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July 15, 2009:

CLEAN TEETH

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, it is teeth cleaning day today, so I must write these here notes in a hurry, get my beauty sleep, and then toddle off to get said teeth sparkly and clean, not necessarily in that order. I will admit to being a very bad boy, teeth cleaning-wise – it’s been a long time between visits. I just always forget to make an appointment and time goes by. I hope we don’t find cavities or anything odd – I do know that there’s a filling that seems to have deteriorated, at least that’s what it feels like. So, send excellent vibes and xylophones for good, healthy teeth. Good Healthy Teeth – that’s the title of my next novel. It will be fun to see Dr. Chew – he’s a very nice sort.

That was an entire paragraph about teeth. I ask you, where else on all the Internet can you find such a paragraph? Nowhere, that’s where. I spent yesterday morning uploading a ton of videos to YouTube, all from the Two’s Company concert. If you haven’t seen them, you may check them out by going to www.youtube.com/haineshisway. I did the long jog, I worked on the lyric to the new song and made quite a bit of headway, finishing about half of it. I did some errands and whatnot, picked up two packages (several more still due), and came home, where I did some more work on the lyric and did some things that needed doing. I then had a work session with the composer and lyricist of the long musical and that went very well, and then the three of us went to the Studio CafĂ© and had some good eatin’. After that, I came home and sat on my couch like so much fish.

Last night, I watched a motion picture on DVD entitled Ponyo On The Cliff By The Sea, a rather ponderous title to a wonderfully simple film by the great Hayao Miyazaki. This man, dare I say, is touched with genius and you can never predict or second-guess what type of film he’s going to make, so it always takes a moment to adjust when it’s as different as this film is. Since the film is about a five-year-old boy and a fish girl of roughly the same age, the film is basically told through their eyes. Therefore, Mr. Miyazaki has simplified his animation and art and while it’s quite beautiful, it is very different from the densely packed art of Princess Mononoke or Spirited Away or Howl’s Moving Castle. This is more in the style of My Neighbor Tortoro or Kiki’s Delivery Service, but much simpler. Once I realized what he was doing, I settled right in. The tale told is really simple – a young fish girl falls in love with the young boy who finds her and she wants to be human. There’s no real drama and not too much conflict – it’s just a warm, funny, and endearing little story and I loved every minute of it. Once again, a major part of the success of the film must go to Joe Hisaishi’s music – it’s gorgeous, as it always is, and makes total magic of the images. The DVD looks very good upconverted, but the Blu-Ray, coming in November (the first Studio Ghibli Blu-Ray) should be spectacular. Ponyo is getting a theatrical release via Disney in August, but beware that it’s a dubbed version with a story consultant, which means they’re probably changing the story or making it more like a US film, which is a shame – it is what it is. It will also be dubbed and these Disney dubs frequently distort the original intentions of the movie. I wouldn’t be surprised if they also don’t have much more music – they made Hisaishi write wall-to-wall music for Castle In The Sky, where the original used music only when necessary, and they added music wherever there was silence in Kiki’s Delivery Service, which, for me, ruined the movie. Silence is not a bad thing, Disney people. While it would be fun to see it on a big screen, I will not see the American version under any circumstances.

After the movie, I caught up on e-mails and worked on the lyric a little more. Well, why don’t’ we all click on the Unseemly Button below because clean teeth are a’comin’ and I must prepare by getting as much sleep as I can.

Today, as you already know, I’ll be seeing Dr. Chew, who will be giving me clean teeth. I’m sure this will be an ordeal, given the time that’s gone by. They’ll also take X-rays and if there’s more work to be done then I’ll have to make another appointment, but I’m hoping there won’t be.

I’ve kept the rest of the day free, and I probably won’t want to eat until very late in the afternoon. I may start writing liner notes, or I may just do some errands and not much of anything else. We’ll see what takes my fancy.

Tomorrow, I will have to finish the liner notes and get the rest of the package stuff to my designer so he can get to work. The plan is to announce the new title a week from this Friday. It’s one I think some of you dear readers will be very interested in – a two-fer – two soundtracks on one CD (along with a six-minute bonus track from a third film). All three share a couple of things in common.

I had no idea, but this weekend is the Hollywood Collector’s Show, so I’m sure I’ll be visiting there. I don’t know who all is going to be there, but I always have a good time.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, get my teeth clean and sparkly, I must do a few errands, and then I must relax, eat, and watch a motion picture on Blu-Ray, if I’m of a mind to. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear reader any old question you like and we get to give any old answer we like. So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I prepare to have my teeth cleaned.

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