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February 17, 2014:

THE AWARD-WINNING ME

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, you’re not going to believe this, but I who never win anything have won two count them two Sammy Awards.  What in tarnation are the Sammy Awards you’re thinking and why wouldn’t you?  They are named after songwriter Sammy Cahn and are given out by the American Music Preservation for film music.  The first award is for best compilation soundtrack release of 2013 – Preminger at Fox, which I, of course, share with our very own Mr. Nick Redman, without whom none of our marvelous Fox releases would be possible, and then the best one, the Special Preservation Award for Best Album Producer.  LOVE that.

 

http://www.americanmusicpreservation.com/sammys2014.htm#26thsammyawards

 

That was a nice way to start off these here notes, wasn’t it?  I think they maybe send out a little certificate or something and, if so, I shall show it to you, oh, yes, I shall show it to you.

Yesterday was quite a little day.  I was up at nine-thirty, and to The Federal by eleven to judge the finals of the singing contest.  There were eighteen of us judges – two tables of seven and one table of four.  First they had a little breakfast buffet for us – I just had a couple of pieces of bacon and some fruit.  Then the singing began – twenty people singing songs that the event’s producers chose for them.  It’s a good batch of people this year.  For me, nothing changed from last week in terms of who I felt was best.  After the twenty sang, there was a twenty-minute intermission while the votes were tallied.  At that point, the final five singers were chosen, and happily my favorite was amongst them.  It was five ladies, no men.  But this year they did a weird thing – they allowed to judges to vote to “save” one more contestant.  The minute I heard that I knew exactly who would be up there, especially from my fellow judges at my table.  The fact that the sixth person did not make the cut should have been the end of it, in my opinion, but the sixth was one of the guys and exactly who I knew it would be and that’s all I’m sayin’ about that.

Then the six singers all got to sing one song of their own choosing.  Again, nothing changed for me, in fact, it only solidified what I thought.  But I was sure that the first place would go to another person.  However, I was wrong about which person that would be.  When the dust settled, my person was third, second was the person who was “saved”, which is interesting since he didn’t make the cut in the first place, and the first place winner was completely unexpected, at least for me.  But they were all good and talented.  The winner will be appearing in one of the 2014 Kritzerland shows, and I’m here to tell you that the third place winner will also be appearing in a Kritzerland show.  All in all, I had a good time.

After that, I went and had a meatless Cobb salad and a bagel.  Then I came home.  Once home, I had a wonderful telephonic conversation with the first person who’s read the new book who wasn’t proofing – I’ll tell you who in a day – well, it will be obvious because he’s blurbing the book.  I was so heartened by his reaction – he really seemed to enjoy it and that gives me hope others will, too.  And Adryan Russ, who’s the third proofer and who is just sixty pages away from finishing, told me she thought it was a page turner, so that’s good.  Then I sat on my couch like so much fish.

Last night, I decided to watch a motion picture on DVD entitled The War Between Men and Women, loosely based on the writing of James Thurber, starring Jack Lemmon and Barbara Harris.  It’s not so hot, but it does have a few amusing moments – I got about halfway through and will finish this evening, then go back and finish The Eddy Duchin Story.

For those who may have missed it in the postings, I received a nice e-mail from the director of a UK high school production of The Brain from Planet X.  Here’s a photo of what I think is the opening number.

brainuk

Note the Brain hands, which I’m happy to say are usually used in all the productions I’ve seen and/or seen photos from.  I came up with that pose when I directed the very first staged reading of the show at LACC and they’ve been in every production I’ve directed.  Anyway, the kids apparently had a great time and the show was a success.

Today, I shall be up by nine-thirty, then at eleven I’ll have a short work session with little Hadley Miller, then after that we’ll go have some lunch.  Other than that, I have to write liner notes, send out an eBlast for the Kritzerland show, and relax.

The rest of the week is meetings and meals and some Li’l Abner stuff, and I’m hoping to keep the weekend fairly free, save for seeing our show on Saturday night.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, have a short work session, eat, write and relax.  Today’s topic of discussion: What have your favorite Kritzerland soundtrack releases been?  Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to, at long last, be an award winning something.

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