Well, dear readers, why must everything be an abbreviation or initials these days? Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, why must everything be an abbreviation or initials these days, from movie and theater titles to expressions – no one can be bothered to just write thing out anymore. Half the time, I don’t even have a clew as to what the initials stand for. Recently, I kept running across SMH over and over again. I puzzled over it for days – what could it meant? Student Mishandles Hummus? Stern Mothers Hibernate? Some Musicals Happen? Sore Muscles Hurt? So Much Halibut? You see my problem (YSMP). Finally I just got so irked that I yelled at someone to just tell me what the HELL SMH means. Apparently it means Smacking My Head. Brilliant. Oh, sorry. B. I’m just very bored with these initials and there are still some I see that I have no clew about. STFU took me a few minutes. At first I thought it meant Sanitation Terrifies Female Undergraduates. But no, it means something wholly other. Happily, I got so irritated that it became a song in Welcome to My World – the song is called TMI and it got very nice laughs when we did the workshop. Anyway, I’ve had it with initials (IHIWI) and hereby declare a haineshisway.com moratorium on them. I mean, does “I miss u’ save you so much time – it would take another quarter of a second to type the Y and O. End of abbreviation and initials rant.
Yesterday was a peaceful kind of day. I believe I got about seven hours of sleep – not enough but better than three hours of sleep. Then she of the Evil Eye arrived and I moseyed on over to The Magnolia Grille, which is located on Magnolia in North Hollywood. It’s a popular little hole in the wall jernt in a strip mall. I had a meeting with the gentleman who’ll be doing publicity for the Sami show. That went very well. I had their breakfast burrito, which would have been very good had it not had rank-tasting sausage in it. Then I picked up no packages and came home. I was happy – well, beyond happy – to see we went up to 50% funded and by the end of the evening we were 51% funded. We have two full days left and keep sending those excellent vibes and xylophones for major miracles to get us to the top of our funding goal. It really will take a miracle, but really if we just had a couple of wealthy benefactors it could still happen.
I did some work on the computer, had some telephonic conversations, and then sat on my couch like so much fish.
Yesterday, I watched a motion picture on Blu and Ray (from the UK) of the Otto Preminger film, The Man With the Golden Arm. While it isn’t my favorite Preminger film, I do enjoy the direction and especially Elmer Bernstein’s score, and the actors are all very good. Mr. Sinatra is really excellent in this. I don’t believe the film has ever been presented on home video in its proper ratio, which should be 1.85 according to the trade journals. It’s here presented in 1.66, which is close, and it looks fine in that ratio. What’s not fine is that there is basically no detail in the transfer – the contrast is decent, but it just lacks any kind of real clarity in fabrics or skin or hair. It’s probably been scrubbed of its grain, which causes the lack of definition and detail. What a shame.
After that, I went to Gelson’s and got a little pasta Bolognese from their hot food section – maybe three or four ounces, and I also got some melon balls and a few things like sponges and dishwasher liquid. Then I came home, ate the pasta whilst cruising on the Flix of Net (I watched the beginnings of a couple of movies), and then I kept dozing off. Finally, I watched a motion picture on Blu-ray entitled Thank Your Lucky Stars, one of those all-star musical things made during the war, this one made by Warner Bros. It has its moments – the writers are Panama and Frank, so there are occasionally laugh out loud one-liners. But the lead is Eddie Cantor and I’ve just never been a fan of his film performances. But it’s worth it for the other cast – in supporting roles are Edward Everett Horton and S.Z. Sakall, both wonderful. But it’s the guest stars that are the fun of this. My favorite number was a completely wacky thing done by Olivia de Havilland, George Tobias, and Ida Lupino, the latter being a complete revelation – funny, sexy, and a terrific dancer. Who knew? Humphrey Bogart has an amusing scene, Errol Flynn does a musical number, and most famously, Bette Davis sings They’re Either Too Young or Too Old. It does go on well past it’s expiry date – it’s over two hours, but it has a lot of fun stuff in it and the transfer is absolutely stellar.
After that, I just played on the computer and listened to some potential upcoming soundtracks we may hopefully get to release.
Today, I’ll relax in the morning, and then I’m seeing the closing matinee of Doug Haverty and Adryan Russ’s musical, Love Again. I was there opening night, of course, and I’m always interested to go back at the end of a run and see how the actors have settled into their roles. Then the helper comes by to say farewell for the next three months, and then we can only pray that the temporary replacement helper will be on top of everything.
Tomorrow, Sami’s coming by and we have to shoot a little video thing. Tuesday is our first Kritzerland rehearsal and Wednesday is our second Kritzerland rehearsal and then Friday is our stumble-through. I have a partay to attend on the fourth of July, then the following day is sound check and show. We’re about half sold now, so that’s much better than we were last month at this time.
Well, dear readers (WDR), I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, relax, see a show, eat, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion (TTOD): 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, where I shall have dreams about abbreviations and initials (AAI).