Well, dear readers, this month is flying by, like a gazelle playing with a Slinky whilst munching on pork rinds. Do Slinkys still exist? Let’s find out, shall we? Yes, it does, and one can be had for a mere four dollars plus tax. I think all of us dear readers should get a Slinky posthaste and haste post videos of our playing with it, or at least a still photograph. In any case, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to Nielsen’s most well-known symphony, symphony four, The Inextinguishable. Prior to that was Nielsen’s final symphony, the sixth, conducted by Ormandy, a very strange work that is hard to get with on first hearing, but grows more interesting with each hearing. The fourth, everyone’s supposed favorite, is not the best in my opinion, but that’s just me – after all, I’m not Dave Hurwitz, who hates this performance by Bernstein. I’ll have to seek out a couple of others and see if I like them better. I also began a motion picture that I’ll try and finish today – Play Dirty, starring Mark Wahlberg – adapted from various Parker novels (the source for the movie Point Blank and the Mel Gibson remake, Payback) by Shane Black and two others and directed by Black. It starts off okay – smartASS dialogue, a heist, a betrayal, and then, eight minutes in, it jumps the shark with one of the most absurd car chase scenes on a racetrack with lots of CGI horses getting knocked over and galloping onto a car – I mean, just unrelentingly stupid. After that comes a really good main title sequence and a nice theme by Alan Silvestri, one of the last of the film composers who still understands what a movie score’s purpose is. I watched about twenty more minutes and then had to start writing these here notes. Prior to all that, it was just a completely non-stop day. I was up at nine, shaved, and then did the radio podcast thing – it’s strictly author interviews. The guy spent twenty minutes explaining to me what works and what doesn’t – I gather they get some first timers who really don’t understand how to be succinct for these types of short interview. That was all a waste of time for me, as I’ve done tons of these, especially back when I first started this journey – I must have done twenty for Benjamin Kritzer, but I had a really good publicist for that one. Anyway, he finally began the interview, and I had a good time, gave him what I think he wanted, which was to keep reiterating why people should be interested in getting the book. Afterwards, he said I did really well. It’ll be up sometime next week, and I’ll provide the link.
After that, I dressed quickly and immediately went to the mail place and picked up two important envelopes, then hurried to the bank to do banking – first cashing a check, second depositing the cash. Then I had to hurry to a noon o’clock lunch at the newly opened Capitol Grill in Burbank. I’d been to one in Washington when there to work with Sandy Bainum and it was pretty great. Doug’s daughter Hartley, who I’ve known since she was a teen and who I directed in A Carol Christmas and The Man Who Came to Dinner, is in town for a few days. The restaurant is very high end and beautifully appointed. Very old school. There have been three other restaurants in this space, all of which have failed. It began as Dalt’s, which I went to a lot, and which was great, then briefly it was a McCormick and Shmick, then Claim Jumper and the shocker there is that I never went – and now this. It’s close to the Burbank Morton’s, which I didn’t even know existed. Anyway, I had three appetizers – shrimp cocktail, small Caesar, and a bowl of clam chowder – the chowder especially was great. Doug had a cup of chowder and a strip steak, which he enjoyed, and Hartley had some lobster salad thing that she loved. A good time was had by all.
Then I had one more bank stop, then I came home and had a Zoom with our set designer, who showed me his latest – I think we’re close to locking down the design. After that, I had a few telephonic conversations, did a few things that needed doing, caught up on other stuff, and then ordered a bowl of chili that comes with a piece of cornbread and a tiny salad from the House of Pies. Whilst waiting, I sat on my couch like so much fish and dozed off for a few minutes. When I work up, I checked to see if the food had arrived but there was no text or e-mail, so I went back to the couch and watched a few irritating YouTube videos. At eight-forty I knew something was amiss with the food – but still no text or email, so I double-checked outside and there was the bag of food. I brought it inside and then tracked the delivery, which I hadn’t done. It had arrived at 8:07 and the Dasher, a complete idiot, hadn’t texted me (they have to), hadn’t sent the order completed e-mail (they have to), and never rang the doorbell or knocked (they have to). I heated up the chili, since it was ice cold, but re-heating chili when there’s melted cheese in it just doesn’t work. I ate some and tossed the rest. The cornbread was also ice cold and terrible. Salad, of course, was fine.
I went to the help page and said what happened, to which they responded that they weren’t going to refund anything based on their policies and my order history. Say what? I think we’re allowed to report orders that are wrong – that’s not OUR fault. So, I got really irritated and tried to get a chat going, but you’re talking to a bot – they finally switched me to an agent, who never showed up. But finally, someone from DoorDash called and issued me a complete refund. Mind you, at no time did I actually ask for one – I just expected them to do the right thing and they finally did.
After that, I watched the first part of the movie, and then it was time to write these here notes. Oh, and before I move on, sometimes book collecting can be so amusing. For many years, I’ve tried to find a minty fresh dust jacket on a book called Operation Terror by the husband-and-wife team who wrote under the name The Gordons. I have a signed copy of it and the jacket isn’t bad, but I’m a condition freak. I think the last time I checked on it was a year ago. Now, Operation Terror, along with every book written by The Gordons, including their Undercover Cat, could be had in jacket and first edition for under twenty bucks. So, last night I searched on the ABE – the cheapest copy of Operation Terror (not signed) is $1,000. The most expensive (not signed) is 2K. Say what? I guess someone at these places figured out that Operation Terror was made into a movie – Experiment in Terror. The same thing happened with a book called Fallen Angel by Walter Ericson – could be had for under fifty bucks in excellent condition and it stayed that way for years until these same stores figured out it was the source material for the movie Mirage and that the author’s name was a pseudonym for Howard Fast. And that price shot up like crazy. I mean, like 2500 bucks of up. I have my copy and an extra of that one and I may put it up on eBay and just undercut and sell it for half. Meanwhile, The Gordon’s other popular book, Undercover Cat, has also shot up to mid-100s – why? Because it was made into the movie That Darn Cat.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’m thinking I’ll make some bow tie pasta in pink sauce with sauteed red onion, peas, and maybe even a bit of sweet Eyetalian sausage – I’ve had that before here and it turned out very well. I’ll do some work on the computer, I’m having a much-needed haircut at one, and then I just need to not do much of anything else except watch, listen, and relax.
The rest of the weekend is mine all mine. I don’t think I have any plans at all other than getting ready for our first casting session. And now playing, the divine Carmen McRae doing marvelous renditions of show tunes – a great The Music That Makes Me Dance, Don’t Cry, I Like Everybody, and Warm All Over from The Most Happy to Fella, How Does the Wine Taste from We Take the Town and which I like better than Streisand’s version (shhh), That Great Come and Get It Day from Finian’s Rainbow, A Wonderful Guy – great stuff in great stereo. I discovered her from the movie Hotel and had to have everything she recorded, starting with her Decca albums.
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, make some pasta, do some work on the computer, have a haircut, and then I’ll watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: Who are your all-time favorite vocalists from the classic era through the 1970s? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have had a busy little bee of a BK day.