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November 14, 2007:

THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, hold your hats and hallelujah, BK’s gonna show it to you. Yes, Virginia, we have us a little errant and truant celebration to have. We should have had it last Friday to be exact, but I was recuperating from my long and arduous prior week and I just plum forgot or, at the very least, I just apricot forgot. And so did all of our other long-time denizens. And just what did we forget? Well, I’ll tell you what we forgot, because why should I keep such things from dear readers such as yourselves. What we forgot is the simple little factoid that on November 9, 2001, this here site was born. The first notes were posted on November 9th, followed by the second notes posted on the 12th – it was the first and last weekend there were no notes. The interesting thing is that when we began, the 9th fell on a Friday, and now six years later the 9th fell on a Friday again. Poor Friday is always having the 9th fall on it and Friday isn’t that happy about it, frankly or even georgely. Three weeks prior to that day in 2001, my world had come crashing down around me on a little day we like to call Black Saturday. On that day, I realized just how evil people could be. It was a shocker and there soon was so much misinformation being spouted all over the place, that I called Mr. Mark Bakalor and said, “I have to have a way to combat this – can we create a website?” He said sure, and over the next two weeks he designed haineshisway.com. I’d written occasional things on the website of a certain record label that I thought I was the president and part owner of, and when it came time to do that at haineshisway.com, I simply used the same title, BK’s Notes and added the II. It was amazing how fast people found the site and how quickly its popularity grew. I wanted to create a place that was fun, informative, and unlike most Internet sites, where there would be no trolls or continuous nastiness. And, for the most part, we’ve been wildly successful at that – oh, we’ve had our squabbles, and people have come and gone, and some have returned and some haven’t, but overall I’m very proud of our record here at haineshisway.com. We certainly have had a couple of trolls try to disrupt us, and we’ve even had a couple of Unseemly Stalkers, but we’ve taken care of them, and, with the addition of our Unseemly Message Board, one now has the control to rid ourselves of meddlesome pests. This community is amazing, really – friendships have been forged, we’ve had two of our denizens marry, we’ve had hainsies/kimlets get-togethers, we’ve been through drama, comedy, and for me, seven books, several shows, TV shows, and life’s little ups and downs, hopefully with an emphasis on the former. And in all that time, discounting that initial weekend, since November 12th, I have never missed a day of writing these here notes, which, I think, would make this the longest running or certainly one of the longest running daily things of its size (frankly, I think it IS the longest running with never a day missed – and I don’t mean these things that are two lines long that call themselves daily whatevers, and even then, I still think we’d have to be the longest running). We’ve seen some of our site’s pleasures borrowed for other sites, we’ve gotten to the place where we have millions of hits a year (and this year, especially, our numbers have tripled). Are there things I would have done differently over the six years? Of course. As most of you know, I do tend to put it all out there, and I think that’s one of the things that’s unique about us, but there are a couple of times I wish I hadn’t. But, here we are, going into our seventh year, which is an amazing feat or, at the very least, an amazing feet. Let’s all eat some cheese slices and ham chunks to celebrate, and let’s all raise our glasses and toast what soon will be the most popular site on all the Internet – haineshisway.com.

My goodness, that was a long paragraph, wasn’t it? And I haven’t even begun talking about yesterday’s adventures. Yesterday, for example, I got up. That was an adventure. I then did a few things that needed doing, then Mr. Cason Murphy came by and we discussed a few things, then I did a phone interview about The First Nudie Musical with someone who’s writing some sort of book about the 70s. Then Cason and I lunched at Casa Vega. Then I came back, did a few errands, and then toddled off to West LA to see a screening of Nick Redman’s John Ford documentary. When last I saw it, it wasn’t quite finished, and the tiny few nips and tucks were very good, and the show plays very well and looks great. I sat in front of Rudy Behlmer and we had quite a marvelously marvelous chat. Lalo Schifrin and his lovely wife Donna were there. After that, I came home where I got the news that one of my favorite authors, Ira Levin, had died.

As some of you know, I recorded Mr. Levin’s musical comedy, Drat! The Cat! His publisher had called me to see if I’d be interested enough to come to New York and have a meeting about it, and I said of course. So, on one of my frequent (in those days) trips, I met Mr. Levin. I walked in with a first edition of Rosemary’s Baby and told him if he wrote a lovely inscription that we wouldn’t even need the meeting, that I’d just commit to doing the album. He did and I did. He loved the recording, and fell in love with Susan Egan and Jason Graae. Susan and I had a wonderful dinner with him after the CD came out. For years I tried to convince Encores and Reprise to do it, to no avail. I was one of the first to know he was doing the sequel to Rosemary’s Baby (Son of Rosemary), and he sent me one of the first copies of the book. In it, there was an anagram that he never solves for the reader. He throws down the gauntlet about it. So, I read the book in one sitting, then was determined to figure out the anagram – roast mules, which, when anagrammed, would become a word even a child would know. I refused to try to solve it on the computer – that’s just cheating. I could not figure it out, but because I am obsessed with words and their various and sundried permutations, that night I was lying in bed thinking about roast mules and it just came to me. The next morning I got up and called Ira and told him the answer. He hung up on me, then called me back laughing, and said, “If you’re so smart, who’s” and said a name, then hung up again. With a little sleuthing I found out the name he gave me was the real name of Ayn Rand, if I remember correctly. We spoke every now and then, and when I finished Benjamin Kritzer, I sent him the manuscript and timidly asked if he’d blurb it, but only if he liked the book. Thankfully, he really liked the book and wrote me a beautiful blurb – getting that blurb meant the world to me, and was one of the proudest moments I’ve ever had. The last time I saw Ira was at the Musicals Tonight Encores-like presentation of Drat! The Cat! We sat next to each other, and every time one of his wonderful dialogue lines got a laugh, I poked him. He was a brilliant writer, and, for me, Rosemary’s Baby is one of the great modern novels, and his first book, A Kiss Before Dying, is one of the great first books. Add to that, The Boys From Brazil, The Stepford Wives, This Perfect Day, and his plays No Time For Sergeants and Deathtrap – well, he was the real deal and it was a privilege and an honor to know him. RIP, dear Ira.

Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because this first section is so long I fell asleep three times whilst writing it.

Last night, I watched a motion picture on DVD entitled Cruising, starring Mr. Al Pacino, directed by William Friedkin. I’d never seen the film before but, of course, had heard all about it. It’s not a great film, but it’s much better than I’d been led to believe it was. It’s a really odd film, especially in its presentation of the killer, and it’s so enigmatic at times that you’re really not sure who did what to whom. That, apparently, is what Mr. Friedkin was going for, but it’s no wonder the film was a huge bomb. The transfer is perfect.

Today, I’m hoping there will be some good news, and I have a lot of little things to catch up on, and then I’m supposed to go to an event in the evening. I also have to buy some light bulbs for the kitchen because all but one have recently blown out.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, hopefully have some good news, do some things, and then attend an event. 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, shall we, and let’s do our yearly “how did you find this site and what are your favorite moments you’ve shared here” posts.

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