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October 19, 2013:

SO LET ME GET RIGHT TO THE POINT

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, I must write these here notes in a hurry for she of the Evil Eye will be here all too soon and I’m meeting some film music fans for breakfast.  As they say in Sweet Charity, so let me get right to the point.  Of course, I’d have to know what the point is to get right to the point, but that’s another story.  So, let me just say that I actually managed to get eight blessed hours of blessed sleep, after which I got up and answered e-mails.  I then stared at my song list and then at my rough act one and act two placeholder.  I moved stuff around, realized I’d forgotten to put a key number in the placeholder, added it, and stared some more.  It was heartening that I began to actually see something happening, like a trajectory and point.  Hopefully that clarity will keep getting clearer over the weekend, but I do feel I’ll have something rough to bring in on Monday.  I still need to find at least two songs and I really want them to be Newley/Bricusse songs rather than songs they wrote separate from each other.  But I really can’t use anything else from Stop the World or Greasepaint, I’ve got what I need from Willy Wonka and The Good Old Bad Old Days, so that kind of leaves only their Peter Pan, which I’m going to watch this evening.  But if anyone has any ideas I’m not thinking of, please post them on the discussion board.

Then I got the news that we are indeed adding a matinee performance on November 3 for the Kritzerland show – three o’clock, with a two o’clock seating for brunch.  So, now we have to fill that house.  I do think we’ve already got about twenty people, so another sixty and we’ll be fine.  We’re trying to spread the word now.  So, I had to post that on our board and Facebook.  Then I had to prep our new release for Monday and that took a bit of time.  Then I had a visitor for a while and then I went and had a chili cheese omelet – I looked up the calories, which vary wildly from place to place, but it’s surprisingly not horrendous, calorie-wise.  And it was just as good as it was the first time I had it.  After that, I picked up a package, then came home.

Once home, I stared at my placeholder list and began moving things here and there and also there and here and act one is actually looking fairly interesting now.  Act two needs some creativity, but the song choices all see to fit at the moment.  I have to make sure that the spread between the singers is precisely even – haven’t even looked at that yet, although I’ve had it in mind when assigning the songs.  I had a couple of longish telephonic conversations, after which I did a three-mile jog, planked and did forty sit-ups, and then I finally sat on my couch like so much fish.

Last night, I watched a motion picture on Blu and Ray entitled Night Tide, a film of Curtis Harrington (his first full-length feature), starring Dennis Hopper and Linda Lawson.  I’ve only seen the film once before, on DVD, and I enjoyed it but didn’t love it.  But when I found out the Blu-ray was coming I got curious to see it again.  This time around I liked it much better – clarity in presentation does help.  It’s a really odd little film, kind of in the Carnival of Souls mode.  This may be the only film Dennis Hopper ever made where he’s actually charming.  And Linda Lawson is terrific as Mora, who performs as a mermaid in an amusement park attraction.  The film is all shot in Venice and mostly the Santa Monica pier as it was in 1961.  I do believe that at least one shot at the beginning of the film was taken on the Ocean Park boardwalk a block from where my grandparents lived, because I recognized one of the restaurants and an arcade I used to frequent.  If you’d flipped the camera around you would have seen Pacific Ocean Park.  But mostly it’s the pier and the classic merry-go-round building (featured most prominently in The Sting), and what used to be the charming pier of days gone by, rather than the “thing” it’s become.  But two things I’d completely forgotten were the musical score by David Raksin and the photography by Vilis Lapineks.  I met Vilis ten years after this film when he shot my very first pilot for CBS.  And then precisely ten years after that, he shot The Creature Wasn’t Nice, aka Spaceship, aka Naked Space.  How’s that for symmetry.  The transfer is called a “restoration” and it looks reasonably good for most of its running time, but the titles don’t look so hot and one suspects that the line “transferred from 35mm elements,” simply means from 35mm prints rather than any kind of negative.  It was an extremely low-budget film so it’s probably never looked great.  If you like the off-beat or you’d like to see what Santa Monica and Venice looked like before the rich took it over, then I’d recommend this highly.

After that, I did some more work on the computer, then joined Kritzerland’s art director, Doug Haverty and some other friends at the Coral Café.  I had a small slice of pumpkin pie, which is the most calorie-friendly slice of pie you can have (about the same as a donut), but I was still hungry so I had a BLT-A, which isn’t too bad, calorie-wise.  It was a fun time and needed for the likes of me.  Then I had to stop at Gelson’s and get she of the Evil Eye some stuff she needs for cleaning the home environment, and then I came home.

Today, I shall be up early, and then join some film music fans at Jerry’s Deli for a little breakfast.  That should be fun.  After that, I’ll do some errands and whatnot, hopefully pick up some packages, do a jog, and then buckle down, Winsocki and keep slogging away at the song list and placeholder for the show structure and order.  I’m sure I’ll watch a motion picture or two, but mostly it’s working on the show.

Tomorrow is mostly the same and then we have our meet and greet at Genghis Cohen, which I’m very much looking forward to.  And then Monday we announce our new title and Monday evening we begin rehearsals.  The rest of the week is work sessions, meetings and meals, and rehearsals every night.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, meet some film music fans, eat, hopefully pick up some packages, do a jog, and continue to work on the show structure and song placement.  Today’s topic of discussion: I love the piano – always have, always will.  Who are your all-time favorite pianists, whether classical, jazz or pop (pop meaning people like Peter Nero and Roger Williams).  And what are your favorite piano-driven albums?  Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, after which I shall arise and get right to the point.

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