece of classical music – Smetana’s The Moldau, conducted in monophonic sound by Eugene Ormandy. I wrote about this experience in Kritzerland and it was a life changer and I wish I could have, later in life, told Mr. Williamson how appreciative I was of his class and expanding my musical horizons. And this performance, mono and all, remains the gold standard for me and I don’t care who knows it. And I’ll say again, this humungous Eugene Ormandy box set of all his Columbia monophonic recordings, is absolutely one of the greatest box sets ever, and let’s go see how much it’s going for these days – $197, which is 100 less than list price. What else was I doing in the eight grade? Well, let’s see – I had a crush on Glenda Aaron. I had my first kiss with Betty Breemer in the last row of the Four Star Theater during Where the Boys Are. In addition to Mr. Williamson, I had one other favorite teacher – Mr. Margolis. George Margolis. Wonderful man. I began going to the theater, first to see The Tenth Man at the Huntington Hartford Theater and then The Unsinkable Molly Brown at the Biltmore Theater, starring most of the Broadway cast. And, of course, I had my Bar Mitzvah. It was a time.
Prior to listening, I watched all manner of things, beginning with a cookie cutter thriller starring Noomi Rapace, Michael Douglas, and John Malkovich, you know, a twist around every corner, each completely predictable, hoary old plot, and directed by a once fine director, Michael Apted, whose work here is just faceless and boring. After that, it was a thriller from 2004 entitled Paparazzi, a completely ridiculous movie, horribly directed by an ex-make-up man whose first and only film it was, starring Cole Hauser, Dennis Farina, Tom Sizemore, produced by Mel Gibson (the director was his make-up man). It’s a revenge picture with bad paparazzi types, about an actor who can take no more of being hounded by four guys who have it in for him. Sans end credits, it runs about seventy-eight minutes. The ONLY halfway amusing thing in the film are some cameos, the best of which is Mel Gibson waiting to go to an anger management class, plus Chris Rock as a pizza delivery man, Matthew McConaughey as himself, Vince Vaughn as an actor, and maybe one other I can’t remember. Terrible in every possible way.
Then it was a four-part documentary (thankfully, each episode only forty minutes) about The Subway Guy, Jared Fogle, who was the face of Subway after he lost hundreds of pounds by eating nothing but Subway and then being hired by Subway to do commercials and public appearances. The only problem, found out and reported to the FBI who did nothing, then to the police who did do something, is that Mr. Fogle liked very young girls and boys. Oops. He got a fifteen year sentence for acting on those impulses. Unfortunately, it’s horribly directed – the usual BS – having people not only in interviews, but walking into buildings for no reason, staring off into the sunset for no reason, and a LOT of shots or leaves, rain, drone shots of buildings for no reason and if you cut every last bit of that crap, instead of running 160-minutes it would run 120-minutes. But an interesting story I didn’t really know anything about. I do remember when he was part of the advertising campaign but that’s it. And now, I’m in the middle of the very good Being Mary Tyler Moore documentary.
Yesterday wasn’t so bad after all. I heard back from the guy at CD Baby, who apologized for how long it’s taking but promising he’ll get back to me as soon as he hears, but clearly that’s going to be next week, which doesn’t thrill me at all. In the end, they have no right to hold money that belongs to me without at least alerting me to that fact and giving me a reason. I only got about five and a half hours of sleep. Once up, I answered e-mails, shaved and showered, and then got ready for my Gold Derby Zoom interview, which I thought went very well. I liked the interviewer very much, and he really liked the series and loved Cindy, who was a major part of the conversation. That lasted about twenty minutes.
After that, I went to Ralph’s and got that chicken burrito thing and some Diet Coke in bottles (they just started a four for fifteen bucks sale, so I’ll be back later tonight to get that so I don’t run out again for a few weeks, then I came home and microwaved the burrito. It wasn’t as good as the first one I had, but I ate it all up nonetheless. I had some telephonic conversations, and then began my viewing. After the first three things, I ordered a Subway ham and turkey and for the first time got it as a wrap. Less calories that way and it’s low to begin with. It was pretty okay – it just works better as a regular sandwich. And here we are, all caught up.
Today, I’ll be up by eleven at the latest, then I have a belated birthday lunch with dear reader Jeanne at one of our usual jernts, then I’ll come back to the Valley, go get whatever’s at the mail place, come home, finish the commentary, and then watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow will be a ME day and so will the holiday on Monday. Then things get very busy.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by eleven at the latest, have a lunch, pick up stuff at the mail place, finish writing the commentary, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: Of the movies Mary Tyler Moore made, which were your favorites? And what were your favorite episodes of the Mary Tyler Moore Show? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have revisited the eighth grade for a short time.