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October 25, 2009:

PROPAGATE

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, yesterday was better than the day before. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, yesterday was better than the day before. I got up at eight to find the Kritzerland site down again, but the site working perfectly at its phantom address. It turned out that Mark Bakalor’s server had another hiccup but we didn’t know that right away. Then my webguy moved the site to its proper address and was told that it would take anywhere from fifteen minutes to twenty-four hours to propagate. That sounded vaguely dirty to me. At that point, the site went back up, but neither my webguy nor I had a clew as to which server was hosting it. In fact, as I write these here notes I still don’t know. I should be hearing very soon though. As soon as she of the Evil Eye arrived I went out and did the long jog. After that, I went over to Jerry’s Deli and had some sausage and eggs. I usually don’t eat sausage but someone at the next table was having it and they looked really good – plus they only give you two links. And they were indeed really good. After that, I did a couple of errands and whatnot and then came home, determined not to leave the house for the rest of the day and evening. I did some work on the computer, and then I was just so exhausted I sat on my couch like so much fish.

Yesterday, I snoozed and then finished watching The Old Dark House, the William Castle film, starring Tom Poston. It was very conducive to napping because it was quite a snoozefest. The cast was game but the script was lame, which is better than the script being game but the cast being lame. Mr. Castle made several comedies, none of which were really funny, while his gimmick pictures actually have some genuinely amusing things in them. As an extra on the DVD, they had the pilot episode of the early 1970s TV show, Ghost Story (later retitled Circle of Fear). Mr. Castle served as Executive Producer on the series. I don’t think I was aware of that fact when I did an episode of the show – and I’d wager that I actually met him without putting two and two together, which was, sadly, frequently the case back then. I really wish they’d put the entire series on DVD because they’re in good shape and there were some interesting episodes, including the one I did with Patricia Neal, called Time Of Terror. I kept on dozing off all throughout the afternoon and early evening. Then I watched a motion picture in high definitions entitled Elmer Gantry. I had it on DVD at one point, but I never watched it because it was a bad non-anamorphic transfer. Well, this new HD transfer, while not perfect, looked mostly splendid, really showing off John Alton’s great color photography. And what a film Elmer Gantry is. I saw it when it came out and really liked it, especially Shirley Jones as a floozy named Lulu. But I had a big crush on Jean Simmons back then, too, so I loved her, and even then I knew that Burt Lancaster was giving a terrific performance as the title character. It’s quite a long film, about two hours and ten minutes, but it’s very well paced and Richard Brooks’ screenplay and direction are top-notch. The film contains my favorite performance by Arthur Kennedy (I always enjoy him, but he’s really good in this), Miss Jones is superb in her small role, and Simmons just shines like a light whenever she’s onscreen (I later worked with her in a TV movie and loved her). The score by Andre Previn is one of my all-time favorites. The long film has only about twenty-six minutes of actual scoring but boy do those twenty-six minutes count. You could never get away with that today, they’d make a film like this have wall-to-wall scoring, and none of it would have one note as brilliant as what Mr. Previn delivered. It’s a searing, blistering, moody, sometimes atonal, but always beautiful score and though the music is sparse it actually means something when it’s used. It’s such a shame this stuff won’t be coming out on Blu and Ray for a long time to come, if ever. I then got very hungry and was going to go to Gelson’s for a snack from their deli, but the creeps who live across the street from me had one of their frequent parties and two cars had blocked me in – one in front of mine and one parked illegally in the red in back of mine. I thought about going over there and raising a little hellfire and brimstone, but instead I found a package of pasta and made half of it – six ounces, and a little red sauce to go with it. Since I’d done my four miles, I thought it wouldn’t do any damage, calorie-wise.

After that, I did some more work on the computer (I now have to start writing yet more liner notes for our next release – I’ve been working on a release that has no release date because I’m unsure how long the approvals process will take, but I wanted to get them everything asap so they could start the ball rolling – meanwhile I’ve got to prep two more releases). Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because these here notes should be posted right about now and yet I have to write the next section and then get my beauty sleep after I watch a little more of the divoon Straight Jacket, starring Miss Joan Crawford.

I have been told that the site has propagated and we are on our new host’s server and free of Mr. Bakalor’s server, a good thing for both parties. I feel that I would like to propagate. I don’t think I’ve propagated in quite a while. Who here has recently propagated? Is Propagate like Watergate? Can you do a proper propagate? Is there an improper progagate? Do you have to have props to propagate? Can you wait to propagate? I think we’ve beaten this to death with a crowbar, don’t you?

Today, I shall get up and do the long jog, finally return some telephonic calls that I keep forgetting to return, and then we’ll be having a LACCTAA meeting here at the home environment. After that, I will be attending a little film music get together, which is happening because a lot of film music fans came into town to see the Ennio Morricone concert at the Hollywood Bowl, which was cancelled because of lower than needed ticket sales and because Mr. Morricone didn’t feel like doing it. They’d sold about six thousand seats, which is a lot until you understand that the Bowl seats 17,000 people. If they’d been smart and done this at the Greek or Disney Hall, it would have sold out instantly. But at the Bowl it was barely a third of the house. So, I actually suggested a get-together at Genghis Cohen, which is what we’re doing. I can’t wait to eat my beloved orange chicken, steamed filet of sole, and whatever else we get.

Tomorrow, I have a work session with the composer and lyricist of the long musical, and probably short sessions with them on Tuesday and Wednesday. I have several lunches, a dinner, and some meetings, so it will be a very busy week – and, of course, Halloween is coming.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do the long jog, return telephonic calls, have a meeting, and have a dinner at Genghis Cohen, as well as watch the latest episode of Mad Men. 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, whilst we all propagate to our hearts’ content.

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