Well, dear readers, Tonight’s the Night premiered last night when last night was the night and I thought it all went very well. I discovered a few things, like it doesn’t show up on the YouTube channel until ten minutes before airing. So, for tomorrow night’s performance and Sunday’s performance, I’ll give the direct link to it, which we get from the service that actually schedules the Kritzerland stuff. For a while it looked like attendance would be sparse, but by the time it began we had over seventy people and that went up to over eight shortly thereafter. Thankfully, my little introduction runs a couple of minutes, so they hopefully didn’t miss anything. The hard part of this is the same as the hard part of the Kritzerland shows – no audience response. There are a lot of laughs in the script and I just hope people laugh at home, but, of course, the point is we don’t hear it. I didn’t want to give too much away, and I still won’t for those who haven’t seen it, but I was very forthright about all of it at our cast partay. So, if anyone who watches subsequently has any questions, I’ll be happy to answer them. Interestingly, the video and sound glitched a bit in the first ten minutes on Safari, whereas Chrome was completely glitch free. But on chrome, the last five seconds of the song were cut off because we’re not leaving the video up, whereas on Safari it played right to the end. And anyone who watched on their TV had no issues at all. I was very proud of it all. The cast partay had over twenty people, I think, including dear readers KevinH, George, ChasSmith, Singdaw, JohnG, Ginny, Vixmom, and Jrand – my brain is fried right now, in case I’m missing anyone. People asked lots of fun questions and Doug handled all the muting stuff very well. If you wouldn’t mind, for those who did see it, please post your thoughts about it on my personal Facebook pages. No one has posted there because I think they think that because I’m blocked that the page is, but that’s not the case at all. And if you enjoyed it, please tell your friends and keep spreading the word. It was a fun night all around and now we do our Friday and Sunday performances.
Yesterday, I only got six hours of sleep because I was just tossing and turning for two hours and finally got up and didn’t really fall asleep until six. I got up at noon, answered e-mails, was happy to see that you dear readers had posted to various groups, and then I went and picked up a couple of packages, stopped at McDonald’s for food, came home, ate said food, which was okay, and then I relaxed for a bit before shaving and showering and getting ready for our show and after party. Then you know all about the show and party.
After the party ended (it lasted about an hour), I thought I deserved a food treat, so I ordered a couple of slices of pepperoni pizza via Grubhub, and those arrived about forty minutes later. Whilst waiting, I watched the first forty minutes of the new Criterion Blu and Ray entitled The Parallax View, starring Warren Beatty, William Daniels, Hume Cronyn, Walter McGinn, and Paula Prentiss. I first saw it at a sneak preview at the Village Theater. I loved it, but the audience was kind of so-so on it, and when it opened a month later, I don’t think it did all that well. None of the home video releases did the film any favors, especially Gordon Willis’s photography. The contrast was milky, the color was a bit brownish. The film is well-directed by Alan J. Pakula but has some weird tonal shifts that don’t kill it but don’t help it either. Part of that is the screenplay. But 90% of it still works very well.
I took a break and ate the pizza, then went back and finished the movie. I’m happy to say that the transfer is spectacular, and Willis’s occasionally very dark photography is wonderfully replicated, and the color is absolutely perfect and gorgeous. The bright scenes are mind-bogglingly sharp and wonderful. I really enjoyed seeing it again. Not many extras but they’re fine and I don’t care about that stuff anyway.
After that, it was time to write these here notes, which, in case you haven’t noticed, is what I’ve been doing, don’t you know?
Today, I’ll definitely be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll finalize the Kritzerland show, I’ll get ready for some auditions for project two, which begins casting tomorrow, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, and then I’m having a celebratory meal with Marshall Harvey around four, after which I’ll come home and watch, listen, and relax. I have a code to stream Ma Rainey’s and I hear it’s good.
Tomorrow, we begin casting project two and I think tomorrow’s stuff is all self-tapes for me to watch. So, that will take up some time, and then we have our second performance of Tonight’s the Night, which I’m looking forward to. Saturday, she of the Evil Eye comes so I’ll go somewhere and actually be able to sit and have a light breakfast, then at two we’re doing auditions on Zoom. Don’t know how many yet. Sunday is not much and then we have our final performance of Tonight’s the Night. Once I’m back on Facebook, which should be Friday, I’ll be posting up a storm and tagging everyone and their mother.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up when I’m up, do whatever needs doing, finalize the Kritzerland show, get ready for Friday’s auditions, hopefully pick up some packages, have a celebratory meal, then I’ll watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite paranoid thriller-type films from the 1970s and 1980s? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy that the premiere was pretty well attended and that people seemed to enjoy it.