TSP went well.  Good turnout despite the post holiday.  Acting was first rate and included Susan S and a new guy Sean who Vince recommended.  Went out afterward and had a nice visit with Bob M and others.

IMPROMPTU

Novelist George Sand ('Judy Davis' ) falls in love with composer Frédéric Chopin (Hugh Grant). She tries to profess her love for him at a weekend hosted by a pretentious, artistically minded duchess for famous musicians, artists, and writers of the day. The gentle and sickly Chopin is wary of the outspoken Sand, but finds himself strangely drawn to her, as well.  This is the kind of movie I like, some historical stuff, good actors.  Not a great film it’s pretty aimless and more about the personal relationship between people than the creative process which I find more interesting, but Emma Thompson is great in support and it is always good to see Anna Massey in this kind of role which she excelled in.

A little better day.  Encouraging call from Mike J.  They did not find any sign that Bryan K put through the grant.   I don’t understand why they can’t now put through a grant themselves, but anyway… Apparently they do see that we’ve been putting in time and money on BULLARD so it looks a lot better that we will be able to do it on the 20th.  Good news, I hope.

THE BRASS LEGEND

Pretty good b-movie Western with Hugh O'Brien and Raymond Burr.  A little more adult than the movies of the time, and certainly the western TV shows. 

MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND

No work, hopefully not because I’ve pissed anyone off.  I don’t mind having the time off, although as usual it’s lousy weather and I don’t have any money.  Good rehearsal on Friday of BULLARD.  Some writing as I’ve switched back to HAMLETT’S DOGS for a while.  Went to the World Financial Center and did some research and there are some interesting things over there, although as here, the places that advertise WiFi offer bad WiFi if any at all.

Got a call from Maxim which I returned late last night and thought I’d be getting a call from the Blue Bus people as well and have to disappoint someone, but instead neither called/called back so I’m free, which is fine as long as neither are mad at me.  I wrote a somewhat critical note to Maxim about the tour on Friday, which was a real nightmare because of a bad bus driver.  I enclose the letter, and hopefully they didn’t take it as criticism and be mad at me.

It was an interesting experience to meet and tour with your group this morning.  Despite all kinds of problems with the driver, who was not willing to meet us or take us anywhere on the bus, we managed to see the Wall Street Bull, the Stock Exchange, Ground Zero, The Winter Garden and St. Paul's and Trinity Church.  I stayed with the group until they had lunch at Salaam Bombay at 1:30.

Since there seems to be some confusion about what was going on, let me explain.  I was not informed in advance of this tour before last night and there was a lot of trouble reaching the tour guide, and I ended up having to go and look up the phone number for the Carteret Holiday Inn, so if we can work out the schedule, contact numbers etc. further in advance that would be better for all concerned, I think.

Was this 5/27 tour replacing the 5/29 tour?  Is the 5/29 tour still on?  I need to know.

I realize coordinating all of this is complicated and difficult on your end and that the tour guide presumably has to buy a cell phone in the US, but in this case, the cellphone number I was given was not the tour guide's but someone else on the tour, who spoke Hindi and kept hanging up on me when I got through and had not set up their voice mail so I could not leave a message and had to call more than six times, and when finally I made it clear who I was, the number they had me call the tour guide at at a Holiday Inn was not correct.  So I had to go out and research the various Holiday Inns and finally found the number on my own.  When I called you, your voice mail was full.

This ended up taking literally several hours of my time to arrange, and then today, when the busdriver flatly refused to meet us at the Wall St. Bull or drive us to Ground Zero saying it would take 'five minutes' to walk, the tour guide and the manager Sanjay seemed to take the driver's word, patronizingly telling me that I could argue with the busdriver later.

This was not the right solution to the problem and caused a great deal of subsequent problems.

The busdriver and I do not know each other, I have no authority over him, and if he refuses to escort us and lies to tour manager that it will take 'five minutes' or 'thirty seconds' for forty people to walk somewhere, there's not a whole lot I can do.  At that point the tour manager needs to call you or the boss of the bus company and complain or get an adequate replacement.  I am happy to explain to the busdriver where we need to go and help him or her with instructions if he or she needs them, but I should not have to wrestle or argue with the driver to have them do their job and it's not helpful to act like I am having a lover's tiff with the driver and then suggest that they follow the drivers' advice, when they are unlikely to know what they are talking about.

Sadly, we did what the tour manager and Sanjay wanted, and walked to Wall Street and then Ground Zero, but this was a long walk and they then were unhappy that they had to walk so much and finally announced that they were not going to walk with me on the tour and that they would wait at a spot of their choosing until I came back.

This was difficult, and not made easier by the fact that most of the tourists I was entrusted with did not speak English, went to the bathroom whenever they wanted, and I was called no less than ten times by the tour guide, angry at me that I could not manage to take the tourists who did want to see 911, around and back in 15 minutes.

For what it's worth, Ground Zero is a good 45 walk from the Wall Street Bull, the stock exchange is not on the way, it's a detour of about 15 minutes, there are no public bathrooms on the entire route, and the few bathrooms in restaurants and tourist locations that are available are often overrun with tourists and there is often a wait.

It is helpful to me as a guide if the tour manager actually accompanies me on the tour and sees what is happening and not just waits in a distant spot, calling me every few minutes to complain that I have not returned.  The bus needs to drive us to 911, so that people can use the bathroom on the bus before we leave.  If we need to stop for bathroom breaks we need to do this more or less together, if we stop everytime someone wants to go to the bathroom or duck in a store, that adds a great deal of time to the tour.

The bus must meet us at a spot we designate.  I tell them in advance where to meet us, I pick a place that is accessible by bus.  While there may be traffic en route there, especially around starting and quitting times for the businesses and lunch times, there will be traffic everywhere, and having the entire group walk for blocks looking for the bus, while it idles in a place convenient to the driver is simply unworkable.  The tour manager and Mr. Sanjay kept wanting to do whatever the driver demanded, but when we were told that the bus was first at a distant church, then somewhere on Church Street, I didn't think it reasonable to go looking for the bus with 40 tired passengers dragging along.

If drivers don't want to drive in traffic, or go 'around and around' then this is probably not the best gig for them.  I recommend you do not use Blue Sky again.

Again, I don't say this to be mean or critical of anyone in your group, I will always do the best I can under the circumstances we have to operate under, and have gotten a cellphone at my own expense to facilitate necessary last minute changes, but perhaps finding a bus company that is willing to meet me in the city at a place where busses can park, like Battery Park or Rockefeller Center and who is willing to take us several places, and meet us at a scheduled time and at a place of our choosing, not simply pulling up to a different church than we arranged and expecting us to find it after a long cross town walk, is necessary.  Thanks!

In the case of the blue bus people I did tell them on Wednesday I could work this weekend, but maybe Aly who is in conflict because he screwed up the payroll forgot or didn’t get the message.  Will try not to worry and enjoy my day off.  I was scheduled to work tomorrow for Maxim T although they haven’t confirmed so we’ll see what happens this weekend and whether or not I should go down to Blue Bus and sign up for work at some point or worry…

NIGHT FLIGHT
A strange GRAND HOTEL kind of MGM film with John and Lionel Barrymore, Clark Gable, Robert Montgomery, Myrna Loy, Helen Hayes and William Gargan.  This is based on the Antoine de Saint-Exupéry book which calls for most of the stars to play Frenchmen or South Americans, which they show no particular ability to do.  Clarence Brown directed and although at the time it must have seemed episodic and fractured by cutting back and forth between the various stars' stories, it kind of works as a modern movie.   Not bad.

Pretty good rehearsal of BULLARD.  Everyone was in a pretty good mood.  Norman wasn’t thrilled that we were talking about giving up the 6/13 rehearsal on the Intrepid, but I can’t see how we can get the 6/20 day otherwise, and that’s far from a given.  Everyone was more or less on time and had a good attitude which put me in a much better mood since for some reason I was anticipating something else.  Chauncey and I smoked a cigar afterward and wanted to play darts but the Memorial Day Weekend has started so everywhere was crowded so I gave up and went home.

BLACK WIDOW

Surprisingly good late noir film (sort of) with the great Van Heflin, Gene Tierney, Ginger Rogers, Reginald Gardiner and Peggy Ann Garner in a rare adult role.  Rogers is great in a tour de force role, and Tierney moves maturely into the second banana role.  Garner is a troublesome wench who brings a great deal of trouble to poor Van.  George Raft also makes the Edgar G transition to playing the investigating cop role and while it is filmed in bright cinemascope instead of moody black and white lighting, Nunnally Johnson does a good job directing and the film moves pretty well with very good performances throughout.  Also in this film are Cathleen Nesbitt oddly cast as a cleaning lady, Mabel Albertson is the bar owner, Hilda Simms plays the sympathetic waitress, and believe it or not, the gangly witness from the movie theater is Aaron Spelling.  Virginia Leith and Skip Homeier and Otto Krugar are all also good in supporting parts and the story takes place in 1953/4 NYC.

 

Fairly quiet day at home doing errands and emails, etc.  Norman doesn’t want to do Bullard unless we do it on the Intrepid, so we’re putting on a full court press.  Sent some stuff to Jackie W.  Hope it does some good.  Mike J was going to come by, but I told him that if it was too late, let’s skip it, so apparently he did.  Aly called and said I hadn’t come in a while to call him, so I called and let them know I would work this weekend.  Frankly, I’d just as soon have a few more days before I work for the Indian guys on Tuesday, but I need the money and can’t yet sever contacts with Blue Busses, so there it is.

CALL IT MURDER

Excellent adaptation of an old play called MIDNIGHT about a juror and his family.  Bogart plays one of the villains and does a good job in an early role.

TSP went well despite a smallish turnout.  We had enough plays and Dave S and others delivered, David L, Linda S, Richard C, Doug S, Sharlene all good in acting, I had fun doing several pieces mostly out of character.  Shawn’s piece was probably my favorite of the night.

MEN ARE SUCH FOOLS

A strange MAD MEN kind of movie with Prescilla Lane as an account exec.  Wayne Morris is her football player love but he gets a run for his money from big ad agency client Humphrey Bogart.  Hugh Herbert is on hand to Woo Woo and Penny Singleton is amusing as second gal.

Rehearsal at Norman’s for BULLARD.  Still like the play.  Cast good.  Mike distracted, Chauncey sluggish, but otherwise fine.  Chauncey and I went out and played some darts afterward.  People bummed we might not be doing this on the Intrepid.  What can I say?  I am too.

ON THE WATERFRONT

Still meh about this picture.  Good scenes and decent acting, but dated and at points unbelievable.  Not every movie has to be believable but when they are trying to make a point, you kind of got to believe the point is being fairly portrayed.  Fun seeing Pat Hingle and Fred Gwynne in small parts.

Still wiped out from the all the sturm and drang of the last weeks.  Worked in the morning for Maxim which went well enough.  An older tour guide who was on time and we went last to the NBC observatory, for my first time, although I didn’t go all the way up.  Met with Mike and we started going through Intrepid emails to prove I guess that we did have commitments.  I don’t know that I believe that even confronted with them they’ll do anything for us, but I guess anything’s possible.

WOMEN OF ALL NATIONS
Third in the series of Victor McLaglen/Edmund Lowe Flagg/Quirt series, which would have been one of Humphrey Bogart's first movies (he was cut out).  Terribly dated, with El Brendel, quite incapably carrying the burden of being a Swedish humorist.  Ingmar Bergman was funnier.  Greta Niesen is all right as the love interest.

Reading of EXPLODED REPUTATIONS went well enough.  Amerinda hosted at the Friends Meeting House.  There was some kind of big reunion, so we saw a lot of Quakers.  Good cast, again play needs work.

APPOINTMENT WITH DANGER

Very good Alan Ladd film from his golden period.  By this time he was more comfortable as an actor, charming, relaxed, not yet affected by the alcohol.  He’s a postal cop who gets involved with Paul Stewart’s gang who want to rob a mail car.  Jan Sterling is terrific in this as a ‘stenographer’ at Stewart’s hotel.  Phyllis Calvert is interesting as a nun.  The rare heist film that manages to carry off a secondary story, of nun Calvert being menaced by Jack Webb here teamed for the first time with Harry Morgan. Unlike my buddy Scott, this is not a genre I love, but very well done.