Well, dear readers, I finally finished entering fixes, additions, and deletions, not necessarily in that order. I didn’t finish doing it until four in the afternoon, so it was basically another day where my only time out of the home environment was to eat a sandwich and sweet potato fries, to pick up some packages and an important envelope, and to bank. Otherwise, I was in front of my computer the entire day. After I finished, I had a chat with muse Margaret and read her all the additions (not minor stuff or word changes or moving things around), all of which she liked very much. She also told me that she’d reread the last chapter with the cuts I’d made and she said my instinct to cut the page or so had been completely correct. So, I’m finished with my stuff and I immediately sent the manuscript via e-mail to two of my three proofers. The third proofer likes to work on a hard copy, so I’ll get that Xeroxed tomorrow. I also wrote the acknowledgments, and did some work on the discography, which is now broken down by label. I always forget the Joan Ryan album, the Adryan Russ album, and Susan Egan’s live album, so those have now been added. I’m still undecided about trying to list all the albums on which I’m credited as executive producer or the reissues I’ve produced. That would be adding another two hundred-plus titles, maybe even closer to three hundred, and it would be a LOT of work to figure all that out. It would require a listing of every Bay Cities and Kritzerland release and several film music albums I supervised at Varese. Because part of the point of the book is that I take album producing and that credit very seriously, I’m just hesitant to list all these other things. That said, there is one noted soundtrack “producer” who is usually credited as an executive producer on the soundtracks, and he consistently says he’s produced over 1000 albums and calls them “my” albums. That’s just plain weird to me and that’s why the reluctance. We shall see. If I end up doing it, I’m going to have to have someone come here and do the work, writing down all the Bay Cities and Kritzerland stuff so I can just cut and paste into the document. The ephemera I did for Varese is all in one place, so that’s easy. So, now I can relax a bit until the proofers send me their notes – then I have to go through all three manuscripts (that’s 529 pages times three) and enter the stuff I agree with. And each proofer will have completely different things, some of which I’ll have to run by muse Margaret. In any case, my goal is to be finished with all of that within the next two weeks.
Other than the above, I did manage to sit on my couch like so much fish and watch part of another Jack Benny special, this one from 1968, called Jack Benny’s Bag. Not his best, because it’s trying so hard to be hip and with it and all Laugh-In-esque, but that’s not what he’s about. I know that his 1970s specials are much better. That said, Mr. Benny can do no wrong, at least for me he can’t. I then watched the first thirty minutes of a motion picture on Blu and Ray entitled Cleopatra, starring Miss Elizabeth Taylor, Mr. Richard Burton, and Mr. Rex Harrison. I will sheepishly admit that Cleopatra was one of the few 70mm epics I missed back in the day. And I will sheepishly admit to never having gotten past the first five minutes, so I’m coming to this film with completely fresh eyes. And I’m quite enjoying it. Mr. Harrison is really wonderful and it’s quite spectacular looking. The transfer off the large format negative is very sharp, and the color is mostly pleasing. One wag on some message board said there was too much of a blue tint. I honestly don’t know what these people think they’re seeing, but they really should stop embarrassing themselves or leading people to believe it’s true. If anything, the transfer is a little on the brown side and could use a bit less of that and a bit MORE blue. It certainly doesn’t have a blue bias in any way, shape, or form. I really think these people are so used to today’s films they have no idea what saturated color looks like. All anyone need do to see what accurate color looks like from that time period is put on The Ten Commandments. I shall finish watching this very long film over the next couple of days.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because while I may have looked at Cleopatra with fresh eyes those fresh eyes are drooping and ready to close.
Today, I shall have a morning telephonic conversation with the East Coast singer, as she did her act last night at Don’t Tell Mama’s. I have no idea what she did because they never sent me tapes of the rehearsals, therefore there is no way for me to do my job, even via long distance. She did say the show was taped and that she’ll get it to me as quickly as possible, but I’m really doubting it will ever come. She’ll do the show next week and then the next step is to have some proper rehearsals where I can actually do what need to done. I’ll probably fly back to Washington to do that. She did send me a nice present, a copy of Barack Obama’s Message To My Father book, inscribed to me by President Obama. They had a huge fundraiser for the President, she and her husband did, and that’s when she had him sign it for me. I may or may not get to storage to get the photos for the book – it will depend on whether I feel there’s enough time to do so before our stumble-through. I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, and after the rehearsal I’ll sup with the family Hollis at a place to be determined.
Tomorrow is the sound check and show. I’m told we’re still light, audience-wise, but hopefully we’ll pick up and have some people just show up, which always seems to happen. Right now we’ve got about twenty-six reservations or thereabouts and if we can just get that up to about forty-five, we’ll be fine. Next week will be busy, with lots of stuff to catch up on, the next Kritzerland show to cast, and new Kritzerland releases to prep.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, have a telephonic conversation, maybe go to storage, hopefully pick up packages, have a stumble-through, sup, and then watch some more Cleopatra with fresh eyes. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your all-time favorite Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and Rex Harrison films? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland where I shall rest my weary eyes so they will once again be fresh when I awaken.