Well, dear readers, when David Wechter and I attended the premiere of The Faculty, we didn’t really know what to expect. Oh, we’d read various drafts of the Kevin Williamson rewrite, but reading a script is not seeing the resulting film. Back at Christmas 1998 I wasn’t sure I liked it all that much, although I knew Kevin had done the right thing for the times – he made it hip, self-referential (a little too self-referential, which I actually think hurt the film), he made the characters very much of their time – but there were just things about it that I didn’t think were as good as things David and I had written in the original script. But that’s par for the course. At the time, I didn’t think there was one line of dialogue left from our script and only two character names were retained – Casey, for the Elijah Wood character (our guy wasn’t called Casey – our gal was, but Kevin just switched it to the guy) and Miss Drake, the principal. The only other time I’d seen it was when the Canadian Blu and Ray came out. I liked it okay then, too. But seeing it again with an audience at the midnight screening at the New Beverly Theater was really interesting. I found myself really liking the film a lot. It’s very well acted and directed, and except for the self conscious self-referential stuff, Williamson’s screenplay certainly gets the job done, and there are some wonderful laughs along the way. What was fascinating to both David and me is how the tone of anything having to do with the teachers is very much based on the tone from our script – I really hadn’t realized that back when it came out. And certainly the structure and ideas evolved from our script, and the long line of students going into the nurse’s office was straight out of our version (in fact, our little tag line on the title page was “Whatever you do, don’t go in the nurse’s office.” I was also very impressed by Marco Beltrami’s score. There was one other very interesting aspect to seeing the film in 35mm but I’ll hold those comments until I’ve spot-checked the new US Blu and Ray. Prior to the film there was a short Q&A with a moderator. He asked good questions and I think the audience had fun hearing about the original script and how we sold it and what its origins were. The audience had good questions, too, so we had fun. As Sally Durant would say, “I’m so glad I came.”
Prior to that, I’d had a nice day. I got eight and a half hours of sleep, got up, did stuff on the computer, and them moseyed on over to the engineer’s house to comp vocals. However, the engineer has no air conditioning and it was 103 degrees out and we decided to postpone the comps until Tuesday evening. After that, I came home, then went and had a turkey sandwich and no fries or onion rings. Then I picked up one teeny-tiny package. I came home, did a few things on the computer, relaxed, and then Doug Haverty came by and we moseyed on over to this Mexican jernt in Silver Lake to see a cabaret show.
Last night, I saw a cabaret show at this Mexican jernt in Silver Lake. A friend of mine was the director and musical director and arranger. He is a very talented fellow, but the show wasn’t really the kind of thing I enjoy. Good group of four people, though, and for what it was I had a good time. After the show, Doug and I had a quick meal in the restaurant (the club itself is in the basement) – I had one taco and one enchilada, both very good but not as good as Casa Vega. In fact, I may just have to go to Casa Vega later today.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I really must get what little beauty sleep I’m going to get. It’s already after three.
Today, I have what I hope will be a VERY brief rehearsal with Juliana. Then I have a ton of stuff to do for the October Kritzerland show, then maybe I’ll go to Casa Vega. Later, I’ll relax. I thought I might have something going on but if there is something hopefully someone will remind me because I have no clew as to what it might be.
Tomorrow, I have a lunch at Mo’s, and a ton of stuff to do, and I may or may not go to see a staged reading of Titanic, the Maury Yeston musical. The rest of the week is comping vocals, finessing mixes, prepping our next release, meetings, meals, and rehearsals.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, have a brief rehearsal, do a ton of stuff for the October Kritzerland show, eat, and relax. 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 not go into the nurse’s office.