Well, dear readers, the second day of vocals was as much fun as the first night of vocals. The day began with a duet with the delightful Euan Morton, who starred on Broadway as Boy George in Taboo and who was also in Sondheim on Sondheim. We hit it off instantly and I immediately asked him to appear in an Outside the Box episode, and he said yes. Then we had to do vocals on ten other songs. The East Coast Singer was in terrific voice, and we just worked each song until the intentions of each was crystal clear. There was one song that I felt wasn’t happening, where the point was not coming through. It was an up-tempo and the humor of it was just lost. I knew she could do it, but I really had to cut to the chase and did something I don’t do a lot, but it really worked in this instance – she’d start singing and the minute it wasn’t right, I stopped the take, discussed the line, and then punched her in at that point. We did this on almost every line of the song and it worked out great. Then I let her do a full take without stops, then we did just a handful of lines and we had it. The song choices are quite good and it’s all very tuneful. There are one or two too many and I already know one of them won’t be on the album – O Holy Night – it’s really not of a piece with the other material. We’ll probably put it on the Internet. It was a long session, from eleven till almost five, but we got it all done. After that, we all went over to Genghis Cohen and had a fabulously fabulous and yummilicious dinner. So, now it’s on to mixing the album, which will begin this week.
I then came home, printed out orders, answered e-mails, and then sat on my couch like so much fish and decided to watch North by Northwest on Blu and Ray, since I’d just read the first draft script. Ten minutes in and I was fast asleep and got a thirty-minute little nap, which was nice. I watched another few minutes of it, then made the decision that I was going to go to the Nuart at midnight to see the Rocky Horror Picture Show pre-show event, which has something to do with The First Nudie Musical. The East Coast Singer said she’d meet me there. My intention is to just see what there is to see and come right home and go right to bed.
I decided to write these here notes early and get them posted before I leave. I then decided to finesse the contextual commentary, which took about an hour. I smoothed it out, added a few lines here and there, cut a few lines here and there and I think it’s pretty good now and the right length for what is going to be a slightly longer show than we normally do. We have the same exact number of songs, but one segment, the Ruthless reunion, has four complete songs – none are that long, but that’s a lot more than we usually do. There are also three put-togethers. Then again, the Bacharach show had an equal number of put-togethers, three very long medleys comprised of five songs each, and the behemoth last number, which had eight songs – not full songs, of course, but it seems like maybe that show, time-wise, will be similar and it didn’t run too much longer than our usual shows.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because shortly I must get in the motor car and be on my way to the Nuart Theater, after which I shall return so I can get a good night’s beauty sleep.
Today, I shall hopefully arise after a good night’s beauty sleep. At noon I have a meeting with Miss Daisy Eagan to discuss her club act, then I’ll grab a bite to eat, then I’ll be seeing a play in Hollywood, California, USA. I should be home by eight and I’m hoping to get to bed early.
Tomorrow, I have a work session with the musical director, I have liner notes to write, and tomorrow night I’m going to some gala Sundance Film Festival thing with Mr. David Wechter. The rest of the week is meetings, meals, writing liner notes, approving packaging and masters, announcing a new release, and seeing a couple of things. I’ll also try to get coiffed by Teddy.
Let’s all put on our pointy party hats and our colored tights and pantaloons, let’s all break out the cheese slices and the ham chunks, let’s all dance the Hora or the Wah-Watusi for today we’ve got two count them two birthdays to celebrate. The first birthday to celebrate is our beloved dear reader, thoroughly modern Jrand. So, let’s give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to our beloved dear reader, thoroughly modern Jrand. On the count of three: One, two, three – A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO OUR BELOVED DEAR READER, THOROUGHLY MODERN JRAND!!!
Our next birthday to celebrate is our pianist and musical maven extraordinaire, dear reader Jose. So, let’s give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to our pianist and musical maven extraordinaire, dear reader Jose. On the count of three: One, two, three – A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO OUR PIANIST AND MUSICAL MAVEN EXTRAORDINAIRE, DEAR READER JOSE!!!
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, have a meeting, grab a meal, and see a play. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland after a nice, long day’s journey into night.