Well, dear readers, I’ve been given the go-ahead to announce that this New York thing I’ve been talking about is a benefit for BC/EFA – it’s called Bacharach To The Future and I’ll be directing it, which I am very excited about, given the cause and my extreme love for all things Burt. The producer is a very nice fellow named Giovanni Vitacolonna, and our very own Mr. Kevin Spirtas will be hosting and associate producing. I’ve been making my wish list of performers, as has Giovanni and our musical director, Alex Rybeck. I have some fun ideas for the show, none of which I’ll talk about yet, for all the reasons regular dear readers of these here notes are well aware of. I’ll be keeping you up to date with the latest performer additions. Speaking of additions, yesterday was a day that began early and ended late, or was it the other way around? I got up early, did a longer than usual jog, which was difficult but fun in a miserable sort of way. I then spent a couple of hours writing up various and sundried eBlasts about some upcoming events for LACCTAA, the LACC Theatre Academy alumni association of which I’m president. Our first two events are both workshops and both are really great – our very own Barbara Deutsch will do her life coaching thing, The Barbara Deutsch Approach – she’s amazing, and she’s helped many people both in and out of the business focus and learn about themselves and why they’re getting in their own way, and I’m very excited we have her to kick off this series. She’ll be followed by Karen Morrow doing a musical theatre workshop. Within an hour, we already began to get reservations for both events. One thing that I insisted on is that the entrance fee is really cheap – ten bucks – so that anyone can come. There’ll be two more events in October, and that will be it for this year, but they’ll resume after the beginning of the year. I then had to ship out some packages, then did a couple of errands. I then found out something very interesting: Warner Bros. home video has put out three sci-fi 70s double bill DVDs, and these DVDs are what they call Best Buy exclusives – only available at Best Buy stores. So, I thought about visiting my local Best Buy in Burbank and went online to get the address, and what did I find? I found that there’s a best buy seven minutes away in Sherman Oaks. Say what? So, I drove over there and by gum and by golly and buy bonds, there it was, taking up an entire corner next to Gelson’s on Van Nuys Blvd – they replaced two movie theaters that were there for years, and a whole lot of parking lot. This thing has been there for a year! Now, I know I have driven by there many times in the last year and I have never seen it – and even before that I never saw construction being done. In any case, I went in and was able to find one of the double bill DVDs, the least interesting one. They looked on the computer, and apparently they never got the others, so we looked at all the other Best Buy stores in LA and every single one of them was out of stock on these titles, as was their website. And why? Well, I’ll tell you why, because I happen to know why. It’s a little thing I like to call eBay – these eBay cretins go to these Best Buy stores and buy all of the stock on these three titles, and then they put them up for resale on eBay – in fact, of the two that I was interested in, the cheapest price was $39.98 – for a fifteen dollar DVD that should be available in Best Buy stores everywhere. And they’re selling them, because people can’t find them. Never mind that they’ll all be out eventually, probably within three to six months, but this greed and gluttony is nauseating. Just six to ten years ago, this would never have been a problem. I then came home, had a lot of e-mails to answer, and ate three chicken tenders and some sort of something that resembled Chinese chicken salad without the lettuce, and with noodles instead. It wasn’t too good, but it was a small amount. I finally sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a motion picture on a home-grown DVD entitled Eye Of The Devil, starring Miss Deborah Kerr, Mr. David Niven, Mr. Donald Pleasance, and introducing Miss Sharon Tate, whose entire performance is dubbed by another actress. I originally saw the film at a sneak preview back when it came out. I thought it was pretty bad back then, and more than half the audience was gone by its conclusion. I do remember liking the black-and-white photography. Well, I’d been wanting to see it again because Gary McFarland’s soundtrack was recently released and I liked it a lot. Well, the movie is still a dud, maybe even worse today than it was then. Maybe it’s the title – there is no real devil, and it’s really hard to tell what the film is even about. It was produced by Martin Ransohoff and I think he may have mucked around with it in the editing – it certainly went through a title change – the original title was “13”, which can still be seen over The End card. The score is terrific in the film, and my memory was right – the photography is terrific, and J. Lee Thompson’s direction is pretty good, too. The actors all try their best, but the script just doesn’t work at all. Miss Tate looks gorgeous, and David Hemmings just sort of stands around and shoots things with a bow and arrow. I was hoping that the film would have become better over time, which happens with some films – sadly, this film hasn’t.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because it is late and I must get my beauty sleep.
Today, I have to get up early and jog, then I must get ready for a full afternoon of music rehearsals with about half our cast. I’m looking forward to hearing these good actors sing this score. I’m hoping the first batch of books will arrive, too, but that’s all dependent on UPS. And, of course, I’ll be contacting performers as I continue to think of songs and singers and ideas for Bacharach To The Future. Just when I’ll have time to eat is anyone’s guess. I must also try to avoid any and all mine fields (I avoided them yesterday), so keep those excellent vibes and xylophones coming.
Tomorrow, I have errands and whatnot and a ton of things to do, and then Thursday the other half of our company comes for their music rehearsal. Also on Thursday, I’ll be lunching with our very own Hisaka, who is back from Japan.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, jog, do errands and whatnot and then have a full afternoon music rehearsal. Today’s topic of discussion: Chicken. Oh, we’ve done chicken before, but while I’m on this fershluganah diet, I’m eating mostly chicken these days, and I need new and interesting ways of having chicken. So, tell me your favorite chicken dishes, provide recipes if you have them, but also try to focus on the dishes that are calorie and fat gram friendly. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I begin my journey Bacharach To The Future.