Well, dear readers, this week has flown by, like a gazelle in flip-flops. I gotta tell you. I really must write these here notes in a hurry because I must be up at six in the morning to announce two count them two new Kritzerland releases. And I have to say if you’ve ever married a monster from outer space in an atomic city you will love one of them, and if you’ve ever had a stranger call you’ll love the other. It was a bit of an ordeal getting everything prepped to announce, but it’s finally all done. Part of the problem was the mastering guy is having work done on his house and he didn’t see my e-mails of the last few days. And apparently the e-mail he’d replied to on Monday about announcing on Friday, in which he said he’d get right on the new project, got put on the back burner somehow because when I finally called him I found he hadn’t even started it. Thankfully, he heard the urgency in my voice and said he’d begin immediately, which he did. Luckily, it was a pretty easy deal – the sound was pretty good to begin with, so it was just a matter of cutting the slates off and combining a few cues, and editing in two or three pick-ups. He got it all done in about four hours and then it took a few hours for it to finally all show up on the iDisc. The good news is it sounds great. It’s funny – on the tapes there is approximately eighty-eight minutes of stuff. By the time you edit out the slates, get rid of a few first try takes, get rid of the extra pick-up early takes and put the whole thing together you end up with about forty-four minutes of music – which is every note of music written for the film. I was worried we wouldn’t be able to fit all of it on one CD but I shouldn’t have worried because it’s always like that.
Prior to all that, I’d gotten up at five and just stayed in bed and finally fell back asleep around seven for a couple of hours. Then I did some work on the computer, then took the helper for her birthday brunch. We went to Vivian’s Café – haven’t been there in ages. I had a waffle, two eggs, and bacon, all excellent. We had a fun time and then I came back home and prepared the eBlasts, finessed the blurbs, got everything to those who needed everything, figured out the show order, which looks like it will work – I’ll still play with it but I think it’s close.
Then I went to the mail place and picked up one teeny-tiny package – someone sent me a CD of some Paul Glass TV music just to hear. It included some Night Gallery episodes and a TV film – it sounds like it was recorded off DVDs or something, but the music is great fun to hear. Then I got an e-mail I’ve been waiting for and if the contents of it truly end up being what they appear to be, I may just be doing a Promises, Promises or Sugar-style remix from the original eight-track tapes of a pretty iconic cast album that has never sounded very good. If the tapes are what they purport to be, then we’re going to transfer everything into a Pro-Tools session and see if we can get it to sound better – if not, we won’t do it. If so, if we can really make a difference, then I think we’ll make some people VERY VERY happy. So, lots of excellent vibes and xylophones and maybe, just maybe, it will happen. Then I finally sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched the last two Van Veeteren films – I’m sad there are no more to watch. The second to last one, Carombole, was a wonderful film – tense, surprising, horrifying, and mesmerizing. The villain of the piece was played by the great actor who played the horrible Nils Buhrman in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – the Swedish version. Here he was just as reprehensible, maybe even more so. The ending was a bit too swift, but boy was it a great show and Van Veeteren was at the center of it, instead of being on the sidelines. The same was true of the final episode, which was about Van Veetern’s one unsolved case coming back to haunt him. I have to say it had a little twist at the end that I totally did not see coming – quite well done. I’ll have to figure out my next Swedish obsession – I do have the prequel to The Bomber to watch, and hopefully that will be better than The Bomber was.
After that, I got the audio samples to the web guy, tested the web pages and we’re all good to go. Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must get as much beauty sleep as possible.
Today, I shall be up at six in the morning to announce our new title. Then I shall hopefully be printing out a LOT of orders all during the day and evening. I may or may not go back to sleep, I may or may not do a jog, and then I’m having a birthday lunch with our very own dear reader Jeanne. After that, I shall hopefully pick up some packages and an important envelope. Then I’ll hopefully print out even more lots of orders, start the contextual commentary for the Kritzerland show, and then I have to write a little first-person article for Backstage magazine to promote the new book. After that, I hope to relax.
Tomorrow, I’m not sure what’s happening, so we’ll just have to see. Sunday, I’ll be seeing some show at the Mark Taper Forum with dear reader FJL, then having a little dinner after, then running to Beverly Hills to see another show – so, a busy Sunday, but since it’s Memorial Day weekend, Monday is a ME day save for our two and a half hour rehearsal at four. Next week is crazy – I have to finesse the East Coast Singer’s patter, I have to have a bunch of meetings, our rehearsals, finish the commentary, get liner notes done for our next release and tons of other stuff.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, announce new titles, maybe jog, have a birthday lunch with dear reader Jeanne, hopefully pick up some packages and an important envelope, print out LOTS of orders and write. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player and your DVD/video player? I’ll start – CD, upcoming Kritzerland projects. Blu and Ray, all sorts o’ stuff. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland knowing that I get a nice long Memorial Day weekend.