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September 23, 2009:

BRASS TACKS

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, we’ve got us a big exciting day and evening ahead, so I think I’ll skip the pithy repartee and just get down to brass tacks. Not aluminum tacks, mind you, or plastic tacks, no, I think I’ll get down to brass tacks. Does anyone get up to brass tacks as well as down? In any case, I had a perfectly pleasant day yesterday doing perfectly pleasant things. I got a very good night’s sleep, got up, did a two-mile jog (it was so hot I could not continue), then Mr. Handy Man came by, fixed the shades and began his four-hour cleaning of the rain gutters, should LA ever have rain again, which, at this point, seems doubtful. He did a great job. While he was toiling in the noon-day sun, I went to Jerry’s and had some bacon and eggs whilst doing some work, then shipped about eight packages, then did a few other errands and whatnot before coming back home. Then I got down to brass tacks and wrote a full draft of the liner notes for the new Kritzerland release, as well as typing up all the credits and track titles. That all took quite some time, and I also answered lots o’ e-mails and had several telephonic conversations. At about five, I sat on my couch like so much fish and decided I was through for the day. I watched a motion picture I had on the DVR entitled The Temp, starring Mr. Timothy Hutton. I’d never seen it before, and I must say it delivered exactly what I thought it would – nothing. It’s a perfectly dreadful motion picture in every way – the writing is hilariously bad, the acting is over-the-top and ridiculous (especially by Faye Dunaway, who’d already had the first of her bad face work), and the whole thing just sat there like a dead herring in the moonlight. And then the ending was so abrupt and stupid it was not to be believed. In fact, the only worthwhile thing about the film is the nice score by Fredric Talgorn. Otherwise, it was a complete waste of time.

Then I watched a motion picture on Blu and Ray entitled Vantage Point, starring Dennis Quaid, Forest Whitaker, William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver, and others. This, too, was quite a bad motion picture in the way that all current “action” pictures are bad. Horribly directed, but with some good performances, the film wants to feel like Crash (like a bunch of people’s lives all touching each other) with a “thriller” plot grafted onto it (the assassination of the President). There is a car chase in this film the exemplifies everything I hate in moviemaking today – to put it in one word – preposterous. And therefore meaningless and pointless. You have to obey some sort of reality rule, and this chase was so far away from reality it was ridiculous. Naturally, the score was one of those dreary thumping things. The best thing about the film was its brevity (eighty-three minutes without all the end credits) and the actual idea of the film (seeing the same event from a bunch of different viewpoints) is valid and can work if you have an actual writer doing the writing. All that said, the Blu-Ray looked and sounded great. I then put on Quantum of Solace, which I’d avoided like the plague – I should have kept on avoiding it. I’ve only watched the first twenty minutes, and already we’ve had two count them two mind-numbingly awful action sequences. I do not like Daniel Craig’s James Bond, and I hate the Bourne Identity-style direction. I’ll stick with it and finish it, but it’s already a bottom feeder in the Bond canon. Of course, it looks and sounds great on Blu-Ray.

After that, I polished my liner notes, wrote the blurb, and then it was time to get down to brass tacks and write these here notes, which, in case you haven’t noticed, is what I’ve been doing. Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must soon go to bed and get my beauty sleep, for today shall be a busy day and I’ve got a long evening ahead of me, as well.

Today, Mr. Handy Man will be back to do just a couple more things. I will prepare everything for the new release announcement (and we’ve got one that follows that a week or two later), and then I’ve got to do the long jog, some errands and whatnot, I have to buy a Parisienne cake, and then I have a meeting with the authors of the long musical, at which several things will be discussed by me, and then we’ll all head over to Screenland Studios and the rehearsal room where we’ll do the reading of the long musical. Cason and I will set up the tables as we see fit, and then at six the company of players will arrive and we’ll have pizzas, soft drinks, and the aforementioned cake, and then we’ll sit and read the long musical. I’m not sure if I’ll be up for a post mortem directly after. We shall see.

Tomorrow I’ve kept pretty light, but there’s still a lot to do, including addressing a LOT of packages, for Taras Bulba should be here by mid-next week. Friday I’m seeing Elixir Of Love at the Music Center (and dining beforehand), and Saturday I’m seeing the lovelier than lovely Andrea Marcovicci at the Gardenia.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do the long jog, I must do errands and whatnot, I must buy a cake, I must have a meeting, and I must have a reading of a long musical. 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 get down to brass tacks and hit the road to dreamland.

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