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December 28, 2014:

THE APHORISM THAT WAS AN ADAGE THAT WAS A MAXIM THAT WAS A DICTUM

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, I’ll tell you this – for a day that was supposed to be a ME day of nothing but relaxation, I did very little relaxing.  Why is that?  What is the expression?  The best of intentions pave the road to hell?  No, that can’t be right.  And yet, it IS right.  Who knew?  I actually inverted it, but then I like inverting things every now and then.  The actual phrase is “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”  That is an aphorism in case you didn’t know.  What the HELL is an aphorism anyway?  I think the road to hell is paved with aphorisms, frankly.  The HELL with aphorisms – you could also say that the road to hell is paved with good intentions is simply a saying, a maxim, an adage, and old saw, a dictum.  In any case, I haven’t a clew as to what the HELL I’m talking about, so let me just continue along those lines.  The point is I was supposed to do nothing yesterday but relax.  So here’s how it went.

I had to be up by nine, for she of the Evil Eye was coming to clean.  I went and had a cheese and bacon omelet and an English muffin, then I went to a local antique mall and looked around.  I always enjoy those places and this one is quite big, with a lot of dealers showing their wares there.  And though the road to hell is paved with good intentions, I made no purchases.  After that, I went to the mail place where I picked up one package, then came home.  Once home, instead of relaxing, I wrote the first half of the Kritzerland commentary.  Then I worked at the piano.  Then I had a few telephonic conversations.  Then I made some Wacky Noodles and sat on my couch like so much fish.

Yesterday, I finished watching a motion picture on Blu and Ray entitled The Fortune.  Now, this film was a huge flop – I mean HUGE.  How that was possible with a film starring then huge stars Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty along with newcomer Stockard Channing, written by Carole Eastman and directed by Mike Nichols is anyone’s guess.  It was meant to be a throwback to the screwball comedies.  They occasionally get the screwball part, but the comedy is in VERY short supply.  Everyone is trying so hard, but the soufflé simply refuses to rise and that old axiom and aphorism and old saw “The road to hell is paved with good intentions” comes to mind.  First of all, Ms. Eastman was not exactly known for screwball comedies – her biggest credit to that point was Five Easy Pieces and she’d just done the dreary Puzzle of a Downfall Child.  Yes, there are a handful of amusing moments, but mostly the cast and director just seem to be flailing away and failing away in the process.  Not only that, it’s one of the longest films ever made – like four-and-a-half hours long, which is interesting since the running time is actually eighty-eight minutes – it just SEEMS like four-and-a-half hours.  However, comedy is subjective and so some of you people out there in the dark may just get a kick out of it.  The transfer is great, really showing off the photography and art direction very well.  David Shire adapts period music and the score actually functions just like a Woody Allen movie.

I then watched another motion picture on Blu and Ray, entitled Inherit the Wind, starring Mr. Spencer Tracy and Mr. Fredric March, along with Gene Kelly, Dick York and many others.  Stanley Kramer directed the screenplay adapted from the stage version, which starred Paul Muni and Ed Begley.  I saw the film at my beloved Stadium Theater – I liked it so much that I saw it another time during its one-week run there.  I was quite taken with not only the story, but the wonderful dialogue, and the performances of Tracy and March.  Interestingly, over the years I like Tracy more and more and March a bit less – he’s really good in it, but it’s a very shticky performance.  His real-life wife, Florence Eldridge plays his screen wife, and she’s very moving.  Gene Kelly wears thin – he just wears his character on his sleeve and the cynicism just drips off him without any subtlety whatsoever. Ernest Gold provides another wonderful score.  Seeing it again (I don’t think I’ve seen it for over two decades), it’s still a cracking good entertainment, and you could not ask for a better transfer – it’s just perfect looking.  Both of these Blu-rays are from Twilight Time.

After that, I made the Facebook event page for the January Kritzerland show.  Normally that’s a two-hour ordeal, but Facebook has actually done something helpful since the December show.  Now rather than having to scroll through over 3,000 “friends” to check off who I’m inviting, it gives me options to click on past events invitees.  So, since I always invite the same folks, that just makes everything easy – you can click right from that page, there’s under 300 of them and it took me less than five minutes to do, rather than the two hours it’s been taking.  I hope they leave it like that.

Then I did some writing on this little show I’m working on, and I also did some thinking on the new novel.

Today, I shall hopefully arise after a good night’s beauty sleep.  Then my plan is to finish writing the commentary, do a little more writing on the little show, do more thinking on the new novel, eat, and watch movies.

Tomorrow I think I have a lunch thing, Tuesday I think I have a lunch thing and a work session with Sami, Wednesday I have a work session for the Kritzerland show, then we have our Annual New Year’s Rockin’ Eve partay right here at haineshisway.com.  Be there or be round.  New Year’s Day I will, of course, begin a new novel and then later in the day attend a partay at Barry Pearl’s home environment.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, sleep, finish writing a commentary, do some other writing, eat and watch motion pictures.  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 remember that old saw aphorism axiom saying adage maxim dictum, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

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