Well, dear readers, it is Tuesday evening, just before midnight and I have important news to share: I don’t feel like writing these here notes. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, I don’t feel like writing these here notes and yet I must write these here notes or the universe will not be right and there will be chaos and disorder and we will all be running amok. So, I will write these here notes come hell or high or even low water. I will write them, oh, yes, I will write them, but I don’t feel like writing them and I’m just stating that for the record. I think it’s good that I am not a willful or obstinate person, otherwise I would dig in my heels and simply post blank pages and call them Shooting Blanks. Actually, I think I’ll call them Shooting Blanks anyway, because what else am I going to call them? The I-Don’t-Want-To-Write-These-Here-Notes-But-I-Have-To-Or-The-Universe-Will-Not-Be-Right-And-There-Will-Be-Chaos-And-Disorder-And-We-Will-All-Be-Running-Amok Blues? Boy, was that annoying to write all those dashes. That’s enough dashes to last a lifetime. Speaking of a lifetime yesterday seemed like a lifetime. Oh, most of yesterday was perfectly fine, but then I had to deal with some annoying annoyances and that is less than fine. I began the day by getting up. That was perfectly fine. I think I had a lot of things to do in the morning, but I only remember shipping several packages and answering a lot of e-mails and then suddenly I had to toddle off to Vinnie’s to mix Susan Egan’s live CD. Last Friday, I’d sent Vinnie a very detailed road map for the two CD set – and he did a great job in following it so that when I arrived all I had to do was listen to the pre-mixes and finesse them, and frankly with just piano and vocal there wasn’t much to finesse. I then edited and smoothed out some of the patter, occasionally made the audience more present than he had them, and we actually finished in six hours. So now Miss Egan will listen, and I will listen, and then if we have any notes we’ll do them early next week in one quick session. I then went to my mail place and then came home to deal with a little problem that I wasn’t understanding. I had to call my bank and go through a lot of rigmarole only to find out that someone I wrote a check to back in March just cashed it last week. Well, that sort of idiocy plays havoc and all I can say is thankfully it didn’t, but it sure came close. All is okay, but I’m very annoyed with the people who did this, and I’ll probably be having a conversation about it. I then sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, in honor of our surreal topic of yesterday, I watched a motion picture on DVD entitled The 5000 Fingers Of Dr. T. I got the DVD when it came out several years ago, and I’d checked out the transfer, but hadn’t watched it. What a weird and wonderful film Dr. T is, and it only gets weirder and more wonderful as the years go by. I have to imagine that it was a real head-scratcher when it was released. When I first discovered it on TV in the early 60s I fell in love with it. When I first started collecting 16mm prints in the early 70s, Dr. T was one of the first I got – a like-new, stunning IB Technicolor print. I’ve introduced many people to the film, and there is a huge cult of Dr. T fan-atics out there. It is, at times, so outré as to defy comprehension. The Dressing Song alone is one of the most outrageous musical numbers ever committed to film, and the Schlim-Schlam Ballet (the one in the dungeon with all the weirdos playing weird instruments) is a masterpiece of choreography (by Eugene Loring). Hans Conreid is delightfully droll as Dr. T, Peter Lind Hayes and Mary Healy aren’t exactly movie star material, but they suffice, but the film belongs heart and soul to little Tommy Rettig, who’s just wonderful. The score, with music by Frederick Hollendar and lyrics by Dr. Seuss, is melodic and clever and unforgettable. The fact that a fairly faceless director like Roy Rowland made the film, would lead one to believe that the other key players involved were really responsible for its look and feel, and that includes screenwriters Alan Scott and Dr. Seuss, production designer Rudolph Sternad, and the great cameraman, Franz (here Frank) Planer. I was so excited when the laserdisc of this film was released, only to be nauseated when I saw the faded brown mess that was the laserdisc transfer. So, I had great trepidation when I got the DVD, but happily the transfer is 1000% better, and the color, if not quite IB Tech, is very colorful and, more importantly, very accurate to the Tech look. The source material, however, has lots of blemishes, and the medium and long shots should all be sharper. That said, it’s a perfectly fine DVD and the color’s the thing.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below whilst I contemplate leaving the next page blank so I can call these here notes Shooting Blanks.
Frankly, the page doesn’t look good blank. It’s rather blank in its blankness. It just sits there like so much blank fish, a load of nothingness. Therefore, I shall fill it with as few words and sentences and paragraphs as possible.
Today, I may or may not have a rehearsal with Miss Joan Ryan, therefore I may or may not begin staging her show. If I don’t have a rehearsal, then I’ll be spending a good deal of the day rewriting her patter so that it’s amusing and smooth. I have a dinner to attend this evening, and then tomorrow I may or may not have a rehearsal with Miss Joan Ryan. I definitely have one on Friday, which has become one of those killer days, what with a meeting in the morning, a lunch at noon, and a three-hour rehearsal in the afternoon, probably followed by an evening out. I gotta tell you.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, write, print out a copy of my book for proofer number two, maybe rehearse, and then attend a dinner in the neighborhood. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear reader any old question you like and we get to give any old answer we like. So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers, shall we? And let’s have no blank postings, since I did end up not shooting blanks and filling up Ye Olde Pages with typing.