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September 12, 2008:

POACHED EGGS

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, it’s Friday. I ask you, where else on all the Internet can you find such information? Nowhere, that’s where. And looking at Ye Olde Calendar I can see that we are approaching the halfway point of September and I gotta tell you this month is flying by like a gazelle eating a poached egg. If one poaches an egg can one be arrested? Does one have to put the poached egg back if one is caught poaching it? I’m quite enamored of poached eggs. I don’t mean to say it’s romantic or anything, but whenever I have poached eggs on an English or even a Polish muffin I am ineffably happy. Perhaps this should be Poached Egg Day here at haineshisway.com. Perhaps we should all poach an egg today or eat an egg that has been poached. I, for one, wouldn’t even know how to begin to poach an egg in my own home, so I must go elsewhere for my poached eggs. Yes, poached eggs are the ticket and they’re also the poached eggs. What the HELL am I talking about? Don’t I have Friday notes to write? And yet, here I sit, waxing rhapsodically about poached eggs. Speaking of poached eggs, yesterday went by so quickly I couldn’t believe it. I got up a little later than I’ve been getting up, answered a few e-mails that had come in, and then did the long jog, which was actually quite pleasant. Then I answered more e-mails, booked another guest for our LACCTAA panel in October, and had a couple of telephonic calls. I then drove over to my pal Dave Strohmaier’s home environment for a little Blu-Ray demonstration with the new How The West Was Won DVD. He has a great set-up, and it was fun to see it. The Blu-Ray DVD is pretty sharp, and has decent if not very IB Technicolor-like color, and the Smilebox process works just great and it’s a real shame Warners couldn’t be bothered to include it on the standard DVD. We talked about many topics and Dave is so knowledgeable about Cinerama that it’s always fascinating to chat with him. I waxed nostalgic about the Warner Cinerama Theater on Hollywood Boulevard (which I wrote about extensively in Benjamin Kritzer), and we talked about the reasons that The Wonderful World Of The Brothers Grimm won’t be getting a DVD release any time soon. After I left there, it was already late afternoon, and I was starving, so first I went to the mail place and shipped a big online store order of Evening Primrose and Une Chambre En Ville CDs, picked up a few pieces of mail, and then bought a can of tuna and an onion and some balls of the cantaloupe and honeydew kind. I came back home and made the tuna, and read some e-mails that came in, including one sort of annoying one, which I’ll have to deal with this morning, although there’s probably not much to deal with. It’s yet another case of me having a good and interesting notion, telling it to someone so that we could partner in making it happen, and then finding out it’s already begun happening, but not with me and not in the way I was proposing it to happen. I’ll see if I can get it back on track so that it’s beneficial to both parties, and if not, I’ll probably figure out a different approach to doing it and in that regard I have an interesting way to go, if I need to. I ate my tuna sandwiches, which were just what the doctor ordered. I really must stop ordering only what the doctor ordered – the doctor will think I’m stalking him. After that, I sat on my couch like so much fish.

Last night, I watched two count them two motion pictures, one on DVD and one on TIVO. The first motion picture was on DVD and was entitled Rodan. I have always had a soft spot for Rodan because it was the first Japanese monster movie I ever saw. I didn’t catch up with Godzilla until it played on Channel Nine’s Million Dollar Movie, in 1960, I think. But I saw Rodan at the Picfair Theater when it came out and I quite liked it. Of course, that was a dubbed in English version that was ten minutes shorter than the original Japanese version. I’d never actually seen the Japanese version, other than the laserdisc, which I still have, imported from Japan, and without subtitles. So, it was a pleasure to finally see and be able to understand the original version. It’s not really a very good film, but the miniatures are so much fun, and it all moves along at a steady clip, that you forgive it. I also watched a little of the American version, which has awful dubbing (most of the voices are done by Keye Luke, George Takei, and Paul Frees), and sometimes doesn’t even resemble what’s really being said. The transfer of the Japanese version is decent enough, and the transfer of the American version is pretty faded. I then watched a motion picture I’d TIVOd entitled Cops and Robbers, starring Mr. Cliff Gorman and Mr. Joe Balogna. I’d seen it when it came out in the early 1970s and didn’t think much of it. Watching it again, I was struck by the fact that the script by Donald Westlake (from his novel) was actually pretty terrific, and that the reason the film doesn’t work nearly as well as it should can basically be laid at the feet of director Aram Avakian, who, prior to his directing career (such as it was), was a really good editor. He has no idea how to shoot scenes or how to pace a movie, or even how to tell an easy story dynamically. The thing just lumbers along – it’s blessedly short at eighty-nine minutes, but if you took out all his little artsy touches, which don’t work, the film would run about sixty minutes. Mr. Gorman and Mr. Bologna are fine, but the film could have benefited from some star power. There is a particularly strong supporting performance from the excellent and underrated Sheppard Strudwick. The score by Michel Legrand is a complete misfire – it’s only about ten minutes long, and it cripples an already crippled (by its director) film. I’m sure Mr. Avakian led Mr. Legrand down the garden path, so I’m not sure I’d blame Mr. Legrand for this. This actually would be ripe for a remake with some really good actors and a top-notch director. But, given the fact that I don’t think there are many good actors or top-notch directors, probably best to leave well enough alone.

Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because tonight I shall dream of poached eggs.

Today, I shall do the long jog, I shall do a few errands and whatnot, and I shall have a few telephonic conversations, but other than that, I have no plans whatsoever. Whatever was supposed to be happening today isn’t happening.

The weekend is pretty open, too. I do have to deliver books to Mystery and Imagination so they can have them ready for the upcoming signing/reading. And I may see a movie at the DGA if I feel up to it, otherwise I’ll just relax and smell the roses or the coffee or the feta cheese.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a long jog, do errand and what not, have various and sundried telephonic calls and I certainly must eat some poached eggs or, if I’m feeling especially feisty, some eggs benedict. 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 Paul Misraki collection – Mr. Misraki is a film composer of considerable worth, and this collection has two of his finest scores, Alphaville and Le Doulos. DVD, next up maybe War Of The Gargantuas or Cimarron. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst we all celebrate Poached Egg Day by poaching some eggs and eating same.

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