Well, dear readers, this week has flown by, like a gazelle building a two-story residence next door to me. I cannot believe May will shortly be over and June will be bustin’ out all over. And now I must write these here notes in a hurry because today is a busy little day and I need my beauty sleep. Of course, yesterday was also a busy little day – nothing major, but just lots of little things that added up to a busy little day. I’m thinking that maybe the multiple telephonic calls and complaints I made yesterday might have had some effect, because the workers didn’t start working until eight and then they were MUCH quieter about it – while it’s still annoying, at least the house wasn’t shaking and the noise level really was toned down. Let us hope it continues like that. I did the long jog and then did several errands and whatnot. Since I knew I wouldn’t be getting food into my gaping maw until after seven, I stopped at Jerry’s Deli and got some rice pudding to tide me over. It’s a weird rice pudding they do now – it’s got dried dates, apricots, and cranberries in it, but it was really good. I then picked up some mail, packaged up a bunch of orders and got them shipped, and checked out a few more Blu-Ray transfers. I looked at a little of the Sleeping Beauty Blu-Ray and it’s spectacularly spectacular, wonderfully razor sharp, with eye-popping color. I looked at a little of Australia – very pretty, very sharp, but what is the matter with Nicole Kidman? Why would anyone as beautiful as she do what she’s done? Her upper lip is sickeningly large and it looks like she has no feeling in it – she is no longer the simple, beautiful woman she once was. How can these people let their vanity ruin their faces? Do they think we don’t remember what they looked like? They make MOVIES – all we have to do is run one and we can see what they’ve done. It’s really nauseating, especially when someone like Miss Kidman does it – what was she thinking? Whatever she was thinking, it was a mistake. The movie looks very quirky, but looks like the usual Baz style-over-substance fest. I also watched a little of 20 Million Miles To Earth, one of those Ray Harryhausen movies, and I must say the black-and-white image is really something else, even in the multiple optical effects shots. I also forgot to mention that I watched a Blu-Ray entitled Abba: The Movie, filmed during a late 1970s concert tour. The film is mostly a record of the concert, but has a plot of sorts and was directed by Lasse Hallstrom. The music is fun and perky and the Abba guys and gals are charming. I enjoyed it. The music sounds great and the image is very crisp, but every time it goes to dialogue scenes the volume drops really low – if you turn it up, then the music is too loud. Weird. After all that, I headed over to The Smoke House in the Bank of Bur for a little get-together.
It was a fun evening after a very rocky start, in which a well-known film music label maven behaved like a little child and caused a scene and some really unnecessary drama – it was over within ten minutes, and several people, including me, spoke to the maven and told him he was making himself look really low and foolish – he finally stopped. Thankfully, the object of his invective took the high road, which is always the best road to take. The purpose of the evening was to say hello to a lovelier than lovely gentleman, Craig Spaulding, who runs the online store Screen Archives Entertainment. I’ve “known” him since the late 1980s, but had never actually met him face to face, so it was really nice to see him, chat, and we got along famously. He’s really responsible for helping labels like Kritzerland, because we can always count on him to take a lot of our limited edition titles so that we’re almost basically sold out before we even announce – and we like that and are jiggy and down with that. The dinner was hosted by Taylor White, who owns Percepto, a label that has released some excellent CDs. In attendance were the owners of BSX Records, LaLa Land records, FSM, Kritzerland, Tribute Film Classics, plus our very own Mr. Nick Redman and our pal, writer Julie Kirgo, composer John Debney, writer Jeff Bond (and his adorable little boy, Logan), and some people I only knew from the film score message boards. The LaLa Land boys were really kind and brought CDs for everyone, so I scored Airplane and The Dunwich Horror, plus a couple of others. The garlic cheese bread was better than ever, and we had four menu choices – prime rib, steak (steaks were HUGE, prime rib was the small cut), chicken, and salmon. I chose the prime rib, which was fantastic. After the rough opening, it was fun and festive and we laughed and laughed and just when we thought we could laugh no more, we laughed again.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because, as you’ll see, I’ve got a busy little day ahead of me and I must be alert and alive, not necessarily in that order.
Today, I have a busy little day. I must get up early (I’m sure THAT won’t be difficult), do the long jog if I can get out the door by eight-thirty, have a work session with the composer/lyricist of the long musical, and then I must toddle off to Santa Monica to work with the copyist who did the Nudie Musical charts. We will do all my corrections, and I have several other things I need him to do, like notate the first few bars of songs that really need their accompaniment figures for them to make sense. It will be good because I’ll be there and can just show him how I’m playing it, and I might even be able to play it directly into his computer so he has it right there. Then I’ll play and record the five or six little ditties that are left to do – they’re all under thirty seconds and shouldn’t take long to record into his computer. I’m anticipating that this will take at least three or four hours, but who knows – it could go faster. Then I’ll try to get back to the Valley before the traffic gets too too crazy. I think I’m having a dinner but I don’t know for sure.
Tomorrow, I have the second get-together, this one I’m going to strictly to meet some folks I’ve only met online – I won’t be there very long. Then I’m seeing a play in the evening.
Sunday should be mine all mine, and then next week begins a very busy two week period.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do the long jog (time permitting), have a work session, have another work session, and perhaps have a dinner. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player and your DVD/video player? I’ll start – CD, the new Kritzerland soundtrack, plus various and sundried other titles. DVD, The new Season Two, Volume Two of The Mod Squad, plus assorted Blu-Ray discs. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst we make ready for a busy little day.