Well, dear readers, I ust get hese otes ritten fast therefore I shall leave out a letter every now and then to peed tings up. So, without further ado annie – How I Spent My Saturday and other Topics.
I got up after nine gloriously glorious hours of sleep. I answered e-mails and then went and had some eggs, bacon and toast, after which I picked up one package and did some banking. Then I began the arduous task of writing the commentary for the anniversary show. That took most of the afternoon but I got the first pass done and now I have over a week to finesse and futz, not necessarily in that order. I did a three-mile jog, then proofed packaging for what I hope will be our next release. It’s quite a handsome package, overall, and I made some nips and tucks and tiny adjustments to the liner notes.
Then I spent over an hour going over the Sandy Bainum mixes, making little notes about tiny little adjustments to make. The mp3s that were sent to me of these mixes were poorly made and so it was a bit frustrating to hear them after the beautiful way they sounded in the studio. They were just good enough for me to hear what I needed to hear, so they served their purpose, but my next set will be the final mixes and they’ll be made properly. After that it was already early evening so I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I started two different motion pictures – one on Blu and Ray and one on DVD. The one on Blu and Ray was entitled Love Me Tender, starring Mr. Richard Egan, Miss Debra Paget, and introducing some guy named Elvis Presley. I haven’t seen the film, I think, since it came out – I saw it at my beloved Stadium Theater in Cinemascope. Elvis’s movie debut was a huge deal, but Love Me Tender was and is an odd choice, a western of sorts, a serious film about the end of the Civil War. Now you must understand, Civil War pictures have always baffled me because the Civil War was baffling, with Americans killing each other. I mean, who do you root for – the Confederates or the Union? In the end, they’re all of this country and I just don’t see how you choose your hero or villain. In any case, Elvis is fine in it, but the film is quite ordinary, really a programmer when you think about it, but because Elvis was the biggest thing there was, it made back its entire production cost immediately. I watched about twenty minutes of it, up to the point where Elvis finally enters the film. I’ll watch the rest soon.
I then watched the first twenty-five minutes of a completely weird little arty film called Suture. I wanted to see it because the directors of it said that their main inspirations for the film were Seconds, Mirage and Spellbound, three films I’m very fond of. So far, this 1993 film has none of the qualities of those three films. It’s shot in black-and-white scope and has an okay premise, but the casting is decidedly off-kilter – I’m sure there’s a point to it but that point is eluding me at this point. I’ll watch the rest and go into the film in more detail when I’m done with it.
But I couldn’t concentrate anymore on either film – I kept nodding off. So, I came back to the computer, listened to one of our upcoming projects, which I love more with each hearing. In fact, I listened to it twice, despite the CDs running time of 78 minutes. And that was my day and that was my night.
I think from time to time I’ll post a mystery track from an upcoming release right in these here notes. I think that just might be fun, don’t you? To inaugurate doing that, I offer a track from a release that’s down the road – I’ve been dickering with this for over eight months, but haven’t really had the time to sit down and figure it all out – it’s a bit of a puzzle, but I’ve done half the edit road map and will finish it up and we’ll probably release it right after the New Year or thereabouts. The music is stunning, as you’ll be able to tell from this gorgeous mystery cue – this has become one of my favorite scores and we’re thrilled that we get to put it out and the CD will include two other scores with it.
Wasn’t that just a beauty? Such a haunting theme, isn’t it? So, I hope I’ve piqued your interest.
Today, I shall be up by nine and to Westlake Audio by eleven, which means I have to leave here by ten-thirty, which means if I’m to do a morning jog I have to be out the door by nine-fifteen, which is doubtful. If not, I’ll jog when I get home. Otherwise, I’m in the studio with Lanny Meyers and my engineer, John Adams, finessing and finalizing the Sandy mixes. I’m sure I can coerce everyone into eating Astroburger for lunch. I’m not sure how long it will take, but we’re there until we finish. Then I’ll come home and try to get some kind of relaxation in, although I do have to start a new set of liner notes.
Tomorrow, I have a work session with John Boswell for the anniversary show, then I have to finish the set of liner notes and start another. I have this feeling there’s something else going on later in the day or in the evening but I have no idea what it might be and I only hope some kind soul reminds me. The rest of the week is writing liner notes, meetings, meals, errands and whatnot, prepping the release announcement and approving the master for it, which I probably won’t hear until the end of the week.
We also got the good news that our replacement for our guest star is the wonderful Sharon McNight. So, that’s good, and I’m kind of hoping we’ll have one surprise performer – if we get said surprise performer I will not divulge who it is until the show. We’re also over half sold for the added matinee show, so I suspect that will be pretty full.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, finesse and finalize the Sandy mixes, I must eat Astroburger, I must jog, and I must write some liner notes. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, after which I shall be back in the mixing studio, which will be How I Spent My Sunday.