Well, dear readers, this week is flying by, like a gazelle with a mustard plaster. Holy moley on rye, we are almost in the middle of the month – how does this happen? In any case, I almost just smashed my keyboard to smithereens because I was trying to post something on Facebook and I couldn’t go three letters without getting the Mac wheel thing and then a stupid pop-up saying Safari was having slow script. I’ve never seen that before but after the eighth time I seriously got VERY angry. I finally made the post – ten minutes to write one longish sentence. Slow script my ASS, Safari. Get your act together or get OUT. Where was I? Oh, yes, the month is already half over and holy moley on rye before you know it it will be time for the annual Christmas Eve Do – I believe it’s probably our twentieth Do – something like that anyway.
Yesterday was a melancholy day, at least the first part of it. I got a decent night’s sleep, got up, did some stuff on the computer, and then did the four-mile jog, where I just thought of some nice Susan Gordon memories from the past decade. That’s just what she would have wanted and it was nice and made the jog go very quickly. I did some errands and whatnot, picked up a few packages, and came home. Then we had the second of our work sessions with a singer and Lanny Meyers. They did their other show for me and I took a lot of notes. While most of the song choices were fine, the order wasn’t and the act seemed very schizo to me, veering back and forth between being a history lesson and something more personal. So, I had a lot of suggestions, including losing a couple of songs and adding a couple of others. Of course, we’re not doing any performance work right now, just structure and figuring out what the show has to be. She liked all the suggestions, which I gave her over dinner at the Eclectic Café. She’d brought her delightful mother over and the mother instantly liked me when I said to her daughter, “Oh, you brought your daughter with you.” (Insert smiley face here). I think we can make some good acts for this lady, but it’s not going to be quick – that requires a little time, but she’s a good performer, very pretty, and has a fun personality (little of which is shown in these acts and that’s one of the major things we’ll be working on).
I had my pasta with sausage, peppers and onions, and it was great, as was my small Caesar salad. Lanny and the singer both had tostadas and mom had shrimp risotto. For dessert, mom and daughter split apple pie, Lanny had their excellent crème brulee, and I had their more than yummilicious chocolate mousse.
After dinner, we came back here and she ran the song she wanted to do at the open mic night at the Gardenia and I gave her some direction which she did very well. I then finished up the second set of liner notes, proofed both booklets and gave corrections, so those are ready to go to the printers, but for whatever reasons it’s taking a very long time to get the masters done – don’t know why as both of these are easy and he’s had them for over a week now – perhaps he’s working on someone else’s project, but since mine are coming first I hope he’ll finish them soon as I need to get them announced at the end of the week or next Monday.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must be up at eight and out the door by eight-thirty and need some sort of beauty sleep.
Today, I shall be at the Cinerama Dome at eight in the morning to see some very rare 70mm footage from a film I’m quite fond of. We don’t know exactly what the footage is although we have a suspicion. It will be faded, but I can’t wait to see it. I guess I can say that my friend has been quietly restoring the Holiday In Spain version of Scent Of Mystery. That version is pretty bad – cut by thirty minutes, with bad added narration to help explain the plot due to all the cuts, the moving of the original intermission point, and just making the whole thing into a travelogue rather than a coherent mystery film (in Smell-O-Vision). These recently discovered 70mm rolls may well be the outtakes from the original version – that would be incredible, although they could not simply be inserted back into the film unless they found the complete uncut six-track audio.
After that, I have to come home, and my wiring guy is coming to install a new Blu and Ray all-region player because my other one kind of spazzed out (and there’s nothing to do about it, since the company that made it is effectively out of business). This time I got a well-known brand from a company that really knows what they’re doing, and this one will be a lot easier to operate than my other one. It’s also one of the best thought of Blu and Ray players, an Oppo (Oppo, spelled backwards). I’ll also hopefully pick up some packages, and then we’ll have our third work session – I thought we were having one on Thursday, too, but that apparently isn’t the case. After all that, I’ll eat something, then finish watching the new Blu and Ray of Meet Me In St. Louis.
Tomorrow and Friday, I will prep the new release announcements, and I think I have a meeting or two, otherwise I will continue my quest to actually catch up on my viewing and CD listening. Friday we’ll also be shipping The People In The Picture, so that’s good. After that is shipped, we’re basically done for the year and I will concentrate solely on the new book and its notes, as well as prepping the first Kritzerland release of 2012, which is a really good one.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, see some 70mm footage, I must prep releases, I must have a new player installed, I must hopefully pick up some packages, I must eat, and I must have a work session. 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 and then hopefully hear the strains of “A strange excitement in the air, the smell of perfume everywhere, could it be love or could it be – the scent of mystery.”