Well, dear readers, I must say that my brain, what little is left of it, feels like it is about to explode? Why is that, you might ask, and I might tell you for why should I withhold such things from you dear readers? Because the planning of what is literally three Kritzerland shows back-to-back is insanity itself. Yes, the New York shows are built – that was the idea, but I have had to go into these built shows and make changes and doing so means revising the order, revising the commentary and all that in addition to our LA November show. Add to that, the getting CDs ready for release, endless meetings on upcoming projects and I can barely keep my head on straight. For example, my head is currently on crooked and you should see the looks I get. In any case, it’s a little nutty around here, but I like when things are busy so it’s just a matter of keeping everything on track and not forgetting things.
Yesterday was a day filled with things. I didn’t get quite eight hours of sleep, more like seven. I had a long Sandy telephonic call in the morning, then I did my morning ablutions after which I had to go to my noon o’clock lunch meeting at Mo’s. Mo’s, which took over from Paul Newman’s restaurant Hampton’s has always been one of those places that’s always comforting and reliable. Two years ago they got rid of their signature thing – the burger bar, where you could load up on condiments and lots of side dishes. So, signature thing gone and restaurant now kind of pointless. In the last year they have systematically removed every dish that people loved and replaced them with things that have odd ingredients, are trendy and not very much to my liking. Their famous Chinese Chicken Salad? Gone with the wind. Their great salmon in a great sauce? Gonesville. Their brilliant pecan pie a la mode with butterscotch sauce. Goneski. Thankfully, you can still order a bacon cheeseburger, even though it’s not on the menu anymore. I do think, however, I am done with Mo’s.
The meeting was fun, regarding our children’s musical theatre camp for next summer. In thinking things through, I felt that several of the original intentions and ideas weren’t going to work, so I made some radical revisions and a complete change to what the show will be that we end our camp with. So, we got all that clear and now we’ll begin to recruit. We want between thirty and forty kids, from eight to seventeen.
After that, I picked up no packages and came home. I then buckled down, Winsocki and wrote more of the commentary, finishing all but three songs, which I’ll finish up this morning. That will be good to have out of the way. Then it was more long telephonic calls, hearing about some pretty irritating behavior from a friend of mine, which actually was kind of mind boggling, but I cannot help how people behave – the result, whether coming from me or others was the same so the behavior was completely unnecessary accept to kind of alienate me. Then I finally sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched the first hour of the theatrical cut of 1941. Let me cut to the chase: It was unfunny, bloated and terrible the day it came out and nothing has changed in the ensuing years – in fact, it seems worse now. Some of it is well directed, but the script is just awful and the acting is all over the place. Some of it is so puerile and juvenile, the worst of it being the Nancy Allen subplot. It goes on and on and on, playing the same joke over and over and over again – it wasn’t funny the first time, and it doesn’t get better with the repetition. I finally had to shut it off and I’m not sure I can endure the second half.
I then needed a respite, so I decided to watch one of those “thriller” things on Netflix, this one from 2001 called Domestic Disturbance, starring John Travolta. It’s strictly by the numbers and quite bad, but Harold Becker is a pretty good craftsman and some of the actors are good. In the end, there is not a single second that you haven’t seen in a hundred other films. It’s amazing these lousy scripts were so routinely green lit back then.
After that, I began watching a weird little movie called Killing Them Softly, starring Brad Pitt and James Gandolfini. It’s an off-kilter movie that’s not uninteresting if you don’t mind a little hyper violence every now and then. I’ll finish it up today.
Then it was more telephonic calls and a little more work on the computer, doing two eBlasts – one for the New York Kritzerland shows and one for the LA show, so that’s all done.
Today, I shall finish the commentary and then probably do some futzing and fixing, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, I’ll hopefully have word on the approval of our next release, and we’re hoping to see a rough-up of the Sandy package – if not today then maybe by the end of the weekend. We did get almost all the Rio Conchos CDs shipped, and those that didn’t will get shipped on Monday or Tuesday when we get the balance of them from the pressing plant. I also have to do a Costco run, mostly for stuff for the launch party on Monday. Then I’m having dinner with a friend, and then we’ll probably watch a movie of some sort and I’ll try not to doze off.
Tomorrow I don’t know what’s happening, Saturday night I think I’m seeing Spamalot, and Sunday I really hope to just have a day off from everything.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, maybe jog, write, hopefully pick up packages, hopefully hear about approval for our next CD release, sup and watch a movie. Today’s topic of discussion: What restaurant that you absolutely loved has so changed up their menu that you don’t even want to go there anymore? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I shall try to Zen out my brain so that it doesn’t explode.