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October 24, 2006:

KEEPING MY HEAD SCREWED ON STRAIGHT

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, what a day yesterday was. Yesterday was a day, all right, and a fairly wonderful one at that, even though it was so busy I could barely keep my head screwed on straight. I hate when my head is screwed on crooked, don’t you? In any case, it began by my getting up after a wonderful nine-hour sleep, which I really needed. Then I toddled off to my morning meeting regarding the kids show I’m directing – I met our choreographer and we all made sure we were on the same page about our casting session tomorrow and Thursday. It was actually a very nice meeting and I couldn’t be working with lovelier folks. I then did a few errands, came home and jogged, did a few more errands, and then toddled off to LACC for our first Brain rehearsal. I must say, considering that many in the cast have never sung onstage before in a musical, they were picking up things pretty well. We let them make tapes (plus they now all have the CD I recorded last week), and I think they’ll all be just fine. We did find four or five mistakes in the printed music, so we fixed those. It was a fairly short rehearsal because at six I had to toddle off to our CD release party.

I arrived at The Colony Theatre and there were already a few folks there, including cousins Dee Dee and Alan. By seven the room was fairly crowded and by seven-thirty there were probably fifty or sixty people there. We all had a good deal of fun – some of the folks I knew were the Kritzerland packaging designer Doug Haverty (and his ever-lovin’ wife), composer Adryan Russ, writer Lissa Levin, publicist Steve Moyer, LACC Theatre Academy President Fred Fate, kid show cohorts Mark Allen and his ever-lovin’ Buffy, our very own Mr. Nick Redman with pal Julie Kirgo, Hisaka, our very own Adriana Patti (who is my assistant on The Brain), and from the Sondheim show, James Brewer and his ever-lovin’ Amy Dondy, delightful Hannah Kornfeld, Kelly Ground, and Lisa Vroman. Also spotted were Miss Andrea Marcovicci’s husband and their daughter Alice, who is cute as a bug in a rug. The food was really excellent and was gobbled up in great amounts. At eight-thirty, a proclamation was read from the Mayor of Burbank proclaiming October 23rd Stephen Sondheim Day. After that, we had some performances by Hannah Kornfeld, twelve years old, who killed with a terrific performance of Broadway Baby – she’s gotten even better than she was in the concert. Amy Dondy then sang two songs, and Kelly Ground sang one. They were all accompanied by Mr. Shelley Markham. I then said a couple of words, including my telling everyone that I would like to say that the CD is available at fine stores everywhere, only there AREN’T any fine stores anywhere anymore. Then the party continued for another ninety minutes or so. I must say, The Colony Theatre was the perfect place to have the party and I’m sure I’ll be using it again. After the party, a few of us went over to a new jernt in the Burbank Mall called Granville, where I had some macaroni and cheese (I’d only eaten a very small amount of food at the party). That was fun, too. I then came home, caught up with today’s postings, and began writing these here notes.

Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because the hour is late and I need my beauty sleep.

Today, I must do more errands, have a brief meeting with James Brewer, and then I must go to the second day of Brain rehearsal, which will run longer than yesterday’s. We’ll be going over what we learned yesterday, and then moving on to the next batch of songs.

It looks like we’re really going to try to have the Emily and Alice album ready for Christmas – Vinnie will start his pre-mixing tomorrow or Thursday, and we’re going to begin preparing the packaging as well, except for the photos, which we won’t have until mid-November – but if everything else is ready to go, we should be able to get CDs by December 10th or so and shipped out in time for Christmas. If that’s what we decide to do, we’ll start taking preorders around November 10th. I shall keep you posted.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, jog, meet, eat, rehearse, and come home to relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite cartoon characters, not from feature-length animated films, but from the classic seven-minute cartoon shorts from the 20s on. And if you have favorite cartoons, tell us which. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I try to keep my head screwed on straight.

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