Well, dear readers, Richard Sherman and I did an audio commentary for the upcoming Blu-ray release of Tom Sawyer (its follow-up film, Huckleberry Finn is also included on the disc but we did our commentary only on Tom Sawyer, although we do talk about Huckleberry Finn). I have a lot of notes to guide us, but man is it exhausting keeping a commentary going for ninety-seven solid minutes. We did pretty well, though – we covered everything, but in the film’s final seven or eight minutes we just vamped and enjoyed what we were watching and gabbed about it. Nick Redman seemed pleased by it, so that’s good. We covered a huge amount of information and I even got Richard to sing twice. We have a really easy camaraderie and so gabbing is second nature to us. So, that was how I spent the morning and early afternoon, after only getting four hours of sleep. After the session, we all went over to the local Thai place and had lunch. Richard loved the food there – he asked me to order for him, so we both had the cashew chicken, which is great there, some pad Thai with chicken, and I had a little Thai salad with peanut dressing, and Richard had soup. It was really fun and, of course, Richard regaled us with fun stories the entire time. Here we are right after we finished the commentary.
After that, I picked up no packages and came home. I was too full to jog and then I just got busy and forgot all about it – probably best to let my still slightly sore back get completely better. I was so tired I just listened to music, uploaded more fun CDs I found in the main CD closet, way up on a shelf. Two of my favorite old Capitol mono recordings were up there – two Joseph Levine-conducted ballet albums – one with Billy the Kid (Copland), Facsimile (Bernstein) and Fall River Legend (Morton Gould). I had this album when I was a teen and love these performances more than any other, probably because they were my first. The other album has Capitol of the World (George Antheil), Undertow (William Schuman), and The Combat (Raffaello de Banfield) – I especially love the Antheil (he wrote the music for the film The Pride and the Passion, which we issued on Kritzerland). Also listened to the symphonies of Brit Humphrey Searle (he wrote the film music to Robert Wise’s The Haunting) – very atonal stuff, but I enjoyed all five of the symphonies.
All right, you want more damn photos we’ve got more damn photos – these are from Monday night’s performance of The Brain from Planet X. First up, we have the entire company in my signature staging of the title song – I really do like my version of this number and missed it when we did the show in New York and at the Chance. In fact, I’m fond of all the numbers I staged originally – of course, I didn’t do the tap number.
Next up, here’s another shot of the opening number.
Here’s Marc Ginsburg and Lauren Rubin as Fred and Joyce Bunson.
Here’s Sami Staitman and Kole Martin in Good Girl/Bad Girl.
Here’s another shot of them.
Here’s Barry Pearl, Cason Murphy, and Alet Taylor as The Brain, Zubrick, and Yoni.
Seems like yesterday, doesn’t it? Here’s The Brain Tap, with good sport dear reader Mark in the hot seat.
Here’s the finale, complete with my signature streamer sticks.
And here is another video from Sunday’s Kritzerland – this is John Boswell, our amazing musical director, performing Send in the Clowns. As he says in the set-up to this, he’s played so much Sondheim that he sometimes starts playing the wrong accompaniment. Just watch.
And here’s Robert Yacko doing our opening number, Make the Most of Your Music, a really challenging song.
Today, I really must jog, hopefully I’ll pick up some packages, and then a friend and I are going way the HELL out to Newberry Park to see Pippin at a high school – we’ll eat at Islands before the show.
Tomorrow, she of the Evil Eye will be here so no sleeping in for me, then I’ll just catch up on some movie watching. Don’t know what’s happening on Sunday, but I may have to see a show. Next week, as usual, is very busy.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, jog, hopefully pick up packages, sup, and see Pippin. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player and your DVD/Blu and Ray player? I’ll start – CD, many more things to upload. Blu-ray, I couldn’t even begin to tell you – I’ll just pick something fun. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have done such a fun audio commentary.