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July 8, 2012:

SYMPHONY OF NOISE

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, I believe I am officially exhausted. I have no idea why, but I do believe I am officially exhausted nonetheless. The first cause of the official exhaustion was being awakened by a symphony of noise. The Tree Trimmers were out in force and I mean BIG tree trimmers trimming BIG trees. I could not fall back asleep, I could do nothing but arise and answer e-mails. I finessed the liner notes I’d written, then sent them to the designer. I did some other work on the computer until it was time for my lunch meeting with Miss Juliana Hansen. We had a lovelier than lovely lunch and she told me of her adventures doing five shows a day at the El Capitan Theater, where they’re showing Brave. Sitting in the booth next to us was the owner of another specialty soundtrack label, someone I’m not all that fond of. He was quite loud, and the gal sitting with he and his friend (or maybe it was her friend – he never opened his mouth once) was louder and quite vociferous in her descriptions of all the Eyetalian film composers who were her close personal friends and then, unless I misheard, which I doubt, informing the table that she’d turned down a film role because she didn’t think she was ready and that she’d been on Broadway, well, off-Broadway, where she’d replaced Patti LuPone in Evita. I swear this is what I heard. At that point, I wanted to vomit on the ground. Instead, I ate a turkey sandwich and no fries and Juliana and I discussed the next phase of work for what will become an act for her.

After the long lunch meeting, I moseyed on over to the mail place, where I picked up one lonely little package. Then I put some gas in the motor car, did some banking, and came home. I received a master for an upcoming project, which I then listened to and which I think I’m pleased with – I will give it another listen when I’m not quite so exhausted, just to make sure I’m happy with everything. The music contained on the master is an utter delight. When I played it for the cows, they thought it was an udder delight. We don’t allow groaning here at haineshisway.com. I then sat on my couch like so much fish.

Last night, I watched the second of the Maria Wern films. The plot was pretty standard issue stuff with no real surprises, but I like the actress who plays the lead and I like the other actors, and the direction is pretty down to Earth. It’s no Wallander, but I like it anyway. I then watched a Beck movie. But when is a Beck movie not a Beck movie? When it’s called The Laughing Policeman and the character is called Jake Martin, and the film takes place in California rather than Sweden and other than the kick-off point for the plot, everything has been changed, including the meaning of the title, which, in the Swedish, is a record that Beck’s daughter gives him – The Laughing Policeman is an old music hall song. The film has an excellent opening sequence, and then it’s a slog. I saw it when it came out and even though I loved almost every urban cop film, this one wasn’t to my liking, mostly because it just doesn’t end – it literally stops and the credits roll. It has some amusing views of 1973 San Francisco, including a lot of afro hairdos, sex shops, and a rather dated look at gays and a gay club. It is eye poppingly cliched and thankfully we’ve come a long way since then. Walter Matthau is very good as Beck – oops, Jake Martin – and Bruce Dern gets the best material in the film. It is obvious that director Stuart Rosenberg encouraged his cast to ham it up and to improvise to their heart’s content. So, a few of the performances are quite irritating, none more so than Anthony Zerbe, who’s playing to the fourth balcony and so overdoing the hard-nosed police chief bit you want to smack him down and tuck in his acting skirt.

After that, I did a three-mile jog – I just decided to get off my lazy ASS and get some exercise, since I’d eaten two more sandwiches for dinner. Then I wrote most of the second set of liner notes – all that’s left is my usual small discussion of the music, and then I’ll start on set number three. All of that has rendered me exhausted, you see. Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I really must get a good night’s beauty sleep.

Today, I shall finesse and finish set two of liner notes, begin set three, listen to the master again, maybe do a jog, and then eat something light but amusing and try to relax.

This coming week is very busy, with meetings and meals and errands and whatnot. Tomorrow night will be spent finessing the Follies mixes and I’m hoping we can finish, although I will not rush that process. If we DO finish, then that can go directly to mastering and we might be able to announce this week. If not, early next week. I’ll also be seeing my close personal friend, Mr. Stephen Sondheim’s event on Friday night, and then the weekend is really busy. I also have to finish assigning songs and get all the sheet music gathered, and thankfully the helper will be back on Tuesday ready to catch up and we should have The Wayward Bus in by Wednesday I’m hoping.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, finesse and finish one set of liner notes and begin another, I must jog, I must eat, and I must relax. 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 I hit the road to dreamland ready to rid myself of exhaustion, and hopefully there will be no symphony of noise to awaken me in the morning.

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