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April 12, 2020:

I’M HAPPY TO REPORT IT’S EASTER

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, I am happy to report that I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to music that is quite enjoyable to the ear, which is, I suppose better than being enjoyable to the elbow.  Other than that, what else is there to say but what we’ve now said for four weeks?  Well, each day does have its unique things and I suppose we should be grateful for small pleasures these days.  The main small pleasures these past few weeks, I must say, all have to do with music discoveries that are enjoyable to the ear, actually both ears.  I love discovering composers I didn’t know and learning about them through their music.  And the fact is I end up really liking most of them.  So, that’s an excellent prime benefit of the Tube of You.  Speaking of Prime benefits, there really aren’t any on Amazon these days – long delays for Prime customers and they really ought to give everyone a free year.

Yesterday, there weren’t too many irritants, so that was nice.  I only got about six hours of sleep, and once up I answered e-mails and such and so on, then I took a nice drive in the motor car, about four or five miles in all, just taking in the sights and sounds and breathing some fresh air, which is always a good thing.  There were more cars out than in past days – maybe Saturday is marketing day because the City of Studio Gelson’s had a line outside (they only let in a few at a time), although plenty of parking spaces.

Once home from my invigorating drive, which was invigoratingly invigorating, I decided on the meal o’ the day and ordered it via Door Dash.  I realized that in the past four weeks I have not had any meat at all – save for one trip to Taco Bell a few weeks ago and that’s not what I’d call actual meat.  So, I ordered a Big Wave with cheese from the nearby Islands and that comes with french fries.  It arrived about twenty-five minutes later, and I have to tell you, yes, I HAVE to tell you that it was the best meal  – the burger was perfect, the fries were great and there weren’t a humungous amount of them, which was good.  I really liked it and will do that again in a few days.  I savored every bite and every fry.  Then I sat on my couch like so much fish.

I turned on a motion picture, The Devil at 4 O’Clock and before the main titles were finished, I was out like a light for over an hour.  So, I went back and watched it.  I saw this film when it played at my beloved Stadium Theater.  Only later did I find out it was the final film to play there before they closed their doors.  I loved it back then and had the soundtrack album on Colpix in stereophonic sound – this was the score that made me fall in love with the music of George Duning. Here’s a fun game you can play and it works for almost all of his main title themes:  His theme has the exact same number of notes as there are syllables in the title.  So, you can literally sing, “The devil at 4 o’clock” to the music.  And you’ll be able to do the same for just about every movie he scored.  He’s not the only composer to do it either.  Anyway, I loved the film back then, but watching it after all these years (when it came out on DVD I didn’t really watch more than the first ten minutes) it’s just not very good at all.  The score is great, though.  Spencer Tracy stars as a priest, Frank Sinatra also stars, and there’s a large supporting company of character actors from various nations.  The special effects (involving a volcano) were probably impressive back then, but they’re terrible now.  The transfer is mediocre – a bit too yellow – and the opticals for the effects are truly terrible.  Still and all, fun to see it again.

Then I did a quick run to Gelson’s.  It was pretty empty at six-thirty, and yes, I did wear a mask inside.  The few who were there were masked, some ridiculously over-masked, and then one woman who, out of sight of security, with her mask lowered and not covering her face at all.  I’m surprised no one said anything to her.  I went right to the bakery – I was the only one there – and got their little chocolate mousse thing for my sweet treat.  Then I went to the dairy section and got some whipped cream, another Lean Cuisine frozen pizza, and I think that was it.  I was in and out of there in six minutes and couldn’t wait to get that mask off my face.

Once home, I put the mousse in the refrigerator, and then watched another motion picture, this one titled Bite the Bullet, a Richard Brooks motion picture, starring Gene Hackman, James Coburn, Jan-Michael Vincent, Candice Bergen, Ian Bannen and lots more.  Clearly, Brooks was trying to have another hit along the lines of The Professionals, but just as clearly the script and story to Bite the Bullet were not of the same quality as The Professionals.  I’d owned it on DVD and never been able to get past the first five minutes, and then I’ve owned the Twilight Time Blu-ray from the day it came out and couldn’t get past the first five minutes of that.  But this time I made it through all 130 minutes.  It’s easy to see why the film flopped.  The story of a grueling race was and is not appealing, and there are just endless stretches of endless talking and monologues and it just goes on and on forever until the truly disappointing and too-quick wrap-up.  And I found it astonishing that a 1975 film had no end credits at all.  The Alex North score is very good, and the actors are all fine.  I do wish I’d liked it better.  The transfer looks great most of the time, but there are some really curiously out-of-focus shots that aren’t opticals, which was baffling.

After that, I ate the mousse with some whipped cream on it, listened to music, and thought about that mighty good Big Wave.

Today, I have to be up by eleven or so.  I’ll shave and get ready and then at 1:12 my time I have to take part in some David Cassidy/Partridge Family event online.  They want me to talk about the show and how it all happened and also my friendship with David.   Not sure how long it will last but I hope my bit can be done in thirty minutes.  Then I’ll have to decide on the food.  I have plenty here, but yesterday’s meal was so good, I’m almost tempted to try a delivery from another favorite jernt and I just might, unless I save that treat for Monday.  Then it will be a drive and maybe even a walk, weather permitting, and then the usual things.  Oh, yeah, and isn’t it Easter or something?  I’m said that I have no gaily colored Easter eggs around the home environment.  But a very happy Easter to those who celebrate such things.  It’s interesting how Passover and Easter sometimes overlap.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by eleven and ready myself, I must take part in an online video chat, I must eat, I must drive, perhaps walk, and then watch and listen.  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 will be happy to report that it is Easter.

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