Well, dear readers, it is quite late and so I must breeze through these here notes breezily so I can get them posted post haste. After some sunshiny sunshine and warm weather, the rains have returned quite fiercely. What kind of opening is THIS? This is a bland pudding of an opening is what this is. This is so boring I already fell asleep twice whilst writing it. I need a clever turn of phrase or, at the very least, a clever phrase of turn. As the great violinist Louis Kaufman said to one of my mastering engineers in regards to the sound of his violin – “Put a little pepper on it.” That’s what I need for these here notes – I need to put a little pepper on it. Speaking of pepper, yesterday was a long day, which was followed by an extra-long evening. I got up, packaged up some things, shipped said packages, and then stopped by Amoeba to kill some time (nothing interesting there), then ate an early lunch at Astroburger, which, as always, was quite yummilicious. I then came home and began writing, which went more slowly than I cared for, but eventually I got seven pages done, although I know I’ll be doing a bit of futzing and revising this morning before beginning the new chapter. Right in the middle of writing the Handy Man arrived to install the new dishwasher. He worked for about forty-five minutes, then had to go to a hardware store for a bit of pipe he wanted to replace. That’s when I finished writing for the day. Then he came back, finished installing, and everything works fine. I then toddled off to the Wood of Holly to see an Otto Preminger double bill. Since I got there early (to get street parking), I took a walk. I passed an obnoxious group of kids – as I walked on, I heard the shattering of glass and turned around. One of these buttwipes had dropped her liquor bottle on the ground. Did they stay to clean all that glass up? Of course not. They just went on their drunken way – at 6:00. When did these cretins start their drinking, I wonder. I do believe that this current generation of young people in their late teens right up through thirty are going to produce more alcoholics than any generation since I was born. I’m not trying to speak in generalities, but so many people of this generation live to get drunk and wasted. Not just on weekends, but every night. I wish it were not so, but since this stuff plays a part in my latest novel, I can only tell you that it happens with alarming frequency, and not only that, these peckerwoods brag about it. Just go to Yelp and read restaurant reviews by the kiddies – all they talk about is how they either get drunk or go into restaurants drunk or how they love this place or that place to get plastered. Obviously, there are exceptions, but the majority seems to be going down this road that they will truly regret. One day, they’re going to wake up and look in the mirror and see a puffy, aged face that they’re not going to be prepared for. I’ll get off my soap box now.
Last night, I saw two motion pictures. The first motion picture was entitled Bunny Lake Is Missing, a film of Otto Preminger, starring Mr. Keir Dullea, Miss Carol Lynley, Mr. Laurence Olivier, and Mr. Noel Coward. I’ve written about the film before, but I’ll just recap that this was a film I didn’t really care for back on its initial release, but it’s a film that’s aged well, and I quite like it now. And let me just say that anyone who thinks watching DVDs, whether hi-def or standard, in any way compares to seeing a wonderful 35mm scope print, is living in a fool’s paradise. The print of Bunny Lake was superb, with gorgeous black-and-white photography, and on a huge screen – there’s just nothing like it. Once again, the film was introduced by the increasingly annoying Foster Hirsch, who’s taking his little moment of glory just a little too seriously. The theater was pretty crowded, and I even saw my pal Julie Kirgo in attendance. Miss Carol Lynley spoke after Bunny Lake and had some fun stories, but Mr. Hirsch has a habit of interrupting his guests just as they’re about to say something interesting, and then said guests lose their train of thought, and we lose an interesting story. Note to Mr. Hirsch – this isn’t about YOU. The second motion picture was entitled The 13th Letter, which Mr. Hirsch called a very rare film noir. Rare it may be, but not exactly film noir, unless you’re being really loose with your definition of film noir. I’d never seen it and didn’t realize it was a remake of a French film made just a couple of years prior – Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Le Corbeau. I found the film somewhat enjoyable, but it’s not top notch Preminger. It does have an excellent performance by Constance Smith, who seems to have had quite a brief career. It also has a nice Alex North score.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below and let’s put a little pepper on it.
Today I shall write for most of the day and fix whatever doesn’t please me from yesterday. I have a couple of minor errands to run, too.
I then have to decide if I’m going to go see Advise and Consent, with star Don Murray in attendance. It was so wonderful to see Bunny Lake on the big screen, that I’m very tempted. We’ll see how tired I am and how I’m feeling.
The upcoming week is going to be very busy, with writing, meetings, work sessions, dinners, lunches, and all manner of whatnot.
Now wait just a darned minute – perhaps we’d all better put on our pointy party hats and our colored tights and pantaloons, maybe we’d all better break out the cheese slices and the ham chunks, maybe we’d all better dance the Hora or the cha-cha-cha, because today is the birthday of our very own MusicGuy. So, let’s give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to our very own MusicGuy. On the count of three: One, two, three – A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO OUR VERY OWN MUSICGUY!!!
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, write, revise, futz, fix, clean up, and then decide if I want to see a motion picture. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, and let’s put a little pepper on it.