Well, dear readers, I got sidetracked and now it is late so I must write these here notes in a hurry and get them posted or there will be chaos and people will run amok and we can’t have that, can we? Actually, I just ran amok and it was quite pleasant. In any case, luckily I didn’t do much yesterday so there isn’t all that much to write about. The major thing I did yesterday was eat CAKE. I ate cake all day long, the rest of it, in fact. Cake formed the basis of all three meals and the only other thing I really ate was a grilled cheese and bacon sandwich that was quite tiny. I finished the cake because it really wouldn’t have been as good today, so the cake is gone and I shall have no more sweets for at least a week.
Other than that, I had another terrible night’s beauty sleep due to an allergy attack because I’d forgotten to take a pill before bed. That won’t be a problem this night because I took the pill an hour ago. I was up at about nine-thirty, and stayed in bed till ten, at which point I had to answer several e-mails that needed answering. After that, a director came over and watched his film so he could assign names to cue titles – his own Blu-ray player had bitten the dust. So, he was here for the duration of the film, which was about ninety minutes and it only took another ten to match up the titles to the music, so we now have everything we need and the project should go off to the printers today and I should have a finished master by Tuesday, which can be at the plant by Wednesday. I’ll announce this on Wednesday, probably. I would have announced this morning had the master been done, but only the first of the three scores is done – that one is a film music classic and all three are world premiere releases.
After he left, I went and had my grilled cheese and bacon sandwich, paid some obscenely large Kritzerland bills, then came home and finally sat on my couch like so much fish.
Yesterday, I watched two documentaries, the season premiere of Mad Men, and one more documentary. The first documentary was entitled Crazy Love and was about two people who met in the 1950s – he pursued her with a vengeance but was, as she later found out, married. She broke it off, he could not stand it, such was his obsession with her. He would not leave her alone, they reconciled briefly because he lied to her and said his divorce was in the works, forging divorce papers. When she found out THAT wasn’t true, she broke it off again and began seeing someone else. This drove the man berserk and he hired two thugs who showed up at her door and threw lye in her eyes, pretty much blinding and disfiguring her for life. He was arrested and ultimately convicted and sentenced. But love moves in strange ways and when he got out, he continued to write her, they ultimately met again, and this time married and at the time of this documentary, were still married. Crazy love indeed. It was an interesting film and directed very well.
I then watched an hour-long documentary about two obsessed fans of 80s singer Tiffany. It was a fairly depressing film with no real point or point of view. Interestingly, one of the fans, who has Asperger’s, I’d met at two of the Ray Courts shows I did, one at the Beverly Garland and one at the Burbank show – both times I was seated near Tiffany and both times this guy was there and pretty nutty – he couldn’t really go near her as there was some kind of court order at that point. At both shows, because I’d been talking to her (I have a photo somewhere), he came up and talked my ear off much in the way he does in this documentary. The other guy, a transgender fellow/girl was very difficult to watch – just a sad situation any way you look at it.
Then I watched the season premiere of Mad Men, which just kind of ambled along. This is the show’s final season, comprised of fourteen episodes, but in order for AMC to make the most out of that, they’re showing seven only this year and everyone has to wait till next year for the final seven. That’s just stupid and crass and people should voice their displeasure in the key of Bb. I still like Peggy best, but it wasn’t really that strong a premiere show, although I’m sure a lot of stuff was being set up for future episodes.
After that, I watched the third documentary, entitled talhotblonde. This was the compelling tale of Internet obsession and intrigue that ended in murder. A forty-six year old ex-marine “meets” a beautiful young blonde in a chat room. He lies to her, telling her he’s young like she is, sends her a photo of himself when he was young and in the marines, telling her that’s him now, and she sends him alluring photos of herself (I think she’s eighteen). On they go, flirting, having cybersex, and then things turn weird because the ex-marine is also married with two daughters and his wife finds out. She writes the young girl and tells her the truth. They stop, they start, and then she starts cyber-seeing a co-worker of his. The ex-marine is jealous, especially when the co-worker goes to actually meet her – the meeting doesn’t happen for one reason or another, but the ex-marine thinks it has. On it goes, getting nuttier and nuttier, she playing his jealous fits for all their worth and ultimately this guy snaps and kills the co-worker. At that point, the police fear for the life of the young girl so they go to her house to make sure she’s okay. I’ll stop there, but what happens at the house makes this documentary a must-see. I would call this great save for the really oddball decision by the director to have the documentary “narrated” by the dead co-worker – yes, an actor reading scripted words. That’s just such a weird conceit and you wonder why, in a documentary, they would introduce such a conceit that is the antithesis of reality. Still, well worth a look.
After all that, I did some work on the computer, and I think I finished choosing the songs for our next Kritzerland show – just have to figure out who is singing what and if there are any put-togethers. I have about four songs too many at the moment, but the cuts will be obvious once I’ve assigned them.
Today, I’ll start gathering the sheet music for our show and finish assigning the songs. Hopefully I’ll pick up some packages, and then we begin our Li’l Abner journey – at today’s rehearsal we’ll read through the script. I’ll go eat after the rehearsal.
Tomorrow we begin learning the music for the show, Wednesday I probably have a Sandy and Lanny session, and then more music learning, Thursday we begin blocking (I have six scenes scheduled – don’t know if we’ll get through all of them, but that’s my goal), and Friday we begin early and work six full hours – all musical staging with Kay Cole. We’ll do the opening number together, then she’ll do the big dance thing, Rag Offen’ the Bush, and then the easy Jubilation T. Cornpone.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, gather sheet music, assign songs, hopefully pick up packages, and then have a read-through. Today’s topic of discussion: I know we did this one not too long ago, but let’s do it again – what are your favorite documentaries. I’m on a real documentary kick and am just enjoying all of these in one way or another. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have spent a day finishing the cake.