Well, dear readers, we have survived the first day of tech. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, we have survived the first day of tech, and if you’ve ever had tech rehearsals in a school situation I think you know that that is no mean feat. Not only did we survive, we apparently had the best tech in years. I put the pressure on early to get as many cues written into the computer before tech, and our lighting designer heard me and did so. Yes, there are things to fix and adjust but the cues are in and we ran a good deal of the show without incident. There were a couple of board malfunctions, but instead of going to eleven as scheduled, the cast got out at six and I left at seven. Because of the malfunctions, the lighting designer was going to have to rewrite about twenty-five cues, but he was going to stay and do it. Then, on Monday, I’ll spend two hours prior to our run-through going over every cue to fix whatever I don’t like and to smooth out transitions. And, best of all, we don’t have to go in today so I get the day off. I’ll be spending a few hours inserting CDs into packages, but thanks to Merrill’s help yesterday, almost all packages have been pre-addressed. I don’t know if I’ll get them out on Monday or Tuesday (we’re having callbacks for the kids show on Monday morning and then I have a band rehearsal at noon), but go out they will and in plenty of time for Christmas. Of course, prior to our tech I had the extreme pleasure of attending the first band rehearsal, and even though there were some synth patches missing and even though our bass player was missing, it was grand fun to hear elmore’s charts for the first time. I was very pleased with what I heard and we only had to adjust a handful of things. The musicians are top-notch (including Alice Ripley’s hubby on drums) and they already sound great. After rehearsal, I grabbed a bite to eat and then came home and sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I even managed to watch a motion picture on DVD entitled Superman Returns. As most of you who’ve read the Kritzer books know, I was a huge fan of the Superman TV series. When Superman, The Movie was released in the 70s, I went with a mixture of anticipation and dread, but was happily surprised at how enjoyable it was. Of course, it was blessed with Christopher Reeve and an excellent cast, and a good director, Richard Donner, and good screenwriters, Mario Puzo, Leslie and David Newman and Robert Benton (along with “creative consultant” Tom Mankiewicz). It fell short of being perfection, but it basically did almost everything right. You cared about Superman, the characters were all well set up, the music was brilliant, its world was captivating, and that’s why it worked. Superman Returns nods in the original’s direction many times, repeating bits and shots throughout the film. For me, the film simply doesn’t ever come to life – it’s the new-style superhero movie, with endless anguish and angst and very little fun. Brandon Routh channels Christopher Reeve very well, but lacks the latters charisma. Kate Bosworth is adequate and nothing more as Lois Lane – certainly not a patch on the behind of Margot Kidder. Kevin Spacey is fine but his material isn’t good enough. The most interesting thing is that despite all the CGI technology and computer wizardry, I believed the Donner film more in terms of the flying and special effects. And I hate the rubber suit. The score is credited to John Ottman with the Superman Theme credited to John Williams, but Mr. Ottman uses a lot more Williams music than the theme – the score is filled with Williams, and every time the Ottman choir comes in it’s dreadful, just like all scores today. I’ll say one thing, though – it’s quite a loud movie, and its director, Bryan Singer, loves to let everything go really quiet every ten minutes or so so he can then assault the viewer with a really loud noise.
What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because, as we say in The Brain From Planet X, the time is nigh.
It occurs to me that I already said everything I normally say in this section in the other section. Therefore, I have no idea what to say in this section since what I usually say is in the other section. If only I hadn’t said everything in the other section, I might have had something to say in this section.
Well, that was a paragraph, wasn’t it? That was a paragraph with a repeated motif, wasn’t it? As I write these here notes, someone is sitting in their car near my home environment and they are blasting their music and if it continues I shall get an egg out of my refrigerator and I will hurl it at the car. Perhaps I’ll hurl two eggs, just to have a repeated motif. One simply cannot have enough repeated motifs, can one?
Today, as I said in the other section, I shall finish addressing packages and then I shall stuff said packages with CDs, and then over the next two days I shall ship the little suckers to their destinations. Today I shall also try to sleep in and relax and smell the coffee or the roses or the parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme. Perhaps I’ll watch a DVD. Perhaps I’ll sit in the hot tub like so much fish. Then, on Monday, the big week begins – the big push to our opening night and my very own actual birthday, which happen to happen concurrently.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, jog (I missed a day yesterday), address packages, relax, and perhaps even do whatnot. 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 posts, and let’s even have a repeated motif or two, shall we?