Well, dear readers, I am back from the city known as Palm Springs and I had an absolutely splendid time. When I left Los Angeles it was eighty degrees. The temperature in Palm Springs was about forty-five and the signing took place outside, so I was freezing the whole three hours. That, however, did not detract from the fun. I was seated next to another author/actor, whose name I have now forgotten, but you’d recognize him immediately from his hundreds of performances as evil Nazis. He wrote a book about his experiences escaping from Germany and, as a Jew, fighting with the Dutch resistance, and then coming to Hollywood where he began acting. A very nice chap indeed. I sold quite a few books, which was swell. I also had two people come up who’d gone to high school with me, and also a girl I’d worked with thirty years ago came up to me as well. Isn’t that amazing? Isn’t that just too too? I mean, I was in Palm Springs for heaven’s sake. Well, as the Sherman Brothers wrote, It’s a Small World after all.
Also, there was a funny man who came running up to me and when he got to the table he yelled, “When is The First Nudie Musical DVD coming out?” I made him a happy man and he said he was going to order it when he got home. The drive there was a bit of a pain and took two hours and fifteen minutes. The drive home was much better and only took one hour and forty minutes, thanks to the lovely directions provided by dear reader Jay(we weren’t able to go via his route because we were leaving from the mid-Wilshire district, but my publicist stayed on and I was able to use his directions on the way back). Next signing coming up January 18th and it’s going to be a good one – at Barnes and Noble at the Grove. I’ll have more details about that in a week or so.
Well, today is my final day at work and then I shall be free, free I tell you, free to be you and me, free to write all the livelong day, free to finish all my various and sundried projects. Also, Luckie will be joining me full time as of Saturday.
Perhaps we should all click on the Unseemly Button below because I have other things to talk about and I have to save something for the next section lest I be bitch-slapped by Mr. Mark Bakalor.
Dear reader Michael Shayne has been enjoying the new Brent Barrett CD, and I do recommend it because the songs are grand and Brent is, too. It’s nice to have it out finally. Because Brent was forbidden to include my name in his thank yous and because I was forbidden to include any thank yous at all, let me take this opportunity to thank our wonderful musicians, Chris Denny, Lanny Meyers, the great Lauren Bacall, the great Tami Tappan, Liza Lerner, Vinnie “they wouldn’t let you include thank yous?” Cirilli, and, of course, the lovely, lovable and luscious Brent. I’ll tell you a funny story about my favorite track on the CD – Tell Me. I’d asked Brent to look at that song because I found it beautiful and haunting. Because it was very short, I suggested pairing it with something else. Brent and Chris looked at it, but weren’t keen on doing it (they liked the melody, but Brent found the lyric very show-specific and strange). So, we moved on. I brought it up occasionally, as we still needed a song or two, but it was always the same – too strange. At the one of the vocal sessions, I suggested we just go sing through it with Chris, just for fun. Brent and I talked about the lyric a bit, and I suggested several ways it could be played that wouldn’t make it strange. He sang through it once and it was really beautiful. So, I said, “Let’s record it right now.” I had Chris play through it again, we did a quick arrangement of it, and recorded it in one or two “live” takes. When I spoke to Brent after I’d mixed the album, the song had become both our favorites. This has happened on a couple of Terry Trotter albums, too – where he really hasn’t wanted to do something, and at the end of a session I’ll just mosey in with the music and say, “Oh, let’s just do this – no practice, just off-the-cuff, and see what happens”, and then we’ll record it and it will always become our favorite track. In any case, you should be able to find Brent’s album at Footlight in New York, amazon.com on the net and most record stores. As we said yesterday, Tell Me, which was originally going to be the bonus track, is on all copies of the album.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must have my final day at work and then I must come home, clear my head, and tomorrow begin full-time writing again. Starting Monday, Christmas season officially begins here at haineshisway.com and I can tell you we are going to celebrate until the cows come home. We will have stories of Christmases past and present, we will be making a list and checking it twice and those who’ve been naughty (you know who you are) will be bitch-slapped from here to eternity, and those who’ve been nice will have a sparklingly good and festive time. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday, so what is in your CD player and your DVD/video player. I’ll start – CD: a three CD Michel Legrand anthology from France which is a must for any Legrand fan. I found it on eBay, but it’s also available through amazon.com.france and I must tell you, their price is reasonable and their shipping amazingly fast. DVD player: the “extras” disc of Contempt (lots of interesting things) and in my PAL player, The Mouse that Roared. Your turn. And talk about anything else your collective hearts may desire. We ended up having quite a lovely number of posts yesterday, and if you missed them check them out because they were most excellent.