Well, dear readers, it is late and these here notes should be posted and yet they are not posted and they won’t be posted until I write them and I’m only just beginning them and that means it’s going to be at least twenty minutes before they’re posted and I’ll be hornswoggled if this hasn’t turned into one of those run-on sentences that spill forth like a can of baked beans on the counter with no punctuation in sight to stop the hurtling words hurtling away like a gazelle with an eye infection and please someone throw me a period or a comma or a semi-colon or even a whole colon because this thing is becoming unwieldy and unseemly not necessarily in that order and. Whew, at long last a period. I thought that run-on sentence would never end, but now it has, thank heaven, and I, for one, say whew. Speaking of whew, yesterday was actually quite a pleasant day all around. I got up early and did the long jog, then headed over to Amoeba to kill some time. I killed some time looking at this and that and also that and this – in fact, I killed about ninety minutes. Then I drove back to the Valley, gassed up Ye Olde Motor Car, then came home. Whilst jogging, I had a brainstorm, and I made a call and my brainstorm turned out to be brilliant. I can’t really say more about it right now other than to say the person I called came over and delivered something to me. He also brought a friend from Australia, who’s here visiting. This Australian had seen What If and loved it, and, as it turns out, had bought the three Kritzer Books, Writer’s Block, and Murder At Hollywood High on amazon and really liked them. He asked if he could buy Murder At The Grove, as well as Rewind, and also an Evening Primrose and New Guy In Town CD. Of course, I said yes, so that was quite a nice sale. They left, and then I had a long telephonic call, did some work on the computer, and then Mr. Barry Pearl arrived and we headed down to San Juan Capistrano. The 101 freeway had a bit of slowing where it always does, right past Western, but once past that three miles, it was smooth sailing all the way through downtown, and then all the way down the 5 – no traffic at all. Hence, we made it in exactly the estimated Googlemaps time of one hour and fifteen minutes. There was a nearby Cheesecake Factory and that’s where we decided to have a leisurely meal. We split a small Caesar salad (their small Caesars are not exactly small), and I had my usual farfalle with sun-dried tomatoes, chicken, mushrooms, and roasted garlic, in a very light cream sauce. I do a splurge meal once a week and this was clearly it, although it was my only food of the day and I had done the long jog so hopefully it won’t do any damage, diet-wise. It was so tasty and yummilicious, and one simply has to do something like it once a week – it keeps you sane. I was very, very full, but, as I said, it was the only meal o’ the day and I think it was worth it and not overdoing it. We stayed there quite a while and talked of many things including cabbages and kings, not necessarily in that order. We then toddled off to see the reading of a new musical.
We had good directions, but we still managed to not find where we were going – twice. Luckily, Barry had the cell number of one of the actresses and he called her and she talked us through it. When we finally found it, it was quite apparent why we’d missed it twice – you simply couldn’t see the sign with the name we were looking for, which was El Nido (The Nido). It was some weird housing community, and at the top of a hill there was a large community room where the reading was taking place. At about eight-ten the reading began. I’m afraid the material was not very good. I believe it’s these authors first attempt at writing a musical and it shows. The story is unclear and unfocused, more of a play with songs stuck in than a real musical. There was no compelling reason for the show to BE a musical, which is a major problem for a musical. The opening number did not set the tone for the show, hence we didn’t know if it was a comedy, satire, tragedy, love story, or what. Certainly it seemed as if the authors didn’t know. And then there were the songs – every up-tempo song sounded the same and every ballad sounded the same, and the musical language of the songs was completely wrong for the characters singing them. It’s really musical theater 101, but I don’t think they’ve ever taken that class. The lyrics were banal and had not a modicum of musical theater craft. Our friend Lisa Robert was very good, and it was fun to see Christopher Callan after all these years. I didn’t know the younger actor, but they did themselves no favors by having one of the authors play the leading man. He most certainly is not an actor and he’s less of a singer, which is a real problem for a leading man. They asked us to write comments, and I attempted to be very detailed in mine, asking them key questions like, why did you feel compelled to write this show, what are you trying to say to the audience, who are we supposed to care about, etc. Neither Barry nor I really understood the story at all, and its wrap-up was ridiculous and perfunctory. My friend who directed it did what she could moving everyone around, but the material, at least at this point, is just hopeless.
After the reading, we did the drive home, and again there was hardly any traffic so we made very good time. I did have one decision to make about which freeway to take back to the Valley and thankfully I made the right choice – the 5 instead of the 101 – the latter was a deesaster, with cars backed up for miles – we could see it from the 5. The 5 was free and clear and we were home about ten minutes later.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below before we potentially have another run-on sentence because one run-on sentence a year is more than enough.
Today, I shall do the long jog and then I have no plans whatsoever, other than to eat one light meal and watch DVDs and listen to music and do one little bit of work as regards the LACCTAA newsletter. Otherwise, the day and evening are mine all mine.
The upcoming week will be filled with all sorts of things, including meals, meetings, work sessions, and all manner of serious Bacharach planning. I’m also seeing a play reading and doing a few other things like that. Do send excellent vibes and xylophones for the avoidance of annoyances, because things are just too too busy for annoyances.
Now wait just a darned minute. Let’s put on our pointy party hats and our colored tights and pantaloons, let’s break out the cheese slices and the ham chunks, let’s dance the Hora or the old-fashioned waltz, because today is the birthday of our darling dear reader Laura. So, let’s give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to our darling dear reader Laura. On the count of three: One, two, three – A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO OUR DARLING DEAR READER LAURA!!!
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do the long jog, eat a light meal, do one little bit of work, and then do whatever I please. 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, and let us have no more unseemly run-on sentences.