Well, dear readers, this month is flying by, like a gazelle using a squeegee. The first order of business is, of course, the end of Daylight Savings Time. Nice of them to have it last, what nine months of the year or something. It’s gotten ridiculous. I believe this is the latest it’s ever ended. So, do not forget to Fall Back, to set your clocks back one hour or you will be discombobulated or, at the very least, discomnormanulated and you will run amok and havoc will surround you like a festering wound and you don’t want THAT, let me tell you.
Now that we have that out of the way, yesterday was a fascinating day. I got up at eight-thirty. That was fascinating. Then she of the Evil Eye arrived and I went on my merry way. I went and had a cheese omelet, then did some banking, then came home and got the house set up for our stumble-through, which was happening much earlier than usual. As you know, our stumble-throughs are one of my favorite parts of our little monthly shows. This show is just one of those feel good shows that had me smiling from start to finish. We had a few too many lyric flubs for my taste – it happened right in the first number and then others caught the bug. Two got through everything unscathed, but the performers in this show are truly stellar – one of the best casts we’ve ever had, so I know they’ll all have it down by show time.
Then Adryan Russ, Sami, her mom and I went to the Hamburger Hamlet. They all had the onion soup, while I had Those Potatoes, which were excellent. So, by the end of that I’d had a cheese omelet and Those Potatoes, so not too bad. Then Adryan and I stopped at Jos Bank and I got a couple of sweaters and a pair of pants – all 70% off. Then we came back to the house, I took a shower and got ready for our evening meal and show and off we went to Redondo Beach. Thankfully there was not a lick of traffic the entire way, which was a first. We went to the California Pizza Kitchen about two miles from the theater. I had their small bites wedge – really just three pieces of lettuce and some blue cheese dressing, tomatoes, and a half a piece of bacon, so very calorie friendly. Adryan had the 600-calorie salmon and we split the caramel/butterscotch pudding thing, which was pretty light and small with two people sharing. Then we moseyed on over to the theater, and Michael Sterling, who handles PR for them, gave us our excellent tickets. We saw a few folks we knew – director Todd Neilson, actor Harrison White (he played Dick Davis in the Nudie Musical reading), the Kranz family (from And the World Goes Round recording), Hadley Miller and her folks, and others I’m too tired to remember. By the time the show finally began the theater was probably half full, maybe a bit more. The show actually began fifteen minutes late, which is not such a good thing with a show as long as Ragtime.
I saw Ragtime two or three times at the Shubert Theatre here in LA – it’s very own separate production, and it was a superb theater experience, thanks to a brilliantly realized production, great direction with perfect pacing, great choreography, and an absolutely perfect cast, including Brian “Stokes” Mitchell, La Chanze, Marcia Mitzman-Gavin, Jason Graae, John Rubinstein and everyone else. The production was so strong that it disguised certain faults in the material. I hadn’t seen the show since. Seeing it again, I still felt that the opening number is one of the greatest ever written – so great, in fact, that it is very difficult for the show to pick up steam after it. Anyway, it was a very long first act – an hour-and-forty-five minutes and I was feeling weird (I’m really sure it’s the antibiotics) and knowing there was still another hour and a half to go and that I wouldn’t get home until after midnight, we decided to bail at intermission. Our very own Robert Yacko did great and it just made you wish he had something substantial to do in the show.
We got home in thirty minutes – again, not a lick of traffic. I stopped at Gelson’s and got some stuff I needed and was in the house by 10:45. I then caught up with e-mails and posts and that was that.
Today, I shall set my clocks back one hour. I will hopefully do that after I arise from a good night’s beauty sleep. Then I will relax and do nothing until it is time to be on my way to sound check and show. I will, of course, have a full report for you. After the show, we’ll do our usual Little Toni’s thing, just because we can.
Tomorrow I’ll be up at six to announce the two new Kritzerland CDs, then I’ll probably go back to bed. Hopefully I’ll print out LOTS of orders, then the rest of the day and week is prepping the New York shows, finishing casting the holiday show here in LA, and continuing to get the word out so we actually have some people in the audience – right now, it’s a rather pathetic turn out, I must say and if that doesn’t change, it will be the first and last Kritzerland journey to the East Coast. I do hope to see more dear readers there – I know who has made reservations and who hasn’t, so let’s make this a fun get-together, shall we? It’s really not all that expensive, and if anyone has problems that are financial, all you have to do is e-mail me or PM me and I’ll make sure it all works out. I have to go back to Dr. Chew on Tuesday so he can do a teeth cleaning and make sure everything is healing properly with the extraction.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, relax, set the clocks back one hour, do a sound check and do a show. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, after which I shall be happy to have gained an hour.