Well, dear readers, I must write these here notes in a hurry for they are already thirty minutes past due due to finishing an excruciating motion picture of 119-minutes in length that seemed like 240-minutes, a motion picture that is the very definition of Oscar bait, seemingly designed to get its leading lady an Oscar nomination and possibly even an Oscar. Well, take it from me, the motion picture, which is entitled Die My Love, and which stars Jennifer Lawrence, who also produced it (along with many others), and whose production company made it. It’s directed by Lynne Ramsay. I’ve definitely seen one Lynne Ramsay movie, but maybe two – I’d have to look up the second one to see if I saw it. Yep, I saw it a week after I saw the other one by her. You’d think I’d have learned my lesson. The first movie I saw was You Were Never Really Here, a terrible title that’s not quite as pretentious as the movie itself, Arty with a capital A, and featuring a performance of shattering nothingness by my least favorite actor ever, Joaquin Phoenix, who I now refuse to watch in any motion picture. I’d sit through ten Sonny Tufts movies rather than watch Mr. Phoenix. As if that wasn’t enough Arty for one week, I think watched We Need to Talk About Kevin, another Arty movie with a capital A, which I loathed. And here we are, with this thing called Die My Love. From frame one you know what you’re in for and she really delivers the goods for the Artiest with a capital A movie that I’ve viewed this year. We also get Pretentious with a capital P and that rhymes with B and that stands for Bad. Jennifer Lawrence gives the kind of Oscar bait performance that has even critics who hated the movie drooling about it – so committed, so feral – so what? Yes, her character is thoroughly obnoxious – gazing, having sex like a horse in heat, continually walking around in the altogether – this they call brave and brutal. And if it nets her an Oscar nomination, I suppose all those comments are true in the land of Hollywood. Mubi bought distribution rights for something like $24-million dollars, money they will never see back and never had a chance to see back. The film had a week or two in theaters, no one went to see it, and its worldwide gross seems to be hovering at ten million globally, a figure I doubt is true, especially overseas, where these things cannot be checked. It supposedly made 5 million here in the US, but I doubt that, too, not in two weeks. In any case, even if those figures are true, Mubi certainly did not get all that money – the theaters got their split and Mubi certainly had to spend money on promotion, and I guarantee you will spend millions trying to get Ms. Lawrence up for an Oscar.

Anyway, for me, an interminable mess from start to finish and I’m adding Ms. Ramsay to the list of directors whose films I will never waste my time watching again. I did like Ms. Lawrence in Silver Linings Playbook, but not in anything else I’ve seen her in. I gather her leading man is some kind of star – Robert Pattinson – but I’m not sure I’ve ever seen him in anything. Sissy Spacek and Nick Nolte are in it, too, with not much to do. Throughout the movie I just kept thinking, “Why does it feel like I’m just watching the same scenes over and over again?” Oh, and of course Ms. Arty Pretentious shot the film in the old Academy ratio for no discernable reason whatsoever other than to be – Arty and Pretentious, the A&P of filmmakers. That’s two in a row for the old Academy ratio, but at least Nouvelle Vague had a reason for it. Highly not recommended by the likes of me.

I did watch a movie prior to that, a very low-budget affair from a little year I like to call 1957, entitled Man on the Prowl, about a man on the prowl. Said man is played by James Best and the leading lady is Miss Mala Powers, who does seem very adept at taking very long pauses before actually delivering a line. Co-written and directed by one Art Napoleon, whose one claim to fame seems to have been creating the TV show Whirlybirds with wife Jo, his co-writer on Man on the Prowl, which is the first of the three movies he did – the other one was in 1969, called The Activist. His biggest film was Too Much, Too Soon about John Barrymore, starring Errol Flynn and Dorothy Malone and which I’ve never seen. Anyway, Man on the Prowl is eight-six minutes, is rather silly most of the time, with terrible dialogue, but I’ve always enjoyed Mr. Best and he did have very good taste in that he married one of my LACC classmates from way back when, Dorothy Collier, who I still see from time to time. The best thing about it were the two location shots that were easy to identify thanks to addresses visible. The first was at 2712 Pico Blvd. in Santa Monica, a well-loved jernt called Pickle Bill’s, a barbecue jernt just a few blocks east of Santa Monica High School and one block east of where, just seven years or so later they’d build the Morgan Playhouse, where I’d eventually direct two shows. What’s surprising to me, given the classic architecture of the jernt is that I never remember noticing it in the hundreds of drives down Pico to visit the grandparents in Ocean Park. And it was certainly there when I first went to the Morgan Theater to see a production of The Miracle Worker in 1964 and a production of Picnic in 1965. Not sure when it bit the dust.

The other location shot was two minutes from the home environment, at the corner of Beverly Glen and Ventura Blvd – the iconic building that houses Casa de Cadillac (look up a photo), but in 1957 it was Yeakel Cadillac. The Yeakel Brothers had many dealerships throughout LA, including the one I knew very, very well – Yeakel Brothers Oldsmobile right next door to the Wiltern Theater. That’s where I got my first glimpse into a remote TV truck – they used to shoot a talent show there called Rocket to Stardom, and before walking back to my father’s restaurant, I’d watch the live show. I saw the truck one fine day, and the door was open, so I walked over and peeked in and saw the monitors and switches and stuff and the nice gents inside invited me in and showed me how it all worked. Those days, sadly, are gone. Anyway, for a low-budget programmer it was a time passer. It opened on January 29, 1958, bottom half of a double bill – the top half was some Eyetalian thing I’ve never even heard of called The Last Paradise – according to the ad: “SEE THE VIRGIN PARADISE OF TEN THOUSAND THRILLS!” I’m surprised that didn’t get me into one of the theaters. I mean, what ten-year-old didn’t want to see a virgin paradise of ten thousand thrills? Turns out it was basically a 1955 travelogue film. I would have been up in arms over the lack of ten thousand thrills, let me tell you THAT. You tell me ten thousand thrills you better deliver ten thousand thrills. Interestingly, it can be seen on the streaming service Mubi, you know, the people who just put out Die My Love.

Otherwise, it was an ordinary Sunday in the home with BK. I got about six hours of sleep again, got up, answered e-mails, did a bit of organizing and waited for my orange chicken to arrive. I had a 50% off coupon, so I decided to also try their sesame chicken – even though nothing else I’ve tried there has been to my liking. Well, it arrived. First of all, instead of the usual City Wok bag we had a grocery bag. Second of all, instead of the usual nice large plastic container the half order of orange chicken comes in, we had a small cardboard box – same for the sesame chicken. For a minute, I thought they’d gone to the wrong place, but the rice was in a City Wok container. Well, this small cardboard box had about half of the usual half order – it was good but, really, we want the full half order. The sesame chicken was terrible – some awful spice – I spit it out and into the trash it went. I then called City Wok and asked why the change – apparently, new ownership. They want cheaper packaging, less portions, and so they lose my business forever. The change happened the day after my last order. The guy on the phone sounded like I wasn’t the first complainer. Too bad. Anyway, I was still hungry, so I got some chicken lo mein from Shanghai Rose and that got here quickly and was very tasty. I had a little right then and saved the rest for my later snack. Had a nice telephonic conversation with Doug Haverty, and the rest you know.

Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I have no plans at all, I really need a modern major miracle to make an appearance, I’ll eat something fun, but mostly I’ll rest, keep popping Sambucol and pray sickness stays far away from me. And I’ll watch, listen, and relax.

Tomorrow, I can rest during the day, then we have our rehearsal, which will be a run-through, rough as it may be, for our author and costume designer. Hopefully, it won’t be too painful, and they’ll at least get the idea. Wednesday is a rehearsal and our last until we return from the holiday two weeks off on January 2. Thursday, once again I have to do the drive, this time to see the neurologist. Not thrilled about it, but it must be done. Then we do the vocal recording session on Saturday.

Let’s all put on our pointy party hats and our colored tights and pantaloons, let’s all break out the cheese slices and the ham chunks, let’s all dance the Hora or the tango, for today is the birthday of dear reader ChasSmith. So, let’s give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to dear reader ChasSmith. On the count of three: One, two, three – A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO DEAR READER CHASSMITH!!!

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, have a ME day, pray for a modern major miracle to occur, pray sickness stays far away from me, eat something fun, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What were your favorite TV shows of 2025? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where perhaps I’ll dream of THE VIRGIN PARADISE OF TEN THOUSAND THRILLS!