Well, dear readers, I must write these here notes in a hurry because shortly I will be on my way to have pancakes with dear readers Laura and Adriana Patti. So, without further ado, the notes. Speaking of further ado, yesterday had plenty of ado. For example, I woke up. That had ado. I then had to do a few errands, and then had to attend a sound check for Miss Merissa Haddad’s show. After that, I came home and relaxed until it was show time. I dined at the club, had several pep talks with Merissa, said hello to friends David Galligan and Joan Ryan (and a few others), and then it was finally time to start the show. From the moment she was announced and entered, I’m proud to say that Merissa took the stage and never let it go. Suddenly, all the things we’ve been working on just came effortlessly, and she got her laughs and she sang well, and the audience (a full house) ate her up. I don’t think we could have expected a first go-through to go any better. I had a couple of little nitpicky things that mostly had to do with the accompaniment, but that’s how it is when you have a pianist step in late in the game. And those were only things I really noticed – a few tempo problems (as dear reader will tell you, I am a stickler and maniacal about tempos being consistent), and a few odd things, but overall it was just a swell show. The 80s medley brought the house down, and her penultimate number Gimme Gimme did, too. That number had my favorite bit of staging in it, and said staging got really nice laughs. She was very natural and winning in her patter, and she did what many newcomers fail to do – she a) played the room she was in, and b) connected with the audience instead of looking over their heads. I’m hoping we do it a few more times this year – I’d like to replace a couple of numbers that I think don’t quite land the way I’d like them, too (given the time we had, we had to only choose a finite number of songs for her to learn from scratch – all the others were things she knew). After the show, I came home, where I sat on my laptop like so much fish.
Yesterday, I watched another episode of The Untouchables – what a fine television program that was, and it was great to hear the wonderful theme, one of the most memorable TV themes ever written. These transfers are amazing looking. I haven’t even looked to see if there are any supplemental features.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below without further ado.
If there is further ado, is there also further adon’t? Just asking. Today I will be having pancakes, and perhaps looking through a few boxes in the garage in an attempt to find some things that seem to have gone missing. Tomorrow, we go back to work with Miss Joan Ryan and I give the book my final proofing, before handing it off to my professional proofers.
On Tuesday, I begin attending the French movie festival, and I have films every evening all the way through Sunday. I will, of course, have full reports on them all. Perhaps I’ll eat some French food in honor of the festival – a little duck ala Orange or some pomme frittes.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, eat pancakes, proof, relax, and go through boxes, all without further ado. 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 postings, shall we? We shall, and without further ado.