Daily

Depending on the stress and alienation and fantasy levels in my head, which I’ve been grappling with since I was three. I’m not always day-dreaming about something or some place else, but I often am. I hear songs (both transcendent and banal), listen to movie dialogue, recall emotional pit-of-the-stomach moments, sometimes weep inexpressively, etc. Every now and then I’ll shake myself by the shoulders and scold the dreamer: “Will you stop this, please? You’re here right now…this is real…you’re not watching a screen…eyes on the road.”

No two-headed frog, I.

This morning a friend and I were wondering as follows:

How steeped in ‘70s culture is Jason Reitman‘s Saturday Night (Sony, 10.11), the forthcoming dramedy about the launch of Saturday Night Live in October 1975? Or is it primarily a 2024 film that rummages around inside a 1975 souvenir box, trying on this and that, without really submitting to 1975 culture as it actually was?

The proof in the pudding could be the Chevy Chase-Richard Pryor job interview skit (“Word Association“), which actually aired on 12.13.75, or roughly two months after the show premiered.

A legendary, jolting provocation about subiiminal racism in the workplace and indeed throughout the country at the time, the skit would never be aired today in any format due to the racially incendiary dialogue. But since it represents the kind of nervy, edgy comedy that SNL was about in the early days, it would seem like an excellent thing to include in Reitman’s film…it would give the viewer a strong taste of what was going on back then.

Reitman’s film, after all, is about recalling that era and the values and conversation that were current at the time.

Saturday Night‘s Wiki page doesn’t list Pryor as a supporting character so it appears as if Reitman may have bypassed “Word Association.” He could’ve easily popped it in (nobody would have cared about the two-months-later airdate) but something tells me the Chase-Pryor skit was avoided with some relief.

It was reported earlier today that Saturday Night will play Telluride before Toronto.

Captured around 3:50 pm this afternoon…Southport beach. You can bet I got wet, but I loved it.

Drop to your knees and praise Jehovah! Hollywood Elsewhere along with tens of millions of left-centrist Joe Popcorn types have apparently been spared the mute nostril agony of watching jowly, gone-to-seed Joaquin Phoenix dropping trou and doing God knows what with a younger male lover…

Sometimes there’s God, so quickly!

Anyone who says “I love everybody” is not — repeat, NOT — a comedian. Feigned bliss and alleged happiness are profoundly unfunny concepts. Real comedians lean depressive or sardonic for the most part, and are certainly judgmental. Many have banshees howling within. I don’t know want to listen to any standup comic who talks about the love he/she feels for the human flock. I want to run in the opposite direction.

BEN AFFLECK is totally and unmistakably…

I’m not doubting that “Apple is done with wide theatrical releases for all of its movies,” which Jeff Sneider reported on 8.8.24. But I am doubting that Jon Watts’ Wolfs (9.20) is a movie of any lasting substance. People can sense or smell this right now.

It’s clearly a movie that dribbles more than shoots…it’s a droll comedic wank, a crime caper thing, and this is one reason, at least, why Apple has decided to abandon plans for a wide release and just briefly open it in theatres before going to streaming. Because nobody out there cares or will care. The George Clooney-Brad Pitt pairing is seen as an agreeable thing but far from vital. A likable shrugger.

Three debates between Donald and Kamala — 9.4, 9.10 (six days apart?) and 9.25. If I were Kamala I’d agree to three debates but spaced more widely apart. Perhaps the final one could happen sometime in mid-October.

ABC has confirmed that both campaigns have agreed to a September 10th debate.

I experienced an emotionally leaky moment yesterday. It came from listening to my Sunday in the Park with George cast album, and “Move On” in particular. And I was driving around Westport. I felt so melted down at one point that I pulled over to collect myself.

I’ve only watched this epic Stephen Sondheim-James Lapine musical via You Tube. Never caught the original B’way presentation, and never caught the Jake Gyllenhaal revival. Steven Spielberg really should’ve filmed George rather than West Side Story.

A few days ago it was reported that Ben Affleck and Matt Damon‘s Artists Equity have acquired “Killing Gawker,” a Charles Randolph screenplay about Hulk Hogan‘s victorious legal battle against Gawker Media in 2016.

The script is based on Ryan Holiday’s “Conspiracy: Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker And The Anatomy Of Intrigue.”

Gus Van Sant will apparently direct.

What I missed is the rumor that Affleck, 51, has been rumored to possibly play Hogan (who turns 71 in a few days) in the film. Affleck in Hogan makeup — snow white hair, Fun Manchu handlebar moustache, extremely muscled up? That would be fantastic, if true.

Kamala Harris got heckled last night in Detroit…consider those steely expressions. Her voice said “I am speaking now” but her eyes said “do not fuck with me, Gaza gang!”

I’ve had “words” from time to time with women working in certain official capacities (human resources, airport security, motor vehicle departments, hospitals) and when push came to shove they all gave me the Kamaglare, and it definitely made me feel challenged and off-balance and regretful.