Well, dear readers, some days go smoothly, some do not. Actually, in the case of yesterday, the morning did not go smoothly, but the rest of the day did go smoothly, so I can’t complain too much – and yet… Basically, everything that could go wrong did go wrong in trying to get our CDs shipped under our new system. The whole idea behind this reorganization was to get rid of the confounded Pitney-Bowes machine and do all postage printing online, where it’s much easier and certainly much faster. But our first time out and nothing worked the way it was supposed to – everything did finally get shipped and it will work smoothly from here on in, but it was a very frustrating morning for me, and a much longer frustrating time for the helper who had to deal with it as I had a noon lunch to go to. Eventually, all our loyal customers will be entered on the postage site and then we’ll be able to print labels from there, too – it’s all complicated and takes time to set up and, more importantly, understand, and all of this is falling to the helper. Whilst she continued making everything work, Miss Adryan Russ and I toddled over to a restaurant in West Hollywood to meet the divoon and wonderful Kelly Sullivan. Kelly starred in our staged reading of The Roxy and was fantastic in it and fantastic to work with. Directly after that, she got the lead in the Old Globe production of Robin and the Seven Hoods. Now she’s back, living in LA. She’ll be doing either the January or February Kritzerland at the Gardenia show. She chose the restaurant, the name of which I cannot remember nor do I want to remember. It was what they call a vegan restaurant (close to macrobiotic, from what I understood). Now, let me just state for the record and also the mp3 and CD that I do not care for this thing called health food. But there are certain healthy places where you can get a reasonably tasty meal, like my nearby Good Earth. But this place was true vegan – no dairy, no eggs, no nothing but bushes and shrubs and tofu and other unappetizingly named foodstuffs. I chose the only thing that sounded edible to me – the spicy BLT wrap. Of course, the B, which is supposed to stand for bacon, stood for something wholly other, some faux bacon substance (not soy – something even more yucky-sounding). I took one bite of it and wanted to vomit on the ground. I was starving, so I ate it all up like a good soldier, but it tasted like rancid nutmeats and bushes accompanied by some specious vegan mayo thing. The bacon is what tasted and had the texture of the rancid nutmeats and every time I bit into it visions of rancid nutmeats danced in my head, doing a warped version of the Frug. It came with something called a Caesar salad, which, in reality, was more shrubs with something like lemon juice on them. On the menu was a chocolate cake with peanut butter – that sounded just like the ticket to rid myself of the taste of rancid nutmeats, so we ordered a slice for the table. Unfortunately, whatever this mutant chocolate cake and mutant peanut butter was made of it was more vomit- inducing than the rancid nutmeat and bushes wrap. One small bite and I was done. The good news is, it must have been a REALLY low-calorie meal, if one can call eating rancid nutmeats and bushes a meal. But it was great seeing Kelly, and she and Adryan seemed to enjoy their foodstuffs, so that was good.
After that, I came back to the San Fernando Valley and picked up one package, which contained the new book of my close personal friend, Mr. Stephen Sondheim’s, new book of lyrics and notes on the lyrics and other lyricists. I read the introduction, the preface, and the first chapter on Saturday Night – very interesting reading, much more verbose than I would have expected from Mr. Stephen “I don’t write prose” Sondheim, with some, at times, startling views on other lyricists. I’ll savor it slowly – and must – for the type is so small that it borders on difficult to read, at least for someone my age.
After that, The Singer came over, along with John Boswell, and we played through a whole slew of potential songs for her act. We made three piles – yes, maybe, and no. The yes pile’s music was easy to do – those songs just felt right in every way. The maybe pile had things that we just weren’t sure of but that we might be able to work with. The no pile was as easy as the yes pile – it was just instantly apparent that certain songs weren’t going to make the cut. After two hours, we stopped without having gotten through everything, so we’ll finish up this stage of things next Tuesday after the Gardenia rehearsal. The Singer has a wonderful voice and it’s great to just sit and listen to her warble. After that, we went over to Mo’s, where I had a blessed bacon cheeseburger that contained no rancid nutmeats or bushes, no specious vegan mayo, or anything else healthy and it was just what the doctor ordered. And frankly, I’ve had it with the doctor ordering everything I do and I went and stepped on his toe really hard. That’ll teach him to order his own damn thing. We discussed the yes, maybe, and no pile, and what there was left to sing through. Then she went her merry way and I buckled down Winsocki and read through Linda Purl’s notes about what her and Gregory Harrison’s show is supposed to be – although it’s so amorphous as to not really be about anything – something we’ll have to fix right away. I already have some song ideas and structure ideas. Then I did a first pass at the order for next Wednesday’s Kritzerland at the Gardenia show – this one is really hard, but I kind of like what I came up with, and while one or two songs could conceivably flip-flop, this is pretty much the way it’s going to have to be because of who sings what.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must get my beauty sleep and hopefully not dream of or belch up the remnants of the rancid nutmeats and bushes.
Today, I have a morning meeting with Miss Linda Purl and Mr. Gregory Harrison – it will probably last an hour or so and hopefully we’ll figure out a few things so that we can get started on the structure, format, and song choices. The show premiers in February, so we have our work cut out for us. After that, I have errands and whatnot to do, and then we have our second rehearsal for the Gardenia show, after which I’ll attend a staged reading of a new musical starring our very own Miss Alet Taylor.
Tomorrow, I thought I had the day and evening free, but that’s not quite accurate – during the day, I may or may not go see a short film that features our very own Mr. Barry Pearl – but in the evening, Barry and I are going to see the Musical Theater West production of Annie, starring Miss Andrea McArdle as Miss Hannigan, and which features our very own Mr. Damon Kirsche.
Sunday, I’m either mixing or having an early lunch with dear reader Jeanne, and then I’ll be handing out LOTS of Halloween candies to LOTS of Halloween trick or treaters. Then next week is hugely busy, with stuff happening every day, including the announcement of our new release.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, have a meeting, try to do a jog, do errands and whatnot, have a rehearsal, and see a staged reading of a new musical, as well as eat something light and fun. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player, and your DVD/video player? I’ll start – Blu and Ray, The Girl Who Played With Fire (I’ve seen it on DVD, but it didn’t look that good and the subtitles displayed weirdly – it should look great on Blu and Ray). CD, various and sundried upcoming Kritzerland projects. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst we never again eat something called a wrap that contains the taste of rancid nutmeats and bushes.