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March 13, 2018:

TRYING TO SURVIVE THESE TRYING TIMES

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, these are trying times, I must say, in oh so many ways. But during the trying times all one can do is keep trying not to have them be trying. I like the kind of trying where you’re trying, and I don’t like the trying as in difficult – that kind of trying should go the way of the damn dodo bird although I always enjoyed the dodo bird’s rendition of If I Were a Rich Man. In any case, the first part of this year has been a giant push me-pull you kind of thing – great stuff and trying stuff and trust me I’m as bored of talking about it as you are reading it, but this is my place to vent about such things as words that have two meanings and also to vent about things like the damn dodo bird. I do try to keep it light, keep it gay, and I do hope I succeed more often than not or, at the very least, more not that often.

Well, that was a complete waste of a paragraph, and yesterday was kind of a complete waste of a day. I did get nine needed hours of sleep, arising at eleven-thirty. After answering e-mails and doing some work at the piano I finally went and picked up one piece of mail (and it was a tiny residual that bought me lunch), then I came home and did a few more things that needed doing. The helper came by for but a moment, and then I went to Ralph’s to get a few groceries so I could make meals for the rest of the week – calorie-friendly meals, which I must do and I must start to do some sort of jog again because I’m turning into a proper whale over here in the Oaks of Sherman. After all that, I finally sat on my couch like so much fish.

Last night, I continued on in the Hammer box set, watching movie number three, entitled The Full Treatment (aka Stop Me Before I Kill here in the US), starting Diane Cilento and directed by Val Guest. I normally enjoy Val Guest films, but this one is just not very interesting or good. It runs 110-minutes but would be a lot better at 85-minutes. There’s just repeated scene after repeated scene, so the actors start to get on your nerves because they’re playing the same beat over and over again. It’s shot nicely and the transfer is okay (occasionally verging on out of focus in certain shots), and you certainly get an eyeful of Ms. Cilento that US audiences were denied, but in the end it’s all rather silly with not much payoff. Glad I saw it but of the three so far, it’s the weakest. Then I began the final film of the box, Cash on Demand, and that one looks to be very good and its transfer is great, so I’ll finish that up at some point today.

After that, I relaxed. I did get some actual photographs from our show last night, so here they be. Here’s the opening number, The Swing Dolls doing Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy.

Here’s Damon Kirsche doing one of his numbers.

Here’s Robert Yacko doing one of his.

Here’s Kerry O’Malley in her first outfit.

And here she is again in her second outfit.

Today, I will hibernate, try to avoid trying things, although I think they’re going to come to a head at some point today or tomorrow, I will eat, hopefully pick up packages, and cast the April Kritzerland. I already thought of a funny What If idea so I can start writing that, too. Then I’ll relax.

The rest of the week is more of the same, I think there’s a meeting or two to have, I’m seeing a show at some point this weekened, I think, and I’m sure there will be merde to deal with, but I’m equally hopeful for another miraculous miracle.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, hibernate, avoid the negative and accentuate the positive, eat, hopefully pick up packages, cast the April show and start writing a What If. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite silly and nonsense songs? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, trying to get past these trying times that I’m trying to get past.

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