Well, dear readers, I am quite tired so I’ll keep these here notes on the short side because last night I had another fairly sleepless night – yes, I was sleepless in Studio City. I can’t sleep the night before a show, and I can’t sleep after the show because I’m so hyper. That is a conundrum of the highest order. So, let me begin these here notes by saying that last night we had our final vocal comping session for the East Coast Singer’s new CD. We had six songs to do, so it was not a short session, but we finished it all. About four of the six were actually pretty easy – one of the four I used almost all of one take with just a handful of things from another. Two of them were very difficult because we did a few takes and both songs were really hard vocally and so I spent a lot of time on them. As I’ve said, the doing of that is grueling, time-consuming work, stopping and starting, listening to every take, taking notes, and then putting it together and having to keep adjusting when the choice I made isn’t of a piece with what comes before it – then we have to start nitpicking even further. But I’m really methodical and really good at it and all the effort and occasional frustrations disappear completely when we then play back the finished version – then it’s like magic – everything is of a piece and all is right with the world and environs. I’m happy we’re done with this part, although I occasionally will go back and make a further adjustment or two once I’ve heard the first pass of the mix – it’s rare but it happens.
Prior to that, I’d gotten up at eight-thirty, which was way too early since I hadn’t fallen asleep until after three thanks to being het up after the show. I got up at eight-thirty because of a telephonic call from the company that we get our shipping boxes from – a new customer service guy wanted to pay a visit and I said that would be great because I was tired of buying tens of thousands of boxes over the years without a single price break – he said he would definitely give us one, and I’m hoping it will even be a little retroactive, which would be very nice. Once up, I answered e-mails and did some stuff on the computer, and then got packaging approval for our next release. Then I had a grilled cheese and bacon sandwich and no fries or onion rings, then picked up one little package (not one of the overdue ones that I’m beginning to think will never ever arrive), and then the darling daughter came over and we discussed her visit with Dr. Chew and her longtime dental issues that are finally, at long last, going to be taken care of. I’ve been trying to get her here to see Dr. Chew (who did her teeth when she was little) and sadly it’s taken almost eight years to do so, for very silly reasons. While the news regarding her problems certainly could have been better, everything will be dealt with in the next six weeks and she’ll once again be able to smile, eat, not have pain in her mouth, and feel good about herself, which is all I care about. It’s not cheap to do, but her mother and I are splitting the cost. The problem eight years ago was that a dentist she went to, one of these charlatans who is only out for the big insurance pay told her it would cost $80,000 to fix everything. That was horse manure and frankly I’d like to pay that guy a visit and discuss reality with him, because the reality is it’s costing ten percent of that figure. But that’s why she didn’t do anything – she had no insurance and she didn’t want to burden us with that – but all along I just kept trying to get her here to get Dr. Chew’s opinion and his cost. The breaking point came last week when her friend told me for the second time this year a tooth had fallen out. I gave her no option – I made the appointment and told her she had to be here and that was that.
After our visit, I had a long telephonic call with the East Coast Singer, who ran the patter I wrote for the Ira Gershwin show she’s doing next week. It’s really very good and once she gets it down then we’ll work on the performance of it. We’ll be talking every day this week at least once. After that, I did a three-mile jog and then it was time to go do the vocal comp session.
After that, it was too late to get a Subway sandwich or go to Gelson’s, so I came home and ate the only thing I had, popcorn, which was good and filled me up. Here’s something fun I found – I put in iTunes my complete act that I did back in 1990 or thereabouts at The Gardenia. I’d been doing it since 1985, but I’d honed it pretty well by this point. I always put in new songs over the years. This was, however, one of my set pieces from about 1988 and it always worked beautifully. I thought it would be fun to write a sing-a-long song that was impossible to sing along to – the quality is very tinny but if you turn your volume up, you’ll be able to hear most of it.
Did you try to sing a long?
Today, I have an early lunch meeting with a singer, then I’ll do a jog, hopefully pick up some packages, write some liner notes, and relax.
Tomorrow and the rest of the week will be more of the same – meals and meetings and meetings and meals, seeing a show or two and attending a book fair on Saturday.
Let’s all put on our pointy party hats and our colored tights and pantaloons, let’s all break out the cheese slices and the ham chunks, let’s dance the Hora or the mambo because today is the birthday of occasional dear reader td. So, let’s give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to occasional dear reader td. On the count of three: One, two, three – A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO OCCASIONAL DEAR READER TD!!!
But I’m making a new birthday rule for our errant and truant occasional dear readers – if they don’t come and acknowledge the birthday wishes in both the notes and the discussion board, it will be the last time a birthday wish appears in these here notes. We have two other birthdays this month for two dear readers who haven’t been on our discussion board in years – while I’ll be happy to wish them well on their birthday on the board, it won’t be here.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, have an early lunch meeting, I must do a jog, I must hopefully pick up some packages, I must write, and I must relax. Today’s topic of discussion: We hate movie remakes, BUT – if you could take one movie that just didn’t work but that you felt should have worked, and remake that film, which film would it be and who would be your ideal cast? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy that the vocal comping is finished and that listening back we had the magic.