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October 12, 2007:

I WAKE UP SCREAMING

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, it is already after midnight and yet I am just beginning these here notes. Hence, I will now have to write these here notes quickly, with nary a thought to structure or narrative cohesiveness. Hence, these here notes will be free form and flowing from the deepest recesses of my subconscious with nary a thought to what they mean or if they have a connection or even if they make sense. In other words, it’s business as usual here at haineshisway.com. Well, that was a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing, wasn’t it? Let me jump right in and tell you about yesterday. I remember very little of it, frankly. I do remember getting up after a particularly weird dream during which I woke up yelling – I have had this type of dream repeatedly for years and I always wake up yelling or, to put it in the words of novelist Steve Fisher – I Wake Up Screaming. So, I woke up screaming, calmed down, and then made my way to Ye Olde Laptop, where I had several e-mails to attend to. I then did a few things, shaved and showered, and then toddled over to the Pantages Theater to meet Miss Emily Rozek and our musical director Richard Berent. Miss Rozek is a lovely gal and I chose Lion Tamer for her and boy does she sing it beautifully. I think it will be a highlight of the show. After that, I drove over to LACC and returned some props and costume bits that we’d borrowed for New York, and I had a brief chat with the head of the department. I also saw several of the LACC Brain cast members, so that was fun. After that, I traded in a few DVDs at Amoeba and got quite a lot of credit for them, which actually surprised me. I got a few new motion pictures on DVD. Then I came home, got something to eat, and then answered yet more e-mails, made telephonic calls and did a bunch of stuff that needed doing. After that, I finally sat on my couch like so much fish.

Last night, I watched two count them two motion pictures on DVD. The first motion picture on DVD was entitled Poltergeist, a film directed by Tobe Hooper and produced by Stephen Spielberg (whose idea it was and who is a credited writer on the film). I saw the film the night it opened at the Paramount Theater on Hollywood Blvd. (now the El Capitan). One knew then that the film was an instant classic. And twenty-five years later (so hard to believe) it’s still a classic. In fact, it’s Mr. Hooper’s only real classic (Texas Chainsaw Massacre, for me, is as bad as it gets) – and the reason for that is simple: There is not one frame of this film that doesn’t have Mr. Spielberg’s stamp on it. It’s that simple. It’s very obvious that Mr. Hooper sat there while Mr. Spielberg “produced” (read directed) the entire film. It’s there in the shots, the performances, the kids, the themes, the camera moves, the humor, in all of it. In any case, I hadn’t seen it in about eight years and I just got hooked all over again. The reason is simple – unlike today’s films, especially this type of film, you care about the characters and the film takes its sweet time getting you to the big scenes. If they remade this today, it would be awful – it would have no grace, it would forego the setup and get right to the big scenes and instead of Jerry Goldsmith’s brilliant score, it would have thumping and no themes. Though many born in the 80s and 90s would disagree with me, for me Poltergeist was the last completely classic Goldsmith score. I liked a few of the subsequent scores (Psycho 2, Gremlins, Explorers), none of the subsequent scores ever reaches the totality of brilliance in Poltergeist. Not only is it one of his all-time great scores, it’s one of the best scores ever. The acting from everyone is perfection. Jobeth Williams and Craig T. Nelson, Beatrice Straight, Zelda Rubinstein (the most inspired casting in the film), little Heather O’Rourke, Dominique Dunne (sadly, the latter two passed away at much too young an age), right down to the smallest part. The film is still scary, but what makes it even scarier are the liberal doses of humor sprinkled throughout the picture. In fact, when I first saw this with a full house, the screams were huge, and they’d be followed by huge laughs, the kind you just don’t hear anymore. The new DVD is miles better than the previous DVD’s transfer – this one is very sharp, a teeny bit too dark, but with excellent color and great sound. The only extras are some paranormal featurettes – people seem upset by this. I could care less – I want the movie and the rest of it is all so much fish.

I then watched the second motion picture on DVD, which was entitled The Twilight Zone: The Movie. I saw this on it opening night, too, but at one of those shoe-box multiplex theaters that were so popular back then. The film has always been problematic, and it was not a hit, most likely due to the horrible pre-release publicity surrounding the fatal accident that killed Vic Morrow and two kids, because of careless planning on the set. The opening segment with Dan Ackroyd and Albert Brooks if fun. Then we have the Vic Morrow episode, which they probably should have cut. It’s heavy-handed, directed poorly by John Landis and it’s a real poor way to start the film. The second episode is Spielberg’s version of Kick The Can. People seem to really despise it for its overt sentimentality and sweetness, but, you know, I respond to that and I like it, and it seems to have weathered the years better than the other stories. The third episode is Joe Dante’s version of the TZ classic, It’s A Good Life (I think that’s what it was called), and while most love it, I find it like all of Mr. Dante’s work – overbearing and directed by someone who just doesn’t know when to stop, and who is just so filled with references to other things that the story gets lost. And then comes George Miller’s take on Nightmare At 20,000 Feet, which remains the best of the lot – kinetic and driven by the great performance of John Lithgow. The transfer is middling, but then the film never looked good in its theatrical showings. I think they went from an internegative rather than the camera negative. It’s just muddy-looking and serviceable – again, it does look like what it did in the theaters.

What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? Why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I’ve got to get my beauty sleep and hopefully I will not wake up screaming.

Today is a busy little day (what else is new?). I have to breakfast with Miss Lauren Rubin, then I have a bunch of errands to do and I have to write a long e-mail note to LACCTAA members. Then I have to make a bunch of telephonic calls to set songs and plan rehearsals, and then I must go to Alet and Andy Taylor’s home environment to rehearse their songs for the show.

Tomorrow, a few of us are going to paper the town with flyers for the fundraiser. I picked up 5000 of them last night. I do know that a few more seats have been sold, so slowly but surely the sales are picking up.

Sunday I’m going to try and do nothing at all. We’ll see how successful I am.

Aren’t I supposed to be writing these here notes quickly? It’s forty-five minutes since I began them. So much for free form, off-the-cuff writing.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, breakfast, do errands, write e-mails, make telephonic calls, and rehearse. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player, and your DVD/video player? I’ll start – CD, about the twentieth listen for Wait Until Dark. DVD, next up John Carpenter’s TV movie, Someone’s Watching Me. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, and do try to remember that I wake up screaming.

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