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February 7, 2012:

THE TIME THAT GOT AWAY

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, somehow the time has gotten away from me. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, somehow the time has gotten away from me. I hate when that happens. I rather like it when I get away from the time, that’s ever so much more fun. In any case, the time has gotten away from me and therefore I must write these here notes in a hurry. I had a rather lovelier than lovely day yesterday. I was up by nine, did some stuff on the computer, and then went and scanned about fifty photographs. I had over a hundred to choose from, but a lot of them were just singers at their mics and we decided those would be weird to have in a book about me. So, we chose photos in which I appear (I do think we have just a handful in which I don’t). So it was nice to get all that scanning out of the way and I know Grant will be very happy not to have to do it. Then I went to a coffee shop called Tallyrand for a chicken salad sandwich and some of their homemade tap tap tapioca pudding, which was quite yummilicious. Then I picked up no packages and no mail, after which I came home. Amongst the photographs I had several strips of 35mm negatives. I finally figured out what they were – to my eye it looked like Jodi Benson, and indeed one of the negatives has her holding something that says Ariel. So, there are several shots of her and me and also a couple of other people I haven’t identified. Those I took to CVS and they’re printing all the shots with two or more people in them.

Otherwise, I didn’t do a damned thing, which is exactly what I needed to not do. Oh, I recorded three songs from an Outside the Box episode, although I wasn’t really happy with any of it, so I’ll rerecord today. Then those can go off and get music done. After that, I just sat on my couch like so much fish.

Last night, I watched about five Jack Benny specials. Obviously they are hit and miss, but the hits happen much more than the misses. Again, several of them are trying to be very with it circa 1969, and so are very dated. But out of nowhere brilliance rears its head – in Jack’s birthday special a bunch of penguins cross the stage for no real reason and it’s fall off the couch funny. He then repeats that bit over the next few specials. There are tons of guest stars and cameo appearances in these – Lucille Ball, Dean Martin, Dan Blocker, Dionne Warwick, Joey Heatherton, Nancy Sinatra, Frank Sinatra, George Burns, Bob Hope, Rochester, Don Wilson, Dennis Day, Mel Blanc, Frank Nelson, Benny Rubin, Johnny Carson, Ann-Margret, Dinah Shore and on and on. Of all these, the birthday special was the best. Also, at one point Lucille Ball does a production number, singing Big Spender. Now, we all know Lucy has a very distinctive voice, so imagine my surprise when the voice coming out of her mouth did not belong to her. Back then I guess it must have fooled people and certainly no one back then would have known who dubbed her, but I knew instantly and so would a lot of people today – Miss Carole Cook. There is NO mistaking that voice either. I have one more special to go, his final one. Oh, and in the birthday special, one of the cameos is done by Red Skelton and for one brief shining moment in time you can see how unbelievably great they would have been in The Sunshine Boys, the movie. They were both cast, but Jack died and they wouldn’t insure Red. But boy would they have been brilliant together.

After that, I went to Gelson’s and got a little thing of mac and cheese and some apples. Then I just played on the computer for a while and then time got away from me. Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must get a good night’s beauty sleep.

Today, I will rerecord the three songs from yesterday and also record another three, then I’ll send along all six. I’ll try to jog, hopefully I’ll pick up some packages, I’ll eat, I’ll do some work on the computer and just try to relax some more before finishing casting the next Kritzerland show.

Tomorrow, I’m told I’ll have one of my proofers suggested fixes so I’ll begin to go through that and that will probably take several hours. The rest of the week is filled with meetings, meals, seeing God of Carnage on Thursday night, and then spending some time at the book fair on Friday and visiting Cindy Williams at the Hollywood Show (although she wasn’t on their list when last I looked, so I’ll call her and make sure she’s doing it before I go waste time and money).

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, rerecord songs, maybe jog, eat, hopefully pick up some packages, do work on the computer and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What were your all-time favorite variety shows, the ones you never missed? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland and maybe by the time I wake up time will have come back.

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