June 26: China doll
The title of this note was personally given to me by Al Pacino.
Yes. That Al Pacino.
Al Pacino was doing a meet and greet at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa tonight and I got to get my picture taken with him. Here it is:
I had like 15 seconds with Mr. Pacino and I wanted to ask him to give me a title. I couldn't though because then I would have had to explain the concept of this blog and that would have taken more than 15 seconds so instead I just seized on an opportunity. Mr. Pacino had told the audience that he was working with my favourite playwright, David Mamet, on developing a new play. I was determined to get the title of that play and use it for my title.
"What's the name of the play?" I asked as security prepared to haul me away.
"China Doll," he said. They are the last words Al Pacino will likely ever say directly to me.
And so this note is called China Doll.
-
When I Google "China Doll", not one link on the first page has anything about David Mamet. The top link is for the China Doll Restaurant in Regina, Saskatchewan. Underneath this is a Wikipedia link where I learn that a China Doll is a doll made entirely, or mostly, out of glazed porcelain. That means that if you paint a face on your toilet and then you put a wig on it, your bathroom has a great big China Doll.
And it eats things too.
-
When I Google David Mamet and China Doll together, I get nothing. The first link is from the David Mamet Society's web page, where someone is described as having a China Doll smile. The next two links are for my other blog, Wrestling David Mamet.
Googling Al Pacino and China Doll together also gives me less than satisfactory results. This leads me to one of two possible conclusions:
1. That Mr. Pacino gave me the wrong name of the play
or
2. I HAVE WORLDWIDE BREAKING NEWS ABOUT THE TITLE OF DAVID MAMET'S NEXT PLAY.
Oh let it be 2, let it be 2, let it be 2.
-
And now for my opinion on China Dolls:
China Dolls are neat. My sister used to get one every year for Christmas and they sat for many years in her bedroom in southwest Calgary. At night they would gaze at her bed with their glassy dead eyes and I can't help but wonder if my dear sister every felt creeped out by them.
China Dolls can be beautiful but, of course, they are very fragile. I suspect that this will be a metaphor employed by Mr. Mamet in the text of his play. I just can't see him writing a play about an actual China Doll that comes to life. That was done before and it kinda sucked.
That movie, Dolls, came out in 1987 and it featured a scene where a mean old stepmother took her stepson's teddy bear and threw it into the woods. I hated that old bitch for that and I was happy later on when the dolls came to life and killed her.
Horror movies are morality plays, kids. The righteous and the virgins never seem to get plowed down by the psychopaths, only the mean people.
Dolls came out in 1987, which was when David Mamet was making his movie The House of Games, which wound up being one of the very best movies of 1988.
It did not feature any China Dolls.
-
I will probably not be able to go to New York to see David Mamet's play China Doll. I will have to wait until it is made available worldwide and, possibly, get produced at the National Arts Centre. Then I can watch it from my seat and I can tell the person next to me: "I was in this very room on June 26, 2014, to see Al Pacino."
And the person next to me will say "that's nice" and then we will watch the play and then I will go home and drink some water and kick off my shoes and then I will check my email to see what the title will be for tomorrow's note-a-day.
Inspiration: Al Pacino.
Yes. That Al Pacino.
Al Pacino was doing a meet and greet at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa tonight and I got to get my picture taken with him. Here it is:
I had like 15 seconds with Mr. Pacino and I wanted to ask him to give me a title. I couldn't though because then I would have had to explain the concept of this blog and that would have taken more than 15 seconds so instead I just seized on an opportunity. Mr. Pacino had told the audience that he was working with my favourite playwright, David Mamet, on developing a new play. I was determined to get the title of that play and use it for my title.
"What's the name of the play?" I asked as security prepared to haul me away.
"China Doll," he said. They are the last words Al Pacino will likely ever say directly to me.
And so this note is called China Doll.
-
When I Google "China Doll", not one link on the first page has anything about David Mamet. The top link is for the China Doll Restaurant in Regina, Saskatchewan. Underneath this is a Wikipedia link where I learn that a China Doll is a doll made entirely, or mostly, out of glazed porcelain. That means that if you paint a face on your toilet and then you put a wig on it, your bathroom has a great big China Doll.
And it eats things too.
-
When I Google David Mamet and China Doll together, I get nothing. The first link is from the David Mamet Society's web page, where someone is described as having a China Doll smile. The next two links are for my other blog, Wrestling David Mamet.
Googling Al Pacino and China Doll together also gives me less than satisfactory results. This leads me to one of two possible conclusions:
1. That Mr. Pacino gave me the wrong name of the play
or
2. I HAVE WORLDWIDE BREAKING NEWS ABOUT THE TITLE OF DAVID MAMET'S NEXT PLAY.
Oh let it be 2, let it be 2, let it be 2.
-
And now for my opinion on China Dolls:
China Dolls are neat. My sister used to get one every year for Christmas and they sat for many years in her bedroom in southwest Calgary. At night they would gaze at her bed with their glassy dead eyes and I can't help but wonder if my dear sister every felt creeped out by them.
China Dolls can be beautiful but, of course, they are very fragile. I suspect that this will be a metaphor employed by Mr. Mamet in the text of his play. I just can't see him writing a play about an actual China Doll that comes to life. That was done before and it kinda sucked.
That movie, Dolls, came out in 1987 and it featured a scene where a mean old stepmother took her stepson's teddy bear and threw it into the woods. I hated that old bitch for that and I was happy later on when the dolls came to life and killed her.
Horror movies are morality plays, kids. The righteous and the virgins never seem to get plowed down by the psychopaths, only the mean people.
Dolls came out in 1987, which was when David Mamet was making his movie The House of Games, which wound up being one of the very best movies of 1988.
It did not feature any China Dolls.
-
I will probably not be able to go to New York to see David Mamet's play China Doll. I will have to wait until it is made available worldwide and, possibly, get produced at the National Arts Centre. Then I can watch it from my seat and I can tell the person next to me: "I was in this very room on June 26, 2014, to see Al Pacino."
And the person next to me will say "that's nice" and then we will watch the play and then I will go home and drink some water and kick off my shoes and then I will check my email to see what the title will be for tomorrow's note-a-day.
Inspiration: Al Pacino.
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