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December 6, 2012:

SURPRISE!

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, surprise! Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, surprise! Last night, I moseyed on over to Mo’s to meet our very own Mr. Jason Graae for an early birthday dinner. He’d told me his mom might join us and he’d also said there might be a special guest showing up, too. I had no idea who that might be. I arrived at seven o’clock and Jason was already there. We told the hostess that we were ready to be seated and she walked us to the back portion of the restaurant. I jokingly turned to Jason and said, “They’re putting us in the bowels of the restaurant” and then “Who is this mystery guest?” At which point my eyes went to where the hostess was taking us – it took me a minute to realize that the huge group of people yelling SURPRISE were my friends. To say I was surprised would be the understatement of the year. I was overwhelmed and surprised and bowled over. There were so many wonderful people there, and I hope I can remember each and every one – Jason, his ever-lovin’ Glen, Sami, Sarah, and Karen Staitman, Jenna Rosen and mom Heather, Rita McKenzie, the amazing Karen Morrow, Doug Haverty, the Wechters, Adryan Russ (who planned the entire thing with Jason) and her ever-lovin’ Dale, Kay Cole, Dennis Kyle, Jane Noseworthy and hubby, Lisa Livesay, Kevin Bailey, Kevin Symons, Nick Redman and Julie Kirgo, Joan Ryan, helper Heather (who was in on it – part of the subterfuge had to do with doing this dinner on my actual birthday) – I hope that’s everyone – it was really something and my brain may just not be remembering a couple of people. We all gabbed, and then we ordered dinner – I had the calorie-friendly salmon. I table-hopped and then after we finished eating a big cake arrived and everyone sang happy birthday. I couldn’t really see the cake until they got right up to me and I could not believe it – it was this huge cake on the icing was the cover of Album Produced By, with the great Squigs caricature of me. I don’t have any clew how they did it. I made a wish and blew out the four candles on the cake, so hopefully the wish will come true and I also like that they didn’t put the other sixty-one candles on. Jason made a lovely toast and it was just a magical evening and maybe the best birthday party I’ve ever had.

Prior to that, we’d done our morning shoot of the audition sequence for episode five of Outside the Box. I began by shooting all the reaction shots on Michael Donovan and Kay Cole. I talked them through a variety of reactions and they were absolutely hilarious and perfect. I will say that we do reveal the shoulder of Stephen Findle. Then we turned around and did the auditions. Kay and Michael left, and we just did one person after another, about twelve in all. It was way too much fun and we got some really good and funny stuff of the faux auditions. I’d asked people to prepare one thing, but I also threw surprises at them. It all went very fast and we wrapped an hour early. I think the sequence will cut together beautifully.

Then I went and had a turkey sandwich and no fries or onion rings, after which I went to the mail place and picked up a few packages. Then I came home and finished the second set of liner notes and sent them off for proofing. Then I got adventurous and began a third set of liner notes and got over halfway through those before having to go to meet Jason for dinner.

I got some fun presents (I would have preferred no presents) – the Wechters got me two really cool books, Nick and Julie gave me a new book about show business history through the pages of Variety, some dark chocolate caramels from Trader Joe’s from Lisa, two fun DVDs from Jenna and mom, a gift card for the Daily Grill, and two cases of Diet Coke from the Staitmans and lots of fun cards. All in all, it was a perfectly perfect day in every way.

Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I really must get some beauty sleep as I must once again be up at seven-thirty in the morning.

Today, we have our second and long day of shooting the musical numbers for episodes five and six of Outside the Box. Set up is at nine and we’re hoping to have our first shot at ten sharp. I always allot one hour per number, even though most numbers only take about forty minutes, with some taking even less. The first number is a big group thing so that will probably take the entire hour. The second song is very simple and involves a solo with three or four other actors in the background. The final number (actually the middle number in the show itself) only involves three people and shouldn’t take too long. I do have to do a reaction shot involving all the other characters, but I’ll do that single shot before we even shoot the second number – that will only take five minutes. Then we break for lunch, after which we shoot four numbers for episode six. Unlike most of the shows, the four numbers don’t involve any ensemble, so those go much more quickly. Two of them involve only two people and those are a snap. The other two involve three people and one of those will take some blocking time. Two of the numbers are extremely short, though so we should have no trouble wrapping the actual shoot by five, which leaves us an hour to break down the equipment, dump the audio and video to the hard drive, and be on our merry way, probably to Mucho Mas for some chow.

Tomorrow, we shoot the second set-up scene – location is still undetermined, which is a little unnerving and I’m just ready to do it at my house again. It will be a morning shoot and the plan is to be done by eleven-thirty. Adrian Zmed called me and said he wanted to talk about the shoot, but he never got back to me after I returned his call, so I don’t really have a clew as to what it was about, but perhaps it was about the location and who will be doing the scene with him. After the shoot, I have to finish the final set of liner notes and get them to the proofer and get all three packages turned in for approval. Saturday is, of course, the birthday day and a few of us will still go to Genghis Cohen to celebrate.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, have a long day of shooting seven musical numbers, I must eat, and I must relax. Today’s topic of discussion: Someone asked me what my most memorable birthday was, so what was your most memorable birthday? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland with the shout of “Surprise!” still ringing happily in my ears.

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