Well, dear readers, I must begin these here notes with a little factoid that’s come to my attention: It is July. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, it is July. In other words, it is no longer June, June has busted out all over and now it is July. And may I just say that it is my fervent hope and prayer that July will be a month filled with health, wealth, happiness, creativity, and all things bright and beautiful. There, I’ve said it and I’m glad and I’m glad I said it there. Of course, we all know that July is a month of fireworks and joy and celebration, so let’s just start right the HELL now, shall we?
Yesterday, it was still June, in fact it was the last day of June. As last days of June go, I’d say it wasn’t all that bad. I got about seven hours of sleep, got up, did my morning stuff, and then had to mosey on over to the editing room to hand off the little video footage we shot on Monday. My wonderful editor, Marshall Harvey, will now work his magic on it. I’ll probably see something by tomorrow. Then I went to the Coral Café and had a leisurely Chicken Caesar wrap and fries for lunch. Unfortunately it shouldn’t have been quite so leisurely. I left the restaurant around 12:50 and was going to have a leisurely drive home, but I got a call in the car asking where I was – no one had reminded me our Kritzerland rehearsal was starting at one, which is two hours earlier than usual. Oops. So, luckily I was home by 1:10 and we were fine.
The first three people were all there at the same time, since we begin the show with a trio of young gals – Hadley Miller, Sami Staitman, and Jaidyn Young (new to us – she’s wanted to do one of our shows for quite a while, and this was the show). They began singing Just an Old-Fashioned Love Song and something wasn’t right with it – it was VERY low and that was not making sense to me and I should have just gotten up and looked at the music. But, I was a dope and didn’t. So, I told Shelly Markham to raise the key about four steps, and that still wasn’t quite right and it was getting very confusing, so confusing that I finally sat down and played it in the key of F (the sheet music key was Bb). Still it didn’t sound right, but I wrote out all the chords for him and we sang through it and it was, at least, better. But something was still off and I finally told Shelly to play it in the sheet music key – the gals began singing and I finally realized what was wrong – they were singing an octave below the written notes. I kept looking at the notes and saying, “This should be almost out of their range.” If anyone had just told me right at the top they were singing the lower octave I would have known instantly what to do – not RAISE the key but lower it – as soon as I knew I said to Shelly – key of G, please and voila it sat in their voices perfectly. We routined the ending so that it’s really fun (kazoos), and at today’s rehearsal I may assign some solo lines (they all sang in unison yesterday). That isn’t the way I like to start a rehearsal day and it almost did me in. It was not the last difficulty we had, but we got through what we needed to.
Then each girl ran her solo. First was Hadley – she was doing a put-together of Fat Sam’s Grand Slam and Speakeasy and Show Business from Bugsy Malone. Fat Sam’s was great, but Show Business wasn’t working at all so I just cut it and made a longer arrangement of Fat Sam’s – everyone was happier with it that way. Then it was Jaidyn singing the song from The Secret of NIMH, Flying Dreams, with music by Jerry Goldsmith and lyrics by Paul Williams. It’s a very sweet song and Jaidyn is doing it very well. Then came Sami and The Rainbow Connection. She plays most of the first verse on the ukulele, then Shelly joins in. She sounds great on the song.
Next up was Joanne O’Brien – her three songs were the easiest to get through, actually, but we had to adjust keys on two of them, so Shelly will have to write in those chords, although he played them pretty flawlessly anyway. She began with the Rupert Holmes/Williams song Everything from the Barbra A Star is Born. Then she did I Won’t Last a Day Without You and then Rainy Days and Mondays.
Then the difficulties began, mostly because there are a LOT of put-togethers in this show and we had to do a lot of key adjustments – not easy to transpose some of this music on the spot, I’ll tell you THAT. Brittney began with her easy song, The Woman in the Moon from A Star is Born. Then it was a put-together of two Phantom of the Paradise songs, Special to Me (it took quite a while to even get the feel of it right) and Old Souls. We have a bit of work to do on them, and hopefully that will all go smoothly today. Finally it was another put-together, this one Let Me Be the One and We’ve Only Just Begun. It took a while to find the keys, but they go well together.
Then came Robert Yacko. Brittney is playing ukulele for one of his songs so we ran that first. The song is part of a put-together – first Fill Your Heart and then The Hell of It from Phantom of the Paradise. Again, once it’s all smoothed out it will be really good – we jerry-rigged an ending for The Hell of It which, as written, is a repeat and fade. Then Robert ran You and Me Against the World – very pretty, and finally yet another put-together, this time Dream Away and Nice to Be Around (both movie songs, both with music by the other Williams guy, John). We went about a half hour later than we should have but it’s all done. In absentia was Jeffrey Todd – he has extra time at today’s rehearsal.
After that I was pretty zonked. I went to Gelson’s and got a few snack things for the upcoming week – some low-fat flour tortillas, salsa, low-fat “Mexican” cheese, some pasta, an onion, and various and sundried other foodstuffs, including some melon balls. Then I came home and made two little tortillas (they’re the small kind), put some cheese and salsa in them, rolled them, and that was my snack. I also had the melon balls. I was happy to see that two of the several folks who hadn’t contributed before we closed the campaign, did contribute directly and they were both healthy contributions. So, those and the other latecomers will help offset the Indiegogo fees. Then I sat on my couch like so much fish.
In honor of Patrick Macnees passing, and after having suffered through posting those horrid-looking scenes from The Creature Wasn’t Nice, with the disgusting open-matte transfer that reveals tops of sets, bottoms of sets and all kinds of unseemly things, completely washed out color, no contrast whatsoever, and a transfer at least ten stops too bright, I just wanted to remind myself that I actually made a movie that at least looked decent. So, I found the German DVD (Trottel im Weltall – Prat in Space), the transfer that was made from my pristine print of the film, in its proper 1.85 ratio, with beautiful color, contrast, deep dark blacks and shadows and it’s like watching a whole other movie. Yes, it’s the bastardized producers’ cut with added stock footage, terrible dialogue for the computer voice and a terrible voice for the computer (it was Oscar-winner Broderick Crawford in the original), and the scenes in the first half of the film completely out of order, but to see it as it should look is just a beautiful thing to me. When I made the deal for the German DVD, they insisted that my print be kept in storage for five years – we signed that agreement and that was the deal. A few years ago, when I finally found the agreement, I called the lab where the print was stored and they said no one had ever paid for storing the print (that was supposed to be paid by the German company) and that the print had been sold at auction. I asked why no one had called or written me – they were apologetic, but there was nothing to be done. Ironically, a few years before that, I’d been offered a print of the film here in LA and I passed on it because I knew my print in storage would come back to me. Alas, it was that very print that was offered to me and if I’d only taken it I would be able to do the damn Blu-ray that I would so love to do, one that would have that beautiful transfer, and would include the original cut of the film with some minor finessing. I live in hope that somehow the print will find its way back to me so people can see what the film is actually supposed to look like. After all, the cameraman was a very talented man, Vilis Lapeniks, who shot several well thought of 70s films. And he replaced our first cameraman after a week of shooting and THAT cameraman shot Dark Star (and Nudie Musical). The lighting is quite lovely and when the film is printed properly (not ten stops too bright), then even the sets and costumes look wonderful as does the creature. Minimally, I may have someone make something I can upload to You Tube so people can at least watch it in excellent quality – don’t know if I’ll upload all of it, but certainly a few choice scenes.
After that, I just relaxed and did some work on the computer.
Today, I have some banking to do in the morning, and then we have our second Kritzerland rehearsal, which will be our full cast save for our guest star – I don’t think we see her until Sunday. After the rehearsal, I’m sure some of us will go have a little meal.
Tomorrow I’ll probably go to the editing room and finalize the little video thing, otherwise I can pretty much rest and relax. Friday is our stumble-through, Saturday I have a fourth of July partay to attend at neighbor Tony Slide and Bob Gitt’s home environment, and Sunday is our sound check and show.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do some banking, hopefully pick up some packages, rehearse, eat, 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, ready for the month of fireworks and joy and celebration – and it is my fervent hope and prayer that July will be a month filled with health, wealth, happiness, creativity, and all things bright and beautiful.