Well, dear readers, the unusual happened yesterday: I actually had a semi-relaxing day. I know, it amazed me, too. I had a good night’s sleep, I lazily answered e-mails, I did the four-mile jog, I picked up an important envelope and no packages, I wrote a press release for Nudie Musical, and I actually sat on my couch like so much actual fish and watched the first hour of a motion picture I’d TIVOd. No drama, no bullets, no bad e-mails, just a nice semi-relaxing day. And that’s a good thing.
After watching The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover the other night, I decided I wanted to listen to the Rozsa score, which I issued on a Bay Cities CD. So, I pulled out the CD and was surprised to see it was signed by Mr. Rozsa. I thought the only thing I had signed by him was my LP of Providence. And then I pulled out more Bay Cities CDs, the American classical ones and was very surprised to see how many of THOSE were signed – Robert Ward, Homer Keller – it was really fun seeing them again. I have a Hugo Friedhofer signed LP of This Earth Is Mine, too. I have several other LPs signed by several favorite composers. And lately, I’ve gotten about ten pieces of sheet music signed by Elmer Bernstein – sheet music to Love With The Proper Stranger, Hud, True Grit, Kings Go Forth, a cut song from How Now, Dow Jones (when Arthur Penn was still the director), Walk On The Wild Side, Hawaii, The Carpetbaggers and a few others. At some point I think I need to catalog all these signed items – I have a one-sheet from Taxi Driver signed to me by Mr. Scorsese, and lots o’ stuff like that. I don’t really collect autographs, but I do like having some stuff from people I know or that I’m a big fan of. Of course, a lot of my first editions are signed, and I love those volumes a lot. I have a very rare book on Fellini called Fellini’s Films, and I got a bunch of signatures to lay into the book – Fellini himself, Giulietta Masina, Richard Basehart, Broderick Crawford and others, so that’s a pretty fun thing to have. Yes, I think I’ll begin cataloging all my stuff because I have a LOT of stuff and I’m sure some of it is very valuable.
For lunch I had a sandwich and onion rings, and later I went to see a new play by our very own Doug Haverty. Doug has written a lot of plays and has won awards for doing so. This new play takes place in a bank and involves tellers, supervisors, and an impending cutting of jobs. The characters are fun and the actors all did a good job – it’s all women and one man. I had some issues with the direction – mostly pacing and the use of very trite music. And there are many monologues in the play and frankly I think the play would be better without them – any important information could be put into scenes, but the fact is they serve primarily as backstory for each character, but they kind of stopped all forward momentum and kept taking me out of the play and then none of them really pay off. I think trusting the central conflict and plot more would cut thirty minutes out of the show, which would then enable it to play in one act, which I think would be better for this piece. But, those are just my ramblings. The audience enjoyed it and I’m glad I saw it.
After the play, I realized I was quite hungry (a sandwich and a small order of onion rings is not really enough to eat after doing a four-mile jog), so I went to a coffee shop and had two small scoops of chicken salad (VERY little mayo used, I must say) on a bed of lettuce. Pretty low-cal and it really hit the spot.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must be up early to do the four-mile jog before going to the home environment of Mr. Grant Geissman.
Today, I shall be doing the four-mile jog, and then going to Mr. Grant Geissman’s home environment to do a bunch of work and hopefully figure out what his theme will be for the new web series. He has the opening animation and I’ll have the rough cut of one of the episodes to show him. Otherwise, we’ll be working on four Guy Haines tracks for the long a’borning new CD. After that, I think I’ll eat something light but amusing, and then watch motion pictures. I was invited to an EMMY party but I have no interest and I know no shows, so I shall be a no show. But I will be here so I will enjoy seeing all of your EMMY postings.
Tomorrow is going to be a very long day. I have to do the four-mile jog very early, do some banking, then see a noon reading of a new musical version of Sleepless In Seattle. After that I go directly to the editing room to fine cut two episodes and to see a rough cut of the third. After that, I go to a rehearsal with Guy Haines, who’ll be singing at an event honoring the late Michelle Nicastro. The rest of the week is filled with meetings, work sessions, meals, and all manner of errands and whatnot.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do the four-mile jog, I must have a work session, I must eat, and I must watch motion pictures. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topic of discussion and we all get to post about it. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, some of which can by your EMMY predictions. I shall now hit the road to dreamland and if today is another semi-relaxing day then that will add up to a whole relaxing day.