Well, dear readers, I don’t know how it happened, but February is now half over – actually more than half over. That just boggles my already-boggled mind. I’ll tell you what’s really boggling my already boggled mind – this music that is playing. It’s some Amazing Stories score, all electronic, and it’s really making me want to vomit on the ground. How can one think when such droning is going on? It sounds like it was written by a five-year-old. Well, let’s just see who the culprit is, shall we? Well, that’s fascinating – a program that used composers like John Williams, Billy Goldenberg, Alan Silvestri, John Addison, David Shire and other class acts – so who composed this drivel I’m listening to? Pat Metheny. I knew it couldn’t have been an actual film composer. It sounds like Vangelis with food poisoning. I do hope it will be over soon because if it isn’t I fear I shall become a serial killer or, at the very least, a cereal killer. Ah, Mr. Williams has returned – actual music, what a concept. Now I can write the damn notes. Speaking of the damn notes, yesterday was a damn okay day, filled with damn things that I damn did. For example, I damn got up, did the long damn jog, and then toddled off to the Hollywood Show, the new name of the old Hollywood Collector’s Show. Yes, the show not only has a new name, it has new owners for Ray Courts has “sold” the show – one wonders exactly what that means. Mr. Courts will still be around for the next two years as a “consultant.” There were all sorts of new people working the door, and they seemed nice enough. It’s no longer the bargain it once was – to get in the door is now twenty-eight bucks. Twenty bucks admission and eight bucks parking (and there is NO other place to park). The biggest celebs are now charging around thirty-five bucks for a signed picture. And with a line up of the sort they have for this particular show, I have to imagine people are spending a LOT of dough, which in this economy seems a little odd. They did have quite a line up this time around, and the attendance seemed way up from what it’s been. I don’t do well in crowds, so I did a quick traversal of the room, seeing Mr. Malcolm MacDowell (huge line), Mr. Tony Curtis (who doesn’t even resemble himself anymore – but huge line), Miss Debbie Reynolds, her daughter, Carrie Fisher (another one who looks nothing like she used to), Yaphet Kotto, Kevin Sorbo (who starred in Pogue’s Kull), Warren Berlinger, Dwayne Hickman, Jon Provost, Paul Peterson, Jayne Meadows, our very own Druxy and his ever-lovin’ Sandy, Marilyn Chambers, Richard Kiel, Geoffrey Lewis, Bruce Davison, and many others. But the big attraction, the person who I think single-handedly brought the crowds was Miss Joan Collins. For the first time in this show’s history, a celebrity got their very own room – and an admission was charged to even enter the room, after which you paid to get the autograph. I’m told she looked very glamorous. I attended the show with our very own Mr. Grant Geissman, and we spent a lot of time chatting up dealer friends of mine and I also had a nice chat with Gary Owens, who’s always wandering around the shows. After about two hours we’d had it, so we went next door to the Daily Grill and got some lunch. After that, I came back to the home environment, where I was supposed to meet someone to go over some stuff – ten minutes after they were supposed to arrive I got a call saying they weren’t coming, so I was so happy I rushed home to be there on time. I had no mail, so I just made a little trip to Gelson’s and got a couple of small little sweet things from the bakery and then came home. I did some work on the computer, had a brief visit from former dear reader Hisaka, and then I finally sat on my couch like so much damn fish.
Last night, I watched a motion picture on DVD entitled Parrish, which was not a motion picture about Leslie Parrish, although I wish it had been. This Parrish starred Mr. Troy Donahue, Miss Claudette Colbert, Mr. Dean Jagger, Mr. Karl Malden, Miss Connie Stevens, Miss Diane McBain, and Miss Sharon Hugueny. It’s not a bad potboiler as potboilers go, and the cast is very good. I was quite taken with Miss Hugueny who was, I believe, all of seventeen (and JUST turned seventeen) when she made this film. And Miss Diane McBain looked gorgeous and was quite good. Mr. Malden was MEAN. And I’ve always enjoyed Mr. Donohue. It’s too bad he had such problems, but he overcame them – still, he died way too young, but not as young as Miss Hugueny who apparently had a very difficult life after her all too brief career. The score by Max Steiner has some very nice themes, but the way in which its used in the film is a little annoying. The transfer is, well, a little brown, but not as bad as most Warners’ brown transfers – but a little less yellow and a little more blue would have at least given an approximation of what the film originally looked like. And there is far too much grain – it looks many generations away from an original element. I’m looking forward to the other films in this set.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because frankly I’m tired of this damn section and I’m also damn tired period so let’s all click the damn button and get these damn notes done.
Today, Sunday, a day of rest, will not include any rest for the likes of me. I’ll start with the long jog, then I have a three-hour rehearsal with Mr. Sean McDermott (I also spent an hour doing further revisions on his patter yesterday), and then right after that, Mr. Cason Murphy is coming over to learn his part of a duet for the Nudie reading. After that I may get to rest and relax for a few hours.
This week has turned into a very busy one. Tomorrow I have an long editing session to finish up finessing my first pass cut on the Kevin and Sean show. That will probably take three to five hours. I also have to finish casting for the reading. Tuesday, I’ll be laying down the piano tracks for the Nudie demo, and doing as many of my vocals as I can. That will probably be a five-hour session, and then I’ll sup with Mr. Geissman. Wednesday, I’ll have to prep for the reading, and then we’ll have the reading. Thursday is the only day this week where I don’t have much scheduled and I hope it stays that way, and then Friday we’re laying down the rest of the Nudie vocals – Lauren Rubin, Cason, Alet, and a couple of other people will be coming in.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do the damn long jog, have a damn rehearsal, eat something damn amusing, and then watch a damn DVD or three. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the damn day in which you damn dear readers make with the damn topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I go get my damn beauty sleep and get these damn notes posted.