Well, dear readers, I have some fabulous and up to the minute news to tell you: It is June. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, that irrepressible, indomitable, irresistible month known as June is here and is bustin’ out all over, as is June’s wont. So, before I go any further may I just say that it is my fervent hope and prayer that June will be a month filled with health, wealth, happiness, creativity, and all things bright and beautiful. It’s hard to believe that the first half of the year is pretty much over, but we’re headin’ into summer and there are not two or even three ways about it.
Yesterday, the final day of May, was our first Kritzerland rehearsal day. I had one of “those” nights again, not falling asleep until five. No tummy problems or anything, just a head filled with stuff. I slept until eleven, so six hours of sleep. I got up, did some stuff, went and did some banking, came back and then got ready for the rehearsal.
First to arrive was the delightfully delightful Keri Saffran. First we ran the duet she’s doing with Guy Haines – he couldn’t be with us so I filled in for him – Here You Come Again, one of my favorite 70s songs. Then she ran her other two songs – Laura Nyro’s sublimely strange The Cat Song, and then Carly Simon’s You’re So Vain. Next up was Eric Petersen – we ran his songs: Billy Joel’s She’s Always a Woman, Joni Mitchell’s River, and a put-together of two Stevie Wonder songs, You Are the Sunshine of My Life and Isn’t She Lovely.
Next we had the lovelier than lovely Jean Louis Kelly. I haven’t seen her since we did the commentary track for The Fantasticks. She began with Carly Simon’s extraordinary That’s The Way I’ve Always Heard it Should Be, then did Paul Simon’s 50 Ways to Leave a Lover, and finished with Melissa Manchester and Carole Bayer Sager’s Come In from the Rain. Then I ran Guy’s other two songs, Tim Moore’s Second Avenue and Rupert Holmes’ Terminal, both of which Guy recorded. Then it was Sami Staitman’s turn. First she did Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (she does it the way Sara Bareilles does – it’s very interesting that way and she loves that version), and then a put-together of three Carole King classics – It’s Too Late, So Far Away, and Beautiful. It’s really fun and Sami will be great. Finally we had Constance Jewell Lopez, who is new to us. She brought along a cold with her so I immediately got paranoid and just wanted the session to be done quickly – it took a bit longer than quickly, but we ran her three songs, Brenda Russell’s If Only for One Night, then Barry White’s You’re My First, My Last, My Everything, and finally Paul Simon’s great Bridge Over Troubled Water in the arrangement I did many years ago for Sean McDermott. Then she and our musical director hit the road, and I went to Gelson’s, since I hadn’t eaten a thing all day. I got some salad from the salad bar, some shrimp cocktail shrimp, and some disinfectant spray that kills cold and flu germs. When I got home I sprayed the living room with that, just as a precaution.
Then I ate my salad (I put shrimp in it and used my twenty-five calorie Eyetalian dressing). I had the rest of the shrimp in cocktail sauce, a bagel with cream cheese, and a few little treats for my sweet. It was then too late to watch anything, so I just did some work on the computer whilst popping Sambucol and Airborne, as I’m in full paranoid mode now about having been around someone sick. Send excellent vibes and xylophones that I remain healthy, for I must.
Today, I’ll be able to sleep in, I can relax, I’ll eat, I’ll hopefully pick up packages, I’ll maybe even do a jog, and then I’ll relax.
Tomorrow is the crazy busy day – I have to be up by eight-thirty and to the Magic Castle by 9:45 to see a table reading of a new musical. That should last two hours or so, then I have to hustle back home for the second Kritzerland rehearsal. As soon as that finishes, I then have to be on my way to LACC to do the pick-up recording session with the horns, and that will probably take three hours. Not sure when or how I’m supposed to fit food in there, but I suppose that will work itself out. Friday I can relax, Saturday is our stumble-through, and Sunday is sound check and show. Sunday is the only day we have Kevin Spirtas, who’s doing Peter Allen’s Once Before I Go, and we also have Grant Geissman, who’s playing on the two Guy Haines solos and then doing his own solo on Leon Russell’s This Masquerade.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, relax, eat, hopefully pick up packages, maybe jog, 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, happy to welcome in June, which is, in case you haven’t noticed, bustin’ out all over – and it is my fervent hope and prayer that June will be a month filled with health, wealth, happiness, creativity, and all things bright and beautiful.