Today I hope to hear back from my Aunt that I can make the Thanksgiving mashed potatoes at home and bring them to her place to be reheated.  Originally, she asked me to be at her place on the Cape Cod at 10 AM to peel the potatoes.  This would mean I would have to leave the house by 7 AM and I just don't want to be up and on the road quite that early.  She has hosted Thanksgiving for over 30 years.  This year is a smaller gathering with only about 15 people attending.

BTW, here's the source mentioned in that Vulture piece:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/dominic-cooke-sets-movie-adaptation-stephen-sondheims-follies-1254884

Quote from: The Hollywood Reporter, Thurs 14 Nov 2019"Over the years, there have been many attempts to bring Follies to the screen, but not until Dominic Cooke's brilliant production at the National Theatre of Great Britain did it seem like it could be a real movie.  I'm more than delighted, I'm thrilled, that it's finally going to happen," Sondheim said Thursday in a statement.

The story was also reported that same day by Variety, Deadline, Broadway.com, Broadway World, and Playbill.com.

Had Kathy not started the daily I was going to start one titled "Sucky Sunday".  The whole day at work was pretty bad starting before I even got in.  Lots of delayed fights and a few nasty customers.  This was all topped off by my, in the role of supervisor, backing the decision of a co-worker and then having her throw me under the bus when confronted by the passenger who didn't get a complimentary upgrade into first class because of that decision.  Oh, well.  Tomorrow is a latter day.....or something like that.

I enjoyed the NTLive broadcast of Follies, and also Cooke's film adaptation of On Chesil Beach.

Even taken together, that enjoyment doesn't necessarily add up to "he should be the one to adapt Follies for movie posterity".  But of course I'll go see it, no matter how it turns out, with or without stars of Streep's or Close's stature.

My reaction is complicated, to put it mildly, by Matt Weinstock's tantalizing Last Word on fantasy-Follies movies (specifically Hal Prince's own mid-1970s plan to reset it on a Hollywood backlot slated for demolition), published six years ago:

https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2013/11/29/loveland/

This isn't the first time I've reposted that link, and probably won't be the last; it remains the best writing I've ever read on the subject of Follies, full stop -- even if it does confirm my melancholy suspicion that the show itself has long since passed into the very same (unreliable) history it memorializes.

But if we're going to have a cinematic Follies, for my money Todd Haynes would be the way to go.  Say what you will about his supposed academic coldness, or his offbeat handling of "I'm Still Here" in Six By Sondheim, Haynes is almost unparalleled in his uncanny ability to reanimate America's pop-cultural past.  With him at the helm, you'd practically smell the passage of time -- from the mustiness of the crumbling theater to the perfumes worn by the various guests-of-honor at Weissman's reunion, as distinct (or maybe not, in some cases) from those of their younger showgirl selves thirty years prior.

Hopefully Cooke and his collaborators can manage as much; it's a particular skill -- perhaps the crucial skill -- without which it's tough for me to imagine this film even partially succeeding.  Chesil Beach's studiously immersive midcentury English mise-en-scène certainly doesn't discourage me, but neither does it, or the NT Follies, wholly convince me that Cooke is the obviously-ideal person for this.  Nevertheless, I very much hope to be won over by the finished film.

I'm trying to think of something constructive to say about today. I finished a not-very-good book today, and have basically been lounging around like a bum. I did change my sheets, which I guess gives me the tiniest sense of accomplishment.

Happy birthday to Martin Scorsese, Gordon Lightfoot and RuPaul!

It's still the 16th in a little bit of the world.

Today I started, in earnest, my January vacation planning.

Nabokov wrote Lolita, which was adapted into a film starring Jeremy Irons
Irons has played Frederik in ALNM


Sarah Lancashire 

Michaela Strachan attended ArtsEd (Arts Educational Schools), along with...
Sally Ann Triplett, who played Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney at Barrow Street Theatre, NY in 2017.


Vladimir Nabokov

Quote from: KathyB on Nov 15, 2019, 02:39 pmI can't believe November is halfway over already. I am not ready for the last half of this month. 

Ditto.   It feels like the days are passing by more quickly this month.  I worry that if I blink all of a sudden people will be telling me Christmas is next week.   

I can't believe November is halfway over already. I am not ready for the last half of this month. Maybe that's why my neighbors still have their Halloween decorations up--they can believe it's still October.

At least it's FRIDAY!