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July 3, 2008:

MELON BALLS

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, I’m presuming that some people are taking this day off, given that July 4th inconveniently falls on a Friday. Isn’t the 4th supposed to be a four-day weekend? So, where’s the extra day? Today? Monday? In any case, I’m not taking this day off, in fact I’m working all day long – but more about that later. July is already flying by, like a gazelle eating a melon ball. Speaking of a melon ball (and who wasn’t?), yesterday was a day that existed for a time and then was gone. My goodness, that was quite profound, wasn’t it? I got up at nine, puttered around the home environment, and then did some morning errands, after which I came home and decided to jog. I went the full two miles and they were a bit easier to do because I’d decided to begin the first of what I hope will be a new batch of short stories, and I spent the entire jog coming up with the first two paragraphs. I had the idea for this story over a year ago, along with a couple of other story ideas. But this particular idea is the one that kept looming in front of me, and when I got back from the jog I did indeed begin it. I am not in a hurry, so will write at my leisure, trying to do a little each day until I get the form and style of this particular story down. I then got a little steak from Gelson’s and I cooked it up and ate it and it was quite yummilicious. I had a bagel with it. I did more errands, made some telephonic calls, and then it was time to go have a rehearsal with Mr. Sean McDermott. We worked for about ninety minutes on his solo stuff, and it was very productive. After rehearsal, I got some melon balls and orange slices from Gelson’s and came home and sat on my couch like so much fish.

Last night, whilst eating melon balls, I watched a motion picture I’d TIVOd entitled Hollywood Hotel, starring Mr. Dick Powell, and sisters Rosemary and Lola Lane. The film was directed by Mr. Busby Berkely. I’d never seen the film before, and I found some of it very entertaining, and some of it very irritating, and its length (close to two hours) finally did it in. I really liked the sisters Lane, and Mr. Powell was his usual charming self. I could not abide the “comic” performances of Hugh Herbert and Ted Healy, especially the latter – one of the unfunniest screen presences in the history of film. This film introduced the song Hooray for Hollywood, and what a great song it is. There are also some rather tantalizing location shots of early Hollywood Blvd. And how great is it to be able to see the exterior of the beautiful Hollywood Hotel, located right on the corner of Highland and Hollywood Blvd. where now sits the gigantic mall Hollywood + Highland. The hotel was gone by the time I first visited Hollywood, or at least I think it was. Certainly by the time I was twelve it was gone, for I remember the building that was on that corner very well.

I have, of late, been eating a lot of melon balls. I just love melon balls. I buy them and eat them all up, all these little balls and they’re quite refreshing to eat when it’s so hot. I forget how much I like melon balls and haven’t eaten them for the last eight months or so, but then I remembered how much I love melon balls and now I am on a melon ball kick, and I kick these little balls to and fro and also fro and to and it’s ever so much fun. Fun With Melon Balls – that’s the title of my next novel.

Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below whilst we all have fun with our various and sundried melon balls.

As I mentioned earlier, this is no day off for the likes of me. For the likes of me it is a full day of work. I must get up early, I must jog, I must shave and shower, and then I must have an all-day rehearsal with those talented boys, Mr. Kevin Spirtas and Mr. Sean McDermott. The goal today is to get everything as smooth as we can and then end the day with a run-through (we’re working with CD accompaniment today, but next week pianist Michael Lavine will by flying in to work with us). After the rehearsal, I’m quite sure I’ll come home and sit on my couch like so much fish.

Tomorrow and the weekend are mine, all mine, and I shall do whatever pleases me, like eating more melon balls. Eating melon balls pleases me and there are no two or even three ways about it. I will, of course, be attending the annual 4th of July do at neighbor Tony Slide and Bob Gitt’s home environment, and I’m quite sure we’ll be talking about the monumental news that a complete print of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis has been found in Buenos Aires. A good twenty or thirty minutes of film that had been thought lost forever. I’m sure there will be a new DVD and screenings everywhere. The current DVD restoration is pretty spectacular, so if they can cut in all the missing footage or, perhaps, even use this newly-discovered nitrate print in its entirety, film lovers everywhere will be very happy indeed.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, jog, rehearse, and sit on my couch like so much fish, and maybe even write a few paragraphs of a short story. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your all-time favorite silent films? I’m not as up on silents as I should be, and I’ll be interested to hear your selections. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, and let’s all have some melon balls over the weekend so we can have a collective melon ball love fest.

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