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June 29, 2006:

HOT HEAT

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, the heat is unbearable. Even worse, the heat is hot. I don’t know about you but I hate hot heat. Hot heat is hot. Hot hot. I think it was 100 degrees by eleven o’clock in the morning yesterday. There was no air – just hot heat. In fact, it was too darn hot. I jogged at ten and it was like I was running in a sauna bath. I finally turned on the air conditioner and cooled off the home environment. Whilst doing that, I decided to put aside the book I started the other day and to try another idea, which has been percolating for the last two days. I wrote six pages very quickly and I’m sort of liking this book better, so I think I’ll continue down this road and see where it leads me. Unlike the other book, I already have a title for this one and the first chapter is done, and I have decided that the chapters will be very short. I’ve also decided on a little structural device that I think will be fun. Where it will go I’m not sure, but today I’ll be making more notes about the actual plot stuff. I also finished proofing the Kevin Spirtas video, and then, later in the afternoon, I went in and did the really minor fixes. I’ll have one more DVD to proof and then presuming all is perfect, off it will go to the authoring fellow. The DVD packaging is just about finished, and we’ll put it up for preorder shortly – same deal – the first 100 people to preorder will get signed copies of the DVD. Speaking of signed copies of a DVD, there are only about twelve left for Deceit. If all goes according to Hoyle, we should be shipping Deceit next Wednesday.

Last night, I watched a motion picture on DVD entitled Cache, a film from France that won all sorts of awards last year in Europe. The package says it’s a Hitchcockian thriller. Not. There are always idiot critics who call any supposed “thriller” that’s put in front of them Hitchcockian. More apt would be to call it Antonioniesque. Mr. Antonioni did this many years before Cache, in a little film called Blow Up, and then in The Passenger. Therefore, everything we’re seeing in the film is open to interpretation, and the ending, which many people on the imdb argue over, is right out of Antonioniland. Not a great film, and not a “thriller.” Good acting, though, by the always-excellent Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche. There is not a note of score in the film, a deliberate choice that doesn’t always serve the film that well. For the sensitive, I hereby warn that there is one scene of animal decapitation (a rooster) and another scene of quick violence with a person (the imdb idiots think this is one of the most shocking scenes in all of cinema – it isn’t – SPOILER ALERT, STOP READING AND SKIP THE NEXT FEW WORDS: When someone pulls out a razor in the living room, I think any reasonably intelligent person knows he’s not going to give himself a shave – what he does do is swift and with a big spurt of blood on the wall, but really, one of the most shocking scenes in all of cinema – I think we can live without the hyperbole).

What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? Watching Cache, a two-hour film, made me long for some more Ozu. Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below before we pass out on the floor from all the hot heat.

Have I mentioned that the heat is hot? This kind of heat makes you wilt like a piece of old lettuce. It’s muggy hot heat. It’s sticky and sweaty hot heat and a little respite from it would be nice.

Today, I’m meeting the head of the theatre department at LACC at In ‘n’ Out Burger to discuss our cabaret series, which is coming up in just over two weeks. We do hope some of you hainsies/kimlets will be attending these marvelous shows, and if you’re thinking about it, you should consider making your reservations soon, as there are only 100 seats available. The price is certainly right – $25 a show, with no minimum – just the $25 and that’s it. If you buy all five shows, it’s just $20 per show. I’m really looking forward to the series and if it’s successful it will become an annual event, so tell all your friends and neighbors. If anyone needs the phone number for reservations, simply e-mail me or watch these here notes early next week, when I’ll list the complete information and show dates. After the burger, I have to proof the Kevin Spirtas final, and the check disc for Deceit – the latter will go directly to duplication once I give the okay. After that, who knows?

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, jog, eat, write, view, have telephonic conversations, and plan my weekend. I do know that our very own Mr. Nick Redman and I will having an early supper tomorrow (finally getting to Genghis Cohen), and I’ll be seeing Miss Joan Ryan in concert on Saturday evening at a new cabaret venue in North Hollywood called Sterling’s. Today’s topic of discussion: What is the most luxurious thing you’ve ever treated yourself to? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, as we prepare for another day of a little thing we like to call hot heat.

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