Well, dear readers, this week has flown by, like a gazelle wearing love beads. It is barely registering that today is Friday because the holiday fell on a Wednesday, which confuses everything, if you ask me. Frankly, Wednesday was a little miffed that the holiday fell on it – have you ever had a holiday fall on you – it’s not pleasant. Hopefully, the next holiday will fall on a weekend, because the weekend is kind of into pain and enjoys when holidays fall on it. And we always get an extra day to play. In any case, it’s Friday and that means that it’s Friday. What the HELL am I talking about?
Yesterday was a mostly relaxing day, although I did end up doing a few things here and there. I got up at nine-thirty but stayed in bed, fell back asleep and didn’t get up until noon. I think I have now finally caught up on all my sleep. Then I did some errands and whatnot, picked up some packages and thankfully the early arrival of the important envelope, did some banking, and came home. I made myself some lunch (no mean feat), did some work on the computer, then sat on my couch like so much fish.
Yesterday, I watched the first two Beck movies from the TV series version, which features a completely different cast than the Beck films of just a few years earlier. It took me a while to adjust to the cast – one of the leading characters from the other films (and the books) is missing in the TV series (they explain his absence in the first film) and what they’ve done is sort of combine that character’s habits with another character. It especially took me a little time to get used to the actor playing Beck, because he played Martin Vanger in the Swedish Dragon Tattoo movies, so it’s just a little weird. But I did get used to it and while it’s not the greatest series I’ve ever seen, it’s very entertaining and the two stories were good. The first movie (these are all ninety-minute films) was marred by shaky-cam crap, but the second had none of that and was much better. They’ve given Beck a next door neighbor and that character and the actor who plays him are wonderful and very funny. There are around twenty-four of these in total, shot over a thirteen-year period (or thereabouts). The first two volumes are season one and two and comprise six films. The bad news is the transfers – they look like old VHS transfers – no contrast, they don’t even look like film AND they’re in the wrong aspect ratio – they’re 16×9 when they should be 1.33, which is clearly how they were shot. So, we get tons of shots where half the actor’s head is missing. Absolutely ridiculous.
After that, I did some work on upcoming releases. I listened to about half of a new project – considering its age, it sound absolutely fantastic, then I got the latest three Follies mixes – Could I Leave You?, You’re Gonna Love Tomorrow/Love Will See Us Through, and The God-Why-Don’t-You-Love-Me Blues. They all sounded sparkly and clear, but I have my usual nits to pick. Hopefully I’ll hear the rest of it by the end of the weekend, and then we’re working on Monday night to do our finessing. If we can’t get it all done on Monday, we’ll continue on until we do. However, if it’s not done on Monday, then it won’t announce until the following week. One thing I’m now worried about is whether we have the eight-track master on One More Kiss. The edited session masters didn’t have it originally because it wasn’t on the LP, but they obviously had it somewhere because they put it on the CD. It’s penciled in on the tape box, but it’s not in sequence – we’re praying it’s at the end of the Pro Tools session but won’t know until we get there. The worst-case scenario is we’ll have to use the mix done for the CD. Unfortunately, for me that’s the worst sounding track of them all. We’ll be able to brighten it up but I really want to remix it. If it’s not there, I will, of course, ask Capitol to check and see if they can find it somewhere. So, we’re getting close to being done. On every one of the mixes, even the ones that weren’t TOO terrible on the original, I’m hearing things I’ve never heard before. What’s interesting about the original is that the mixes on the last few numbers were much better than the earlier mixes, but there are still moments where they just pump up the band way too loud and drown out the singer, and if we’d done nothing else but fix the awful panning of the vocals, this will have been worth it.
After that, I went through our upcoming releases and assigned a few release dates to them. Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must get a good night’s beauty sleep because I’ve got two sets of liner notes to finish today.
Today, I have two sets of liner notes to finish, and that will probably take up a significant part of the day. Otherwise, I have a few errands and whatnot to do, hopefully some packages to pick up, and some relaxing to do. Not sure what the evening holds.
Tomorrow, I have a lunch meeting with Juliana Hansen, and then stuff to do, and then I’ll see if I feel like doing anything in the evening. Tomorrow, more packaging stuff to do. Next week is very busy, with finessing mixes, preparing the Follies announcement and our next soundtrack release announcement, meetings, meals, finding a cameraman for the Outside the Box shoot, booking those dates, finishing that casting, and lots o’ other stuff, including seeing the Stephen Sondheim event in Costa Mesa.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, write two sets of liner notes, do errands and whatnot, hopefully pick up some packages, eat, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player and your DVD/video player (isn’t it time we change this to Blue and Ray/DVD player – let’s have a vote). I’ll start – CD, lots and lots of Kritzerland projects. Blu and Ray, have to choose. DVD, Beck. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy that it’s the Friday that was Friday.