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August 24, 2003:

THE LAUNDRY LIST

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, I had a very nice sleep last night and I have just awakened and now here I am writing these here notes. Yesterday, I relaxed and checked out the transfers on some new DVDs, and then I relaxed some more, wrote a bit, and then relaxed some more.

Last night, I got together with dear reader Jane, who is in town tending to her father. We went to RJ’s and snacked and talked, not necessarily in that order. Then we walked over to Baskin Robbins and had ice cream, then we walked up and down Beverly Drive. Beverly Drive seems to be dead, that is all I can say. Walking at night on Beverly Drive was always fun, because there was a lot of foot traffic, interesting people, and shops were open. Last night, there was no foot traffic, no interesting people and nothing but restaurants were open. The telling factor was that despite it having people there, the Cheesecake Factory had tons of empty tables. I have never in all my years of walking by the Beverly Hills Cheesecake Factory seen empty tables, no matter what time. It doesn’t help that they are, once again, ripping up the streets. In any case, Jane and I had a splendidly splendid time, we laughed and reminisced (we’ve known each other since high school) and we even drove around our old neighborhood, too, which I’ve done several times recently for book purposes.

I got the strangest thing yesterday whilst checking out some new DVDs. I got a boxed set called The Blake Edwards Collection. What is strange about it is that it was apparently pressed for some tribute to Mr. Edwards, and given to the attendees. It was put together by Warner Home Video, and it has ten count them ten DVDs in a lovely case. The packaging is different on films like Victor/Victoria, Ten, The Great Race (which has corrected audio – the first release has mistakes in the main title audio track), SOB, and Skin Deep. But, it’s the other five movies that makes this set interesting, because none of them have been released on DVD and a few of them probably won’t for quite some time. The other five films are Days of Wine and Roses, The Carey Treatment, The Wild Rovers, the more recent TV movie version of Peter Gunn (with Peter Strauss), and best of all, Soldier in the Rain (written by Mr. Edwards, but directed by Ralph Nelson). That’s the good news. The bad news is that they are all full-frame transfers of older masters. The film that suffers the most from that is The Wild Rovers which was shot in scope. Still, it’s great to have Days of Wine and Roses and Soldier in the Rain, and those look pretty good, too. And, of course, the TV movie of Peter Gunn was shot full frame, so that’s fine.

I also picked up some of those inexpensive MGM two-fer Midnight Movie titles – lots of Roger Corman films, and best of all The Vampire Lovers, a strange and interesting film from Hammer Studios that I am quite fond. Other titles are Countess Dracula, The Comedy of Terrors/The Raven, The Haunted Palace, etc. Also, single releases of David Cronenberg’s interesting film, The Brood, and Dan Curtis’ Burnt Offerings.

Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because these here notes are starting to seem like a laundry list to me.

Has anyone noticed that these here notes are starting to seem like a laundry list? Don’t forget, tonight is our Unseemly Live Chat at six o’clock Pacific Mean Daylight Savings Time, and Donald will have a brand spanking new radio show up later today.

We’ve had several correct answers to yesterday’s trivia question, but you still have time to submit your answers, so do so post haste. I honestly didn’t think anyone would get the various answers all correct, but, blow me over with a hot pastrami, you people are too smart for the likes of me. Here, I thought it was a doozy of a question, when in reality, it was only a semi-doozy, or doozy-lite.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must run errands and errands must run me, I must write, I must relax, I must watch a DVD or two, and then I shall meet you all at our Unseemly Live Chat. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you, yes you, yes I’m talking to you, get to talk about anything you desire. So, let’s have some fun topics and loads of lovely posts, and I’ll be checking back quite often.

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