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February 26, 2020:

THE BLURBILICIOUS BLURB AND THE LOVELIER THAN LOVELY COVER

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, we got us a lovely blurb from the lovely Rupert Holmes for the new book.  I especially wanted Rupert to blurb it because he’s such a good lyricist.  Here’s his blurbilicious blurb:

If you ever heard a lyric you loved … or a lyric you heard made you think of someone you’d loved … or you’d love to write something that no song has ever said in quite that way before … then Simply is required reading. Both an endearing memoir and insightful songwriting guidebook, Simply is also an invaluable compendium of eminently readable verses, written by the kind of lyricist who still believes that meter really matters, and that rhyming hunch and scrunch can be a two-fisted payoff punch. Some believe the classic American pop lyric has found its final sanctuary in Nashville, but Simply demonstrates that our native craft still flourishes at the Salon de Kimmel in the City of Angels. Simply: A Lifetime of Lyrics is the artful romance of Bruce Kimmel’s affair with songwriting, a love he’s sustained for simply a lifetime.

Rupert Holmes

Tony and Edgar award-winning playwright and author

Wasn’t that a lovelier than lovely blurbilicious blurb?  So, now that we’ve had that, perhaps you’d like to see the lovelier than lovely cover art that Doug Haverty came up with.  He did six choices and I felt this was the simplest and most effective and several people agreed, including Grant, so here it is.

Isn’t that a lovelier than lovely cover?  I managed to get eight hours of sleep and once up I answered emails, was disappointed not to have more than a handful of orders, so I may have to repost about it on Facebook or figure out what to do about that. Then Grant came and we went and had lunch at El Torito – it was Taco Tuesday, so I had that, but it was pretty terrible.  Tiny little soft tacos, which I don’t like at all.  It came with three, which was like eating one regular taco, so I had one more, plus some of the rice. The Diet Coke was very good, however.

Then we came back and entered the page-and-a-half of fixes.  That really only took about twenty minutes.  Then he created the pages for the two photo sections and even put in the photos on two pages of the first section – that’s going to look great.  He made me a new PDF for me to give a final once-over.  Then I came back home, did a few things on the computer, then went and picked up packages, then came back home.  I did a few other things, then watched two more episodes of Hunters.  I must say, it is complete and utter dreck.  Its “creator” so clearly idolizes Mr. Tarantino and people like Adam McKay and the J.J. Abrams of Alias, and of course this person has not one original idea in his head.  The dialogue is laughably awful, and each episode just veers wildly from wanting to be taken seriously to being a Tarantino smart-ass fest, with completely stupid attempts at cutesy humor.  It doesn’t work.  At all.  The music is awful, but what else is new.  There are annoying uses of songs, needle-drop music cues (more Tarantino idol worship), but at least the photography is okay.  The actors do what they can with this nonsense.  The “creator” of this is thirty-one, I think, and I know we all know that thirty-one is the new twelve and that’s what this feels like.  This guy, with not a single major credit to his name, somehow convinced Amazon to put up, what, ten million bucks or more?  I can’t imagine it will pay off for them, but what do I know?  And most of the reviews have seen it for what it is, but of course there are a few idiots, Richard Roeper being the biggest of them, who want to be so with it that they rave.  There is not a single thing to rave about.  But I may keep watching because I’ve never seen so many examples of a show jumping the shark, that I’m kind of fascinated by it.  Is anyone else watching?

After that, I skimmed the book, found a handful of things, but the major thing is that the page numbers after page 265 are completely screwed up and the acknowledgments disappeared, so clearly something got weird in whatever we did yesterday.  Hoping we can get that fixed today.

Then I relaxed and listened to music and got ready to write these here notes.

Today, I’ll be up by ten-thirty, and it’s pretty much a ME day, although I really want to get this page number screw-up fixed so I don’t worry about it and then get the acknowledgments back in and enter the half a page of fixes.  I’ll eat, hopefully pick up some packages, and then relax.

Tomorrow, we have our second Kritzerland rehearsal, which isn’t until six, so I have the entire day to myself for whatever needs doing.  After the rehearsal, which ends at nine, I think, I’ll probably watch a little something.  Friday, we resume performances and I’ll attend that evening’s show.  Saturday, we have an early stumble-through, and then some of us will undoubtedly go eat something, and then I’ll relax and rest my voice and do any futzing necessary with the commentary.  Then Sunday it’s sound check and then we do the show. I’m sure some of us will go downstairs and eat afterwards.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by ten-thirty, have a mostly ME day, hopefully enter fixes and fix the page number issues, get the acknowledgments back and maybe even get more photos in, eat, hopefully pick up packages, and then relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear reader any old question you like and we get to give any old answer we like.  So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy with both blurbilicious blurb and the lovelier than lovely cover.

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