Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to Rudolf Kempe conduct a lovely suite of music from Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel opera. I love this music so and now I’ll have to watch the opera again, oh, yes, I’ll have to watch the opera again. I also watched two more episodes of Perry Mason and I think I might enjoy aspects of it if it were not called Perry Mason, since it has zero to do with Mr. Erle Stanley Gardner’s character. They obviously thought having the Perry Mason thing was some kind of brand people were clamoring for even though the wags will tell you no one remembers Perry Mason. The show is filled with gratuitous (in the worst way) nudity, both male and female, dead bodies right out of a David Fincher movie, all green and rotting in extreme detail, violence, of course Della Street must be a Lesbian because, well, why not, Perry admits to one gay affair during the war, I mean what are these writers smoking? And of course, we get the same scenes played over and over again because they’re stretching one story to eight hours. They’re trying so hard for noir even though the story takes place before noir was a thing. Gratuitous foul language abounds because, because there must be some HBO series playbook that demands all these things. Can’t just have a hero, he must be a flawed hero. The actor playing Perry is playing what’s on the page and as far as that goes, he’s fine. If only he’d shave. The corrupt DA and all the corrupt cops are cliched stereotypes played exactly that way. I’ll stick it out to the end, but I can’t say I’m enjoying it because I’m not and since it’s called Perry Mason, I do feel it’s something of a travesty of a reboot that Erle Stanley Gardner, were he alive, would probably not have allowed. It does make me want to watch the original series again, and I think it’s on Prime or Tubi and I’ll give that a whirl when I’m done.
Other than that, yesterday was okay after a very rough night due to having a small scoop of ice cream that simply refused to digest correctly. I was up several times taking Pepcid, and ultimately I got seven hours of sleep, arising at 12;30. Once up, I answered e-mails, then moseyed on over to the mail place where once again no green envelope had made an appearance, although I did get a SAG residual of equal amount, so that was nice. When I got home, I called the WGA, who confirmed it had been mailed, and was told the hope was it would show up – I can’t do anything about it until April 7 and if it hasn’t shown up, then they’ll contact the company that issued the check and that whole process could take twelve weeks, which is absolute and utter balderdash.
I ordered a chicken salad sandwich and tiny side salad from the Cheesecake Factory, and that arrived and was very good. I saved the salad for later and it, too, was fine. Otherwise, the major portion of the afternoon was spent talking to Spectrum. I’ve been paying an absurd amount of money every month for my landline – a couple of years ago I threatened to shut it down unless they got it to a more reasonable price, so they took off call waiting and anything outside of LA and Valley area codes and got it down to about forty-five bucks. But even without those services it’s been creeping up and up and is currently at eighty dollars a month, which is outrageous. I keep it because it’s tied to several accounts and that’s the phone number that’s recognized, and a couple of people still call on that line, otherwise it’s literally all spam all the time. They asked if I wanted to switch the cell phone, too, but I said no. The cost to switch the landline to Spectrum was $29.98 per month, quite a drop in price. So, I said let’s do that. But then I thought more about the cell phone and the second he said that would be included in the $29.98 per month price, I said yes instantly, because via ATT I was paying eighty bucks for that, too. So, my two monthly charges totaling $160 will now cost $29.98 and that will save me over one thousand bucks a year, and to that I say hoo and ray. Someone comes on Thursday to do the landline conversion, but the cell phone is already done. I had to go to the nearby Spectrum store up the street, and that whole thing took ten minutes and I’m now switched over. Everything is the same but the cost and I had to re-record my outgoing greeting, which I may not even use anymore – I may just use their generic greeting.
I got back home from that around seven, did some stuff on the computer, then watched the Perry Mason episodes, had the salad and a couple of pieces of See’s candy I got while at the mall where Spectrum is located. Then it was time to write these here notes. After I finish, I have to go through the project with David Wechter making sure everything is right, layout-wise, and then I may watch another episode of Perry Mason.
Today, I’ll try to be up by eleven-thirty at the latest, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll do book stuff and Sami stuff, then I have to go see a singer do her act, invited by her publicist, as she’d like to be considered for Kritzerland shows. So, it’s a free dinner and show and I’m fine with that. Once back from that I can watch, listen, and relax and, of course, pray for a huge and large major miracle.
The rest of the week is more book stuff and Sami stuff, a meeting and meal or two, and then hopefully a peaceful and restful weekend.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, try to be up by eleven-thirty, do whatever needs doing, do book and Sami stuff, see a singer’s act and eat some kind of dinner prior at the club, then watch, listen, and relax and pray for a huge and large major miracle. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear reader any old question you like and we get to give any old answer we like. So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have made the switch to Spectrum that will save me over 1K a year.