Well, dear readers, let’s just wrap up this look back at the year that was, 2015. When last we were here we’d just closed Welcome to My World. The rest of the year was basically the final two Kritzerland shows, doing a rough opening for the book I’ll begin in January, having an idea for another book that I may or may not write at some point, writing four songs for the new musical revue about LA, having a handful of very needed and necessary miracles, and doing the final three Kritzerland releases of the year. We also began to talk about next year’s ALS benefit, but it’s very early stages and many hurdles have to be cleared before it can happen. I did two musical theater workshops at LACC to get to know the new batch of kids there, and that was a lot of fun. And finally, Adryan Russ said goodbye to co-producing the Kritzerland shows after doing all five-plus years of them. Our very own Doug Haverty is taking over and he’s already getting organized and I think he’ll do a great job and it keeps it all in the family. So a lot to be grateful for and we just have to kick the living HELL out of the low points, of which there were a few too many and which I’ve chosen not to talk about because frankly it’s negativity and I try never to do negativity as much as some would try to foist it on me and others. So, we just try our darndest to accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative and eliminating the negative will be one of my most immediate goals for the rest of this year and the coming year.
Yesterday just sort of happened. I got almost eight hours of sleep, the helper came by, we shipped about half the CD orders before running out of boxes, which I’d forgotten to order on Saturday. So, we can’t ship the rest out until Wednesday but they’ll still hopefully arrive in time for Christmas. I made myself two really low-cal sandwich things – a little pepperoni, a thin slice of mozzarella cheese on two 120-calorie mini-hamburger buns. I added lettuce and pickles and mustard, oh my. I did some work at the piano, some writing on the computer, I sent out the invites for the Christmas Eve Do, I think I locked in our MD for the January show, I picked up one packages, did some banking, then came back home. A DGA screener arrived, so I wrapped up the rest of my work and then sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a motion picture entitled The Martian and no, it was not about my parents and brother. It starred Matt Damon and was directed by Ridley Scott. It’s nothing we haven’t seen before, but I enjoyed it all the way through. Mr. Damon is very good, as are the other actors, including Jessica Chastain, Jeff Daniels, Sean Bean, and others. It’s the old man stranded on a planet thing, but it’s done with positivity and good humor. The film was very well reviewed – I don’t think it made its money back, though. But on the imdb, you have an awful lot of morons giving it one star because they think they know better about science, screenwriting, and everything else. Note to morons: You can’t take this film to task and then give ten stars to The Fantastic Four and every other terrible superhero or Fast and Furious movie. Does not compute, other than confirming for everyone your status as a moron. Anyway, if you haven’t seen it, it’s worth a look. I’m sure on Blu and Ray it will be stunning.
I then made my evening snack – a chicken cutlet in the frying pan with some onions – very low cal and just that – no rice or anything. I’ve been watching the Swedish series Real Humans, from which the AMC series Humans came. As you know, I really liked the AMC first season – I thought it was really terrific TV – that version is shot in the UK with really fine actors. Watching the Swedish original is interesting in any number of ways – the characters are basically the same, and the situations have similarities, but the tone is very different as are plot points. The biggest change is the William Hurt character in the AMC version – it’s much better than the Swedish, if you ask me – the Swedish version of that character is just irritating, while Hurt is a whole other thing, but so is the character itself and what his function is to the plot. Also, the violent robot in the AMC is much more fun than her counterpart. I’m guessing that had I seen the Swedish first I might have liked it better than the AMC, but I didn’t, so I prefer, thus far, the AMC in just about every way. I’ve got about five more episodes to go, and if I like the ending of series one, I believe there’s a series two I can get. The AMC is getting a series two, but that’s probably a half a year to a year away.
After all that, I just listened to music and relaxed.
Today, I have several things to do, including choosing songs, writing, working at the piano, hopefully picking up packages, and then I’m having dinner with Muse Margaret and her ever-lovin’ Richard. Haven’t seen them in a while, so I know it will be a lovelier than lovely evening.
Tomorrow we’ll ship out the rest of the CDs and be all caught up. Thursday I’m seeing a show at the El Portal, and there’s stuff happening on Friday and then over the weekend, although I haven’t a clew as to what those things might be. Hopefully someone will remind me.
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 Monkey, because today is the birthday of our very own dear reader ChasSmith. So, let’s give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to our very own dear reader ChasSmith. On the count of three: One, two, three – A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO OUR VERY OWN DEAR READER CHASSMITH!!!
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, choose songs, write, work at the piano, hopefully pick up packages, and then dine. Today’s topic of discussion: What were the best theater experiences for you this year? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have finished our final reminiscing of that year that was.