Well, dear readers, we are in our final puuuuush day and once the Indigogo campaign closes there will be no more puuuuuushing. So, let me get puuuuuushy and say we must puuuush much further than we are. Now is the time for all good people to come to the aid of their Levi. Now is the time to go for the gusto, to grab the brass ring, to take a big-boy perk, to get great art or signed things – yes, now is the time and after this time there will be no more time, Indiegogo-wise. I know some like to wait until the last possible second, and that’s fine, but meanwhile let’s notch it up some more. We did go up to 112% and we did cover the fees, so that’s good. But our budget is so tight that we really need to get as much as we can, and in the getting it would be wonderful to fund a cast album. We can DO this, but time is running out and out is running time, so there’s that and there’s this and I only know that I must be relentlessly relentless in puuuuushing us ever onward.
Yesterday was a fine little day, I suppose. I finally got something approximating eight hours of sleep, got up, did the usual morning stuff, had telephonic calls, then went and had a chicken Caesar salad, which I’m beginning to think I like better sans chicken. In fact, I think I prefer the side Caesar with something else. After that I went directly to meet with Grant, after which I picked up no packages or mail and came home. Once home, I got absolutely nothing done on the commentary but I did add one song to the show.
Then I moseyed on over to LACC for our first staging rehearsal. We spent the first half-hour not staging at all, but having a designer presentation. First was our wonderful set designer Tesshi Nakagawa – everyone was suitably impressed with his impressive suitable set. The our lighting designer did his presentation – I’ve never actually seen a lighting designer do such a thing, but he had a power point thing and it was fun. I then introduced everyone to Kay Cole, Lanny Meyers, and our Levi star, Marc Ginsburg. Then we got everyone on their feet, they sang through the long opening sequence once, and then Kay and I began beating out the opening. Of course the impossible part is we don’t have our two big moving stair units, which are integral to the staging, so we have photos of how their positioned for every scene and we just have to approximate where they are and how they function, which is not easy but that’s what we have to do until they actually build them – I’m trying to have that done sooner than later. We got through part one of the song pretty quickly and I’m sure there will be adjustments once we get the moving units, but we did a pretty good job of it. We did parts two and three, and then part four – it’s a very long but powerful opening sequence with almost the entire company. It was fun for the cast to put movement with the song – not exactly choreography, but just moving together or doing hand stuff – but more moving people around, which will look even better when we’re also moving the moving units. Normally I would probably have gotten through it and the scene that follows it, but we did lose the first thirty minutes, so we just finished it all up and ran it several times, which was the best use of our time. And frankly I didn’t feel like starting the scene that follows because it, too, is complicated and not the smoothest writing in the show. I’ve already cut it down considerably, but I intend to shorten it further and just make its two important points and then get on with the story.
After we finished, I attempted to come right home but there was a cop car in front of and to the side of me on the freeway. I kept pace with him but didn’t pass him, nor was I going any faster than anyone else and my eyes were locked on the speedometer and I was going just under sixty-five. And yet on came his lights, he got behind me, made me get off the freeway, barking orders at me as if I were some thief or murder suspect – I did exactly as he said but you could still hear him barking his crap. I pulled off the freeway, stopped, turned off the motor and unconnected my seat belt – I was barked at to keep my hands on the wheel. I mean, just stop, really. He came to the window and asked me to open it, and I did. Then with a whole cartful of attitude asked me if I knew the speed limit. I said I believed it was sixty-five. He said no, it was fifty-five and how could I, a native of LA not know that THIS stretch of the 101 has always been fifty-five. Frankly,they’ve changed the speed limit so many times who can keep track? He kept going on about how could I not see the posted signs – I kept trying to say that it never occurred to me to look at signs I’ve passed every day, and that I was also not going any faster than anyone else, to which he replied he was pulling me over and not everyone else. Fair enough. But I just cooperated, said I understood, and he kept telling me he could take my license away right there (no, he could not) and that he just wants me to be aware and get home safely. Then he gave me my license back and let me go sans ticket. I honestly think he was just needing to vent on someone or show his power, but it was very off-putting. But grateful for no ticket.
I stopped at Gelson’s and got some stuff for my evening snack and then came home. I checked on our Indiegogo campaign, then answered a plethora of e-mails, got the audio samples done for our new release, which will be announced on Wednesday as the clock strikes midnight or as midnight strikes the clock, whichever occurs first. I got not an iota of relaxation in.
Today, I’ll be up no later than ten, I’ll eat, I’ll hopefully pick up important mail, I’ll maybe see Grant, I’ll begin the commentary in earnest and try to get half done, then it’s our second day of staging. We’ll review and then move to the next scene, get that done, and then things get a bit easier after that for a while. I’m still hopeful of finishing the blocking by next Monday. When I get home, I’ll try to finish the commentary.
Tomorrow we have a Robert Yacko rehearsal, and then more staging, Thursday is another Robert Yacko rehearsal and more staging, and Friday we work longer, about five or six hours, I think. Saturday we rehearse from ten to three, and Sunday is a day of rest. Then things really get crazy, with Kritzerland and things you can’t even begin to imagine, which I’ll probably tell you about tomorrow.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, hopefully pick up important mail, eat, see Grant, write commentary, rehearse, and come home and finish writing the commentary. Today’s topic of discussion: Favorite finger foods. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, hoping we can get some strong action as we enter the last day of the Indiegogo campaign.