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June 23, 2013:

THE TUFTED TITMOUSE

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, I guess the idea of a ME day, a do nothing but I want day, is just not going to be happening until the fourth of July.  Of course, the idea was that yesterday was going to be a ME day, a do nothing day, but that didn’t occur.  I was up at nine-thirty, and there were a lot of e-mails requiring response, so I responded.  I did some work on the computer and then went and had a patty melt and no fries or onion rings, after which I picked up one little package. Then I did a close to four mile jog, after which I sat on my couch like so much fish.

I had to watch a motion picture on DVD whilst running back and forth between computer and TV to compare tracks to the way they were used in the film.  It took about an hour longer than the two-hour running time of the film, but by the end I’d figured it all out, given titles to the two untitled cues and then made several adjustments to the way I’d configured the tracks.  It now all works perfectly.  I sent off the road map to the mastering guy – he’s in Italy right now and his e-mails are completely confusing – two days ago he said he’d be back this weekend and could get to this project on Monday.  Today he said he’d be back next weekend but I don’t really know if he means tomorrow or really next weekend – if it’s the latter it’s really pushing me against a deadline in a way I don’t like and he’s going to have to turn this around in a day, which I don’t frankly know if he can.  If it takes him as long to download the damn tracks as it took to upload them, then that could take up an entire day.  But I’m announcing a week from Monday and that’s that.  The packaging will already be at the printers, so he’ll just have to get it done as quickly as possible and overnighted to the pressing plant.  It’s always something – just once I’d like to be ahead of the damn game instead of the damn game being ahead of me.

So, that was basically my afternoon.  Then I watched a motion picture on Blu and Ray entitled Safety Last, a silent film with silence starring Harold Lloyd.  I’ve really only seen Safety Last a couple of times, so I don’t know it as well as I know the Chaplins and some of the Keatons.  So, it always feels fresh to me, and it’s a great movie – hilarious, thrilling, breathtaking – and Lloyd’s gags are just brilliantly creative.  The only downside, and it’s not a downside unless you’re politically correct and unable to understand the context of when a film was made, is several obnoxiously racist moments for Black and Jewish people.  They didn’t bother me because I do understand context, but I’m sure they’ll make some people uncomfortable.  The final third of the film, with Lloyd being a human fly, climbing a 17-story building in downtown LA, remains one of the greatest comic sequences in the history of film.  It’s so cleverly done, with no rear projection at all – it literally takes the breath away, especially when you consider that Lloyd only had one fully working hand.  The transfer is amazingly good and the Carl Davis orchestral score fits the film like a glove.  Highly recommended by the likes of me, and there are a lot of terrific extras – some Lloyd shorts, a Thames program about Lloyd, and a look at the locations and how they shot the climbing the building sequence.

After that, I just decided to sit at the computer like so much fish and write the damn liner notes.  That took up the rest of the evening, about two and a half hours, but they’re done and sent off to the designer, who can now complete the packaging.

I was serenaded throughout most of the day by the singing bird.  For those who may not remember that far back, the singing bird was a regular at my other home environment, where I lived from 1997 to 2004.  The singing bird was unusual in that it sang show tunes, usually from obscure musicals like Whoop-Up.  But when I moved, the singing bird probably stayed and the new owners got the benefit.  But the singing bird was outside this home environment yesterday, singing up a storm (not a literal storm, since it was nice and sunny out), doing the entire score to Bravo, Giovanni.  I don’t know what species the singing bird is.  I began to ponder what species.  Of course, it could be a robin or a sparrow.  It could also be a titmouse.  No, a titmouse is not a mouse with boobs, a titmouse is a singing bird – it is, in fact, a tufted titmouse.  Just in case you think I’m making this all up, here is actual photographic proof of a tufted titmouse.

tuftedtitmouse

Isn’t that a beautiful bird?  And I can certainly picture it singing the score to Bajour, can’t you?  The Tufted Titmouse – that’s the title of my next novel.

Today, I shall do a jog, I shall have a little snack with the Staitman clan, I shall relax, and then I’m seeing Miss Eileen Barnett’s club act at The Federal.  Speaking of The Federal, two weeks ahead of our show and there are only thirty seats left – pretty good.

Tomorrow and the entire week will be writing, prepping, meetings, meals, work sessions and trying to get ahead of the damn game.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a jog, snack with the Staitmans, relax, and see a club act and dine at The Federal.  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, where I shall be serenaded by none other than the tufted titmouse singing the score to Wildcat.

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