Well, dear readers, I slept until I had no more sleep in me – a full nine hours of lovely sleep. I forgot to tell you of an interesting occurrence which occurred on Friday night.
The phone rang about ten o’clock and I picked it up on the second ring. There was a dial tone rather than a person. But my handy-dandy caller ID told me who it was from, so I pushed “dial” to call them back. I got no dial tone, just crazy noise. Now, I don’t know about you, dear readers, but I do not like to have crazy noise on my telephone – I like to have a nice comforting dial tone. I went to the other phones in my home environment and they all did the same thing. I even tried unplugging the phone line (this was a cordless phone) on the base, then replugging the unplugged plug. Nothing, but crazy noise, of course. Rather than go with my initial impulse, which was to stomp on the phone until it stopped making the crazy noise, I got out my cell phone and called Pacific Bell’s fixit line. I then had the supreme joy of going through twenty minutes worth of voice menus. The “voice” said to hold while they checked the line – then the “voice” told me it was a line problem and to make a “voice” appointment. I did so, for the following day, yesterday. But that didn’t sound right to me, a line problem, because it happened so quickly, so finally a “voice” told me if I wanted to talk to a real human to press “0”. This I could have done twenty minutes earlier and saved myself a bunch of annoyance. I pressed “0” and got a real human and I told her the problem. She said it sounded like the battery on the cordless was going – she said when that happens the phone starts doing all manner of weird things. She suggested I unplug the phone and leave it unplugged. I did so, with her on the phone. Two minutes later my dial tone was back and the crazy noise was a memory. She said she’d cancel the appointment. But that is not the interesting occurrence, dear readers, that is the preamble to the interesting occurrence. This human then said, “May I ask you a presumptuous question?” I am a fan of presumptuous questions so I said of course. She said, “Did you ever do theater.” I said, sure. She said, “Did you ever do How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying?” I said sure, twice – once at LACC, and once as a favor to an agent who was directing a production in the Valley in 1972. She then told me she was in it with me, she was in the chorus. Now, let us put on our thinking caps and try to figure out the odds of this happening – having crazy noise at ten on a Friday night and calling Pacific Bell and getting someone on the line who was in a show with you.
Wasn’t that a fine story of an interesting occurrence that occurred? Wasn’t that a very long paragraph, too? Well, I may as well get to the point, dear readers. Yes, Virginia, there is a point and I may as well get to it. We have an anniversary, dear readers, but we won’t be putting on our pointy party hats, nor our colored tights and pantaloons, nor will we be dancing the Hora or eating cake – for it is not a happy anniversary, oh, no, it is not a happy anniversary at all. On today’s date last year (which, of course, fell on a Saturday), a day which I like to affectionately call “Black Saturday”, I received some papers in the mail (as did our very own David Levy) and these papers would signify the beginning of a nine-month nightmare. I think you all know what I’m talking about and I don’t really want to dredge up the insanity of what went on – shall we just say that what happened was wrong and that karma will take care of the rest. I don’t wish anyone anywhere the kind of insanity both David and I were put through, and put through, I might add, for no reason other than the justice system allows such things to happen. I have learned that I do not like the justice system and I do not like it because it favors the wealthy. My lawyer told me that the first time I met him, and he said it made him sick to his stomach and ashamed sometimes to even be a lawyer. In any case, as hard as it may seem to find a positive in all of that – I did create this here website soon thereafter (to stop the bad-mouthing campaign which, of course, continues to this day) and that has been a constant source of fun for me. And, it has enabled me to pursue other things I might not have – and that includes my upcoming film and it includes the stage version of Nudie. When all of it splattered on my doorstep, I was almost finished with Benjamin Kritzer (amazingly, I finished it four weeks later – and I think the emotional roller coaster I was on informs the last thirty pages of the book – for the better, I might add). So, sometimes things happen for a reason, I suppose. It would have happened at some point, because there were personality issues from the beginning. Still and all, I am very proud of what I created – me, no one else. My baby, my idea, my work. And with incredibly talented folks like David Levy and Julia Evins (our web designer) we created a wonderful thing. Others can carry it on, but most people know where the name came from and what it represented. And, I will not let that part of my life disappear – meetings are ongoing about starting up something new – something daring, a bit different – so I can continue creating the kinds of albums I like to do. Stay tuned.
My goodness, aren’t Sunday’s notes supposed to be short? Well, let’s all click on the Unseemly Button below because I have blabbered long enough in this here section.
Last night I went to see a production of The Wizard of Oz, in which my friend David Wechter’s son Daniel was appearing. It was all very cute (I spoke about the group doing these shows earlier this year) and much better than their last show, Bye Bye Birdie. Daniel did a very good job (as a Munchkin) and we all had a splendid time. They even had flying – monkeys flew, the wicked witch flew, Glinda the Good flew, even Dorothy flew during the hurricane. Sitting there watching it, I began to think that I would love to direct this show on Broadway. Not the kind of stupid thing they did at Madison Square Garden, mind you, but a real Broadway production with great people – like when Sandy Duncan brought back Peter Pan.
Yesterday I got a bunch of interesting new CDs, several imports of weird albums that I’d loved as a kid and that I never thought would see the light of day on CD. I’ll speak about them tomorrow, because these here notes are long enough already.
ET on DVD comes out on Tuesday. There are two ways to get it, but both will have both versions – the as-released version and the 2002 redo version. I will only watch the original. Now, as a bonus for people who read these here notes on Sunday – I will award a special handy-dandy sparkling prize to the first person who can tell me what connection, I, BK, have to ET. I happen to think it’s an important connection in a certain way. The first person to post the answer today wins the prize.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do which will hopefully include writing on the various projects. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, and I want to see a plethora of postings on a variety or Hollywood reporter of topics. Let’s not be lazy loafers – let’s show those merry searchers (who will be here today I guarantee you) what haineshisway.com is all about.