Well, dear readers, remember the part about today being a nice, easy day? Well, at eight the phone rang and I was informed that CDs would be arriving at nine. Say what? Nice of them to give me some advance warning so that I could, you know, have had Cason here to help? So, the CDs arrived and I, all by my little old self, shipped out just under 1000 CDs. The only thing that’s left are some overseas dealer orders and those will go out today, presuming Cason is here in the morning. As you might imagine that all took quite some time and involved quite a bit of heavy lifting. I also met our very own Mr. Nick Redman for a chat, and he gave me some CDs and I gave him some CDs. I then had other errands and whatnot to do and I also finished the second go-through finding em dashes and bad breaks. Then, when I was checking a fact, I found another bad break – not good, and I’m now thinking about doing a third quick go-through before tonight’s fix-it session. Of course, once we fix this plethora of em dashes and bad breaks it will be much easier to catch what will probably be a handful of leftovers – once the book is in final fixed condition, I will read it from start to finish just to make certain nothing has gone awry. I had no count them no packages today – most annoying. I then had a few telephonic conversations and by the time I was finished with everything it was already early evening. Well, maybe Wednesday will be a day off. I finally did manage to sit on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a motion picture on Blu and Ray entitled The Running Man, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, and directed by that great cineaste Paul Michael Glaser, formally known as Starsky. This was truly a horrible film, and about the only interesting thing about it was its prescience about the upcoming reality TV trend (which was probably in Stephen King’s novella). Otherwise, it’s one wretched scene after another, each scene containing a pithy one-liner for Mr. Schwarzenegger to say. Of course on the imdb it’s one ten-star “review” after another, all written by youngsters who must have been ten when the film came out. About the transfer – if you read some of those DVD sites you will read one idiotic comment after another written by people who simply have no clew what movies are supposed to look like. They say the film has never looked better, but that it still doesn’t look good – well – duh. It, in fact, looks better than it did in the theaters and is a superb transfer that perfectly replicates the way the film was photographed, lit, and printed. So, you can complain about the latter but you cannot ascribe it to the transfer or think there was anything they could have done to make it better. One particularly silly fellow on an esteemed site did end his little treatise on the transfer with a line about the fact that there was probably nothing else to harvest from the original photography. Do you think this particularly silly fellow ever heard the word harvest in regards to transfers and film before he read it in a Robert Harris post? Um – no would be the answer. So, if you happen to like terrible films or if you are fond of this particular terrible film, you won’t go wrong with the Blu-Ray.
After the movie, I went through one of my memorabilia boxes and found some very interesting stuff I hadn’t seen – I was still hoping to find a program from the third production of my show Start At The Top, because I cannot remember the leading lady’s name and would sorely love to include it in the book. But I did find a flyer/invitation to the show and my timeline for that production was right on the money. I also found several of my old music books with songs I barely remember. It’s really funny to read the lyrics to some of the songs – you can really tell what my frame of mind was when I wrote them. Some of them are rather hilariously bleak.
But the best thing that happened yesterday was that Rupert Holmes sent me his blurb for the dust jacket of the book (one of two I’ve been waiting on – the other will hopefully be here soon). Here’s what he wrote, and I cannot tell you how much it pleased me – it’s just so exciting to get these blurbs.
“Bruce Kimmel takes you into his confidence (and into his heart) as your first-person tour guide on the thrill ride of his acting career, with several of this planet’s most ridiculous and unimaginable decades as backdrop for his story. His careening and caroming adventures move at a breath-taking pace and, as ever, Kimmel’s endearing, self-effacing tone evokes Saroyan and Salinger, even as his book is populated with more familiar names than a fruitcake has raisins. Daft, deft, constantly touching and ultimately moving, our hero’s effort to find his life, his love, and his “light” makes for a rare showbiz story that trades in tinsel and glitter for tenderness and hope.”
Rupert Holmes – Tony and Edgar award-winning playwright and novelist
Isn’t that just too too. Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I have to be up early to ship out the few remaining packages. The Few Remaining Packages – that’s the title of my next novel.
Today, I shall be shipping out the few remaining packages, which is also the title of my next novel. Then perhaps I can relax and smell the coffee or the roses or the cauliflower. And then at six-thirty I’ll be with Mr. Geissman to enter the myriad fixing of the em dashes and the bad breaks, and then I’m praying we can get to the photo layout. If we don’t, then we’ll have to work again and hopefully too many days won’t go by until we do. I’d really like to have this to the publisher no later than next Monday.
Tomorrow, I really would like to take the day off. It is, after all, St. Patrick’s Day, so I’ll just put on something green and that will be that. In the evening, I’ve been invited to a little St. Pat’s Day dinner at the home of our very own Mr. Barry Pearl.
I’m also happy to announce that our second LACCTAA event, happening the 24th of April, will be an afternoon with our very own Mr. Jason Graae. Let me tell you how much fun that will be.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, ship out the few remaining packages, relax, and then do book fixes with Mr. Geissman. Today’s topic of discussion: Okay, let’s just do it – what are your favorite cheeseball 1980s films? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland so I can be up early to ship the few remaining packages.