Didn’t leave the apartment at all yesterday. We watched “The Wizard of Oz” DVD and several of the bonus features. The color restoration is truly startling. It may have been maddeningly difficult to shoot, but the visuals are something that will never be surpassed. Andy and I surprised ourselves by nearly crying several times. Between that and “It’s A Wonderful LIfe” on Christmas Eve it’s practically been Niagra Falls.

Luxuriated in my new robe for most of the day, and then around 3 I had a very long shower and shave. I took my time. Later on we watched Andy’s “War of the Worlds” (1953 version) DVD. Another 3-strip technicolor film. The ending was a bit hard to take but seeing it again I was impressed by how well-written the script is: very non-nonsense, straightforward. Even if the special effects have aged, the script hasn’t. They don’t make ’em like that anymore. It’s basically about the uselessness of civil defense systems, how inadequate they are when dealing with a true emergency (something of course we’ve seen all too recently). In the lead, Gene Barry reminded me of Robert Forster and Frank Langella. I still don’t have any interest in seeing the remake. For one thing, there’s Tom Cruise; for another, what’s the point in watching “cooler” explosions and representations of destruction when Spielberg fudges his ending and makes you feel dirty when it’s all over? All this time and he still can’t get an ending right.

I’m reading “Cassavetes on Cassavetes,” edited by Ray Carney. It’s inspiring and also depressing. Inspiring because it makes me want to go out and do everything I’ve ever dreamed of; depressing because Cassavetes himself could be a real jerk, was an alcoholic, and because mostly I’m NOT getting out there and being creative. I haven’t touched the new manuscript in over a month, excpet to print it out. Oh sure I’ve been working a lot on the upcoming Portland trip and blah blah blah, but meanwhile there are all sorts of ideas floating around in my head and I haven’t been working, writing. So many distractions.

I feel like, gee, if I didn’t have this stupid job every day I could really go to town. And maybe that’s true but really it’s just an excuse. I have evenings I could write, and weekends. Just hafta train my brain to get inspired when I TELL IT TO. Philip Glass was able to train himself that way. Just told his brain, “I will only execute my ideas before 5 ‘o clock each day, I will not work at any other time.” And before you know it, that’s when the ideas start coming, only when he’s committed himself to working on them.

The new manuscript has been generating some good feedback, but I’ve always been poky when it comes to revisions. The inspiration that it takes to revise something well, to sharpen something up, to give it that extra twist that makes it soar, is completely different than the inspiration when you first work out an idea. I don’t really know what I’m doing and I’m just going by instinct. But any good writer will tell you that writing is just faking it; you’re just playing around with stuff to see what sticks, what seems to work. I guess some people have a sense for it and others have a gift that makes it easy. Some parts of it are easy for me but revisions are harder.

Hopefully Andy will be done with his laundry by 10.30ish and we’ll go out for brunch somewhere. Ann Sather on Broadway? It’s nice being just the two of us today. Wow, the second cup of coffee is really jazzing me up. Feeling good about 2006.