Well, dear readers, it was shake and bake time again yesterday here in the City of Studio as the bulldozers bulldozed and the home environment rattled and groaned and pictures were tilted and trying to work was an ordeal. I actually got up before they woke me up. I guess that showed THEM. But soon things were shaking and baking as I began the day’s work, which was proofing the Nudie Musical charts. Since several of them were riddled with errors, it took me quite a long time. I sat at the piano, made corrections, whilst the piano was literally quaking from all the endless bulldozing. It was very hard work and then I had to record a number we hadn’t done for the demo, a short piece, but I could barely hear myself think and I had to begin over and over again and I came very close to exiting the home environment and going next door to have a chat with those doing the bulldozing. I finally got a recording that I could send, which I did. After I finished all the charts (I still have to record all the Dick Davis ditties, plus the two short audition sequence songs), I thought I deserved a nice lunch so I went over to the Kansas City Barbecue and had a hot link sandwich and some sweet potato fries, which were yummilicious. I then did some errands and whatnot, then came back to the home environment and endured some more shaking and baking whilst trying to concentrate and make telephonic calls, answer a plethora of e-mails, and deal with some Nudie Musical matters, like getting my musical director a copy of the demo so he can get familiar with the score. He stopped by and picked it and a DVD up. I then talked to Cason Murphy and made the decision to hire the gal who sent us her video audition. I just have no patience to carry this on further and did not want to do yet another audition session where no one deems it necessary to show up. It’s just too debilitating, really. I know when we come to New York to do a reading there (which we will), casting will be a whole other thing, and I’ve already decided to hire a casting director for it. In any case, we called the actress and told her and she’s thrilled to be doing it. She’s in New York, but will be back in LA next Monday and will get her script, a demo, the DVD, and the music then. I like her energy and she’s just been such a go-getter in terms of getting us her audition via the Internet, and that, for me, is worth a LOT. So, playing Rosie will be Niki Scalera – she was the final Penny Pingleton in Hairspray on Broadway – she has a terrific voice, good comedy sense, and she’s real and likable and doesn’t overplay. I think she’ll pair well with Ted Detweiler, and I’m looking forward to working with both of them. So, we’re now fully cast save for Dick Davis, and if I have to bring in a WHITE boy to do it I will, because apparently there aren’t any actors of color who can be bothered to submit themselves (or have their agents submit them). But, if anyone has any ideas, let me know.
At three-thirty, the noise and shake and bake stopped, thank goodness. I’m told that the big noise is now through – I’m hoping that is indeed the case. I finished up all the notes and credits and track titles for part one of our next Kritzerland release, which will hopefully be two titles at once or, at the very least, only a few days apart. I got those off to the booklet designer, and then finished up the notes for part two of the release – those were thankfully not too difficult to write, and I’ll see how I like them when I reread them today. I finally sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night I watched a motion picture on Blu-Ray entitled The Fifth Element. At some point I had the DVD, which was always thought of as a poster child for how great a movie could look on DVD, and I tried about five times to watch it and could never get past the first ten minutes. Well, imagine my surprise to find out that it’s quite a fun little film – not brilliant or anything – but quite entertaining and with wonderful effects and sets and some good performances by a large company of players, most especially Bruce Willis, Ian Holm, and a very odd Gary Oldman (well, okay, when is Gary Oldman NOT very odd), and a great performance from Milla Jovovich, who I’d never seen before. She’s very much in the Darryl Hannah mode in this film, and she’s just delightfully delightful. There are some very witty and amusing moments in the film and it never feels like the two hours it is. As to the Blu-Ray, well it’s kind of a poster child for Blu-Ray, too – it’s spectacular looking – sharp, colorful, and just beautiful to watch.
After the film, I burned a CD of the new soundtrack release and gave it a listen – as always, the mastering guy did a masterful job and it sounds great. It’s a pretty short album, so I went through the two reels I got from the composer’s archive and I think I found six cues that weren’t on the original LP or, if they were on it, these sound like different takes. I also found two close to four minute tracks which definitely aren’t on the LP, so I’ve asked the mastering guy to make a bonus suite out of those tracks, presuming he can get them to sound decent – the quality on much of those composer reels is not so hot – there’s a persistent audio hum, static, and other problems, but I chose the tracks where there were the least amount of problems, so hopefully we can eke out another five to ten minutes of running time. The music is absolutely fantastic, and I may go ahead and announce it here on the site either today or tomorrow, presuming my designer gets me the cover art by then.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I need to get as much sleep as I can, just in case the yokels make with the early morning chatter.
Today, I think I have a fairly light day, which is good. I’ll go over the charts again just so I’m really prepared, and I’m also going to get him the fixes to the worst of them, so we don’t have to deal with that one when I see him on Friday. I also will finish up the notes and credits and track titles for the show release, and then all that will go to the designer and I’ll be caught up, although the mastering guy will go directly to the next soundtrack release.
Tomorrow, I have get-together number one – the owner of Screen Archives is coming into town and a mutual friend is having a big dinner for him at The Smoke House, so I’m very much looking forward to that. Friday, I have a work session for the long musical and then a long work session with the Nudie Musical charts, all the way in Santa Monica. I may stay on that side of the hill and eat dinner so I can avoid the rush hour traffic.
On Saturday, it’s get-together number two, and then the real Nudie Musical work begins on Monday, when I’ll have several work sessions with the musical director about tempos and arrangements and such. We also have to set keys right away.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do the long jog (a necessity), record the few ditties I haven’t sent to the charts guy, finish liner notes, and do errands and whatnot. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear reader any old question you like and we get to give any old answer we like. So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers and loads of lovely postings, shall we, and let us hope that the shake and bake is done for a while.