Well, dear readers, it was another day of dodging bullets regarding Nudie Musical. The hiccup grew into an epidemic when I finally heard back from the company that issued the DVD. It seems I was incorrect about the term of license – I thought it was seven years because that’s what I remember being discussed. I guess at some point it became ten years and certainly they have a contract with my signature on it. Of course, that was a potential disaster, as the contract is not up on the date we signed it (no problem if that was the case as it was signed in August of 2001) – it’s up on the release date, which is June 2012. Not only that, they then have a sell-off period of six months, so what they were saying is that they had this until December of 2012. This made my head want to explode. I wrote a long, impassioned response, basically saying that they hadn’t actually been selling it for over a year, that they probably had no stock to sell off, that they’d done very well by it but that there most certainly would be only a handful of sales IF they actually pressed more DVDs and sold them. I also stated the obvious, which is that the contract is really for DVD and VHS. I told them what a hardship it would be if we had to wait and that we’d miss the thirty-fifth anniversary of the film’s release. I was very nice about it all. I just asked for them to call me so we could discuss and see if we could bring it to a happy conclusion and that I was completely willing to listen to any ideas they might have as to how to do so.
I didn’t hear anything back for two hours so I wrote another e-mail, this one in my usual style – I simply said, “Can someone please get back to me – an elderly Jew is about to have a heart attack here” followed by a smiley face. I got a call literally thirty seconds later and the legal gal was laughing. She said they’d had a meeting and decided that despite the contract reading as it does, that they really didn’t have any plans to do anything further and so they would give written permission for us to go ahead with the Blu and Ray and that it was no problem for the documentary to be included, as all those rights will revert to me in December of 2012. And a couple of hours later, I had the e-mail, which I can now forward to the replication plant. I can’t imagine they will have a problem with the e-mail and hopefully they will begin replication immediately. If there is any problem, I will pull it from them and replicate elsewhere, but I think we’ll be fine. Do send some extra excellent vibes and xylophones, though, just to make sure.
So, it was a VERY stressful day for the most part, but all’s well that ends well, as some wag once said. I got a good night’s sleep and then did the four-mile jog, after which I had a fun work session with Alet, with her running all the songs for the Gardenia show. She’s still feeling her way and she’s also just getting over a cold, but she’s going to be absolutely superb. I had a chopped salad with turkey (oil and vinegar – less than a teaspoon of oil and a lot of vinegar) and some rye toast, which was not only rye but wry. I love when rye toast is wry, don’t you? Wry Toast – that’s the title of my next novel. After that, I picked up a couple of packages, did some banking, then came home. After I got the good news about Nudie Musical I was finally able to sit on my couch like so much fish, exhausted, with a headache, but breathing a little easier.
Last night, I watched a motion picture on DVD entitled The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover, a strange movie written and directed by the strange but always interesting Larry Cohen. I’d always wanted to see this film as we issued the soundtrack back in the Bay Cities days. Well, it’s fairly typical Larry Cohen. He shows no real directing ability and yet all his films have a certain, how shall we say, charm and off-the-cuff quality. He does get interesting casts and the cast of Private Files is really fun – Broderick Crawford as Hoover, Dan Dailey (in his final role) as Tolson, and a treasure trove of character people like Howard Da Silva, Celeste Holm, Michael Parks, Rip Torn, Andrew Duggan, Jose Ferrer, John Marley, Michael Sacks, June Havoc, Lloyd Nolan, Raymond St. Jacques and others. Crawford was sixty-six when he made this and he looks a decade older. Dan Dailey was only a year older than I am now, but he looks older than Crawford. Thus the perils of alcoholism. The film is all over the place and just jumps from thing to thing with awkwardly paced scenes that don’t really go anywhere, and yet, it’s still interesting. Go know. The film has a VERY dramatic score by Miklos Rozsa and the transfer on this DVD-R (from MGM) is okay.
After the movie, I still had a headache, so I went and had a piece of PIE, which I thought I deserved, and I really hadn’t had many calories. Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I am exhausted from all the dodging of bullets and I propose a wry toast like – here’s to a good night’s beauty sleep.
Today, I shall do the four-mile jog early, then have some errands and whatnot to do, some packages and hopefully an important envelope to pick up and depending on how we feel, I may go to the editing room to do the fine cuts of the first two episodes and see the work in progress on the third. I’d kind of like to do that, so we’ll see if we can make that happen. I also hope to have word that replication is beginning on the Nudie Musical Blu and Ray. Then I’ll eat something light but amusing, after which I’m seeing a screening of The Ghastly Love Of Johnny X, this movie that I have a teeny-tiny role in.
Tomorrow, I’ll do some writing, and I’m seeing a play by Doug Haverty in the evening. Sunday, I’m finally working with Mr. Grant Geissman and there will be a LOT to do. The following week will be VERY busy.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do the four-mile jog, pick up packages and hopefully and important envelope, maybe go to the editing room, eat, and see a screening. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player and your DVD/video player? I’ll start – DVD, RKO 281. CD, various and sundried Kritzerland projects. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland – and please send a few more excellent vibes and xylophones that replication can now begin. Replication Can Now Begin – that’s the title of my next novel, a science fiction story set in the future, where people spend all the livelong day making wry toasts.