Mask & Eyes

I haven’t been wearing a mask, although I keep one around my neck whenever I go to a store, just in case the venue won’t allow entry to those not wearing one. So far no employee of Stop n Shop or CVS has said anything to me. Even the girl at the counter in Dunkin Donuts said thank even though I did not make a purchase due to the credit card only policy. I use mine only for emergencies or large purchases. I did get scolded by a woman in an SUV this morning, though. I’m glad I didn’t respond. She’s entitled to be concerned and, who knows, she may have suffered a death in the family or on the job… I always chuckle when I’m out on the street and see someone lower a medical mask to light a cigarette.

I was never able to grasp what Billy Idol means by the term Eyes Without a Face. In looking at the lyrics, it’s easy to see the song is about a failing relationship, but what’s to be made of the title phrase itself? At the height of its popularity back in the ‘80’s, I wondered if the eyes of the woman to whom he was referring had spread so wide he wasn’t able to focus on anything else. Why am I bringing this up? My Friday night movie fix proved to be a rerun, the 1960 French sci-fi/horror classic that shares the same title. At first I wondered if I’d seen an American version. If there is one, I was unable to find it. Is it possible I’ve completely forgotten having blogged about it? Oh well, such is life on the cusp of 70. I also wondered if Idol had seen the movie, fallen in love with the title and was inspired to write the song. A google search verified it. The French translation of the title, Les Yeux Sans Visage, is sung in the background throughout the record. Released in 1984, it was the first Idol track to crack the American top ten, hitting #4 on the Billboard Hot 100, and coming in at #37 for the year. The film was criticized upon its release, director Georges Franju taken to task for taking the genre seriously, to which he replied the English equivalent of “Why shouldn’t I?” Time has proven the know-it-alls wrong. 24,000+ users at IMDb have rated Eyes…, forging to a consensus of 7.7 on a scale of ten. Shot in black and white, it runs only 90 minutes. It isn’t nearly as graphic as modern fare, of course, but it certainly set the tone for what was to follow. What must have seemed an outrageous idea 60 years ago is now in practice, although it still has a long way to go to be truly satisfactory.

I like this kid, from a headline at yahoo.com: “№1 high school prospect Jalen Green will enter the G League.” He will forgo the nonsense of one and done college ball and sign the $125,000 contract the league offers elite players. Kudos.

The PGA Tour has announced it will resume the 2020 season with the Charles Schwab Challenge on June 11th. There will be schedule changes. For instance, the U.S. Open will not be played until later in the year. And there will be no fans in attendance at first. Still, this is great news.

I’ve finished the third draft of the story on which I’m working. After two in long hand, it was done in MS Word, 5x8 format. It is more pages than I expected, 104, but less words, 18,174, although that qualifies it, barely, as a novella. I doubt it will grow more than a page or two, 500 words at most. I don’t want to pad it for the sake of length. The first half is similar to most of my novels, although it has far less life rumination. The second is 100% thriller. I’m still not sure if it will be more than an ebook. I may do a print version if I can keep the cost to no more than five bucks. I might also increase the font to 14-point, which would make it accessible to those with a vision problem. Those decisions are still a long way off.

My Amazon Author page: https://www.amazon.com/Vic-Fortezza/e/B002M4NLJE

FB: https://www.facebook.com/Vic-Fortezza-Author-118397641564801/?fref=ts

Read Vic’s Stories, free: http://fictionaut.com/users/vic-fortezza