Haines Logo Text
Column Archive
July 1, 2005:

NAMELY JULY

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, here we are, the beginning of a long weekend and the start of a brand spanking new month, namely July. We will be celebrating the beginning of namely July and the entire July 4th holiday weekend right here at haineshisway.com. You’ll want to be sure to be here on July 4th, because, let me tell you, you won’t see better fireworks than our haineshisway.com online fireworks. Namely July, can you believe it? But, before we get to namely July, let me tell you I had a lovely last day of June. I awoke just before nine, having had a pretty decent night’s sleep. I felt better than I did the night before, which was nice. I then spent the morning hours working on my new short story, which I am now having fun writing. Then, Mr. Kevin Spirtas called and asked if we could rehearse today, and since I had a two-hour window in the early afternoon, I said fine. We met up at a rehearsal hall, and we ran all of Act One, and some of Act Two – but I had to leave and we’ll finish the rest on Tuesday. I didn’t want to start staging until Tuesday, so Kevin basically just stood and did the act. It was quite interesting to finally hear all the patter and the songs of Act One together. One song, which I never really liked in the show, but which Kevin really wanted to sing, stopped the act cold, and not in the way you want a song to stop an act. It just became instantly apparent that it didn’t work, and he happily agreed to cut it. Now, I’m very happy with each section of Act One. I got some good ideas while listening to everything. Act Two seems really good, too, but I’ve never seen or heard the last third of it, and that will tell the tale as to how much work we’ve got left. I then headed over to Mr. Grant Geissman’s house. He was on the phone when I arrived, so I sat and chatted with Grant’s mother and nephew (visiting from San Jose), and Grant’s rather beautiful and rather witty daughter, Miss Greer Geissman, a sixteen-year-old who can hold her own in any conversation with anyone. After a while, Grant’s lovelier than lovely wife, Lydia, came home and joined the fun. Then Grant and I went out to his studio and we actually managed to do two-thirds of the galley corrections (another hour ought to complete the job – hopefully today), and he even began work on the mockup of the dust jacket cover. Then we all toddled off to an Eyetalian jernt near my home environment, called Spumonti. I’d heard excellent things about it, and it really was quite excellent. They had one of the best Caesar Salads I’ve ever had, and they had excellent pasta with sausages and red onions in a marinara sauce. But, it was the conversation, which was non-stop and very amusing from everyone. Young fifteen-year-old Kyle, the visitor from San Jose, is a very nice young man, and seems very savvy. Grant and I kept singing “They Don’t Give Medals (To Yesterday’s Heroes) to daughter Greer, who, I do believe, thought we were quite insane. We then did the Guy Haines version of Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off (which was supposed to be the hidden track, but we ran out of time). We all had yummilicious desserts, too – I had some gelato caramel thing covered in chocolate with whipped cream that was out of this world. I then came back to the home environment, where I immediately sat on my couch like so much fish, sated and feeling quite lovely.

Last night, I watched a motion picture on DVD entitled The Browning Version. What a swellegant motion picture it is, beautifully directed by Mr. Anthony Asquith, with great performances by Mr. Michael Redgrave and everyone else in the film. Mr. Terrance Rattigan’s script (from his play) is quite beautiful and extremely touching, and everything just works. The transfer (from Criterion) is fine – very sharp with excellent contrast.

Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below, because it’s a brand spanking new month, namely July, and there’s lots more to talk about as we head into our long July 4th holiday weekend.

There is so much interesting stuff going on and in the ether. Every day, I feel quite energized, even when I hear the occasional irksome thing. I can’t be bothered with irksome things and I let them wash off me like water off a gazelle’s back. There’s a positive energy around these here parts, and nothing is going to take away from it, even though I believe certain peoples get off on that sort of thing.

I do believe I have the next two Kritzerland releases lined up, and I’m very excited about both of them. One of them has been requested several times around these here parts (as well as other parts), and I worked out the rights to get the masters, and the other is just a wonderful feel-good album by one of our favorite people. I will keep you posted, and you will, of course, be the first to know what they are.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, write, I must pick up a plethora of overdue packages, I must go hither and thither and yes, perhaps even yon, I must make telephone calls, and I must answer various and sundried e-mails. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player, and your DVD/video player? I’ll start – CD, the newly released CD soundtrack to The Devil at Four O’Clock, one of George Duning’s greatest scores. I’m not so thrilled with the tinny sound. I think the sound of the original LP was better and wider-sounding. DVD, next up, George Cukor’s Heller in Pink Tights. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst we welcome in with open arms our brand spanking new month, namely July.

Search BK's Notes Archive:
 
© 2001 - 2024 by Bruce Kimmel. All Rights Reserved