Well, dear readers, it seems to be summer again here in Los Angeles, California, USA – very hot here, which I find completely irritating. I don’t think we’ll have a foreign language for today’s notes, even though I’ve enjoyed our Latvian and Turkish notes immensely. In the world in which we currently live I’m grateful for anything that amuses me. In other news, I really need a haircut, so I must book one with Lydia, my Hairdresser Lady. I have decided that Pop chips are disgusting, so I shan’t be eating any more of them. Pretzels I like. Pretzels I Like – that’s the title of my next novel. How many here know that my nickname for dear reader Jane back when we were but young teenagers was Pretzel? It happens to be true. What the HELL am I talking about?
Yesterday was a perfectly okay day. I only got six hours of sleep, so that part wasn’t all that. I was up at ten, answered e-mails, and then at eleven I had a work session for the Kritzerland show. It went very quickly and then Richard Allen (our MD) and I went and had lunch. I had a hankerin’ for a few rings of onion so I ordered the lowest calorie thing I could think of – a turkey sandwich on rye. With that you get a small thing of onion rings. Richard ended up eating about half of that, so I definitely was fine, calorie-wise. Then I picked up one package and came home. I had some telephonic calls, including a fun one with Richard Sherman where we looked at twelve different cover choices for our new CD. He didn’t love the one I did, but when I explained my reasons for choosing it he understood completely and had a complete change of heart, although we both didn’t like the font for the title treatment. The other choice is fun, too, and I’ll use it on the back of the CD booklet. So, Doug will do a couple of alternate title treatments and we’ll see what we like best and that will be that.
I then finished the set of liner notes, my second of the three I’m doing, and sent them off for proofing. I did a two-and-a-half mile jog and then finally sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night I finished watching The Return of Godzilla (finally). It’s a somber little film with the usual man in a suit and lots of miniatures, but I enjoy all that in my kaiju films. What I don’t enjoy is a lousy transfer – I understand this is the master this company was provided with by Toho but there is NO excuse for this film to look this bad. There’s literally no contrast, everything is washed out and milky with unnatural grain that looks more like noise, and nothing at all having any detail. This is Blu-ray folks and it shouldn’t look like this. I was happy to see it in its original version but it’s not something I’ll ever watch again. After that, I began watching another motion picture on Blu-ray entitled The Horrible Dr. Hichcock, one of those Eyetalian 60s horror things starring Barbara Steele. I rather enjoy these wacky films, this one directed by Riccardo Freda (all the main credits have given the Eyetalians American names). I haven’t seen this one in probably sixteen or seventeen years, since the heyday of the Video Watchdog and Scarlet Street magazines. I’ll have more to say after I finish watching it.
Pretzels I like. I just wanted to state that again for the record, and as we all know, thanks to the hipsters records have made a comeback. Now they’re trying to be all hipsterish about VHS if you can believe it. I ate some Pop chips and pretzels as I viewed the motion pictures. After that, I listened to some music from one of our forthcoming releases, and had another telephonic call. And that was that, which is better than that being this or even those.
Today I have a lot o’ stuff to do – show order, more liner notes, Kritzerland commentary, eating, jogging, hopefully picking up packages, and then perhaps relaxing.
Tomorrow is more of the same, Saturday I’m supping and seeing a club act, and I’m not sure what’s happening on Sunday. Then we begin the crazy Kritzerland rehearsal week.
Also, I’m putting up two new perks today in our Indiegogo campaign for the Brain concert. They are one of a kind – a 1970 draft of Follies (very different stuff and an ending that hadn’t been written, so just a synopsis of the follies section at the end) – it’s pretty amazing to see how this show morphed into what it became. I have never seen anywhere an early draft of Follies, let alone one THIS early. And then an early draft of A Chorus Line – also very interesting, with lots of cross outs and new bits in – it’s really fun. I was given both of these in the 1970s by my then agent at CMA (now ICM) – he got all these scripts for his clients. I had them beautifully bound. So, here’s the link to the Indiegogo campaign – we’re at 70% with over two weeks to go, so I’m hoping these will get us closer to our goal and that we can reach that goal before the two weeks is up.
https://igg.me/at/y4KSb6IaWD4/x/9165600
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, make a show order, write more liner notes, write commentary, eat, jog, hopefully pick up some packages, and then relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite kinds of chips and things like chips? What are your favorite low-calorie chips and other snacks of that ilk? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I shall undoubtedly dream of pretzels, which, by the way, I like.