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June 2, 2015:

A TONI PERMANENT WITH HIDDEN BODY

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, this week is flying by, like a gazelle with a Toni home permanent with hidden body.  Does anyone still do a Toni home permanent as advertised on What’s My Line?  Apparently not.  Apparently Toni has gone the way of the dodo bird or, conversely, the dodo bird has gone the way of Toni.  Actually, I once knew a dodo bird named Toni, but that’s another story.  I would like to have a Toni permanent wave with hidden body right this very minute.  Oh, you can get vintage Toni products on eBay, but would they work?  Would they make my hair more bouffant?  My hair lacks bouffantity, frankly.  I need my hair bouffant – my hair is flat and Jewish.  In other words, I need a Toni permanent with hidden body.  At my age, hidden body is a necessity, that’s all I can tell you.  For those who are in the dark as to what the HELL I’m talking about, here.

toni-perm-box

Doesn’t that bring back a flood of memories?  Where was I?  Oh, yes, the notes.  Yesterday I got a grand total of about three hours of sleep – it is always thus after a performance like we had on Sunday evening.  My mind is just awhirl and atwitter and ainstagram after a show.  Well, hopefully I’ll catch up on sleep as soon as I finish these here notes.  I was up around five and finally out of bed around eight-thirty.  The helper came by, then I got back in bed and dozed off for an hour.  Then I had to get to the theater, where we struck our little “set” for Welcome to My World, and cleaned up everything.  Then I went and had a turkey sandwich and no fries or onion rings for luncheon.  I then wanted a Toni permanent with hidden body, but I was out of luck.  I picked up one little package, then came home.  It was my intention to just relax for the rest of the day, and that I pretty much did.  As most of you know by now, we found in a mis-labeled box 100 copies of the long out-of-print Illya Darling and Anya CDs.  We just put them up for sale, so if you’d like one (and they will go fast) just go to http://kritzerland.com/cast.htm and place your order.  I finally sat on my couch like so much fish.

Last night, I watched two episodes of The Honeymooners, one of which was indeed a classic.  I’m now down to the final disc.  Then I watched a motion picture on an Eyetalian Blu and Ray entitled A Countess from Hong Kong, the final motion picture directed by Mr. Charles Chaplin, and his one and only film in color.  Now, I saw this motion picture on its opening day – if memory serves it played at the old Warner Cinerama on Hollywood Blvd.  I’m not sure if the name of the theater had changed by that time to the Pacific.  This film was much derided by critics of the time, but I saw it three or four times during its run and I must tell you that the audiences I saw it with laughed a LOT.  Yes, it’s old-fashioned, yes it’s corny, yes Marlon Brando cannot really do comedy, yes the direction is stagy and not anything special and is even occasionally sloppy in terms of style (Chaplin was never about that), but there’s something about it that I’ve always enjoyed.  First of all, I love the Technicolor prints of that era and this was no exception.  I thought Patrick Cargill was hilarious and I enjoyed Miss Sophia Loren and even thought Sydney Chaplin was okay.  And Margaret Rutherford’s two-minute cameo is hilarious.  Chaplin’s script’s dialogue is like all his dialogue for his sound films – stilted and not great.  But I enjoyed the look of the film, which was shot by Arthur Ibbitson, and I liked Chaplin’s music, too.  The tune This Is My Song was a number one hit for Miss Petula Clark and while the film was not a success, the money from the song apparently put the film in the black.  Watching it after all these years I still enjoyed it.  I forgot Tippi Hedren was in it, looking quite beautiful.  I like the artifice of it.  This Blu-ray from far away Italy is quite interesting, in that it really accurately presents the actual look of an IB Tech print of that era – with luscious blues, reds, golds, greens and other saturated colors.  It may even be taken from an IB print, who knows?  I don’t see it that often, where something actually looks like an IB print, so I was rather delighted with the transfer.

After that, I made about five ounces of pasta, put a little bit of butter and cheese on it and that was my evening snack.  I did a few things on the computer and that was about it.

Today is our first Kritzerland rehearsal, starting a little later in the day, which is fine.  After the rehearsal, Sami, her mom, Alby Potts (our musical director) and I will go out for our post mortem dinner – not sure where we’ll go just yet – we’ll have to see.  I’m almost tempted to drive us all to Genghis Cohen.

The rest of the week is meetings and meals, our second Kritzerland rehearsal, seeing Inside Out at Disney Studios on Friday morning (can’t wait) and doing all manner of things.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, hopefully arise after a good night’s beauty sleep, I must hopefully pick up some packages, I must rehearse and I must have dinner.  Today’s topic of discussion: When you were growing up what were your favorite sponsors and products?  Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I shall dream of having a Toni permanent with hidden body.

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