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November 4, 2021:

BOOSTERIZED

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, I have been boosterized. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, I, BK, have been boosterized. That was just about an hour and ten minutes ago as the crow flies even though I looked long and hard and didn’t see the damn crow. I arrived at my local CVS at ten-fifteen for my ten-thirty appointment. I was the only one there for the booster shot – but there were more people than you’d expect picking up stuff or dropping prescriptions off – a little odd at that time of night. Still, the one gal giving the shot got to me at about ten-twenty-five and she was very nice. She filled out my card and then gave me the shot and that was that. Quick and easy, the way we like it. I picked up a new supply of Claritin-D while I was there, since I ran out yesterday. I stopped at Gelson’s after because I wanted a damn treat. Oh, you don’t have to sit for fifteen minutes after the booster, so that was good. I got some bagels, cream cheese, and a new supply of Chocolate Dips. I came home and had one bagel with cream cheese and one bagel with a fried egg – very good and just what I needed. And now, I am sitting here like so much boosterized fish, listening to one of my favorite conductors do the Prokofiev fifth symphony, said conductor being Arthur Rodzinski. It’s a great performance in nice mono sound – maybe in my top three for that symphony. And earlier, I watched a fun and interesting recent hour-long interview with Sir Elton John, hosted by Graham Norton. Sir Elton holds nothing back and I enjoyed it very much. I’m new to Mr. Norton – I had no idea who he was two weeks ago, but I watched some of his long-running BBC interview show and I must say they’re hilariously hilarious and his guests really have a good and very irreverent time. Quite the rabbit hole that was, let me tell you.

Yesterday, I have no idea how much sleep I got – my allergies were really acting up, despite my having taken a pill. Plus, I had trouble digesting the donut I had – I think donuts and I are done – my system just doesn’t like donuts anymore and apparently donuts don’t like my system. Very annoying. So, maybe I got six hours of some kind of sleep. Once up, I answered e-mails, did some work on the computer and then at noon o’clock I did some podcast – that took and hour and fifteen minutes and was fun. Then I went to get some food, only I didn’t because the car battery was once again drained. I’ve just about had it with the motor car and I’ve just about had it period. I knew it was more drained than usual because the door wouldn’t unlock and I had to use the key in the fob. And guess what that meant? I couldn’t pop the trunk from the rear. I thought I could from inside the car, in the same way you pop the hood, but nooooo, that would have been too easy. This was, of course, a big problem because the battery charger was in the trunk. So, I had to call AAA and because I’ve used all my visits, I had to pay for someone to come out and that charge has gone up by twenty bucks since the last time I had to pay. It was especially galling because they’d just taken the payment for the upcoming year, when the roadside service would kick in anew. I said to the woman, you took the dough so? She said that my new year doesn’t start until the tenth. I said, that’s just seven days, you can’t do this? She said it was impossible. I said if it’s so impossible why do you think taking my money BEFORE the tenth is okay? Anyway, I had to do it, another wasted ninety bucks, and after I booked the appointment, I asked to be switched back to the customer service department, where I promptly cancelled my membership and told them to refund me THAT ninety bucks immediately. They didn’t even care and said the money would come back to me shortly. Happily, the guy showed up ten minutes later, rather than the forty they were predicting. He ascertained that the battery itself was fully okay, and so he attached his cables and I started the car, although the battery was so drained that it took about ten seconds to finally turn over.

I immediately took the charger out of the trunk and from now on, whenever I got out, it will go in the front passenger seat, covered by my coat. And it will come in the house every evening. What a pain in my ASS. I went to Panda Express and got orange chicken, crispy almond chicken, and string bean chicken, and white rice, came home, and ate it all up.

Then I had a Zoom thing with David Wechter and that was very productive. After that, I sat on my couch like so much fish and watched the Elton John thing and then a bit of a Hitchcockian thriller called Still of the Night. We know it’s a Hitchcockian thriller because that was the whole campaign for the film – a Hitchcock-inspired thriller. Well, clearly co-writer and director Robert Benton is not Alfred Hitchcock, nor his poor fifth cousin – he was a pedestrian director at best and his attempts to make a Hitchcockian thriller show a huge lack of understanding about what makes a Hitchcock film tick. But he does reference Rear Window, The Birds, and other films in ways that don’t work at all. Roy Scheider is a wonderful actor, but not a Hitchcockian leading man, and Meryl Streep doesn’t seem to have any idea how to play her Eva Marie Saint-type role – it’s like the director gave her no help whatsoever. She calls it the worst film she ever made and she’s right. I did see it once before at some point and remember thinking it was terrible, but I don’t remember anything about it – I’ll finish it up, I suppose. One of the most amazing things about it is: If you’re doing a Hitchcock homage, you better damn well have a composer who understands how the music in a Hitchcock film functioned. Do we get that composer? No. We get, of all people, John Kander, not exactly a film composer in any sense of the word. He wrote a pretty theme that has zero to do with the film and that’s about it. Then I did stuff on the computer until it was time to leave for CVS.

Today, I’m hoping for no side effects from the booster so that I can have a relaxing ME day – I just need a damn day to do nothing but perhaps deal with several emergencies that have piled up. Time for some little miracles, baby. I may do some writing, but mostly I want to just have a nice day – hopefully pick up some packages, eat, watch, listen, and relax.

Tomorrow, I may have a Zoom thing earlier in the day, and then I’m going to see a motion picture with Marshall Harvey – a brand new 35mm subtitled print of Spirited Away at the new Academy Museum. I think our intention is to go to Genghis Cohen first – haven’t been in two years, so that would be a wonderful thing to do. Saturday, we have a three-hour rehearsal, where I hope to get everything smooth, although we’ll be missing our leading lady. Sunday, we have another three-hour rehearsal with the full cast and we’ll try to get everything to a performance level. Then we’ll get to the theater early on Monday so we can run a few things.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, hope for no side effects from the booster, have a ME day, hope for some little miracles, do some writing, hopefully pick up packages, eat, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite films featuring Mr. Roy Scheider and Miss Meryl Streep? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, having been properly boosterized.

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