Haines Logo Text
Column Archive
August 17, 2008:

SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY MORNING

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, they say that Saturday night is the loneliest night of the week, and yet here I am on a Saturday night not lonely at all. No, I’m sitting here like so much fish, relaxing, and now writing these here notes at my handy-dandy laptop. Of course, why am I even bringing up Saturday night when it’s Sunday morning, from the film of the same name? So, not only is it not Saturday night, I’m not even lonely. And there you have it, a completely pointless opening to these here notes. And that’s just the way we like it here at haineshisway.com. Speaking of pointless, yesterday was a day that began early and ended late, like so many days have a tendency to do. I got up quite early, did a few things around the home environment, and then did the long jog on the not-so-new route. After that, I did some errands and whatnot, then decided to watch some episodes of Adam 12. I watched disc two, having finished disc one last night. There are six episodes per disc. The first five were fine, with a few neat location shots (this show has a bad habit of doing a great location shot only to have the Adam 12 car turn and suddenly enter the Universal back lot – that wasn’t the case with season one). But with episode six I hit pay dirt. The first fifteen minutes were routine and took place mostly on sets. But then there was a chase between the Adam 12 car and a motorcycle. The first street they were going down was Ventura Blvd. traveling west from Laurel Canyon, mere blocks from where I live. One saw the Studio Theater (now Bookstar), the old Bank of America (now the new Bank of America), some store with “Fish” written on it, where now resides a Starbuck’s. And a brief drive-by some construction – I couldn’t figure out exactly where that was. Then suddenly there was a cut, and they were by Walter Reed Middle School (then junior high school), an amazing leap of geography that put them a mile or two from where they’d just been. That was fun to see. Then suddenly they were back on Ventura Blvd. and pulling over to the curb about a half-block from Whitsett, which is also mere moments from where I now live. I recognized the building immediately (it’s still there, looking pretty much the same). Then one of the officers went around to the back, which is a small street called Ventura Court. That was amazing to see – where now reside a small theater, and various little offices (on the north side), then there were little houses – who knew? They dotted the entire street, including what is now one of the Public Storage facilities that I use. I didn’t think it could get any better (I was using the pause button like crazy), and then it did. They suddenly turned onto Laurelgrove, north of Ventura. I could immediately see that the construction I’d seen earlier was for what is now a coin shop, where they sell rare coins. You could see the wood frame (a unique shape) and everything. To the left, across the street, was a parking lot for something – that whole area now houses California Pizza Kitchen, Coldstone, and several other jernts. Across the street, all the buildings are just as they are now, albeit with new stores in them. The chase ended on the footbridge that goes from my nabe to Ventura Blvd. I couldn’t believe it – that is literally one block from my house. I’d actually moved here after that footbridge had been damaged in the earthquake of the early 1990s – it’s concrete now, but was wood, then. One could see several houses, and they’re exactly the same now but with different foliage. It was really fun, and I watched it several times.

I then went out to a local eatery and had some eggs benedict and some buffalo wings as an appetizer. It was very filling, and I needed to eat something substantial. Given the long jog, I’m sure it wasn’t damaging at all. I then came back home and sat on my couch like so much fish.

Last night, I watched the latest Studio Ghibli anime entitled Tales of Earthsea, new to me anyway (it was released in Japan in 2006). This was the first film made by the great Hayao Miyazaki’s son, Goro, and it’s quite a debut – he’s a real chip off the father’s block. Adapted from several tales in the Earthsea book by Ursula K. Le Guin, it’s a gorgeous-looking film, really ravishing. The story is told at a very leisurely pace, which I liked and appreciated, and it features dragons and wizards and fantasy, and I found it all captivating. The art is so stunning at times it actually takes one’s breath away. The musical score was quite good (not by Ghibli regular Joe Hisaishi), the sound really gave my system a workout, and while it’s a little somber and humorless, I still enjoyed it very much, and more than the last Miyazaki film, Howl’s Moving Castle. The transfer on this Chinese import (just porting over the Japanese DVD) was excellent.

Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because it’s both Saturday night and Sunday morning and frankly that’s messing with my mind.

Today is another day for which I have no plans. Oh, I plan to do the long jog, I plan to eat something amusing, and I plan to watch at least two DVDs and some more Adam 12 episodes, as well as relax.

Tomorrow, it’s back to the grindstone, with many errands to run, a few packages to ship, a few evenings out seeing a reading one night, a nightclub show another – the usual stuff. And, of course, later in the week the Scent Of Mystery CDs should be in, and that will be a lot of shipping. I’m also expecting a new shipment of books.

This must be one of our big birthday months, so it’s time once again to put on our pointy party hats and our colored tights and pantaloons, it’s time to break out the cheese slices and the ham chunks, it’s time to dance the Hora or the Carioca, for today is the birthday of dear reader S. Woody White, who has been around these here parts from the very beginning, and even before that he was a regular reader of The Real A’s columns. So, let’s give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to our very own S. Woody White. On the count of three or the duke of four: One, two, three: A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO OUR VERY OWN S. WOODY WHITE!!!

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, jog, eat something amusing, watch DVDs, and be a lazy loafer or, at the very least, a lazy saddle shoe. 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, as we try to get our mind around this Saturday night and Sunday morning conundrum.

Search BK's Notes Archive:
 
© 2001 - 2024 by Bruce Kimmel. All Rights Reserved