Well, dear readers, I am quite full of spaghetti, one meatball, and one Eyetalian sausage. And that is the food report for yesterday. I was actually invited to a dinner at which Boeuf Bourguignon was being served, but the timing was bad and I couldn’t go. So instead it was Little Toni’s for a Big Meal. Too big – their portions are outrageously huge. I could only finish half and I brought the rest home and ate it a few hours later. And that is the food report. Yesterday was so crazy and I didn’t finish everything until almost nine and by that time I’m afraid I was very ill tempered, as all I wanted to do was be able to relax for a few minutes before the evening was done. I got up early and dealt with some e-mails. We’ve only actually had five more e-mails about the CD problem, so that’s good. I then had to get ready for the Paperback Collector’s Show. I got there at ten-thirty, walked around with our very own Mr. Grant Geissman, talked to some dealer friends, and then did my one-hour signing, during which I signed exactly one book. I don’t know why, but the guy who runs the show really seems to like me and likes me to do the show, but it’s really not my sort of venue – I have no real paperbacks out and the people who people these shows are collectors of vintage paperbacks. I did have a lovely chat with the daughter of master illustration artist Robert Maguire. I have one of his original late 1950s paintings in my living room, one she likes very much. Of course, her all-time favorite of all her father’s paintings is the one I used to own but had to sell during all that stupid, stupid bad business. It still irks me that I sold that painting, which was simply one of the greatest paperback covers ever done. I ran into a couple more people I knew, and then it was time to toddle over to the recording session, which I did with my new engineer, Mr. John Adams (the engineer who did Brent’s album). Boy, does he have my vibe down pat, and he got everything together so simply, and he’s so even keeled and wonderful to work with. I got us through the session quickly, and had a wonderful time directing the performances – it’s just something I’m so at home doing, both in terms of the sound, and getting exactly what’s needed in the quickest manner. I do miss the regularity of doing it, and am hoping to do more original recordings this year, including a CD for our very own Skip Kennon. We wrapped it up around six-thirty, and the composer of the long musical and I went over to Little Toni’s for a meal. I then had to have a forty-minute conversation about the demo with our East Coast co-author – it really was not the right time and by the time it finished it was already close to eight o’clock. And then I had to have a telephonic work session with the West Coast author, popping in lyrics that have been changed. When this has happened in the past, many mistakes have happened, so it was considered the safest bet for me to do it. And doing it I knew exactly why all those mistakes happened. I basically think it comes down to someone not knowing all the ins and outs of Word, which is not that difficult a program if everything is set up correctly when things are begun – in the case of this show, I think several mistakes were made years ago and unfortunately all of the rewrites have been done within the same template. So, I’m afraid I got very short-tempered a couple of times because things got so convoluted – things that were, in essence, really simple. All I wanted to do was get the HELL off the phone and sit on my couch like so much fish, which, thankfully, I finally did for all of about forty-five minutes. I’m quite exhausted now so I think it’s time to wrap up this section of the notes.
Well, why don’t we click on the Unseemly Button below because I must get up at six am to announce our new CD, after which I shall go directly back to bed.
Today, I shall announce the new Kritzerland CD, then try to get more sleep, then hopefully print out lots and lots of orders, then send the first batch of addresses for replacement copies to the pressing plant, then head over to our second recording session, which takes place in someone’s home studio. I hate these home studio sessions – as nice as some of these places are, the vibe is simply not professional and it just doesn’t have that studio feel, which is where singers are most at home, vibe-wise. But we don’t actually have a lot of singing to do – just two songs and one introductory verse. But we then have to mix four songs and get them to sound like what we did yesterday, which is “my” sound – we’ve sent the home studio guy the exact reverb we used, so it should be pretty simple from that point on. After that, which will probably be around five or six, I shall come home and just relax and watch a motion picture on Blu and Ray.
Tomorrow, other than a brief scheduling meeting with our stage manager, I am doing nothing. I will take no calls and I will answer no e-mails pertaining to anything other than a hello or a simple answer to something. Hopefull, tomorrow evening will be spent finishing the photo section of the book, after which I will begin my final final proofing so that everything can go to the publisher by the end of the weekend.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, announce our new CD, sleep, do another recording session, eat, and watch a movie. Today’s topic of discussion: What is the absolute most food you’ve ever eaten at one time? Where was it, what was the food, and what was the occasion? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst we try to digest a humungous amount of pasta, meatball, and Eyetalian sausage. The Pasta, The Meatball, and the Eyetalian Sausage – that sounds like a Peter Greenaway film.