Well, dear readers, our stumble-through was really fun and fancy free. It wasn’t complete but what was there was cherce. One of our singers, the wonderful Kerry O’Malley called about twenty minutes before our start time – her car had stopped working about five miles from here – just shut down. So, she called the tow company and her husband left the Marina to come get her, so there was no way for her to come to the stumble-through. So, she’ll come a bit early today so she’ll have two runs at her songs. That opener, a new What If got lots o’ laughs, which made me very happy. There are so many highlights in this show and the performers are just terrific. I actually had the least amount of notes for any stumble-through.
I gave what few notes I had, then a few of us went and got a bite to eat. My bite included a side Caesar salad and a Philly cheesesteak sandwich, both excellent. We had fun conversation and then I came right home.
Prior to that I’d gotten nine hours of sleep, got up, answered e-mails, picked up no mail or packages, came back home, did some work on the computer, then relaxed until it was time for our stumble-through to begin.
After the meal, I finalized the commentary and printed it out and got everything ready for the show, put it in the motor car (I have great fear and recurring nightmares about forgetting the commentary, so I always put it in the car the night before. Then I got a bag of crunchy Cheetos for a little snack. Then I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I listened to an SACD of the Scott Joplin opera, Treemonisha. I’ve had the CD since it came out and I’d only listened to it once. The opera has some fun things in it, but it kind of gets old by act two and I lost interest but toughed it out until the end. Sound was very good. And I listened to about ten minutes of the RCA Living Stereo SACD of La Boheme, recorded around 1955, and that sounds, as they all do, amazing. On the opera recordings the band does tend to overpower the singers at times – I think they were figuring it all out and of course in those days there were no stereo record players and it was released in mono. But boy did they know how to record a band. It’s simply breathtaking and the Madame Butterfly SACD is even better. La Boheme stars Anna Moffo.
That ate up most of the evening. Then I had some irritants to deal with and frankly I want them to stop NOW – I have no time for tis stuff, so send excellent vibes and xylophones for no more damn irritants. I did hear that we’re currently at eighty-five for the show, which is really quite full. While you can get another fifteen in there, it’s a little too crowded and they have difficulty getting all the food orders out in time. But, the other part of me wants to be sold out, oh, yes, the other part of me wants to be sold out. There are usually some last-minute bookings so we’ll see if that happens.
Then I relaxed and listened to Johnny Green’s wonderful Raintree County soundtrack.
Today, I’ll do nothing but relax prior to moseying on over to The Federal for sound check and show. I would like to jog but not in this heat and yes, yesterday was another ridiculous humid scorcher. It’s already caused one major fire in Burbank and we’re all ready for this to be over. Then we’ll do our sound check, then the show. Afterwards, some of us will get a bite to eat.
Tomorrow is the film music thing. I’ll head over there around 2:45 for the set up – there are too many people for the size of the patio on which we perform so we have to figure out the logistics. Then the performers arrive and we’ll run through stuff – since the trumpet player has been at exactly no rehearsals we definitely have to run his stuff. Then the attendees arrive around five, there’s some Skype thing with composer Gerald Fried – that takes place in the house but I cannot go in the house due to the cats that reside there and I do have to remember to take my allergy pill before going there. Then people eat and then the concert begins at seven and should run around an hour, at least that’s the hope. Then I’ll go eat with friends, then come home. The rest of the week is meetings and meals and going and doing and doing and going and trying to keep the cloven hoof of negativity at bay – beginning this week that’s going to not be easy but it must be done.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, relax, have a sound check, and do a show, then sup afterwards. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy that our stumble-through was fun and fancy free.