Well, dear readers, it is late and I must write these here notes in a hurry since she of the Evil Eye will be here all too soon and I need as much beauty sleep as possible. There is no time to be pithy and long-winded in these here notes. I must to the point and the point must to me. So, let me cut right to the chase and say that yesterday was Friday. There, I said it and I’m glad. I don’t really have much to say about yesterday being Friday because it was a fairly uneventful day as Fridays go. I’m already bored to tears by these here notes. They seem to need a pick-me-up, some vim, some vigor, perhaps a swig of Geritol. Does anyone still take Geritol? Does Geritol even exist anymore? Let’s find out, shall we?
Holy moley on rye, what a history Geritol has. Who knew? It was created in 1950 and was an alcohol-based iron and vitamin supplement, alcohol being 12% of it. It was advertised as having twice the iron in a pound of calves’ liver. The Federal Trade Commission found that Geritol’s claims were folderol and fined the company over $800,000 in the mid-1960s. Geritol was, of course, the sponsor of Twenty-One, which was a major player in the quiz show scandals. It was also marketed extensively on The Lawrence Welk Show and What’s My Line (which also advertised my beloved Five-Day Deodorant Pads). In 1972 Geritol created a commercial that caused much consternation amongst women – you remember its tagline, I’m sure: “My wife – I think I’ll keep her.” Surprisingly (at least to the likes of me), Geritol is still sold today, unlike Five-Day Deodorant Pads. Holy moley on rye – they do still make Five-Day Deodorant Pads! I’m buying some immediately so I can relive my childhood game of putting them on my face. Here is the damn proof.
What the HELL am I talking about? So, I did get nine hours of glorious sleep. Once up, I had a brief visit with someone, then did a three-mile jog, after which I picked up no packages. I had a lovely telephonic conversation with my old pal Crista Moore and then with the East Coast Singer. Then I drove to Barry Pearl’s house and off we went to Redondo Beach, first to dine and then to see Shrek, The Musical.
A twenty-six minute drive took ninety minutes, thanks to the usual LA freeway horrors. We found a place to eat called The Kettle. Everything on the menu looked good but I decided on the penne pasta with blackened chicken – the sauce was a parmesan cream sauce, but I had them use only a little cream with some marinara sauce so it wasn’t too bad. To start, I had a small Caesar salad. Everything was very good, and the conversation was fun. We shared a dessert of an apple/cinnamon cobbler thing – we each at about half of a half, leaving the rest, so all in all, probably more than I usually eat these days, calorie-wise, but at this point a splurge day every now and then is fine and even necessary.
Then we moseyed on over to the theater. I don’t really need to go on about the show – the production was professional, the staging was basically the Broadway staging with tweaks and the performances were all very good. No, the only thing I had any problem with was with the musical called Shrek. But my problems began long before, because I saw the film and really didn’t like it. I know I’m in the minority about it, but I found its humor smart-ass and forced and amazingly unfunny. So, there’s no real way I was going to like a musical version. The fact is, Shrek, The Musical is basically everything I can’t stand about musical theater today. A film that is pointlessly made into a musical, featuring a score with one unmemorable song after another, all with the same musical language, none really adding anything to the show. A show filled with endless and ultimately debilitating musical theater references that are supposed to just be ever so hilarious but aren’t because hip little “in” musical theater jokes have been in just about every musical of the last decade – note to writers: It’s boring already – enough. The humor is, like the film, smart-ass and “knowing” and I just can’t get into this kind of show. And since it lasted only a year on Broadway, I don’t really think audiences did either. And I just cannot stand these loud sound mixes that are designed to make you applaud no matter what, accompanied by light bumps at the end of every single number. Note to directors and lighting designers: Lighting used to actually MEAN something – look at any show that Tharon Musser lit – Follies, A Chorus Line, whatever – the lighting served the show, it wasn’t flashy-for-no- reason theme park lighting – enough already with the light bumps and smoky lights, it is completely meaningless. Gypsy didn’t need light bumps and sound bumps at the end of every number. Nor did A Chorus Line or any other pre-1990 show. One can’t blame the producers of the show – they rented the tour set and are basically trying to give their audiences the show that was on Broadway and to that end they do a good job of recreating that. Interestingly, there were quite a few people who left at intermission – in fact, half my row left. This is not a fault of the production but of the show itself.
We hung around and chatted with a few people, then came home – the ride home took exactly twenty-five minutes.
Today, I shall be up when she of the Evil Eye arrives. I then have to send the audio clips for our new release to our web guy, then I’ll head over to Pasadena for the book fair, which I’m very much looking forward to. I won’t know until I get there if we’re going to dine afterwards – kind of hoping so. I’ll also jog at some point.
Tomorrow, I’m brunching with the helper and her mom, then I’m seeing the helper in the musical in which she’s appearing. Then I have a birthday party to go to. Not my idea of a restful Sunday, but we must do what we must do. Monday, I’ll be Face Time directing Sandy’s show during the day – that will take up a few hours, then in the evening I go to Westlake Studios to finesse the mix of Sandy’s album – that I can’t wait to do – my favorite part of the process. We also announce our new title. The rest of the week is meetings and meals.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a jog, attend a book fair, and maybe eat dinner out with friends. Today’s topic of discussion: When you were a wee bairn, which products and commercials and slogans piqued your interest or amused you? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I shall dream of Five-Day Deodorant Pads on my face, whilst sipping Geritol straight from the bottle.