Well, dear readers, It is late and I must write these here notes in a hurry, for she of the Evil Eye will be here all too soon. If they asked me, I could write a book, but today I shall only write a pittance. Yes, these will be the pittance notes, the pipsqueak notes, the teeny-tiny notes. And, they’re off and running.
Yesterday was Friday even though Thursday was also Friday and so Friday kind of seemed like Saturday. I was up around nine-thirty or something like nine-thirty, and after answering e-mails I did a three-mile jog. Even before noon the temperature was almost 100 degrees and it went higher than that so I’m glad I got done early. I’m told the heat is the worst we’ve had in five years. After that, Shelly Markham came over and we spent about two hours doing arrangement stuff. We spent quite a bit of time on two put-togethers – I’d done the heavy lifting in figuring out how to do them, but we smoothed it all out then recorded those two tracks and I sent them to the people doing them so they could hear the layout. I was very pleased with both. We have a lot of put-togethers in this show, so that’s mostly what we worked on – figuring out how to go from one to the next and be musically cohesive. So, we got them all mapped out and got the “feels” right, and now Shelly just has to get comfortable with all these songs, which neither of us know very well. Then we talked about the feels of some of the solo numbers, and that was that.
We then went to Jerry’s Deli for some lunch – I was in the mood for a Cobb Salad so I ordered a Cobb Salad, which is the perfect thing to order when you’re in the mood for a Cobb Salad. I didn’t overdo the dressing and I had no bread or anything. Then I picked up two count them two packages and came home. I got the proofed notes to an upcoming release back, read through them, and those went off to the designer. I then got some cover options for two upcoming projects that I’m very excited about. Both have been on CD before, one of which will be different in our presentation. But I’d really loathed the CD covers for both of these and so we’ve completely rethought them, changing the art completely on one of them and reconfiguring the art on another, along with doing a whole new take – for that project, since I love both the cover designs Doug came up with, we’ll probably do one on the front and one on the back of the booklet so people can choose which they like. Then I did some work on the computer, listened to some things I needed to listen to, had a brief visit from a local CD dealer and had to spend some time figuring out something that happened a week or so ago – we finally did and it’s one of those odd glitches that happen occasionally and that I, unfortunately, didn’t know anything about until it was brought to my attention the day before yesterday. It’s all fine now and I was assured nothing like it can happen again. I do hate glitches, don’t you?
One of the packages I got was very exciting for me – a first edition I’ve wanted for many, many years. I happened to have two books a high-end dealer desperately needed (both spare copies, so I still have both books in my collection in better condition – love that) – so I made a trade deal with him – he got both books, which he will make a considerable amount of dough on, and I got one of the rarest first editions of twentieth century literature and certainly the rarest first edition western novel ever – Shane. His price on it was fair, but with the trade I came out VERY well in terms of what I’d paid for the two books he got. But he’ll make more from those two books than he would have for Shane, so all’s well and I’ve finally got a gorgeous copy of Shane. While the prices on the ABE for like copies run the gamut, the high prices are so high it’s not even funny – not that anyone is buying those copies, but this is a great one for the old-age pension.
Then it was time to mosey on over to a teeny-tiny theater in North Hollywood to see a play entitled Early One Evening at the Rainbow Bar & Grille, which featured Barry Pearl’s ever-lovin’ Cindy Dellinger – we always go see Cindy in her shows. I wasn’t crazy about the play itself – a little arch for my taste (it’s an apocalyptic comedy, with not enough comedy), and it just kind of ambles along. I looked up its production history – it seems to be produced quite a bit, but it had a very short off-Broadway run in 1989 and hasn’t been seen in New York since. The actors all did a nice job. After, we went to Little Toni’s – I was quite hungry by that point, so Barry and I split a small dinner salad, I had some of their wonderful bread, and a side of meatballs. So, definitely my splurge meal o’ the week, given the earlier Cobb Salad, but I think I’m okay – probably six hundred calories more than I’ve been eating, but still within the “maintain” range if not the losing weight range – my height I think can go to 2000 calorie days and either maintain or lose slowly. I’ve been doing 1200 a day, sometimes less, and so once a week to do 1800 isn’t harmful and is probably even helpful. We all had fun, and then I came home to write these here notes.
Today, she of the Evil Eye will be here and I’ll do an early jog, after which I’ll have a late breakfast, which will be my meal o’ the day – I’ll probably do an omelet of some sort and no bread and some tomatoes or fruit. I’ll probably do 1000 calories both today and tomorrow to make up for the splurge of last night. Once home, my intention is to do nothing but relax.
Tomorrow, my intention is the same as today – relax, and get everything prepped for the Monday morning announcement of our new release – everyone will want to get their orders in right away on this one – it’s not going to last long. Monday morning we announce, and we also have our first Kritzerland rehearsal that day, then it’s prepping two more releases, which I’m going to try and do together in two or three weeks, some meetings and meals, a couple of things to see, our second Kritzerland rehearsal, then our stumble-through, then sound check and show, and then it’s on to the August show, which is cast save for the guest star, and which I’ve pretty much chosen the songs for.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a jog, eat, hopefully pick up some packages, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What plays do you love that you would most like to see revived – the ones that rarely get revived. And who would your ideal cast and director be? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland after posting the pipsqueak notes.