Well, dear readers, let us ponder the following:
MacArthur Park is melting in the dark
All the sweet green icing flowing down
Someone left the cake out in the rain
And I don’t think that I can take it
‘Cause it took so long to bake it
And I’ll never have that recipe again – oh, no
First of all, I’ve been to MacArthur Park many times, and I’ve never seen it melting, either in daylight or in the evening hours. And then there’s the matter of the cake with the sweet green icing flowing down because apparently some idiot left the cake out in the rain. So, okay, we’ve got a wet cake and the icing is flowing down and somehow the entire park is melting in the rain with the cake and the icing. Check. Now, someone doesn’t think that he can take it. Does he mean take it in general, like I can’t take this anymore, or does he mean that he can’t take the cake because it’s raining and melting and the icing is flowing and it will get him all dirty? I’m going to guess it’s the former – he can’t take that the rain is ruining his fershluganah cake because it took him so damn long to bake the thing, like two hours or something. Then he goes on to inform us that he’ll never have that recipe again. Surely, he could Google it and get it, no? Surely he didn’t make the fershluganah recipe up out of whole cloth or even half cloth. But this person is obviously rather deranged, what with planning an outing to MacArthur Park with a cake with green icing when the weather forecast was clearly for rain. And then, to top it off, what is the best he can come up with when he sees his cake with the running icing in the melting park? “Oh, no.” That’s just weak, don’t you think. He couldn’t some up with something like, “What the HELL is happening to my beautiful cake with the green icing? I wish to HELL I’d had enough foresight to bring something to cover it with so it didn’t get all wet and runny from the rain. Damn them, damn them all to hell.” That would be a response. But do we get that? No. We get, “Oh, no.” I gotta tell you. In any case, I think the lesson learned here is to never take a cake to MacArthur Park in the rain, and if you do, take a cake without icing, and preferably one without green icing, and for heaven’s sake don’t lose the recipe. Have we beaten this into the ground yet? If anyone has a clew as to what the HELL I’m going on about, please send it to me via MacArthur Park. Speaking of MacArthur Park, yesterday was quite a busy and long day. I got up early, jogged two miles, then had my telephonic meeting with my publisher, and everything should proceed apace from here. I’m hoping to have my galley either by the end of next week or the beginning of the week after. And books about three weeks after that. After that, I shaved and showered, then had a work session with Mr. Michael Lavine, the musical director for the Kevin and Sean Show. We worked on an arrangement, and then we worked out all the incidental patter scoring. It was quite easy, actually. Then I did a couple of errands before going to rehearsal.
I had planned that the first two hours would be a work-through, and the second two hours would be a run-through. However, the work-through took all four hours, mostly because Kevin and Sean have been working with a CD for weeks, and now we have a real pianist, and we had to get the tempos locked for everything, and work out some specific timing of endings and beginnings. Plus, the boys had a week off and while they practiced separately, it took a few times through each of the staged numbers to get it back to where it was. By the end of the session things were looking and sounding better.
After the session, I hurried to La La’s to sup with cousins Alan and Dee Dee. Alan is now sporting a beard – I’ve never seen him with a beard and it took some getting used to it – it’s a nice beard, but he doesn’t know if he’s going to keep it or not. Thankfully, Dee Dee didn’t have a beard and looked her usual lovely self. I had the half chicken and a tiny salad, my first and only meal o’ the day. The chicken was very good, the salad was tiny, and we had a lot of fun conversation – I’m hoping we can start making these dinners a regular thing, as I don’t see them nearly enough (they live only a block away). After that, I came home and sat on my couch like so much fish.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because someone left the cake out in the rain and frankly I don’t think that I can take it ’cause it took so long to bake it and I’ll never have that damnable recipe again – oh, no.
Have I mentioned that someone left the cake out in the rain? Today, I shall get up nice and early and jog, then do an errand or three, and then go to rehearsal. Rehearsal is actually starting at ten – they’re just going to run staging and patter, over and over – no singing. Then I arrive at noon, and we do a straight-through run of the show. We take a little break while I give notes, then we clean up anything that needs cleaning, then we do the whole show again, but marking the singing. Then we take a two-hour break and reconvene at six, set up the room, and our invited audience should begin arriving around 6:45 and we run at seven. I’m sure it will be somewhat rough, given our piecemeal rehearsals (we really should have had a solid week of them at some point), but it will give the boys a chance to get some reaction to the patter and the songs. After the run, I’ll give notes again and that will be that.
On Saturday, I’ll join the boys for an hour or two, clean stuff up, change anything that isn’t working, and then they’ll work on their own. Then they convene in New York in a week and they’ll have three days to run everything and get it smooth. I wish I could be there to oversee it, but they’ll call me with any problems and they’ll be videotaping the show so we can have a post mortem.
It doesn’t look like I’ll be able to attend the Hollywood Collector’s Show today, but I’ll definitely be there tomorrow for several hours. It turns out that I know many folks there, and a Nudie Musical alum will be signing – Miss Susan Buckner, who played the head girl at Wanda’s Place. I haven’t seen her since the film, but did chat with her when the DVD came out.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, jog, rehearse, do an invited run-through, give notes, and stuff like that. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player and your DVD player? I’ll start – CD, Franz Waxman’s beautiful score to My Cousin Rachel. DVD, nothing at the moment. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, and please remember, don’t leave the cake out in the rain, oh, no.