Well, dear readers, I am quite happy to have survived a hellishly odd day yesterday. I tell you, it was hellishly odd and if the hellishly odd day had happened even three weeks ago I would have simply lost my sanity, screamed at people, and hyperventilated. While I did get upset and did get terse for just a moment, the fact is I remained surprisingly calm in the face of a hellishly odd day. I had had a very rough night’s sleep – when I have this much stuff rolling around in Ye Olde Cranium, I just find it difficult to a) fall asleep, and b) stay asleep. That is what happened. I actually went to bed early – it took about an hour for me to conk out and then suddenly I was up two hours later, thinking of plot details for the book, and then realizing that our February Gardenia show is a mere three weeks after the January show thanks to doing the January show on the second Wednesday rather than the first. So, I thought about that, made the decision as to what it would be and then I was up until four thinking about how to cast it. I slept from four to eight, so in essence I guess I got six hours of sleep. Then I got up. CDs arrived but the helper did not. That was odd since she told me she’d be getting in early. I finally called her cell phone and her boyfriend answered. That was odd, since it was her cell phone and not his. That, in fact, gave me a bad feeling. And then I was told a hellishly odd tale, one I can’t recount here because of its personal nature. I will just say it could not have happened at a worse time, and I won’t have use of the helper for an undetermined time, maybe never. Luckily, her boyfriend had been helping her with the postage and label printing and he swore he knew how to do it and that he’d been doing it all weekend. We met and he picked up all the CDs and took them home to do the work, while I dealt with the thirteen boxes that were going to one dealer. I labeled those, lugged them to the UPS Store, and got them on their way, pulling a few muscles in the process. Of course, I’m petrified at the potential mistakes that could be made with shipments – this is not only two releases at once, but also involved two sale items with the two titles. So, we had people ordering both items, both items with the sale items, one item alone and one item with the sale item, multiple variations on that theme and on and on. Since there were a few mistakes with the last CDs, the helper had assured me she was really taking the time to make sure everything would go smoothly with this one. And she’d already done some of the work, so I know those were correct. I’m only concerned about the ones her boyfriend did, but he assured me he was being careful and that she had coached him. We can only pray now. He didn’t quite get everything finished, but did get all the US orders to the post office loading dock by the end of the day. The overseas orders were more complicated because they involve doing online customs forms in addition to the labels, but the helper’s best friend talked him through that and he got it all printed and those are hopefully going to the post office first thing this morning. Then he’ll come here and we’ll finish up with three or four dealer orders and some orders he didn’t have CDs for – older titles that were ordered with the new titles. As long as we get through this I’ll be fine for the next two weeks and hopefully we’ll know the lay of the land by then. It will either be good news or bad, and I’m hoping for good. There are certain aspects of this nation of ours that I just loathe, and this involves one of them. So, I dealt with all that until almost two o’clock. At that point I went and had some eggs and a bagel. For some reason, the portion of matzo brei was huge and I was really full after. Then I came home and finally began writing, which is what I really wanted to do, as it took my mind off the other hellishly odd stuff. I managed three and a half pages, then answered e-mails, made a few telephonic calls, wrote a letter, which I then sent via e-mail, and picked up a bunch of packages. Then I wrote another couple of pages.
I then had supper with the helper’s best girlfriend, and I got more of the story. That cleared up a few things in my mind, and the helper’s best girlfriend will be our interim helper. We’re meeting on Saturday with the boyfriend, who will show her how the shipping works, will pass on all necessary passwords, and then we’ll be covered until everything is either worked out or not. She can’t ever work weekdays but is willing to come in evenings and on weekends, so we should be fine. The whole damn thing was hellishly odd, but dinner was nice and the helper’s best girlfriend, who I’d already met several times, is aces.
After that, I came home and wrote another three pages – I think I did a total of eight or nine, which is more than fine. I got a lot of the plot history done and I hope it’s entertainingly presented – I’ll probably futz with it this morning and then move on to finishing chapter two and beginning chapter three. At that point, I had nothing left, so I just stared at the computer screen like so much fish until it was time to write these here notes. Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I’m quite tired and quite ready to be done with the hellishly odd day.
Today, I shall be up early, I hope to do at least some fixes before the helper’s boyfriend arrives. We’ll then get the four or five packages on their way and do the orders that he needed the CDs for, and then we should be all caught up. She had all our boxes and labels and everything, so he’s bringing those so we have all that stuff here. He’ll keep some with him so that if I need him to do some stuff he’ll be able to, until the interim helper takes over on Saturday. After we’re done, then I’ll do as much writing as I can before our rehearsals begin at three-thirty. First up is the Nightmare Trio doing Getting Married Today, which is the hidden track on The Stephen Sondheim Album. Then the other singers arrive, one every half hour. When that’s done, then The Singer arrives and we’ll run her material and start talking about the patter and how we’ll proceed from here. Then I’ll most likely be starving so I’ll go get something to eat, as I don’t think I’ll have time to do any eating prior to that. If I’m really starving I’ll have a truffle or two, thanks to dear reader Sam’s box o’ truffles.
Tomorrow, I should be able to write uninterrupted for several hours. Then I’ll try to finalize the casting for the February Gardenia show, which I’ll tell only you dear readers, will be The Sherman Brothers Album – the album that never was. As I’ve mentioned, I never completed the album, and while it was ultimately released it was rather horrifyingly and ineptly mixed by the person who listed himself as “producer” even though I’d conceived the album, done its arrangements with Todd Ellison, cast it, recorded the band and the singers – you know, produced it. But the mix is everything, and when you have a total idiot and nincompoop doing it, then you get bad results. And the results were, in my opinion (IMO, in Internet lingo) beyond bad – the results were disheartening and disgusting, to use two D words. No vocals were comped (I do multiple takes and make a wonderful vocal from them – I’m an expert at it and that’s why singers trust me in the studio) – only full early takes were used because the “producer” didn’t have the patience to sift through all of them. The most egregious is the Jason Graae track. They used the first take – he simply wasn’t used to the track yet, and we hadn’t found the vocal approach and fun of the number. By take four it was incredible but you’d never know that. But that was only the tip – the icing, the true idiocy was this nincompoop “producer” leaving off half the orchestra tracks (we record the orchestra in two passes, so, for example, we have two reed players and on one pass they do one reed part, and on the other pass they do a second reed part, thereby giving us four reeds). When you leave off half the orchestra tracks (the excuse I heard was the idiot couldn’t find them – yeah, that’s a “producer” all right) you also leave off half the orchestrations and therefore everything sounds “wrong” because it is wrong. So, thought an evening of those songs done by great people in our arrangements would be a great thing to do, and I’m hoping Dick Sherman will come and see the show. His happiest dream would be for me to buy back that album and do the mix the right way. And I may try and do just that, although whether anyone would be able to find that hard-drive or not is anyone’s guess. In any case, the songs are such smilers and so much fun and I know singers love to sing them. I have some ideas for a guest star for that show and we’ll see if we can pull that off.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do the rest of the shipping with the helper’s boyfriend, I must write, I must do a couple of errands and whatnot, I must rehearse, and I must eat. Today’s topic of discussion: We haven’t done a desert island topic in a ‘coon’s age – so, if you had to choose one motion picture to bring with you on a desert island, what would it be and why would you choose it? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, as we hopefully have a very nice and productive day after the hellishly odd day of yesterday.