Well, dear readers, what is it with clothing? Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, what is it with clothing? As you might surmise, yesterday I did a bit of clothing shopping. Here’s what I found: If you buy dress slacks you must buy them two inches bigger than your actual waist size. Why? Why? Why? That is three whys, which makes me a whys guy. I mean, I’m not too happy with my current waist size anyway so you can imagine how thrilled I was to have to go two sizes higher. Jeans – whole different story. With jeans I buy may waist size and they not only fit they’re even a bit loose. But not slacks. Why is there no uniformity in sizes? What is wrong with the Clothes People. Note to Clothes People: WE DON’T WANT TO BUY CLOTHES TWO SIZES BIGGER THAN WE ACTUALLY ARE! Now, here’s the other shocking thing I discovered whilst clothes shopping yesterday. I always joke in the Kritzerland shows that Jews of a certain age shrink. It always gets a nice laugh. I have been 5’10” since I was a teenager. Day in, day out, day out, day in. Of late, I’ve begun to notice in the group Kritzerland photos that I am not as tall as I think I should be, but I attribute it to lousy posture. The length of my pants has always been the same – 32. Well, guess what? Not any more. The length of the pants I bought yesterday was 30. TWO INCHES GONE. What the HELL is going on here? How can it be that I have lost two inches of height? I believe my brother has lost even more inches of height than I have. What, soon I’ll be 5’4” like my father was? What in tarnation is THAT about? That is an abomination if you ask me. But, maybe the slacks I was buying had the same problem the waist had but in reverse. So, I will simply have to use the “think” system and think myself back to my normal height – that or get lifts for my shoes.
But that’s not all. I decided I wanted a pair of black jeans so on my way out of the mall I stopped at one of the big department stores. They had black jeans aplenty, they had black jeans wherever you looked. What they didn’t have were black jeans of the proper length. ALL the black jeans were of uniform length, 34 to be exact. When did THAT start happening? I want fitted length, but now you just buy that size and you have to get it altered. Not for me, baby. But that wasn’t the only problem. No, it seems the Clothes People have decided that it’s once again hip for jeans to have button up fronts rather than zippers. You know what, Clothes People, you can eat my socks. Who makes these stupid decisions? And yet, people buy them. They were fashionable for a time in the early 1970s and I was grateful when that fashion went into the toilet along with double-knit pants. So, I could buy no black jeans. Go know. What the HELL am I talking about clothes for? Don’t I have some notes to write? And isn’t it Easter? EARLY Easter? Like two-and-a-half weeks earlier than last year’s Easter? Oh, Holiday People, stop trying to emulate the Oscars, which get earlier every year, and just leave well enough alone.
Yesterday was a very nice day, save for the weird clothing stuff of the morning. I did do a short jog, I ate a couple of poached eggs and an English muffin, and I picked up a couple of packages. Once home, I did a little work on the computer but mostly just tried to relax and conserve my voice. Then at three we had our stumble-through. I do love the stumble-through day, but I kind of like it when they don’t go perfectly, because on the occasions they do then the actual show feels like a letdown. This went very well, and almost no lyric flubs, but too many of the songs in this particular show actually need their set-ups to work, and I don’t do the patter at the stumble-through. The pace was good as was the structure, and the performers are wonderful, each and every one. After, I gave my usual types of notes, just small stuff. One of the treats of this show, for me, is Sami’s two songs from the show we’re doing. I do believe everyone enjoyed them thoroughly and they’ll be even better tomorrow because I gave a few little things to work on. Otherwise, my notes usually have to do with pacing and tempo, and storytelling.
As it turned out, not one person could go out and eat, so off I went by myself. I had a ham and Swiss on the rye bread and a small thing of onion rings, and I took home two little chocolate macaroon things to eat. Then I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched one of those spaghetti westerns, this one entitled Day of Anger, starring Lee Van Cleef. It had its moments and I always enjoy Mr. Van Cleef, but in the end it wasn’t really very good and certainly is no classic. It does have a very good score by Riz Ortolani. The transfer is from the original camera negative and the scan seems fine and looks pristine. What is not so fine is the color timing. In fact, it’s downright odd and I’ve never seen anything quite like it. Whoever did it, literally is never consistent from scene to scene and sometimes from shot to shot. So, for the first few minutes everything seemed too brown and pale to me. Then suddenly it was perfect – blue skies instead of white washed out skies, proper skin tones, and all other colors as they should be. Then it’s back to brown. A few scenes later the skin tones are completely orange, then change back, then are orange – I mean it’s hallucinatory to watch and I can guarantee you that this film never looked like that – it’s a Techniscope film that was printed in dye transfer Technicolor prints, which had a very specific look. And having owned the Leone Dollars trilogy in 35mm dye transfer prints, I know exactly what the color should look like and it’s VERY consistent for the entirety of those films. Note to the color timing person: This isn’t about you and your tastes, I’m afraid, and color in these types of films should be consistent. If you can get it right for some shots, you can get it right for everything.
After that, I just relaxed, did some work at the piano and that was that.
Today, I shall hopefully arise after a good night’s beauty sleep, I’ll do some sort of jog, then relax and take care of my voice until it’s time for sound check, at which point I’ll mosey on over to The Federal. And then it’s the show. I’m sure some of us will go out after for a bite to eat. And do keep sending those excellent vibes and xylophones for no sickness and a healthy, strong voice.
Next week will be a lot of ALS stuff including a few rehearsals, and I think we’re going to try and do at least three Sami work sessions, as we’re going to do some kind of private living room reading so I can start figuring out how I’m going to order the show in terms of monologues and songs. I have them in an okay order now, but I know I’ll be moving stuff around like crazy as the show develops.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, jog, relax, do a sound check, do a show, and sup afterwards. 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 it will be Easter, EARLY Easter, a time of gaily-colored Easter eggs and the Kritzerland show.