Well, dear readers, I had a perfectly perfect day yesterday, and what fun it all was. I arrived at the recording studio about a half-hour ahead of the session. Vinnie was already there, setting up his Pro Tools rig and miking the piano. It was like old times, and we saw a couple of people who are still working at the studio from when we did many albums there. We had never actually recorded in Studio B, we’d only mixed one album in there (Godzilla). It’s a relatively small room but had a nice Yamaha grand and plenty of space for our singers. At noon, I began laying down the piano tracks. The first two songs went very quickly and I only had to do two little pickups to be edited in (very easy in Pro Tools). The three uptempo songs were a bit more difficult for me, but we got through them pretty fast, with only a minimum of fixing to be done. We then edited the fixes into the tracks. Guy Haines was first up, and he did his ballad first, then the uptempo, then his part of the ensemble number. Then the girls arrived (Alet Taylor, Tammy Minoff and Barbara Deutsch) and we did the ensemble number first. We did several overdubs and it sounded like a big cast of players. Tammy left, and we did Barbara’s solo, which she did splendidly on. She had a bit of trouble with the very wordy middle section, both musically and lyrically, but she got through it after a few takes and it’s really good. Then Alet did her ballad, which went quickly, and her part of the duet with Guy Haines. We finished right on time. Vinnie and I will comp vocals next week, mix the tracks and then I’ll have the CD duplicated and all ready for the arrival and shipment of the books. Isn’t that exciting? Isn’t that just too too?
I still have one episode left to watch of Broadway: The American Musical and then I shall post my thoughts. In the meantime, the other night I watched a motion picture on DVD entitled Fat Girl, a film of Catherine Breillat. I’d seen one other film of Ms. Breillat, which, while controversial, was a complete and utter bore and which I found practically unwatchable. Fat Girl is better, because it features two wonderful performances by the two young leading ladies, especially the “fat girl” of the title. It’s an unpleasant little film, fairly explicit sexually, but those two performances are worth seeing. Watching the bonus materials, Miss Breillat comes off as a completely strange, neurotic woman, quite pretentious, filled with ego, and I had to shut the DVD off.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must get crackin’, oh, yes, I must get crackin’.
I got absolutely no writing done yesterday, so I must catch up or, at the very least, ketchup today. I must write yesterday’s and today’s pages, which is going to take some doing, but I shall buckle down Winsocki and do it.
I had a lovely dinner with my friend Debby last night. I hadn’t seen her in two years and it was fun to both catch up and ketchup.
I’m quite tired right now – I’d forgotten how doing sessions takes it out of me. Just what “it” was doing in me in the first place I have no clew. In fact, I have no clew about anything write now. I’m just letting my fingers tap on the keyboard and whatever comes out comes out. My fingers have a mind of their own (no mean feat) and are totally operating on auto pilot. For example, right now my fingers are going to type out the sentence, “The guacamole was green and tangy.” I had no clew that’s what my fingers were going to type until they typed it. This illusion is known as The Magic Fingers. “The onion dip was sitting next to a tray filled with pistachios.” You see, The Magic Fingers at work again. I had nothing to do with those sentences – my fingers did the walking. Perhaps my Magic Fingers will next type the story of The Randy Vicar and the Choo Choo Train. What the hell am I talking about?
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must write a bunch of pages, I must do errands, I must, at some point, eat various and sundried foodstuffs, and I must find some time to relax and smell the aardvarks. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player and your DVD/video player? I’ll start – DVD, the final episode of Broadway: The American Musical, and then the extras on the DVD. CD – Miss Astrud Gilberto’s Look to the Rainbow CD, with marvelous arrangements and orchestrations by Gil Evans, another classic album. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we? And if you can’t think of anything to post, simply do the marvelously marvelous illusion, The Magic Fingers. You never know what will issue forth. “My toenails are very attractive today.” You see?