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May 13, 2021:

STUPID IS AS STUPID DOES

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, I’m gotta tell you that here in the city of Los Angeles, California there is no shortage of stupidity and yesterday was a more than perfect example of it. As you may have seen on Facebook, in places like North Carolina and environs several gas stations have run out of gas. Why? Because word got out that there was a “shortage” and everyone stormed the stations, resulting in long lines and people topping off their tanks and putting gas in many cans. Now, the news immediately reported that there really is no shortage at all – some main ruptured is what I think I read, and all will be back to normal early next week. But that’s not the stupid, dear readers, the stupid is that people in Los Angeles, California and environs, having read this stuff on Facebook, got it into their heads that there was a shortage HERE and of course there wasn’t and there isn’t and there’s not going to be. But these morons got in their motor cars yesterday and stormed the gas stations, topping off their tanks and filling cans with gas and causing lines. This was reported to me firsthand by people who saw it with their own eyeballs. These are probably the same people who caused The Great Toilet Paper Shortage of 2020 by buying up every last roll, which I’m sure will last them for the next five YEARS. These people are an embarrassment to themselves, and heaven knows, an embarrassment to others. Hopefully, sanity will prevail quickly. If I’d seen it, I would have absolutely gone up to these people and asked them why they were doing this, just to see what they had to say. In other news, and sad news at that, we’ve lost another member of our Nudie Musical family – the wonderful Vern Jones, who played the assistant director in the film and has one particularly cherce line to my character. He used the name Vern Joyce on the film – not sure why, but he never used it again as far as I know. I met Vern at LACC – he was ahead of me by a year or two or maybe he was in his final semester – that sounds right, actually. Cindy Williams, Alan Abelew, and I became close friends with him. He was a wonderful actor and funny and charming and weird. I saw him many times over the years, we had fun telephonic conversations, too. I gather he’d been in the ICU but my cousin Dee Dee had been in contact and thought he was getting better. Alas, he did not. I’m not sure how old he was – probably two or three years older than I am.

Other than that, I’m taking a little Ormandy break because I’ve begun listening to a small box set of another conductor I love, another that I discovered right after Ormandy – Arthur Rodzinski, who also recorded for Columbia. Those who’ve seen either The Creature Wasn’t Nice or its bastardized version Spaceship knows I named Gerrit Graham’s character Arthur Rodzinski. This is not a daunting set like the Ormandy, but it’s an amazing one so far. There’s a wonderful Brahms first (most of this spans the years 1945 to the early 1950s), an electrifying Prokofiev fifth, a great Nutcracker Suite – I’ve only heard four CDs so far. The first two CDs were a little alarming, as there was quite a bit of shellac noise in the transfers – I’m sure they did what they could, but it’s odd because with discs three and four the sound is perfect and those are from discs, too. The sound is fine on those first two discs, save for the occasional whooshing noise. It’s wonderful that Sony is doing all these. And I also watched a ballet entitled Jewels, by one George Balanchine and it was simply wonderful. The first of the three titular jewels is Emeralds, set to the music of one of my favorite composers, Gabriel Faure. It’s stunning. The second piece is called Rubies, set to the music of Igor Stravinsky and it, too, is stunning. The closer is Diamonds, set to the music of Tchaikovsky. And yes, it, too, is stunning. This Blu-ray is from the 2005 Paris Ballet production. I’d love to see this with another company, especially the dancers who danced it originally. The Paris Ballet is very good, but they sometimes seem a bit ragged. The camera direction is hideous. So, let’s have a little Directing 101 for the ballet, shall we?

Here we go: a) if there are a stage full of dancers doing patterns, don’t cut in to two of them for no reason, waist-up shots – they are meaningless and stop the rhythm of the dance and precludes us from seeing the patterns. b) if there are a quartet of soloists on stage, don’t continually follow two of them because they’re TOGETHER and meant to be seen TOGETHER – that is the POINT. c) If there are two dancers dancing together, don’t follow one of them and exclude their partner. This isn’t brain surgery. d) NEVER do a waist-up shot in dance – EVER. It is pointless, stupid, and disconnects the dancers from their, I don’t know, call me crazy, FEET? I could go on, but these people never learn and people apparently think what they do is just fine and dandy. Anyway, I’ll search the ballet on the Tube of You and see if there are any other performances. But I loved the ballet itself – the choreography and staging is beautiful.

Yesterday was an okay day. I got only about six-and-a-half hours of sleep, got up, had a little work session on the telephonic device, then went and picked up two packages and then went to Gelson’s. I got some sliced chicken breasts (I think you’re supposed to make chicken tenders with them), came home and made some faux stroganoff, but not served over anything. There were certainly carbs, probably about thirty of ‘em all told, but in the Keto book Lydia Geissman lent me, it says as long as you’re under fifty you’re fine. Plus, I’ve been well under fifteen mostly. Calorie-wise it wasn’t too bad either. And it was good to eat something completely different. I listened to Ormandy doing various things whilst I finished writing the commentary for the end of May Kritzerland show. That took up most of the afternoon. Then I sat on my couch like so much fish and watched Jewels.

After that, I made a couple of fried eggs for my evening meal, did some work on the computer, started listening to the Rodzinski discs, and the rest you know and you know the rest.

Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll finesse the commentary, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, and then at three-thirty Marshall Harvey is coming by and we’ll drive to the storage place, where we’ll be met by another person so we can do our organizing, which I’m hoping won’t take more than a couple of hours. The helper’s mom will come by because when I gave her the keys to the main unit, I neglected to keep one – she needs some Nudie Blu-rays, which I had here, and I wouldn’t have been able to leave them unless she came by. After we finish, we’ll go have a bite to eat. Then at some point, I’ll watch, listen, and relax.

Tomorrow, I’m still hoping for a major miracle or three, I should be getting some videos, and then I think I may just be able to have a restful weekend, although I do have to prepare some new releases to announce.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up when I’m up, do whatever needs doing, finesse the commentary, hopefully pick up packages, go to storage and organize, eat, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: Favorite chicken dishes, especially ones that might be Keto friendly. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, hoping the stupid of Los Angeles stop being stupid and causing lines at gas stations.

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