Well, dear readers, I am so happy the wacky yesterday is done. It was a day of wackiness from start to end and vice versa. It could not have been wackier, ranging from annoying wackiness, to funny wackiness, to just plain wacky wackiness. I got up around eight-thirty. That was slightly wacky, although I don’t remember why. When I checked my e-mails there was a wacky one that was most unpleasant and I dealt with it as best I could. I was asked for an apology for something and I gave it, and tried to explain that maybe some tone had been added to an e-mail that was not intended by me, but I haven’t heard a peep since, so who knows what’s going on. The original e-mail exchange, to me, was nothing to get all fired up about, but that’s what happened. We’ll see how it all shakes out. People get awfully sensitive over perceived tone, instead of just saying, “Did you mean to be snippy?” in which case I would have answered, “Of course not.” Oh, well. Then I had to go meet Mr. David Wechter and we went to a little coffee shop in the Nuys of Van. I had a small waffle. We went over all the material that will be included on the soundtrack CD for Junior High School. After that, I had to hurry home for our noon rehearsal – on the way, I fell victim (and I do mean victim) to an end-of-the-month speed trap, so I received a speeding ticket for going forty-nine in a thirty-five zone. The only problem is that I don’t believe I was going anywhere near forty-nine. Every car around me was going faster than I was, and I believe he clocked one of them but gave me the ticket. He knows no one is going to argue with his speed device. I am thinking about fighting it, actually. In any case, that was my first ticket in five years, and that was annoying and wacky.
Our rehearsal was a little wacky – but the show is pretty strong now and we had our bass player with us, Jay Leonhart, and he said after the run that every time he plays the show it just gets better and better and clearer in its storytelling, so that made us all happy. I gave a few notes, we ran a few things again, and I had to run to the mail place to overnight David’s tapes to the mastering guy. I think I figured out we’re currently preparing masters and packaging on eight titles or maybe even nine. It’s madness, but once all this is done and it all goes in for approvals, we’ll be a month or more ahead and we can all actually relax a little, which will be very nice indeed. Then it was right back into rehearsal for the Kritzerland show. Shelly came a little early and we did some last-minute arrangement work on I Could Have Danced All Night. Then one by one the cast came and ran each of their three songs. It was a little rough, but it’s going to be a very good show. Shelly just needs to make his notes legible so he can see them clearly in his music. Once that happens, it will all go smoothly.
After the final singer left, Shelly and I tried out something and I think we’re going to try it in the show – a duet between he and I of I Remember It Well. We futzed with two lines to make a singing joke, but otherwise it’s as written. I don’t really have to learn it – that will be part of the joke. I’ll have the lyrics printed out and I’ll be able to refer to them whenever necessary. Then it was time to mosey on over to the Eclectic Café for a dinner with Kay Cole and her ever-lovin’ Michael Lamont. They’re wonderful folks and we really had fun. A lot of the conversation revolved around trying to start a theater company, along the lines of what I was trying to do back in 2003 – I’d done a wonderful prospectus back then, and someone got hold of it and just ripped it off wholesale, without bothering to understand what made it work. That gentleman and his theater company got what they deserved – right into the toilet. So, Kay and I have been thinking about it and trying to figure out if there’s a way to do it – she really gets what the point is and why it would work well – very much on the same page in that regard.
After that, I came home and had no time to watch any motion pictures on any format. I did, however, listen to the album cues I’d been waiting to receive from the composer of the Swedish TV series, Wallander – that’s going to be a wonderful album. Then I listened to yet another album’s rough cues – assembled in a proposed album sequence that I think plays just fine. Poor Doug Haverty is hastily designing all manner of packaging for all manner of projects. I still haven’t made my graph, but will today. Perhaps while making it I’ll tell the story of The Randy Vicar and the Randy Graph. We don’t allow moaning here at haineshisway.com.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I really must get a decent night’s beauty sleep.
Today, I shall do errands and whatnot, write liner notes, type up lyrics, hopefully pick up some packages and an important envelope. Yesterday I got the first draft script of To Catch a Thief, which is a whopping 212 page script. Obviously the shooting script was pared down a bit, but I’m curious to see where it got trimmed. Much of the dialogue, at least the pages I rifled through, is exactly what’s in the film. Also included with the script was a two-page memo from the Hays Office about cuts that would need to be made for things that were deemed too suggestive – it’s pretty hilarious to read and the fact that Hitchcock and John Michael Hayes still managed to get some of the stuff through is amazing. Then it’s sound check, dinner, and then show time. I think we’ll end up with a decent crowd now.
Tomorrow, she of the Evil Eye will be here bright and early, and I’ll be meeting dear reader Jane and her ever-lovin’ Keith for a walk and coffee or whatever it is they drink. Then I have other stuff to do – I now have about six sets of liner notes to do if I’m to keep up with everything. Then we have our stumble-through, and then it’s show number two. Sunday is our sound check and show, and Monday I am doing NOTHING.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do errands and whatnot, write liner notes, type up lyrics, hopefully pick up some packages and an important envelope, do a sound check, sup, and do a show. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player, and your DVD/video player? I’ll start – CD, Kritzerland stuff. Blu and Ray, Harold and Maude to finish, then a bunch of other stuff. Your turn. And I don’t think I saw many lists of favorite Michel Legrand songs in yesterday’s posts so get to it – I’m not asking for my health. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, and let’s hope the wackiness has subsided.