Tuesday, May 24, 2005
Spent chunk of a.m. bellying up to the Genius Bar at the Glendale Galleria Apple Store; had a nasty crash yesterday afternoon. I seem to be up and running again w/ no apparent data loss; the cause was likely latent damage from the impact of dropping the machine back in Jan. At least this got me to buy the external backup drive I should have had all along.
~~~
Then up about 40 min. to Palmdale, where I'd promised to meet Bree and her sister for breakfast at The Pines, out on Pearblossom Hwy. I think the place may have changed hands -- there used to be signs warning you not to ask for ketchup, as it was an insult to the cook, now it's provided -- but a blueberry pancake is still 9" across (that's a "junior," a "senior" is LP-size) and nearly an inch-thick, but surprisingly light and not too sweet, even topped w/ their homemade compote.
[If you can't guess already, I intend to eat at one or two of my favorite places in the area per week (and/or try a few that I haven't managed) before I move.]
~~~
Seen: Restored cut of Baby Face (Alfred E. Green, 1933), hacked up after the Code and seen only in that form (by me, for instance) until a discovery of an unedited print last year. The differences, as I recall, were pretty well covered by an NPR piece on the restoration, so I won't go into detail. But if you're familiar with the obviously tacked-on tag, where the board members read a letter from the fallen woman and her ex-banker-now-steelworker-husband, that's gone now. That bit was gilding the moral lily anyway -- it would be clear to anyone but a censor that Stanwyck intends to 'mend her ways' as of the scene in the ambulence, which ended the original. (Sorry, I know this helps no one who hasn't seen it.) The film's storytelling is more sophisticated that I'd noticed before, if only in minor ways -- Stanwyck is shown living in a series of increasingly ritzy digs w/o further comment on the fact, similarly for the steadfastness of the relationship between her and her black maid, who ends up with servants of her own by about the third sugar daddy. Always loved the very literal depiction of her 'rise' via pans up-and-across the exterior of an (obviously scale model) office building.
About 5 films behind -- had hoped to catch up, but lost a big chunk of the day, per above.
~~~
Then up about 40 min. to Palmdale, where I'd promised to meet Bree and her sister for breakfast at The Pines, out on Pearblossom Hwy. I think the place may have changed hands -- there used to be signs warning you not to ask for ketchup, as it was an insult to the cook, now it's provided -- but a blueberry pancake is still 9" across (that's a "junior," a "senior" is LP-size) and nearly an inch-thick, but surprisingly light and not too sweet, even topped w/ their homemade compote.
[If you can't guess already, I intend to eat at one or two of my favorite places in the area per week (and/or try a few that I haven't managed) before I move.]
~~~
Seen: Restored cut of Baby Face (Alfred E. Green, 1933), hacked up after the Code and seen only in that form (by me, for instance) until a discovery of an unedited print last year. The differences, as I recall, were pretty well covered by an NPR piece on the restoration, so I won't go into detail. But if you're familiar with the obviously tacked-on tag, where the board members read a letter from the fallen woman and her ex-banker-now-steelworker-husband, that's gone now. That bit was gilding the moral lily anyway -- it would be clear to anyone but a censor that Stanwyck intends to 'mend her ways' as of the scene in the ambulence, which ended the original. (Sorry, I know this helps no one who hasn't seen it.) The film's storytelling is more sophisticated that I'd noticed before, if only in minor ways -- Stanwyck is shown living in a series of increasingly ritzy digs w/o further comment on the fact, similarly for the steadfastness of the relationship between her and her black maid, who ends up with servants of her own by about the third sugar daddy. Always loved the very literal depiction of her 'rise' via pans up-and-across the exterior of an (obviously scale model) office building.
About 5 films behind -- had hoped to catch up, but lost a big chunk of the day, per above.
