Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, finally having an entire evening to myself, listening to music, and relaxing. I got a show report saying that things went very well, so that was good to hear. I even watched a DGA screener, and now playing is a violin concerto by a Turkish composer from Turkey named Necil Kazim Akses, no relation to Adele Dazeem. Thankfully, the Turkey concerto isn’t a turkey – it’s quite stormy and interesting, but living in a tonal world, which is the world I enjoy living in. Sometimes, however, through no fault of our own, we have atonal things happen, which causes dissonance and serialism, and when there’s too much serialism in life it can lead to acerbic conversations and serial killers, not necessarily in that order. What the HELL am I talking about? These here notes are beginning to be atonal, so let’s switch to the tonal, shall we?
Yesterday was a quite tonal day with absolutely almost no annoyances. I did only get about five hours of sleep due to ABS (Active Brain Syndrome), got up at ten, shaved and got ready for our stumble-through. First, two of our women performers arrived and we ran the duet we added at the last minute – a same-sex version of Baby, It’s Cold Outside. Don’t know if it’s ever been done that way, but it’s really funny. Then everyone else arrived and we began our stumble-through, which went really well, with no fumfered lyrics at all because they all did their What Ifs just seven weeks ago and they all knew their other solos. It’s a really fun show, I think, and we should have a decent crowd.
No one was available for food, so I went to the mail place and picked up some packages, knowing there were at least two that I wasn’t given. They’re so crowded now that they don’t go through the packages for hours, which is very annoying – none of the people causing the crush have boxes there – yet, we who pay every year to have our boxes there, have to wait, not get all our stuff, have mail go into the boxes, sometimes a day late. I suppose there’s nothing to be done about it. I got a Subway Club for lunch and a Spicy Eyetalian six-inch for dinner. I came home, ate the foot-long Subway Club, which was actually very tasty, and then I listened to music for a couple of hours, so many interesting composer discoveries, one of which is Nikolai Tcherepnin – I’m a fan of his son, Alexander Tcherepnin, a wonderful composer, and I had no idea that daddy was a great composer. So, I’ve been grabbing lots of his stuff and it’s all wonderful. Another composer I’ve discovered and really have been enjoying is Janis Ivanovs – wonderful, tonal music – attractive and even a little addicting. At five-thirty, I went back to the mail place – there were an additional four packages, which they’d managed to stuff into the box, so I got those, then came right home.
I ate the six-inch sandwich, which was also very tasty, and then I finally sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, after dozing off for an hour, I watched a DGA screener entitled Parasite, a film from the fellow who did last year’s Okja, a very strange little film. Parasite is a huge hit in Korea and it’s doing okay here – not a smash, but respectable. It’s the kind of film and filmmaker which causes critics to have spasms of ecstasy and proclaim it a masterpiece. I don’t know if it’s a masterpiece, but I certainly enjoyed it – well directed and acted and photographed. It’s a social satire on class differences and it’s a little long for its own good, and it’s occasionally very amusing, and then turns rather horrific by the end, but ultimately in these kinds of films I find it hard to empathize with any of the characters, which is the problem with satire, social or otherwise. But, I can see why it’s resonating for people at this particular moment in time.
After that, I listened to music, got everything ready for the Kritzerland show, had an English muffin with jam, and just relaxed.
Today, I can sleep in, then I’ll just relax and listen to music until it’s time to get shave and shower, and then I’ll mosey on over to Vitello’s for our handy-dandy sound check. Then we do our show, and I’m sure that some of us will go downstairs after and have some food. I know I will. I will, of course, have a full report.
This week is more casting, announcing three new titles (on Monday at midnight, I think), and doing a little more initial prep work on what will hopefully be my twentieth book in 2020. 20 books in 2020 – how often can THAT happen? And then on Friday, we resume performances of The Man Who Came to Dinner, with Barry Pearl back as Banjo.
Let’s all put on our pointy party hats and our colored tights and pantaloons, let’s all break out the ham chunks and cheese slices, let’s all dance the Hora or the fox trot, for today is the birthday of our very own dear reader ChasSmith. So, let’s give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to our very own dear reader Chas Smith. On the count of three: One, two, three – A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO OUR VERY OWN DEAR READER CHASSMITH!!!
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, sleep in, relax and listen to music, have a sound check, do a show, and then sup. 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 I had a day in a fully tonal world.