Well, dear readers, I must write these here notes in a hurry because I must be up at six in the morning to announce the new Kritzerland title. Someone posted that they think I must be getting tired of all the Follies kudos, to which I replied one never gets tired of kudos and they are much appreciated and I love reading them. And yesterday there were more, both online and via e-mail. It’s such a lovely thing to wake up to. Speaking of waking up, I did that. I woke up after a really good night’s sleep, about nine hours. I read some kudos, answered e-mails, and did a two-mile jog. Then the helper came by to pick up some invoices. After that, I did some work on the computer. Then Mr. Barry Pearl picked me up and we moseyed on over to the NoHo Arts Center to see a new musical.
Yesterday, I saw a new musical presented by a place that teaches writers how to write musicals. I’ve seen a few other things that this place has presented and none have been to my liking and what I saw yesterday did nothing to change that. Apparently, they did a big staged reading or workshop of this last year – I don’t know what that was like, but what I saw here was certainly not ready for prime time in terms of its writing. And then, reading the author’s notes one comes to find this show began as a class exercise. That explained a lot. I’m not going to name names or trash the show – the cast was talented, the director moved everything along, but the show itself is just so clichéd and stagnant, with no sense of what a musical should be. Scenes go on forever, songs sound the same and the fact that this was given a full production in a very nice theater makes one wonder where exactly the money is coming from.
After, Barry and I went to the Eclectic Café, where he had an appetizer (he was going off to a dinner later) and I had a small Caesar and risotto with chicken and mushrooms, which was not so large and pretty good. Then I came home, did some preliminary work on the Kritzerland two-year anniversary show, and then I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched the first half of The Artist on Blu and Ray. I’d only seen a screener of it before. I really like it a lot – it’s very sweet, has moments of wonderful humor and pathos, and no talking, so the director has to actually tell his story visually and in the style of silent movies, which he does really well. The art direction and costumes are perfect, and the score is lovely. The transfer is, as you might imagine, terrific.
After the first half of The Artist, I took a nice long walk, which I don’t do all that much, especially in the evening. But the neighborhood is so pleasant and smells so fragrant, that it was very enjoyably enjoyable. I strolled along Ventura Blvd. I have to say Umami Burger, which I have yet to try, does a huge, bang-up business – even at nine it was jammed with a line down the street. Three doors away, The Counter, another trendy burger jernt had three people there. That’s always the problem with trendy, isn’t it? Before Umami Burger came to the San Fernando Valley, The Counter was always jammed, with a line down the street. Umami Burger’s day will come, that we know.
Then I came home and read some more of this book of reminiscences by many of the dancers from the film of West Side Story. The book has nothing but five-star reviews so I figured it had to be great. It’s not. It’s a good idea, but basically Robert Banas had everyone he knew who was still around just write their stuff – there is no attempt at organization and certainly there was no attempt at proofing – there are endless typos, really annoying misspellings, like Mart Crowley becoming Mark Crowley and Arthur Laurents becoming Arthur Lawrence. There’s just no excuse for that. Style-wise, it’s rife with errors. In the same sentence, two movie titles will be correctly italicized and two won’t. It’s like he took all these memories and just stuck them in a book without even reading them or having a copy editor read them. The publisher is most certainly a print on demand publisher – if they aren’t, they should be ashamed of themselves. But even print on demand publishers, at least the one I use, have standards now. Still, some of the stories are fun. Some folks go on and on and on, and a lot of what we get is what they did before and after West Side Story – that’s fine, but then don’t tell people they’re getting the scoop on how it was to be in the film of West Side Story. A couple of people spend much more time talking about what they’ve done since.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must get as much beauty sleep as I can.
Today, I shall be up at six in the morning to announce our new title. Hopefully, I’ll print out a LOT of orders, then maybe I’ll go back to sleep for a while. I’ll definitely do a jog, then I’ll probably have something to eat. Hopefully I’ll pick up some packages, do some writing, and then we have our first Kritzerland rehearsal, which I’m really looking forward to. We have a wonderful cast in this show – Danny Gurwin, Kim Huber, Dennis Kyle, Lisa Livesay, Jane Noseworthy and our special guest, Daisy Eagan. After the rehearsal I’m taking part in some podcast, being interviewed by Peter Filichia, James Marino, and Michael Portantiere. After that, I have a meeting with Juliana Hansen.
Tomorrow and the rest of the week is meetings and meals, our second rehearsal, seeing Stacy Sullivan in her Peggy Lee tribute, our stumble-through, and then sound check and show.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, announce our new title, do a jog, hopefully print out a LOT of orders, eat, write, hopefully pick up some packages, rehearse, do a podcast, and have a meeting. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite silent films? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, after which I hope to arise and hope to continue to be not merely whelmed, but overwhelmed by the Follies comments. They’ve really been making my day, and so I say to one and all and all and one – go ahead, make my day.