Well, dear readers, I don’t know if anyone has noticed, but it is September. And may I just say that it is my fervent hope and prayer that September will be a month filled with health, wealth, happiness, creativity, and all things bright and beautiful. There, I’ve said it and I’m glad.
Session two at Capitol Records was every bit as fun as session one at Capitol Records, only a lot shorter. We only had four songs to do, plus some guitar and percussion overdubs. For session two, we had our full string section, two reeds, guitar, bass, piano, drums and percussion. But even though the orchestrations were for smaller forces they were every bit as magical as ones that were for the complete band. Lanny did a wonderful chart for my song Three Acts – just captured it perfectly. But the other three were also wonderful and I was just like a grinning goon as we recorded them. Sandy was in her booth singing prettily, which, of course, makes the songs bloom. I’m not sure what’s at play or why it happens, but there is some alchemy at work with her voice on my melodies. It brings out the best in both of us and it was immediately evident on This Christmas and Simply. And the same is true for Lanny – he just knows what makes me tick musically and he just gets under the skin of the songs and enriches them with his brilliance. As Ira Gershwin said, Who Could Ask For Anything More. I must say, it’s an eclectic mix of songs and it will be fun to figure out the song order.
After we finished the four songs, we did our overdubs – that part was easy and moved along very quickly and we actually wrapped almost two hours early, so that was nice. The original plan was to go directly to the Hollywood Bowl, but instead I drove home, did a jog and relaxed until the Staitman people picked me up at five. So, another magical session for the new album and now it’s on to the final vocals and then the mix.
Last night, I went to the Hollywood Bowl with Sami, Sarah and their mom Karen. We got there about five-thirty and found our Garden Box seats – amazing seats in the first row of those boxes and dead center. They are the absolute best seats in the whole of the Bowl. The Whole of the Bowl – that’s the title of my next novel. We dined on various pastas, a Caesar salad, and some desserts, all from Maria’s Kitchen. I knew several people there, although we didn’t actually see some of them – some of them told me they were there via text messaging. Grant Geissman was there, Juliana Hansen was there, Adryan Russ was there – didn’t see any of them, but did see ASCAP’s Michael Kerker, composer and orchestrator Patrick Russ, Olivia Tiomkin (Dimitri’s daughter), friend Jon Burlingame and his ever-lovin’ Marilee Bradford, writer Steven Smith, and a few others. We all had fun in our box and the other two seats were empty, which gave us some extra room – or so we thought. More about that part in a minute.
The concert was a Hitchcock film music evening – clips with the music played live. The host for the evening was the ever-youthful and beautiful Eva Marie Saint. She was delightful. The concert began with a long montage of classic Hitchcock moments accompanied by a medley of music from those films. It was done very well. Conductor David Newman and the Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra did a great job and the clips looked really good on the giant screen, which was located above us but in a place we could still see it. About twenty minutes into the show, two idiots arrived – our other two box-mates. A disgusting little man with his very young “companion”. We, of course, assumed they weren’t coming and had used tables on both sides of the box, and two of the seats were facing away from the stage. So these two entitled buffoons arrive late then had the temerity to stand there with their arms folded while we had to quickly clear the table on their side, Sami had to move over to a seat facing away from the stage, having to turn her body awkwardly to see the stage. Then these people sat there, drank, told the box next to us to be quiet (they weren’t making noise), took some calls. I didn’t pay attention to it. The woman was wearing a sheer top with no brassiere and every time she bent over everyone got a full view of her non-bosoms (and I mean NON) – it was disgusting. They batted their disgusting eyes at each other and I almost leaned over and said, “Why don’t you go get a room somewhere.”
At intermission, we got Sami’s seat turned around and she was much more comfy for the second half. After the show, the cretins got up to leave and we got another lovely view of the woman’s non-bosoms – as soon as they were out of earshot I just looked at the woman and said, “Slut.” But it appeared they weren’t completely out of earshot since they took a few more steps then turned to look back at us. I just stared them down as if I wanted them to come back, because frankly I was ready to deck the guy. But they just continued up the aisle. Then the folks in the next box commented on how rude they were. One of the women said, “And that girl with him – he was old enough to be her father!” I said, “I know, right?” and then without missing a beat I gestured to Sami and said, “Have you met my wife?” Huge laugh from everyone. Sometimes one is given a wonderful opening and I love when the perfect line comes out, perfectly timed. We met up with some folks I knew and we were going to go backstage with them, but the security at the Bowl is run by incredibly ignorant and ill-prepared people who are not problem solvers, so we just left.
Today, I will hopefully arise after a good night’s beauty sleep. Then I’ll jog, eat, then we have our first Kritzerland rehearsal, which will last approximately four hours. I’m looking forward to seeing our wonderful company of players.
Tomorrow is the first of Sandy’s two final vocal sessions, but prior to that I have a lunch meeting at The Smoke House. Wednesday is the final vocal session and then I’m hoping we can all go out for a nice late supper. Thursday is our second Kritzerland rehearsal, Friday I hope to relax, Saturday is our stumble-through and Sunday is sound check, matinee and then evening performance.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a jog, eat, have a rehearsal and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What was the first adult book you read? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy our second session went as well as the first, and happy to welcome in September – and it is my fervent hope and prayer that September will be a month filled with health, wealth, happiness, creativity, and all things bright and beautiful.