Well, dear readers, we had a January 1st record posting day yesterday, which was a lovely way to begin the New Year. I went to bed around one o’clock after watching some of The Blob, which I thought was a fine just-after-midnight-on-New-Year’s-Eve movie. I slept very well and got up exactly when I wanted, around nine-fifteen. I had a plan and by gum and by golly and buy bonds I was going to stick to the plan. So, at ten o’clock sharp I began the plan – writing my new novel. The first few pages of any new novel are very difficult for me, and this was no different. I’d been pondering the opening of the book for the last four months, knew its opening sentence, and also what the first chapter was about and how I wanted the first few paragraphs to be. Of course, as soon as I wrote those first few paragraphs it became clear to me that I didn’t like them. So, I kept the first sentence and rewrote everything else – about five times. Finally, I got a structure I liked and then I proceeded from there in stops and starts. Normally, I like to do between three and five pages a day – I did five within two hours, and then an additional two later in the day. I also revised those first five pages endlessly, making sure the tone was right and that the descriptive prose was doing what I wanted it to do. After pondering this thing for four months, I cannot tell you how much fun it was to actually start writing. It’s something I love doing, even when it’s really difficult. As I did last year, I’m going to try and write every day until I finish, and to do at least three pages so that I’ll be doing twenty-one pages a week at the minimum. After I finished with the day’s writing, I did a few other things on the computer, shaved and showered, and then toddled off to Mr. Barry Pearl’s New Year’s Day partay. I’d never been to his home before, and it was quite a lovely place – he lives there with girlfriend Cindy, and she’s a very lovely lady indeed. I didn’t really know many people there, but at some point my old pal and dildo Jeff Harlan arrived with his girlfriend of many years, and we always have a good time talking about Nudie Musical and how much fun it was. There were some actors I recognized like Randi Heller, and Herschel Sparber, and Bart Braverman. I knew Bart had done the Vegas series, but I could swear that we knew each other from something else. It was a packed house with lots of food and drink and everyone seemed very nice. The funniest thing that happened was when some gray-haired gentleman came up to me and asked me if my name was Kimmel – I said yes, and he said that he was the realtor who sold my house back in 1982 when I deevorced. Isn’t that funny? I stayed there about two hours and then took my leave. I came home, did my additional bit of writing, and then sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched two count them two motion pictures that I’d TIVOd, neither of which I’d ever seen. The first motion picture was entitled The Bigamist, and was the story of a bigamist, which is why I suppose it was called The Bigamist. In other words, if they’d called it The Bigamist and it was about a pig farmer, then something would have been both amiss and amister. The film stars the wonderful Edmond O’Brien, Joan Fontaine, Ida Lupino and Edmond Gwenn. It’s directed by Miss Lupino, and I’m beginning to think she’s one of the most underrated directors of that era. I’ve enjoyed every film of hers that I’ve seen, most especially The Hitchhiker. The Bigamist is perfectly paced, well directed and photographed, with a good musical score by Leigh Harline, and excellent performances, especially from Miss Lupino. Given the censorship of the time, it’s a little surprising they got away with some of the stuff they got away with. I then watched House Of Numbers, from the novel by Jack Finney, directed by Russell Rouse, an interesting director who made several excellent films, including DOA and The Well. Of course, he will live in infamy for directing The Oscar. House Of Numbers is a terrific little prison escape meller and I really liked it a lot. Shot in scope, it looks great, has a great score by Andre Previn, and, again, is perfectly paced. The cast was excellent, especially Jack Palance as look-a-like brothers, one in prison, one out. I liked the leading lady Barbara Lang – I’ll have to look her up and see what else she’d done. Good work from Edward Platt and Harold J. Stone, and brief appearances by two Paths of Glory alumni, Joe Turkel and Timothy Carey. The plotting is very interesting, and it would be wonderful to have a nice anamorphic transfer of this on DVD.
What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? Why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must get my beauty sleep for I have a full day ahead of me.
Doesn’t this feel like a Monday? And yet, it is a Wednesday. Yes, Virginia, this is a Wednesday that feels like a Monday. It certainly doesn’t feel like a Wednesday and frankly Monday felt like a Saturday. It’s quite confusing but I shall endeavor to keep things straight, because I really don’t care for crooked things.
Today, I shall write, package up a couple of orders and get them shipped out, do a bunch of errands, make some telephonic calls, and hopefully pick up a package or three. I have to print out the latest version of the first act for the musical I’m mentoring, so I can see exactly where we’re at, and then we’ll do a little informal read-through of it with some good actors and see how it feels. Then, if all is well, we’ll dive into act two.
I’ll be setting up meetings for the two two-person shows I’m directing, so we can start working on material. I have a couple of lunches to set up, too, and I’ll be talking to the Chance Theater to get production meeting dates and casting dates.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, write, do errands, ship, make telephonic calls, and I’m sure there will be other things to attend to. Today’s topic of discussion: Even though it feels like a Monday it is, in fact, 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 I continue writing, and trying to not think it’s a Monday when it’s really a Wednesday.