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June 12, 2006:

TRY TO REMEMBER

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, another week begins. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, another week begins. I think I have things to do this week but I cannot remember what they are. Hopefully whatever they are will come back to me at some point. Oh, I know I have to go in and put the titles on Kevin Spirtas’ DVD, I know I then have to watch what we’ve done and make sure I’m happy with it, and then Kevin will watch and tell me what he can’t live with, if anything. Oh, I know I must do a dinner or two, and perhaps even see a play, but aside from those things I cannot remember what else I’m supposed to do. Oh, I know I have to go down to LACC and discuss the design for our summer cabaret series, which I’ll be posting about in greater detail this week. So, while I try to remember – oh, a Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones reference – I suppose I can talk about yesterday, which I do remember. Yesterday, for example, I awoke after a lovely night’s sleep. I made some tuna pasta salad, then went out for a jog, then came back home. After watching a DVD, I ate some of the tuna pasta salad, did a bit of work at the piano, and then attended our very own annual haineshisway.com Tony Awards partay. It was most amusing, as always, to see all the posts but not know which shows anyone was talking about. Then, the show began here on the West Coast. And I’ll say it again – they need to bring in a producer (I volunteer) who really understands what the show needs to be. They need to get it out of the Music Hall and back to a real theater. They need to keep the teenagers out of the audience and have it be theater people and not high school cheering sections. The show was basically a three-hour bore. The musical numbers were not well served because of poor camera direction, none more so than Show Off from The Drowsy Chaperone, which works like gangbusters in the theater but came off flat on TV. The audience of mostly youngsters couldn’t even be bothered to give Miss Patricia Neal a standing ovation. I was very happy to see La Chanze win – I worked with her on a couple of albums and I think she’s terrific. I was surprised that I’d worked with quite a few of the nominees – Judy Kaye, of course, and Danny Burstein, La Chanze, Steve Orich, Chad Beguelen and Matt Sklar, and I think maybe a couple of others. The best Tony partay in town was right here, and it was so popular that we set us a new posting record – yesterday became our third highest posting day. Isn’t that exciting? Isn’t that just too too?

Yesterday, as I said above, I watched a motion picture on DVD entitled Charlie Chan in London, which is part of a new box set from Twentieth Century Fox home video. I gather that the three or four films made prior to Charlie Chan in London are lost to the ages. I’d watched all the later Sidney Toler Chan DVDs, but I was really looking forward to the Warner Oland Chans. Charlie Chan in London isn’t great, but I just love these films – they’re swift, Oland is great, and there’s just something about them that is completely appealing. I’m now watching Charlie Chan in Paris, which I like even more. Apparently, the original negatives to most of the Oland Chans are lost, but the image on view on the DVD is more than acceptable, and the films, at least the two I’ve looked at, look better than they have in ages.

What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below whilst I try to overcome my senility and remember what else I must do this week.

Today I have things to do, but I cannot remember what they are. I hate when that happens. I don’t know whether my editor will have time to do the credits today and so I will await his call. I will start entering the little fixes we did to the musical into our master script, and I will attempt to work on the song I’m trying to write for dear reader PennyO’s show. I’m also thinking about doing another reading of the new play, this time in a theater with an invited audience. Not sure of the actors I’d use – I may meet a couple of young actresses for it, and I may put it out on the breakdown services and audition a few people for the two younger roles. I might ask Susanne Blakeslee to read the part she read, because she really understands the humor. We shall see.

I can’t help thinking that something is supposedly going on this evening. I really need to start writing things down in my iCalendar. I mean, I do write things down, but not in advance. I need to write things down in advance because otherwise I simply forget everything.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, try to remember what it is that I’m supposed to do, I must jog, I must finish the rest of the tuna pasta salad and I must figure out if something is going on this evening. Today’s topic of discussion: Tell us all about your favorite barbecue food and the places you like to get it. I love barbecue food – not to make it, but to go to great barbecue restaurants where I can stuff my face full of everything I love. My favorites here in LA are Valley Ranch Barbecue in Van Nuys. They have great barbecue beef sandwiches and even better ribs, and their barbecue sauce is my favorite ever – sort of on the sweet side and very addictive. They also have incredible cole slaw. I’m sure Pogue will pipe up on this too, but we both love Dr. Hoggly Woggly’s, also in Van Nuys. Their beef is great, their ribs are unique and their barbecue sauce is excellent, but not sweet – more spicy. Now I want barbecue, but I won’t because it’s very fattening. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I try to remember what the HELL I’m supposed to be doing.

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