Well, dear readers, I hate to be the one to point out this little factoid, but October is halfway over. I gotta tell you, October is flying by, like a gazelle playing pinochle. Does anyone still play pinochle? I must say that in the annals of stupid words pinochle would have to be at the top of any reasonable list. But I shall not dwell on pinochle, oh, no, I shall not dwell on pinochle because I’ve got me some notes to write and by gum and by golly and buy bonds I am going to write them. The big news in LA is that the rainy season has ended. It lasted two days. That’s LA for you. Yesterday was like a summer day. I got up early and without much delay I was on my way to do some minor remixing. As I’ve mentioned, I had a lot of nitpicky little notes from the musical director, and a few from Brent. I began by doing Brent’s little one-word fixes and those went very quickly. I’m not sure we actually improved anything but if it makes him happy then I’m happy. Then I did a few of the musical director’s notes that made sense to me, and even tried a few that didn’t, but I didn’t do anything that I felt took away from the mixes that just worked as they were. I did a little EQ on the piano on a couple of tracks, added a little reverb on one track, and sunk the vocal into the track just a hair on two songs. We then put the all the new stuff up on the iDisk and I left Brent a message. I never heard back and if I don’t hear anything by the time I get up in the morning, then off it goes to the mastering engineer. Funnily, I feel that all but two things we futzed with were all fine as they were, but again, we didn’t hurt anything and if everyone is happy then I’m happy. I then stopped at Amoeba as I had a bunch of left over credit. They finally got back in the stereo Beatles box and so I finally picked that up and it was lovely not to have to actually put out cash for it. I also got a couple of region 2 DVDs. After that, I came back to the Valley, went to the mail place and picked up a couple of packages, stopped at home and packaged up about fourteen orders that had come in, then went to Hugo’s for lunch, where I had my usual small Caesar and pasta papa. I got some work done, too. After that, I came home, answered e-mails and then was irked to find that the Brent packaging had been redone again, without anyone telling me. We’d finished it yesterday and sent it off and Brent asked for the wording of two credits to be changed. I thought it odd, but we did it. Then he called the designer and apologized and said I’d been correct in the first place and could it please be changed back. So, it was, but every time we redo it it costs more money, so I wrote a strong e-mail saying that was it – the packaging was approved and going to the printers today. I then finally sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a motion picture on DVD entitled Telstar. This was a region 2 DVD from the UK. I don’t know if the film actually ever played the US – it’s from last year. Telstar tells the story of record producer Joe Meek, who, for a brief time, was sort of the UK equivalent of Phil Spector. I found it a very interesting film and only wish the director would have just stopped shouting “look at me, I’m a DIRECTOR” with every shot – sometimes just telling the story in an interesting but simple visual way is best. The only really known actor in the large cast of players, at least known to a worldwide audience, was Kevin Spacey, playing a financial manager and Brit and most of the time he got the accent down very well and was very good. The fellow who played Joe Meek was pretty terrific although his horse and strident voice got on my nerves after a while – Con O’Neill was his name. I looked him up and had no idea he was the original star of the New York company of Blood Brothers (have no idea if he did it originally in England) – he received a Tony nomination for Blood Brothers. He’s really a good actor and he carries most of Telstar. All the other actors are really excellent, too, and the recreation of the early 1960s is done very well. Mr. Meek had a very tough time of it and eventually killed himself. It’s a compelling story – one that somehow is fairly universal. The transfer was very nice and the music sounded great.
After that, I went back to the play I’d written a few years ago, the one we’d done two readings of here at the home environment. I hadn’t looked at it since then and was surprised at how genuinely funny a lot of the first act is (that’s all I read – will read the second act today). I did find a few things that really annoyed me and I made some notes to fix those places. What I like most about it so far is that it feels like a real 1960s one-set, small cast comedy, which is what I was aiming for. If I can solve a few things, I sure would love to see this show on its feet.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because October is already halfway over – we’ve had the Oct and all that’s left is the ober.
Today, I shall really try to do the long jog, but in order to do so I must get up pretty early, because at eleven I’ll be at Grant Geissman recording Niki Scalera singing her Nudie Musical songs for the demo. That should probably take three hours or so (with doing the mix and all) and then I’ll say a fond farewell to Niki who is moving back to New York. I have no doubt we’ll be working together many times – she’s just terrific. After the session, I will hopefully pick up some overdue packages and then, later, I’ll be supping at the Gardenia and seeing the composer and lyricist of the long musical do a little cabaret evening of their various and sundried songs, with special guests Andrea Marcovicci and our very own Mr. Jason Graae.
Tomorrow, I have a work session with the composer of the long musical, but that’s really all I have planned for the day. I will then toddle off to see our very own Alet Taylor and Barry Pearl in Guys and Dolls – it’s going to take about an hour to get there, and I’ll probably have a little supper with Barry and Alet before the show. I will, of course, have a full report.
Sunday I have kept free, and must finish my second set of liner notes, but that’s all I’ll be doing on that day. Then the new week will be very busy with a lot of stuff, including announcing the Brent CD along with our latest soundtrack two-fer.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do the long jog, I must record some vocals, I must pick up some packages, and I must go to the Gardenia. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player and your DVD/video player? I’ll start – CD, a LOT of Beatles CDs. DVD – currently Oleanna, and then a couple of French comedies from France – the two Tall Blond Man films. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst we have a wonderful second half of October or as we like to affectionately call it – ober.