Well, dear readers, all these prophecies of “things don’t look as bad as we thought” turned out not to be so – things are not-so-hot and this morning they begin ripping out the shower. That will take most of today and some of tomorrow. Then the plumber comes and tries to at least get the water heater back up and running and whatever pipe is broken in the guest bathroom fixed so I can at least shower in my own home. Yesterday, I went and signed up at Bally’s for a month, so I could shave and shower there, daily. The good part of that is that while I’m there I’ll also work out, so not only will I be clean, I’ll be buff and toned with abs and buns of steel. Yesterday, I started easy and did twenty minutes on the exercise bike, took a steam, shaved, showered and felt ever-so-fine. With your continued excellent vibes and xylophones this should all be over in about two weeks time, at which point I’ll have a full report for you on everything that’s been going on. Yesterday, we rehearsed Tammy’s new number and relit it. She’s still a bit uncertain on three little lyrics and because she initially learned part of the bridge wrong, she’s having a lot of trouble “unlearning” the wrong and doing the right, even though it is incredibly simple musically. I actually got snippy about it and was quite terse in my telling her to just do it right. This is a phenomenon I just don’t understand – certainly I’ve learned things wrong and when it’s been shown to me and then played correctly, I just learn it right. And, I’ve worked with plenty of singers who have had no trouble adjusting something and making it right. Therefore, I simply have no patience after the first ten times of correcting something. Once we actually began running the song with the staging, she was fine. We’re going ahead and putting it in tonight and hoping she’ll get through it without incident. She’ll be running it all day by herself, and then we’re meeting at the theater at five-thirty to run it with the lighting and a stage effect for the ending.
Last night I finished watching High School Confidential, which, as I said, is a good deal of fun. It’s about misguided youth, and features juvenile delinquents, Mary Jane, reefer, pot, coke (not the beverage), poppers, heroin (aka The Hard Stuff), an “aunt” who desires her “nephew” (the aunt is Mamie van Doren), and some beatniks. The transfer is passable and is, at least, almost properly letterboxed, albeit not enhanced for widescreen TVs. I then watched two of the documentaries on the new batch of Hitchcock DVDs. First, Strangers on a Train, then Foreign Correspondent. Both transfers, which I briefly sampled, looked splendidly splendid. The documentaries are by my least favorite of these “supplemental” filmmakers, Laurent Bozeareau. He’s basically awful at this sort of thing – always using the same people, always using way too many clips from the actual film, and always laying on the music with a trowel. This is especially annoying in the Foreign Correspondent documentary, where he uses music from North by Northwest. It’s stultifying. Still, we get to see Farley Granger, who looks amazing (he plays someone named Guy Haines), and we also get to see Kaysey Rogers (aka Laura Elliot), who plays Miriam Haines. I’m looking forward to seeing all these Hitchcock films in their new DVD transfers, and I’ll have a full report on each and every one.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because at some point soon I must go to Bally’s, work out a bit, and then shave and shower.
Yes, Virginia, I am shaving and showering on location. I don’t like it much but what can you do when Men with Machines are ripping the guts out of your bathroom environment. I’m told that I might be able to use the guest bathroom by early next week. I often think that if these workers who blithely disrupt people’s lives actually had their lives disrupted in a similar way, they’d be a lot faster and a lot less uppity and blasé about the inconvenience they cause. For the amount of money they charge, they ought to at least try to complete things as effortlessly and painlessly as possible. But, I shall persevere. On location.
Now wait just a darned minute. I do believe we must all put on our colored tights and pantaloons, we must break out the cheese slices and ham chunks, we must dance the Hora and the Monkey for it is indeed dear reader Ron Pulliam’s very own actual birthday. So, let’s have a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer. On the count of three: One, two, three – HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR READER RON PULLIAM!!!
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must go hither and thither and also yon, I must shower and shave on location and then I must hie myself to the Wood of Holly for our show tonight. I’ll have a full report on the new song upon my return. Today’s topic of discussion: We did poetry the other day – so, today let’s do favorite lyrics. What are your most favorite lyrics (print samples, of course) by your most favorite lyricists? I’ll be back with my choices, but in the meantime let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we?