Well, dear readers, the evening has gotten away from me – I hate when that happens – and I must now write these here notes in a hurry because it is quite late due to said evening running amok. I wish I could tell you that I did fascinating things, but I most certainly did not. I was just doing a little research on eBay and got carried away in looking at this and that as well as that and this. So, let us rewind to the morning, where I awoke after about nine hours of sleep. Once up, I had to have a telephonic call, answered e-mails, and did some work on the computer. Then I went and had some chicken tenders and a bagel.
I picked up two packages and came home. Oh, I also got a book royalty check, perhaps the largest I’ve ever gotten – that’s not saying much – maybe I could eat at Genghis Cohen or The Smokehouse, but still, I was quite taken aback and also afront. Once home, a local dealer picked up some CDs. Then I had to go to my engineer’s house to see what vocals were so problematic we might have to replace. So, we listened but I didn’t think they were so bad (mostly to do with a lot of moving around during a song), but we decided to bring three people back to re-record their solos. The very rough mixes gave me an opportunity to express the kind of sound I was after, and he understood right away.
Then I came home and booked the three singers for tomorrow afternoon. Then I had a little time to kill, so I watched the first forty-five minutes of the new Blu and Ray of The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T, a supremely wacky motion picture co-written by Dr. Seuss. I’ve always loved the movie, which I saw when I was quite young. It was the third movie I bought a print of in 16mm back in 1975 – a gorgeous IB Technicolor print that was simply stunning. When the DVD came out I thought it was okay for what it was. The new Blu-ray has pretty accurate color but I’m not sure it’s a new transfer – the newer Sony transfers are usually the domain of Twilight Time and I have no doubt they would have wanted the film. But other companies were willing to put out slightly older transfers, and this could be one of those. It’s very sharp at times with good detail, but there are moments when the registration seems a bit off – I’d have to compare it to the DVD to know if it was that transfer, but it may be newer than that. But I had a lot of fun watching it and the wonderful costumes and wacky production design. I’m looking forward to finishing it this very evening.
Then I went and taped a radio show with our very own Donald Feltham, this one about Eubie and other things. Donald told me that he’ll most likely hit his 500th radio show here at haineshisway.com sometime this year – that’s quite something, don’t you think? We had a lot of fun, and then I made a stop at Whole Foods, something I never do. I just wanted to see what there was in their hot food bar, but it wasn’t very much. I got a tiny bit of mac-and-cheese to see how that was, and I also got some kind of shrimp thing with sweet chili and onions – the mac-and-cheese was quite tasty, and the shrimp thing was out of this world, so I’ll be returning there tomorrow to have those two items again.
Then I had another telephonic call. Last year, I met with a well-known theatre company here in the Valley – they were interested in me directing a show there and asked what show I’d like to do. I chose one that I thought would be fun for me – they had a few concerns, which I addressed, and they agreed to do it. I haven’t said anything since that meeting because I was waiting till I had a definite date. It was, in fact, supposed to open their new season this September. But they had a hit show earlier in the year that extended twice and it threw their schedule way off. So, they now will begin in November, and they have a world premiere to do that’s Christmas-themed, so my show is getting pushed into next June – I’m okay with that so I’ll let them know we’re good to go. I won’t reveal it, due to the usual prying eyes and I don’t want anyone jumping in to do it before we do – I’ll only say it’s a real good old-fashioned talking play that will be fun to stage. When we get a little closer I’ll let you know what it is. So, that will be two back-to-back shows next year – a musical at LACC and then this other show.
After that, my engineer e-mailed me and said he had some good news – he’d been working on those three problem vocals and felt he’d been able to fix them. He sent me two of those new mixes – first off, the sound was much closer to what I wanted, so that was good. And he had indeed fixed the vocals, which sounded terrific. So, when I’ve heard the third one and if I’m okay with it, we’ll cancel the pick-up vocals tomorrow. And then the evening got away from me.
Today, I shall be up by ten, I’ll do stuff until it’s time to leave for lunch with Richard Sherman and three others at Genghis Cohen. I’m looking forward to it. After that, I’ll hopefully pick up packages, come home, and do some other stuff, then relax.
Tomorrow we may or may not have to do the pick-up vocals – I’m actually hoping we don’t have to do them. Tomorrow I’m seeing The Fantasticks, Saturday I’ll visit Mystery and Imagination Books, and Sunday I see Barry Pearl in a play.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, have lunch with Richard Sherman, hopefully pick up packages, do stuff, 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 get these here notes up after the evening that got away.