Well, dear readers, I must write these here notes in a hurry for she of the Evil Eye will be here all too soon. And so, here we go. As I write these here notes, I’m listening to chamber music by John Vincent, a terrific American composer – if you don’t know his orchestral pieces, his two major ones are on the Tube of You, both marvelously conducted by Eugene Ormandy, who championed many American composers. Very tonal, very American, and I really enjoy his music. I found this chamber piece on YouTube, along with a ballet, but the latter is in pretty awful sound. On the recording that has the piece I’m listening to, there’s also a string quartet, but that doesn’t seem to be on the YouTube anywhere. Earlier, I finished watching the first movie in what became a three-movie TBS franchise – for those who remember the TBS cable station. The first of the films, which I watched second, was entitled First Daughter and involves Mariel Hemingway as a Secret Service agent protecting the president, played by Gregory Harrison. I didn’t care for it as much as the second movie, called First Target – in that one, Hemingway declined repeating her role, so Darryl Hannah played it. The third movie, which I watched last night, was First Shot, and for whatever reasons, Hemingway is back but unlike the first film, where her hair color is sort of a dark brunette, in this one she’s blonde, like Darryl Hannah. Go know. Even though the scripts aren’t great and they’re a bit repetitious, they’re all about ninety-two minutes and move right along and they’re all oddly likeable in their way. The final movie seemed more like an episode of a TV show. They’re all directed by the same fellow, Armand Mastroianni. I also attempted to watch Elia Kazan’s 1972 film The Visitors but it was so amateurish I had to shut it off. He called it his home movie and that’s exactly what it looks like. If this was your first Kazan movie you’d wonder if he’d ever been behind the camera before or even knew how to make a movie. Shot in 16mm and blown up, it looks horrible. Depending on which article you read, it cost either 60K, 100K, or 150K. The problem is, it looks like it cost about ten dollars. There’s no score, and it’s extremely unpleasant, at least what I saw of it. It does have the distinction of being James Woods’ first film and Steve Railsback’s first film.
Yesterday was mostly okay. I got eight hours of sleep, answered e-mails, did some work on the computer, had a long Sami telephonic call, then I moseyed on over to Paty’s Coffee Shop in Toluca Lake, where Marshall Harvey and I had lunch. We both had the sandwich we love – the Trousdale – a grilled sandwich consisting of coleslaw, Swiss, turkey, and 1000-Island dressing and we both got the potato salad with it. We also shared a basket – half-and-half – fries/onion rings, and that was also excellent. We were happy eaters. After that, I came directly home directly, answered more e-mails, and then began my viewing. And here we are.
Today, I’ll be up by eight-thirty and out the door by nine, I think I’m gonna breakfast at a jernt that I like but have never breakfasted at – hopefully, it won’t be too busy at that time, but I have alternatives should it be. Then I’ll go to the mail place and see what’s what, the do some errands and whatnot and perhaps get something small to eat later in the day, then I’ll come home and after that, it’s a damn ME day and I don’t care who knows it. I’m quite certain I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow is totally a ME day. Then Monday is our first Kritzerland rehearsal, which I’m looking forward to. Tuesday, a fellow who took a coaching session in the last Indiegogo campaign is coming here to do that, so that will be fun. Wednesday, I have to go to the storage place so I can find the CDs that the helper cannot find and I also may have an early lunch that day, too, so we’ll see how that all plays out. Thursday is our second rehearsal, Friday is our stumble-through, and Saturday is sound check and then we do our show.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by eight-thirty and out the door by nine, I’ll breakfast, I’ll see what’s up at the mail place, do errands and whatnot, and then come home and have a ME afternoon and evening. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite films of Elia “Gadge” Kazan? I pretty much love everything up to America, America. After that, not so much. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, having hurried and scurried and written notes on the run.