Well, dear readers, we have survived recording Emily Skinner and Alice Ripley Live in Concert at Town Hall. I cannot say the day was sans stress, but once we got over the one hiccup we had, all went well. Said hiccup, thank goodness, happened very early in today’s run-through. We arrived at Town Hall at one, set up as quickly as we could and even got ahead by getting the drums miked and sound checked. At three-thirty we began a run-through. Our plan was to record parts of it as a test, to make certain everything was hunky-dorey and also dorey-hunky. We got levels on the band and the girls and off we went. Only something was wrong with the computer that was running Pro-Tools. When our engineer went to save, the computer froze – every time. He shut down, tried to reboot, but it became obvious that the computer’s hard drive was on its last legs. Thankfully, our second engineer had the foresight to bring a backup laptop, and we booted that up, got everything working again and were able to record from about the fourth song on. The run-through went very well and we had a little dinner break. They brought some nice food to the green room so we didn’t have to go out. Finally, it was show time. The audience went nuts from the first entrance to the final bows. Roars and cheers and if that wasn’t enough, cheers and roars. Every number got an excellent response. Our part of it went smoothly and I do believe we have everything we need for our mix. The patter was wonderful, too. Favorite line of the evening: In act two they talk for a bit then mention their recordings with me. They mention that this recording will be available soon on my new label, Kritzerland. Then Alice said something like, “The others we did aren’t really being made anymore – and (insert name of label that owns those recordings here) can kiss my ass.” It got a great laugh. Speaking of said label, someone pointed out to me that they are now trying to book acts. Isn’t that funny? I produce an incredibly successful cabaret series, and suddenly they’re trying to book acts, including one act that came to the cabaret series and, I assume, reported back to those that were so obviously interested. I do, of course, wish them everything they deserve.
After the show, we had to transfer everything to our mini hard drive – that took about forty minutes and then I toddled off to the after party. So many sweet people came up to me and told me how much they enjoyed my albums (yes, label, MY albums), and that made me feel quite nice. I saw a few people I knew, including our very own td, FJL, and Evil Twin. I also ran into Anne Marie Bobby, who I hadn’t seen since the Merrily We Roll Along recording session (available on a fine label called Varese Sarabande) and we had a grand time chatting and catching up. Miss Bobby was the star of one of my favorite flops, Smile, and she’s also a writer. Right now, she’s appearing off-Broadway in I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, a show I produced the cast album of (maybe my most successful cast album, and available on a fine label called Varese Sarabande). I was quite hungry but way too tired to stick around, so instead I toddled off back to the hotel, where I immediately sat down like so much fish.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below, because I’ve got to try and get at least four hours of beauty sleep.
I shall be up at five-thirty and a car will meet me at six to take me to the Newark airport for my eight-forty flight. I shall post live from the President’s Club.
When I get home today, I really must try to jog, and then I shall have a few things to do even though it’s a Sunday. I’ll try to get to bed early, though, because the following day I have a bunch of stuff in the morning, including a meeting, and then we begin Brain rehearsals. After the Brain rehearsal we have our CD release party for Simply Sondheim, so it’s going to be a fuller than full day. There should be some good eats at the party. And I will, of course, have a full report for you.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, get up, go to Ye Olde Airport, fly back to Los Angeles, California, USA, have a car take me back to the home environment, and then relax and smell the coffee or the roses or the camembert. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we? We shall.