Well, dear readers, today these here notes shall not be gluten free. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, today’s notes shall not be gluten free. Did you know, for example, that it is now quite hip and with it to be gluten free? All manner of people are jumping on the gluten free bandwagon. I formerly knew of only one human being who was gluten free and that was for allergy reasons. This will last for a short amount of time, and then people will move on to the next thing. And this also seems to be the year of the vegan. All over LA, vegan restaurants of every kind are popping up – Thai, Mexican, fusion, Chinese, Japanese – it’s most amusing and, of course, they’ll all be gone within a year or two. You can’t drive a block in LA without seeing “gluten free” somewhere – yesterday I saw a bagel store that had a sign – Gluten Free Bagels. Well, baby, I’m not gluten free. I am a gluten glutton. I crave gluten and I don’t even know what the HELL it is. And I am neither a vegan or a vegetarian, even though a week might go by where I eat no meat, fish, or chicken. As Lucille Ball once sang – I like to do what takes my fancy, what takes my fancy I likes to do. These here notes today will be filled with gluten, gluten and more gluten – darn tootin’. And later, I shall eat a gluten-filled meal filled with gluten, which may sound high-falutin’ but is just sure shootin’. What the HELL am I going on about? Don’t I have some gluten notes to write?
Yesterday, I was up early. I left at nine-fifteen to get a haircut with Teddy. Apparently, there was some huge, fatal accident on the 405 north, in which a pedestrian was killed at five-thirty in the morning. Forget about the logic of that, and forget that I live nowhere near the 405 and forget that it was nine-fifteen – apparently every moron in Studio City decided they had to be on Laurel Canyon rather than go anywhere near the 405 SOUTH, which, of course, had no problems at all. So, by the time I’d driven a quarter of a mile on Laurel Canyon, traffic was backed up almost to Ventura Blvd., something I’ve never seen in all my years of Valley living. Being a smart driver, I immediately made a u-turn and went back to Ventura Blvd., over to Vineland, and then took my special route through Nichols Canyon, where there were only two cars in front of me, both of which, unfortunately, had clearly used their GPS thingees to guide them there and both of which had no clew what Nichols Canyon was about and therefore drove very slowly. Still, I managed to get to Teddy’s fifteen minutes ahead of my appointment, while my guess is that had I stayed on Laurel Canyon I would have been there an hour late.
Teddy and I gabbed while he did his customary great haircut. He told me he’s doing Liza and Raquel for an Oscar bash, as well as Jackie Collins. We talked about new restaurants he’s gone to and that’s where I heard about all these new, trendy vegan places popping up. After the haircut, I came right back to the Valley, where I was joined by the helper. We stopped at Best Buy because they finally got in one of these OLED TVs, this one made by LG, a company I know nothing about. The little demo they had playing was everything I’d heard – incredible color reproduction and the deepest blacks I’ve ever seen anywhere. A magnificent set – it’s two thousand dollars less than the Samsung version, and I have no idea if there are any real differences between them.
After that, we did our Costco run and I got water and Diet Coke and some fruit snack things and some microwave popcorn things and then we went and had some soup before coming back to the house and unloading everything. I also picked up a few packages, including my pie of the month – this one an apple/peach crumble that looks quite yummilicious. I’ll probably share it with some of the cast at today’s rehearsal. Then I did some work on the computer. Then I had a dinner meeting with a singer, and I’ll be helping her put together an act. Then I came home and sat on my couch like so much fish.
I didn’t really have the time or inclination to watch a full motion picture, but I did watch the first forty minutes of a new French Blu and Ray of 55 Days at Peking, transferred from a 70mm dupe negative of the original Super Technirama camera original (Technirama was like VistaVision). This is a very nice transfer indeed, and I’ve always been fond of the film, so I look forward to finishing it tonight. After that, I just relaxed and listened to the drip-drop of the tiny bit of rain that was falling – this tiny bit of rain that had every LA weather person proclaiming STORM WATCH 2014.
Today, I shall not have to get up early. Once up, I shall write, then we have our second Kritzerland rehearsal. When that’s done, a few of us are going out for a meal, and one of those folks is my Daisy Mae – she’s got some ideas for Abners and musical directors, so we’ll discuss all that. I’m hoping Grant gets to the cover mockup by the end of the day – we’re supposed to get the scan at some point during the day. If he can get to it, then we can probably send in everything on Friday – or Monday at the latest.
Tomorrow, more writing, and then I may go to the theater to see our show, something I’ll also do on Saturday. Sunday is our stumble-through and then our Annual Oscar bash, and then Monday is sound check and show. I will, of course, have a full report for you.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, write, hopefully pick up some packages, have a rehearsal, eat, and hopefully see the cover mockup to approve. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite Broadway “funny” songs? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where my dreams will be filled with gluten.