Well, dear readers, it’s taken a year, but the first four tracks for what we hope will be a new Guy Haines album are completely finished, save for the vocals, a sax solo, and a piano part (the latter two for one of the songs). They sound great and I’m looking forward to working with Guy when we record the vocals, which we’ll probably do before the end of the year. But then there is the matter of the other eleven tracks. I have the songs chosen, but Grant is too busy to do the tracks and even if he said he’d do them, I’m not waiting another year to have them done. So, I have several options I’m weighing, one of which is to do a new Kickstarter campaign and raise a few thousand bucks to pay for six more songs to be orchestrated and then recorded with a ten-piece band. That would make ten band tracks and the other five songs would be done with solo piano, guitar, or small ensembles. Or I’ll just make the rest of the album small. I’d like some opinions on all this, please. The four songs we have so far are really good – not stuff you’d expect, which is what we like to do with Guy, but really cool songs (none of those four are theater songs – and only one of them is a film theme song with lyrics). We always like to delve into a little pop – think Second Avenue or Here You Come Again from the earlier albums. But the balance of the songs includes several theater songs, but not ones you’d expect to hear. Naturally one of them is from Li’l Abner, because we always must do a Li’l Abner song. I would like to finish the album by March, so if it’s to be a Kickstarter campaign then we’ll probably launch that in January for the New Year. We have the title for the album, too.
The work session to complete the four tracks was fun, as always. Grant had done most of the work, but while I was there he added more guitars, strings, and some other small stuff. The four tracks sound amazing and beautifully full and will mix really well.
Prior to that, I’d finally gotten eight and a half glorious hours of sleep. I was going to jog, but it was really chilly out and I just don’t do well in the cold when running – it seems like it takes twice the time and it’s just not enjoyable, so I skipped it. Instead, I did work on the computer (but not the liner notes), and other stuff, although I must say I don’t know where the day went. At three I went to Hugo’s and got in (miracle of miracles) and had my small Caesar salad and pasta papa. After that, I came back home, did a few other things, then went to Grant’s. What I was doing from noon to three I have no idea.
After the work session, I made a brief visit to Mr. Doug Haverty’s annual early Christmas Do. There were a lot of folks there, most of whom I didn’t know. I talked to the few I did know and left after about twenty minutes. Then I came home and sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I finished watching a motion picture on DVD entitled The Couch, one of those homegrown things from the Warner Archive. I’ve always wanted to see this film – it came out a year after Psycho and the screenplay was by Robert Bloch (who wrote the novel of Psycho) – I had the paperback, which was Bloch’s adaptation of his screenplay. But the movie came and went so fast I didn’t get a chance to see it and then it literally disappeared. I used to get TV Guide every week for twenty-plus years and in all that time, The Couch never showed up on TV, at least here in LA. Well, I can’t say it was exactly worth the wait, as it’s really bad. Directed by Owen Crump, who shows not one whit of filmmaking talent (Crump was associated with Blake Edwards for many years, and, in fact, the story for The Couch is by he and Edwards) – in the ads they made sure to trumpet it was from the author of Psycho, although Bloch’s Psycho is very different and not nearly as good as Joseph Stefano’s screenplay from it – but it’s shot so perfunctorily and directed so gracelessly (Crump makes William Castle look like Orson Welles) that it just moseys along with endless dialogue scenes, quick murders, no surprises, and then it’s over. Grant Williams is good in the lead, but his dialogue is poor and that always hamstrings an actor. Shirley Knight is fetching as his love interest, but the rest of the cast is serviceable at best and amateur at worst. It does feature a very quick turn by Harold Gould, whose first film it was. Still, I’m glad I finally saw it.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must try to get to bed for my beauty sleep before two o’clock, which is when I’ve been getting to bed the last few nights.
Today, I shall hopefully get up after a good night’s beauty sleep, then, cold or not, I’m doing the four-mile jog, then I have to do some banking, pay some bills, hopefully pick up some packages, eat something light but amusing, and then I have a four-hour work session with Lanny Meyers and a singer.
Tomorrow through Thursday will be more work sessions with Lanny and singer, and also some meetings, finishing liner notes and getting the two upcoming releases prepped, writing more of season two’s Outside The Box episodes, and making copious notes for my new book, which I’ll, as always, start writing on January 1st. I also have to finish locking down the cast for the next Kritzerland show.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do the four-mile jog, I must bank and pay bills, I must hopefully pick up some packages, I must eat, and I must have a work session. Today’s topic of discussion: What films that you haven’t seen would you really like to see – those that still haven’t found their way to DVD or Blu and Ray? The really obscure ones. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, undoubtedly humming the four now-finished Guy Haines songs.