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March 24, 2012:

STUFFED TO THE GILLS

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, I must write these here notes in a hurry for she of the Evil Eye will be here all too soon. Before going any further, let me just say that I saw Those Callaways, Liz and Ann, do their show Boom last night at the Smothers Brothers Theatre on the campus of Pepperdine University. It’s an evening of 60s and 70s songs and it was a really fun and wonderful show from start to finish. The gals, with the aid of musical director and arranger Alex Rybeck, really understand the art of putting together a show like this – not just stringing a bunch of songs together, but personalizing everything so that the songs have some context and meaning to who’s singing them. It’s surprising just how many talented people fail to understand this simple tenet. They were both completely at ease and both sounded fantastic, either solo or in duets. The patter was fun and the band was terrific – Alex on piano, Daniel Fabricant on bass (he was the original bass player on the LACC production of The Brain from Planet X), and M.B. Gordy on drums (superb – I’ve worked with him before, too). The show breezed by (intermissionless). Afterwards, I said a brief hello to Liz, Ann, and Alex, and gave Liz a copy of the book, as she’s been telling me she’s scared about what I might have written. I wanted to set her mind at ease as quickly as possible and I do believe she’ll be very happy with what she reads. I think her concern had to do with the demise of the record label and where I felt some folks had been disloyal, but I didn’t go into any of that because I really can’t blame anybody for not understanding the reality of what was going on, since they were being fed completely false information at every step. I felt bad, because Alex told me he ordered two copies of the book, one for Liz’s birthday – had I known that I wouldn’t have brought the book. But he said he’ll give it to someone else as a gift, so that’s good.

Prior to the show, Adryan Russ and I had dined at Marmalade in Malibu. This is a restaurant I used to loathe, but in the last few years they’ve really come into their own, and the food last night was excellent. We decided to order nothing but appetizers – I thought that would be a light and fun way to do things. But the appetizers were fairly large and we ordered a lot of them and I probably ate more than I would have had I had a regular entrĂ©e. We had a Caesar salad, mac and cheese (really good), spinach artichoke dip, guacamole and chips, Adryan had an ahi tuna thing, and we had some garlic Parmesan toast. I only ate half the mac and cheese, a bit of the guacamole, a lot of the spinach artichoke dip, some of the bread and some of the salad – by the end, I was so stuffed I thought I was going to explode. One can only imagine if I’d forced myself to finish the mac and cheese, but thankfully sanity prevailed.

Prior to that, I had a conversation with the publisher about a few things – it seems they’ve turned over a lot of their operations to the Philippines, and I find that horrible. So, I wanted to apprise someone in Indiana about the photo problems so that they could deal with the printer first hand. And I complained that the e book still wasn’t available, but they told me that it does take up to thirty days to go live on the various book sites. After that, Mr. David Burnham came by and picked up some music. Then I wrote my opening remarks for the memorial, then I picked up some packages and an important envelope, after which I did some banking. Naturally as soon as I left another package arrived, so I’ll pick that up today before I go to LACC. After all that, I came home, did some more work on the computer, then got ready to leave for dinner and show.

Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must get as much beauty sleep as I can before she of the Evil Eye arrives.

Today, I must get up early, maybe try to do a short jog, then do some more banking, pick up the package, and then come home and get ready for the memorial. Cindy Williams will arrive at one and then we’ll mosey on over to LACC. The memorial begins at two and hopefully part one will be done by three-thirty, after which everyone will convene in the black box theatre for a reception. I’m hopeful that it will all run very smoothly. I’m told we’ll have around one hundred people, maybe more. After that, I’ll come home, relax, and watch a motion picture on Blu and Ray. Speaking of one hundred people, I’ve been told that at this early date, over a week before the Kritzerland show, we have about seventy-four reservations. We have never had seventy-four PEOPLE let alone seventy-four reservations, so that’s very exciting, and I know a few people who are definitely coming who haven’t made their reservations yet. We could end up with a hundred people is the point and that would be a very VERY good thing.

Tomorrow I do the paperback book fair, signing from eleven to twelve. I’ll have two hardbacks and two softcovers of the new book and one hardback of There’s Mel with me. So, hoping that some of our West Coasters can stop by and say hello. Next week is hugely busy, with rehearsals and meetings and all sorts of things.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, try to do a jog, do some more banking, pick up a package, attend a memorial, then relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite Liz Callaway tracks? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, still stuffed to the gills.

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