Well, dear readers, we’re in the home stretch of the fundraiser and I, for one or even two, am very excited about everything, save for the enormous amount of work to be done. But by gum and by golly and buy bonds, we will do the work and we will put on a show! In honor of being in the home stretch, I stretched in the home. Yes, Virginia, we will all be working like busy little beavers this week, and I think we all know how hard busy little beavers work, at least the busy little beavers I’ve been acquainted with. Every day there will be new challenges, new hurdles, new goals, but we will meet them head on and, if we’re so inclined, knee on. Speaking of knee on, yesterday was a day in which I did a little this’a and a little that’a, with an emphasis on the latter. I got up, answered e-mails, and then decided it was time to throw out all the outdated foodstuffs in the cupboard and the refrigerator. I had juice in there from three years ago, all the way in the back of a shelf – it had little green things floating in it. I had soup from three years ago, I had horseradish (the red kind) that was so old it was gray. But, now the cupboard and refrigerator are clean and sparkling. After that, I met up with Mr. Grant Geissman at the Sherman Oaks Marie Callender’s. It was an awful meal with awful service and I do believe that I’m now officially done with Marie Callender’s. After that, I came home, did more things, and then had a meeting with Cason and Miss Patti for one hour. They departed, and I went grocery shopping for the first time in eight months. I didn’t buy all that much, but it’s all edible and that’s the important thing. I got some pasta, some tuna, some cheese, some juice, and a few other bare necessities. I then came home, where I finally sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched an eighty-minute documentary about Breathless, made by some TV host in 1993. This guy was obviously obsessed with the film and he set out to visit its locations and as many of the people connected with the film that were still alive. It’s a very interesting documentary, but at eighty minutes it’s only ten minutes shorter than Breathless. The interviews are fun and the location visits are fun. It’s obvious he really wants to talk to Godard and, in fact, he calls him and gets him on the phone – but it’s completely bogus. He doesn’t tell Godard who he is or what he’s doing, so Godard simply hangs up on him when he asks if Godard will talk about Breathless. He calls him again at the end of the film, but again, doesn’t identify himself and instead just idiotically asks what the final lines of the film really were. Still, I enjoyed it. I then watched a motion picture on DVD entitled I Am A Camera, starring Mr. Laurence Harvey, Miss Julie Harris, and Mr. Ron Randell and Miss Shelly Winters. As most of you probably know, I Am A Camera began life as a Broadway play by John Van Druten, adapted from Christopher Isherwood’s Berlin Stories. Miss Harris won a Tony Award for her performance as a wild girl named Sally Bowles. And eleven years after the film version, it morphed once again, this time into a classic musical, Cabaret. I’d never seen the film, but it came out in region 2 and so I was finally able to check it out. The first thing one is struck by are the credits – whether it’s Guy Green, who photographed it and would later become a fine director, or Clive Donner, who edited it and would later become a fine director, or Jack Clayton, who produced it and would later become a fine film director. Mr. Harvey is not and ideal Christopher Isherwood (called by his real name in the film), but Miss Harris is a delightful Sally, very different from the musical’s Sally, but the green fingernails are there, as are the Prairie Oysters, and her divine way of talking. The first big laugh is when in voice over Mr. Harvey describes his character as a confirmed bachelor. Riiiiight. It’s not a great film, but it has its moments and it’s fun to have finally seen it. It was also nice to see Mr. Randell, with whom I worked back in 1973 – his career was at a standstill and he actually understudied John McMartin in the LA production of Forget-Me-Not Lane at the Taper. He was thrilled that I knew who he was and could rattle off all the films I’d loved him in. Since they’d asked me to cover Bud Cort, I got to rehearse with him and he was wonderful in his part. None of the understudies ever got to go on – I personally never wanted to go on for Bud, because I loved my part too much, and I would never let MY understudy go on (John Volstadt, who went on to do Newhart). Betsy Slade’s understudy was Deborah Lee Scott, for those who remember Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. I can’t remember who the others were. I have a program somewhere and should look them up.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because we are, after all, in the home stretch and if I’m to be working like a busy little beaver I’ll need my beauty sleep.
I was going to try and take today off, but it’s obvious there is too much to do. I will do more work on the order of the show – I’m close, but some things just aren’t sitting where they should be yet. I also have to write a little thing for the program, and provide all the info for the songs and performers for the program. So, no rest for the weary, I’m afraid. But, I’m going to try and get all that done by three, and then the rest of the day and evening will be mine all mine.
Tomorrow and the rest of the week will be total insanity. I even have a rehearsal here tomorrow evening at eight for Chad Kimball. We all now have our list of to do items and we’re simply going to have to do them.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a whole mess o’ stuff, and then I must try and relax and smell the roses or the coffee or the dead rodent. 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, whilst we all continue to work like busy little beavers.