Well, dear readers, here I sit like so much fish, listening to music, having just taken a nice hot shower. I ask you, where else on all the Internet can you read such up to the date news? Nowhere, that’s where. But what does all that have to do with the price of tomatoes, cucumbers, or even schnitzel? Did you know, for example, that potatoes are cheaper, tomatoes are cheaper, now’s the time to fall in love? I do because Eddie Cantor told me. That was a big hit song for him. Written by a gentleman named Al Sherman. Al Sherman had two sons and he encouraged them to be songwriters and they took his advice and the rest is history. What am I, the Sherman Brothers all of a sudden?
Yesterday was a perfectly okay day in certain ways, lovely in other ways, and not TOO irritating. I was up at nine-thirty and out the door an hour later to go visit our very own Mr. Nick Redman. I was twenty minutes on the transition to the 405 freeway, which really should take all of fifteen seconds. The traffic was disgusting all the way to Wilshire Blvd. at which point there was no traffic at all. A lot of good that did ME, since I got off the freeway at Wilshire. Then one had to travel literally two blocks from the ocean, and the moron drivers on Wilshire that entire way were beyond repair. It’s fascinating to know just how many morons drive motor cars. At one point I shouted to the winds, “There are twenty morons in front of me driving their motor cars.” The winds had no response. Anyway, I finally arrived one hour after I’d begun driving – should have been a twenty-minute drive. Go know.
It was lovely to see Nick since our last visit a few weeks ago. He’s going through various and sundried treatments for his health issues and his attitude is one of positivity, which is the best option always. We had a nice chat, laughed, railed on against stupidity in some Blu-ray board quarters, talked about various releases. I brought him all the latest Kritzerland titles and he gave me the last three months’ worth of Twilight Time titles, so I have a lot of good viewing coming up, including the Tom Sawyer/Huckleberry Finn Blu-ray on which I do a commentary track with Al Sherman’s boy, Richard. There are three things that were edited out because of MGM/UA’s attorneys – completely ridiculous things that were so innocuous it would shock you to know what they were and what their reasons were. It was really only about two minutes of stuff, maybe even ninety seconds, but still – simply ridiculous. I was there for just under two hours then had to head back to the Valley to grab a quick bite before the work session with Robert Yacko and Alby Potts. Thankfully, the traffic coming back to the Valley was easy/breezy – I made it to Jerry’s Deli in about thirty minutes. Once there, I had some chicken tenders and a side Caesar salad, both excellent. In the booth in back of me – Jon Voight.
Then I came right home and we had a two-hour work session on Robert’s cabaret act. We sang through mostly everything, I made a suggestion regarding an early medley that Robert really liked, and we finalized some arrangements that weren’t quite complete. So, today we should be able to go through the show in order and see how it feels, with just rough approximations of the patter. After that, I answered e-mails, including one where I had to get a little snippy in response to the author’s snippiness. My snippiness took him aback. I asked him why his was okay and mine wasn’t. He had no answer. Then I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a couple more episodes of the Hitchcock Hour. The first one was entitled Forecast: Low Clouds and Coastal Fog, and starred Inger Stevens, Dan O’Herlihy, Chris Robinson, Peter Brown, and Richard Jaeckel. It was directed by Charles Haas, who doesn’t really have much of interest among his credits – just a standard issue TV director, but this was very well done, generated some good suspense, and I enjoyed it. Then I tried to watch an episode called A Tangled Web starring Robert Redford and Zohra Lampert, but it was so bad (naturally directed by Alf Kjellin) that I shut it off and moved to the next episode, called To Catch a Butterfly. Now HERE was an episode, a classic Bad Seed kind of story, superbly told. Well directed by David Lowell Rich, and featuring a terrific cast including Bradford Dillman, Diana Hyland, Ed Asner, and a kid named Mickey Sholdar, it’s the kind of movie or show they simply could not make today – not in our oh so PC climate. This kid is EVIL – he does very bad things. And up until the ending, where they try to have it all ways and have an emotional ending of hope, which I wished they hadn’t done, it really was a nail-biter and just great. It’s right up there with the best of the series.
Then I had a cheese sandwich for my evening snack, did some work on the computer, listened to some music, took the shower, and relaxed.
Today, I’ll be up by ten or so, I’ll work on casting the rest of the folks for the anniversary show, I’ll enter Levi fixes into the new script master, I’ll go have a bite to eat, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, then we have a two-hour work session, and then I’ll work on other stuff until I finally sit on my couch like so much fish.
Tomorrow is more of the same and so is Friday and Friday evening we resume performances of Dial ‘M’ for Murder – our final three. I’ll be there for the Saturday and Sunday performances and then maybe a few of us will go celebrate after the matinee.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, cast, eat, hopefully pick up packages, have a work session, 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 answers 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 that because potatoes are cheaper, tomatoes are cheaper, now’s the time to fall in love.