Well, dear readers, I would just like to point out that it is September. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, it is September. And let us hope and pray that September will be a month filled with health, wealth, happiness, creativity, and all things bright and beautiful. So it is written, so it shall be done. The last day of August was a jam-packed one. I was up early, jogging by eight, and then I had a nice meeting with my cameraperson – she’s very bright and has very good ideas. The LA shoot will be a little more elaborate than the NY shoot – she’s got more equipment, some lighting, and we’ll be able to do some fun coverage. After that, I had to answer e-mails and then mosey on over to Hugo’s in West Hollywood for a lunch meeting. I met with the MGM lady, who’s now no longer at MGM. So, we discussed a little plan I’d thought of – since she has great relationships at all the studios, I’m going to hire her to get me into places I haven’t been able to get into. This will be very good for both of us – she’ll get a fee every time she’s responsible for getting me a license. Once I’m into these places and established, then I’ll be able to do it myself. So, I’m very excited about this and am making a list of things I’d like to get from various and sundried studios. I ordered the pasta papa – I took one look at it and saw that it looked severely undercooked and yucky – and I located several pieces of bacon that were not cooked at all. I told the waitress to please take it away before I threw up all over the table. She asked what was wrong and I showed her the fairly raw bacon (I mean, it was basically just raw fat). Instead I ordered a barbecue turkey sandwich and a little side salad. This was the first time I have ever sent anything back in twenty-five years of going to Hugo’s. The very uppity host came to my table with the pasta papa, shoved it in front of my face, and said, “What’s wrong with this?” I explained as I had to the waitress that it looked anemic, that I’ve had the dish hundreds of times and the bacon has never been this undercooked and I said it didn’t really matter because I wasn’t going to eat it. He said, “Well, next time order the bacon well done.” I said, “Keep talking to me like this and there won’t be a next time.” I told him that I’d been coming to the restaurant probably since he was in knee pants and that this was the first time I’d ever sent anything back. He said he’d take it off the check – I said I thought that would be a good idea. My sandwich and salad were fine.
After lunch, I moseyed on over to my engineer’s home environment and we spent close to three hours finessing the mix of Melodyland. It now sounds really good and we were actually able to fix a few things I thought Melody would have to come in and fix – the engineer has an amazing new piece of software in his Pro Tools and it works unbelievably well. So, Melody only has to come in and sing a lyric she messed up (she repeated a lyric twice – just two lines and easy to plug in) and she has to say one short line of patter that she forgot, but that’s part of an important joke set up. I wasn’t completely sure about putting it out, but I think I will.
After that, I went to the mail place where there were no packages. Then I finally came home. I finished writing the commentary for the Gardenia show – that took a while, and then I tried to start a motion picture on Blu and Ray but just couldn’t sit still. Then I went to the piano and did some work, and then I finished the Gregory Harrison episode of the web series, which I’ll send to him today. Then I had to do some figuring out regarding some upcoming Paramount titles that we could get – in order to get them (around twelve titles in all) I’m going to need to put up a significant chunk of change to get all the stuff transferred. What’s happening is that the three labels who’ve been licensing the most stuff from Paramount have been asked to put up the transfer costs – about 13K. So, I’d be putting up a third of that or a little more, so I have to figure out if that’s doable. I kind of need to make it doable, though, because they’re really good projects and I need the releases for next year. But this month I also have to pay the large Nudie Musical Blu and Ray authoring bill, and then I’ll have to pay the replication bill right after. So, I have to figure out just how I’m supposed to do all that.
I also had a really nice telephonic call from Miss Cindy Williams, and we’ll be talking again Friday night. And I’ll be seeing her at the Ray Courts celebrity signing show in Chicago at the end of the month.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I really must get my beauty sleep.
Today, I must do the four-mile jog, I must finish one set of liner notes and begin another, I must do errands and whatnot including taking stuff into the dry cleaners, I must give my car a much-needed bath, I must hopefully pick up a couple of overdue packages, and then I must have our second Gardenia rehearsal, after which I’ll sup, and then I have to make some notes and drawings for our shoot tomorrow.
Tomorrow, I’ll be up really early so I can get my four-mile jog in, and then I’ll be at our shooting location at ten and we start shooting promptly at eleven or maybe even a little before eleven if we can get everything together. We have to wrap Jason’s part of the shoot by one, at which point I’ll shoot Melody’s little bit, which should only take about twenty minutes. Then we’ll wrap out of that location and quickly get over to Jason’s house to shoot his set-up scene in his garden. Then all the footage and sound has to get dumped on our portable hard drive. I’m hoping the long weekend can be a restful one, other than having to finish writing the last of the episodes for the web series and to finish up liner notes.
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 do errands and whatnot, I must try to get my car washed, I must hopefully pick up packages, I must have a rehearsal and I must sup. Today’s topic of discussion: What is the worst experience you’ve had in a restaurant – your restaurant horror stories. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I shall hope and pray that September will be a month filled with health, wealth, happiness, creativity, and all things bright and beautiful.