Well, dear readers, it is quite late so I must write these here notes in a hurry and get them posted. So, let me start at the beginning, which is, after all, a very good place to start. I do not like uppity people. There, I said it and I’m glad. Last night, I attended a little surprise birthday partay for our very own Miss Alet Taylor in her Hollywood home, which is near Amoeba Records. I knew several people there, naturally, including my pal Lauren, who’s understudying all the women in the show that Alet is doing, and her cast mate Kim Huber (Kim’s husband is doing the next Gardenia show), as well as the lovelier than lovely Jane Noseworthy and her beau, Alet’s husband, Andy, her kids, the gal who did The Brain Tap choreography at LACC, and several other nice folks. And then there was Mr. Uppity, who happens to be a director. Now, I have seen three of Mr. Uppity’s shows and they were all quite bad and quite boring directorially speaking. He is occasionally saved by the talent he’s working with but he has little creativity from what I have seen. I have met Mr. Uppity several times. He knows who I am. He is always, always peculiar and weird with me. When I last met him it was backstage and in discussing Alet I mentioned that I had discovered her back in 1997 and put her on a lot of albums and used her at every opportunity I could. His response? “You’re scaring me,” said in a very uppity manner, if you get my meaning and I know you do. And so it always is. Mr. Uppity saw me at the partay. Mr. Uppity did not acknowledge the fact that someone he’d met several times and who he obviously knows (Alet’s online bio for her show states that she has been doing the Gardenia shows and singing anything that I throw at her – happily) was standing two inches from him. No, he just prattled on in his uppity way. When I finally was leaving, he was talking to my pal Lauren. I went up to her and said goodbye, she kissed me on the cheek and gave me a hug whilst Mr. Uppity watched and STILL said nothing, STILL would not even look in my direction. What a twit. He is and will remain on my F list. And when people talk to me about him and ask my opinion they shall hear it loud and clear. I loathe people like that. Maybe it’s because I didn’t include him on my panel of LA’s busiest directors at LACC. Oh, well.
But enough about Mr. Uppity. It will be great to have Alet be back with us for the April Gardenia show, then she’ll miss May because hubby Andy will be gone for five weeks doing a workshop of a new musical based on the film Once (I think that’s what it was called). Then she’ll be back in June and hopefully won’t miss anymore. I broached the subject of something I’d been thinking about and she was thrilled and scared at the prospect – I want to do a Gardenia evening based on the album I produced called A Broadway Love Story. Christiane Noll, of course, was the vocalist on the album and it’s a terrific performance. It’s a concept I loved creating, and I particularly loved doing the arrangements for that album and figuring out how everything would work. It was one of the most creatively satisfying albums I ever did. So, I want Alet to do it as a solo evening. It’s daunting, of course, but she’s familiar with a lot of the songs, so it shouldn’t be that hard. What we’ll do is figure out a month like August, where she’ll have two or three months to learn it and rehearse it. But I think she’d be great and I really want to do it for her.
Prior to the partay, I’d had a nice little day. We shipped CDs, I did some banking, I had a bit of good news from the dealer, who will be helping a little this week with an extra small payment that will be very helpful, I got word that the package that had been returned to amazon France and that I’d reordered had been returned again. This time I called DHL, the carrier, who blamed it on the USPS. I said, “You guys get in the ring and duke it out because they blame you.” I then explained that two days earlier I’d gotten a package from amazon France just fine with no problem. Then she blamed amazon for doing something wrong. I said it was nonsense, but it was clear these people weren’t going to acknowledge any error on their part. I then wrote amazon France a very strong note and reordered the thing AGAIN, this time by express mail, which is trackable and traceable, so no lying about it. I suggested to amazon France that they pick up the extra cost of that shipping service, and they did. So, hopefully this thing will finally get here in a couple of days.
I heard from the mastering guy who is working “feverishly” on the Carnival master, trying to smooth out the tape’s inconsistencies to my liking. One way or another, he has to be finished today so it can be Fed Exed to the shipping plant. I also finished watching On The Double. It’s really like a “greatest hits” of Danny, but all the routines have been done better in his other films, and the whole affair felt rather stale. The transfer on DVD was perfectly fine.
Then I moseyed on over to Amoeba to park (there is no parking anywhere near where the Taylors live – it’s all permit parking, so there are scads of places to park that sit empty, which is really stupid and they should revoke whatever ordinance was passed and allow anyone to park. It’s a big pain in the ASS. So, I parked at Amoeba (about four blocks from where they live) and took some trade stuff in, got a not-so-great credit for it, and then walked over to the partay. After the partay, I walked back to Amoeba and got some Blu and Rays and one CD, using up all the credit.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must get my beauty sleep so I can be twitchy and bitchy and manic whilst I greet the new day – a glorious day in which I do not have to partake of the visage of Mr. Uppity. By the way (BTW, in Internet lingo), I am not the only one who feels this way or who’s had this experience with Mr. Uppity, so I am not alone in this.
Today, I shall greet the day with aplomb, do my morning ablutions, and then I shall do errands and whatnot, perhaps have an early lunch or a late lunch or an early dinner. I have some liner notes to write and hopefully I will pick up a package or three and I’m hoping to watch a motion picture or two.
Tomorrow, I’m seeing some show in West Hollywood in the evening, and the day will be spent finishing liner notes and doing lots o’ stuff. Thursday I’ll be supping with Miss Juliana Hansen, who then wants to watch The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, which I’ve been wanting to see again. And so it goes for the rest of the week, and then I do a book signing on Sunday.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do all of the above and then all of the above will be done and I shall be relaxing on my couch like so much fish. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite Danny Kaye films and songs? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland where I can assure you I will not be dreaming of Mr. Uppity.