Well, dear readers, you won’t believe it – even I cannot believe it and yet I must believe it for it is true. The end of February is upon us and tomorrow we will begin a brand spanking new month, namely March. Namely March will be a fine month, I feel it in my bones and also my elbows. I always feel that when a month is named March that that means we will March to great heights, great glories, and we can be mad as a March hare or even a March hair. In any case, namely March will be with us on the ‘morrow, but for today let us celebrate the end of February with a heigh ho and a whoopee cushion. Yesterday, for example, was a fine but long day. I got another fairly decent night’s sleep, awoke, did some things that needed doing, then went over to our very own Vinnie’s to hear his rough mixes for the STAGE benefit CD. The minute mix one came on, I knew we were in fine shape. I’d only heard a CD of some other engineer’s “mix” and it was so hideous as to be unlistenable. You could barely hear the vocals at all, and the band sounded like they were recorded on a cassette. But, Vinnie had “our” sound up, and all I had to do was finesse a few things. We actually got through everything but three tracks. It’s going to be a very lively and good CD, I think. It’s got two very amusing tracks – Andrea Martin’s No Time At All, and Carole Cook’s track, the name of which I don’t remember. The album also features Billy Porter, Pam Myers, Michael Tucker and Jill Eikenberry, Robert Cuccioli, Bill Hutton, Polly Bergen, Joan Ryan, Betty Garrett, and many others. Funniest line of the show – Carole Cook coming out and singing, “Your son’ll come out – tomorrow.” There is also a very wickedly amusing gay version of The Telephone Hour. The composers represented are Stephen Schwartz, Arthur Schwartz, and Charles Strouse. Preorders will commence in a couple of weeks – it’s a two CD set, but we’re going to try to keep the price reasonable. After the mix, I came home and sat on my couch like so much fish. It was raining all day yesterday, and I must say it wreaked havoc with my allergies.
Last night, I watched a motion picture on DVD entitled Innocence. It’s a French film, and a very strange one at that – directed by a lady whose name I can’t remember. It’s a very surreal and strange film about a private girl’s school hidden away in the woods. Girls arrive via coffin, and they must stay in the school and obey the rules. Just what they’re doing there or why they can’t leave isn’t really made clear. It’s very David Lynchian, especially in its sound design. The girls do ballet, play on the grass, swim, cavort in their underpants, are told by the two twenty-something teachers that their bodies will soon be changing, and perform their ballets in a theater on the grounds, attended by what appear to be older men – one of them shouts “bravo” to one of the twelve-year-olds, throws her a rose, and says, “You’re the prettiest.” Make of that what you will. At the end of the film, the oldest girls are lead through a series of underground tunnels to a waiting train, which takes them into some town. They depart the train and go to a fountain in the square, where some young teen boys are playing. They take off their shoes and socks and tops and play in the fountain. One of the boys comes into the fountain to retrieve a ball, and he and a girl look at each other through the gushing water. The End. Make of that what you will. I rather liked the formality of the film’s style, and I wasn’t bored. The transfer on the region 2 DVD ranges from very nice to very muddy.
What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? Why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below so we can hurry and enjoy the final day of a little month we like to call February.
I must say, February flew by – it seemed a lot shorter than January but then again it WAS a lot shorter than January, so that could be the reason. I wonder who decreed that February would be such a short month. I guarantee you it was someone under 5’4″.
Today I’ve got to arise very early, be on my way to the musical theater workshop (MTW), and then hie myself back to the Oaks of Sherman to finish the mix. I’m hoping I’ve convinced Vinnie to do the mastering on the CD, because we have no time to send it up north to my usual mastering engineer. We really have to try to get the master to the pressing plant lady by Wednesday afternoon, along with the CD packaging art and notes, which are being worked on right now. They then will have exactly one week to turn it around and get me at least 300 CDs so the charity can sell them at the concert. After I finish the mix, then I must go to the editing room to do the Disney fixes to the two promos spots (due to their internal screwup). After that, I shall finally come back to the home environment where I shall sit on my couch like so much fish and watch a DVD or three.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must drive about in my motor car, I must put gas in my motor car, I must mix, I must edit, I must eat, and I must say farewell to a little month I like to call February, and then I must welcome in a little month I like to call namely March. Today’s topic of discussion: What was/is your favorite era for clothing? If you could bring back a clothing style for the modern era, what would it be? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst we open our arms wide to welcome in namely March.