Well, dear readers, we’ve had our Annual Oscar Bash, and while it certainly wasn’t as well attended as in years gone by, it was a load of large fun and a good time was had by all who attended. We had over 620 posts and during the Oscarcast I achieved a new plateau, posting-wise: 80,000 posts. As to the Oscar show, I thought it was a pretty dreary affair, maybe the most boring Oscar show in years, and they’ve been plenty boring before. It ran three hours and forty minutes. The host was not to my liking – he just, for me, comes off smug and smarmy and I don’t find him charming or amusing, two things that an Oscar host should have in abundance. The opening musical number wasn’t too hot, either. The attempts at humor in the show, save for one or two short bits, was, for me, completely unfunny. The Jennifer Hudson song was unintelligible, badly written, and pointless – and it did go on and on and was a total anti-climax to the In Memoriam section that preceded it. There were a handful of nice acceptance speeches, and the usual BS stuff that has nothing to do with the Oscars. It’s become a “thing” for winners to use their time to espouse all manner of things. Sometimes it works (the screenwriter of The Imitation Game) but mostly it’s just ridiculous. I guessed most of the winners, which isn’t usually the case.
Prior to the Oscars, I had a totally surreal day. I didn’t fall asleep till almost three but I saw no reason to set the alarm, since I didn’t really have to leave until about 1:00. I woke up and looked at my iPad to see if it was after ten. It was 12:55. I couldn’t believe it. I was up, did my morning ablutions and was out the door by 1:07. I arrived at the theater at 1:20 only to find out that there was a power outage and only the work lights were working, thanks to a battery generator back up for those. The theater owner had been called and he, in turn, had called the city and sent one of his own guys to scope it out. We discussed maybe doing the show with just work lights, but our cast did not want to do it, and since we use an electric piano that was not powered either. The city guy finally got there and told us the problem: A squirrel had tried to eat the power line, electrocuted its stupid little self and caused part of Burbank a power outage. Unbelievable. They estimated that if the damage was just limited to the fuse that we could be back up in thirty minutes to an hour, but with no guarantee. So, I made the announcement to our audience members that we had no choice but to cancel and that they could book their return for any performance and that we’d give them a little gift at that time for their trouble. It was, in fact, the first time in my forty-five years in this business that a show was ever cancelled. Dear squirrels: You are truly the stupidest creatures who ever lived. Get a life. You’re either chewing on power cables or dashing across the street and getting squished by cars, or just irritating homeowners with your incessant noise.
Sami and her mom had come to see the show, so a bunch of us, including them, went over to the Coral Café for some food. The table, all ten of us, shared some of their excellent deluxe nachos, and I had a Philly cheesesteak sandwich that was pretty good. We all had fun, then I came right home for the Oscars and our bash. After the Oscars, I made rough mp3s of two new songs I’ve finished and prepped the eBlast for our new release – which we’ll announce not this morning but tomorrow morning at six.
Today, I have a lot to catch up on, but mostly will be structuring and then writing patter for Sandy’s new act, which will be based on our new album of my songs. I’m probably only going to use twelve from the album, augmented by Simply from her last album, and maybe one of my newer things. I’ll eat at some point, hopefully pick up some packages, and maybe even relax.
Tomorrow I’ll be up at six to announce our new title. Then it’s all meetings and meals and writing, a work session on Wednesday, and then we resume performances on Friday night.
Let’s all put on our pointy party hats and our colored tights and pantaloons, let’s all break out the cheese slices and the ham chunks, let’s all dance the Hora or the Carioca for today is the birthday of dear reader Druxy. So, let’s give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to dear reader Druxy. On the count of three: One, two, three – A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO DEAR READER DRUXY!!!
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, structure, write, eat, hopefully pick up packages and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite critters? The animals and bugs and things that you adore and the ones you cannot abide. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have attended our Annual Oscar Bash and wishing that the suicidal squirrel hadn’t been quite so stupid.