Well, dear readers, can you believe it’s November already? Not only is it November, it’s the second day of November. I ask you, where else on all the Internet can you find such information? Nowhere, that’s where. Already November is flying by like a gazelle looking for love in all the wrong places. That is something I have in common with the gazelle – I’m looking for love in all the wrong places. For example, yesterday I looked for love in the parking lot at LACC. That is definitely the wrong place to look for love, unless you want to have an affair with a car. I recently looked for love in my hall closet. It was the wrong place to look for love, but a good place to look for a vacuum cleaner. After I came out of the closet I still looked for love in all the wrong places. One of these fine days, I think I’ll look for love in all the right places, just for a change of pace. You know, if anyone has a clew as to what the HELL I’m talking about, do let me know, won’t you? Until then, if you need me I’ll be looking for love in all the wrong places. Well, that was a fine start to today’s notes, wasn’t it? Speaking of a fine start, yesterday was a fine day. For example, I got up, which was a fine start. I did things that needed doing, and then I toddled off to LACC for a Brain rehearsal. We did two major act one scenes with Kevin and Lauren and the girl who plays their daughter – each scene had a song, so we had a lot of blocking to do, but the scenes and numbers came out well and we ran them quite a few times. After rehearsal, I came directly home, where I had to catch up on e-mails and phone calls, after which I finally had some food. After that, I considered looking for love in all the wrong places, but instead I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I managed to watch a motion picture on DVD entitled The Gay Divorcee, starring Mr. Fred Astaire and Miss Ginger Rogers. This was their second film together, and while it has enjoyable things in it, it feels like they were still finding their way and it’s not as sublime as some of their later films. Of course, it does have the wonderful Night and Day number, and that’s worth the price of the DVD alone. The transfer is fine, but not top-notch, which these Astaire/Rogers films deserve. I also watched the seventy-minute documentary on Astaire/Rogers – it’s the usual snoozefest that Warners seems to love, produced by Sparkhill. I love that they feel it necessary to have fake memos and props, as if that made this art or something. As Louis Jourdan said in Gigi – “It’s a bore.” Liza is in it, looking and sounding so odd, and Michael Feinstein looks equally odd. Perhaps they’ve been looking for love in all the wrong places.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I’ve got me a busy little day today and I must get my beauty sleep.
Today, we’ll be putting in the young man who plays the male alien – he’s been out for a week, first for his birthday, then to attend a funeral. He’s got a ton of blocking to learn and our assistant stage manager is going to teach it to him, so I don’t have to waste precious time putting him in myself. He’s very bright and I’m sure he’ll pick everything up quickly and we’ll be able to run those numbers without stopping. While he’s being taught what he missed, I’ll be doing a very long act one scene (with no song) that involves about eight people. Those scenes always take time, because I’m never content to just have people stand there like so much fish. That’s all that’s really scheduled for tomorrow, but I’m hoping I can actually get through it and move on to something else. I’m trying to have everything blocked in the next ten days – but there’s a lot of stuff left to do. Because of that, I’ve scheduled a five-hour rehearsal for Saturday, and I should be able to get a lot done that day. I do like to review the group numbers whenever the group works, and that always takes time, but I feel the only way to get it perfect is to run it and run it and run it. After the rehearsal, I’m supposed to go to some party for a little while. Tomorrow, I finally am getting the haircut I so desperately need.
Before I do any of the above, however, I’ll be at Vinnie’s listening to his first pass mixes on the Emily and Alice CD. We’ll finesse whatever needs finessing today, and then I’m hoping either Sunday or Monday that I can start editing the patter – I’m going to try my hardest to get this on one CD – right now, the entire show runs about eighty-six minutes, so I really only have to cut about seven minutes of chatter out. I think two of the seven minutes will just be tightening up the long pauses and getting rid of repetition, so it’s really only five minutes, which I’m thinking will not be that difficult.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, jog, finesse a mix, rehearse, eat, and attend some party briefly. Today’s topic of discussion: When you really need to relax and zone out, what is your favorite thing to achieve that? Yoga? Meditation? Music? What is it that totally relaxes you, puts your mind in “park” and zones you out so you can put the world away for a while? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I continue to look for love in all the wrong places, like Staples.