Happy Late Night, Sweet Baby,
I hope you had a nice day. I saw a post saying "National Parks here we come"!, accompanied by a pic of your friends in front of their trailer, so maybe that means you are gonna head out on a road trip? Perhaps with family? If you are, I hope you have a blast and take lots of photos.this
I had another relaxing day off, slept in til almost 11:30 lol, but that's because I was up til 3am (good grief, Ad). I hung around the Tiny Apartment til 4pm, then went to the produce market for avocados. Got some asparagus & red onions while I was there. I already have a ton of other stuff from shopping last Saturday with my sister : Kale, Red Chard, Red Cabbage, Brussel Sprouts, Ginger, Radishes, Cherry Tomatoes, Carrots. Now I have gotta make Gigantic Salads to eat it all up. The prices are so low at our local Super King that it's easy to overbuy. I am getting better at it, but I'm still at the borderline. My goal is to never have to toss out any old produce and I'm about 95% there. I'm a One Man Eating Machine. :)
After shopping I went up to Aliso once again for a full-length walk, 4 miles. This evening I went to CSUN to see "The Killing Of A Chinese Bookie" by John Cassavetes. Wow - this was his best movie yet. It's a crime film, and it comes off as somewhat of a Noir. It even has a plot, rare for a Cassavetes film. Ben Gazzara, a great actor, stars as a nightclub owner with a gambling habit. He befriends a rival club owner but winds up losing 23 Gs in a card game at the man's club. Now he is on the hook. The rival, and his hoodlums, offer Ben a way out of his debt : If he will kill a "Chinese Bookie" who lives in a heavily guarded home, his debt will be cancelled out. In reality, the Bookie is a major Chinese gangster, and the rival club hoodlums plan to kill Ben Gazzara just as soon as he eliminates the guy. This being a Cassavetes film, there is still a lot of Human Interaction, person to person, which means an examining of each person's inner character. In this case, all the non-crime action takes place in the nightclub, between Gazzara and his strippers, one of whom he is in love with. But because it's a Cassavetes movie, even this examination is not typical. Included in the nightclub act is a strange gentleman called "Mr. Sophistication", who vies for center stage with the strip girls, and generates just as much applause. Such is Cassavetes' interest in all kinds of people, not just the powerful or the beautiful. This movie really succeeds, though, as a crime film, and in that respect it his his most conventional movie to date (of the ones we've seen). There is plot, there is action, there is tension. there is even a gunfight. I left thinking, "wow, that had a 'Taxi Driver' feel to it". "Taxi Driver" came out the same year, 1976. I've seen it about 20 times, and I think it's one of the greatest movies ever made, and certainly in the top two or three scripts ever written. "Chinese Bookie" is not as conventional a movie, nor does it play out in such a linear fashion. "Taxi Driver" just goes boom-boom-boom....every scene, every line of dialogue leads to the next. Everything moves the picture forward. There is nothing that doesn't fit, no waste. It is a perfect movie.
"The Killing Of A Chinese Bookie" is like an Art Film version of that.......well, sort of because it's also got the Cassavetes psychological and cinematic aspect to it (exploring inner turmoil, many close up shots, hand held camera that goes in and out of focus).......but all in all, man is it a great movie! If he would have added just a touch more story or plot to his other films, made them a tad more conventional and just a tad less experimental, then they all would have been as great as this one. It's a straight-up classic.
That was basically all the news, except for the Mandatory Reading Of Several Books (CIA Frank Olson Murder Book, he went to UW! - Bush Crime Family Book - Schwaller "Temple Of Man" Book) and also working on my latest drawing, which is gonna be entirely black and white, just two pencils (fine point and heavier) and one black and one white pastel. I can get a lot of detail working with a mechanical "skinny lead" pencil, so it will be awesome......gonna draw this way all year. :)
I saw one other post, from Joseph Stalin, about digital file names. I don't know if that one refers to my question about a digital release/physical CD release of your album, but I will be glad to get it in whatever form it is available. :)
See you in the morning. I Love You. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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