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October 17, 2012:

YES, WE HAVE NO BANANAS

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, this week is flying by, like a gazelle singing Yes, We Have No Bananas. Why don’t we have great songs like that anymore? Can you imagine some rapper doing a cover of Yes, We Have No Bananas. Or Celine Dion? Or Adele. Yes, I think it’s time for a redo of Yes, We Have No Bananas, don’t you? Right now, for example, I am quite tired. It has been a very long day of doing and going and also going and doing. I did get a great night’s beauty sleep and that was very helpful. I woke up to a call from my editor telling me he was starting to edit today. That was the best news, because it looked like his assistant was going to have to do the first cut of these first two episodes, but the assistant got a weeklong job, so Marshall is going in today to begin. Therefore I spent several hours yesterday watching all the footage and making notes for him. I don’t choose all the takes, as I trust him implicitly and he really “gets” my humor and the show. So, all I did was call out specific things to look for and that I liked, and certain things that I absolutely didn’t like. I hadn’t seen any of this since we shot it, and the footage looks really good and it’s pretty amusing. So, that’s exciting to have the editing process begin. The hope is to start airing in November.

I also had to do a bunch of errands and whatnot, I picked up a package that contained a book called Hard Times: The Adult Musical in 1970s. Mostly it’s about the adult off-Broadway musicals of that decade, but she also devotes a whole lot of pages to talking about The First Nudie Musical. Apparently I corresponded with the author back in 2007 although I really don’t remember it. She also quotes extensively from There’s Mel, There’s Woody, and There’s You. She has some very interesting things to say about the film, and she clearly really likes it. There are a couple of miniscule factual mistakes, but it’s great to have a book with such a nice treatise on the film. Interestingly, our very own Mr. Barry Pearl is also interviewed in the book, as he was in Let My People Come, an adult stage musical.

I ate a turkey, bacon and avocado sandwich on whole-wheat toast for lunch, and then began all the footage watching, which took up the entire afternoon. I set one performer for the December Kritzerland show – just trying to get a jump on it. Then I realized that this book signing I’m doing in early November at Book Soup, which I thought was the day after the Kritzerland show, is, in fact, the day before, on a Saturday at four. That’s problematic as that’s our stumble-through day, so we’re canvassing the performers and musical director to see if they can begin earlier than our usual three o’clock start time. So, if they can begin at one-thirty we’ll be done by three and I can be to Book Soup in plenty of time for the signing. And hopefully the cast could all just go down there for the merriment and mirth and laughter and legs. If the time can’t switch, then I’ll bail on the signing. Hopefully, though, it can all work out.

Then I had to print out all the sheet music I’ve gotten so that the musical director can pick it up tomorrow. I also have to make him a CDR but that’s a bit complicated as I have to load in stuff into iTunes. I have some of it there already, so hopefully that won’t be too time consuming. Then at some point I sat on my couch like so much fish.

Last night, I began watching another James Bond film, this one Live and Let Die, the first of the Roger Moore Bonds. I’ll try to get through them all, but even twenty minutes of Live and Let Die tells me that that may be impossible. Funnily, I’ve never seen Live and Let Die, but I already can’t stand it after even twenty minutes. Roger Moore, as much as I enjoy his work in other things, just isn’t a Bond to me. And the transfer is yet another weak effort – this set is definitely not what it should be.

I then listened to three minor remixes for the Christmas album, and it’s all done now and going off to mastering today. Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must try for another good night’s beauty sleep.

Today, our next release is supposed to arrive, all 1500 of them. Since the helper is off this week, it’s up to me to pick up what I pray won’t be more than 15 boxes – it will probably take two trips and involve a lot of lugging and doing. Once that’s done, I have a meeting with Juliana to do a postmortem for her show. Then I’ll be seeing the packaging layout for the Christmas album, and then I will hopefully eat something light but amusing (I HAVE to lose twenty pounds pronto and lose twenty pounds I damn well will), and then at some point I hope to be able to relax in the evening hours.

Tomorrow, I have a lunch meeting, then a few other things, Friday we’re having a little get-together with dear reader ChasSmith, so I’m really looking forward to that. The weekend is unknown to me, and then we’re announcing our new title on Monday.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, lug a LOT of boxes into my car, probably two trips of lugging and doing, I must meet with Juliana, I must eat something light but amusing, and I must relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear reader any old question you like and we get to give any old answer we like. So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland where I shall sing a rousing refrain of Yes, We Have No Bananas in a bouncy C.

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