Haines Logo Text
Column Archive
December 10, 2014:

THE SPLENDIDLY WORKING IPHONE AND THE SPIFFY NEW PORCELAIN CAP

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, the new iPhone is now working splendidly.  It took ninety minutes with Apple Care to get everything squared away and all devices to have the same information.  It began by starting over with the phone – we cleared everything and then put in the new Cloud username and password we’d created at the Apple Store.  We then did a backup from the Cloud and that put the phone exactly where it had been prior to my doing a restore from the old iPhone.  That made me very happy.  Then that nice lady put me over to a senior tech and we did the rest.  We got my entire iPhoto library, almost 2,000 photos, onto the phone.  I thought it would take up a huge amount of space but in reality it took up only 1.8 gigs, which is nothing at all.  Then on the computer we made the Cloud have the new username and password, then we did the same for the iPad, so now the Cloud should finally work as it’s supposed to.  Once all that was done, it was a beautiful thing.

I then had to hurry to Dr. Chew’s.  He put the new porcelain cap in quickly and easily – twenty minutes start to finish.  It feels great and it’s secure as secure can be, which is secure.  I then hurried to my noon o’clock lunch meeting and got there right on time.  It was a good meeting and I had a great mac-and-cheese.  After that, I put gas in the motor car – for the first time in what must be three or four years, premium gas was under three dollars.  I hope it keeps going down.

I then went to the mail place and picked up a couple of packages, then came home.  Once home, I transferred everything from iRecorder on the old phone into iTunes and that was everything I needed from that phone.  Then I answered a plethora of e-mails and had a couple of telephonic calls.  Then the helper came and she did the annual Christmas decorations to the front of the house.  It now looks very festive out there.  Then we did a complete reset on the old phone, and she set it up for her new use and then went directly to the AT&T store and activated it.  And the nice thing is there’s still another year on the Apple Care.  Then I finally sat on my couch like so much fish.

Last night, I watched a motion picture on DVD entitled Cantinflas, a biopic about the great Mexican comedian, who was one of Charlie Chaplin’s favorites.  I love movies like this and had read about it (it came out a few months ago briefly).  I so wanted to love it, but from the very first scene with Michael Imperioli (playing Mike Todd) in one of the worst wigs I’ve ever seen on the screen, I knew we were in deep deep doo doo (ood ood, spelled backwards).  The writers and director obviously don’t really know how to write English and all the actors save for Mr. Imperioli and one other, are not American and their attempts at the accent are really kind of not good.  Mr. Todd is trying to fund Around the World in Eighty Days – that’s the subplot.  Why you’d start a movie about Cantinflas with this other subplot is anyone’s guess.  Once done with that awful scene, we flashback to the early 1930s and meet the adult Cantinflas.  I would rather have had ten minutes about his childhood, frankly.  The actor playing him is really quite good and has his rhythms and moves down pretty perfectly.  So, we get these little scenes from the life of Cantinflas, intercut with the scenes of Todd trying to get his film financed.  The two plots finally intercede when Todd comes to see if Cantinflas will do a cameo.  Cantinflas says no.  Imperioli sits in a restaurant and from this point on the film becomes so bad one’s mouth just is agape, oh, yes, one’s mouth is just agape.  As he sits there (and he’s not good in this), an older white haired gentleman with an English accent sitting at the next table says he’s overheard what’s going on, and he suggests trying again.  As he walks out he does the Chaplin walk and we realize it’s Charlie Chaplin.  Only this person looks and sounds nothing like Chaplin.  Imperioli hits himself in the head for not having realized it was Chaplin.  Imperioli then gets the script to Chaplin who agrees to get it to Cantinflas for the role he eventually played.  Now, this script for a three-hour film looks to be about ten pages long.

The film gets made and we see a couple of scenes being shot – with a regular 35mm camera (two actually – for no discernable reason) – the film, of course, was shot in Todd-AO.  How hard is it to get at least the details right.  But in the film’s nadir, we have the Golden Globes where we see Marlon Brando (an actor who looks nothing like him) and a bunch of other celebrity non-lookalikes, including an amusing Yul Brynner.  Then they announce the best actor nominees – and when the get to Yul the guy trying to play an American and failing badly, actually pronounces Brynner as Briner as in finer.  Anyway, what a lost opportunity – a wonderful leading actor and a beloved clown’s story – should have been great.  Of course, if you go to the imdb, you literally see nothing but ten-star reviews (save for one).  I don’t know what movie they saw.  The critics, all three of them that I found on Rotten Tomatoes, thought just about the same thing I did.  There is a nice score by Roque Banos and the set designs are occasionally interesting, save for the scenes taking place in a Los Angeles that never looked anything like what they’re presenting in this film.

I then went to Gelson’s and got some shrimp cocktail shrimp for my evening snack, then came home.  I sat back on the couch, ate them, and watched the first thirty minutes of the new Twilight Time Blu and Ray, Bunny Lake is Missing, a film I’ve always been very, very fond of.  The transfer is splendidly splendid – nothing like black-and-white scope – and I’ll write at length about it when I finish it tonight.

After that, it was basically time to write these here notes and, as you can see, writing them I am.

Today and tomorrow should be fairly light days, so I can spend most of the time finishing choosing songs for the January show and gathering the music for them.  I’ve got about six or seven already chosen.  I’m sure I’ll eat, I’m sure I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, and I’m sure I’ll relax and watch motion pictures.  I should also be able to post a few videos from Sunday’s show right here in tomorrow’s notes.

Friday I’m having another birthday dinner, this with the Staitman clan – we’re going to the Woodland Hills Ruth’s Chris – I’ve never eaten at that branch, so that will be fun.  Saturday is pretty free and Sunday I’m supping with Kay Cole and her ever-lovin’ Michael Lamont.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, choose songs, eat, hopefully pick up packages, and relax.  Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear reader any old question you like and we get to give any old answer we like.  So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have the splendidly working iPhone and the spiffy new porcelain cap.

Search BK's Notes Archive:
 
© 2001 - 2024 by Bruce Kimmel. All Rights Reserved