Blog Archives
So long, Mr. Sherman…
I was devastated to hear that Richard Sherman passed yesterday.
If you don’t know who he is, the short version: gifted half of the songwriting team (with his brother, Robert B. Sherman, who predeceased him) behind such long-standing classics as “It’s a Small World,” the music of Mary Poppins (“Feed the Birds” was my “time for night-night!” song when I was like four), and “There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow” (Carousel of Progress). His songs were integral to my childhood, and Nathan, Charles and I were lucky enough to get to meet him—and have him sign the copy of my childhood It’s a Small World album—at a Kritzerland event back in 2014. I was so excited to meet him I could barely talk. I recall being absolutely overcome (I don’t fangirl easily but this was massive).
Charles took this photo, and I love it, because we’re holding hands there. Just a testament to what a warm, lovely person Richard was.
He was a lovely, gracious, and Read the rest of this entry
Disney Parks Fans: THRILL RIDE, new fiction from Bruce Kimmel
As you all know, I love books about the Disney Parks — but I’m especially excited about fiction set in or having to do with the Disney Parks. I just found a new one called Thrill Ride by Bruce Kimmel.
From the jacket description:
“1957. What if Walt Disney wanted a time-travel ride for his recently opened Disneyland, a peek into a city of the future and what it might hold – a thrilling ride. What if he had an Imagineer he felt could come up with what that future might hold and how the ride might work? What if that Imagineer, not wanting to merely posit what the future might hold, figures out a way to travel to the future to see exactly what it might hold?
Thrill Ride takes the reader on exactly that journey, from the Los Angeles of 1957 sixty years into the far-off future of 2017. What our time traveler finds there, who he meets, and whether he can actually get back to his own time, well, that’s the tale. So, climb aboard and come along on a fanciful thrill ride filled with humor, suspense, and surprises.”
I pre-ordered this and I got a signed surprise! HOW COOL IS THIS INSCRIPTION?
Richard Sherman (yes, THE Richard Sherman) says of Thrill Ride, “Kimmel does it again! He takes us on an unbelievable thrill ride that’s so believable that you forget it’s just make believe. When it’s over, you not only appreciate what was in the past but you also appreciate all that we have now. Bravo Bruce!”
Here’s me with Richard Sherman at a Sherman Brothers-themed Kritzerland Musical Revue at the Triad in NYC, November 15, 2014. I just about cried when he signed my favorite childhood album!
I’ll be writing a review of this as soon as I get the chance to read it (which I hope is soon; I have stacks and piles and more stacks and piles). If you’re interested in picking this up, you can order it anywhere you get books, however, it’s available at the author’s website here, and on Amazon here.
