Well, dear readers, it is late and therefore I must write these here notes in a hurry so that I can finish what will be the very final proofing of the book – the fully designed book, which is quite beautiful thanks to Grant Geissman. That arrived at seven last night, and I literally spent from then until now proofing it – first here, then having a cup of soup at Jerry’s Deli, then back here. There are still two more chapters to proof and I will get that done before going to bed. Mostly this proofing is to catch things that may have gotten screwy in the design phase – hyphens that didn’t become em dashes, unwanted extra spaces, line breaks that are funky, and bad breaks – I found a few of each and have noted them. But I also found some more things that no one had caught – a few missing quote marks, some paragraph indentations that are too big, a couple of missing words, one repeated joke that I removed, and one line that I felt was worded awkwardly, so I just switched it up a bit and it’s better now. I’m the only one who can do this particular proofing, but this is like the fifth time and I’m really tired of doing it. But I’ve been very careful and think I’ve caught everything.
Prior to that long evening of proofing, I had a perfectly okay day. I got up at six-thirty, fell back asleep at seven-thirty, was awakened by the telephonic device at eight-thirty, nine-thirty, and ten-thirty, and eleven, falling back asleep each time until I finally got up at eleven. Julian Hansen came by and we had a lunch – we both had Cobb salads and we split a bagel. Then we came back here and she wanted to wait until Richard Sherman showed up so she could give him a hug. He got to us just before three, and he played her his new song for the LA show. Then she left and Richard and I chatted and he took the book with him to read and blurb.
After that, I had several telephonic calls, did some work on the computer, heard from a potential Kritzerland cast member who can’t do the March show, and spent a few hours writing the Indiegogo campaign for the LA show, to raise money for the band and the sound package, both of which are integral for the show, and both of which the theater department has no funds for. We did come up with quite a few fun perks and we hope even some of you dear readers will partake, even if you can’t get to LA to see the show. My favorite of the pricey perks is a private dinner with me and Richard Sherman, probably at The Smoke House.
Then the book arrived, and that’s all I did for the next five hours and what I’ll be doing as soon as these here notes are posted.
Today, I’ll be up by ten, I have to give the third person who’ll blurb the book the book, and then I go directly to Grant to enter all the fixes and adjust a couple of style things. I’m sure that will take several hours, then I’ll eat, hopefully pick up packages, then I have a meeting with a potential musical director for the LA show. Tomorrow I’m not sure what’s happening, Saturday I’ll probably mosey on down to the book fair to say hey to some folks, and Sunday maybe I’ll get to relax.
I also had a telephonic call from the daughter of an old chum of mine, Bob De Pietro. Hadn’t seen the daughter since she was twelve or so (well, I did see her after that, maybe eight years ago when she was helping her dad here in LA at one of those signing shows – he was a frequent poster dealer there). I met Bob in 1993 – I’d been buying movie posters from him occasionally, and I went to New York to record some albums and we met up and I went to dinner at his house. His neighbor dropped by at some point and said he was a musical director and that he’d love to work with me. That’s how I met Lanny Meyers. I’m thinking you can probably guess why his daughter would have been calling me – Bob passed away at age sixty-five a few days ago, and Nicole was going through his address book and calling the people she knew would want to know.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, drop the book off to the person who’ll blurb, go to Grant’s and enter all the fixes and try out some style stuff, eat, hopefully pick up packages, have a meeting with a musical director, and then relax. Today’s topic of discussion: You’re ten years old. What was a typical Saturday like from the time you arose till the time you went to bed? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to be done with this final proofing of the beautifully designed book.