Well, dear readers, I am fighting the good fight and have been fighting the good fight since November. At least five times between then and now I have had sick people in my house and have come close to getting sick myself but I’ve won the good fight each time. And now here we are again, with a rough throat, sucking down Coldeez, popping Airborne chewable tablets, and, yes, fighting the good fight. I have no time to be sick. I have no idea which way this will go, but I guess I’ll have a better idea when I wake up. I probably should have bought some NyQuil, too, because when my throat feels rough I have a really difficult time sleeping, which doesn’t help matters. So, send excellent vibes and xylophones that I should win the good fight.
Other than fighting the good fight, I had a perfectly fine day yesterday. I did have a rough night of sleep, got up at nine, did my morning ablutions, answered e-mails, and then moseyed on over to The Federal to judge the finals for the LA’s Next Great Stage Star contest. First we judges were served a buffet brunch. I only had a couple of slices of bacon, some fruit, and two or three leaves of a Caesar salad. It was a nice gathering of seventeen count them seventeen judges – I didn’t know all of the others, but did know Calvin Remsberg (he’s in the Animal Farm episode of Outside the Box), casting director Michael Donovan (he is, too), director David Galligan, director Richard Israel, agent Dave Secor, Cate Caplin, Dan Mojica, writer/director Roger Bean, and others I’m just blanking on.
Then the sing-off began. One poor contestant had gone back to Boston for a college reunion and was meant to return on Saturday. Unfortunately, thanks to the storm, he’s still stuck in the airport and therefore didn’t make the finals. We heard nineteen singers strut their stuff – they were all good and stronger than they were when I judged a couple of weeks ago. I think their assignment for the finals was Broadway and off-Broadway songs from 1970 forward. Unfortunately, at least for me, most of the songs were from the last decade, possibly my least favorite for Broadway scores, so I had to endure songs I really can’t stand that all sound the same to me and all require the singers to sing at the top of their ranges. At the end of that, our ballots were collected and tallied with all the previous ballots from both judges and audience. From that, five finalists were selected and there was another sing-off. I was a bit surprised at the final five choices, but they were all fine. At the end of that sing-off, our ballots were once again collected and this time it was only the judges deciding who would be the winner. The winning choice was a good one. I had told Michael Sterling that the winner would be invited to participate in one of the Kritzerland shows, and she will be, sometime in the next few months. It was a long day there, and we got out around three-thirty. Then I came directly home, did some stuff on the computer, then at six my friend from Canada, who is here for pilot season, came by and we went to CPK for dinner. I had the low-cal Cedar plank salmon and we shared the spinach artichoke dip.
After that, we went to Gelson’s briefly, so I could buy more Coldeez and Airborne. I also got some low-cal, low-fat ice cream, which I thought might make my throat feel less rough. As we were pulling out of the parking lot I noticed that the place that used to house the cupcake shop has a new tenant – a cheesecake shop. Is cheesecake the new cupcake? Then I came home, my friend went on her merry way and I did more work on the computer. I also checked out the UK transfer of Mario Bava’s Black Sunday – I found it had a leg up on the US transfer, and best of all for the first time since laserdisc days, this Blu and Ray includes the AIP version of the film, which features an entirely different English dub of the voices, as well as Les Baxter’s score, which I prefer to the original Eyetalian score.
Then I just relaxed. Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must try and get a good night’s beauty sleep.
Today, everything will depend on how I’m feeling when I arise. I certainly have work to do on the computer, and I’m hoping to send all our singers their mp3s – and I’m hoping Billy Barnes’ partner is busy gathering up the music, because we must get it to our singers. Certainly I’ll eat something – I’ll probably go to Jerry’s and have some chicken soup for sure. Hopefully I’ll pick up some packages, but I think it will probably be best for me to mostly stay home and take it easy. I’ll e-mail the manuscript to Grant Geissman so he has it on hand, in case he can get to it sooner than later. I’m also hoping for my blurbs this week. Tonight, only if I’m feeling up to it, I’ll go see Chess at the Musical Theater Guild.
The rest of the week is dealing with the Kritzerland show, writing a new set of liner notes and trying to get the next Kritzerland release ready for the end of February, then some meetings and meals and a couple of shows to see.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, hopefully feel better, send mp3s, eat, hopefully pick up packages, e-mail the manuscript, and maybe see Chess. Today’s topic of discussion: If you could make one piece of today’s technology disappear, which would it be and why? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I shall continue to fight the good fight.