Today’s career workshop is Dressing for Success. I wonder if it’s a bad idea to wear denim? I really just want to sleep after yesterday. My aunt really pooped me out! I can’t sleep; I must do the workshop and I must commence my job hunt. Enough of this tinkering with the resume and putzing around.

Geraint Wyn Davies was not in last night’s episode of 24. A new character was introduced and then killed off. He looked an awful like Frank Langella. I loved Frank’s turn as Dracula back in 1979. I should check to see if it’s on Netflix.

MUST LEAVE NOW OR ELSE I WILL BE LATE!!!

Just shipped:

Les Biches (Bad Girls) (1968)
Filmmaker Claude Chabrol stirs a boiling pot of lust and violence in this tense portrait of class struggle. Wealthy Frederique (Stephane Audran) meets Why, who’s meandering around Paris, and takes her to glamorous St. Tropez. Frederique becomes her mentor, teaching Why how to maneuver in high society. But when Paul (Jean-Louis Trintignant) arrives, both of them fall for his charms, leaving one in love and the other rejected.

Starring: Stephane Audran, Jacqueline Sassard, More
Director: Claude Chabrol

I felt just like little Ralphie Parker this afternoon when his Little Orphan Annie Speedomatic decoder pin arrived in the mail. You see not only did Zardoz arrive from Netflix but so did my MAKER’S MARK AMBASSAOR PAPERS! Yes, it is true! I am a Maker’s Mark Ambassador and somewhere in their Kentucky Distillery is a barrel with MY name on it!

How cool is that?

Let me know if you want to be a Maker’s Mark Ambassador. I can nominate you!

Maker’s Mark Manhattan
Three parts Maker’s, one part sweet Vermouth, NO bitters, and 1 teaspoon of maraschino cherry juice. Pour over rocks, shake well, strain into a Manhattan glass and garnish with a cherry.

I am slightly worried. Last night I watched Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous… AND I LOVED IT! There were certain lines that just had me on the floor rolling. Lisa will be glad to know I watched this movie so we can send it back to NetFlix and get a new one. I also watched Lady Chatterley’s Lover starring Sylvia Kristel and Nicholas Clay (remember him as Lancelot in Excalibur?) Maybe I was just in the right mood because I also really liked this movie too. Heck, I probably would have like Bolero had I watched it last night. The next movie in my NetFlix queue is Zardoz starring Sean Connery, who wears nothing but a loincloth while worshipping a HUGE FLYING STONE HEAD, being hounded by naked women, and battling immortals. Doesn’t it sound terrific? Of course my inner Truffaut may grab hold and cause me to push Brief Encounter above Zardoz, but we’ll see.

Must Do List

Must resist urge to climb into bed!

Must put on boots and coat and get mail!

Must take Bo for a walk!

Must watch Netflix movie so I can send it back and get Teorema!

Must do a load of laundry

Must make sure house is clean

Must call Howard and have him fix my car

Must call Irene and schedule appt

Documenting Progress

I called Ray’s and told him the 10 SEER Heat Pump is a go!

I ate dinner

I fed Bo

I have wanted to see Teorema for as long as I can remember but it was not available on VHS or DVD. Snooping around NetFlix, I FOUND IT! It’s finally been released! It’s #1 on my queue. I can’t wait to finally see it!

Teorema (1968)
A wealthy Italian household is turned upside down when none of the family members is sure whether the handsome stranger (Terrence Stamp) in their midst is a god or the devil himself — but finding out sure is fun. Making his way from bedroom to bedroom, he seduces their bodies and wipes their minds of morality, all before the sun comes up. Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini, this controversial film was banned by the Vatican for its shocking content.

It sounds a bit like Brimstone & Treacle, doesn’t it?

Brimstone & Treacle (1982)
Sting stars in this 1982 thriller (a Grand Prize winner at the Montreal Film Festival) about a grifter who insinuates his way into a family and promptly wreaks havoc. Based on a play by Denis Potter, Brimstone & Treacle shows how trusting a complete stranger is sometimes not a good idea, especially if you have vulnerabilities that can be exploited. Co-stars Denholm Elliott, Suzanna Hamilton and Joan Plowright.

Did I ever mention I wrote a play (performed a staggering number of two times) that had a very similar concept?

I decided to take back my NetFlix queue! I changed the subscription so it picks 2 from Lisa’s queue and 1 from my queue. It had been only picking from Lisa’s queue because I just didn’t have time to watch movies. Now that Lisa has cable in her room, I have much more time on my hands to watch the TV I want to watch. That means weird French movies from the 1960s. Screwball comedies. Alfred Hitchcock. Anything with Dirk Bogarde. Charles Bronson. Yul Brynner. Steve McQueen. The list could just go on and on.

Lisa and I missed the first hour of Elvis by the Presleys on CBS Friday. Our friend and hairdresser, Aprille, stopped by and we made dinner and ate outside on the patio. It was very nice. She left around 9:00 and that is when we tuned in to the last hour. We both agreed that it would have been nice just to see Elvis performing without all the chit chat. When the clips of Elvis all bloated and near death were shown and Priscilla and Lisa Marie started talking about his death, my Lisa Marie started crying. How can you blame her? Such a horrible end. Yet through it all, his voice never waivered.

Yesterday, we went garage sale-ing. I bought a tiny retro-looking transistor radio for a dollar and a book called Book of Wishes for nothing! I also got a spatula for 10 cents.
Around noon, we went home and had lunch with Mom and Dad. They watched Bobo in the afternoon while Lisa and I went into Phily. We just walked around Chinatown, South Street and the University of the Arts section. It’s been so long since we did that and it was a nice change of pace.

We planned on picking up Bobo and going straight home but instead we stayed for dinner. My mom had made Weisswurst and sourkraut. When we finally did get home, we watched our two new NetFlix movies: Stiff Upper Lips and Lucia Lucia. Stiff Upper Lips was funny in that Airplane! type of way. It was a spoof on the Merchant Ivory genre. I particularly enjoyed the Brideshead Revisited references. Lucia Lucia was interesting but just too long. I thought it was a movie Lisa wanted to see and she thought it was one of my movies. Most likely I had added it because it was subtitled and Vin Diesel wasn’t in it.

Today we may try to get together with Audra. Regardless what we do, I really must do my laundry. I am back at that horrible point where if I don’t act fast, I may be wearing my bathing suit to work on Monday.

After 20 years of waiting, I finally watched The Bride. I remember it coming out in 1985 and being too young to watch it. Then when it was released on video, I was unable to find it on Betamax. Soon I simply forgot about it. Last night, Lisa and I decided to watch a movie and lo and behold, in her collection of DVDs I found The Bride! The credits got me giddy: Quentin Crisp, Clancy Brown, Geraldine Page, Alexei Sayle, Cary Elwes…. AND DAVID RAPPAPORT! Oh, and Sting and Flashdance girl were also in it. Other than being captivated by Jennifer Beals’ bountiful hair and the beauty that is Clancy Brown, I found the movie terrible. One would think after all this time, I would be disappointed. Truth is, I am happy I can finally chalk it up as having seen it and rate it on Netflix so we are yet another point higher in movie ratings than Mr. John Beck.

1. Work Work Work Work
2. Laundry
3. Pack
4. Fly to Chicago

Last night was my first weeknight home in absolute months and I spent most of it just putzing around. Towards 9:00, Lisa asked if I wanted to watch a Netflix DVD, Eternal Sunshine on a Spotless Mind. Why not? We snuggled up with Beauregard and watched the movie. It wasn’t bad, alhough I felt it went on a bit too long. It reminded me of a late 90’s movie, stylistically– the ugly clothes, dirty hair, washed out color. Otherwise it seemed similar to Punch Drunk Love and Being John Malkovich, two movies I didn’t care much for at all. It also perpetrated the myth, act like a bitch and men will love you. Luckily we know that isn’t true! As I was putzing last night I had a tiny little urge to call one of my eHarmony matches. I even got so close as to bringing my cell phone close to my bed so I could lay down and talk. Why didn’t I do it? I never had any issue calling Glenn. I think I need to feel more from these guys before I feel comfortable picking up the phone. Since I didn’t go out with any of them last weekend, it feels as if all this fruit is rotting on the vine. Hopefully one or all of them will pick up the phone and call me. Let’s hope they aren’t as hesitant as I when it comes to sticking out their necks or picking up the phone.