Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to one of my favorite film scores, which I finally have a copy of in excellent sound and which I can’t mention since I’m trying to actually issue it, slow going as that may be. I can only say that it is achingly beautiful. I, on the other hand, am not achingly beautiful, but that’s another story for another day. I had to put the air on because in the San Fernando Valley today it was 105 degrees. Yeah, that’s real normal weather. Uh huh. Sure, but that’s another story for another day, or perhaps it’s another day for another story.
Yesterday was a day like any other – people come, people go, like Grand Hotel. I got about seven hours of sleep, arising at ten-thirty. Once up, I answered e-mails, did some work at the piano and on the computer, then shaved and showered. I texted Grant to see if he wanted to go to the bookstore with me and he did. He came by about thirty minutes later and off we went, with him driving. This bookstore, which used to be in West LA, is located just north of Airdrome on La Cienega. Readers of the Kritzer books will know instantly that that was five blocks from my house and Airdrome is the street that Benjamin walked when going to school and was the street that Susan Pomeroy lived just to the north of. I’m not sure what used to be where this is – the Company Theater had a building, but I think it was two doors to the south.
It was a bit disappointing, I must say. The owner always has really interesting stuff at the paperback show and it’s really fun to peruse it. The store is very haphazardly laid out, none of the fun stuff is in evidence. But I like the owner and we had a nice chat. He has events there almost every night and it’s quite popular with the populace, so we’re definitely going to do a signing there, most likely in October, and with an emphasis on the Kritzer books, since I can be really specific about the neighborhood, then and now, but all the books, which are all LA-centric. Still, it was nice to go into an actual old-fashioned neighborhood used bookstore, especially in the neighborhood in which I grew up.
We were only there about thirty minutes, then we headed back to the Valley and went to Marie Callendar’s for lunch. We both had the burger/pie special – I had my usual bacon cheeseburger and a small salad, and for the pie, it was custard. I was quite full afterwards and it was very good.
Then I came home, did some more work on the computer, got the notes and tray card info for two releases to Doug Haverty, after proofing and adding italics to titles, and then I finally sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a motion picture on Blu and Ray entitled A Taste of Honey, starring Dora Bryan, Rita Tushingham and Murry Melvin. I’d only ever seen the first fifteen minutes, so it was fun to finally see it all. It’s quite a good film – Tony Richardson was the director – and it’s a very affecting piece. The actors are tops. Shelagh Delaney wrote the play when she was nineteen, it played London first (with Murray Melvin creating his role there), and then it played Broadway with Miss Angela Lansbury and Joan Plowright. They toured it, too, and it played here at the Biltmore Theater and I’m sorry I missed it and so many other shows I should have seen down there. But downtown was a real trek for me. So, the only three shows I saw at that theater were The Unsinkable Molly Brown, Oh Dad, Poor Dad, and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. Too bad I missed Gypsy, with Ethel Merman. Yep. Anyway, I was very taken with A Taste of Honey – it’s on Criterion and sports a beautiful transfer.
After that, I was sent the soundtrack I referenced in the first paragraph, and I listened to it three times straight through. I had no further food, which was good because I forgot to mention the french fries. Oops (spoo, spelled backwards).
Today, I can sleep in as late as I so choose, then I’ll hopefully pick up a package I know is arriving today, I’ll eat something, and then I’m sitting in on new member auditions at the Group Rep, to see if there will be any candidates for The Man Who Came to Dinner. I suppose there’s a chance we’ll go out for a snack afterwards.
Tomorrow, we begin organizing everything for the shipping of the perks – I have to order boxes and stuff, so nothing will actually ship before Tuesday. I’m hoping that over the week everything that needs to go out will go out – if not, it may slide into the following week, but we also should have Henry King at Fox by that time, so I’d prefer to be done with the perks before that. I have some writing to do, and then the rest of the week is meetings and meals, moving the DVD production of The Creature along and getting that packaging to the printers, hopefully by Tuesday or thereabouts, and also having our final day of auditions for Group Rep members, and then callbacks. Then we’ll see where we are and if we have to have outside auditions. The problem with this particular show slot is that a lot of their members go out of town for the holidays are have other work that actually pays.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, sleep in, hopefully pick up packages, eat, attend auditions, and then 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 to have visited an actual old-fashioned neighborhood bookstore.