Well, dear readers, today is the day I must get back to writing. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, today is the day I must get back to writing. So much stuff has been bombarding me on a daily basis that I’ve just been away from the new play for far too long. Every day, more stuff. Or, to put it another way, more stuff every day. Stuff from the left, stuff from the right, stuff from above, stuff from below, stuff in the morning, stuff in the evening. I’m about ready to tell the stuff to get stuffed, frankly. Speaking of stuff, yesterday was filled with the stuff. For example, I woke up and was stuffed up. I then jogged, and then had to have a meeting with Miss Joan Ryan, which was very productive. We’re also getting ready to re-release the CD I produced for her. After our meeting, I had to hurry home to have the phoner with my publisher. The call came precisely when I was told it would come, but it was not the person I was told would be calling. I’m afraid the poor fellow who did call wasn’t quite prepared for me – I told him that this was my sixth book and I knew the routine and that I was not about to be shuffled from person to person because someone in scheduling screwed up (which is what I was told happened) – he got his boss on the phone (his boss was the my very first contact person there, and she’s just great), the boss got the original person who was supposed to call to get back on track with me, and so five minutes later I got the call from the person I was supposed to get the call from. We had a terrific conversation, and I should be seeing what I hope will be my one and only galley within forty-eight hours. A few days later, I’ll see proofs of the dust jacket cover – if all those are approvable (and there’s little reason they shouldn’t be), then I’ll have books by the end of October at the latest. Hence, we’ll start taking preorders in about a week (the website for the book is being designed as we speak). I’m very excited about the release of this book. After the call, my occasional helper, Miss Jessica Kiernan, came over and we packed up some orders – I took them to the post office, whilst she began importing all the e-mail addresses from all the orders we’ve gotten from new buyers. They are now part of our Constant Contact database, which is growing quite nicely. We went and had a bite to eat, and then she began the arduous but necessary project of taking all my AOL address books and importing them name-by-name into my gmail account. AOL does not make this a simple thing – it really has to be done manually and it’s very annoying. She finished the largest of the AOL address books and then we called it a day. Why we called it a day when it is clearly an it is anyone’s guess. I also finished my courtesy proofing of Miss Cissy Wechter’s book. After that, I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a motion picture on DVD entitled Odd Man Out. All these years, I’ve been the Odd Man Out as I’ve never actually seen Odd Man Out. I had the out of print Image DVD (quite pricey on the rare market) and I’d watched a few minutes of it, but the transfer was awful, so I’d never gone back to it. Now, there’s a new, restored version from the UK (region 2) and it’s a real thing of beauty and I’m glad I waited. And what a film it is. Every new smartass upstart director should be made to watch this film so he/she can see what real movie direction is. Carol Reed’s way of telling his story is dynamic, unique, and thoroughly engaging. It helps to have a great script, great actors, great camerawork, great editing, and a great score, all of which Odd Man Out has in spades. If this script landed on the desk of one of these incompetent studio execs of today they would throw it in the trash. They’d say meaningful things like, where’s the arc, where’s the journey, where’s the backstory, where are the act breaks, what’s the motor of the film. Well, guess what? The film is brilliant and doesn’t need any of that crap. It tells its story in its own way on its own terms and that’s why it works and that’s why it endures and that’s why it’s art. I can’t say enough about the camerawork of Robert Krasker, nor the score by William Alwyn, nor the subtle and wonderful performance of James Mason. If you have a multi-region player, just order it right now. As I said, the transfer is exemplary – one of the best black-and-white transfers I’ve ever seen. It’s crystal clear, with deep, rich blacks and beautiful grays and I just may have to watch it again tonight.
What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? Why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I want to start writing as soon as I arise, before any stuff starts coming my way.
Today I intend to write. I shall write in the morning, then I must have a two-hour correction session with Cissy Wechter (where we consolidate her corrections into the manuscript with my corrections), and after that, I shall write some more. If I don’t do three to five pages I shall flog myself like Judge Turpin.
I’m getting excited about my Thursday field trip to Olvera Street in downtown Los Angeles, California, USA. I haven’t been to Olvera Street since I was a sprig of a twig of a tad of a lad of a youth. And it will be my first time on the Metro Rail, which I’m very much looking forward to. I will, of course, have a full report, especially if I eat Mexican food. We don’t allow groaning here at haineshisway.com.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, jog, write, write, write, do corrections, write, write, and then write. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear reader whatever question you like and we get to give whatever answer we like. So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers and loads of lovely post, whilst I try to dodge any stuff which may come my way on this very day.