Well, dear readers, I must write these here notes in a hurry because I suddenly have a multitude of things to do this morning. For example, I must go pick up all my masters at the pressing plant, as the lady who worked there has moved to another plant and we are moving all my projects there. I was not happy with this plant we’ve been using, most of all because of the complete screwup with the first batch of After the Ball recordings. It turns out that my contact lady was also fed up with them, so she quit (that’s what’s been going on for the last week), but she’s at the new plant starting today. Hopefully, things will run very smoothly from now on. Then I have to run to my booklet designer’s home environment to give him some material so we can get the Harvey Schmidt booklet uploaded to the new pressing plant. Then I have a meeting at the El Portal to see if we can come to terms we’re all comfortable with. So, you can see why I must write these here notes in a hurry. Did you know that Arthur Murray taught me dancing in a hurry? Yes, Virginia, Arthur Murray taught me dancing in a hurry, which is why I am able to so brilliantly dance the Lambada (The Forbidden Dance). Have I lost the point all of a sudden? Has anyone seen the point? I know it was around here somewhere. Speaking of yesterday, I had a perfectly interesting day yesterday. I started by dealing with some telephonic conversations I needed to have. I then met a friend who wanted the Kritzer tour. After the tour we ate at a Kritzer-type establishment called The Apple Pan, which I used to frequent when I was a mere sprig of a twig of a tad of a lad of a youth. After that, I came back to the home environment, answered scads of e-mails, did some errands in my motor car, and then met up with Miss Tammy Minoff and the lady we hope will be the line producer of my play. Someone asked what line producer means, and it means that they attend to the real nuts and bolts producing – all the coordination with the theater and the designers and the actors, making sure everything is done on schedule and budget, and keeping on top of the publicist. But a line producer isn’t a producer in the sense of raising money or owning a chunk of the show. We’re hoping she’ll say yes, and we’ll know for sure at some point today. I’m happy to say that orders have been trickling in for the new Kritzerland titles, and we hope they’ll continue to trickle in. Actually, we wouldn’t mind a deluge of orders. Well, I must not linger any longer in this paragraph. Or should that be I must not longer any linger in this paragraph?
Last night I finished watching a motion picture on DVD entitled That Obscure Object of Desire, un film de Luis Bunuel. As you know, I recently viewed Mr. Bunuel’s strange film The Phantom of Liberty, which I enjoyed but didn’t love. I liked That Obscure Object of Desire much better, although I didn’t find it the masterpiece that some do. Fernando Rey gives a superb performance as an obsessed man. The object of his obsession and desire is a very young lady named Conchita. Their relationship is very interesting, ranging from tender and needy to volatile and violent. Adding to the strangeness of the film is the fact that Conchita is played by two different actresses, for no apparent reason. Critics have gone out of their way to come up with brilliant essays on Bunuel’s meaning in casting two actresses. Well, if you read the interview with Bunuel included in the booklet, you find out it means nothing. He’d originally cast Maria Schneider (Last Tango in Paris) in the role, and he was completely dissatisfied with her performance. His producer was on him every day about who to replace her with, and Bunuel couldn’t come up with anyone. One day, off the top of his head, he said, “Why don’t we cast two actresses?” He doesn’t know why he said it – it just came out. He thought his producer would tell him he was insane, but instead the producer thought it was intriguing and insisted they do it. It does lend the film a certain style, but every time the interviewer tells Bunuel a critic’s theory on the meaning of the double-casting, Bunuel says, “That’s so stupid. It was a caprice, a whim – it means nothing.” In any case, the film is directed very well, has some very witty sequences, and also contains a little of Mr. Bunuel’s beloved surrealism (but not nearly as much as The Phantom of Liberty). Transfer from Criterion is beautiful.
What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden. Let me tell you this one thing – Ebert and Roeper didn’t teach me dancing in a hurry. No, Arthur Murray taught me dancing in a hurry. Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because soon I shall be dancing in a hurry and all because of Arthur Murray.
Have I mentioned that Arthur Murray taught me dancing in a hurry? Have I mentioned that Bob Fosse taught me dancing that was glossy? Have I mentioned that Onna White taught me dancing in a night?
I am a mere few pages away from finishing the short story I’ve been working on. I can’t wait to finish it so I can start a new one. My plan is to write ten short stories in total – this is my fifth, so I’m halfway home. If I end up liking them, I may publish them all in a bood. I might even publish them in a book, although the stories are much more suited to being published in a bood.
I tell you, I have lost the point or, conversely, the point has lost me. Here is a fun little story – the fellow who played Lorne Roy Wayne in Stages, Mr. Phil Clark, is in New York and cannot attend our party. So, I dropped an e-mail to the sister of a fellow who played Lorne Roy Wayne in the first amateur production of the show – a high school up north. I flew up to see that production (it was charming), and I became friendly with the sister of the fellow who played Lorne Roy Wayne. We’re still friends all these years later, even though she’s lived in Colorado for the last twenty years. Well, she and her brother are flying out for the launch party – so, we’ll have a Lorne Roy Wayne there. Isn’t that exciting? Isn’t that just too too?
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, go place to place this fine morning, I must write, I must pick up packages, I must ship a package or three, I must attend to some release details, and I must have several telephonic conversations. Today’s topic of discussion: What are you favorite dance numbers choreographed by Mr. Bob Fosse, Mr. Gower Champion, Miss Onna White, Mr. Jerome Robbins, and Mr. Michael Bennett? I’ll start – Fosse, Rich Man’s Frug, the dance to With You from Pippin, the “challenge” dance from My Sister Eileen, and Who’s Got the Pain from Damn Yankees. Champion, The Shriner’s Ballet and Put on a Happy Face from Bye Bye Birdie, Dancing and Hello, Dolly from Hello, Dolly, We’re In The Money from 42nd Street. Onna White, 76 Trombones and Shipoopi from The Music Man, If The Rain’s Got To Fall from Half a Sixpence. Robbins, everything ever, but especially All I Need Now Is The Girl and the Newsboys’ stuff from Gypsy, The Bottle Dance from Fiddler, Prologue and Dance at the Gym from West Side Story, and the ballets from On the Town. Bennett, Lucy and Jessie, Bolero d’Amour, Who’s That Woman from Follies, Company, Tick Tock from Company, Opening and Hello, Twelve, Hello, Thirteen, Hello Love from A Chorus Line. Turkey Lurkey Time and The Grapes of Roth from Promises, Promises, and Steppin’ to the Bad Side from Dreamgirls. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst we all say in unison, “Arthur Murray taught me dancing in a hurry.”