Well, dear readers, we had our first preview and as first previews go it was pretty good. There were some jitters and flubs, but the audience seemed very responsive to the whole thing, so that was good. One thing I learned is that when you put bodies in the seats the acoustic loses most of its “liveness”. So, we’ll have to do a little adjusting to compensate for that. We still have to work out a few kinks and to that end we’ll meet an hour before the show to make some adjustments. A few things I’ve added in the last couple of days are playing nicely and I’m sure I’ll keep fiddling as we go along, but, of course, we’re going into over a week off, which makes me extremely nervous. But if everyone goes over their track in the show at least once a day we should be fine, then it’s just a matter of getting the energy and cohesion back to where it was. I had some really nice comments from people I didn’t know and who weren’t connected with the theater at all.
After the show, I went out with some folks for a bite to eat – had scrambled eggs and bacon and potato pancakes that were really good. Earlier, I’d had bacon and eggs, too, so it was a real bacon and eggs day and you can now call me The Bacon-and-Egg Man. Is that right? I don’t think so. I think it’s The Butter-and-Egg Man. But what the HELL is a Butter-and-Egg Man anyway? Wow, I just found out that a Butter-and-Egg Man has nothing to do with either butter or eggs – it’s a free spender or wealthy investor or a naïve prosperous businessman. So, how do you get Butter-and-Egg Man from that? Apparently, at some club somewhere, a free spender came in and refused to give his name, just saying he was big in the dairy business. From that, someone nicknamed him the big butter-and-egg man. There was even a Louis Armstrong recording called The Big Butter-and-Egg Man and there was a play by George S. Kaufman called The Butter-and-Egg Man. But I am NOT the Butter-and-Egg Man I am the Bacon-and-Egg Man and I am the walrus, goo-goo-goo joob.
Otherwise, Saturday was nice and restful, just the way I wanted and needed it to be. I had eight hours of blessed sleep, answered e-mails, did some work on the computer, had my bacon and eggs, picked up no packages and then came home and sat on my couch like so much fish.
Yesterday, I watched a motion picture screener on DVD entitled Gravity. I’ve read nothing but love-letter reviews of the film (97% positive on Rotten Tomatoes), some of which call it the greatest cinema changer since 2001. Critics are amusing. Then there’s the imdb where half the people think it’s one of the greatest movies ever made and the other half think it isn’t all that. I do realize I probably put the movie at a disadvantage not seeing it on the big screen (it played here in IMAX, which I have little interest in, and 3-D, which I have even less interest in), but I’m happy to offer my thoughts on watching the DVD screener. First of all, when this thing comes out on Blu-ray it should be a reference quality disc. So, is Gravity all that? No, for me it’s not quite all that. But I thought it was really good, and couldn’t take my eyes off the beauty of its space images. The choreography in space was terrifically done, the effects are state-of-the-art and never feel phony in that phony CGI way. Sandra Bullock and George Clooney give nice performances. And the pace of it is great – the film, sans end credits, runs only eighty-four minutes. One wonders if there was a lot more movie at some point. The story of survival in space is tense and keeps you involved every step of the way. So, why can’t I say it was a truly great picture, a masterpiece, as some are calling it? Well, for starters, some of the dialogue is a little, well, not so hot – the quips become quickly tiresome, but on they go. And I wasn’t sold on one brief scene towards the end of the film, where Mr. Clooney makes a reappearance. But those are minor quibbles and I was mesmerized by the film’s imagery, sound, and overall feel. I even want to watch it again, which I may on Monday night. The score, while not great movie music, worked hand-in-glove with the film. Overall, I’d definitely recommend this highly.
I also watched the first thirty minutes of Woody Allen’s new film, Blue Jasmine, yet another film where critics are falling all over themselves to proclaim it a masterpiece. So far I find it second or third-tier Woody, but I’m hoping it gets better as it goes along, as I’m not far enough into it to really judge it. I didn’t leave for the theater until about 5:45 and I got there about 6:30 – I would have been there fifteen minutes sooner, but the idiots have closed off part of Overland, so Pico was a mess with people trying to detour around it. Once I got to Sepulveda it was easy sailing.
Today, I shall hopefully arise after a good night’s beauty sleep. Then I’ll do some writing, I’ll finish Blue Jasmine and maybe start another movie, and then I’ll head over to the theater around five so I get there by six. We’ll work some stuff at six, then the second preview begins at seven. I’m not sure I’ll eat during the day and I will try to find forty-five minutes to jog. So, after the show I think a few of us will go grab a bite to eat. Tomorrow, I have a lot of work to do, including finishing liner notes. Then we have our second Kritzerland rehearsal beginning at one-thirty and it goes almost until five, I think. The rest of the week will be meetings and meals and catching up on stuff I need to do for the benefit I’m directing, then Thanksgiving with Barry Pearl and Cindy Dellinger, and then relaxing.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, write, relax, and then attend our second preview. 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, where I shall be The Bacon and Egg Man.