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Author Topic: THE POMPOUS BASSOON  (Read 15899 times)

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George

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Re:THE POMPOUS BASSOON
« Reply #30 on: October 26, 2004, 08:24:04 AM »

And one for Jed!
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George

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Re:THE POMPOUS BASSOON
« Reply #31 on: October 26, 2004, 08:24:25 AM »

As for obscure musicals:

The Anastasia Affair (a.k.a Anya and Anastasia - The Musical) - With Judy Kaye...I haven't gotten the re-released-with-extra-songs CD version, but I really like this Bay Cities CD (co-produced by our very own BK)

Angry Housewives - four words:  EAT YOUR F**CKING CORNFLAKES!!  I saw a professional production of this and was involved in a community theater production.  Both were fantastic!  

Brownstone - this five-person show features four of my favorite musical theater performers (who is Kevin Reed, anyway?  He's good, just never heard of him ::)).  I don't know about the book, but the score (based on the recording) is just so much fun and touching, as well.

Colette Collage - I just love this recording also with Judy Kaye (and also produced by our very own BK)

Something's Afoot - a musical murder mystery...what could be more fun? (this is the only show listed that's not been recorded.  I saw this one.)

That's five. :D
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Voldemort is basically a middle school girl: he has a locket, a diary, a tiara, a ring, and is completely obsessed with a teenage boy.

George

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Re:THE POMPOUS BASSOON
« Reply #32 on: October 26, 2004, 08:27:39 AM »

Oh, and I have to mention Das Barbecü...another recording produced by our very own BK.  I saw a production of this in Seattle (directed by the original choreographer Stephen Tyrrell...who played Peter Pan in a production here in Olympia where I played the first pirate to get killed!)  This is one wonderful show!
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Jenny

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Re:THE POMPOUS BASSOON
« Reply #33 on: October 26, 2004, 08:53:38 AM »

Good health vibes to DR Elmore!

The computer at the home environment is not allowing me to go online, but as I am DR Jenny - New York's #1 Hacker - I am on this site at school right now!

Noel, it is very funny that you should mention "A Class Act" because I was just listening to it last night and Lonny Price really reminded me of you.  I even talked to BK about it!  You should definitely play Ed Kleban.

As for obscure plays and musicals...well, I don't think that I'm familiar with anything particularly obscure.  I'll list some less popular favorites, but I don't think they're too obscure.

A BRIGHT ROOM CALLED DAY (which was obscure until Tony Kushner became King Amongst Men) - Great play.  Poetic, witty, poignant, political, and less show-offy than some of Kusher's later work.  Almost deceptively simple at times.  I love it.

THE LISBON TRAVIATA - It's so relatable, and it's both a riot at points and incredibly sad at others.  I just love it.

FOR WHOM THE SOUTHERN BELLE TOLLS - So funny.  So odd.

NOTES ON AKIBA - I know that Tony Kushner claims to have written this one in about five minutes on an airplane, but it's incredibly clever and it really sums up my feelings on Passover quite nicely.  It's really funny, and very true.

Musicals:

HOW NOW DOW JONES? - I would never have heard this score had a girl from Circle in the Square not sung "Walk Away" at the final cabaret (I think DR Noel suggested it, actually).  It's a really charming score, and I love it more and more each time I listen to it.

FIRST LADY SUITE - There are some beautiful moments hidden amongst all that recitative.  The vocal arrangments are glorious and soaring, and a few of the solo songs are almost heartbreakingly beautiful.

IN TROUSERS - Hardly obscure, but it really is one of my favorite musicals.

SUGAR - I rarely listen to it, but it is a very fun and charming score.

I of course love the aforementioned "A New Brain" as well!
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bk

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Re:THE POMPOUS BASSOON
« Reply #34 on: October 26, 2004, 09:08:34 AM »

Here's my number one choice for obscure play:

When I was recording Drat! The Cat! I went to Miss Elaine Stritch's apartment to meet her and rehearse her number.  I found her delightful, but that's another story.  At one point I told her that I knew it would probably be an unpleasant subject, but that I'd seen and loved Time of the Barracudas in its one and only engagement, the tryout in Los Angeles.  She hadn't thought about it in twenty or more years and she started telling stories about it - those stories, of course, ended up in Elaine Stritch at Liberty.  In any case, Time of the Barracudas was a play by Brit Peter Barnes (who would go on to write The Ruling Class).  It's about two people whose spouses have just died, who meet at the funeral of one of them.  It transpires that they are both professional murderers who do in their spouses.  They, however, do not know this, and they marry.  They spend the rest of the show trying to do each other in.  The first act curtain, where the man realizes what's going on, had a wonderful curtain line I've never forgotten: "Good God, a competitor!"  Lots of great comedy business in the second act (at a chalet, where they're vacationing).  It was a very black comedy and totally ahead of its time, but I've often thought about trying to do a production somewhere.  Starring opposite Miss Stritch was Laurence Harvey - they were great the day I saw them.  In the early eighties I found the script to the show at some funky shop that had movie memorabilia and some theater stuff.  I treasured it, and then, somehow, it went missing.  I've looked through every box in my storage facility, but there is one missing box, which has a lot of rare scripts in it.  For a time I stored some things in the old Bay Cities offices and some of that got moved to somone's garage - I retrieved all that stuff, but it is my belief that that box is still there, although I went and looked for it and didn't find it.  That said, I still think it's buried there somewhere.
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Noel

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Re:THE POMPOUS BASSOON
« Reply #35 on: October 26, 2004, 09:26:53 AM »

Hmm, that Barracuda thing sounds like not just one, but both, of the ideas for musicals pitched to me last week.

Inspired by the thread's title, I think I'll write a Concerto for Pompous Bassoon.  The last time I wrote a classical piece was right before we invaded Iraq and so many people were mad at our nation's oldest ally.  It was called Concerto for Freedom Horn.
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Dan (the Man)

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Re:THE POMPOUS BASSOON
« Reply #36 on: October 26, 2004, 09:39:23 AM »

Obscure musicals:  Well, DR DTM received the Showbill for one, TRIXIE TRUE, Teen Detective.  (Confidential to DR DTM:  If I had known you were looking for it, I would have found it in one of those boxes in the closet.....you know the ones.....  Can I ask how much you paid?)  All those one-nighters and out-of-town-closers.  I (and the DP) happen to be a BIG fan of STEEL PIER.  I am sure I will think of others later.  

Not much at all DR Stuart.  It was one of my cheapest eBay purchases--$1.99 plus s/h--it came to $3.74 in the end.  But thank you very much for the offer!

I never saw Trixie True, but I fell in love with the poster art as soon as it began advertising.  Nowadays, everyone I talk to about it raves about the score and I've heard rumors that there's a ootlegbay recording out there.  The search continues...
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Dan (the Man)

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Re:THE POMPOUS BASSOON
« Reply #37 on: October 26, 2004, 09:42:47 AM »

[move=left,scroll,6,transparent,100%]! ! ! ! !  HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO DR JED, WHEREVER YOU ARE  ! ! ! ! ![/move]
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William F. Orr

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Re:THE POMPOUS BASSOON
« Reply #38 on: October 26, 2004, 09:45:22 AM »

Here's my number one choice for obscure play:

...  I've looked through every box in my storage facility, but there is one missing box, which has a lot of rare scripts in it.  For a time I stored some things in the old Bay Cities offices and some of that got moved to somone's garage - I retrieved all that stuff, but it is my belief that that box is still there, although I went and looked for it and didn't find it.  That said, I still think it's buried there somewhere.

Maybe Mark Eden Horowitz will find it in the basement of the Library of Congress--right between the orchestrations for Sherry and the Ark of the Covenant.
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Dan (the Man)

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Re:THE POMPOUS BASSOON
« Reply #39 on: October 26, 2004, 09:46:35 AM »

Speaking of the missing, where has DR Jason been all this time?
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And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
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Stuart

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Re:THE POMPOUS BASSOON
« Reply #40 on: October 26, 2004, 09:51:08 AM »

Speaking of the missing, where has DR Jason been all this time?

I've been thinking the same thing......
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Dan (the Man)

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Re:THE POMPOUS BASSOON
« Reply #41 on: October 26, 2004, 09:52:23 AM »

Speaking of Wacky Noodles, last week I almost picked up the Wacky Races DVD collection.  I loved this cartoon series as as a kid (including the spin-offs that were produced the following year.)  But something tells me that my memory of it is much more golden that what actually exists on the DVDs.  It's probably best that I let myself pass up on this set.
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William F. Orr

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Re:THE POMPOUS BASSOON
« Reply #42 on: October 26, 2004, 09:52:37 AM »

...and

[move=left,scroll,6,transparent,100%]HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DR JED![/move]

                                [move=left,scroll,6,transparent,100%]GOOD HEALTH VIBES TO MICHAEL SHAYNE, ELMORE, AND last but not least CAL BOLDER![/move]
« Last Edit: October 26, 2004, 09:53:58 AM by William F. Orr »
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Ben

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Re:THE POMPOUS BASSOON
« Reply #43 on: October 26, 2004, 10:08:14 AM »

And, I know he's busy, but where, oh where is DR Jose? Get outta that pit and post boy!
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Ben

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Re:THE POMPOUS BASSOON
« Reply #44 on: October 26, 2004, 10:08:52 AM »

Oh, yes, best of health vibes to DR Michael Shayne!!!
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Matthew

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Re:THE POMPOUS BASSOON
« Reply #45 on: October 26, 2004, 10:22:23 AM »

Obscure Musicals - does this include reordings of shows that have never been produced?  In that case, "Success" by Bernard J. Taylor, "Goys and Dolls", "Say Oy Vey", and "Pinnafore" (The gay version of HMS Pinnafore)
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Dan (the Man)

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Re:THE POMPOUS BASSOON
« Reply #46 on: October 26, 2004, 11:16:58 AM »

Obscure Plays:

The Ladies at the Alamo -- This was one of those "bitch" plays from the 70s where we are introduced to a fun set of bitches who are soon confronted by a pair of nasty bitches who want to take over the fun bitches' world out of sheer bitchiness.  By the end of the first act, the fun bitches have found themselves out-bitched by the nasty bitches and they begin to bitch at each other.  But in the second act, the lead no-longer-quite-fun bitch takes off her gloves and bitch-slaps the nasty bitches into oblivion.  Everyone drinks martinis and it takes place in a community theatre in Texas.  A fun, if not insightful, play.

Broadway, Broadway -- I think that this original version of Terrance McNally's  "It's Only A Play" was much funnier then the rewrite.  Unfortunately, it's also very dated.  But I love it when we hear about the cast of Runaways beating up the cast of Annie.

Caryl Churchill's Fen -- I've never seen a production of this play but I love how it reads.  Sparsely written as it is, it still manages to provoke powerful feelings of woe and anger.   It's one of those plays that I'm really surprised isn't done more often.

Baby With The Bathwater -- This one's not that obscure but whatever fame it once acheived was too short lived.  It is the funniest play I ever saw.

Death Comes Knocking -- a play by moi.  I wrote it for a playwrighting class in college that was taught by Albert Innaurato, Edward Albee and Wendy Wasserstein.  Albee and Wasserstein hated it, Innaurato said to keep working on it.  I got an A in the course, but I think everyone got an A.

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And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
-- Anaïs Nin

Ben

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Re:THE POMPOUS BASSOON
« Reply #47 on: October 26, 2004, 11:20:23 AM »

I'm listening to Desmond Carrington on BBC-2 and he just played The Country's in the Very Best of Hands from Lil' Abner. I've heard it before many times but he played it in conjunction with our upcoming vote fest. Wow, what a pertinent number it still is, after all these years. It's like the song was written yesterday.

Just wanted to share.
« Last Edit: October 26, 2004, 11:21:55 AM by Ben »
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Charles Pogue

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Re:THE POMPOUS BASSOON
« Reply #48 on: October 26, 2004, 11:29:40 AM »

Obscure plays is something I know a bit about...being something of a theatrical archeologist, I'm always seeking out the obscure and rarely done.  Over the years I've seen obscure classical plays like Le Cid, The Roman Actor, Duchess of Malfi, Eastward Ho!, The Indian Princess, Clandestine Marriage,Wild Oats, The Magistrate...

Also each year in London, I see wonderful plays that never seem to make it over here:  

Here's a few:

A LETTER OF RESIGNATION by Hugh Whitemore...about Harold McMillian and the affair his wife had.  Edward Fox played McMillian.

VASSA by Maxim Gorky, about the "corruption of human decency by materialism, ambition, and greed".

WASTE by Harley Granville Barker.  A political drama about a sexual scandal written in 1907, that was not licensed until 1920, and not performed until 1936.  It was rewritten in 1926.  Saw an impeccable production of it directed by Peter Hall.  A play that by all appearances should be boring and deadly dull which I found utterly fascinating and brilliantly performed.

NEVILLE'S ISLAND by Tim Firth...A comedy about a bunch of office mates who go on a bonding weekend, boating in the lakes district and end up shipwrecked on an island.  It starred the very funny Tony Slattery.

MUTABILITIE by Frank McGuinness, a weird play set in Elizabethan England, which has Shakespeare, Spenser, legendary Irish kings and queens of myth. A very strange, deep, and wonderfully poetic play.
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MBarnum

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Re:THE POMPOUS BASSOON
« Reply #49 on: October 26, 2004, 11:37:54 AM »

Speaking of Wacky Noodles, last week I almost picked up the Wacky Races DVD collection.  I loved this cartoon series as as a kid (including the spin-offs that were produced the following year.)  But something tells me that my memory of it is much more golden that what actually exists on the DVDs.  It's probably best that I let myself pass up on this set.

Ha! Dan, I almost bought it too! I loved that show when I was a kid! I even have a Penelope Pitstop Matchbox car!
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MBarnum

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Re:THE POMPOUS BASSOON
« Reply #50 on: October 26, 2004, 11:39:35 AM »

Happy Birthday DR Jed! Hope things are going well!!

[move=left,scroll,6,transparent,100%]Vibes for all!  :D  :D  ;D  ;)  :)  :)  :)  :D  :D  ;)  :D [/move]
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Charles Pogue

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Re:THE POMPOUS BASSOON
« Reply #51 on: October 26, 2004, 11:43:18 AM »

A few years back, I went to London on WGA business.  I saw six plays in nine days.  I would say that most of them fall under the title of obscure.  Though some are well-known by title, productions were few and far between.  They were:

JUNO & THE PAYCOCK by Sean O' Casey at the Donmar Warehouse.  Brilliant production.

TWILIGHT SONG by Noel Coward.  His last play.  Loosely based on Somerset Maughm.  Starred Corin and Vanessa Redgrave.

MONEY by Edward Bulwer Lytton.  A comedy by Mr. It W Dark and Stormy Night himself.  And pretty funny too.  Exquisitely mounted at the National starring Simon Russell Beale, Roger Allam, and Patricia Hodge.

TIS PITY SHE'S A WHORE by John Ford.  Starring Jude Law at the Young vic.

SUMMERFOLK by Gorky.  Brilliant, brilliant play and production at the National.

PENNY FOR A SONG by John Whiting (who wrote The Devils).  A play about the Napoleonic Wars.

All these plays were doing capacity business, competing with the big West End musicals and Ameircan blockbuster movies in Leicester Square.  This is my kind of cultural mecca.
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Jane

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Re:THE POMPOUS BASSOON
« Reply #52 on: October 26, 2004, 11:55:40 AM »

Kerry how was your trip and are you okay?

Bruce awhile back we watched HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL on TV.  About half way through the series the powers that be decided to add more commercial time and skip the opening where Paladin pulls his gun and quotes a line from the show.  We felt cheated. >:(

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JED!  WE MISS YOU.

Panni the photo of Abie is very sweet.  And so are you not to get mad at him.

No more pain vibes to Michael Shayne.  

I remember STEAMBATH with Bill Bixby. :)


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Jane

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Re:THE POMPOUS BASSOON
« Reply #53 on: October 26, 2004, 11:59:20 AM »

I just noticed Echo staring at me through the window, then I noticed it is beginning to rain lightly.  My timing has great on all week, today Echo and I walked while the sun was shinning, after the fog and before the rain.
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bk

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Re:THE POMPOUS BASSOON
« Reply #54 on: October 26, 2004, 12:20:20 PM »

Today can't seem to make up its mind whether it wants to be sunny or gray.  Funny old day.

I bought a lamp, which will help illuminate my beautiful but somewhat dark (in the evenings) living room.  It works so well, I may buy a matching one for the other corner.
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Dan (the Man)

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Re:THE POMPOUS BASSOON
« Reply #55 on: October 26, 2004, 12:25:35 PM »

Ha! Dan, I almost bought it too! I loved that show when I was a kid! I even have a Penelope Pitstop Matchbox car!

I got one of those, too, along with Dick Dastardly's car.  I also have a few of the cars that were cereal prizes.  And when I was a lad, I had the snap-together models of a few of the vehicles.

Mmmmmm...I'm feeling an eBay search comin' on...
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And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
-- Anaïs Nin

Jrand73

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Re:THE POMPOUS BASSOON
« Reply #56 on: October 26, 2004, 12:33:22 PM »

Happy Birthday DRJED.

Good healing vibes to DRELMORE and DRMICHAELSHAYNE.

I am a bit under the weather myself today....but I am feeling better this afternoon so vibes can be distributed to more worthy DR's.

DtM - THE LITTLE PRINCESS was one of two movies Shirley Temple did in Technicolor at Fox....(THE BLUEBIRD was the other) - so it's in color, not colorized!

DRPANNI - Abie is one smart dog!

Had a bit of trouble logging on today....but I am sure it's my connection.

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bk

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Re:THE POMPOUS BASSOON
« Reply #57 on: October 26, 2004, 12:38:24 PM »

The sun is peeking out.  One of my favorite obscure musicals has finally been promised on CD by DRG but we shall see if it ever arrives, as I've been told repeatedly the master tapes couldn't be located.  A Family Affair, music by John Kander, lyrics the William and James Goldman.  A silly puff of a show (which I saw here in LA - a local production done within months of the show closing on Broadway), but some really charming numbers and performances (Shelly Berman, Rita Gardner, Larry Kert, Eileen Heckart and Morris Carnovsky, and you even get Bibi Osterwald).  

And thanks to those who mentioned my two very own obscure musicals.
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Re:THE POMPOUS BASSOON
« Reply #58 on: October 26, 2004, 12:39:08 PM »

Happy birthday, Dear Reader Jed.

More vibes for everybody. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm in the library now getting books for research for one of my many term papers. I missed the bus, so I get to sit around for half an hour.

I'm hungry and tired and there's no more Cherry Coke at home.

That about sums it up.
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Re:THE POMPOUS BASSOON
« Reply #59 on: October 26, 2004, 12:40:53 PM »

Here is your Allison Hayes picture of the week!

Lounging in a nice one piece jumpsuit - taking a call from her agent Jack Pomeroy, no doubt!   ;D
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.....you're alone.....and the feeling of loneliness is overpowering.
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