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Rod & Sunny: Photo by Bob
Gentry 8/5/1999
A Thought for Today
We count our blessings only when they stop coming.
FROM A BEACH DIARY
Odd the sounds you hear when you
tune out the ocean or when you take it for the backdrop that it is and let the smaller
noises through. At home there are owls hooting in the backyard; owls come here too. They
make a different sound, squeaky and without resonance and they start in the middle night
as opposed to evening. I know some people here by sight only, but all four dogs along this
mile can be distinguished by their barks, individual as accents - or slurred speech. A
whistle travels by the window on a bicycle before I go to bed. Something, probably coons,
too clumsy to be cats, makes sounds out back at daybreak.
Listen. It is but the nightingale, the morning owl.. It is everything and none of the
above. So soft, yet so abrasive as to splinter dreams.
- previously unpublished, 1979
THIS JUST IN!
I've just this minute received the following
letter from Rod.
A Message from The Front
Dear Ken,
4:21 AM: Just back from rehearsals for Something Wonderful & indeed it
is. Mitzi Gaynor's closing number for act one (she reprises her "Gonna
Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair" routine from South Pacific" complete
with shampoo & water is just one of the highlights & John Rait (at 83)
is a wonder singing The Soliloquy from Carousel. He introduced it in the
1940’s on Broadway.
Imagine if you will Tyne Daly doing a medley of Isn't It Romantic and My
Heart Stood Still and Lorenzo Lamas (yes, that Lorenzo Lamas,) singing
The Surrey with the Fringe on Top. Add Stephani Powers great rendition
of Ten Cents a Dance and Leslie Ann Warren's plaintive My Funny
Valentine . . . Jack Noseworthy (currently stalking and menacing Amy in
the TV series "Judging Amy" ) has an incredible voice and sings Younger
Than Springtime. Well you get the picture and this is just some of the
cream that rises to the top of a very full milk pail. Lots more big
stars doing truly star turns.
Hard to hold your own in such exalted company. My number is seven
minutes long and happens in act one on tonight. I'm doing a special
arrangement of "It Never Entered My Mind" -- featuring lyrics that have
never been performed before. Keep your fingers crossed for me
As for Sunday, get this. As you know I have a 2 and a half-hour solo
concert at Citrus College that begins at 2:PM. Then I speed across town
via several freeways to Cal State where the matinee performance of
Something Wonderful begins at 3:PM. They've moved my number to the
second act for this show so with any luck I'll make it. No rest for the
weary, but despite more rehearsals for my Citrus College gig later today
I have to catch a catnap at some point.
Doing lots of new and different material at Citrus [30 songs plus] and
even including a special guest star in a four song segment. Can you
guess who?
Hard work? You bet, but I'm having a ball. Lots of friends coming to all
three shows.
Luv,
Rod Thanks for the
update, Rod. Sounds like a terrific Sunday ahead for those fans lucky
enough to get to one, or both, of these shows.
As for your surprise guest, I'm going with Petula Clark. Am I close or
what? Ken,
Johannesburg, November 10
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