Well, dear readers, sometimes it seems as if there are not enough hours in the day. Just when you think there ARE enough hours in a day (twenty-four little hours), then you realize that certain days could really use twenty-six little hours or twenty-eight little hours. Of course, if that were to happen then the entire universe would be akimbo and chaos would ensue, oh, yes, chaos would ensue. People would be running amok, dazed and confused as well as confused and dazed, and harmony and peace would be at odds and the world as we know it would implode and destruct, not necessarily in that order. No, I guess that no matter how much it might seem like there aren’t enough hours in the day, in reality there are enough hours in the day and we’d just better make the best of them for to change them would be folly. Yesterday, however, was a day in which there were not enough hours, at least for the likes of me. First of all, sleeping until ten-thirty didn’t help the hours situation. But I really needed the sleep and I was having interesting dreams. But once up, I was already behind and once behind it is hard to catch up. I printed out orders, I answered e-mails, I had telephonic calls, and then I decided to eat an early lunch, which consisted of a small turkey sandwich. After that, I picked up one small package, took music to be Xeroxed, and then came home.
I then tried to catch up on everything, but couldn’t. I needed to make a rough recording. I didn’t. I needed to do some writing on the web series. I didn’t. I did do some Blu and Ray business, though, and that took a while but needed to be done. When one releases a Blu-Ray one must get a license to do so. One must pay a yearly fee and a per-title fee, so I had to set all that up – a nice fellow talked me through it, then I filled out the papers and faxed them and apparently I did it all correctly because they now want MONEY. And MONEY they shall have. And speaking of MONEY, our Kickstarter campaign is, I’m afraid, not moving forward quickly enough and if we don’t have some real action starting today we’re not going to be fully funded by Sunday at five and if not then that whole thing was for nothing and dealing with all those costs becomes very difficult. So, once again, please spread the word and let’s get this thing done. I think we’re currently at 66%.
After setting up the Blu-Ray stuff, I finally did the four-mile jog. Somehow in the last few days I’ve shaved twelve minutes off my jog time, which is pretty good. I then went to Gelson’s and got a small halibut filet and some pre-packaged veggies to sauté. I cooked it all up and it was a nice and VERY low-cal light meal. After that, I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I began a motion picture on Blu and Ray entitled Damnation Alley. Now, I’d never seen the film, but knew it was supposed to be truly one of the worst movies ever made. But then you go on these sites and you hear people talking as if it’s some kind of cult classic masterpiece – you do ultimately realize that those saying that are people who saw the film when they were six and therefore it is of nostalgic value to them. Well, having now watched the first forty minutes of the film, I can concur that it is indeed truly one of the worst movies ever made. It is indescribably bad on every level, save for Jerry Goldmsmith’s heroic attempt to write a great score for a movie that doesn’t exist, other than in his imagination. The movie that does exist is, for its first forty minutes, dramatically inert (the opening is absolutely hilarious – the end of the United States as we know it, and people just sort of sit there and try to stop the nuclear missiles with other missiles as if it were an every day occurrence. And it just gets worse from there. There is a scene with some giant crabs (I think that’s what they were – maybe they were lobsters) and the special effects are so bad that they make the special effects of a Bert I. Gordon film seem like the most sophisticated effects ever done. This film was made and released the same year as a little movie called Star Wars (by the same studio). This film cost much more than Star Wars. Fox thought this was going to be their big hit. I shall say no more until I slog through the rest of it – right now, it would seem to be turning into a road movie. The transfer is off an internegative (it’s obvious because they left the cue change marks – even our little no-budget movie, Nudie Musical, got rid of those, although I haven’t seen what it looks like cleaned up yet), and the image looks like crap. That is not the fault of the transfer, however – the film is literally one optical after another and therefore it is soft, excessively grainy and really bad looking. The other Fox film, Star Wars, would ultimately show what could be done with imagination and people who really knew their stuff.
After that, I had to write liner notes, and I got about two-thirds of them done before I had to stop to write these here notes. Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because there simply aren’t enough hours in the day and this day is now officially over in one minute.
Today, I must wake up very early and be at the lab by nine o’clock, where I will see a screening of Nudie Musical on a large plasma TV – this will be the first time I’ll see it with whatever clean-up work was performed (ten hours’ worth) and I’m really anxious to see what it looks like. I’ll try to shoot some movies with my iPhone so I can post on the Kickstarter update page. If everything looks great, then we’re done with the transfer phase. If I have any fixes, I kept in reserve enough money to do one hour of color correction and one hour of clean up (either to do more, to fix what they’ve done, or to undo something if something doesn’t look right). And then it will be on to the authoring phase, which is a whole other kettle of beans. After that, I have a noon lunch meeting just a few short blocks from the lab, then I’ll hopefully pick up a package or three, come home, print orders, do the four-mile jog, finish the liner notes, work on the web series, do a rough recording, and gather up more music, as well as make CDRs for the singers for the next Gardenia show.
Tomorrow, I’m not sure what’s going on, other than I’m going to try and get to Teddy because my hair has taken on a life of its own and that life is quite frightening. I’m sure I’ll be writing, and prepping our new release and all that jazz. Friday night I have to see a musical in Glendale (one of our Gardenia performers is in it and I know the director), and Saturday I’ll probably mosey on over to the Hollywood Show, although I may not. We shall see. The one thing I won’t be doing this weekend is going anywhere near a freeway, because this is the weekend they are shutting down the 405 for two days – I’m sticking close to home.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, see a screening of the cleaned up Nudie Musical, I must have a lunch meeting, I must pick up packages, I must jog, I must print orders, I must finish liner notes, I must write, and I must try to relax at some point. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear reader any old question you like and we get to give any old answer we like. So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland hoping that there will be enough hours in the day to get everything done.