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December 11, 2011:

THE RADICAL BURRITO

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, I had an uneventful Saturday, doing this and that and also that and this. Nothing terribly interesting, and nothing terribly uninteresting. I got up at nine-thirty (but didn’t get to sleep until two), answered e-mails, worked at the piano, and decided I was not up for jogging. Instead at 11:45 I went over to Hugo’s – hadn’t been there in over two months. Well, it was jammed because apparently Hugo’s is the only restaurant in Studio City where the trendy and entitled wish to be seen. So, after being told it was a twenty minute wait, I promptly got back in the motor car and drove directly to Jerry’s Deli, where I was seated immediately in one of my regular booths.

I decided to be radical and have something I’d never had before. That something turned out to be a breakfast burrito – eggs, cheese, and onions – and surprise of surprises, it was great. A little salsa and guacamole on the side along with some potatoes. Very filling and very yummilicious. I then picked up no packages and an important envelope, then came home. I did no work on liner notes (shame on me), and just decided I needed to not do much of anything, so I sat on my couch like so much fish.

Yesterday, I watched a motion picture on Blu and Ray, The Girl Who Played With Fire, the second part of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy. This was the extended edition. I’d enjoyed the theatrical version just fine, but I knew people had not been happy with either part two or three because they left out so much stuff. Well, the extended version of The Girl Who Played With Fire is a full hour longer than the theatrical version and I found it much better and much more compelling and, in fact, just terrific. Yes, apparently there are still things missing, but the books are 700 pages long and they got in a surprising amount of stuff in these adaptations. These are not books – these are films. Again, the casting is absolute perfection and the story continues on from the previous film but goes in entirely new directions. Unlike the first film, this one is much more tied to film three and is not a complete thing like the first film. The transfer has come in for some criticism, but the people doing the criticizing and saying it doesn’t look nearly as good as the first film, don’t seem to realize and/or know that the second and third films were made by a different director and shot in 16mm because he wanted a grittier look. So, obviously there is more grain, especially in low-light scenes. But the bright scenes look fine – those could not look fine if the transfer were not good. They did put these on single-layer discs, but I’m not sure how much better they’d be if they’d gone to BD 50s. They are long, though, so maybe they’d have been a point or two better – although, I posit that if you sat some of these armchair experts who blab on and on about BD 25 vs. BD 50 in a screening room and showed them six discs, they would not be able to tell you which was a 25 and which was a 50.

After that, I got some potato chips and a small bag of cashews to munch on while I watched The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest, part three of the Millennium trilogy. It, too, is an hour longer than its theatrical version and again that hour really helps clarify things and makes the story more compelling. I’d really liked the theatrical version but the extended version is much better and it all comes to a very satisfying conclusion. The new cast members for part three are every bit as good as the casts from the first two films, and I have to say that one of the treats of the three films is that the villains are truly disgusting in each film – REALLY disgusting. And the character of Lisbeth, especially as acted by Noomi Rapace, is a very complex bit of business. Transfer looks fine from the 16mm negative. I really recommend these extended editions – they’re just terrific and I cannot imagine that the US remake of the first film will be anywhere near as good.

In between the two films I had a very interesting telephonic conversation with someone I haven’t spoken to in ten years. I can’t really say who or what it was about at this time, but it was a conversation I needed to have in preparation for writing my new book. It was a little awkward, but ultimately a good conversation that gave me the information I needed.

Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because these here notes should have been up an hour ago (this is what happens when you watch two three-hour movies) and I must get some beauty sleep.

Today, I supposedly have a work session with Grant Geissman but I haven’t heard about a time yet. Hopefully I will. Depending on that, I will either do the four-mile jog or not. After the work session, I’ll have to make a brief appearance at a Christmas partay – otherwise, I really have to buckle down, Winsocki and write these damn liner notes – two sets of them.

Tomorrow and the subsequent three days will all be four-hour work session days, helping a singer out with various and sundried things she’s doing. I came up with a fee that made sense to me and she agreed to it, so that’s nice. In addition to that, I have to approve the packaging on the next two releases and get that to the printers, and I’ll also approve the two masters when they’re done. I also have to cast the next Kritzerland show (all gals), and hopefully pick up lots of packages.

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 old-fashioned waltz because today is the birthday of beloved dear reader Ginny. So, let’s give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to beloved dear reader Ginny. On the count of three: One, two, three – A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO BELOVED DEAR READER GINNY!!!

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do the four-mile jog (time permitting), hopefully have a work session, make a brief appearance at a partay, write two sets of liner notes, and, if there’s any time left, watch a motion picture on either DVD or Blu and Ray. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers 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 I hit the road to dreamland, where I shall perhaps dream of a radical burrito.

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