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April 13, 2012:

STAY AWAY FROM ANYONE WIELDING AN AX

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, don’t be too scared, but today is Friday the 13th, so just be careful if anyone near you has an ax. I was going to write some special scary notes but then I realized the notes are always scary. Besides, it’s late and I’m tired and so I shall just write some notes and be done with it.

I guess the last week’s lack of sleep (never more than six hours in any night, sometimes less) finally caught up with me and yesterday I slept until 11:45. I think I fell asleep at 1:30 so that was a very good night’s sleep and very necessary. But it put me behind for the entire day. I had to prep the eBlast, I had to do errands and whatnot, and I had to pick up no packages. I had a very strong conversation with a location manager and then Film-LA about an upcoming shoot in the neighborhood – as it transpires, the person who left the notice got the streets wrong and they won’t be as far down as me – but I read the riot act to Film-LA, asking them when my neighborhood became the poster child for every film shoot. They’ve been doing about three a month here and it’s just ridiculous. The person I was talking to told me I was not the only person in the neighborhood complaining – apparently there are a lot of us. He promised that he would look into it and stop the proliferation of film shoots here. I told him to spread the wealth and let other nabes have the joy. The location manager promised me he’d keep an eye on his crew and cast to make sure they only used the parking lot that the film crew pays for them to use – frequently these entitled butt cheeks take all the street parking, where they are absolutely not supposed to. So, maybe things will get better here.

I then had to get ready and was out the door at four-thirty, as I’d been warned that for some reason Thursday is the busiest traffic day in LA. I wish someone could explain that to me. It’s basically an hour drive to Ventura and after having completed it I can now tell you that dear reader Sam is clearly off her noodle to do this drive five days a week coming and going. There was the usual horrid traffic at the 101/405 interchange (it’s always terrible and amusingly once you pass it, there’s no traffic at all – it’s really mind-boggling), and then I moved quickly until about twenty minutes before Ventura, when things slowed to a crawl and remained that way for most of the rest of the trip. Again, no reason on Earth there should have been that kind of ridiculous traffic – no accidents, no nothing, and Ventura isn’t exactly downtown Los Angeles, but that’s what this traffic was like.

Then I met my friend Cheri Steinkellner for dinner at a very good jernt called Zack’s. I had a pasta with prosciutto and peas in a light cream sauce, which was excellent. Then I went to the theater where Cheri’s new musical, Hello, My Baby is playing, the Rubicon. I’ve heard about this theater for years – I must say, I imagined it would be like the McCoy-Rigby theater in La Mirada – about six or seven hundred seats, big stage, and a big parking lot. It is, in fact, nothing like that – it’s in an old church, no parking lot, and is only 199 seats.

I knew a few folks in the cast and behind the scenes. The show has a lot of really pleasing elements and the audience enjoyed it thoroughly. Cheri’s a very bright woman and knows there are things to fix and I’ll be giving her my thoughts in the next couple of days. With the right work, this could be a really good show with a solid future in regional, stock, amateur, and schools. The music, all Tin Pan Alley standards (the show is about song pluggers), is wonderful and the arrangements by Craig Safan and others are very good – I know they lost their original arranger a few weeks before opening, so the fact that they’re this good this quickly is amazing – I think they can do more with them and I’m sure they will as the show develops. The cast was very good.

The drive home was a lot quicker than the drive there – I made it home in fifty minutes. I was petrified because at intermission it was pouring down rain, but by the end of the show the rain was done, so your patented excellent vibes and xylophones worked their magic.

When I got home, we announced our new titles – three STAGE benefit live recordings – Sondheim, Bacharach, and Andrew Lloyd Webber. If you want to order them (there’s a special combo price if you get all three), just go to kritzerland.com.

Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must get a good night’s beauty sleep.

Today, I shall finish liner notes, hopefully print out a LOT of orders (I really need to print out a LOT of orders or there will be hell toupee), hopefully pick up some packages and an important envelope, eat something soft and amusing, and then have a Melody rehearsal, after which I will by God watch a motion picture.

Tomorrow is another Melody rehearsal, then dinner, then opening night of Forbidden Broadway. Sunday I have to finish choosing songs, finish getting music, finish casting for the next Kritzerland show. We’re only missing one male performer. Next week is VERY busy with meetings, meals, Dr. Chew, and rehearsals.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, finish liner notes, hopefully print out a LOT of orders, hopefully pick up packages and an important envelope, eat, rehearse, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player and your DVD/video player? I’ll start – CD, various Kritzerland things. Blu and Ray, Bell, Book, and Candle. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland where there will be no traffic whatsoever and no one wielding an ax.

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