Well, dear readers, sometimes you just need a day off and yesterday was a day off and sometimes you just need a day off, which, by the way (BTW, in Internet lingo), yesterday was. I got up, was lazy, answered some e-mails, and packed up a few orders. That was the extent of my work. I then moseyed on over to Hugo’s for my lunch with the no longer a Facebook mystery gal. I hadn’t seen said gal since 1999, so it was nice to catch up. Of course, I’d already pretty much remembered everything, but she reminded me of a few things that I’d completely forgotten. She’s got a young daughter in addition to the daughter I remember, and she seems like a happy sort. The food was yummilicious (I had pasta papa and my small Caesar) and I even ran into an actor who has been involved with the long musical, so that was fun, too. After that, I went to the mail place and picked up two little packages, shipped something to my mastering engineer, and then came home. There is one track on our upcoming CD that was going to be left off because it’s a vocal and the way it was mixed on the tape we used, the band couldn’t even be heard, so it was not usable. However, since the vocal is a key scene in the film (even though the tune is not by the composer of the score), I didn’t want to give up so easily. So, I had four small reels here of the song, and I believe on these reels the music (band) is on one track, and the vocals on another, so I’m hoping it will be usable on one of the tapes. I should know by Friday. Otherwise, the master sounds great. It’s a very interesting score by one of my favorite composers – what’s really interesting is that several of the tracks are very synth heavy, which was very unusual for this composer – but I just got the musician list and the fact is that some tracks have a huge orchestra, but in the mix they really emphasize the synth stuff. I also don’t think the full orchestra played on all the tracks. I’m very pleased to be able to do this release for reasons that will be obvious once the release is revealed. I then shipped the packages I’d packaged, went to Gelson’s, and that was it for my day.
Last night, I watched a motion picture on Blu and Ray called OSS 117: Rio Ne Repond Plus. I enjoyed the first OSS 117 film, and this one is also enjoyable. I’m sure these play well in the cinema and so I’m sure I’m not getting all the laughs that one would normally get when there’s an audience, but the film is quite stylish and a couple of the gags made me laugh out loud. The music is fun because you can tell instantly what the film was temp-tracked with, most especially in the almost note for note knockoffs of North By Northwest and Hatari. The rest of the score has bossa nova and a lot of Mancini-esque music. The French Blu-Ray, which is all-region and will play in any player, is of superb quality, both visually and aurally.
After the movie, I just sat on my chair like so much fish and nosed around the Internet. I also happily found the contact sheet AND the negatives for the photo shoot that has the image I want for the cover of the book. So, I’ll print up several poses and let Grant choose – actually, there are two I love – one smiling (very unusual for me – and perhaps the only smiling picture of me I’ve ever liked), and one not smiling. This batch of photos were my favorites ever taken of me. They were shot by a wonderful gal (who is referenced in the book as is this photo shoot) named Kathy Amerman (actually trying to find out if it’s one M or two). She was the set photographer on the movie Racquet, which is where I met her, and these photos were taken in 1979. Now I have to find an actual photo shop that can develop from actual negatives – I don’t want to take these to Long’s or anything like that. But I think I remember there’s a good photo place on Burbank Blvd. near Coldwater Canyon, so I’ll drive up there tomorrow and get these done.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because my day off has me so relaxed that I just want to climb into Ye Olde Bed for some good sleepin’.
Today, I shall write the new liner notes and get them to the designer, along with track titles and credits so that we can wrap up everything by Monday morning and get this thing announced. It also looks like I finally have the contract for the first of what will hopefully be many new projects from a new source. I’m very excited about the first of these for reasons that will also become obvious when we announce. If we can get everything signed in the next couple of weeks, it will be our next release.
Tonight I’ll be supping with our very own Miss Alet Taylor, and tomorrow I have to hang around for the security alarm company to come and figure out why the alarm system, which has been paid for (not by me) for five years has never worked. This all came out of the blue a week ago and I had no idea what anyone was talking about. I remember asking about it when I moved in, but no one ever gave me an answer and I just assumed since it had no power that they weren’t paying for it, hence I let it be since I didn’t want to pay for it. I guess they’re going to hook it up or fix it or whatever.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, write liner notes, ship a couple of packages, hopefully pick up a package or three and then sup with Miss Alet Taylor. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your all-time favorite spy films, and which spy films can’t you stand? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland after my most lovely day off.