Well, dear readers, I must hurry and write these here notes, because I’ve got to do an outline of topics for this morning’s musical theater workshop (MTW), after which I must hie myself to LACC to conduct the class. Happily, on Thursday the class will be singing again, so that’s nice and easy. We’ll have the wonderful John Boswell again as accompanist. As I write these here notes, I’m feeling very logy from way too much pasta from the Cheesecake Factory, where I supped with our very own Miss Tammy Minoff. I had farfalle with peas and pancetta and chicken and tomatoes and roasted garlic, all in a nice cream sauce. It was quite filling. And now I am logy and can barely keep my eyes open whilst trying to tap on the keyboard. Have you ever tapped on your keyboard? It’s not ideal for tapping – the sound isn’t great and it leaves bad scuff marks. Where was I? Oh, yes, I’m logy and must write these notes in a hurry because I must make notes for the musical theater workshop (MTW). I tell you, when one is feeling logy one tends to be low key. So, here we have notes that are logy/low key, and I’m afraid there shan’t be any excitement in them at all. Wackadoo! Well, that was an attempt at excitement. It didn’t work. I thought “Wackadoo” would just get these here notes up on their feet, but no, they are still logy/low key. Speaking of wackadoo, yesterday was quite a wackadoo day. I awoke earlier than I’d have liked to, but immediately buckled down Winsocki and wrote some pages of the musical. We’re now more than half-way through act two, which is good. I did some errands, but not enough of them. I picked up a package from my mail place, then came back and wrote some more. I made some telephonic calls and whatnot, then went off to sup with Miss Tammy Minoff, then came home and sat on my couch like so much fish.
Moving right along, last night I managed to watch a motion picture on DVD entitled The Barbarian and the Geisha, a region 2 DVD. I’d never seen it before, but knew that it wasn’t well thought of. Well, I must say, while it’s no great shakes a movie, I still found it quite entertaining. First off, I just like John Wayne, so get over it. The film also has a lusciously luscious musical score by the great Hugo Friedhofer, which sounds marvelous on the stereo track. It’s also beautifully photographed on location in Japan, and all the Japanese actors are excellent. The film was directed by John Huston – it’s leisurely paced, but I was never bored by it. The transfer on the region 2 disc is sometimes very nice, sometimes less so, but great to have in Cinemascope and enhanced for widescreen TVs.
What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? Why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I’m still feeling quite logy/low key and “Wackadoo” just isn’t doing the trick.
Today shall be a very busy day. I start with the musical theater workshop (MTW), then perhaps an early lunch, then a walk-through at the theater to make certain the weekend’s activities didn’t do any damage to anything in the theater, then a brief trip to the editing room to correct yet another editor mistake (I’m really sort of miffed at him, as good as he is, for these stupid mistakes he made, and which I didn’t catch because it’s all new to me), then back home. I must write the notes for the Kevin Spirtas live CD and get them off to the designer. I should also be getting the master to listen to and approve. I think we’re still on course for the STAGE benefit CD to arrive by Friday. We’ll be taking preorders starting next Monday, I hope. We’re going to try and keep the price down on the STAGE CD – it’s a two CD set, but I think we’re going to only charge a few dollars more than a one CD set. I think I may even have something for tomorrow evening, but I don’t remember, so maybe I don’t. Hopefully, I will not be logy/low key. Wackadoo! Well, I actually felt a little excitement that time.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, say “Wackadoo” over and over again until the excitement level is high and mighty, I must eat something very reasonable, I must drive about in my motor car, I must ship a few items, and I must write. Today’s topic of discussion: Performers aren’t the only people who get nervous – anyone whose ever had to deliver in a job of any kind has, at one time or another, gotten nervous over something. So, how do you deal with your nerves – what do you do to calm yourself down so that you can get through what you have to get through? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst we all say “Wackadoo” on the count of three: One, two, three – “Wackadoo!” My goodness, that was exciting. Now I’m no longer logy/low key.