Well, dear readers, I finally finished choosing the songs for the October Kritzerland show and should be able to get all the singers their music today. It took forever, but I think it’s a good group of songs. We have a wonderful cast – Sandy Bainum, Heather Lee, Jenna Lea Rosen, Brent Schindele, John Sloman, and Sami and Sarah Staitman – plus whoever our guest star will be. It’s another potpourri of material – some by me, some by favorite writers, and lots of fun stuff.
Otherwise, yesterday was a fairly restful day. I got ten hours of blessed sleep, which I really needed. I did my morning ablutions (well, most of the morning was gone by the time I arose), continued the song choosing process, then decided to go back to the Hamburger Hamlet for my meal o’ the day. I actually went to have the eggs benedict, but they informed me that they weren’t doing any egg dishes until today. So, rethinking things, I decided to have Those Potatoes to start – boy were they great, as they always used to be – followed by the Market Salad, which was really good, but smaller than it used to be, which was fine by me. For dessert I had the Egg Custard Lulu, which used to be one of the Hamlet’s signature desserts but which has been absent from the menu for ages. After lunch, I came straight home. I then had a text from our very own Mr. Nick Redman telling me that he and his ever-lovin’ Julie Kirgo had just sat down at – the Hamburger Hamlet. If I hadn’t just stuffed myself silly I would have returned. I then finished the last of the song choosing, then sat on my couch like so much steamed fish – steamed because the temperature in the San Fernando Valley was over 100 degrees. I hate using the air conditioning but I really had to.
Last night, I watched a motion picture on Blu and Ray, one of those region B affairs, entitled The Soft Skin, a French film from France, directed by Francois Truffaut. I saw the film the day it opened back in 1964 – in fact, it was the first Truffaut film I ever saw. I was quite taken with it and saw it several times. I loved the feel of it, the music by Georges Delerue and especially the leading lady, Francoise Dorleac. At the time I had no idea she was Catherine Deneuve’s sister – I’d fallen head over heels in love with her after seeing That Man from Rio just four months earlier. I thought the ending was a little over the top in terms of staging, but mostly I just loved the film’s photography by the brilliant Raoul Coutard – gorgeous black-and-white imagery. I’ve seen it several more times over the years, and it’s always fun to revisit it. Miss Dorleac is heartbreakingly beautiful, and her leading man, Jean Desailly is excellent as the older, intellectual and rather ineffectual man who begins an affair with Dorleac’s stewardess. The ending is still melodramatic, but I don’t mind it so much. The film was booed at the Cannes Film Festival and received mostly bad reviews and was a flop. Of course, people have come around to it and now love it, which is typical of these things. The transfer is lovely.
I then watched another motion picture on Blu and Ray, or half of one. It’s the Francois Ozon film I wrote about last week. I’d enjoyed it so much that I picked up the region B Blu-ray. So, I watched the first half and it’s just as good the second time, maybe even better.
After that, I decided to announce a little future project – so I may as well announce it here, too – for Summer 2015 (and if it’s successful, for every summer thereafter), Kritzerland is doing a musical theatre camp for young folks, ages eight to seventeen. We’re all very excited about it – it will run about six weeks and will culminate in a full-scale production of a classic musical. We’re doing this in conjunction with the Group Repertory Theatre, but it’s really a Kritzerland baby. Kay Cole in involved in it with me, and we’ll be bringing in some heavy hitters to do master classes in singing, dancing, casting – all of it. Mostly it will be Kay and me doing the heavy lifting. Here’s our logo created by our very own Doug Haverty.
I like the energy and feel of it very much. The temperature at the time I began writing these here notes is 93 degrees. Disgusting.
Today, I shall be up by nine, I have to have some telephonic conversations, I’ll do a Costco run, I’ll get singers their music, I’ll eat, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages and I’ll write liner notes.
Tomorrow is more of the same and then I’m comping Sandy vocals in the evening. Hoping I can get through all of them, but if not we’ll continue the following night. Then I have some meetings and meals, I’m doing the Bewitched fan event on Thursday evening and maybe Saturday morning, I’m seeing a musical on Friday night, then attending the opening of Kiss Me Kate at the Pasadena Playhouse on Sunday.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a Costco run, eat, hopefully pick up packages, get singers their music, and write. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite films of Francois Truffaut? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have announced our new Kritzerland thing.