Well, dear readers, I, who was so tired I couldn’t see straight, could not fall asleep. Why is that? That makes no sense. But there I was, in bed, unable to fall asleep. At some point I did but I think I got maybe four hours of sleep. I gotta tell you. I hate when that happens. And of course I had to be up by eight-thirty for she of the Evil Eye was coming to clean. I had stuff I needed to do on the computer so I actually hung around for a bit, then did a jog, did a little work on the computer, then left. I went and had a side of bacon (four small slices), picked up no packages, and then came home. And once again, no second pension check to be found, so it’s obviously lost, mis-delivered, or stolen. They want me to wait until Wednesday but I’m calling on Monday and telling them to stop payment then – it’s clear it’s not showing up. I hate the USPS. Once they redo the check it’s not coming here, it will go to my UPS Store address, where it’s much more likely to show up.
Once home, I did some work at the piano and got a little further on the song I’m trying to finish. Then I had a lot of back-and-forth with Lanny and the musical director, getting him about seven more songs. I’m trying to have everything to him by the end of next week. We’re still waiting on two songs and then the songs are complete. One is coming from Paul Gordon and the other hopefully from Grant Geissman – I wrote those lyrics but I want real funk music for it and that’s not my forte. Then I got ready for our stumble-through.
Everyone was here on time, save for Barbara Minkus, who couldn’t be with us. It went very well – the show lasted just the right amount of time, and hopefully that will not be impacted when we add the other two numbers on Tuesday. Neither of them is that long, however, so it will just add another five minutes to the run time. Only two bits of patter are of any length, and it’s a page shorter than usual, so I’m sure we’ll come in at our usual seventy-five minutes. After we finished, I gave notes to each person and we ran a few trouble spots. There were some lyric fumfers, but this time they’ve got another three days to get that all down perfectly. There are a lot of highlights in this show, and I just love this music. Oh, and on my jog, I thought of a REALLY funny line to add to my opening patter – it made me laugh out loud so hopefully others will find it amusing.
After we finished all that, Sami and her mom and I went over to Casa Vega. Sami’s lost a bit of weight and is looking very good. I heard about her high school show, and we all had a lot of fun gabbing. I had a beef taco and one cheese enchilada, so not too bad. I was using Saturday as my splurge day, but I didn’t splurge too much. I have to say, I’ve been really good for close to three weeks now and I’m not sure I’ve lost a single pound, which is really disheartening.
After food, I came back home, did more work at the piano, figured out the next two things for the LA show, order-wise (all subject to change, of course, but I suspect I won’t know that until the show is on its feet), and as I was looking through the rest of the stuff, I’m kind of thinking we won’t need too much more talking or sketches. Maybe another monologue or two, and Vilanch’s sketch and a couple more blackout bits and that should do it. We’ll have over twenty songs and that should be fine. I already know exactly what I want the show to run, time-wise – one-hour first act, fifty-minute second act – anything longer than that and I start cutting. So far, I have the first nine scenes for act one and that order seems pretty okay to me. And forgive me in advance but starting tomorrow I have to become relentless about the last three days of the Indiegogo campaign because we really must fully fund. If that means going into my personal collection some more, I will do it. I have a first edition of Gypsy signed by Sondheim to me, and I also have a first of Anyone Can Whistle signed to me and I probably really only need one of those. We shall see. Then I finally sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a Blu and Ray about Carole King. I think this was a PBS special and I must say they have a lot of nerve putting it on a single Blu-ray with almost no extras when it lasts a mere sixty minutes. And they don’t make it cheap, either. It’s a quick look at her life, with some nice interviews, but it’s by the numbers and she’s anything BUT by the numbers. One wanted something more in depth and one didn’t get it. I then watched another music-related Blu-ray, a Burt Bacharach concert done in England. Burt’s there and interviewed during the concert. That would normally be very interesting except the interviewer loves the sound of his own voice, and rarely lets Burt get more than three words out before interrupting him. Interviewing is an art, and the first thing you have to learn is when to shut up. This guy missed that lesson. Plus they’re obviously editing Burt’s answers into oblivion, just cutting away from him so the next song can be introduced – very poor editing because it’s so obvious. Singers are a mixed bag. I just have to say that these pop singers today are horrid with their reedy vibrato-laden head voice that’s so popular right now – all breathy, all over-miked and reverbed to HELL and every voice basically sounding the same. The orchestra sounded good, and the best bits were when Burt went to the piano to play and conduct. I didn’t quite finish it, but will today. Oh, and we also had us some rain. Oh, and my allergies are really acting up.
Today, I shall hopefully arise after a good night’s beauty sleep, which I really need. Then I’m going to Gelson’s and here is my plan: I’ll go to the salad bar and make two big salads with veggies and fun stuff, one for lunch and one for dinner, since the salads have almost zero calories. Then I’ll buy some red wine vinegar and do that part here so I don’t accidentally drown everything. I only use like two or three drops of oil, less than a teaspoon and I have oil here. If that doesn’t lose me some weight, then this is just hopeless. Obviously if it’s raining I shan’t jog. I will hopefully finish one set of liner notes (I’m more than halfway done), and then I’ll do more work on the LA show. After that, I just need to relax and watch stuff.
Monday something is going on but I can’t remember what. Hopefully someone will remind me. Tuesday is our sound check and show. The rest of the week is meetings and meals, planning the April Kritzerland (madness – it’s only three weeks away at that point), and working on the LA show. I must finish the song and get that in to the chart guy, and I must write the monologue and also see which numbers might need a lead in – I don’t want to do too much of that stuff, but a couple may work better with some kind of set up. I’ll also set up the book signing at Mystery and Imagination, probably for the end of March or the first week of April.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, sleep in, get two salads, finish a song, finish liner notes, work on the LA show, then relax. Today’s topic of discussion: 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, hoping too many mornings of too little sleep will stop.