Well, dear readers, muse Margaret came to the rescue again, after having finished the book. She was fine with everything, but had some real problems with the section on a certain record label. I’d tried really hard to keep that section from degenerating into bathos and negativity and name-calling. But there were things that really bothered her and she said they were big issues. I was concerned about how much was really going to have to be adjusted, but as always with muse Margaret, we were able to pinpoint the exact things that were bothering her and why they were bothering her. She’s not always able to articulate it, but I hear it and we just talk till it becomes clear.
First she had some minor stuff – removing something sort of negative I’d said about a director that wasn’t really germane to anything, so that was one sentence easily removed. And then we got to the big stuff. The first problem I suspected might be a problem and I’d already gone in and made very big changes before giving it to her. But the biggest of the problems concerned only three pages – and we went over everything on those pages very carefully and I made whole deletions, rewrote a few things, and by the end of it it was so much better. She was very sensitive to me not coming off like an uppity person who, in a book, feels he can editorialize on certain behavior. She’s fine as long as the facts are being stated, but not fine with making snarky comments on them. And certain things she felt just weren’t necessary to the storytelling. Overall, I removed one entire page of those three pages, and it’s just better, there’s no other way to say it. Then we began going through the rest of that fifty or so page section (amazingly, with all that happened, I devote only about fifty pages to that label, from start to finish). She kept saying it made her depressed to know what I was going through, but as we went through those pages, it really boiled down to only a few things on about eight different pages, mostly excising a line or a word – just smaller things. We literally went through each of those pages and as we did she was fine with just about all of it because I really ultimately do put such a positive spin on the events. You can’t erase what happened and you have to tell it, but the POINT is that one survived it and that positivity she could see was there as we went through it.
Once we were into the book’s final twenty pages she was fine with everything, except the final line of the final chapter. She just didn’t think the phrase I used sounded anything like me, and she was right. I simply nuked the line and ended the chapter with the last line of the previous paragraph, which was much stronger. She loved the outroduction. So, she’s now very happy and so am I.
Prior to that conversation, I’d had a good night’s beauty sleep, then handed out CDRs and music to our singers. I had a short window of opportunity to eat, so I went and had some eggs and a bagel, not necessarily in that order. Then I picked up a couple of packages, after which I came home. Then we had our rehearsal with the New York singer. I’d already done some work on the show order and the structure and saw right away that we had way too many ballads. So I tossed out three right away and said we had to replace them with up-tempo songs. We worked on several arrangements and then just talked about the up-tempo songs and out of that I somehow came up with a composer and that’s now going to become one medley of mostly up songs – and it will be completely unique because I don’t know that any cabaret artist has done this guy’s songs. Then we figured out one other to try and we’ll do all that today. And because we’ve now sort of figured out the program, suddenly the point became organic rather than a point that they were trying to shoehorn into something personal. Once I realized that, everything became clear. So, it was a long slog but a very creative day. I then sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I began watching a motion picture on Blu and Ray entitled Godzilla, the new Criterion release. Godzilla had already come out on Blu and Ray in what was a horrible transfer that was soft and ugly. I watched the first thirty minutes of this new transfer and it’s pretty terrific. I’ll have a full report when I finish the film. Muse Margaret called while I was watching it and that was a long conversation, so I just made the changes into the master manuscript and then played on the Internet.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must try and get another good night’s beauty sleep.
Today, I will jog. Yes, Virginia, today is the day I go back to jogging regularly. After that, I shall do some errands and whatnot, hopefully pick up a package or three, then at two we rehearse. At five we’ll have some dinner, then we’ll come back and rehearse again.
Tomorrow we rehearse. Friday is our Kritzerland rehearsal. Saturday and Sunday will be ME days. Next week will be a busy little week.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a jog, I must do errands and whatnot, I must hopefully pick up packages, I must rehearse, I must eat, and I must rehearse. 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 happy that the muse is happy and happy that we’ve found the bones of the act.