Well, dear readers, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that it is Thursday. Have you ever been out on a limb? If so, which limb? Right now I’m out on my arm but later I’ll be out on my leg. But without further ado, why don’t we just announce our new release, the next in our series of Ben Bagley reissues, this one Kurt Weill Revisited. This was one of the most interesting of the Bagley LPs when it came out because so many of the album’s songs weren’t well known. There are some real gems and the cast includes Ann Miller and Chita Rivera. We’ve helped the sound a bit, as always. But the CD release was one of the few that didn’t have any extra material on it so its running time was relatively short at forty-three minutes. While we could have released it like that, I thought we’d do what we did on the Bernstein Revisited album – add our own bonus material. And so we have – a rare 1930 recording of Lotte Lenya singing the most nightmarish version of Alabama Song you’ll ever hear, and then a 1930 highlights recording of The Threepenny Opera, also with Lenya, sung in German – it’s really good. So now we have a nice seventy-six-minute CD. Here’s the great Harvey Schmidt cover.
Yesterday, was a fine little day. I got a bit over eight hours of sleep because the alarm didn’t go off, which was fine. Once up, I answered e-mails and then I had the work session for the Kritzerland show, which went smoothly and quickly. After that, I picked up some packages, did some banking, then came home. Then I made some food, doing my faux stroganoff, this time with cube steak rather than chicken – it was good but not AS good as with chicken. I ate it all up, and then I began doing another quick once-over of the latest galley. That took several hours and of course I found another four hyphens that should be em dashes, truly annoying, and I found one little thing that was off by a space so we’ll hopefully enter those five changes today and be done with it.
After that, I had several long telephonic conversations, sat on my couch like so much fish but couldn’t get Netflix to work, and then I listened to music and got everything ready for our new release announcement. I had some pretzels and Swedish fish for snacks and if I did other things I have no memory of them. Now I’m going to go out on one of my limbs and say that I am done writing about yesterday and shall move on today.
Today, I’ll be up by ten, I have to run out and do some stuff, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, I’ll hopefully go enter these additional five fixes before two or after five because from two to five I have a coaching session, this one with dear reader Leslie’s Alexa. Alby Potts will be with us to play the piano. After that, I’ll go eat something light but fun, then relax, watch something, and relax some more.
Tomorrow I have a meeting at some point, so that will happen, and I’m hoping we can get the book on its merry way to the publisher. Saturday something is happening around three o’clock and hopefully I’ll remember what it is prior to three o’clock, and then I’m going to see a play that evening. Sunday I may see a matinee of another play. Then we begin a very busy Kritzerland rehearsal week and we’re also doing brush-up rehearsals for the musical revue and I have two new numbers to do some staging for. Then we have sound check and show, followed by more rehearsals for the revue, the Nick Redman memorial, and then the revue the following night. So, it will be a little crazy for the next two weeks.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do stuff, hopefully pick up some packages, enter five fixes, have a three-hour coaching session, eat, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite works of Mr. Kurt Weill? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have gone out on a limb to inform everyone that it is Thursday.