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March 18, 2010:

AMNESIA

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, I love a good amnesia film, don’t you? I ask you, where else on all the Internet can you read such a sentence? Nowhere, that’s where. I’d tell you all about the amnesia films I love, but I can’t remember what they were. And we’ll be right back. So, I must say I had quite a strange little St. Patrick’s Day. First of all, I wore all blue because, you know, blue is the new green. I had to package up ten orders – and here I thought I was all caught up. I did get it all done and to the postal office, so now I am all caught up. I then did a two-mile jog, my first jog of 2010, but not my last jog of 2010. After that, I had some work to do on the computer and some telephonic calls to deal with. Of course, whilst doing everything I spoke with quite an authentic Irish lilt. I had no packages and no mail, and that was a little disappointing, since I’m expecting several cherce things. Then I had to deliver a big box o’ CDs to a local dealer, and then it was time to attend an intimate dinner partay at the home of Mr. Barry Pearl and his ever-lovin’ Cindy.

As mentioned, I wore blue. I should have worn green. I wore green the last time. What am I, Follies all of a sudden? Cindy made wonderful corn beef and cabbage – I haven’t had such a dish in over thirty-five years, and I quite loved it. She sautéed the cabbage in butter, and it was ever so yummilicious and the corned beef was delectably delectable. There were also potatoes and carrots and wonderfully wonderful bread and butter. It was a lovely evening. After it was done, I hied myself home and finally sat on my couch like so much fish.

Last night, I watched a motion picture on DVD, another of those Warner Archive discs, this one entitled The Third Day, starring Mr. George Peppard and Miss Elizabeth Ashley, who, at the time, was Mrs. George Peppard. The film has a great supporting cast of character people – Mona Washbourne, Roddy McDowell, J.D. Cannon, Arte Johnson, Sally Kellerman, Robert Webber, my old pal Ed Peck, Vincent Gardenia, and Herbert Marshall, who plays the elderly head of a family – he has no dialogue and he looks quite frail in the film and, in fact, just a few months after its completion Mr. Marshall passed away. He’s always been one of my favorite actors. The film is an amnesia film, and I do love a good amnesia film. This one turns into quite a potboiler and it’s too long by thirty minutes (the film runs two hours), but I do love a good amnesia film. Other amnesia films I love are Mirage and Mr. Buddwing, but all amnesia films don’t quite seem to be able to sustain until the very end. The film was competently directed by Jack Smight, and has a slightly intrusive score by Percy Faith. The element used for the transfer (a print) is in very good shape save for the color, which is too brown. A shame, as most of the Warner transfers of late have been excellent, color-wise. I guess they just don’t want to expend any effort on these, not that there’s that much effort in turning a knob.

After the movie, I relaxed until I saw three e-mails from people who’d received their The Man Who Would Be King CDs and each of the three had skipping problems. That was more than a little alarming, so I immediately played two copies on two different players – happily, they both played without any problems, so I’m hoping this is a random problem. And it’s good to know that the pressing plant can’t blame the master. So, they’ll have to press up as many CD-only replacements as I need, and they’re going to have to ultimately pay for whatever postage and packaging is involved to send out whatever replacement discs we have to. If it’s only a handful, I can deal with it, as I always save a few for emergencies. If it’s more than a handful, then the pressing plant will have to deal with it.

Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below, and when we do perhaps we’ll all have amnesia about the first section of the notes.

Today, sometime between seven and noon a Gas Company Man is supposed to come and install a new gas meter. They tell me the one that’s here is over thirty years old. However, because it’s so old, when they replace they have to shut off all the pilot lights. They were going to do this yesterday but the man who was here was only an “outside man” and I was going to be without pilot lights and therefore without heat, stove, or hot water, for up to four hours. I told him that didn’t work for me – so today they’re apparently sending someone who in an inside/outside man and I can only tell you Mr. Inside/Outside is not leaving until he’s shown me that every pilot light is lit and that everything is working exactly as it should.

After that, the rest of the day is mine all mine. I shall do some sort of jog, eat lightly and well, and then await word from Grant as to when we’ll be doing the rest of the book fixes. He’s also doing the photo layout, so that will be ready for our next session.

Tomorrow, I have a work session in the morning, and then I have to write the Gordon Hunt questions for our Saturday Q&A. Oh, and send lots of excellent vibes and xylophones that the CD problem is limited to only a handful of copies.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a jog, have a new meter installed, make sure all pilot lights are lit and working, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: I love genres like the amnesia film, the insane asylum film – what are your favorite wacky genres and your favorite films within those genres, including amnesia and insane asylum? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst we all try not to have amnesia about these here notes. What notes?

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