Okay, guys, it’s Monday, and really. It’s time to buckle down and get our head together, brush away the fog and get busy.
Reading: Last week, as I mentioned here, read a book on the Great Western Schism and 
the The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh. I thought I had read Greene’s Our Man in Havana, but I digitally checked it out yesterday and I’m starting to think I actually never have. My intention is to watch the movie – because Alec Guinness – at some point soon.
I’ll also be reading through that biography of Fr. Kino that I mentioned yesterday.
Watching: Several movies over the past week – Tootsie, Jerry Maguire (raucous sex scene with the now-late Kelly Preston skipped over, yes, thanks. In case you need to know, it’s right after the airport scene. Hit FF then and you’re good.), Breaking Away, Some Like it Hot and last night, Witness for the Prosecution.
All successful and enjoyed. On the last – I’d never seen it. It was okay, not great.
Wilder had to create a lot outside of the courtroom that wasn’t in the original play, but he had this reputation of using source material as mere starting points instead of actual blueprints for his film. There was nothing stopping him from using flashbacks in the courtroom, but he didn’t do it. I think it’s because he understood how visual representations work within an audience’s mind. If we see an event happening on screen, we’re willing to believe it actually happened within the context of the story more than someone just speaking about an event. This is the secret to Rashomon‘s great artistic success (seeing the several stories instead of just hearing them).
(Part of his watch-through of all of Billy Wilder’s films)
It’s based on an Agatha Christie play, is mostly notable for Charles Laughton’s hugely enjoyable performance, and I do hate to say it, but the plot “twists” remind me of why, honestly, Christie is such a mid level writer. I gulped down her books when I was twelve – really my first foray into “adult” reading – but I find her almost unreadable now. A couple of years ago, I had one of my teens read Murder on the Orient Express and of course I read it along with him and was quite surprised to find, forty years after she’d been one of my go-to reads, how formulaic and flat the writing was.
I’ll add that after my Christie phase, I moved on to Rex Stout, whom, I think is a far better writer than Christie.
Many more this week. My birthday is coming up, so I told them that their birthday present to me was to sit and watch whatever movies I pick out without complaining. Not that they ever do, but still. It’s the principle.
Listening:
Gershwin (Novelette in Fourths, soon moving on to Prelude #2), Debussy (Arabesque #1) and now Beethoven – Moonlight Sonata. The whole thing – that’s his goal for the year.
He’s starting with the third movement, which is the most difficult.
Also, of course, church music.Mass is back in the church which employs him as organist. Cantor, but no congregational singing, so the vocal music are the Entrance and Communion Antiphons – that’s it. The rest is up to him. He’s also filling in at a couple of Masses in another parish this coming weekend – different repertoire, different instrument (piano).
Also – in the listening arena – my son-in-law – check out his Youtube channel and listen along. He does “New Music Mondays” every evening. Support your local musician who’s lost all his gigs because of the ‘rona!
Writing:
Various blog posts – scroll back for those.
Finishing up a project that’s due on 7/20 this week.
Starting another that will be due in mid-September. Meeting on that today. I mostly share that so I won’t forget about it.
I’ll be on the Son Rise Morning Show Wednesday morning at 7:20 eastern.
Too much in my head. Essays, fiction, books. No mental space to sort it out. Frustrated.
Cooking:
Various not-to-creative, but crowd-pleasing meals. Steak last night cooked with this method – you combine a good quality steak with this method, and it’s primo. Served with fries cooked with this method from Smitten Kitchen. Super simple.
Baking? Three new recipes this week.
First, a quick rise loaf of “Italian” bread – and it actually worked. I think because the amount of yeast used was huge. It was very acceptable for the moment – but it was more crumbly than a longer-rising loaf would be – it was evident the structure had not had time to form.
Then I got out my mother’s old Betty Crocker cookbook – which I never cook from, not being nostalgic about such things, but I was just curious – and decided to make this burnt-sugar cake. I had everything on hand (including cake flour, amazingly), it was simple, so why not? Eh. It was very dry – I am guessing because shortening was the fat used, and there wasn’t a lot of it. It was so dry I did something I never do – frosted it (I usually just do powdered sugar or maybe a glaze). It was edible, at least, with the frosting.
Then yesterday, made this olive oil cake. I’d been meaning to try an olive oil cake for a while, and this delivered.
