Well, dear readers, I am getting quite tired of not getting enough sleep – literally. I’m so tired right now I could eat a baguette. Does anyone still eat a baguette? What exactly IS a baguette anyway? Am I thinking of something else, like a croissant? Or is there a baguette you eat? Of course – it’s a long loaf of French bread – I knew that. But isn’t there also a jewelry baguette or is that something else? Of course – it’s a jewelry thing, like a diamond baguette. Isn’t that confusing? What if you ordered a baguette to eat but a diamond baguette arrived instead, along with a bill for $23,462.27? That would be a fine how do you do. On the other hand, what if you ordered a diamond baguette, wrote a check for $23,462.27 and you were handed a baguette, the long loaf of French bread kind. That would be a fine how do you do. What idiot word person came up with a word and then ascribed two meanings to it? Where was I? Oh, yes, I’m quite tired of not getting enough sleep – literally. Last night, I was in bed by 12:30 or so and didn’t fall asleep until almost 3:00. And then the damn telephonic device rang at 9:30 and that was that – not enough damn sleep. Old Jews need their damn eight hours, baby, or we get ornery and then we twerk and it’s not pretty.
In any case, yesterday was a day in which I was tired. Therefore I remember little of what happened. I do remember getting out of bed. I do remember answering e-mails and I do remember beginning a new set of liner notes, and also having a telephonic conversation. I remember eating a grilled cheese and bacon sandwich with no fries or onion rings and I distinctly remember picking up no packages. The helper came by and picked up some stuff. I got word that Poltergeist II: The Other Side will arrive on Friday morning, which was very good news – many CDs to ship. I continued writing the liner notes and finished the draft, which I’ll finesse today at some point.
Then I prepped our new release announcement – wrote the blurb, prepared the eBlast and got the web guy the audio tracks for the samples. Then I loaded some Maltby and Shire songs into iTunes, but not nearly what I need to, so that’s definitely happening this day. Then I did a three-mile jog, planked, and did thirty sit-ups. I went to Gelson’s and got a small thing of Chinese chicken salad for my snack and came home. After all that, I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I didn’t have enough time to watch a motion picture, so I watched two Betty Boop cartoons on the new Blu and Ray from Olive. I have all the Betty Boop cartoons on a French DVD, but I must say I’ve never really watched many of them. I’m just not up on my Betty Boop at all. In fact, while I’m certain I did watch a few on the French DVD set I have no memory of any of them. The two I watched last night were made before the motion picture code and the first one I watched, Chess-Nuts was pretty randy for a cartoon. They’re pretty crudely made, but there’s a certain wackiness to them that’s perverse and strange and yet oddly endearing. Betty herself is a complete original. I do love the Max Fleischer production, and his Superman cartoons had a big impact on me as a kid. Betty herself was supposedly modeled after actress/singer Helen Kane, who I don’t think I’ve ever seen in anything. But here she is.
And here’s Betty.
Miss Kane sued Fleischer but lost. Her career waned and Betty’s took off, as her cartoons became the stuff of legend. I’m looking forward to watching more. Apparently, the first couple of cartoons in this set were shot in the silent film ratio and have been stretched instead of matted – while that may be very evident in still frames, it’s not that bad in motion. The quality of the two I watched was very good, but one wishes the original opening logos were there and not the TV syndication logos.
After that, I listened to the raw tracks for one half of an upcoming release – they sound great and this release, which has been in the works since the beginning of the year, will hopefully be one of our December releases and it will surely be one of the Kritzerland highlights of 2013.
Today, I shall be up by nine-thirty and I’m going to try to jog by ten, to get that out of the way. Then I’ll do my morning ablutions, then mosey on over to LACC, where I’m guesting and doing a Q&A for an hour, and some kids will be singing and I’ll give them some pointers, should they need any. Tom Griep got his schedule wrong, so he subbed it out to a fellow named Dean Mora. I’m sure it will be fun for the hour it will last. Then I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, I’ll eat something light but amusing, and then I’ll finesse the liner notes and load the rest of the Maltby and Shire songs into iTunes.
Tomorrow, I have a lunch meeting at noon at Musso and Frank, where I’m quite certain I’ll have my beloved seafood Louis. Saturday is busy and I’m pretty sure I have to see something on Saturday night, although I can’t remember what it might be. On Sunday, I’m going to see Tom Griep and Evelyn Halus’s daughter Oliviana perform at the Pasadena Playhouse, after which I have a dinner meeting to do back in the City of Studio.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a jog, do an event at LACC, hopefully pick up packages, eat, finesse liner notes, load songs into iTunes and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: Who are your all time favorite cartoon characters. What is the first cartoon you ever remember watching. And what cartoons do you think hold up the best today? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland where I shall undoubtedly dream of baguettes and baguettes, not necessarily in that order.