Well, dear readers, how many of you have ever eaten your t-shirts? I ask you, where else on all the Internet can you read such a sentence as how many of you have ever eaten your t-shirts? Nowhere, that’s where. I ask this question because I have a bad habit of sitting at Ye Olde Laptop and chewing on my bedtime t-shirt. I will be merrily writing away when suddenly I just insert some of my t-shirt into my gaping maw and chew away. I do it late in the evening and I do it early in the morning. Hence, my bedtime t-shirts are filled with holes of varying shapes and sizes. It is most unseemly, but that doesn’t stop me from doing it. And so, I was just curious as to whether anyone else out there in the dark suffers from acute t-shirt chewing malady. Don’t be afraid to speak up – I spoke up, I admitted that I am a t-shirt chewer and I am going to become a member of TCA – t-shirt chewers anonymous. Hello, my name is BK, and I am a t-shirt chewer. I have suffered from this malady for several years now and, I’m afraid, the malady lingers on. What the HELL am I talking about? I just spent one half of a paragraph talking about chewing on my t-shirt. Is this what they mean by my “arch” writing style? Speaking of “arch,” yesterday was filled with comings and goings and also goings and comings. For example, I woke up rather earlier than I’d intended. I jogged rather earlier than I’d intended. I then went to Vinnie’s, picked up CDs, and then toddled off to a meeting at Aroma, a local now-trendy jernt, where I met up with the producer/creator of the kids show I’m directing. Just what up was doing with the producer/creator is anyone’s guess. We had a good meeting and discussed many important things. I also had an egg salad sandwich with bacon. At the end of our meeting, Miss Alice Ripley showed up and I gave her a set of CDs to listen to. I overnighted the other set to Miss Emily Skinner.
After that, I did some errands and then toddled off to LACC for rehearsal. Today, I spent a lot of time blocking the transitions between act one scenes – I’m having cast members do all the moving of the set, so each move has to be assigned and I have to explain exactly how the set piece moves and where. That took a couple of hours, and then I moved on to blocking two musical numbers. One of them I pretty much finished, the other I got laid out but will now flesh out over the next day or two. It was a good long rehearsal, after which I finally came home and sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched one-half of a motion picture on DVD entitled Mutiny On The Bounty, the 1962 version starring Mr. Marlon Brando and Mr. Trevor Howard. As a young sprig of a twig of a tad of a lad of a youth I was very impressed with Mutiny On The Bounty, and saw it at least five times at the Egyptian Theater in 70mm Ultra Panavision. I’d never seen the original version so I had nothing to compare it to. Years later, I did see the Gable/Laughton version and frankly I didn’t love it all that much – I really liked the newer version better. I’m not sure I feel quite so strongly about it as I did when I was younger, but I’ll wait until I finish it before offering my thoughts. Prior to that, I’d finished watching a Randolph Scott western from 1954 entitled Riding Shotgun, directed by Mr. Andre de Toth. It’s a variation on High Noon, but so over the top as to be laughable at times. The townspeople are so stupid and hard-headed and idiotic that the film becomes tiresome. However, I love Randolph Scott, and the supporting cast is interesting, including Mr. Charles Buchinsky, who would become Mr. Charles Bronson. The photography was excellent (Mr. Burt Glennon, cameraman of Ford’s Stagecoach), and it was quite watchable, but it’s no Budd Boetticher film.
What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below before I start chewing on my t-shirt again. It gives being holy a whole new meaning – or should that be a hole new meaning?
Today, the plan is to finish blocking everything that isn’t blocked (which isn’t that much). There’s one more duet to block, and one not inconsequential scene in act one, otherwise it’s just bits and pieces that we haven’t gotten to. Then, tomorrow, we start at the top of the show and start putting it together, as Mr. Sondheim would say. I’m sure that will be slow going and tedious, but it will also be illuminating and fun, I’m sure.
After rehearsal, I’m supposed to head over to the Gardenia to see Mr. Steven Brinberg do his impersonation of Miss Barbra Streisand. I saw Steven at Don’t Tell Mama’s in New York about ten years ago – he’s very talented, so I’m looking forward to seeing his show again. Our publicist, who is his publicist, invited me. I don’t know when I’m supposed to eat something, but I think it’s going to have to be prior to rehearsal. It’s going to be a long day and I won’t get home until late, so the notes may go up a bit late.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, jog, do errands, rehearse, and then see a show. Today’s topic of discussion: What is the strangest thing you do, i.e. a chewing on a t-shirt sort of oddity? Have you ever admitted to it? In other words, what is your most quirky habit?