Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to the last of the pastoral album, a John Rutter piece. I have always found Rutter pleasing to listen to but also one of the most derivative composers. Very tuneful and accessible, and sounding like many others, including melodies that are strikingly similar to other composers. Still, pleasant listening. Yesterday was another weirdly weird day where everything kind of just rolled along without much happening. I got six hours of sleep again, got up, was able to upload all the book files to the publisher, so that’s now done. Then the helper came by to pick up some dough, a book, and two CDs she couldn’t find even though I know we have many left. She’ll look again but at least we can get everything shipped. After she left, I helped the author’s husband upload the Kindle version of the book to Amazon. He erred with the cover he uploaded but can’t edit until it’s live – once it is he just has to replace what he uploaded and then it propagates pretty quickly from there. For food, I decided on extra crispy orange chicken from City Wok – it arrived and was excellent. That I have to order from Grubhub for Prime because DoorDash says that there are no available delivery times. They’ve said that for two weeks now and it’s total BS. I’m going to call the restaurant today and let them know about it. It lists it as open and available for delivery, so DoorDash has clearly pressed some dumb button incorrectly and the restaurant is losing all kinds of business, I’m sure. Then I decided not to go to the mail place as I can go there today before attending our first casting session. Then at three-thirty, I sat on my couch like so much fish and instantly dozed off until six. Ridic, but at least I got my eight hours of sleep. After that, I did some stuff on the computer, then tried to find something to watch – I began a few things, nothing was of much interest, and then I finally settled on The Boys from Brazil, which I hadn’t watched since 2020. I always want to love it, but it misfires too many times, especially at the end. It’s really odd, because the director is Franklin Schaffner – you know, Planet of the Apes, Patton, Islands in the Stream, Papillon – you know, quite a good run, with a few flops in between. But with The Boys from Brazil, excellent as much of it is, he seems to be losing his way by the end of the film. And everything that came after were flops, including the infamous Yes, Giorgio. Always interesting to try and understand the fall. Laurence Olivier is a little too cutesy at times, Lili Palmer doesn’t have much to do but is always terrific, Peck is interesting as a real-life vile Nazi villain, Steve Guttenberg is the worst casting in the movie and embarrassing, but it’s the character actors who really shine in the film – James Mason, Rosemary Harris, Denholm Elliot, Uta Hagen, Michael Gough and others. The score by Jerry Goldsmith is not only great, it really helps the film. The photography by the great Henri Decae is lovely, but the film just doesn’t quite reach the heights it should, and while it’s amusing to see Peck and Olivier rolling around on the floor biting each other and then see some dogs make a meal out of Mr. Peck, it just feels like a whole other movie at that point. The book by Ira Levin, for me, is completely successful in its storytelling, which leads me to believe that part of the problem with the film is its screenplay. I had some toast as a snack, all pills were taken and here we are.

Today, I’ll try to be up by ten, maybe eleven, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll have only a snack for food so I can go out after our casting session, then I’ll shave and shower and relax until it’s time to leave. I’ll first stop at the mail place and see what’s what, then mosey on over to the theater. No one has said boo to me about how many are showing up, so I have zero idea how late we’ll be going. After we finish, I’ll go have something fun to eat and go over my notes and see if I can finalize anything. Then I’ll come home.

Tomorrow is bloodwork – can’t say I’m looking forward to it, but it must be done and thankfully it’s only five minutes from here. We still haven’t set a second day of casting, which is irritating – communication is severely lacking right now and that really has to change – so, I’m not sure what’s happening on the weekend in that regard. We shall see.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, try to be up by ten, maybe eleven, do whatever needs doing, have a snack for food, shave and shower, relax, go to the mail place, then on to the theater for our casting session, followed by a nice meal after. 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, having had a meh of an eh day.