Well, dear readers, I must hurry and write these here notes, for this very morning I shall be visiting my hair stylist, Teddy, and I shall once again be kempt. My hair is doing more back flips than an Olympic gymnast. You could ski off the back of my hair. But, Teddy will take care of everything and I shall be stylish and happening, hair-wise. How many people can say they’ve gone to the same hair stylist for thirty-six years – I believe it will be exactly thirty-six years next month. Isn’t that amazing? Speaking of amazing, yesterday was one of those days – you know the kind I mean. I woke up late, and then had to do the hustle to get everything done. I had to ship out a couple of packages, and then when I got back home had to deal with some continuing annoyances relating to a favor I’m doing someone. Had I but known just how annoying this would become I would have said no. Some of this has to do with how lame the union AFTRA is, and some has to do with how long it takes to get paperwork processed. Basically, I wasn’t supposed to be doing anything other than providing Kritzerland as the processing house for an AFTRA gig. But, it turned into a major thing and I had to step in and deal with payroll services and AFTRA and it has taken far too much of my time – no money is coming my way, certainly. In any case, it should all be wrapped up today and hopefully that will be the end of it. After dealing with that, I attended rehearsal – we did a full-out run-through and it was surprising how smoothly everything went. Sure, there are things to finesse and performances to hone, but the pace is already just about perfect, the choreography looks great, the blocking is fluid and fun and the whole thing is quite cohesive. At the first rehearsal, I told our company that the most important thing that had to happen was that the band should look like it had been together for a long time, that they look like a real group. And that they’ve pulled off marvelously. You would never know that these people just met each other two weeks ago. After the run-through, I ran each scene and cleaned up blocking and ran bits that needed work. I dismissed the company an hour early. I then came home, gave Miss Jessica Rush her work, and then I toddled off to sup at Ruth’s Chris Steak House. I haven’t been there in eight or nine years, and I must say the whole vibe has changed. What was a restaurant that was mostly populated by rich middle-aged and elderly people, had now been taken over by the twenty-something crowd – you know, these cretins who’ve lucked into TV jobs, which pay them enormous amounts of money (or agents, or lawyers), and this is their new hangout – one of the most expensive restaurants in the city. They dress like idiots, with their torn jeans (very expensive torn jeans, I’m sure) and their hair spiked in front and begin too loud and getting drunk at the bar and doing everything they can to take someone home with them. But enough about them – we were there to eat and eat we did. I went with Lauren Rubin, one of the stars of The Brain – she works there and we’ve been meaning to dine for ages. I ordered the dinner salad, and Lauren really recommended the Thousand Island dressing, so I got that. I ordered a New York in sizzling butter, and Lauren ordered a filet. For our side dishes, we ordered asparagus with Hollandaise, and onion rings. The salad arrived and boy was she right about the Thousand Island dressing, which was amazingly amazing. The salad was just perfection. Then our steaks arrived, literally sizzling in butter. One bite and I was in steak heaven for the rest of the evening. I will admit that I’m not that much of a steak in restaurants fan because most places I find steak flavorless and plain unless I put the dreaded ketchup on. But, Ruth’s Chris is something else again – the butter gives the steak an amazing flavor and it is as tasty as steak gets. The Hollandaise was great, and the onion rings were scrumptiously scrumptious. I polished off my steak, ate three huge onion rings, had a few asparagus, and some of their deliciously delicious bread and butter. Lauren had some berries and sweet cream for dessert, and I had the crème brulee, which was yummilicious. A great, great meal, and as if that wasn’t enough, the bill arrived and with Lauren’s discount let’s just say it came to less than a meal for two would cost at Jerry’s Deli.
After dinner, I came home and immediately sat on my couch like so much fish. Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below, because soon I shall be seeing Teddy and I shall, once again, look like a human being.
Can you believe it’s Friday already? More importantly, can you believe this kids show will be performing its first performance in one week?
Today, after Teddy, I shall be attending rehearsal – we’ll do at least one complete run-through right away, and then we’ll do cleanups and then maybe do another run-through – it’s important they get their stamina as high as possible. It’s a non-stop burst of energy from the start to the finish, and it’s very hard to keep that energy and focus, and the more we run the better they get at it. After that, I shall sup and then watch a DVD or three.
Tomorrow is a day off, and I intend to relax and smell the coffee or the roses or the goulash. I may be seeing Letters From Iwo Jima or whatever it’s called – that Clint Eastwood thing. Then we resume rehearsals on Sunday, although it’s a brief one – three hours, so I’ll have most of the day free, which is lovelier than lovely.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, jog (if there’s time), write (if there’s time), rehearse (there’s time), sup (ditto), and then watch a DVD. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player and your DVD/video player? I’ll start – CD, non-stop listening to The Brain From Planet X mixes. But now I’m listening to two new Joe Hisaishi scores – I’ll have more to say when I’m through listening. DVD, a collection of 60s Dr. Mabuse movies, which I’m quite fond of. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I get my beauty sleep and then let Teddy work his magic.