Well, dear readers, I must make haste, for there is no time to waste, for today is the day that I begin the musical theater workshop (MTW, in Internet lingo) at LACC. I’m quite excited about it, and hope I remember everything I wish to say. If not, I shall wing it, like a gazelle in chaps. Thanks to all who had suggestions, some of which I’ve incorporated into my cheat sheet. Today we start with an overview and what the goals of the workshop will be. Thursday we will discuss musical theater songs, and they will be assigned the task of choosing one and preparing it for performance the following week. I’m trying to find a pianist who can come to the class once a week – I’ve talked to my pal John Boswell, and he might be able to do a few of them, but he’s frequently gone and I’d like to find somebody who could just do it regularly. I’ll be curious to see how many people we end up with in addition to the ten or twelve second semester students. In any case, I must make haste for there is no time to waste. Speaking of waste, yesterday was a very productive day. I spent the entirety of the livelong day in the editing room. We resumed where we left off on Friday, and it took a couple of hours to finish the longer promo, and then do some fixing and shuffling of shots. The shorter promo then took about four hours to put together in rough form, then another hour to smooth it out. Then my editor did a rough sound mix and put in some effects and we finished about five-thirty. I decided to use my half-day on Wednesday, just in case there’s anything I want to change before sending it over to the powers that be. Even doing that, I’m still turning it in a day-and-a-half before its due date, so they’re very happy about that. I’ve also scheduled the rest of the work, which includes a day to address whatever notes they may have, a half-day to online, a day for the VO over recording and audio mix, and a hold day in case I need to do anything else. If all goes according to Hoyle, then I’ll be finished on the 17th, four days before the actual delivery date. After I wrapped the session, I joined my pal Miss Barbara Deutsch for a delightfully delightful repast at Marie Callendar’s. After that, I came home and sat on my couch like so much fish. Isn’t that exciting? Isn’t that just too too?
Last night, I managed to watch a motion picture on DVD entitled The Girl From Paris (the bad English title for the French film Une Hirondelle A Fait Le Printemps – literally One Swallow Brings Spring). It’s a very nice film about a headstrong thirty year old woman who decides to chuck everything and be a farmer. She ends up buying a farm owned by an elderly cantankerous curmudgeon (played by the wonderful Michel Serrault), and the film centers on their acrimonious but ultimately touching relationship. The scenery is beautiful and the acting is excellent – however, there are three scenes of farm life that one should be warned about – they happen suddenly, without warning, and I could not recommend this film without giving a head’s up about them. One involves a pig being killed so that its blood can be drained for “boudain” (blood pudding), one involves mad cow disease, and the third involves the stillborn birth of a goat. Of course, these are not gratuitous scenes, they are part of what farm life is, but if you’re not prepared for them then they can be a trial to watch. The best thing about the film is its divine and rapturous score by the best of the upcoming young film composers, Philippe Rombi. This guy is the stuff. If you’ve seen Francois Ozun’s Swimming Pool, then you’ve heard his marvelous music – I now have five or six CDs of his French soundtracks, and they’re the best listens I’ve had for the last year. I do hope they don’t bring him to Hollywood and corrupt him and remove every vestige of his musical voice by making him ape whatever temp tracks they use. That is what happened to the promising Alexandre Desplat – his work for American films is awful – unoriginal, boring, and with none of the qualities of his European scores which got him the work in the first place. Bravo, Hollywood. Mean it. Love ya.
Aren’t I supposed to be writing these here notes in haste because there is no time to waste on account of I’m starting my musical theater workshop (MTW, in Internet lingo)? Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below, and ponder just who would be eating “boudain”.
In addition to the musical theater workshop, I must also have a long meeting and lunch with our very own Mr. David Wechter, which should take most of the afternoon. Then I shall have the evening all to myself. Wednesday, I’ll be back in the editing room, and then I’ll be supping at the hoity-toity Ivy At The Shore, where I have a rather large gift certificate to use up.
I’m sitting here like so much fish trying to write this here paragraph and yet I haven’t a clew as to what this here paragraph should be about. Hence, I am writing a paragraph sans point. So, I just give you fair warning, do not look for a point in this paragraph because this paragraph is sans, point-wise.
Well, that was a particularly useless waste of words and sentences, wasn’t it?
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, teach my musical theater workshop (MTW, in Internet lingo), I must not think about “boudain”, I must meet and eat, and I must sit on my couch like so much fish, as well as catch up on my shipping packages – I’ve got a week’s worth backlogged and must get them out in the late afternoon. Today’s topic of discussion: If you could build your dream house wherever you wanted to, what would your dream house look like and where would you build it, assuming price is no object. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we?