Well, dear readers, this New York trip is coming up very quickly, isn’t it? I must prepare myself for it, both mentally and physically, in terms of getting my head in the proper place (right now, it’s down on my ankles – I hate when that happens), and also little things like booking airport rides and packing and such. And I still have many things to do before leaving, so it’s going to be a busy today, tomorrow, and Saturday. I’ve been listening to my plunk tape from The Last Starfighter – some of the tunes I get very quickly, others are a little more difficult for me to glom onto. But, repetition does wonders and its all beginning to seep in. I’m going to spend several hours with tape and score on Saturday, prior to leaving, and I may try to burn the cassette to CD and then put the CD in iTunes prior to leaving – if I can find time to do it. I’m feeling a bit better about my hoarseness – had a long conversation with a throat doctor, and he gave me quite a bit of reassurance and advice, some of which is already working. Luckily, he’ll be in New York all next week, so if it’s necessary he can help if need be, but I suspect all will be well and also that well will be all, not necessarily in that order. Speaking of order, yesterday was quite the day. Yes, Virginia, yesterday was quite the day. I no longer remember why, only that it was quite the day. For example, I got up. That is always a fine beginning to any day, me-wise. Then I jogged, then I did some e-mails and such, and then I did some errands and such. Then I was happy to find that the book website had gone “live” – my designer did a swell job. So, that means that all you lovely people out there in the dark can order your very own actual copies of How To Write A Dirty Book and Other Stories. It’s quite simple, really. Just visit www.howtowriteadirtybook.com – once there, you can read three pages of the title story, see our cover and blurbs and, of course, immediately place your order. I will only say that the first fifty orders will receive a little something special either inside or outside the book. We’ve had a nice number of orders so far so do place yours soon if you haven’t because it’s always nice to have a little unique something. I also approved the covers, and I’ll have a paperback and hardback to approve by next Thursday (being sent to my hotel in New York). Once I place the order for books (another reason why the preorders are appreciated – helps me to know how many to get), it shouldn’t be more than two to three weeks until I have them in hand. After all that, I had to hie myself to LACC to set keys for three songs – it’s a good thing we did, because all three songs had to have their keys either lowered or raised. After that, I had to get back home pronto for the reading of dear reader PennyO’s play.
The actors all arrived, along with my friend Jessica to read stage directions. We started in promptly. I must say I was very pleased with most of the reading. The actors all did nicely, the play seemed tight and more structured than before, it certainly had more clarity, and the new stuff worked very well. The songs were well integrated and got a very nice reaction, and they seem to make the piece seem fuller and more coherent, so I was happy about that. I took a few notes about a handful of things. PennyO and I will be having a conversation about the show’s future, sometime today. I was most interested in PennyO’s friend Jolie’s reaction, since she did the piece and was part of the previous reading we did – she seemed delighted by it all. I’m beginning to have a strong feeling about how the piece needs to play, in terms of performance – that was also very interesting to me, watching it yesterday. The other interesting thing was that when it came time to sing the score, my voice was surprisingly strong.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because it’s almost time to post these here notes and I do not want to stay up too too late.
Last night, I did manage to watch a motion picture on DVD entitled The Bourne Supremacy. I’d seen The Bourne Identity when it came out and hated every minute of it, mostly because of the ineptitude of director Doug Limon, along with a fairly annoying script and a leading lady I thought was terrible. But, after seeing and admiring United 93, I noticed that its director, Paul Greengrass, had directed The Bourne Supremacy, so I was interested to see how he handled a more Hollywood film. I will say this about Mr. Greengrass – if you’ve got to shoot movies in the annoying fast-cutting, jumpy style, Mr. Greengrass is your man, because he’s better than the others, especially Tony Scott. The film is well-paced and thankfully moves right along. The script isn’t as bad as the earlier film – it’s not great either, but it’s okay. The cutting is annoying at times, as is the jitterbug camerawork, but Mr. Greengrass at least knows that his style has to serve whatever story there is, and that he does. Matt Damon is okay, Joan Allen does what she can with a poorly-written role, Brian Cox is, well, Brian Cox, and I was delighted to see Franka Potenta (the girl from Run, Lola, Run). I must say, the transfer from Universal is excellent – it shows you just how good regular old DVD can be – sharp as a tack, colorful, and not over manipulated. The sound was robust.
What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? Today, I must catch up on many things in preparation for my trip. I have some orders to ship, and I must get organized, as well as doing a bit of writing. I have to book a session for the end of this month, and I also have to find an engineer in New York to do the Alice and Emily concert. I’m going to try to do all of that today and tomorrow – and tomorrow I also have to pull a bunch of charts for Alice and Emily, get them copied, and Fed Exed to New York.
Now wait just a darned minute. Let’s all put on our pointy party hat and our colored tights and pantaloons, let’s all break out the cheese slices and the ham chunks, let’s all dance the Hora and dance to the music of the Ocarina, for today is dear reader Laura’s birthday. So, let’s give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to one of our favorite dear readers, dear reader Laura. On the count of three: One, two, three – A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO ONE OF OUR FAVORITE DEAR READERS, DEAR READER LAURA!!!
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, jog, write, make arrangements, book sessions and a whole plethora of other things. Today’s topic of discussion: If you could go back on our haineshisway.com Time Machine and change any event in our history, what would it be? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we?