Well, dear readers, a year ago I was in rehearsal for a new musical revue based on the words and music of Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse. At this point whilst writing the notes, I droned on for six count them six pages and then went to bed. I had a wacky bad dream, woke up an hour after I fell asleep, thought about what I’d written and decided who needs it? Not me. Yes, there was a bunch of negativity thrown at me and the production but in the end, the show worked fine and the audiences enjoyed it. And through all of the drama and weirdness, what remains my proudest achievement with the show was the coming out of Sami Staitman who, despite a lot of negativity aimed her way for most of the rehearsals by the artistic director of the theater, learned how to be not only a brassy kid performer but also to take direction and be a nuanced and moving singer/actress as well. And here’s Sami singing my song Annie from last night’s 50th Kritzerland show.
A lot of people have done that song, kids and even a couple of adults, but no one has really done it better, mostly because without knowing it when I wrote it back in 2004, it’s Sami’s actual story. Go know. I’ll have at least one more video in tomorrow’s notes for your mental delectation. Say, don’t I have some notes to write and didn’t I already write them about three hours ago? These here notes are like a Samuel Beckett play all of a sudden. You don’t even want to know about the wacky bad dream in which I screamed myself awake after what seemed like five minutes of thrashing and yelling. Thankfully I hadn’t eaten my pillow. What is that old joke? Oh, yes, I remember – last night I dreamed I ate a marshmallow and when I woke up my pillow was gone. We don’t allow groaning here at haineshisway.com.
Yesterday was mostly a nice, relaxing day with one irritant that I just would not let irritate me for too long. Otherwise, the Rio Conchos orders were VERY healthy and I spent quite a while printing them out. I had a lovelier than lovely lunch at Casa Vega (my usual two cheese enchiladas and one beef taco) and then I had a well-deserved and needed foot rub. After that, I did some work on the computer, chose half the songs for the next Kritzerland show and finally sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I finished watching the Blu and Ray of The Dogs of War. I really liked it a lot – I watched the longer version, and then scanned through the shorter version. The cuts made were all good but I didn’t mind the long version’s pace at all. Christopher Walken is weird and excellent, the direction by John Irvin is really good, there’s a nice musical score by Geoffrey Burgon, but best of all is the photography of the great Jack Cardiff. Even at this late stage in his career he was the best there was. Every shot in this film looks great, and the transfer really brings out his beautiful lighting – even the throwaway shots look great. The color is perfect – there are a few moments of negative dirt but they didn’t bother me at all. I think if you’re a fan of this type of film that you would be very happy with this purchase.
Today, I will hopefully print out MORE orders, I will eat, I will hopefully pick up some packages, I will finish choosing songs and then gather up the music to send to our singers, and then I’ll relax.
Tomorrow evening I have a dinner thing, and then the rest of the week is meetings and meals as well as meals and meetings and seeing a couple of things.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, print, eat, hopefully pick up packages, choose songs and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What is the worst experience you’ve had with a boss or a fellow worker or collaborator? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have finally told the real story and then to have deleted the entire thing in favor of the great marshmallow joke.