Haines Logo Text
Column Archive
August 16, 2006:

FRIJOLES MUERTE

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, I feel that today’s notes should have a theme. I choose the theme from A Summer Place as performed by Percy Faith. That is a fine theme for today’s notes, and anyone who doesn’t agree can eat a dead herring. Better yet, they can eat some dead beans or frijoles muerte as they say south of the border down Mexico way. Perhaps the theme of today’s notes should be frijoles muerte, but that’s not really a theme, is it? A theme is The High And The Mighty – that’s a theme, especially as whistled by Muzzy Marcellino. I think a psychoanalyst would have a field day with these here notes thus far. Thus far we’ve had the theme from A Summer Place as performed by Percy Faith, we’ve had a dead herring, dead beans (frijoles muerte) and the theme from The High And The Mighty as whistled by Muzzy Marcellino. Add all those things up and I think we’re dealing with a seriously deranged person, don’t you? I mean, this is free associating at it finest. Frankly, I like paid associating. Don’t mind me – I’m just vamping till ready as they say in the show business. I wonder if the dead herring ate some dead beans prior to expiring? I wonder just how long this paragraph is going to be before I type a sentence of worth. $4.63 – there, I typed a sentence of worth. Speaking of dead beans, yesterday was a reasonably nice day. I had some nice news in the morning hours, and then I got right to work on The Brain. I was quite maniacal about writing today, and I, in fact, finished all my rewrites and fixes. The only break I took all day was for luncheon, where I did manage to eat some frijoles muerte (dead beans). I finished working at around six-thirty, and then I promptly sat on my couch like so much fish.

Last night I watched a motion picture on DVD entitled The Call Of The Wild, a film by William Wellman from the novel by Jack London, starring Mr. Clark Gable, Mr. Jack Oakie, and Miss Loretta Young. It’s an entertaining little film – not great, but certainly watchable. It does contain a fine performance by Buck, the dog. The film is quite short – eighty minutes, and one can certainly be grateful for its brevity. Transfer is nice. I also watched another episode of Amazing Stories, this time The Great Falsworth. This show had to be shown in a later timeslot as it was deemed too intense for the early family hour timeslot in which the show aired. Like all the other Amazing Stories episodes I’ve seen, this one just doesn’t cut the mustard. It doesn’t even cut the ketchup, let alone the mayonnaise. The script by Mick Garris is poor, and if the reveal of the killer is supposed to be surprising, they failed miserably, since it’s instantly obvious who it is. The show was competently directed by Peter Hyams and it does have a nice score by Billy Goldenberg. Given the poor results of every episode I’ve seen thus far, one can only assume that everyone involved was very cocky and thought they could just do these subpar shows and that people would watch because it came from Steven Spielberg. Well, they didn’t watch and the reason was clear – bad shows, bad writing. It doesn’t matter that they had a stellar lineup of directors – it starts with the stories and the written word and in this case they crapped out big time.

Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must go buy a bunch of shipping envelopes, get them addressed, and then, hopefully, stuff them with the Kevin Spirtas DVD, which I’m told I’ll have in the late afternoon/early evening. I’ll post them tomorrow.

In the next few days we’re hoping to start taking preorders for the new Kritzerland CD release, Simply Sondheim, a 2 CD live recording from last year’s San Francisco birthday tribute to my close personal friend. It was produced by Jim Brewer, and features some fine local San Francisco talent, as well as guest appearances by Lisa Vroman and our very own Mr. Guy Haines. It also features the first ever recording of a cut song from A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum. You’ll be the first to know when preorders will begin, and we have high hopes for the album.

Today I must not only get all the shipping envelopes prepared (my morning work), but then I must start entering all the fixes for the short stories into the final manuscript so we can get this book to the publisher for printing. I’m hoping we’ll have books in hand in October. It should be another day with only time for a brief lunch break, unless I can last until dinner, in which case I’ll treat myself to a nice meal.

Now wait just a darned minute. We’d all better put on our pointy party hats and our colored tights and pantaloons. We’d all better break out the cheese slices and ham chunks. We’d all better dance the Hora or the Pony, because today is the birthday of our very own Vixmom. So, let’s give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to our very own Vixmom. On the count of three: One, two, three – A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO OUR VERY OWN VIXMOM!!!

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, jog, prepare shipping envelopes, enter fixes, do a few errands, and then stuff envelopes with DVDs. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear reader any old question you like and we get to give any old answer we like. So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers and loads of lovely postings, as we contemplate the theme of today’s notes – The High And The Mighty Dead Beans in A Summer Place With A Dead Herring.

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