Well, dear readers, this week is flying by, like a gazelle in a mosh pit. Are there still mosh pits? Were they called mosh pits or am I thinking of another kind of pits? I think they were called mosh pits, though – you know, where a loud, obnoxious rock band would play and people would get thrown around. That was a mosh pit, right? And WHY was it a mosh pit? What is mosh, anyway? Mosh sounds like an egg dish, doesn’t it? What the HELL am I talking about mosh pits for? Don’t I have notes to write and hadn’t I better write them, knowing that I have to be up at six in the morning to announce Kritzerland’s 100th CD release? Yes and yes, are the answers.
I got a wonderful night’s sleep of about ten and a half hours and boy did I need it. I answered e-mails then did the four-mile jog, which was not exactly easy, but I got through it fine. Then I got everything ready for this morning’s CD launch, had a snippy e-mail correspondence with the snippy guy from SAG – I finally went to his superior, who has been very nice and very supportive – he said he’d speak to Mr. Snippy and get everything worked out. They just make everything more difficult than it needs to be with their endless “rules” for programming in which no one is ever going to make a cent, and which actors seem to love doing. They try to drown the producers of this type of programming in busywork and I’m just not having it. You do what they ask, then they tell you there were four other things that needed doing, as if this were serious filmmaking. It’s not. It’s a lark. They have their New Media thing and I signed up for it even though every actor involved would have done this whether I had or hadn’t. But a web series airing on You Tube is not a cable show or a network show. No one gets paid. Will I ever see any revenue from this? Please. And if I do, and if it reaches a certain point, I have promised every actor a payment. They have signed contracts and time sheets. But that, apparently, is not enough. We got Taft-Hartley’s from all the non-SAG folks. That wasn’t enough, even though that’s what I was told we needed. No, the non-SAG folks have to sign a contract just like the SAG folks. Why? They aren’t SAG. And then SAG wants pictures and resumes on the non-SAG people. Why? They aren’t SAG and that’s a little intrusive, if you ask me. I flat out refused and the guy gave me attitude, which is why I went above him, and the guy above him told me not to worry about that nonsense. I also said that if he’d actually gotten me any of this information before I actually shot the New York episodes I could have done it – but I told him I had no time to try and chase down some non-SAG dancers and that he had their contact information, not I, since I’d sent them everything. I know they have their rules, but I think there needs to be really simplified rules for a You Tube web series wherein everyone works for free. Doing these for free, one simply doesn’t want to drown in a morass of ephemera.
After that, I went and had a sandwich and onion rings, picked up one small package, and then came home. We then had our stumble-through and Alet was terrific – she really addressed the notes from our previous rehearsal, and she was just on top of everything – no flubs, great singing and acting and just good storytelling. Young Jenna Rosen did very well on her duet. Boswell’s piano playing was, as always, sensitive and superb. I only had two really miniscule notes, which I gave and that was that. I then sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched the second half of Ben and Hur and Blu and Ray. It was a lot shorter than the first half, running only eighty minutes. It’s really a handsome transfer, and the chariot race is really a beautifully directed, edited, acted, and scored sequence – just fantastic. How much of it is Wyler and how much Yakima Canutt is anyone’s guess, but whoever did what, they did it very well. Rozsa’s score is quite brilliant, and it’s really just a very enjoyable epic. Wyler was a wonderful director who could seemingly do anything – drama, comedy, epic, musical, or even something very outré like The Collector. Highly recommended by the likes of me.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must get as much beauty sleep as I can before having to arise at six in the morning to announce the 100th Kritzerland CD release.
Today, I shall arise at six in the morning, announce the 100th Kritzerland CD release, and then go back to bed. Once up, I shall do the four-mile jog, do errands and whatnot, hopefully print out a LOT of orders, and then be on my way to our sound check, after which I’ll have a salad then return to the club for the show. I will, of course, have a full report upon my returning, for which I know you’ll be yearning.
Tomorrow and Friday are various and sundried appointments and whatnots, and then Saturday I’ll go visit my chums at the Hollywood Show and the two buffoons who run it better hope I don’t see them – should I, I shall have to give them an earful of what I think about them and what they’ve done to the show. Then I have a dinner to go to. Not sure what’s going on on Sunday but I’ll try to figure it out.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, announce Kritzerland’s 100th CD, hopefully print out a LOT of orders, do the four-mile jog, do a sound check and do the fourteenth Kritzerland at the Gardenia show – I shall not be visiting a mosh pit. 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 in preparation for announcing the 100th Kritzerland CD release.