Well, dear readers, this week has flown by, like a gazelle doing the Twist. Of course, this week has been one of those weeks where I’ve had no idea what day it actually is. But now it’s Friday so I think I’ve figured out that tomorrow is Saturday and the following day is Sunday. And so, like sands through an hourglass, these are the days of our lives. Speaking of the days of our lives, yesterday was a day of my very own life. And a lovely day it was, too. I did wake up about five in the morning. I got up and turned on the heat, then went back to bed and finally fell back asleep around seven or so. I slept until nine when the gasman rang the doorbell. I had to let him in the yard to check the meter. Once up, I began the day by reading through the twelve pages I’d written the day before. I spent over an hour smoothing them out – deleted a few things, added a lot of stuff, and did a little moving things around and finally had it where I thought it was working well. Then I continued on, writing five pages. I stopped at noon, expecting our musical director and final cast member for rehearsal. When they weren’t here by 12:05 I looked up the schedule and found that the rehearsal was at 3:00 and not noon. I don’t have a clew as to why I thought it was noon. So, I went and had a California melt (turkey, bacon, jack cheese, and avocado on grilled sourdough – it was really good) and a small fries. Then I ascertained that there were no packages so I just came home. I finessed the morning’s writing, then wrote another page-and-a-half, then we had our rehearsal.
Our final cast member is Dan Callaway, and we ran his three songs. First, a put-together of Miracle of Miracles and Now I Have Everything from Fiddler, then Too Close for Comfort from Mr. Wonderful (by Bock and not Harnick), and finally In My Own Lifetime from The Rothschilds. The arrangements mostly worked – we switched up one ending and fixed one transition and all was well.
Then I wrote a couple more pages, after which I had to listen to an upcoming Kritzerland project. Then I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a motion picture on DVD entitled The Hedgehog, a French film from France based on a best-selling French book (all over the world) called The Elegance of the Hedgehog. Dear reader Jeanne had recommended the film to me and am I glad she did. This film, made in 2009, is an utter delight in every way. In tone, but not plot, it reminded me of Moonrise Kingdom in a way, but without any of that Wes Anderson preciousness or archness and filmmaking style that’s designed to call attention to itself. Here the filmmaker just told the story, simply and well, and therefore the film actually worked – you could get involved, you weren’t constantly taken out of the story by “clever” “quirky” direction. The cast is amazing. The eleven-year-old girl gives a terrific and very endearing performance as a kid who decided she’s going to commit suicide on her twelfth birthday – so she begins videoing everything with an old video camera her father has given her. The parallel story is of the woman who’s the janitor in the luxury apartment building where the kid lives. It’s a building of not a large number of apartments, but they’re huge and luxurious. The lady janitor is a dour woman who lives in a small apartment off the lobby. It’s a wonderful character and the actress who plays it is brilliant – Josiane Balasko. The kid is played by Garance Le Guillermic. When a Japanese gentleman moves in to an apartment that becomes vacant when the tenant dies, lives change and interesting things happen. He’s played by the wonderful Togo Igawa. It’s really not an easy film to describe, but it’s funny, very touching at times, and magical. Certainly, it’s one of the best films of the first decade of the 21st century. And the score by Gabriel Yared is gorgeous. I was captivated for all of its running time of about ninety-five minutes and I want to watch it again soon. Obviously, highly recommended by the likes of me.
The kid is actually kind of a smaller version of Sami Staitman, who appears in the Taxi Driver episode of Outside the Box. Then I got good news and weird news – our Sunday show is sold out and there’s now even a waiting list. But our February show’s night has to change because they’re having some Super Bowl event at The Federal. Saturday wasn’t available, and so we have to do it on Monday, which I’m not thrilled about, but given that there’s no other choice, we’ll have to make do and do our best to fill the room. I’ve asked that in future we be given more warning than four weeks. I’m sure it will be fine, but I probably reacted not so well to the initial e-mail about it. In any case, we’re supposed to have a short phone conversation about all of it. But it’s great to be completely sold out. I may have to squeeze one more person at our table if he can work out his schedule – the star of episode four, which we’re premiering that night – John Sloman. After that, I wrote another two pages for a total of twelve, the third day in a row of twelve pages. Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must get a good night’s beauty sleep.
Today, I shall hopefully have the short telephonic conversation I need to have, and then I’ll write at least five or six pages in the morning, then do some errands and whatnot, hopefully pick up some packages, then we have our second Kritzerland rehearsal, which will probably go till seven or so, which means I’ll have to eat something prior to rehearsal, and then maybe after go get some snack or something if anyone feels up to it, and then I’m sure I’ll write a few more pages.
Tomorrow, we have our stumble-through, which I always look forward to, and then we’ll go out to eat after, Sunday is our sound and video check and then our show.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, hopefully have the short telephonic conversation I need to have, write, eat, hopefully pick up some packages, rehearse, and write. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player, and your DVD/video player? I’ll start – CD, Kritzerland stuff. Blu and Ray, maybe Forbidden Games. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to know that I finally have this week’s days straight.