Well, dear readers, as you know, we launched our Kritzerland a GoGo campaign yesterday (although we went live at midnight I didn’t really announce anywhere online until ten yesterday morning). As you also know, I stated what I’d been told – that a healthy first and second day sets the tone for the campaign. Now, I’m no expert on Indiegogo or Kickstarter, but to my mind doing close to $10,000 on the first day has to be healthy – 12% funded in basically fourteen hours. So, we’re off to a good start and it gives me high hopes that we’ll continue to go up. That was the very good news. The not-so-good news is that I was originally led to believe that the money paid via Paypal would show up in the Paypal account instantly – and over half of what’s come in has been via Paypal. But alas, it isn’t so. No matter how the dough comes in, none of it is dispersed until the campaign ends. Originally we’d decided on a sixty-day campaign, which means we would not actually get one cent of this dough for at least eleven weeks. Our original plan was to use what we thought would be available immediately to make the first new acquisitions with a new studio. It’s a shame we cannot now do that – one thing we’re thinking about is changing it to a thirty-day campaign. We’re allowed to do that, I believe – at least I know it works the other way, as we changed the Inside Out campaign to forty-five days. We’ll see how we do over the weekend – if it continues to be healthy I think we’ll attempt the change. In any case, many thanks to everyone who’s kicked in so far – we have a long way to go, but it’s quite an auspicious first day. Of course, if we have a wealthy benefactor anywhere who’d like to front us this first 10K until we actually get the money, we could do what I want to do and go grab two projects.
Other than that, yesterday was a perfectly fine day. I was up at ten to announce after about seven hours of sleep. Then I had to answer e-mails and then go to lunch with editor Marshall Harvey, who did such a marvelously marvelous job on the Indiegogo video. We had a lovely time, chatted up a storm and then he went on his merry way I went to the mail place and picked up big packages that contained the new book. So, that’s shipping out today. I’m looking forward to reactions. Then the helper came by and picked up the books to ship (after I signed them all), and then I did some work on the computer, after which I finally sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a motion picture entitled Zardoz on Blu and Ray from Twilight Time. I saw Zardoz at a sneak preview in Westwood about three months prior to its release. Memory tells me it was a pretty full theater, but an hour into the film I believe there were about five of us left. It’s a completely wacky film that’s really only gotten wackier over the years. But somehow in its wackiness there is a high enjoyment factor. Sean Connery occasionally looks like he can’t believe what he’s being asked to do, but the cast is fun and John Boorman gives the film a brisk pace. The transfer is superb in color, contrast and sound. Not sure it will be everyone’s cuppa, but it’s an awful lot of fun.
I then checked out the new April Love Blu and Ray and it, too, looks very good and I’ll watch it in its entirety early next week. I actually couldn’t wait to watch the new Blu-ray of The Fantasticks and that took up the rest of the evening. I began with the short cut of the film, which was released to the one or two theaters that it played in five years after being completed. This cut was done by Francis Coppola. I’d already seen the original Michael Ritchie cut because Harvey Schmidt had sent me a VHS of it back when it was finished. I didn’t love all the choices they made, but I felt they’d done what they set out to do, which was make a basically unfilmable show into actual cinema. Then I saw the Coppola cut and could not believe how bad it was. Clearly Mr. Coppola was most interested in showing everyone how clever he was in lopping off twenty-something minutes from the film. What he, in fact, showed was absolutely no sense of the material. First of all, anyone who removes Try to Remember from the beginning of The Fantasticks clearly doesn’t understand The Fantasticks. Add to that, removing whole chunks of songs that everyone knows way too well and you have a really bastardized film. By removing Try to Remember and all of El Gallo’s monologues, he has no presence in the movie at all until about twenty-five minutes in. In the first hour of the film, Coppola cut a whopping eighteen minutes out of it. Thankfully, this new Blu-ray has both cuts so you can see what Mr. Ritchie was up to. And I really recommend watching the long cut, which is in standard definition, first. There are three commentary tracks, including one with star Jean Louisa Kelly and li’l ol’ me.
After that, I just poked around the Internet, had a small thing of mac-and-cheese and some soup for my evening snack.
Today, I’m up early because she of the Evil Eye will be here bright and early and also early and bright. I’ll do some errands and whatnot, some banking, then I’ll come home and get everything ready for our stumble-through. After that, some of us will go grab a bite to eat. Then I’ll come home and relax and watch a movie or two.
Tomorrow, I’ll relax until sound check, do that, and then it’s our show. I will, of course, have a full report for you. Monday I’m going to look at a rehearsal space we may use for Sami’s workshop, then something is happening Monday night but I really can’t remember what it is and hopefully someone will remind me. The rest of the week is meetings and meals, choosing songs for the June Kritzerland, gathering up the music and that kind of stuff. And hoping our Kritzerland a GoGo campaign continues to be healthy and move us towards our lofty goal.
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 Electric Boogaloo, for today is the birthday of our very own beloved FJL. So, let’s give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to our very own beloved FJL. On the count of three: One, two, three – A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO OUR VERY OWN BELOVED FJL!!!
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do errands and whatnot, bank, have a rehearsal, eat, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite films starring Sean Connery? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy that we’re off to a good star on our Indiegogo campaign.