Well, dear readers, it’s already Friday, another week has flown by like a gazelle at the dog races, and my head is spinning like a dreidl in heat. A dreidl in heat? My mind is gone, I tell you. I’m currently eating chocolate-covered raisins as I type these here notes. I don’t know what that has to do with the price of tomatoes or potatoes or succotash, but there you are. Knowledge is power, baby. Where was I? Oh, yes, it’s Friday. And a very important Friday it is, O, Ye of Little Faith. Why is it an important Friday? Well, I’ll tell you why it is an important Friday because why should I withhold such information from you dear readers. Well, you see, it was on this very day in the year I like to call 2001 that this here site was born. Yes, on the 9th of November haineshisway.com came into being. Two weeks prior to that date, on a little day we like to call Black Saturday, I saw a sort of human behavior that I’d never quite seen before (and that I pray I never see again), and this here site started out as a way to let everyone know where I was and that we were going to survive said human behavior, come hell or high or even low water. And here we are, in November of 2006, about to enter our sixth year here at haineshisway.com. At the beginning, I could never have imagined I’d write a daily notes for this long a period of time. After the first weekend, I began writing every day, and I have not missed a day of notes since, and I believe that makes this either the longest-running lengthy daily Internet thing ever or close to it. This site started out as something completely unique, and I’m happy to say we must have done something right since quite a few sites have seen fit to emulate us. I believe we have one of the longest-running DJ’d Broadway radio shows, too. But, what has been most unique is our discussion board – there is simply no other discussion board like it, and I’m proudest of that most of all. Oh, people come, people go, but ninety-nine percent of the time the board is wonderfully warm and funny and friendly and very real friendships have been forged here and we are a merry troupe indeed. We’ve been through relationships and catastrophes and joyous occasions and gatherings and, sadly, even a few deaths of beloved dear readers. If there’s an upside to the Internet and what it can be, I like to think this here site is part of that. I’m not patting myself on the back, I’m just saying what I feel. For me, personally, the years since this site went live have been a roller coaster ride, with incredible ups and downs, but when I look back on it, the ups so far outweigh the downs it’s not even funny. I’ve written six books, three plays, put on my directing shoes again, and have even been lured back to acting twice. I’ve helped create two nightclub acts (with two more to come shortly), I’ve worked on reality TV shows, and happily I finally started a new label and went back to producing CDs. And I’ve followed our dear readers lives and have enjoyed meeting and learning about a whole group of wonderfully warm and supportive people. Who would have thought? People have asked me how I do this – how I write the notes every single day, and I simply tell them because I enjoy every minute of it, whether I’m being arch or playful or ranting or just killing time. This little upstart website has become very popular with the populace, with millions of hits a year. As I’ve said, I’m a proud daddy and all I can say is, we are here for the duration. We have certainly had our critics and to them we say what we always say – you can KISS MY ASS. So, to all of the people who make this the site it is I say thank you and wish us all the happiest of anniversaries.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because, well, we’ve done that every day since November 9, 2001, too.
I feel so festively festive on our haineshisway.com anniversary. I have put on my pointy party hat and my colored tights and pantaloons, I have a platter of cheese slices and ham chunks at the ready, and I am dancing the Hora and the Pony. Speaking of the Pony, yesterday went by at a gallop. I’ll give you the Reader’s Digest version: I got up. I jogged. I did endless errands all over the city. I had a production meeting. I had a rehearsal. Best of all, I finished the blocking of our show. Everything is now blocked, even though I still have to fill some stuff out and add steps to a couple of numbers. At yesterday’s rehearsal we continued what is the most arduous task right now, which is choreographing the set changes. I decided early on that the cast would be moving all set pieces, and each change has to have people assigned, then the moves worked out, then I have to block exits and entrances around that. I want it all to be seamless, like filmic dissolves. So, each one takes quite a bit of time and it’s sort of annoying but ultimately rewarding. We’ve done the whole of act one, and today we’ll do act two’s scene shifts. I gave a little speech to the cast, and then I toddled off to have dinner. I was supposed to go to the Gardenia, but the rehearsal ran later than planned and the speech was important. I then finally came home and didn’t even have time to sit on my couch like so much fish. I just popped some chocolate raisins in my gaping maw and dove right into our anniversary notes.
Today, there is no school, so rehearsal begins at noon and goes to five. Today is the day we start “assembling” the show – starting at the top and running everything and working in the transitions and going from point A to B to C right on down the line. We’ll stop and start, but by the end of the day, everyone will know what happens when and where, so that come Monday we can begin to run-through the show. After rehearsal, I must come directly home so I can choose selections to read for Saturday’s book signing.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, jog, rehearse, choose selections, eat, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player, and your DVD/video player? I’ll start – CD, Floyd Collins. Many people have told me that this is the Adam Guettel show I’d like (like there are so many Adam Guettel shows). Well, sorry, I’m not liking it at all, and I suppose I’m just not a fan. I find Floyd Collins tedious to listen to and occasionally it’s just downright annoying. DVD – the second half of Mutiny On The Bounty, which will be followed by Reflections In A Golden Eye. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, on this, our most joyous anniversary day.