Well, dear readers, I recently returned from a three-mile walk, and as I write these here notes I am listening to music. I know that is a startling way to begin these here notes, but sometimes being startling right from the get-go or, at the very least, the go-get, gets the adrenaline rushing. I have no idea what the HELL I’m talking about but since when has THAT ever stopped me? Whilst on the walk I began to think about the solo Creature audio commentary and how to structure it, so I now have an idea of how I’ll do that. The one I do with Cindy will be much looser and totally off-the-cuff.
Yesterday, I got eight-and-a-half hours of sleep, arising at around 11:45. I answered e-mails, took note that we only had one contribution yesterday – or maybe it was two – so a big push starting first thing tomorrow morning – some really fun new perks going up, including two Donny and Marie Show scripts of mine in their original Donny and Marie binders that they gave to each guest star – not only the scripts, but the schedules, too. And one of them has a sketch that I wrote in the script and it also has my original typed script stuck in there. I’ll try not to make them too expensive. I also have one or two (can’t remember) original Creature scripts, and one really interesting one, the very first version before any rewrites. We’ll see which I put up. But other fun stuff, as well.
Then I needed to put gas in the motor car. The station I like is the Arco at Ventura and Whitsett in my old Studio City neighborhood – it’s usually thirty cents cheaper than anywhere else. So, I drove over there, and the cars were lined up every which way. It was unbelievable, really. So, I drove on, intending to go to the strip mall where Du-Par’s was for so many years. Well, Ventura was a mess, thanks to some incredibly stupid and entitled drivers who simply pay no attention to anything but their phones or the people in the cars with them and who think they can change lanes at the last minute, cut in front of you, pull out of parking spaces without even checking – it was like dodge ‘em cars. It was then I realized that someone had neglected to inform me that it must have been the official holiday of Studio City – Moron Day. That was the only explanation.
I finally got to the strip mall and turned in. The parking lot was a mess for the same reasons outlined above, involving incredibly stupid drivers who shouldn’t even be allowed to drive a car. All I wanted was to go to the bagel place and get some onion bagels. I lucked out and got a parking space, barely, because the morons on either side of the space had SUVs and were over their lines. The problem with this strip mall now is that Du-Par’s has become a Sephora, and all the little twits of Studio City MUST go there. Where McDonald’s was is now a Mendocino Farms sandwich place, so that was jammed, and of course there’s the Trader Joe’s.
I went in the bagel place. Apparently, they close at three. This was two-thirty. There was not a single bagel in sight because they’d already moved them out of the bins, whatever was left, to the back. I got so irritated, but she went back and got me three onion bagels, which had already been in the refrigerator and were a bit chilly. It then took fifteen minutes to actually get out of the parking lot due to Moron Day being in full swing. Once out, I headed west to Jerry’s Deli to get four slices of lox and some cream cheese. As I pulled to Whitsett I could see there was not a single car at the gas station where they’d recently been lined up for days. So, I got lucky again and was able to turn left and pull right in. I gassed up the motor car and then continued to Jerry’s, where I got the lox and cream cheese. Then I came back home – that was more dodge ‘em cars due to Moron Day. It became laughable after a while.
Once home, I had two bagels, lox, and cream cheese – very good they were. I did some work on the computer, moved two boxes from the trunk of my car to the garage. One was a box of Kritzerland show music – our first seven or eight shows – so, I put that with the other Kritzerland show music, and found a chart I needed. Then I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a horrid little motion picture on Blu and Ray – I don’t even know why I got it, frankly. From Hell it Came was the title, and that title was completely accurate if you’re talking about the actual film. It’s one of those low-budget horror things from the mid-1950s and it’s completely inept in every department – it’s not quite Ed Wood time because it doesn’t reach the glories of Mr. Wood’s nuttiness – no, this is just like watching some junior high school actors giving some of the worst performances ever, terrible direction, terrible photography, a truly laughable “tree monster”, and a really bad score. I think it ran seventy minutes, which was about sixty-nine minutes too long, if you ask me.
Then I ate the last bagel, with the bit of lox and cream cheese that was left. I felt guilty, of course, so I did the three-mile walk. It was actually chilly enough to wear a coat. When I got back, I listened to music, had an e-mail volley about this big five-CD set we’re doing. I’d heard the first three scores – one of which takes up two CDs and sounds great, one score I didn’t know at all that is superb, and then this other score, which I actually could not stand as a listening experience. Most of it is simply source music, a lot of choral stuff, and very little actual film scoring. So, we decided that maybe we’d go down to a four-CD set and just include the score-only tracks from that CD. But then I remembered another score we could use as the fifth disc that would work perfectly with this set – I ran that by him, he liked that idea, and we’re back at five discs but a better set.
Today, I’ll sleep in, then I’ll choose the final song (perhaps a ME song), do the show order, start writing the commentary, start some liner notes, upload some stuff into iTunes, eat, hopefully pick up some packages, and then relax.
Tomorrow, I’ll begin with the big push into our third week of Indiegogo – all the new perks will probably go up tonight so I’m ready to just post about it. My hope is that we had another surge and go up a decent amount the first two days of the week. Then we’ll mosey along, and then the really big countdown push as the campaign comes to and crosses the finish line. I would be so tickled if we actually reached the dream percentage I have in my head. The rest of the week is meetings and meals, seeing a show, and doing whatever else needs doing.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, sleep in, choose the final song, do a show order, write commentary, write liner notes, eat, hopefully pick up some packages, and relax. 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 and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy in the knowledge that I need to stay away from Studio City on their official holiday known as Moron Day.