Well, dear readers, it is after midnight and I’m letting it all hang out. I am filled to the brim with garlic cheese bread (two pieces), artichoke, iceberg wedge, and a cup of clam chowder. It’s really not that much food, frankly, but boy am I full and full am I boy. The only other thing I’d eaten all day was a teeny-tiny side of mac-and-cheese. Otherwise, it was a VERY long day and I am VERY tired and so I’d just better buckle down, Winsocki and write these here notes before I fall asleep at the keyboard.
The day began when I arose at seven-thirty in the morning. I did my morning ablutions, then headed over to the Pasadena Playhouse, where we shot a little video for the upcoming ALS benefit I’m directing. Our camera crew was VERY young, like just graduated from high school, but they were fine and had brought along good cameras from their magnet school. I’d written a little something for Juliana, so we began with that and it went smoothly and quickly, not necessarily in that order. Then I asked some questions and she answered, then we shot her co-producer who did most of his stuff off the top of his head – it was all good. And I did a little thing, too. We finished around eleven-thirty and I came home briefly, did some banking, and then was on my way to the theater.
Kay Cole was with us, so we spent the afternoon cleaning up all the group numbers. She cleaned up her staging for the opening number, then watched all the other group numbers that I’d done and cleaned those up, too. She’s very strong, very focused, and everything was looking pretty good by the time we finished. She also quickly staged the post-bows song that brings our little evening to an end. Sami Staitman had come to me the other day, suggesting the tap number she does with another cast member might be better without her. I told her I’d think about it, which I did, and we’re going to try it as a solo to see how it feels. If we do that, then she’ll get another solo, and I have one all picked out for her, and I think we could make it quite a fun number. It would add a little bit of time to the show, which would be helpful, actually. Anyway, it was a really good work session for everyone. After that, Sami and her mom and I went to Lemonade, as Sami was about to pass out from hunger. She had a sandwich and truffle mac-and-cheese and I had the teeny-tiny side of regular mac-and-cheese – not great, but I was starving, too.
Then I had to immediately head over to The Smoke House for our dinner meeting for the benefit. These meetings are quite fun and we were all quite boisterously boisterous – there were lots o’ laughs, and we also did whatever business we needed to do. I decided that our next meeting in a few weeks can be at my house, and I’ll make my famous beef stroganoff, which I haven’t made since a dinner party with the Pogues many years ago before they moved to Kentucky. Hopefully I’ll still have the stroganoff touch. We were there two-and-a-half hours and I got home just before ten.
Obviously it was too late to finish Giant, so I just did stuff on the computer and that was that.
Today, I shall be up by nine or so, then to the theater by eleven. We begin with Sami and the fellow who does the tap number. We’ll watch it as staged with both of them, and then Kay will rework it as a solo so we can watch it that way. Then we’ll decide what’s what. Then everyone else comes and we’ll continue with the clean up of the group numbers. Then we’ll walk through some of the solos so Kay can see what we’re up to, but we have no pianist and therefore it’s not really going to be that helpful. We’ll break around two-thirty and I may or may not go out to eat after. Once back home, I’ll finish Giant and I will damn well write one set of liner notes.
Tomorrow is a holiday, so I’ll hopefully sleep in, I’ll write more liner notes, and then we have our sound check at three with our six-piece band. Then we eat and then it’s Sandy’s CD launch and show. The rest of the week is rehearsals and run-throughs by night, liner notes by day, and getting the singers their songs for the Kritzerland holiday show. So, yet another VERY busy week. What’s with all the VERYs? There are a lot of VERYs in all caps in these here notes, aren’t there? A VERY lot of them and it’s kind of VERY annoying, isn’t it? Just when you think you have a paragraph without a VERY, I pull the VERY back in. Ah, well, perhaps it’s time to tell the tale of The Randy Vicar and the Staple Gun.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, rehearse, write liner notes, eat, and relax. 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, after which I shall hopefully have a VERY nice day doing VERY nice things.