Well, dear readers, this week is already flying by, like a gazelle in a tuna-canning factory. I had a perfectly pleasantly pleasant day yesterday, although part of it painful and much of it was very busy. I got up early, did some work on the computer, and then was on my way to my early dental appointment. I was really hoping the shot of Novocain would be like last time, not too bad, but it was, in fact, like the time before – endless, painful as all get out (and I think we know just how painful all get out is), and really quite annoying that early in the morning. Soon as I was numb and the actual re-filling of an ancient cavity only took about ten minutes. And that is the end of the dental appointments for six months and I, for one, say hoo and ray, not necessarily in that order. I then came directly home where I directly continued to write liner notes until they were finished. I then did the track titles and the credits and sent it off to the designer. That took a couple of hours, and then I began working on the sequencing of the Brent Barrett Christmas CD – that took about ninety minutes and I found one I rather liked on the second try. I’ve sent it off to Brent to see what he thinks. He listened to the first six mixes and thought they sounded great, which they do. He had one tiny note wherein a wrong lyric was used on the take he re-recorded in New York a week ago – it was sent to us with a bad edit, so the engineer, without mentioning it to me, just swapped it out with the LA take we’d used – the only problem with that was that Brent rewrote a lyric on that line, so my engineer contacted the New York engineer to send him a corrected take and we’ll put that in. Then he asked if I could remove a sax solo from another track and I told him I didn’t think that was such a good idea since the sax had the tune and without it it would just be empty space, accompaniment with no point, and since there’s a key change leading into it, it would just seem weird. I told him that the time to have figured that out was in the arrangement phase, but I think we have to stick with what we have on that track. He asked if I could make the sax less prominent and I suppose I can, but it just won’t sound right. I’ve told him and asked him to tell the musical director that they have to get me any further comments by the end of today so that if I agree with them I can make those changes and get this thing off to my mastering engineer. The plan right now is to announce this and our new soundtrack release next week. We’ll see if we’re ready. I then went and picked up one lonely little package and then I went and had some bacon and eggs and a piece of chocolate mousse cake, just because my gums still hurt where they gave me the Novopain shot and I thought I deserved a sweet treat to eat. After all, a sweet treat to eat can’t be beat and I’d write that in a tweet, which would be neat. After that, I came home, did yet more work on the computer, read some things regarding the long musical and by that time day was done and night had begun and so I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a motion picture that I had on the DVD in high definition. High definition is someone who has smoked a marijuana cigarette. In any case, this motion picture was entitled Cuba, a film of Richard Lester, starring Mr. Sean Connery, Miss Brooke Adams, and Mr. Jack Weston. I’d never gotten around to seeing this motion picture even though at one point I owned it on DVD. It got bad reviews and was an instant flop, but there are things to enjoy in it. It’s about Cuba, in case you didn’t get that from the title. Cuba, just before Castro came into control. Lester is a fine director and there are many interesting things in the film and I enjoy Mr. Connery. Brooke Adams’ character is a little too weird to work in this type of film, but the period recreation is done very well, and the film has a really nice score by Patrick Williams, one of my favorite underrated composers. The film never quite makes up its mind what it wants to be, but I did enjoy parts of it very much. The hi-def transfer was very nice.
After that, I watched about fifteen minutes of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, the old cartoon version with Boris Karloff. This thing has always looked terrible on home video – from faded elements that were all brown and yucky. Well, this new Blu and Ray transfer is spectacular with brilliant perfect color and sharp as a tack. It would seem that Warner Bros. might finally have someone in the telecine room who actually understands what color is supposed to look like and I hope it continues with all their Blu-Ray transfers from now on.
After that, I just made some more notes (I am really having a high old time making these notes), listened to some music, did a little more work on the computer and that was that. Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I am now quite ready for my beauty sleep.
Today I shall definitely do the long jog no matter what the weather and no weather what the matter. I then have a lunch meeting at the Sunset Blvd. Hamburger Hamlet. After that, I shall hopefully pick up mail and a package or three, and then I shall begin writing the second set of liner notes, which I want to finish by tomorrow. After that, I think I shall be through with the day’s work.
Tomorrow I have another all day casting session for the long musical, which I’m really not looking forward to all that much. It’s in an area of town that’s a Novopain in the ASS to get to, and we’ll be done just in time to have a lot of traffic, so I may, in fact, head up to Amoeba to kill an hour or so, just to avoid the traffic. We shall see.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do the long jog, have a lunch meeting, pick up mail and packages, and write more liner notes. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your all-time favorite TV cartoons? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I go rest my weary gums which are still rife with Novopain.