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February 13, 2010:

MELON BALLS

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, I must write these here notes in a flurry of a scurry of a hurry for she of the Evil Eye will be here both bright and early and early and bright. Therefore, I must not dawdle, Amaryllis, I must speed, like the movie of the same name. So, let me just say that I had quite a nice day yesterday. Cason arrived at ten and we got all the big shipments where they needed to go. After that, we went to storage and somehow he managed to find three memorabilia boxes within ten minutes, so we put those in the car. I think there’s still at least one more box, because some stuff I know is there was not in these boxes. But more about that in a moment. We then grabbed some lunch at Jerry’s Deli, where I was bold and had a new thing – a Cuban sandwich – turkey, ham, and salami in a pita-like thing, with mustard and pickles. I must say it was quite good, and I had them go very light on the salami. After lunch, I came home and began going through the three memorabilia boxes, all of which contained memorabilia. Mostly I was looking for good photos for the book and I found some wonderful stuff. I also found what I hope will be the cover of the book, although it wasn’t exactly what I was looking for, so I’m still looking for that – but this will do fine as an alternate. I found head shots from various years, I found Mort Lindsay’s chart for a song of mine that I did on Merv Griffin, I found reviews, and I found all sorts of goodies. I do want to find the other box or two, though. And I’m still trying to find a couple of tapes – I’m hoping they’re here in the garage. Then I read and proofed. One of the reviews I found confirmed a timeline that I knew I’d initially been right about, but that I’d gotten talked out of by a person who thought an event had happened three months later. That just never made sense to me, so now I’ll go back and put the timeline the way it was and all will be well. And because I found some great photos, I’ll be adding one little thing about a show that I did several times – I didn’t feel the need to mention it, but it will only be a couple of paragraphs and then the photos will make sense.

After all that, I moseyed on over to the Antiquarian Book Fair at the Century Plaza Hotel. Happily, I had a free pass to get in. This is the biggest book fair LA has – it happens once every two years, and dealers from all over the world come. I was there about four hours, just going from booth to booth, seeing some dealer pals, and checking out the amazingly overpriced books. In fact, I only found two dealers who had any books under $100. Some of my favorite prices were – the first Harry Potter book for $56,000. The same dealer (from London) had To Kill A Mockingbird for a bargain-priced $24,000. Of course, it wasn’t a great copy, so that accounts for the cheap price. There were lots of books that I once owned going for $5,000 and up. I saw a couple of books I’d never seen before, even though I’ve been looking for them for thirty years. One such book was Badge Of Evil. I’ve had the British first of it for ages, but that’s not the true first, the US is. But it’s a book that never ever shows up. The main reason it’s so desirable is that it became the movie Touch Of Evil. A dealer I know very well, Jim Pepper, had a really lousy beat-up copy with a faded spine for $4500 (signed, but that’s meaningless in the case of this book). Another dealer had a pretty terrific-looking copy, probably the best-looking copy around for a much more reasonable price, and I was shocked it hadn’t been snapped up yet. So, I did a little back-and-forth with the dealer and I think I will trade him a couple of books and I will finally own the elusive Badge Of Evil without having to put out cash. Happily, I had several things he wanted and they’re things that I bought as investments pretty inexpensively, so this will be quite a good deal for me. I’ll be going back on Sunday to do the deal. After the four hours, my back began to really be tired, so I headed home, first stopping at Gelson’s for some potato salad and melon balls.

Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below, because I’ve had my melon balls and feel at one with the world.

Today, I shall attend the Hollywood Show in Burbank. It doesn’t open until eleven, so I’ll probably get a bagel or something and read and proof until then. I’ll hang out for a couple of hours, and then I’ll be going to West LA and joining dear reader Jeannie for a late lunch. After that, I’ll come home and read and proof some more and then watch a motion picture on Blu and Ray.

Tomorrow, I’ll be going back to the book fair briefly, and then at four the composer and lyricist of the long musical will be here to work with an actor briefly – just to see if he’s going to have the ability to do a song – he’s not really a singer, so we have to make sure. Then I’ll eat something, and finish reading and proofing the book.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, have a bagel or something, read and proof, attend the Hollywood Show, have a late lunch, and read and proof. Today’s topic of discussion: I love sandwiches – so, what are your favorite sandwiches of your own concocting, and what are your favorite sandwiches to eat in restaurants, and where have you had your most amazing sandwich? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland and dream of melon balls.

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