Well, dear readers, this week is flying by, like a gazelle twirling a baton whilst doing the splits and eating a Twinkie. Of course it’s very late and therefore I must write these here notes in a hurry so I can at least attempt to get a decent night’s beauty sleep. Perhaps I’ll twirl a baton whilst doing the splits and eating a Twinkie just to show I can keep up with the gazelle and also because it will tucker me out.
Yesterday was a day that moseyed along. I didn’t get up until eleven-thirty, but even getting up that late didn’t get me more than seven hours of sleep. Once up I did the usual things. I chose some more songs, didn’t get any further on casting the next Kritzerland, and then I did some errands and whatnot, after which I had a little lunch meeting with a mom and her daughter – she’s been trying to get me to use the daughter in the Kritzerland shows, so I always start with a lunch to see where the kid’s head is and how serious they are. It was a fun lunch and I’m sure we’ll add her to the roster at some point.
After that, I picked up a couple of packages, then came home. A longtime record collector I know came by – he’s in his mid-80s now – and dropped off a healthy little check for the Indiegogo campaign. He doesn’t really do the Internet, so that was extremely kind of him. The Kritzerland a GoGo campaign is moving slowly right now, after the burst of the first two days, but it does go up every day and I was told that after the initial couple of days then it trickles in until its closer to the end and then it jump starts again. I’m not trying to be relentless at this point, but in a couple of weeks I’ll do a new eBlast and new Facebook and Twitter pushes.
I had some telephonic conversations, and then I sat on my couch like so much fish and finished Lust for Life. As I mentioned, I hadn’t seen it before. I thought it was a good motion picture, but certainly not a great one. Mr. Kirk Douglas is terrific and it’s very well directed by Mr. Minnelli, but I found it ultimately repetitious and, of course, it’s a bit of a downer. I’m surprised that Anthony Quinn won an Oscar for his performance here – the role simply didn’t warrant it, but his competition that year was practically non-existent. After that, I watched the new Blu and Ray of On the Town. It’s an odd movie – I enjoy some of it and some of it not so much. Only three Leonard Bernstein pieces remain – New York, New York, the Miss Turnstiles ballet music, and Come Up to My Place. The rest of the songs are standard issue Arthur Freed unit stuff by Roger Edens. Sadly, the transfer is a very old one and not a very good one – it barely registers as being of Blu-ray quality, the color is a bore, and the shame of it is it could look spectacular (I owned a 16mm Technicolor print that looked amazing).
After that, I went out for a while, went to Gelson’s, and then at some point I came back home and did stuff on the computer, at the piano, and, of course, I twirled the damn baton.
Today, I have to visit another rehearsal studio in NoHo, then I have a lunch with Nick Redman and Jean Louisa Kelly, then I’ll hopefully pick up some packages then I’ll finish choosing songs and hopefully figure out the rest of our cast.
Tomorrow I have a meeting with a set designer about the Sami show – I need a couple of things for the staged reading and am hoping he can create them without too much fuss – then we’ll have them already done. I think there’s a lunch meeting in there somewhere and the same goes for Friday. Saturday I’ll bring books to Mystery and Imagination for the signing that happens a week later, then I see Barry Pearl’s production of 13. Sunday, we have a brief work session here for the Sami show, then there’s something else happening but I have no idea what it might be.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, visit a rehearsal studio, have a lunch, hopefully pick up packages, choose songs and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear reader any old question you like and we get to give any old answer we like. So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers and loads of lovely postings shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I shall be twirling a baton to beat the band.