Well, dear readers, I have only one word to say right now – and that word is “hacked.” Apparently, our wonderful discussion board has been hacked and said cretinous hacker has written some heinous (heinous, do you hear me?) code that is keeping some PC users off the board, and causing other more minor problems for those who can get on. I’ve written our software customer help people and hopefully they can figure it out first thing in the morning and then all will be well. I do wish that somehow we could find these peckerwoods who have nothing better to do than hack websites and cause problems – one popular Broadway board has been repeatedly hacked by someone. Because if we could find them, my recommendation would be to pull out their fingernails one by one, boil them in flaming hot oil, and play the cast album of Cats 7000 times in a row until they cut off their own ears. I wonder if karma ever takes care of these sorts of peckerwoods? I would hope so. Speaking of hacked, yesterday was a day when I could not stop my hacking cough – I just coughed and coughed and coughed until I had a raging headache – unfortunately I’d used the last of my aspirin by the time the headache occurred, and it was too late to go out and get some. Other than that, yesterday was another day in which I never stopped. I got up early, went to the postal office and dropped off some packages, then
Sorry, I just coughed for five minutes straight – there’s no phlegm anymore – just the coughing. Where was I? I believe I’ve just been hacked. Oh, yes, to continue where I left off –
went to rehearsal. We began at the beginning of the show and ran act one, after which I gave notes and we ran a few things. We then did the same for act two. Things were better today. After rehearsal, I came home, did the long jog, packaged up the last of the orders, answered e-mails, had telephonic conversations, coughed, and then I drove to Reseda and delivered a box of 100 CDs. After that, I went to the bank, then to Gelson’s, since I hadn’t had four seconds to even think about eating anything. I had two sandwiches – one ham, one turkey, a little thing of their Righteous Red Potato Salad, and four pieces of chocolate licorice for dessert. Later, I had some cucumber roll as my snack. I was actually really full from all that. I then sat on my couch like so much fish – and coughed.
Last night, I watched a movie I’d TIVOd entitled Cop Hater. I’d never even heard of this movie. It’s a real low-budget curio from 1957, directed by William Berne, a really mediocre director, best known for his unexceptional TV work on series like Annie Oakley and some low budget features. This film was the first adapted from a work by Ed McBain (Evan Hunter) – one of the first 87th Precinct novels. Filmed on location in New York, it does have a certain grittiness to it, but its artless and just sort of meanders along to it’s conclusion – which happens so weirdly that you barely can figure out what’s going on. But the film has a really interesting cast, including a very young Robert Loggia and Gerald O’Laughlin, as well as the first film appearance of an impossibly young Jerry Orbach and an equally young Vincent Gardenia. A curio.
All right, there is this little flying thing that’s been flying in front of me for about an hour now and I will stop writing these here notes and KILL THIS SUCKER if he doesn’t wise up and choose one of the other 1700 square feet available to him. Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because my hacking cough and the hacked board has made my headache worse and I must to bed soon, for I have yet another early morning rehearsal.
Today, I shall cough, have a four-hour rehearsal, maybe do the long jog, maybe not, ship the balance of the packages (and then I’m all done with shipping for a while), and then I’m meeting with a friend who’s giving me some research to use for my notes for the upcoming CD, plus some nice visual things for the booklet. After that, I shall write the notes until I’m finished, then do the track titles and credits and get that all turned in.
Saturday, we have a band rehearsal for part of the day, and a run-through after, and then we’re meeting at the theater, because from I’m hearing, the sound man is not going to be to my liking and if we’re going to make a change we’re going to have to be ready to make it swiftly.
And hopefully by morning, our software people will be able to unhack us and make us hack-protected.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, rehearse, meet a friend, write until I’m finished with the booklet notes, and eat. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player and your DVD/video player? I’ll start: CD, Francis Lai’s very pretty score to the Peter Sellers bomb, The Bobo, and a bunch of other home-grown CDs. DVD, the Herrmann version of A Christmas Carol, just so I can write with authority, and then more classic TV. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, and let’s not be hacked anymore, either site-wise or cough-wise.