Well, dear readers, I must write these here notes in a hurry because I must be up at six in the morning to announce the new Kritzerland CD. And a humdinger of a CD it is – a world-premiere release of the Alfred Newman score to the delightfully delightful Paramount film, The Pleasure of His Company, starring Mr. Fred Astaire, Miss Debbie Reynolds and Miss Lilli Palmer, along with other fine actors and actresses. The score is like a sparkling glass of champagne and shouldn’t be missed by any true film score lover. Here’s the cover for the film score lover.
Isn’t that a fun cover? Mr. Newman’s music is delectable. Yesterday was not quite a delectable day, but it did have its moments. I got up at eleven – that was delectable as I actually got nine hours of blessed sleep. I then did a three-mile jog, answered e-mails and continued to be outraged at the death of cousin Dee Dee and Alan’s beloved Casey. Dee Dee and I have had several back-and-forth e-mails – the cops still refuse to do a damn thing and Animal Control doesn’t think they’ll be able to do much of anything. What is wrong with this picture? You have a dangerous, psychotic dog whose owners don’t really seem phased that their precious pet viciously killed a beautiful and sweet-natured dog. They somehow think it’s perfectly fine that their precious psychopathic animal is allowed to do what it would like sans leash or muzzle and without attendant. The dog’s owner, whose name I will print here should he continue to behave cavalierly (he’s flat-out lied to Dee Dee about certain things), is a cretin and will hopefully have to reach into his entitled pockets and cough up some real dough, although that is scant recompense for the loss of a beloved pet whose owner truly considered that pet a member of her family – her child. No, his psycho-dog needs to be put down, but would you like to know the attitude of Animal Control? They’ll file a report and if the dog does this again, then maybe they’ll take action. Brilliant! Let this maniacal out-of-control dog attack and kill another dog, THEN they might do something about it. What’s wrong with this picture? I would still like to get this to someone in the media, someone who would take Animal Control and the West Los Angeles Police Department to task, someone who will put the mug of psycho-dog’s owner on the television for all to see – let’s see how that smug SOB tries to talk around it. Prior to brutally murdering Casey, this psycho-dog had already attacked a neighbor’s dog – that neighbor never filed a report (stupidly) because they were able to separate the dogs before harm had been done. Well, baby, harm has been done, deadly harm and it should not be allowed to happen again. I will not stop talking about this until something has been done. I’ve asked Dee Dee if it would be all right to post her original e-mail and portions of her follow up e-mails to my Facebook page. If she’s okay with that, I will then ask every single Facebook friend to share it with every one of their friends. Let’s get this thing viral, that’s what I say, so that it can find its way to the media and so psycho-dog never EVER has the chance to do this again and so its owners can own up to their culpability in the murdering of Casey. Nothing can bring that sweet soul back, but we can at least prevent it from happening again. End of rant, part two.
I did some work on the computer and some stuff around the house and then it was time to mosey on over to the Pasadena Playhouse for Junior’s Got Talent, an ethnically diverse talent contest for kids ranging in age from around eight to seventeen, for a variety of talents from singing to instruments to dance. It’s a fine idea and as you all know by now, I’m a firm believer in nurturing young kids and their talent. I am always very moved by kids who have the dream and have the guts to get out there and DO it – it doesn’t even matter that some are more talented than others or that some have little talent – they put themselves on the line and in front of people and DO it. And if they believe, then they’ll study and get better. Some are well on their way.
The show began right on time at four. I was told in advance there would be twenty-three participants and each was allowed three minutes to do whatever they were going to do. That meant that the show should have run a little over an hour – alas, that was sadly not the case, with the show clocking in at almost two hours and fifteen minutes. Why? Not because of the kids, who did exactly as they were told and did not go over their three minutes. No, because of the self-serving adults who put on the show. Again, the idea is noble and good, but here’s a little hint to the host of the show and the folks who put it together: It’s not about YOU. This “host,” a former mayor of San Gabriel or somewhere, was terrible – there’s really no other way to say it, and if Mr. Ex-Mayor ends up seeing this, please understand I mean no disrespect for you as a person, but as a host you need to learn that to drag out the proceedings is completely unfair to the kids. We know why we’re there. We don’t need speechifying from you and some other political person and whoever else. We get it. It’s in the program. And why on Earth would you introduce each judge individually, when their names are in the program along with their bios? And why on Earth would you, in introducing them, READ their bios aloud? That alone took ten minutes. I had to bite my tongue to stop from yelling out, “Get on with it, for heaven’s sake!” And while he’s doing all that, the poor kids are left standing onstage with nothing to do. All we wanted and/or needed was to watch these kids do their thing, let the judges do their thing, and find out the winners in each category.
The show did begin with a fun drum corps performance that was pretty terrific. Then we had to sit through thirty minutes of Mr. Ex-Mayor’s endless chatter, along with the endless chatter of a few others. Finally the show proper began. No reason to really comment on the performers other than to say some need to work on their talents, some are really good, and some have real potential. There was an eight-year-old violinist who for eight was extremely self-assured and poised and who played very well. And there were some fine Chinese folk dance routines by several of the dance contestants. And there were two ten-year-old ballroom dancers who were way too much fun and extremely good. We had a couple of classical ballet dancers, we had a pan flute player – a very eclectic group of kids. By intermission (and yes it was needed thanks to the endless introductory remarks) the youngster I was there to see, my friend Tom Griep and Evelyn Halus’s daughter Oliviana (who’s done one Kritzerland show) hadn’t gone on. The ten-minute intermission lasted twenty and by that time I’d begun to worry about getting to my six-thirty dinner meeting on time. The Ex-Mayor introduced each act from an off-stage mic, which seemed weird, but weirder was his reading the paragraph each kid had written for the program about why he or she liked to perform. Um, we have the program and we don’t need to hear you read that stuff. Just announce the kids. Clearly these people need to hire a real director who knows how to do these things and who is strong enough to say, “This is how it’s done and this is what we’re not doing.” Another half hour went by and still the gal I was there to see hadn’t gone on. Finally, at six she got her shot and she did very well – she sang At the Codfish Ball and it was sweet and cute and then she tap danced, too. She was clearly the best of the singers that had performed up to that point. As soon as she was done I hurried to my car and just got to my dinner meeting on time. Later, I found out Oliviana hadn’t won – some gal that came after her, that I was told was not anywhere near as good, took the prize for singing. The two small ballroom dancers took dance, and a clarinet player who obviously went after I’d left took instrument.
Should this continue to be an annual event I would really recommend they hire some professionals to make it what it should be – that’s what’s fair to these kids, who deserve better.
The dinner meeting went well and I was starving so I had some good food, too. After that, I came home and answered e-mails and relaxed, with no time to watch anything.
Today, I must be up at six to announce the new Kritzerland title, after which I may or may not go back to bed, and then hopefully I’ll print out a LOT of orders. I’ll do a jog, then at noon I’m meeting Nick Redman and the composer of an upcoming Kritzerland release – he’ll sign 100 booklets for that release. After that, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, then I’ll really need to relax.
Tomorrow, I have an early lunch meeting, then Sandy Bainum comes over with Lanny and we start putting together her act for the album launch. We’ll also be rehearsing her Ira Gershwin act – that goes on all week, but each day I have a lunch meeting, so it’s kind of a nutty busy week.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, announce a new CD, jog, have an early lunch with Nick Redman and a film composer, hopefully pick up packages, get singers their music and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: Who are your all-time favorite child performers and what do you think their best performances were? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, after which I shall be up early to announce our new title.