Well, dear readers, it is Sunday and not only is it Sunday, it’s also a little day we like to call Mother’s Day. That means that all you mothers out there (and you know who you are) get to have this very day all to yourselves. All you mothers out there get to be pampered and attended to and you get to have your grapes peeled for you, and you get to have ointments and myrrh rubbed on your elbows and knees and you get to be taken to a tasty brunch by loved ones, and you get to lord over the home and hearth, not necessarily in that order. So, to all you mothers out there (and you know who you are), the best of all possible mother’s days to you. For all us non-mothers, we shall just have to make do, oh, yes, we shall have to just make do. Speaking of mothers, yesterday was a day that went by, which was followed by an evening that went by. For example, I got up rather late, did some work around the home environment, then went out to Ye Olde Garage, where there are many boxes of books that used to reside in my old bedroom closet. My new bedroom closet has no room for books, so they’ve remained boxed for the last three years. So, I pulled out three that were fairly easy to get to and took them in the house. I searched each of the seventy-five books in the boxes on the ABE – only about four of them were worth any real dough, and those I kept. The others all certainly still commanded their cover price and usually double that, because these books are in minty fresh condition and most are signed by their authors. I put the three boxes in the car and drove out to Mystery and Imagination Bookshop to unload them. The owners were quite tardy in arriving – I got there at one-thirty, and they didn’t arrive until four. In the meantime, I had some lunch next door at Don Cuco’s. The owner had just bought about three thousand mysteries, so he wasn’t interested in doing a cash deal, only credit, which was fine by me – I just want to unload all these boxes. Luckily, I’d found my previous copy of James Agee’s A Death In The Family (I upgraded that copy about five years ago). It was a very nice copy of a book that’s notoriously difficult to find in collector’s condition. So, he took that and about fifteen other books and I came out with a lovely amount of credit, which I immediately used, getting about five really nice books that I’ll be proud to have on my shelves, and all in primo condition. A couple of dear readers have expressed interest in me listing the titles that didn’t go (along with other stuff I have around here) and I shall do so when I get home this afternoon. There are some really nice books here – a lot of signed first edition mysteries, a couple of rare hardcover plays, and a lot of novels, all in excellent condition. No book will be over ten bucks and most will be five, so if you want any, just let me know. I then came home and had to get ready to trek out to the Heim of Ana. The drive out there wasn’t so bad, and I arrived there about seven. I checked the sound, was told that we had our first small audience for the matinee and that the show played to quite a bit of silence, save for some critic and a couple of other people who were laughing throughout. Happily, we had just about a full house (with the extra row of seats) for the evening show.
The show went very well – a nice audience, lots of laughs, and better sound than we’ve been having. There are just a couple of things that have gotten sloppy and that I’ll clean up this morning, but basically everyone has settled in and are having a good time, which is when the audience responds best. The thing about comedy is that the players really have to let the audience know when they’re supposed to laugh, and more importantly, why. Laughs have to be set up, the laugh lines have to be heard clearly, and the intention of them also has to be very clear. If any of those things are not sharp, I can guarantee there will be no laugh. I didn’t know anyone in the audience except for our Zubrick’s mother, who comes to a lot of the shows. She’s a very sweet lady. The Brain Tap mark was good but not great, but the scene was still fun.
After that, I came home and had to endure annoying and terrible traffic all through downtown – for absolutely no reason whatsoever, because once we reached a certain point there was suddenly no more traffic at all. It’s a phenomenon I will never understand despite one particular dear reader’s attempts to explain it to me.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must get my beauty sleep and then toddle off to the Chance Theater quite early for a put-in rehearsal.
The put-in rehearsal should only last a couple of hours, and I’ll be speaking to the cast about the show (I don’t intend to be there for much of the rest of the run – maybe just one performance a week, if that), and also giving just a handful of cleanup notes to sharpen things that are no longer sharp, to get those laughs back. I don’t think I’ll be staying for the matinee – I’ll probably hang around to say hello to someone I know who’s attending, then I’ll head home.
Tonight, I’ll be supping with dear reader Jose and Mr. Walter Willison at Genghis Cohen. I’m sure it will be quite a fun evening for all concerned and I’m sure dirt will be dished and we may even talk about a couple of mothers we know, given that it’s Mother’s Day and all.
Tomorrow, I have a merdeload of stuff to do – shipping CDs, sending e-mails, making telephonic calls, and then attending and speaking at a memorial get-together for the recently deceased Winston Butler, with whom I attended LACC. He eventually headed the Theater Department for some years, and he was a very nice fellow who died too young.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, attend a put-in rehearsal, list books, and then sup with two very nice folks. 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, as we wish all the very best to all you mothers out there in the dark.