Well, dear readers, I am feeling angular right now. I don’t really have a clew as to what that means, but right now I just feel angular. So, it is only appropriate that these here notes should be angular as well, as well as angular. Have I ever written angular notes before? I cannot honestly remember and, in fact, I can’t even dishonestly remember. And thus begins the angular notes. I had a rather angular day yesterday. I got up too damn early and felt angular right off the bat. Of course, angular didn’t really like being felt right off the bat and slapped me silly. I got up, made a telephonic call to deal with yesterday’s problem, and it should all be fine, at least that’s the hope. Then I answered e-mails, and then got ready to do errands and whatnot. Then I picked up a couple of packages and an important envelope, did some banking, and then moseyed on over to a rehearsal hall to have our run-through of Juliana Hansen’s new act, which is, by the way (BTW, in Internet lingo), angular.
We had about fourteen people in a small rehearsal room, so it was not the most optimal setting, but it went very well. The reason I kind of insisted we do this was to give Juliana a chance to play to some faces that weren’t mine – so she could get used to playing a room, get her nervousness out of the way, hear where her laughs were, and get used to playing full out and retaining focus and energy to a room full of people. They were all people she knew and were very friendly. The laughs were basically all there, and she sang beautifully. Everyone seemed to like it, and it ran exactly what it should have – one hour. Afterwards, she and the musical director and I went out and had some drinks (Diet Coke, of course), and I gave her my notes. There were quite a few, but most of them just reiterated the same few points, mostly having to do with the patter and energy, and also a couple of movement things. I had some music notes, too, and that was that. She was really happy to have been able to have the trial run, and she knows what she has to think about and tighten up. I made one further cut in one medley, taking out an extraneous second chorus of a song, which really helped.
After that, I was quite hungry so I moseyed on over to Hugo’s and had a small Caesar and pasta papa, which, as always, was very filling and yummilicious. I then came home and relaxed, caught up with stuff on the Internet, and then finally sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. I’ve only seen it twice before, so it was fun to see it again. However, while it’s certainly better than Temple of Doom, it still falls far short of the first film. Sean Connery adds some fun, but it just doesn’t have the freshness the first film had. Sometimes it’s easy to keep a franchise going, but really hard to find that freshness – sometimes that’s just lightning in a bottle. And yes, there were the usual complaints about the transfer, with cries of “aliasing” and “stair-stepping” but other than a tiny bit of shimmering in some clothing fabrics I thought the transfer was terrific – very detailed, great color, and great sound. Of course, I wasn’t looking for problems, I was doing something radical called watching the movie. But believe me, if there are transfer problems I notice them.
After that, I did some more stuff on the computer, had a long telephonic conversation and relaxed. Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must get a good night’s beauty sleep so I can perhaps feel less angular in the morning.
Today, I shall just relax until it’s time for our sound check at four. We’ll do that, and I’ll make sure the fellow who’s recording the show knows everything he should know and then I’ll sup and watch Juliana strut her stuff. Her show is completely sold out. I also got the news that the Kritzerland show is about fifteen people away from selling out, too. I will, of course, have a complete report.
Tomorrow, I have a ton of stuff to do during the day and I must cast the next two episodes of Outside The Box. Then we have our first Kritzerland rehearsal, which I’m looking forward to. The rest of the week is filled with meetings and meals, seeing a little tribute to Richard Sherman, our second rehearsal, 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, relax, do a sound check, and see a show. 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, where I shall dream angular dreams.