Well, dear readers, I think it’s either high or low time we took a look back at some of this year’s highlights, me-wise, although there have been so many this year that I probably shan’t remember them all – there were bounties galore, some annoyances and irritations along the way, but certainly 2013 was one of the busiest years I’ve ever had. If busy equaled money I would be very rich from this year. It began, as most years have begun for quite some time now, with me beginning a new book on the first of January, said book being a new Adriana Hofstetter mystery, Murder at the School Musical. The title was a bit of serendipity – until the day before the galley arrived it was called Murder at The Music Man, but because the publisher incorrectly thought The Music Man was a trademarked name (the musical’s title is hardly trademarked) I came up with the alternate title just in case it really became an issue. But the minute muse Margaret heard the new title, she absolutely loved it and thought it suited the story better as it wasn’t so specific, and so I didn’t even wait to see if things were going to be an issue, I just made the change. The reaction to this one has been just wonderful and I like it very much because for me it was a cautionary tale that I wanted young people to take seriously.
Also in January, I helped singer Karen Gedissman quickly put together an act for an appearance at the Catalina Bar and Grill. In the early part of the year there were a couple of trips to Washington, DC to work with the East Coast Singer, aka Sandy Bainum. This was a pivotal year for her, and a good one. We did a new album, put together two new shows for her, and all of it was wonderfully received. The recording sessions, the first I’ve done with a big orchestra in years, were a lot of fun and the result was very much to my liking. And, of course, beginning in January we did our monthly Kritzerland shows. While they’ve always done well, this year had the most sold out houses we’ve had, and twice we added a second show, which was a first for us. Those shows are a lot of work, but I love doing them, love working with our talent, and as long as it’s fun I guess we’ll keep on keeping on.
The other regular event, of course, was issuing two CDs a month, month in and month out, with four CDs released in December. It was an absolutely amazing year for Kritzerland in terms of the projects. There were so many wonderful scores released, including my favorite projects of the year (all for different reasons and not necessarily because they’re my favorite scores). At the top of the list would be Heaven Can Wait, something that I’ve loved since the day I first saw the film, and coupling it with Racing for the Moon was a beautiful bonus. Poltergeist II was, for me, the most artistically fulfilling release of the year. We were initially given so much grief for using the analogue three-track mixdowns, but I stuck to my guns, and mastering engineer James Nelson and I made it a bit of a mission to show everyone what this score was capable of sounding like. All the previous releases weren’t to my liking and all for different reasons. The analogue three-tracks provided exactly what I was looking for – no harsh digital awfulness that plagued all the previous releases that were done from the three-track digital mixdowns (both analogue and digital mixdowns were done at the same time and are identical). I was told that the original releases had been especially mixed for two-track from the multi-track tapes, but I knew that wasn’t so because I spent a solid week comparing ours to the previous releases – what became clear instantly was that the original releases were mixed to two-track from the three-track, with the choir overlays added on top. And that’s exactly what we did, but we had warmer more beautiful analogue sound, and we balanced the choir with the orchestra in what was for me a much more pleasing and clear way. The reaction to the release was great and we were ultimately vindicated for all our choices and hard work.
Other highlights for me personally were Preminger at Fox, one of the key releases for Nick Redman and I, Sabrina, the expanded Rising Sun, rescuing A Place in the Sun, The World of Suzie Wong, the great double bill release of How Green Was My Valley (in superb sound) and its musical version, A Time for Singing, the complete Laura, and the first release of the original score tracks for The Missouri Breaks. It was a year that saw our first releases for Jerry Goldsmith and John Williams and that was very exciting for us. We hope we’ll continue to bring forth music that pleases everyone – it’s such a blessing to be able to do these projects.
This year was so busy that I never had the chance to begin shooting the third season of Outside the Box – but we will get to it after the first of the year. Oh, and all during the year, I managed to drop thirty-five pounds, which I’m determined to keep off, despite having been enrolled in the Pie of the Month club. I’ll continue our little look back tomorrow.
Yesterday was a day. I had to deal with a few things but it all got sorted out. I got enough sleep, too, so that was nice. I had a grilled cheese and bacon sandwich and no fries or onion rings, picked up no packages, had some telephonic conversations and even found forty minutes to sit on my couch like so much fish.
Yesterday, I watched the first forty minutes of The Butler – oops, Lee Daniels’ The Butler. I think it’s an awful lot of chutzpah to take a possessory credit when you’ve only made three previous films. I don’t believe this particular director has earned that and frankly very few have in the history of motion pictures. Certainly Mr. Hitchock, Mr. Ford, Mr. Hawks and a handful of others, all deserved it. But not after three films. And what do we get in Lee Daniels’ The Butler? Well, from the first frame and the first utterance of deep-voiced narration, the kind you’ve heard in hundreds of films in the last decade, what you get is Screenwriting 101, Directing 101, and Acting 101 – in the first forty minutes of this film there is not one line, not one angle, not one bit of drama you haven’t seen before and they’re all done in exactly the same way that you’ve seen before. And I’m sorry, I just don’t want to see Robin Williams playing President Eisenhower (he’s fine, but really) or John Cusack playing Richard M. Nixon. I suspect the other eighty minutes will be just like the first forty. It’s one of those movies that you can practically call out every shot, every line and every scene before it happens. Watching the first forty minutes of this film made me appreciate Philomena even more.
After that, I did some work on the computer, and then I moseyed on over to the theater to see Pure Imagination. Jane was back with us and we ran a couple of things just to get warmed up. It was a pretty full house and a great audience, who ate up the show. Sami was recovering from a sore throat and congestion, but you’d never have known it, and it was great to have Jane back in her role, even though I must give a shout out to Christanna Rowader, who was a great cover and gave her own unique performance. Christanna has two shows left – tonight and Sunday’s matinee.
After the show, I came right back to the Valley, stopped at Gelson’s and got some egg roll things, and came home and ate them all up, along with a piece of cherry apple crumb pie.
Today, I will take possession of the three releases we announced a couple of weeks ago – those will all ship on Monday. Then I may or may not have a lunch meeting, after which I’ll hopefully pick up some packages. Then I’ll finish liner notes and then I’m seeing a production of Annie that stars one of our regular musical director’s daughter – Tom Griep being the MD and Oliviana Marie being the daughter.
Tomorrow I will try to do nothing during the day, then I’m seeing the evening performance of our show, after which some of us will go out for a bite to eat. I may or may not see Sunday’s matinee, although I probably will just to wish Christanna well. Next week, other than one telephonic call and some benefit stuff, I will not do one shred of anything I don’t want to do. I’ll be lazy, I’ll relax, I’ll catch up on movie watching, I’ll jog and of course we have our annual Christmas Eve Do, which takes place on Christmas Eve.
Let’s all put on our pointy party hats and our colored tights and pantaloons, let’s all break out the cheese slices and the ham chunks, let’s all dance the Hora or the Charleston, because today is the birthday of new dear reader RYacko. So, let’s give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to new dear reader RYacko. On the count of three: One, two, three – A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO NEW DEAR READER RYACKO!!!
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, take possession of three thousand CDs, I may have a lunch meeting, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, I’ll finish liner notes and I’ll see a production of Annie. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player and your DVD/Blu and Ray player? I’ll start – CD, too many to name. DVD – the screener of The Butler, plus the new Blu-rays of two Sinbad movies from Twilight Time. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I shall continue looking back at what was basically a bountiful year of wonderful things.