Well, dear readers, I must write these here notes in a hurry for she of the Evil Eye will be here all too soon. So, let me get right to the point, as the dance hall hostesses sing in Sweet Charity. Yesterday is a bit of a fuzz, a bit of a haze, a bit of a muddle. I didn’t fall asleep until around two-thirty, woke up around eight-thirty, fell back asleep, woke up at ten-thirty, fell back asleep, and finally got up at twelve-thirty. I slept about nine hours total and I really needed it. Once up, I answered a plethora of e-mails and finally made a post on Facebook about the Sami show – I have purposely not posted anything (others have, just not me), but I felt that yesterday was the day, so that people who enjoy my writing might want to come on board. Sami’s mom has been doing a lot of posting about it on the advice of the Indiegogo Guru who’s doing her a favor. While it may have upped our GoGo Factor (he seemed pleased by whatever that factor is), I haven’t really seen it reflected in the campaign itself. With the Kritzerland campaign we had 0 GoGo Factor and we did pretty damn well. I think part of it is because until the very end I was anything but relentless about posting things – thankfully we had some cheerleaders helping us along. But I made the campaign fun, and the Sami campaign hasn’t really been fun at all – it’s just been persistent. So, I’ve taken over the fun part and will try to make it entertaining rather than tiresome. We’re in kind of a Catch 22 thing because the guru will, whatever happens, say we either didn’t follow his advice to the letter, or that he needed more time. I’m sure these folks know what they’re doing, but this isn’t an invention, this is a theater piece and I’m not sure being relentless and so persistent to the point where people actively don’t want to contribute is not the way to go. We’re currently at 31% – at fifteen days to go that wasn’t bad – at eleven days to go it becomes worrisome. Eleven days isn’t two days, so we have time to turn it around, and as with Kritzerland, I think we’ll get a lot of action in the last two days – but I truly believe we have to be over 50% by then for that to happen, otherwise people just lose interest and there’s no rooting interest – the latter is what happened with Kritzerland – there was real rooting interest at the end. So, we’re strategizing today.
I went out for a jog around three. I did the short route and as I was going south on Laurel Canyon and approaching the street I turn on to come home, I seriously thought about continuing down to Ventura Blvd., turning right and coming back via the footbridge, which would have added an extra half-mile onto the jog. Thankfully I did not do it, because at precisely the time I would have arrived down there, there was some breaking news: some nutcase was in front of Chipotle and Union Bank shooting a gun in the air and toward the ground. Police were called, arrived, gave him several chances to drop the weapon, but instead he decided to point it at the officers, who then, of course, took him out swiftly, as they should have. Ventura was closed from Laurel Canyon to Whitsett and north to Moorpark. Then a robot thing blew up to things that might have been explosives (there were no explosives and despite the idiot rumors created by the idiot news reporters on the scene, no there was no attempted bank robbery). There were so many helicopters it wasn’t even funny – all of them belonged to the news stations. The reporters were climbing all over themselves to interview people and make pronouncements about which they knew NOTHING. They STILL no nothing. They are IDIOTS. However, ABC News took the cake with their headline “Body found in Studio City.” Really, ABC News? Is that what happened, a body was “found”? No, you big baboons, some crazy person opened fire and was taken out, that’s what happened. You people get paid for a living – is even a cursory education required for your job because it doesn’t appear so.
When I left to go sup, I was going to do my usual thing of Moorpark to Cahuenga to the 134 freeway, but Moorpark going in that direction was backed up to MY street so I just did a quick U-turn, went to Whitsett, went to Laurel Canyon, and got on the freeway without any problem. Traffic was fine until the 134/5 split and then it got really bad for no reason whatsoever. I got to the Dale of Glen around six-ten, found a good parking space right across from the theater, and walked three blocks to Islands to sup with Adryan Russ and her ever-lovin’ Dale Cooke. I hadn’t been to Islands in ages and I always forget how great their Big Wave burger with cheese and bacon is. It’s very simple – only mustard on the bun, to which I add ketchup. I never have noticed that they have the same exact burger but with 1000-Island dressing and I’ll try that when next I’m there. Of course the Big Wave comes with their delicious french fries and I’m afraid I ate a few too many, but it was my first and last food o’ the day.
Then we walked back to the theater to see 9 to 5, The Musical. I’d already had to suffer through this dreadful show once before, so this was like having dental work. The movie works because you have time to develop the characters and get to know and root for them. Here, because they’re dealing with a bunch of musical numbers, they’re creating bullet point characters, hoping that everyone will remember Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, and Dolly Parton. For a community theater production it was fine – in the round. They do Equity contracts occasionally at this theater, which is surprising, since the POINT of community theater is to NOT do that, but this cast had no contracts. I had a friend in the show, doing the Dolly role – it was a stretch for her and she did fine. But I just find the show itself loathsome. The audience of mostly elderly regulars reacted well to the entire show. There are several clips on You Tube from the Broadway production, which was a flop. But you wouldn’t know that from the screaming, whooping fanboys and girls making it all about themselves. Every time a new actor comes onstage you cannot hear anything they’re saying because there are about ten of these nincompoops up in the balcony doing their thing. It’s disgusting but it’s the way it is these days, because, you know, they’re “entitled” to behave like that.
After the show I went right to Gelson’s and got some cleaning stuff that she of the Evil Eye needs, then I came home.
Today, I’ll be up early, I’ll jog, I may go give the motor car a bath, I’ll eat, I’ll hopefully pick up packages and then I’ll relax.
Tomorrow, I believe I may have not one but two meetings. Monday is our first Kritzerland rehearsal, then, if I’m not too tired, I have a meeting in Hollywood. It’s not essential that I be there, but if I’m up for it I’ll go. Tuesday is a lunch with Kay Cole, Wednesday is a make-up rehearsal for two of the Kritzerland singers. Thursday is our second rehearsal, then we have our stumble-through on Saturday and our sound check and show on Sunday.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a jog, eat, hopefully pick up packages, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: Which of the endless stream of movie to stage musical adaptations are the most insufferable and which do you think actually work? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy I didn’t jog down to Ventura Blvd. whilst there was breaking news.