Well, dear readers, I’ve had my second wind, I’ve had my third wind and my fourth and fifth wind and now my wind is gone with the wind. I have no wind left, if you get my drift although you can’t really get my drift because I have no wind. The lack of wind, BK-wise, is due to having gotten a whopping three hours of sleep. I hate when that happens. I fell asleep around three-thirty and awoke at six-thirty. I stayed in bed like so much fish but couldn’t fall back asleep, so I got up, was adventurous, and did a three-mile jog at seven-thirty in the morning. Then I showered and dressed, she of the Evil Eye arrived, and I, with little wind and much yawning, drove to the Dena of Pasa to attend the book fair.
This particular book fair is the mid-year teeny-tiny book fair – the big-boy book fair happens in February. So, at the teeny-tiny book fair there are only about sixty dealers. It doesn’t take that much time to traverse the room. I did what I always do – I began in the first aisle and methodically worked my way down both sides of that aisle, then worked my way back up on aisle two, then back down on aisle three. As I would find things that interested me I would speak to the dealer, talk trades, and then have them hold the book. That, of course, only works with dealers who know me, but I had a little list of trade items with me, so it’s easy to negotiate. There were some very nice books and I’m sure some of the nicer ones that were reasonably priced had already passed from dealer to dealer, which is a little irritating but which happens all the time, usually as they’re setting up.
I hung out for a while with my friends Craig and Patti Graham, who have Vagabond Books. I’ve known them since the late 1970s. In fact, for those who’ve read the new Adriana Hofstetter book (you know who you are), the friendly book dealer in chapter one, the guy with the long gray hair, is based on Craig. I saw seven or eight other dealers who I’ve very friendly with. The actor Michael Lerner was there (I have yet to attend a book fair in LA at which he hasn’t been in attendance), but I didn’t see anyone else I knew. I do love perusing the various booths and looking at the books that are in primo condition. The big-boy fair in February brings out the big guns and a lot of overseas dealers, but I find that fair daunting – so much to look at and my eyes and patience just give out after a while.
I hung out for about two hours, concluded trade deals that netted me six count them six new books for my library – they included: A reasonably nice copy (very nice, in fact) of Ernest Hemingway’s To Have and Have Not. It’s not a hugely rare book, but this was nice than most copies I’ve seen, but the fun thing about it is that it has the original owner’s contemporary signature in the book – circa 1937. The dealer called that out as a minus, but that’s because they didn’t know the name of the person who’d signed it – I knew instantly – actor Otto Kruger, one of my favorite character actors – I know his two granddaughters very well, in fact. So, that was fun. The other five books were two Nabokov books – Bend Sinister and his autobiography (written prior to Lolita) called Conclusive Evidence, both beautiful copies – then a lovely copy of a surprisingly hard book to find in any kind of collector condition, The Mouse That Roared; a gorgeous copy of Carson McCuller’s The Member of the Wedding, and finally a lovely copy of the UK edition of Ray Bradbury’s The October Country, signed by Bradbury and also a review copy with slip laid in. I have several of the British editions of his books – they have completely different covers and occasionally completely different titles – for example, I have the US true first of The Martian Chronicles and I have the UK first, which is called The Silver Locusts. Fun. So, a good haul.
Then I picked up no packages, I had a turkey sandwich and a small onion rings, after which I came home. By that time I’d had a few winds and I was kind of doing okay, then I got really tired again. I had a few telephonic calls, did some work on the computer, prepared the eBlast for Monday’s CD announcement, and then I decided to do a second jog. After that, I finally sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a motion picture on Blu and Ray entitled Niagara, starring Miss Marilyn Monroe, Mr. Joseph Cotton, and Miss Jean Peters. I had the DVD and had watched the first ten minutes and never finished it. It’s one of those movies that I always start and shut off after ten minutes – don’t know why, really. But last night I watched the whole thing and I have to say I quite enjoyed it. It’s kind of a weird little movie, but the cast is wonderful (I especially was enamored of Miss Jean Peters), Miss Monroe is so breathtakingly beautiful it really does take your breath away, and Mr. Cotton is always fun to watch. Miss Peters’ husband is played by Casey Adams, who’s really Max Showalter. For some reason, Mr. Showalter did some films under his own name and some under this other name. Go know. The film has stunning location photography by Joe MacDonald, a good score by Sol Kaplan and it’s very well directed by the reliable Henry Hathaway. But the best news is the transfer, which is, in a word, spectacular, one of the best color transfers of that era ever. Reviewers are so weird – they love it, but only give it 4.5 stars out of five. If this isn’t a five I don’t know what is. You can’t judge by how other newer films might look or any films might look – you judge on how THIS film looks and THIS film looks unbelievably gorgeous, with perfect and wonderful saturated colors (the reds, blues and greens leap off the screen) – THIS is what color of that era looks like. Of course, the reviewers don’t actually know what these films look like so they all hedge their bets and are afraid to give out the five. It’s funny to watch and yet not. I certainly recommend the film, but I REALLY recommend the transfer.
After that, I did a little book rearranging (I am out of room on the shelves, so I either have to move stuff to the garage or, as I’ve been doing lately, put them on the shelves in the book room closet. I got my sixth wind while doing that and my seventh wind writing these here notes, but now the wind has ebbed and also kandered. I am sans wind. I also managed to eat some melon balls, a tiny thing of chicken noodle soup, and some cherries. And that was that.
For those who haven’t read Writer’s Block, which was my fourth book and my first mystery and I wanted to write something a little unconventional and according to the reviews the book got, I succeeded – the reviews were across the board excellent. The plot revolves around the creation of a new musical in 1969 and follows it through rehearsals right up until opening night, at which point – well, read the damn book. I had a really good time writing it, but it was crazy making, too, for reasons that will be obvious if you’ve read it or will become obvious if you ever do read it. But the really fun part for me was actually creating a musical for the book, which I called Bus and Truck, about a touring group of actors doing a bus-and-truck tour of a musical. So, in order to talk about a few of the songs I actually wrote them. When we sold signed copies of the book here at haineshisway.com, we included a “demo” CD of four songs from Bus and Truck. I had great fun writing them, so I’m happy to share them over the next few days. This one is sung by Guy Haines and Alet Taylor. It’s called Who Do I Have to Blank to Get Out of This Show?
01 Who Do I Have to Blank to Get Out of this Show_
That’s kind of perky, isn’t it? Today, I shall pay a brief return visit to the book fair to bring my trade items to the dealers I did the deals with. I’ll only be there an hour, then I have to come home and then go to the Hills of Beverly to see the helper in some musical show she’s doing. After that, I’ll come home, then go and attend a birthday party in the Echo Park area. I’ll see many people I know there, including our very own Mr. Nick Redman.
Tomorrow, we announce our new CD at six in the morning, then hopefully I’ll print out a LOT of orders. I’ll spend a couple of hours on Face Time watching Sandy’s rehearsal of her show, give notes, and suggest the lighting cues. Then I’ll be going to Westlake Studios in the evening to finesse the mixes for Sandy’s album. The rest of the week is meetings and meals, seeing a few things, and prepping the next release.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, pay a brief visit to the book fair, see a show, maybe do a jog if there’s time, then attend a birthday partay. 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, after which I shall hopefully have all my winds back.