Well, dear readers, it was just one of those days, one of those days with fun and frivolity and lovely things and one of those days where it felt like you were being pummeled by an emu, and you know how that feels especially when the Emu is normally in Australia and is a bird. Nevertheless, the Emu was in full force towards the end of the day and pummeling was the order of the end of the day. But the beginning of the day was glorious. I got up. At my age, that’s a major accomplishment and it was a heady feeling, which is better than a footy feeling. I have not been falling asleep before three in the morning for several days now, so I slept until ten-thirty, which I’m beginning to not like doing, but then again I must get my eight hours of beauty sleep. I knew I was stuck home until Fed Ex arrived to pick up the print of Nudie Musical. The Fed Ex Man arrived at eleven, took one look at the pummeled box the film cans were in and said, “No.” Now, he was instructed to bring a box so we could repack, but he didn’t so he left a waybill and told me he’d be back at one. I immediately took the pummeled box to the UPS Store and in ten minutes I had a spiffy new and well-packed package. The better news was that I also got my replacement debit card. I hurried home, filled out the waybill, and then Damon Kirsche arrived for his rehearsal. He ran his three songs and even though he was feeling a bit under the weather, he still sounded gloriously glorious, first on a put-together of It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas and The Man With the Bag, then on the Legrand/Harnick Christmas Carol song, Penny by Penny, and finally on Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. Then he and our musical director, Lloyd Cooper left, and I began the arduous task of getting the new debit card entered wherever I do auto pay. It didn’t take nearly as long as I thought, but I do think two payments were charged today, before I got the card, and I’m hoping Paypal just processes them – if not, I have to pay for each over the phone – then next month the new card will start working. So, that ordeal is finally over and never again will I use that card for a food delivery.
Then I made myself two tuna sandwiches and ate them all up, whilst I did the final casting. I’m just waiting to hear from two people, but if they’re a go, we’re all cast. I then sent everyone BUT those two people the song and sheet music they have to learn. I do have to now do the schedule and that’s going to take some time. Then I walked over to Public Storage and gave them the new card auto pay information. After that, it was back home. I then did some work on the computer and was happy to see that the new episode is getting close to having 9,000 views, which is just fantastic, and the premiere episode is heading to 10,000. So, keep spreadin’ the news so we can soon be the most popular web series on all the Internet. And if one of you kind dear readers wants to do the research so I know how to enter the episodes for Best Web Series (I’m not sure how many awards are given, but I know at least one person who’s submitted and been short-listed, but of course they’re not going to share that information with me. I at least want to make it eligible for awards.
Then the pummeling part began when I called the DMV to find out why my license hasn’t arrived. I got a nice woman who informed me it hasn’t even been sent and won’t be sent until I go in and have another eye exam. It seems the person who renewed my license didn’t enter the results in the computer, or the computer glitched when she did. I asked the woman how this could happen and asked why my interim license could have even been issued if all wasn’t well. She had no answers and the soonest she could get me in was tomorrow and that’s not at my usual place but in Arleta, which is another seven miles north of there. She felt bad, but there was nothing to be done but for me to go in and do it again. Hopefully the result will be the same and I will not leave without signed proof that the information has been entered. I guess I have to explain all this when I go and I’ll have the temporary with me. Once the information is entered, I was told it will be two to three weeks. Of course, my current license expires in a week and a half, but I do have the temporary and I guess I’ll stick that in my wallet now. It was, to say the least, very frustrating. And if I hadn’t called no one would have let me know about the problem until I DID call.
Then I happened to read a posting somewhere about the film Ladybug, Ladybug, which was, for many years, impossible to see. It was never shown on TV (believe me, I always was on the lookout back in the day), and only recently has it surfaced in a package of MGM/UA films shown on cable. Someone mentioned it was available to stream on Netflix, so I just went to Amazon and there it was – and streaming there for me (I’m a Prime member) is free. So, I watched the whole movie. I’ve written about it before, but I saw this film (it was Frank Perry’s follow-up film to David and Lisa) at a sneak preview at my beloved Lido Theater, about a month before it’s release. I loved it and its tale of a Conalrad alarm going off and everyone at a school thinking a nuclear attack would happen within the hour. The kids are sent home and we later find out it was a glitch – but some of the kids and teachers don’t hear. One of the kids’ (played by a very young Alice Playton) parents has a bomb shelter and she takes in some of her classmates – but firmly lets them know that she’s boss, she’s making the rules, etc. When a girl who’s parents weren’t home comes knocking, Alice won’t let her in. I won’t say what happens, but it’s an at times harrowing film. I saw it twice during its one-week engagement, after which it disappeared. I got a homegrown DVD of it at some point, but the quality was sketchy. The print on Amazon is pretty decent and almost in its correct 1.85 ratio – it’s in the standard MGM/UA 1.66, which just isn’t correct. Watching it now, the film is overwritten and the kids spout an awful lot of adult-sounding dialogue. And no one seems to have the idea to turn on a radio. But it’s still powerful and its ending, or non-ending, is great. I was very taken with the performance of the leading youngster, a gal named Marilyn Rogers who, I believe, was one of the original Von-Trapp kids. She was my age – I looked her up on the imdb to see what her career was like – she only did a couple of things after this film and then nothing. But I was sad to see she passed away several years ago. I could find nothing on her via Google to find out the cause or what she’d been doing as an adult.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must get a good night’s beauty sleep and hopefully I’ll nod off sooner than later.
Today, I’m meeting dear reader Jeanne for lunch, then it’s hopefully picking up some packages, and a whole lot of writing because I am VERY behind on all those liner notes I must get done. I have five projects backed up and I so wish there were a couple of others writing the notes occasionally, but the reality is to add a notes writer fee on to these CDs would just make whatever meager profit we’re eking out even more meager.
Tomorrow I will, of course, be taking the eye test, then I’ll go directly to the editing room to see the first cut of episode three – hopefully whatever thoughts I have will be minor and we can get them done while I’m there. But I’ll have to leave at five fifteen at the latest to make it back here for our second Kritzerland rehearsal. And we can always do any final finessing on Friday. Friday, we have one singer rehearsing, and Saturday is our stumble-through, and Sunday is sound check and show.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, lunch with Jeanne, hopefully pick up some packages, and then write. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear reader any old question you like and we get to give any old answer we like. So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland where all pummeling will cease for the rest of this year and all of next year.