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June 22, 2008:

DOUBLE DOUBLE

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, I have been staring at this computer screen too long. I am seeing double – for example, when I look at the word double I see doubledouble which, of course, is elbuodelbuod spelled backwards. I think I shall only look at my computer screen sporadically today, so I can rest my weary eyeballs and hence not see doubledouble, which only causes troubletrouble. In any case, I shall endeavor to write these here notes quicklyquickly so I can go rest my weary eyeballs. My Weary Eyeballs – that’s the title of my next novel. Speaking of my novel, I was happy to get my second blurb for the back of the dust jacket. Here it is:

In MURDER AT THE GROVE, occasional teenage gumshoe and always odd duck, Adriana Hofstetter, is at it again, sticking her quirky nose where it doesn’t belong…worrying her mother, fretting her friends (make that friend…just one), irritating the police, and persistently interrogating an array of annoyed suspects about a murder case which everyone insists doesn’t exist. But the determined and indefatigable Ms. Hofstetter’s skewed sleuthing ferrets out the facts faster than she can wolf down onion rings at a local Hollywood bistro. The clues, characters, and locale are all explored with the same eccentric but affectionate Kimmel whimsey displayed in MURDER AT HOLLYWOOD HIGH and the Benjamin Kritzer trilogy.

– Charles Edward Pogue,
screenwriter of THE FLY and DRAGONHEART

So now Grant will add the blurbs to the back of his jacket design and off the entire thing will go to the publishers. We’ll probably start taking preorders for the book in about three weeks, and for those who preorder we have an especially nice free gift that will come with the book – the gifts have been ordered and will be here soon. As for the rest of yesterday, it was a perfectly fine day. I got up fairly early, did a few things on the computer, and then Mr. Kevin Spirtas arrived and we spent a few hours going through the patter and structure of the Spirtas/Sean McDermott two-person show. I had some immediate thoughts, and it was a productive meeting. On Monday we have an eight hour rehearsal, where we’ll get as much of the show on its feet as we can – I’ll know better then if the structure is indeed sound, or if we have to move some stuff around. And, as I see how they’re playing together, I’ll probably finesse the patter and add stuff as we go, which is the way I usually work. After Kevin left, I made some pasta for lunch, then did a few things that needed doing, and then I sat on my couch like so much fish.

Yesterday, I had a day of watching television programs. The first two shows I watched were two Alfred Hitchcock Hour shows I TIVOd, neither of which I’d seen before. The first, I Saw The Whole Thing, was the only Hitchcock show I’d never seen, of the ones he directed, that is. It was quite good, with an excellent performance from John Forsythe in the leading role, and featured performances by Kent Smith, Philip Ober and several other excellent character people. Simply and well directed by Hitch, and the show had a terrific little surprise twist at the end. The next episode starred James Mason and Angie Dickenson, and was written by two writers by the name of Levinson and Link – who would, of course, go on to create Columbo some years later. It wasn’t a great show, but anything with James Mason is worth watching and both he and Miss Dickenson were great. I then watched the first show of the second season of The Outer Limits, a show entitled Soldier, written by Mr. Harlan Ellison. It’s a very good show, well written by Ellison, and well directed by Gerd Oswald. But in the second season of the series, many of the show’s key players and creative voices were gone, including Joseph Stefano and Leslie Stevens, Dominic Frontiere, Conrad Hall – and they were replaced by people who were simply not as creative, most especially the producer, Ben Brady, who was simply no more than average. The episode doesn’t have that distinctly Outer Limits look, and it doesn’t have the sound either, as Harry Lubin’s new music just isn’t as unique as Mr. Frontiere’s was. Still, it’s a good hour of television, with an excellent performance by Michael Ansara, a killing machine from the future who ends up back in time, being chased by another killing machine from the future. Sound familiar? In fact, it sounded familiar to Mr. Ellison when he saw The Terminator – he sued, and I believe won the case.

Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below before I start not only seeing doubledouble but tripletripletriple.

Today, I have absolutely no plans to do anything and I’m going to try to keep it that way. I do have to call our very own Miss Crista Moore in New York – I’m giving her some advice on a one-person show she’s trying to create, and, at some point, I may, in fact, help her put it together. Other than that, it’s relaxing and watching motion pictures on DVD or on TIVO.

Tomorrow, Tuesday, and Wednesday are all rehearsal days and evenings with Mr. Spirtas and Mr. McDermott, and I also have to finish casting the staged reading of the musical I’m mentoring, along with several meetings and a few errands and whatnot.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, speak to Miss Crista Moore, I must relax, and I must not do much of anything at all. 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, whilst I go rest my weary eyeballs so I don’t keep seeing doubledouble.

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