Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to one of my all-time motion picture scores, Fahrenheit 451 by one Bernard Herrmann. I saw the motion picture in Chicago when I was on tour with Do You Know the Milky Way, which is chronicled in Kritzer World. I went to a theater in the Loop, a big movie palace, to the first show. I loved the movie, and I LOVED the score. So, I stayed for the next showing. Then I went and had a nice early dinner, then went back and saw the six-thirty showing. I think it’s the only movie I saw three times in one day, although I may have done that for The Music Man, too. Has everyone here who bought Kritzer World read it? If so, if you haven’t written a review, it would be greatly appreciated and not only that, it would be appreciated greatly. I did manage to watch a motion picture, but prior to that I watched a TV show from the 1950s entitled Confidential File with Paul Coates. He was a syndicated reporter with a daily column and the host of the tabloid TV show. This one was about Hollywood Starlets. I thought it was all actors portraying Hollywood starlets, but no, they were real actors. One, Jody Lawrance, had some success in movies, working with major stars, but got canned by her studio for being “temperamental” and not playing the games the studios expected their contract players to play – i.e. parties, set-up dates, cheesecake – she says on the program she should have played along. She was working as a waitress at Robb’s Soda Shop in Westwood (it morphed into a coffee shop and astonishingly is still there), and then Blum’s in Beverly Hills. But she was picked up by another studio and did more mainstream TV and films, but they ended up dropping her, too. She did a few things after that and that was it. She died young at 55 in 1986. Also interviewed was Ruth Roman. I remember watching a few episodes back in the mid-1950s – it was on Channel 11, KTTV, and I watched that channel a LOT. I’d like to see a few more episodes. Oh, and the director of the show? Irvin Kershner, who’d go on to direct a little movie entitled The Empire Strikes Back. Then I watched the motion picture, which was just released a few days ago direct to streaming platforms. It was entitled Unit 234, and starred Don Johnson and Isabelle Fuhrman, the actress I liked so much in Orphan. It’s a thriller directed by Andy Tennant, who began as a dancer in Grease and appeared in the Disney movie, Midnight Madness, co-directed by David Wechter.
He’s directed a ton of hit TV shows, and quite a few movies, none of which were huge hits, at least I haven’t heard of most of them. Some big film, though, like Anna and the King with Jodie Foster, which was certainly not a hit. He’s competent and does okay with this until the last third. It basically is a one set six actor affair (there are a few other actors in very minor roles), taking place in a storage facility not unlike Public Storage but owned by Fuhrman, who inherited it from her deceased parents. I won’t give the plot away but will say the writing is sloppy as is some of the plotting – it’s especially bad in a scene involving the police – and then Tennant gets a little too graphic with some violence at the end. But it doesn’t overstay its welcome running about 82-minutes sans end credits. Johnson is good, and I really like Isabelle Fuhrman, so I enjoyed it mostly because of her. Can’t really recommend it, though.
Prior to that, I had a bit of a rough night, but ultimately got eight hours of sleep, not arising until two-fifteen. It was too late to drive over to Jinky’s to get wings because they close at three – so I placed an order via DoorDash at two-twenty, as it says clearly you can place orders until two-forty. Alas, they cancelled the order. Instead, I ordered fried catfish from Uncle Andre’s with potato salad as a side. It arrived thirty minutes later. Waiting for it, I put some air in the tires that had a low-pressure warning but ran out of juice before doing the last tire, so I’ll do that today. I have this portable thing called Airmoto that works great. For the two tires I did, both of the screw-on caps that go over the thing where you put air in were missing – someone felt compelled to steal them – I mean, a pack of ten of ‘em costs a buck. I’ll never understand such idiocy. Anyway, the food arrived, and I ate the two filets and they were very good. I saved the potato salad for later, as mentioned above, at least I think I mentioned it. Then I watched the movie, and here we are.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I may drive to Jinky’s for the damn wings, I’ll put air in one more tire, I’ll eat, I’ll definitely write, I’ll definitely choose the three songs I need to choose, and then I can watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow is busy and I’ll meet up with Marshall Harvey to give him the hard drive that has the Drat! The Cat! videos so that his guy can get them loaded into his computer, Tuesday night will do the little futzing I want to do, along with some color and contrast correction, I have some meetings and meals, we’ll make a rehearsal schedule for the Kritzerland show, and I hope to get some good writing time in.
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, maybe drive to Jinky’s for wings, put air in a tire, eat, write, choose the final three songs, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, wondering if I could do three movies in a day in movie theaters these days – doubtful.