Well, dear readers, yesterday we were back to the good old days here at haineshisway.com and what fun it was. It was lively. Oh, yes, it was lively and that’s the way we like it – lively. That is what we are jiggy with – lively. So, let’s make September our most lively month. Let’s make every day a lively day. Let us sing that famour song by Mr. Irving Berlin – It’s a Lively Day Today. Has anyone noticed that I typed “famour” instead of “famous”? I mean, the ‘s’ isn’t anywhere near the ‘r’ on my handy-dandy keyboard, so why does that happen? In any case, now I have to live with it – I refuse to go back and fix it because I believe it was meant to happen that way. Besides, I like the new word “famour”, don’t you? It’s so French looking. It could mean “for love” if it were French. But it is not French it is English, so I believe “famour” means “a person who eats Chinese food with their fingers”. What the hell am I talking about?
Last night I watched two count them two DVDs. First I watched the very entertaining motion picture entitled No Way To Treat a Lady, starring Mr. George Segal, Mr. Rod Steiger and Miss Lee Remick. I really loved this movie when I saw it way back when, and I still get a kick out of it all these years later. It’s based on a paperback book by Harry Longbaugh. Later, when Mr. Longbaugh became famous, he decided it would be okay to tell people he wrote it, so the film does say based on a novel by William Goldman. Harry Longbaugh, of course, would figure in Mr. Goldman’s biggest success, because Harry Longbaugh was the real name of the Sundance Kid. Anyway, the movie is a real tour de force for Mr. Steiger, and Mr. Segal and Miss Remick are beyond charming. Eileen Heckart, as the Jewish mother of them all, is a bit grating, but still funny. There are some things that don’t work, and one cheat that I hated back then and that I hate now, which was totally unnecessary. The film is well directed by Jack Smight, and the transfer looks great. Plus you get to see that Joe Allen, where a very long scene takes place, looked exactly the same back in 1968. And the wonderful Barbara Baxley (from She Loves Me) has a terrific scene. Some of it hasn’t stood the test of time, but it’s still fun and I’d recommend it.
The other DVD I watched was a motion picture entitled The Gypsy Moths, a film of John Frankenheimer, and one of the few from his best period that I’d missed. In fact, I would say it’s the last film from his most interesting period. Everything after this film didn’t ever really seem like a Frankenheimer film to me. It’s an interesting movie – just really a small character piece with some good stunt-parachute action scenes. Those scenes are incredibly scary to me – but the stunts are amazing and so it the aerial photography. The cast couldn’t be better – Burt Lancaster, Deborah Kerr (who very surprisingly has a brief nude scene), Gene Hackman, Scott Wilson (from In Cold Blood), Sheree North, William Windom and, in her first movie role (I think), Bonnie Bedelia. The film also has a gorgeous score from Mr. Elmer Bernstein, who was at the height of his creative powers back in 1969. The pace is very slow, but I enjoyed it. The DVD features the final audio commentary track that Mr. Frankenheimer did prior to his passing away recently. I listened to a bit of it and he clearly loves this film.
What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? Well, I promised you announcements, so I’ll give you the least interesting of them today. But first, let us all click on the Unseemly Button below, because we must keep these notes lively at all costs. The cost of keeping these notes lively, by the way (BTW, in Internet lingo), is $2.43 American.
Is anyone here a famour? I think all the Hainsie/Kimlet famours had best step forward. In fact, all famours should not only step forward they should step lively. Who here eats Chinese food with their fingers? I certainly have been known to pick up a noodle or a rib or a wonton or an egg roll with my famour fingers. I admit it here and now and also now and here: My name is BK and I am a famour.
So, the first of my announcements (and there will be a few this week, I hope) is the least of them. That’s not to say I’m not thrilled about it, but the others are more fun and will appeal to you dear readers more than this first one. But we can’t give them all to you at once, that would be too too lively, don’t you think? We must parse them out. In two count them two weeks, I start work on a new Showtime television program. I don’t really know much about it, other than that it’s a reality show and that my friend David Wechter is on it. I went in, met the producer, and we all got along famously. My job will be basically doing what I did on the Fox TV show called Totally Hidden Video – putting the pieces of the show together in post-production, plus writing the voice-overs for the pieces (in other words, making them stories that are interesting). The voice-overs will be spoken by the hosts of the show, who are none other than Penn and Teller. It’s really just a two or three month gig, but the money is great and I haven’t been in that world for a long time, so it will be fun, I think. The hours are long, however, so while I promise to do the notes daily I do think that there will be days when they will be very short. I also may have some guest notes-writers in to help during that period. So, there you have announcement number one. Tomorrow, number two.
Oh, I know we’ve been a bit errant and truant with our Unseemly Interviews – we had the best of intentions, but people simply are being tremendously slow in doing them – two people have had their interview questions for over two months and I do think that they are about to be in for a bitch-slapping. And Buddy Bregman’s interview is a novel, and we’re trying to get it down from its unwieldy size, otherwise it would take six weeks to get all of it posted. We should have it ready in about two weeks. Meanwhile, we do have a new interview going up this Friday – with our very own delightful and delectable Jennifer Piech. Jennifer was one of the stars of the musical entitled Titanic, and she also appeared at the York in a musical I recorded called After the Fair. She’s also appeared on several of my albums.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must be lively and perhaps I’ll even eat Chinese food and be a famour. I must drive over-the-hill and under-the-dale. I must arrange my hair in an interesting way, like the bartender in Contact. Today’s topic of discussion: Well, you know what today is – today is Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me all your excellent questions. I’ll be back in a bit to check on our lively activity. Ask away, my pretties.