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January 20, 2005:

THE DAYS OF OUR POSTS

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, it’s already Thursday, and this week is flying by like a gazelle on dolls. Yesterday also flew by like a gazelle on dolls. I woke up nice and early and got a bit done in the morning, then I picked up some packages, did some more stuff in the afternoon, and at some foodstuffs while I was at it. I suppose I can say that last Sunday I began writing what I hope will be my new book. I finished its first chapter today. I’m doing the same sort of thing I did on the first chapter of Writer’s Block – going over and over it, getting the style and the tone right. It felt nice completing a first chapter, although I still have to figure a couple of things out and still am adding details and working on style issues. As hard as this part is, I have totally enjoyed beginning this thing, and while I know there will be a few things that continue to be difficult because of the nature of the way I’m writing it, I’m hoping it will continue to be enjoyable. Isn’t that exciting? Isn’t that just too too?

Yesterday, I watched two count them two motion pictures on DVD. First, a French film called Petites Coupures (Small Cuts, un film de Pascal Bonitzer, whom I’ve never heard of before. It’s quite a good little film, with a stunningly stunning score by a composer I mentioned just the other day in my unsung film composers list – John Scott. The cast is wonderful – Daniel Auteuil (an actor I’d never seen before I viewed The Girl on the Bridge two days ago), Kristin Scott Thomas and the delightful Ludivine Sagnier (8 Women, Swimming Pool). I’m really in my French mode right now, and have just ordered a couple more Patrice Leconte films. I then watched a motion picture entitled Ray. Ray was better than I thought it would be – there were some scenes that worked very well. I’m not a big fan of the director, Taylor Hackford, and his work here didn’t convert me. But the film is just too damned long (153 minutes), with many scenes just repeating other scenes we’ve already had and not giving us any new information. The final third was particularly annoying, especially the convenient clichéd device of the final scene with his mother – which I found appalling. The other scenes with the mother and the young Ray were very good, I thought – the actress playing the mother was terrific. And Jamie Foxx is very impressive as Ray – he really has the part and the person down. I think the Academy will vote him Best Actor, although I’d still prefer Clint to get it. The Ray Charles songs are all fun, but I was annoyed with the score by Craig Armstrong, which featured one of those wailing voices that would lead you to believe that Ray is set in Beirut.

What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because the days are going by so fast that today might be over before I finish the notes. I hate when that happens.

I was quite good yesterday, food-wise. I didn’t overeat, I had few fat grams, and not all that many calories. If I can just stick to it. Have you ever stuck to it. If so, was it happy about you sticking? How did you unstick? These are the questions that haunt me. Everything haunts me. The posts haunt me. Like sands through an hourglass, so are The Days of our Posts. What am I, a soap opera all of a sudden? Just stop me if you have a clew as to what the hell I’m going on about.

I’m so excited that tomorrow the Pool People are coming to put the new pump and heater in. I shall then swim every day I can, and that will make me lithe and svelte with abs and buns of steel.

Today I shall be lunching with our very own Miss Tammy Minoff. She and a friend have written a treatment for a TV movie, and they are soliciting my advice. And next week I begin working with Mr. Kevin Spirtas on his show. What fun we shall have. We shall laugh and laugh and just when we think we can’t laugh any more, we shall laugh again, like sands through an hourglass. Is it “sands” or “sand”?

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must write, I must do errands, I must eat various and sundried foodstuffs, I must lunch with Tammy Minoff, and then I must head over the hill to see Sideways at the DGA. Or, conversely, I must head over the hill to see the DGA Sideways. Either way works for me. Today’s topic of discussion: As you know, I’ve been in a pastry kind of mode lately. So, what are your very favorite pastries – the ones you cannot live without, the ones you would eat every day if weight or health weren’t an issue? And please provide any pastry recipes you might have. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we? And remember, like sands through an hourglass, so are The Days of our Posts.

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