Well, dear readers, do you see what I see? And what exactly do I see? Well, I’ll tell you what I see – I see that it is a little month that I like to call September, and may I just say that it is my fervent hope and prayer that September will be a month filled with health, wealth, happiness, creativity, and all things bright and beautiful. Frankly I, for one, am happy the crazy month of August, which was, in many ways, a truly challenging month, is over and done with. August, we bid you farewell, and not a fond one, and I cannot say that I will give August another thought, although I guess I have to since these here notes are going to talk about the last day of August.
The last day of August was actually very pleasant and hopefully a harbinger of a better September. I got about seven-and-a-half hours of sleep, got up, answered e-mails and did the morning stuff, and then I headed over to the Group Rep for my back-to-back meetings. First up was my sound designer, and we discussed how best to mic the show – only two lavs and the rest hanging condenser mics. Then we’ll hear what that sounds like and if we like it, great, and if it’s not sufficient for our needs then we’ll rent a few more mics.
Then Tesshi Nakagawa arrived. He did the great sets for Li’l Abner, L.A. Now and Then, and Levi. He showed us some different ideas all based around a very simple design concept. We chose the one I thought would work best in terms of the flow I want, and I think it will work well. There won’t be any real sets, just a lot of stuff that moves around and makes different things and different areas to represent the three locations the show has – oh, four locations. Oh – five locations. Then I stopped at the mail place and picked up one teeny-tiny package and one important envelope, then came home. The Darling Daughter arrived twenty minutes later.
She brought me her best friend’s copy of Thrill Ride to sign, a book she absolutely loved (the daughter – the friend hasn’t finished yet) and I gave her two copies of GEE, one for her and one for her friend. Then we moseyed on over to Barone’s, a restaurant that back in the family years we used to go to a lot. Of course we had to have the square pizza – half pepperoni, half cheese (she’s not eating meat these days). It was great – I had four of the smallish slices, the equivalent of about two-and-a-half pieces of normal-sized pizza. We both had a dinner salad. We had lots of fun conversation, and this idea I had that I thought would be amusing on some level looks like it’s going to happen, although it’s a bit of a trek for me. Next Friday is September 7, which, had I stayed married, would make this our fiftieth anniversary. So, we’re all meeting in Newport Beach – the Darling Daughter, the ex-wife, and myself, for dinner. Why not?
Then she left, and I did some work on the computer. I read through the Kritzerland commentary, made some adjustments, and that’s now ready to go. I had some telephonic calls, but mostly I rested my voice by sitting on the couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched two motion pictures on the Flix of Net. The first was a Bollywood revenge thriller called Mom. I don’t know why every Bollywood film has to be well over two hours – it’s their thing I guess, but at two hours and fifteen minutes (one of the shorter ones) it overstayed its welcome by quite a bit. I could go into an editing room and get it down to ninety minutes so easily and it would play so much better. I gather the actors in it, especially the leading lady, are very well known stars in India – in fact, the leading lady is perhaps the biggest Indian star – or was – she died right after making this film, drowning in her bathtub, ruled accidental death. They suspect she may have dozed off and slid under the water – sounds rather odd to me, personally. There was quite a bit of hysterical playing of scenes, but it was supposed to be filled with angst so I guess it was appropriate.
Then I watched another motion picture, this one entitled Prodigy, a low-budget I don’t know what – about a young girl with supernatural powers who’s very dangerous, and who is being kept in a secret facility under restraints and who, if a new psychologist isn’t successful at breaking through the kid’s super intellect, will be killed and autopsied and studied. This movie was quite inane, basically a two-hander between the girl and the psychologist. She does get to move stuff around, the dialogue is risible, the acting is strictly from Equity waiver land (although there was some pretty good acting in that land, actually – not this, though), and the worst performance, completely a shmacting performance from start to finish was given by a gentleman who only recently decided to go into acting – prior to that he was a brilliant jazz pianist and you can hear him on all the albums I did with Grant Geissman. Go know. The leading lady was dressed and groomed and presented just like Robin Wright from House of Cards – that must have been the “type” they wanted. The little girl was fine. And it was only about seventy-five minutes, sans end titles. Interestingly, not one publication reviewed it – just the usual punk-run film geek websites where you’d never want to read a review.
Then I listened to some music and that was that.
Today, I will do a little banking in the morning, hopefully I’ll pick up some packages and maybe another important envelope, and then I just have to shut my trap until it’s time for our stumble-through, which isn’t until four, although a couple of people are getting here early to run stuff, including Peyton, so we can run our little duet. After the stumble-through some of us will undoubtedly grab a bite to eat. Then I relax all evening and rest my voice.
Tomorrow, I will hopefully arise after a good night’s beauty sleep, then I’ll relax and rest my voice until it’s time to mosey on over to Vitello’s, our new home, and do sound check and then we do our show, our eighth anniversary show. I will, of course, have a full report. And I’m sure some of us will eat afterwards, although where will be the question. This week is tremendously busy – planning and casting the next Kritzerland, having a little read-through of something that a friend in involved with, meetings and meals, some cast are coming to set keys, and then I may have that amusing faux anniversary dinner.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, bank, hopefully pick up packages and hopefully another important envelope, rest and relax, have a stumble-through, eat, and then rest and relax some more. Today’s topic of discussion: What is the best pizza you’ve ever eaten, the most exotic, the worst? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy I see what I see – a little month I like to call September – and it is my fervent hope and prayer that September will be a month filled with health, wealth, happiness, creativity, and all things bright and beautiful.