Well, dear readers, the migration has begun. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, the migration of haineshisway.com has begun and I’m told within forty-eight hours we’ll be fully migrated for both site and discussion board. It all happened very quickly yesterday morning. The tech guy called me and we went over all the remaining issues, one by one, and then they cleaned everything up, removed all our test stuff, and told me the migration would begin last night. Whether it actually did I do not know, but if it didn’t for some reason it definitely will this morning. Hopefully we’ve ironed out all things at both places. There are just a couple of outstanding issues that will get fixed once both sites have fully migrated – one is the ability to post events to the calendar – we all looked at that carefully and everything is checked that should be checked but it still isn’t working properly. It will. I also got instructions for Donald Feltham about how he’ll post the new radio shows. I did a test first and it’s unbelievably easy now and so much fun and so much better – no more radio show frustration for anyone, so we really will not have anyone saying they haven’t heard each and every radio show because now there will be no excuse to tender. Last night, I talked Donald through it and he posted a test and it worked perfectly. No more Real Player, no nothing. He just drags and drops his radio show mp3 into his form and up it goes. For you dear readers it’s so simple – when you go to the radio show page there’s a player there and you click “play.” Couldn’t be easier than that. And it plays perfectly with no buffering or stuttering or any delays whatsoever.
So, let me explain how the next couple of days will work for you dear readers who not only read the notes but use the discussion board. First, I will be posting the current day’s notes to both old and new sites. That way, if the site has propagated for some but not others no one will miss a day of notes. When the propagation is complete to the new servers, there will be no old site at all. It will just go away forever. So, hopefully by Saturday at the latest everyone will have the new site on their computer. You may have to clear your cache (computers regularly cache places that are visited a lot – and hold the old pages in memory), or simply refresh your browser.
Second, the discussion board. This is a little harder – I’m going to be locking the topic when I post these here notes, and so no one can post until they get the new discussion board showing up. If you go directly to www.haineshisway.com/smf and see the old board it means you haven’t gotten the new board yet. Please be patient – it will take the time it takes, and hopefully that won’t be longer than the estimated twenty-four to forty-eight hours. Again, you may have to clear your cache and/or refresh your browser. So, how will you know if you’re at the right place? If you’re seeing the usual notes you’ll know you’re at the old site – in other words, there will still be an Unseemly Button to use. If you’re at the new site, a) it will look a little different – the notes column is now a bit wider and more to the right and there is no Unseemly Button – the notes are all on one page now, b) the new discussion board, while having a similar look and feel, is actually quite different – you should see your avatar on the home page, and you’ll see several new topics, including BK’s Books, which include boards for the Hofstetter books, the memoirs, and the Kritzer books (when we’re fully up and running I’ll add boards for the other books), and there’s now an Outside the Box board (with Nudie Musical). Once you have the new board on your computer, log-in should be exactly what it always was and should get you on immediately. We think we’ve fixed all the little things that changed, but if you post and find yourself taken back to the list of topics, it’s an easy fix by going into your user profile and modify and checking the appropriate box – that said, we do think we figured out how to have that box pre-checked for you, so hopefully it will be. I’d suggest going into your profile, clicking modify, then going to look and layout because there are some fun new options there you might like.
That’s about it, really. Please be patient – I cannot say that enough. We’ll all be back together soon, and I’ll have updates here in the notes, so you can always check back and I’ll include any updates right at the top. It’s all very exciting, but I really don’t like the fact that we won’t all be able to be together on our wonderful board for a day or two. But once it’s all up and everyone has it, we don’t ever have to do this again.
Other than all that, it was a nice day yesterday. I was up early, did a three-mile jog, then dealt with the site stuff. After that, I had a patty melt and no fries or onion rings. I never got to the post office – too much to do. The workers have basically finished with the living room window – just some paint touch-ups to come, but boy does it and our new gate look great. Still lots for them to do – the major stuff is all in the yard, plus our new side garage door. After the long day, I finally sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I finished watching The Star Chamber on Blu and Ray. I have to say, the idea of it is really good and the first sixty-five minutes play out wonderfully, save for some quite bad dialogue for two of the bad guys. But the final third never really delivers on the film’s early set-up, which is a shame. It’s very watchable and I did enjoy it all, but it could have been much better. The Michael Small score, which we’ve just issued, is brilliant, but is kept so low in the mix for most of it that it might as well not have been there at all. It just makes you scratch your noggin’. The cast is good, save for the two bad guys I mentioned – terrible writing and they just play all the obvious choices, so it’s kind of nonsensical.
I then watched Pippin, the one that was taped in 1981 – but not the released DVD – that version, the only one ever shown, was edited by the horrible and completely void of talent David Sheehan. The chutzpah of that man is astonishing. His edit is so poor, always cutting at the wrong time, trying to be flashy, and also removing about twenty-four minutes from the show. And sickeningly, a lot of people who criticize the Bob Fosse production do so based on that video, which is quite nauseating when you think about it. Those of us who actually saw the damn thing on stage (and I did multiple times) can tell you just how brilliant it was. The pacing, the style, the direction, the choreography – all perfect. Now, over the years I’ve heard about something called the “Fosse edit” but frankly I didn’t believe it existed. Only it did and it does and I was sent a copy of it. Many generations away from whatever it was taken from, and somewhere in the food chain someone’s tracking on their tape machine was going berserk, but even with all those caveats, it was like reliving seeing the show on Broadway. What a difference actual talent makes. The editing is simple and to the point, always allowing you to see the numbers and the staging and everyone’s relation to each other and the settings. It’s also one complete performance – the released version has pick-ups and was made up of two performances I believe. In the version that I watched, William Katt completely cracked at the end of Corner of the Sky, Martha Raye fumfered many of her lyrics and you know what – with all that, it didn’t matter a whit because suddenly I was seeing Fosse’s genius everywhere, I was seeing the show I saw, not some bastardized, inept thing created by the hack, David Sheehan. In fact, I hated the video so much – but I just blamed it on the whole thing being done without Fosse there – but he was there. I thought the Catherine was terrible. I thought Chita Rivera didn’t work at all. And the cuts made me want to puke. Well, seeing this Fosse edit guess what? Chita is GREAT, the Catherine is GREAT, all the laughs are there, and best of all it’s totally complete, all two hours and twelve minutes of it (the released version runs about an hour and forty-five minutes). With all the pieces put back and with competent editing, it all works perfectly. I’m so thrilled to have seen it this way.
Today, the migration will hopefully continue apace – I will call the tech guy in the morning to see how we’re doing. I have to be up early and I have to jog by eight-thirty, because our rehearsal begins at ten-thirty. That will last about two-and-a-half hours, after which I shall go eat something light but amusing. I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, I’ll pay a couple of bills, and that will be that. Otherwise, I’ll keep refreshing my browser and hoping to see both the new site and the new discussion board as soon as possible.
Tomorrow, I may or may not have a dinner to go to, and then Saturday is our stumble-through, Sunday is sound check and show, and Monday I start prepping the July show.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a jog, check with the tech guy to see how we’re doing, rehearse, eat, hopefully pick up some packages and hope the migration is proceeding smoothly and quickly. Today’s topic of discussion: None. Obviously tomorrow’s notes will also be written on both old and new sites and that will hopefully be the last time I need to do that because by that time everything old will be new again. Can’t wait for us all to be in our two new homes.