Well, dear readers, I do believe we need us a big ol’ drum roll right about now because – BIG OL’ DRUM ROLL RIGHT ABOUT NOW – we are at 102%!!! Yes, we are. We are. Yes. And all because you people are amazing! Making the book pre-order part of the campaign definitely got us past 100% and then someone took the Herrmann sheet music and brought us up, too. And we’ve got fifteen days left so we’ve entered our stretch goal to cover the Indiegogo fees and we’re on our way to doing that and we kind of have to succeed in that in order to get the full amount of money. Once we’ve covered the fees, then whatever else we can raise goes toward the commentary tracks and whatever other extras we can afford. I’ll be putting up some new perks today at some point, so check ‘em out. Here’s the handy-dandy link, and I couldn’t be happier about how well we’ve done.
Otherwise, I’m sitting here like so much fish, listening to music after a very long and exhausting day, with so much yakking that I barely have a voice right now. Now playing: Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops playing a commissioned work by Darius Milhaud called A Frenchman in New York, his answer to Gershwin’s An American in Paris. I’d found the Milhaud piece on the Tube of You from vinyl, but I had no idea that it had actually been released on CD in Japan back in 2008. I came upon a copy and snatched it up and just love it, in great RCA stereo sound. Also on the disc is the Pops famous recording of An American in Paris and a bonus track of Peter Nero doing Rhapsody in Blue. A great CD any way you slice it. Prior to that, I listened to Orchestra USA (really a sextet) do the songs of Kurt Weill. I’ve enjoyed other Orchestra USA albums, but this one left me cold, mostly due to arrangements I couldn’t stand. Playing and sound were fine, but I was quite bored because every single track had exactly the same kind of arrangement and layout. Well, they can’t all be winners. Next up, an opera by Italo Montemezzi called L’Amore dei tre re, with Anna Moffo and Placido Domingo. It showed up whilst searching something else and I enjoyed what I heard so I took a chance. Hoping I like it. That will be followed by Prokofiev’s War and Peace, a four-CD set that will take quite some time to get through. I also have Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina here.
Yesterday was quite a day, day-wise. I got eight hours of sleep, got up, answered e-mails and did some work on the computer, then made the new book a perk. At that point, we were still at 97%, I think, but before I left, we’d gone up to 98%. I had to shave so that I didn’t resemble an old Jew, which, of course, I am, but an unshaven face at this age just exacerbates things. Then I moseyed on over to the mail place and picked up some packages. Then the rest of the afternoon was doing stuff for the Kritzerland show and project two aka Revenge, which involved all that yakking and was quite exhausting between the two things. But it was productive and good. And whilst working on those two things, we went up to 99%, then 100% and by early evening had hit 102%, so that made me very happy and dance a jig. I didn’t finish with all stuff until eight and I hadn’t eaten all day, so I needed something fast and easy and went to McDonald’s. It was fast and easy, and I ate it all up, but it wasn’t especially good and I’m feeling kind of yuckilicious right now, if you must know, which you must. The rest you know and you know the rest, not necessarily in that order.
Today, I’ll be up by eleven, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I have a visitor coming to drop something off at noon, then I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, I’ll eat something good, then do more work on the Kritzerland show and project two aka Revenge. And I’ll do a bit of cheerleading so that we can hopefully keep going up on our campaign to cover them damn Indiegogo fees. After all that, I’ll watch, listen, and relax – I’ll have two ballets here, so that will be fun.
Tomorrow is more of the same, then we get ready for Sunday’s Kritzerland 112, a celebration of the unique and wonderful Kurt Weill. We do hope all you dear readers will attend either on Facebook Live or YouTube Live. Monday morning, I get my second vaccine, and then the rest of the week is getting ready for project two aka Revenge, plus lots o’ other stuff.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by eleven, do whatever needs doing, have a visitor drop something off at noon, hopefully pick up packages, do work on the Kritzerland show and project two aka Revenge, cheerlead, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What ballets have you seen live and which were your favorites and which didn’t you care for at all? The only live ballet I’ve seen was a Jerome Robbins evening in New York, which I loved. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, so happy to have crossed the Rubicon and moved to – DRUM ROLL – 102%.