Well, dear readers, in an unusual turn of events I’m writing these here notes. The unusual turn of events occurred when the events turned right instead of left and threw the entire time space continuum out of whack. I gotta tell you. In any case, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to Fred Karlin’s marvelous score to a motion picture entitled Up the Down Staircase, which has astonishingly still never made it to CD. Back when that film came out, the score sounded so fresh and heralded a great new voice in film scoring. I made a vinyl transfer years ago and that is what I’m playing now, but unfortunately UA pressings of that era were terrible and there’s so much awful inner groove distortion and it was a like new copy. Which is why I scratch my head with these vinyl trendies. But the music still sounds as fresh today as it did back then. I do love that motion picture.
I pulled out all these homegrown CDs because I went rummaging for my vinyl transfer of Yanks, which thankfully was right at the top of the pile in the box. Finding the box took thirty minutes, however. I brought in about thirty of these and have been enjoying them. I have lots of rare stuff, a lot of cover versions of Broadway musicals, some great movie theme albums and even the Maguire Sisters singing Subways are for Sleeping and the Dave Grusin Trio PLAYING Subways are for Sleeping.
Yesterday wasn’t an unpleasant day. I got six-and-a-half hours of sleep, got up, did the usual morning things, and then I got ready and moseyed on over to the Hills of Beverly for a lunch meeting at Nate ‘N’ Al’s. Usually, I park on Beverly Drive just north of Santa Monica Blvd. so that it’s only a short walk from there. But naturally Bevery Hills was having an art show right on that corner so all the streets just north of Santa Monica Blvd. were closed. Thankfully, there was plenty of parking on the street that runs east and west a block up, so I parked there and walked to the restaurant. It was jammed – beyond jammed. It was a thirty-minute wait, but I think I was just annoying enough that we got seated in twenty. They really were not prepared for how many people were there. I’ve been there not too long ago and there was nobody there. Go know. I mean, in the twenty minutes we were waiting, about forty people came in and put their name on the wait list, which was at that point about forty minutes. There are a zillion other food choices within a two-block radius, but noooooo, they all HAVE to come to Nate ‘N’ Al’s.
I’ve not liked the pastrami the last few times I’ve been there, so I ordered the Beverly – roast beef, cole slaw, and Russian dressing. It was really good. I was with sixteen-year-old Oliviana Marie and her mum, Evelyn Halus. Oliviana has been writing a musical, so we talked about that and other stuff – they’d sent me a song she’d written, and it was actually pretty good. She’s like a female me when I was that age. She wants to perform, write, do it all. And I say, go for it if you’ve got that amount of passion.
They went off to an ASCAP workshop at the Annenberg, and I perused some of the booths at the art show. When these what they now call pop-up art shows began about thirty years ago, you could find wonderful original art at very reasonable prices. Now it’s all numbered prints and giclees – very little original stuff and what there is is so overpriced it’s not even funny. I don’t think many people were buying, frankly.
I then came back to the Valley, stopped and picked up a package at the mail place, then came right home. I found the Yanks CD and brought it and all the others in and began getting them into iTunes and listening. At some point, I went to Gelson’s and got a baked potato, came home, and made that for my evening food – a little sour cream, too much butter, and some scallions perked it up pretty good. The roast beef sandwich wasn’t that bad, calorie-wise, so hopefully overall I didn’t go past 1400 calories.
Then I listened to more music and almost finished the Group Rep commentary – only four more songs to go and three of those are cut and paste jobs. So, it’s great to both sets of commentaries out of the way. I had a telephonic conversation and that was about it.
Today, I’ll try to get eight hours of sleep, then I’ll do the usual morning stuff, I’ll go eat at that food court, I’m thinking, hopefully pick up packages and an important envelope that’s late, then we have our first Group Rep rehearsal. It’s not as long as I thought it was, so that’s nice – under three hours.
The rest of the week is meetings and meals, a dinner with David Wechter tomorrow or Wednesday, our second Group Rep rehearsal, a work session for the Kritzerland show, and then maybe I can relax a bit because then we go right into our Kritzerland rehearsal week.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, try to get eight hours of sleep, I must eat, I must hopefully pick up packages and an important envelope, I must rehearse, and then relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite movies in which school plays an important role? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where, in an unusual turn of events, I might just get eight hours of sleep.