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January 21, 2016:

A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO YESTERDAY

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, a funny thing happened on the way to yesterday – I awoke after eight-and-a-half hours of sleep and went to write new pages – and yet, there were no new pages to write. Say what? So instead I wrote the acknowledgments and the about the author for the book. Other than that, I have almost no memory of anything that happened yesterday because frankly not much happened. I avoided the merde hitting the merde and hopefully can do the same today, but a miracle is so needed right now it’s not even funny. So, do send those excellent vibes and xylophones for a needed miracle.

Once up, I caught up on e-mail responses, and then I took a flash drive with a PDF of the book to Staples and had two copies printed – one for me to proof and one for the proofers to proof. Then I had a bacon and cheese omelet and a bagel, finally got to the mail place where I picked up a couple of packages and not much mail, then I came home. I had an interesting e-mail from a lady who’s researching a book she’s writing on Elaine Stritch. She’d found one of the notes when I’d mentioned seeing The Time of the Barracudas, a tryout of a play that never got beyond its West Coast engagement. There really is nothing online about it, so she asked if she could call me so I could share any memories. Luckily for her, I really remember the show very well. What she didn’t seem to be aware of was that I’d worked with Stritch, so she’ll call at some point and we’ll chat, I’m sure.

Now, speaking of the new book, and who wasn’t, dear reader Jeanned posted a slight clew about it: The new book has something in common with one of the previous books, a link of sorts. And it does. At some point I sat on my couch like so much fish.

Last night I did watch a motion picture on the Flix of Net entitled Female Agents, a French film from France about some women in WWII who were part of a secret group. First off, what a terrible title – the real translation from the French title would be Women in the Shadows. It’s based on a real group of women, but apparently this particular story is fiction or highly fictionalized. It’s a good but not great movie – I watched it and it held my interest.

After that, I made a little bit of pasta with butter and cheese for my snack.

I promised more video clips, so here they are. First up we have adorable Hayley Shukiar (on the left) and Emilie Lafontaine doing the wonderful cut song from Gypsy, Mama’s Talkin’ Soft.

Now we have Hadley Belle Miller doing When You’re Good to Mama from Chicago – probably the first and only time an eleven-year-old will ever sing this song.

Here’s Sami doing Another Hundred People – maybe. We struggled mightily to get the opening of this right, to do what it needed to do. It just wasn’t working and I had to be a little tough to get it to work, but Sami has learned so much since we did Welcome to My World and she finally got it, as you’ll see. It kind of scared the crap out of people. The arrangement you hear is by my pals Alex Rybeck and Liz Callaway, who did to this number exactly what I would have had they not.

We’ll have more clips tomorrow.

Today, I shall hope for a day without annoyances and irritants and really pray that no merde hits the merde. I’ll begin proofing the book – I do that very slowly and methodically and it usually takes about three days total. I’ll eat, hopefully I’ll pick up packages, and then I’ll relax.

Tomorrow and Saturday are more of the same. I was supposed to see a show, a benefit, on Saturday night, but I totally forgot I’d committed to a birthday dinner, so I’ll have to honor that commitment. Not sure what’s happening on Sunday yet.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, pray no merde hits the merde, I must proof, I must eat, I’ll hopefully pick up packages, and I must relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite films about WWII? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, feeling a little odd that a funny thing happened on the way to yesterday and having no new pages to write.

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