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July 4, 2008:

INDEPENDENCE

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, I think these here notes will be filled with fireworks today. Why? Because this is a day for fireworks and barbecue and sitting on the couch like so much fish. Yes, Virginia, today is the 4th of July, Independence Day, a day of independence. Or, to quote a lyric from The Brain From Planet X:

It’s the fourth of July
There are fireworks in the sky
Parades will go marching by
March away

Yes, sparklers will be sparkling, and a potpourri of colors will be lighting the night sky all over these United States of America. Frankly, I’m feeling red, white, and blue all over. Speaking of blue, yesterday was a rather long but nice day. I got up quite early, did some early errands, then jogged for two miles, and whilst doing so came up with the ending for the short story I began yesterday. It’s always nice to have an ending, and I jogged as quickly as possible, got home and wrote it all down. After that, I had to quickly shower and get over to rehearsal with the boys. We began rehearsal by running the numbers that have a lot of staging. Then we decided to start at the very beginning, a very good place to start. We stopped and started all the way through the show – fixing timing, cleaning up staging, changing a line here and a line there. The one thing that’s clear is that the structure of the show is really sound. We also worked on performance and interpretation, as there are some pitfalls with a couple of songs that have to be avoided at all costs. Both acts have one really funny sequence. I’m still not sure about the pacing and won’t be until next Thursday when we do a run without stopping, but it looks like it’s going to be a really fun show, and boy, you can’t beat the voices on these guys, and they’re both rather pleasing to look at, too, which is always a plus. After rehearsal, I decided to head over to Art’s Deli and have my tri-salad plate, which was very good and very filling. That was my meal o’ the day, and then I finally came home and sat on my couch like so much fish.

Last night, I watched a motion picture I’d TIVOd entitled Witness To Murder, a little noir I’d never seen and knew nothing about. The film starred Barbara Stanwyck, Gary Merrill, and George Sanders, with a good cast of very recognizable supporting players. The film starts off beautifully and continues that way for about thirty minutes, after which it devolves into melodrama and lack of believability due to lazy writing by Chester Erskine. Despite that, it’s still very entertaining simply because of the great cast – Stanwyck is excellent, as is Merrill, and George Sanders is superb as the villain. And, on top of all that, there are some wonderfully tantalizing shots of 1953 LA – the corner location of Miss Stanwyck’s apartment was driving me crazy. It looked so familiar, but I could not place it. The film is very well directed by Roy Rowland (The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T), although I suspect that a lot of the camera setups are thanks to the brilliant noir cameraman, John Alton. The lighting and the shadows and the night photography is incredible – no one did it better than Mr. Alton. The film also had a very busy and somewhat overwrought score by Herschel Burke Gilbert. And there was one great laugh when Merrill’s detective partner played by Jesse White, starts likening their police work to the then brand new TV show, Dragnet.

Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below as we get ready to make our own fireworks here at haineshisway.com.

I’m feeling very independent today, aren’t you? Today, I shall sleep in, take a ride in my motor car, do some downloading on Ye Olde Computer, and then attend a partay at neighbor Tony Slide and Bob Gitt’s home environment. I’ve been told that my pal, composer John Scott will be there – haven’t seen him in a while so I’m looking forward to catching up with him.

Tomorrow, I’m intending to attend the DGA screening of Wall-E, and then my alumni association over which I preside is having a short meeting at my house. After the meeting, I’ll go eat something reasonable but fun.

Sunday, I have no plans whatsoever, and that’s a good thing. I’ll just do some catching up with things around the house, and watch a few motion pictures.

Oh, and yesterday, I got a box containing what will be the free gift for the first thirty people who pre-order Murder At The Grove. I think it’s something everyone will really like, and I’ll say no more, oh, no, I will say no more.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be independent, drive about in my motor car, and attend a partay. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player and your DVD/video player? I’ll start – CD, a bunch of home-grown CDs of various and sundried unreleased film scores, my favorite of which is Michael Small’s Audrey Rose. DVD, not sure what’s up next – I’m trying to get through all this stuff I’ve TIVOd for the last three years and that’s mostly what I’ve been viewing. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst we have a special day and evening filled with fireworks and sparkling sparklers here at haineshisway.com.

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