Well, dear readers, it is Sunday, a day of rest and relaxation, but not for me – oh, a Gershwin reference. No, it will not be a day of rest and relaxation for the likes of me, as I’ll be rehearsing from ten till possibly six (although I hope it’s earlier), and singing and talking up a veritable storm. But when I get home from rehearsal, wild horses could not make me do anything but relax. And, believe me, I’ve got some wild horses here who are intent on making me do anything but relax. These wild horses don’t know from relaxing, and they’re just persistent as all get out, and I think we know just how persistent all get out is, especially on a Sunday in June. If anyone has a clew as to what the HELL I’m going on about, please keep it to yourself. Speaking of yourself, yesterday was a long, hard day and when day was done I was pooped beyond repair. I tell you, when you are out of shape as a performer, the days are grueling and really take a lot of energy. I was actually surprised that I made it through as well as I did, without any major mishaps, music or script-wise. I arose at 7:45, was jogging by 8:15, then showered and shaved, not necessarily in that order, and was at the rehearsal space in plenty of time. I think the original plan was to do a read-through, which would have been nice, but instead our director just began going through and giving everyone their places to go. It took almost three hours to get through act one, which is REALLLLY long, and then we had some Subway sandwiches and a short break, and then it took about two hours to do act two. I left at four and went to the Dena of Pasa to attend the book fair. It was a fairly dreary affair, with many less dealers than last year (including one I really like, Bob Dagg – this is the first LA book fair that he hasn’t attended since I’ve been going to them). I did pick up a couple of paperbacks and one hardcover from the store where I do my signings, but it was all middling stuff. I then had some soup and french fries for dinner, and then came home where I immediately sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I did manage to watch one motion picture on DVD, which was entitled The Hustler, a new 2-disc special edition from Fox. I haven’t seen the film in years, and I must say, even though I’m told it’s an all-time classic, I find it not quite as great as everyone else. Oh, it has some wonderful scenes, the acting is superb, it has great black-and-white photography by Eugene Shuftan, and a nice, jazzy score by Kenyon Hopkins. But it just loses its way a little in the middle, and the whole film has always seemed flabby in terms of its 136-minute length. There, I’ve said it and I’m glad. But, with Paul Newman, George C. Scott, Piper Laurie, and a great turn by Jackie Gleason, you can’t really go wrong. The transfer isn’t much better (if at all) than the previous transfer, so unless you like the additional extras, I don’t really see the need to upgrade to the new special edition.
What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below. Frankly, wild horses couldn’t stop me from doing so although I’m sure they’d like to try.
And so, today will be another long day of singing and talking and also talking and singing. After that, as noted, I will be coming home, not talking to anyone, and resting and relaxing until our opening night performance tomorrow evening.
I do have to have a little meeting Monday morning, and I do have to do a little shipping, but other than that I’ve planned nothing, so that I may just rest and take care of Ye Olde Voice Box. On Tuesday, we have a Party Animals rehearsal, and then our second performance, and on Wednesday, I have a tech rehearsal for The Party Animals, and after that our final performance. It’s actually a pretty full week for me almost every day and evening.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, jog, rehearse, sup, and then watch a DVD or three. 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, lets’ have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings and let’s not let wild horses stop us.