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May 20, 2015:

MY SHOULDER DECIDES TO GIVE ME TROUBLE EVEN THOUGH I’VE ALWAYS BEEN NICE TO IT

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, it is late and I am not feeling so well so I shall write these here notes in a hurry and try to get a good night’s beauty sleep.  For the last week or so, my left shoulder has been giving me trouble – why it is giving me trouble when I have done nothing but be nice to it is anyone’s guess.  It was mostly in evidence at bedtime, just a little pain between the shoulder and the neck, which I thought would just go away, only it hasn’t.  And today my left arm is bearing the brunt of it – oh, I can move it around and lift it, but it’s like it’s in a swimming pool when I do, or like I’m lifting a weight of some sort.  It’s really bugging me.  I Googled and found it could be several things, none of them terrible, but some that take weeks, even months to right themselves.  The drag on my left arm actually makes me nauseous, which I don’t like either.  Due to being up till after three doing all that LA Google stuff for the notes, I only got five hours of sleep.  I stayed in bed two more hours, then finally got up.  I immediately noticed the arm problem and it was indeed making me queasy, so I didn’t go eat right away.  Instead, I answered e-mails and did some work on the computer.

Then I went and got a bacon cheeseburger and no fries or onion rings and some halvah to have later.  I then picked up no packages and came home.  Once home, I did a few more things on the computer and then sat on my couch like so much fish, hoping that relaxing for the rest of the day and evening would help matters, which I think it did, if only a little.

First I watched another episode of The Honeymooners, one of the best and funniest.  Then I decided to watch another of those 50s LA noirs on the Flix of Net – this one I’d seen a couple of years ago and written about – The Killer is Loose, starring Wendell Corey, Joseph Cotton, Rhonda Fleming and some excellent character actors.  The opening shot is a doozy just as it was the first time I saw it – the corner of Roxbury Drive and Pico Boulevard, which was very close to the Beverlywood house that we moved to in 1963.  The shot looks west toward Westwood – clearly seen is the classic Roxbury Drug Store, where my mother used to take us kids to eat at the counter – it was one of our favorite places.  The rest of the film is all shot within a two-mile radius of there, with most of it taking place at the corner of Haddington Drive and Northvale Road, which is south of Pico a little west of the Twentieth Century Fox studios.  I wouldn’t be surprised if dear reader Jane didn’t know those streets since they’re very close to where she lived.  The film itself is a taut little thriller with a silly ending, directed by Budd Boetticher.

Then I went to go to Whole Foods, a market that I never go to, because dear reader Jeanne suggested a cream for me to try for my shoulder and arm, called Arnica.  I did as I always do and went to Whitsett and turned right to go up to Riverside, which is the street Whole Foods is on.  I knew there was a problem right away because the cars were backed up all the way to my street – I could see a fire truck and ambulance lights flashing.  I did a quick U-turn and cut over to Coldwater and went up to Riverside – the market is right on that corner.  I avoided Whitsett coming home, but later saw on Facebook that it had been a terrible multiple car collision there.  I finally got home, put some cream on my shoulder, and sat back down on my couch like so much fish.

I then watched a documentary entitled Tabloid about the tabloid field day in 1978 with Joyce McKinney and her purported kidnapping of the Mormon missionary she was in love with – shackling him to a bed to have sex with her.  She says it was not kidnapping and tells her side of it along with some other nutty stuff like cloning her dog.  A lot of it focuses on two London tabloids duking it out for the story – one telling her side of it, the other publishing lurid pictures and stories of her, which painted her in a light anything but pure.  It’s very well made, by Errol Morris, and it goes by very fast.  Some of it is also very, very funny.  A year after the film was released, Ms. McKinney sued Morris and the producers.  As far as I can tell, nothing has ever happened with it after the initial challenges.  If you’re in the mood for something interesting and quirky you could do worse.

After that, I took a long shower, applied more cream, and sat at the computer like so much fish.

Today, I have a noon o’clock meeting with a set designer, then I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, then I’m seeing a cabaret show at a club owned by Herb Alpert.  It’s just south of Mulholland, on Beverly Glen.  I used to eat there when it was a great Eyetalian jernt.

Not sure what’s happening tomorrow, but Friday is first a work session for the Kritzerland show, then a Sami work session.  Please send lots of excellent vibes and xylophones for this shoulder and arm thing to get better pronto – too much to do to worry about it.  I think I’m seeing a show on the weekend, and then the busy as can be week begins – actually it’s a crazy busy two weeks, the first of which culminates in the workshop of the Sami show, which is immediately followed by the rehearsals and Kritzerland show.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, have a meeting, hopefully pick up some packages, and see a cabaret show.  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, hoping that all your excellent vibes and xylophones will help alleviate the problems I’m having.

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