Well, dear readers, I am beyond the valley of the tired thanks to a somewhat sleepless night of pondering the imponderables. Actually, I was, in fact, pondering the ponderables, the mother load of new information I received last night, most of which was incredibly eye opening and all of which will serve me well in the coming days. And so, I slept no more than four or five hours due to thinking about what I’d heard and how it would be best to use it.
I was awakened at nine-twenty by the telephonic device, stayed in bed until ten, and then had to recount the details of the conversation to two people for their advice. I then did a rough draft of what will be The Second Letter, setting down all this new information for the record, and also including some other information I’d gleaned since the sending of The First Letter. That took about ninety minutes and then I had to get ready for my lunch meeting at a local Thai place that serves local Thai food.
The meeting was with a very nice lady from the LACC Foundation, who wanted to do a little story about the Richard M. Sherman event and how we came to write Two Roads. We chatted about that and more, I had some Pad Thai and their Thai salad and it was quite an enjoyable meeting and lunch.
After that, I picked up a couple of packages and then came home. Once home, I did some futzing and fixing and adding to The Second Letter, after which I sent it off to the attorney for his redo and polish. We discussed its contents and all the new information and he was as appalled as I at what was really going on. And I have no doubt that he will make the letter even stronger than I did. The intention is that we’ll send it by noon today to all the same parties. Then we’ll sit back and wait to see how this phase will be handled – hopefully in the way that’s right and just. We shall see. After all that, I finally sat on my couch like so much fish.
I’d intended to watch a Blu and Ray, but instead went back to Netflix and watched two more motion pictures. I have to stop doing that because I have way too many other things I need to watch. First up was a film by Tom Tykver, the director of a film I’m very fond of called Run Lola Run. This film was either his next or the one after his next, and starred Cate Blanchett and a lot of Eyetalian actors. It was entitled Heaven and was an odd film but one which I kind of enjoyed. It was short, evenly paced and Miss Blanchett was excellent, as were all the actors. It was a bit arty, but I just went along for the ride and it was certainly a step up from all those dreadful grade-Z thrillers I’ve been watching.
Then I watched another motion picture, this from 2012, entitled Red Lights. It starred Sigourney Weaver and Robert De Niro and was about a professor who debunks and busts phony psychics. The first half of the film was really involving and good – I thought I was finally going to see a terrific little thriller. And then the second half begins with a plot turn that should not have happened, and devolves quickly from there into the usual “BOO” moments where nothing scary happens but someone just appears in the frame accompanied by a loud music and sound sting – that happened about eight times in twelve minutes and I should have just shut it off. The second half of the film really belongs to the male lead and Mr. De Niro. It appears that Mr. De Niro will do any film these days, and his role here is just stupid (a world-famous psychic), and yes, there’s a TWIST at the end and yes it’s incredibly stupid. There are two twists, one involving Mr. De Niro that you can guess the first time he appears. The second TWIST was so inane it just made me want to shout – yes, TWIST AND SHOUT.
Have I mentioned that I am beyond the valley of the tired? I can barely keep my eyes open, so I’d better just get done with these here notes because I’m starting to feel lightheaded and faint.
Today, I have to find one new song to replace one I’ve removed – I’ll start looking through the off-Broadway albums I produced and see what I can come up with. In fact, I think we did a compendium of songs from all those albums on some Best of Off-Broadway compilation CD at Varese. Hopefully I have that somewhere. Other than that, I’ll eat, hopefully pick up some packages and just get some writing done.
The rest of the week is not that busy – just a meeting on Saturday morning, so I’m hoping to get some relaxing and lots of sleeping done.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, find a song, eat, hopefully pick up packages, write and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: Of today’s crop of musical theater writers, who are your favorites, and what are your favorite scores by them? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I shall hopefully sleep well so I can no longer be beyond the valley of the tired.