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February 21, 2011:

RESTORING ORDER

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, I am finally feeling a bit better – not quite completely better, but I’ll take better for now and for now I’ll take better. I do believe that today is President’s Day a holiday of such importance that many people get the day off and banks are closed and there is no mail. Therefore, since we’ve decided not to announce our new title today, this will be a day of rest for me, with just some work to do on the computer and a few errands and whatnot to attend to. Why am I writing about today? Aren’t I just getting ahead of myself or, at the very least, aknee of myself? Now what will I talk about in part two of these here notes. Now everything is in chaos and there is no order. These are discombobulated and even discomnormanulated. I do not know if I’m coming or going or even going or coming. Where is form? Where is content? Where is love? In any case, it’s President’s Day, a day in which we honor Presidents. Yesterday, however, was not President’s Day and therefore I honored not one single President. I did manage to get another night of ten hours sleep, which felt wonderful. I got up, was lazy, downloaded a few more tracks for our new release as they came up, and then had a work session with the musical director of the next Gardenia show. We did two arrangements for songs that weren’t on the Unsung Irving Berlin album. He left, and then The Singer came over for her work session. I first had to spend some annoying time on the telephonic device with Apple tech support – I’ve just had it with Time Capsule right now – it’s literally backing up every ten minutes, taking forever, and making the computer run sluggishly. It’s supposed to do this once an hour and only back up whatever new work I’ve done – it’s supposed to only back up the entire computer no more than once a day. We trouble shot and he thinks he figured out what might be the problem, so we did a few things and then I shut Time Capsule off and won’t turn it on until this morning. Then we’ll see how it’s working. If it’s still screwing up, I have the direct line to the guy who helped me and he’ll involve higher-ups. Then I had the singer go through the act, start to finish, singing the songs and doing the rough patter she’d come up with. As always with patter, it’s very difficult to get right, and so I focused it, added stuff, removed stuff, and by the end of it, each song is now properly set up and we came up with some really funny and cute stuff for her. The song selection is wonderful and the structure is sound. We may need one more song, but I’m reserving judgment on that until we begin our actual rehearsals, which will be soon. We also grabbed some lunch at Hugo’s – I had their yummilicious mac and cheese and a small Caesar salad. Then The Singer went on her merry way to type up what we’d worked on, and I finally sat on my couch like so much fish.

Last night, I watched a motion picture on Blu and Ray entitled Moonstruck. I remember liking it okay when I first saw it, but haven’t seen it since, not even one scene. So, I was curious to see it again. Well, it’s a great movie. Occasionally, some wonderful alchemy happens between script, director, and cast, and that alchemy results in pure cinematic magic, which is exactly what Moonstruck is. I just sat there watching and seeing that kind of alchemy just made me really happy – it doesn’t happen all that often and when it does, it’s just so much fun to watch. Certainly the quirky script by John Patrick Shanley is excellent, and, for me, this is Norman Jewison’s best film. The cast, starting with Cher and Nicholas Cage, and moving on to the sublime Olympia Dukakis, Vincent Gardenia, and Danny Aiello, is absolute perfection. It’s so wonderful to see Cher with her real face – she’s just terrific and it’s a shame that I can’t even look at her today without feeling ill. The transfer is absolutely phenomenal. No matter what you read from the usual suspects, this is a great-looking Blu-Ray, and, in fact, it looks better than the fuzzy and grainy release prints. It really shows of David Watkin’s brilliant photography and it could not be better. There have been no reviews yet, but I suspect they will all see it’s merely okay, because THEY don’t know what the HELL THEY’RE talking about – THEY haven’t even seen this film in a theater so they have no idea what it should or shouldn’t look like. I’ve already seen comments on one board calling it a mediocre transfer and one idiot said that they’s “squeezed” the picture to make it 1.85 (it’s correct ratio) and that we were missing the top and bottom of the frame. You’d think we were still living in the Stone Age and these people have no problem posting this idiocy for all to see. I’m afraid I was a bit of a bad boy and came on rather strong, but it’s what they need. These same people raved about the transfer of All The President’s Men, and that transfer really does look like the release prints, which it shouldn’t. It should be much better than it is. But they know nothing and there’s nothing really to be done about it. This is highly recommended by the likes of me.

Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I intend to get these here notes posted early again so I can hopefully get another good night’s sleep.

Today is President’s Day, and therefore there is no mail, no banking, and many have the day off. Haven’t I already written this? See what I mean – chaos and disorder. I shall just do work on the computer, not announce a new title (we will on Wednesday morning, I think), and eat something light but amusing at some point.

Tomorrow, we have our first rehearsal for the Gardenia show, which I always look forward to. I also have a ton of errands and whatnot and hopefully I’ll be picking up several packages. Wednesday and Thursday are meetings, Friday is our next rehearsal and I have a couple of meals in there, too.

Let’s all put on our pointy party hats and our colored tights and pantaloons, let’s all break out the cheese slices and the ham chunks, let’s all dance the Hora or the Electric Boogaloo, because today is the birthday of the very musical dear reader, Matthew. So, let’s give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to the very musical dear reader, Matthew. On the count of three: One, two, three – A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO THE VERY MUSICAL DEAR READER MATTHEW!!!

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, restore order, hopefully find that Time Capsule is working properly, do a few errands and whatnot, eat, and do some work. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite films of Norman Jewison, and your favorite films and songs of Cher? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland where there will be no chaos and only order and happiness.

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