Well, dear readers, I can only listen to so many string quartets at a time, but since last night that’s all I’ve been listening to. Now, how many blogs (notes) have opened with such a sentence? I’d say none recently or perhaps never and therefore I feel that soon we will be the most popular site on all the Internet. But there are times when a string quartet is just the ticket, especially when it’s the Hollywood String Quartet’s series of 1950s recordings for Capitol – featuring four top Hollywood film score players. And they featured so much repertoire that no one would record back then, so between last evening and this evening I’ve been treated to quartets by William Walton, Juaquin Turina, Villa-Lobos, Ravel, Debussy, Paul Creston, and now playing is Schoenberg’s Verklarte Nacht, which is such an mazing piece. And upcoming is Dohnanyi and Borodin’s famous quartet from which some of Kismet is derived. At one point, I had all this on the computer, so I have to see if I saved that to a hard drive somewhere and hopefully, I did. And since a string quartet is made up of a series of notes, perhaps I should write some damn notes. But shall they be whole notes aka footballs, half-notes, quarter notes, sixteenth notes, dotted half notes – so many possibilities how can one choose. I did manage to watch four of the five episodes of a new documentary entitled Mr. Scorsese, which is airing on Apple+ – my free three months is still in effect. I’m not sure I needed a five-hour documentary, but this one is certainly done well and thankfully we get no pontificating heads of people who didn’t know him or work with him and isn’t that refreshing. But I’ll tell you something – in a five-hour documentary I’d expect at least a passing mention of The Act – oh, we get a lot of stories about Scorsese’s cocaine use from those years, and there are lots of photos of he and Liza, but not a peep about The Act. Well, he was its original director, he and star were regularly doing the white stuff and have certainly talked about it publicly. And I don’t know how you talk about Taxi Driver – and they talk about it a LOT and it’s all very interesting – and not mention Bernard Herrmann, whose final score it was, and whose music plays a major role in the film and is majorly responsible the feel of the film. Just not sure how that’s not mentioned, nor the performances of Cybil Shepherd and Albert Brooks – we get plenty of Jodi Foster being interviewed, but one wonders why no Harvey Keitel? It’s just weird.

But it’s filled with a lot of stuff I didn’t know at all and as you watch you can see just how weird his moviemaking trajectory is – bit hit, flop, flop, big hit, flop, flop, flop, big hit – he is one of the comeback kings. I first saw Taxi Driver a good six months prior to its release, and it was one of the most violent films I’d ever seen, but it’s power and weirdness and greatness could not be denied. But beginning with Goodfellas, I had to stop. In know everyone thinks it’s a masterpiece, but that kind of violence is just not for me. Same reason I would never watch Casino, even though I know there are aspects of it that I would enjoy. But going back to the beginning, I will cop to never having seen Mean Streets or Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore – I know I’d probably enjoy the latter. Not sure about the former. Taxi Driver I loved. New York, New York I cannot stand mostly because the characters, especially De Niro are so awful and negative. I like the artifice of it and the musical numbers, but it’s too long and too irritating. Not mentioned in the documentary when talking about what a huge flop it was and the critical drubbing it took, is the little independent film that opened the same week in New York, in which New York, New York was featured in the reviews of the independent little upstart movie and not in a good way. For example, this was always the lead quote in the ads of the little independent film: “Chockful of youthful talent, well spiced by outrageousness and sparked by invention. The three stars are simply irresistible. Cindy Williams is enchanting, Kimmel is the ultimate appealing schnook. Fresh and funny and funky. Made for about 1 percent of the budget of ‘New York, New York and a hundred times funnier and more perceptive.” Judith Crist, The New York Post. Funny huh? They didn’t mention it, though.

Moving along the Scorsese trail, I certainly admired the filmmaking skill of Raging Bull – a hard movie to actually like, but it’s brilliantly done. The King of Comedy I really enjoyed despite it not quite working completely. And it holds up pretty well. After Hours I had no interest in seeing, The Color of Money had style but I didn’t think it was a patch on the butt cheeks of The Hustler. You couldn’t and still can’t pay me to see The Last Temptation of Christ. I suppose I may try Goodfellas again at some point. I enjoyed Cape Fear all right, but like the original version better. Never saw his next five films – The Age of Innocence, Casino, Kundun, The Gangs of New York, and Bringing Out the Dead. I found The Aviator disappointing, Didn’t see The Departed or Shutter Island, hated Hugo, which I really wanted to love, hatred is too mild for how I felt about the reprehensible The Wolf of Wall Street, never even heard of Silence, don’t think I cared much for The Irishman, and I haven’t seen Killers of the Flower Moon yet, but will.

Yesterday was certainly Friday, I think we can say that much was a certainty. Anyway, I got eight and a half hours of nice sleep, answered e-mails, tried a tri-salad from a deli called Lovi’s in Calabasas – the chicken salad was a bit weird, and I only ate less than one of the two scoops, but the egg salad was very good as was their ranch dressing and especially their thousand island dressing. I may try a Cobb Salad with that dressing. And their pastrami sandwich gets good marks, and you can get it extra lean. They also have one latke for six bucks, so that’s a definite thing to try. After that, I did some work on the computer, had a couple of telephonic calls, heard from the neurologist, who wants to see me about the shortness of breath, although I’m certain it has nothing to do with the pills I’m taking, but he wants to be sure. I’m also going to ask him if it would be okay if I started on Zepbound or if the pills I’m doing would make it dangerous. If he says I can, I’ll see if he can do a prescription and then I have to find out if my insurance will at least cover half of it – it’s expensive, but I cannot carry this weight anymore, and at my age all the diet stuff simply doesn’t work, especially when I have to eat with this pill regimen.

Then I watched the four hours of the Scorsese thing and will probably finish that before bed.

Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll hopefully list at least five items from my personal collection o’ stuff and I’ll provide that link to you dear readers before anyone else. Yes, I will. I’ll see if there’s anything at the mail place and for food I just might make some pasta here or else just bring something in, and then I’ll watch, listen, and relax.

Tomorrow is more of the same, then next week is very busy with finalizing casting, getting more tracks, and figuring out our first couple of rehearsal weeks.

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, hopefully list some eBay items, see what’s what at the mail place, eat, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite films of Mr. Scorsese? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have had some nice string quartets listening pleasures.