Well, dear readers, can this really be the last day of October? Can this really be Halloween? Can this month really have flown by like a gazelle in hot pants? Holy moley on rye, the swiftness of October was swift. Oh, well, tomorrow there will be a brand spanking new month, a little month I like to call November, and it is my fervent prayer and hope that it is a month filled with health, wealth, happiness, creativity, and all things bright and beautiful – for all of us. Meanwhile, I have to admit I’m scared. I’m scared because soon hundreds of ghosties and ghoulies and hobgoblins will descend upon the City of Studio for their treats. And I shall be here giving them out. I have six hundred pieces of candy – last year I went through over 450 so I wanted to be safe and have more than I need.
Yesterday was a day, that much I can say. It was a day and then it was a night, and not the other way around. I got up around nine-thirty so had less than seven hours of sleep. I answered e-mails, and then Adryan Russ arrived and we had a work session figuring out details for the LACC show, which she’s helping produce. We went through the song lists, assigned numbers, and realized we had some cutting to do, which we did. I’m leaving each act with probably one song too many, but I want choices as to what will go and I’ll make those choices in rehearsal as I see how the show lays out. We then did a rehearsal schedule for our first week. We’re sharing two of our gals with another show and that’s going to be a little tricky to work out, as I really have only fourteen days to put all this together, which isn’t very much. Add to that losing five full days just before tech, thanks to Thanksgiving, and we’ve really got our work cut out for us. I did adjust stuff for our first week so that there are no conflicts. After that, it gets dicey but we’ll figure it all out. But now that songs are assigned I can get the gals their music and a CD to practice to and that will be very helpful. No one is doing THAT much material, so they should be able to learn it easily. The songs are pretty evenly distributed save for Alet and Damon, who naturally get the more difficult material – the good news there is that they’ve done all their songs in the Gardenia shows, so they know them. We’ve also left one slot open in each act for a guest star, and I have to choose three songs that they can choose from. That part is tricky.
Then Adryan left and I did some work on the computer, after which I got ready to mosey on over to a birthday bash for a film music collector over in Echo Park/Silverlake. It was a fun partay, and I saw lots o’ folks I know, including our very own Mr. Nick Redman and Julie Kirgo, film music’s own Mike Matessino, conductor William Stromberg and his musical partner in crime John Morgan, several folks from the Film Score Monthly board, our very own Outside The Box editor Marshall Harvey, and many others. There was food, drink, door prizes, and lots o’ film music playing in different areas of the house and yard. I was there for an hour and then took my leave.
I went and had a sandwich and a teeny-tiny piece of sweet potato pie at the Coral Café in the Bank of Bur, after which I came home and sat on my couch like so much fish and watched the first to episodes of the episodic Eyetalian film, Boccaccio ’70 (what the ’70 refers to is anyone’s guess – it’s certainly not the year the film was released). This is the full-length Eyetalian version of the film, which runs an astounding three and a half hours. For the US release, they simply lopped off the first episode, which runs about fifty-five minutes. That episode is cute but minor, directed by Mario Monicelli. It’s the only episode that didn’t have any box-office names in it, so it was probably an easy decision and an easy way to get the film down to two and a half hours. The second episode is the best – The Temptation of Dr. Antonio, directed by Federico Fellini. It’s like a compendium of Fellini moments from other films of his, but it’s really wonderfully directed and photographed, and very amusing. It stars Anita Ekberg as a billboard model come to giant-sized life to torment a stuffy prig of a man who is obsessed with morally correct values. The score by Nino Rota is also delightfully delightful. The next two segments are by Luchino Visconti and Vittorio De Sica. The transfer on the new Blu and Ray looks pretty fantastic.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must try and get a really good night’s sleep to get my balance back so I have excellent energy for a week that will really need it.
Today, two people are coming over in the morning to pick up various and sundried things, then I have a lunch meeting during which I’ll meet and have lunch, then I have errands and whatnot to do, banking to do, the four-mile jog to do, and hopefully a package or three to pick up. Then we have a rehearsal with Melody, and then it’s giving out a LOT of treats to the scary and fun kiddies who will be knocking at my door for three hours.
Tomorrow I will try to get down to LACC to deliver CDs to the gal singers – if not, maybe Wednesday. Then we have our stumble-through, then Wednesday it’s sound check and show, and then back to meetings and meals and final editing on the three episodes of the web series. And then, of course, on Sunday we premiere episode one.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, have a lunch meeting, do errands and whatnot, do banking, do a four-mile jog, hopefully pick up packages, rehearse, and give out candy. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your all-time favorite Eyetalian motion pictures? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland on this, the last day of October and Halloween, which will be followed immediately by a little month I like to call November, a month we pray will be filled with health, wealth, happiness, creativity, and all things bright and beautiful.