Well, dear readers, I am home safe and sound and also sound and safe. The trip home was uneventful and rather short, although I ended up with only two hours of sleep – I hate when that happens. Hence, I shall write these here notes, get them posted, and get to the bedroom environment. I was at the airport by five and security was much longer than Los Angeles was and it was an hour earlier – go know. Then I went to the Red Carpet Club and was happy to see there was an actual red carpet. I sat there for an hour and then boarded the aeroplane. We took off right on time and the only annoyance was the man directly across from me who coughed the entire trip with his stupid mouth agape, as well as blowing his snot into the same soggy handkerchief. I hope I don’t get his sickening germs. Note to people who are sick: STAY OFF THE DAMN PLANE. We arrived about fifteen minutes early, my transportation was there and there was shockingly almost no traffic at prime rush hour, so that was great.
I talked to the helper whilst on my way home – she watched the home environment whilst I was away and she said that the lights in the front hall, the dining room, the kitchen, and the middle hall were all out. When I got home I found that to be exactly correct. I checked the outside breaker box but that was fine. Then I checked the inside breaker box and indeed a breaker had tripped, so I flipped it and voila – let there be light, baby.
I then unpacked, looked at my mail and opened the one package that had arrived. Then I decided to do the four-mile jog. I got exactly half a block and realized I could go no further, thanks to doing the five miles on the treadmill for three days in a row. I was just too sore and it was impossible. Hopefully I’ll be able to resume today, but we’ll just have to see. Then I got on the scale and was really annoyed to see that I gained a pound instead of having lost the three that I should have lost in the last week. It makes no damn sense – I didn’t eat THAT much food (one meal a day and not huge), I did the five miles on the treadmill, where I go faster then when actually jogging and I also sweat twice as much. So, I do remember this happening the last time I lost a lot of weight. I went one week where I just ate very reasonably and jogged every day and yet gained a pound. The following week I lost five, so maybe that’s what will happen. I do know that my pants are getting looser and looser, so that has to mean I keep losing weight.
After that, I went and had two small scoops of egg salad and two pieces of rye toast, for my meal o’ the day. I also had a frozen Cherry Ripe for dessert – my goodness, I love that candy bar. But surely my calorie intake for the day was under 1000. Then I caught up on e-mails, had a few telephonic conversations, then moseyed on over to the editing room, first stopping and picking up three count them three packages. The editor showed me his first pass for our teaser trailer – I’d written it and selected certain shots and I was very happy with what he’d done. But it ran about a minute twenty seconds and that was just too long. I’d originally wanted to start with a little dialogue scene with Beth Leavel, but I realized that it just wasn’t necessary; it was much better to just get to it. Once we removed that we were down to a minute, and then we cut another thirteen seconds just by tightening all the shots. I thought it played really well. They made me a Quick Time file to post on You Tube, which I did as soon as I got home. It was quite easy, actually, and then I posted a bulletin so all channel subscribers would get the alert, then I posted to Facebook. We got lots of nice comments. I don’t really know whether to put it on the theater chat boards or not. We’ve announced it and if they find it they find it. I think that’s best. Then I had to deal with the insanity that is the limited edition soundtrack one-upsmanship. Everyone, and I mean everyone, knew that we had Elmer Bernstein’s Summer and Smoke coming as our 100th CD release and that it was a big event for us – that’s why I let it be known that it was coming almost eight weeks ago. So, what happens? One label moves up an Elmer Bernstein release to happen a week before our announcement – a score of similar vintage. Brilliant. Then another label decides to also release an Elmer Bernstein score the day after us. What are these people thinking? It’s just madness. These two labels have been duking it out with a series of Jerry Goldsmith releases – it’s almost like children in a playground going, “We’ve got THIS amazing release!” “Oh yeah, well, that’s nothing compared to THIS amazing release by the same composer!” And on and on it goes and it’s just sucking all the life and fun out of this, not to mention that it frequently ends up hurting sales, this continual glut of titles. You know what? If I know someone is coming out with something great, I don’t go up against it with something similar, trying to wave my arms and say, “Oh, but look what I’VE got!!!” I wish they would stop, but they never will, that has become apparent. And as if that wasn’t enough, another label who’d planned to have their next release of four CDs at the end of this month, moved their announcement up to next week. So, that’s what? A total of six CDs AND Summer and Smoke? It is too much. When and if they finally kill the goose that laid the golden egg, I’m sure they’ll all scratch their collective heads and wonder what went wrong. So, we’ve changed our release plan and will do what we need to do – it’s too great a score and too important a release for us, frankly. Then I finally sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a one-person show on DVD entitled Wishful Drinking, starring Miss Carrie Fisher. I’d heard great things about it, but I must say I was disappointed with what I saw. It had some funny things and she kept it moving along, but too much of it just sort of sat there like so much fish and had a certain sameness to it. I was really interested to see it, because I just make mental notes of pitfalls to avoid when doing Miss Cindy Williams’ show. I think she’s going to have a lot more variety, but then again they’re two very different people. Even the title of the show kind of falls flat. I also found the video presentation really weird, with shots that obviously were taken from different performances – just really awkward edits that didn’t quite match. Plus, it wasn’t really the show as presented on stage – they rolled in videos during certain moments where it was very clear that the audience hadn’t seen them. It wasn’t bad by any means, but I guess I was just expecting something more.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must go get a really good night’s beauty sleep, so that I can live long and prosper. What am I, Mr. Spock all of a sudden? Or is it Captain Kirk?
Today, I shall hopefully arise after a good night’s beauty sleep. I shall attempt the four-mile jog and may just have to tough it out. Then I have to do a bunch of errands and whatnot, after which we have our stumble-through. We’ve invited a few people over, so that Alet can get used to playing this with people watching.
Tomorrow, of course, we have our sound check at five and then it’s show time at nine. I’m really looking forward to it, and other than some introductory remarks about how the album came to be, and telling what the November show is, this is the first show where I don’t have to talk – there is no contextual commentary.
The rest of the week is very busy, and then I’ll be visiting the Hollywood Show, even though I hate the Hollywood Show – Barry Pearl will be there with a few of his Grease cast-mates, and I’m very much looking forward to seeing one of them – Susan Buckner, who was in Nudie Musical (she’s the first girl who sings in Honey, What’cha Doin’ Tonight? – and she plays Patti Simcox in the film of Grease). I haven’t seen her since we shot the movie.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, attempt the four-mile jog, I must do errands and whatnot and hopefully pick up a package or three, I must eat something very light but amusing, I must watch a stumble-through, and I must relax. Today’s topic of discussion: I know we’ve done this before, but it’s a long time ago – what is the longest you’ve ever been awake without sleep? And why? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland where I shall hopefully live long and prosper and have a good night’s beauty sleep, not necessarily in that order.