Well, dear readers, I’m back in the City of Studio after my whirlwind trip to New York, New York. I had such a splendidly splendid time – in fact, it could not have been more fun. The plane trip home was fine, although we were an hour late in getting out of New York, which was most annoying. JFK is just about the worst airport in terms of that sort of thing, but Jet Blue usually doesn’t have these problems. However, they were so screwed up that all airlines were affected. We were supposed to take off at 6:55, but by that time, not exactly rush hour, they were already backed up by twenty takeoffs. After that little hiccup, the flight went by very quickly. I was in the first row in my usual aisle seat, and the rest of my row was completely empty, a lovely surprise and treat. The entire plane was only half full. And, for the first time on Jet Blue, instead of flying into Long Beach, we flew right into Burbank, where I was met by a car and whisked home in ten minutes flat. Once there, I unpacked, set up ye olde laptop, and began returning phone calls and answering e-mails. I then had to write a little press release announcing Kritzerland, which went up late yesterday afternoon at broadwayworld.com, and should be up hopefully today at playbill.com. I then had to do a bunch of errands and some banking, which took quite a while. Then I came home and tried to get some shuteye, but the phone kept ringing, so I never did. I then went to dinner with Miss Tammy Minoff and her mum – we discussed many things of interest and had a lovely meal at the California Pizza Kitchen. I then came home, and just sort of crashed on the couch for a while.
Whilst crashing on the couch for a while, I did manage to watch a very short grade Z western on DVD, entitled Escort West, starring Mr. Victor Mature and Miss Faith Domergue, and directed by one of cinema’s worst, Francis D. Lyon. It’s not an uninteresting oater, but Mr. Lyon’s flaccid and inept direction totally kills the pace, energy, not to mention drama. The film runs a brisk seventy-six minutes, yet seems like two hours. There are some good supporting performances from such stalwarts as Leo Gordon (who also co-wrote the screenplay), Harry Carey, Jr., Noah Beery, and Slim Pickens. I always enjoy Victor Mature, but the film’s best performance comes from a child actress who is new to me, the delightful and cute-as-a-button Reba Waters. The musical score is one of the worst I’ve ever heard, by a composer completely unknown to me. Amazingly, for a grade Z production, the film was shot in scope by the brilliant William Clothier, one of the great cameramen, especially for color westerns. Which brings us to an interesting thing – the film is in black-and-white, but every shot looks like it was lit for color. That leads me to believe that the film was shot on color stock, but printed in black-and-white in order to save money. It definitely does not look like it was photographed to be in black-and-white, and Clothier is just too well known for his color westerns. It’s a shame, because you can tell it would be spectacular-looking in color. The transfer is excellent and enhanced, although the sound is very hard to understand.
What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? Why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must get my beauty sleep and must meet up with a friend for an early breakfast. Perhaps I’ll have some toast. Then I can be the toast of the town.
I am quite overtired right now. I need a lovely night’s sleep is what I need, so I think I’ll just post these here notes an hour early and then toddle off to the bedroom environment.
After my breakfast, I must come home and spend the rest of the day and evening entering fixes and corrections into the book, so that I can have that finished by Friday. I get quite bleary-eyed doing it, but it must be done.
Vinnie will begin prepping the mixes for After the Ball over the weekend, and then we shall spend two days finessing them. We also have to mix Miss Kerry Butler into the Sure Thing track. I’ve found a couple more little nitpicky things to attend to before it goes off to be mastered.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must enter fixes and corrections, I must do a few more errands, I must pick up a package or three, and I must make a few telephone calls. Today’s topic of discussion: If you could take one of your favorite books or films and turn it into a musical, and you could have any composer/lyricist from any era, what would the project be, and who would the composer/lyricist be? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we? It’s good to be back home where I belong. I am, after all, about to eat some toast and be the toast of the town (with butter and jam, of course).