Well, dear readers, we had a pretty good day yesterday, Indiegogo-wise and jumped from 68% to 74%, my kind of day. One more measly percent and we’ll only be 25% from our goal. I put up several new perks yesterday and two or three went instantly and we also sold out of the signed me musical quotes, five of them. That was dear reader Michael Shayne’s idea and it turned out to be a good one. If anyone else would like one just let me know and I can put up a few more. The best thing up right now, value-wise and any otherwise-wise, is the original cel from Miyazaki’s Kiki’s Delivery Service. This is a cel used in the making of the film, not some limited-edition thing that was done after the fact. As I said, on eBay cels are going for over two thousand bucks at the bottom end to over six thousand at the top end and I’m here to tell you they aren’t the equal of the one I have up, which is fantastic and features a great image of Kiki and her cat, JoJo. I’ve priced it at less than 50% of the lowest eBay rate. Anyway, do check out the latest perks if you haven’t and hopefully we’ll continue rising steadily each day – hoping to get to 80%. Here’s the handy-dandy link.
Otherwise, as I write these here notes I am sitting here like so much fish listening to a lovely violin concerto on the Tube of You by someone named Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari. I’ve known a few wolfs in Ferraris but never an Ermanno. Turns out this guy is a tuneful and excellent composer and has several operas to his credit, which I’ll now have to explore. Also, I listened to some opera by Franz von Suppe and liked what I heard, so I’ll be checking some of that out on the Tube of You, too. Prior to that, I listened to Barbara Carroll and her trio play music from What Makes Sammy Run and Hello, Dolly!, with fun orchestrations from Glenn Osser. It’s kind of a hybrid jazz/easy listening thing and I love those. This was on Warner Bros. circa 1964 in that amazing Warner Bros. stereo and this Japanese import CD sounds incredible. That’s been pretty much my evening, other than relaxing because I have a busy day tomorrow.
Yesterday wasn’t a bad day at all. I got a little under eight hours of sleep, got up, answered e-mails, did some work on the computer, then I spent time finessing the Kritzerland show commentary and I now have all the videos for the show, so that’s a load off. Then I moseyed on over to the mail place and picked up one package and came right back home. It contained an Offenbach operetta called Maitre Peronilla, so I listened to that right after food arrived. I’d pre-ordered Chinese food from a local jernt called California Wok – they left a thing in the mailbox, so I decided to give it a go. I ordered orange chicken (extra crispy) and cashew chicken. Both were a bit bland, flavor-wise, but not bad at all and I ate almost both of each dish – I’d ordered the “small” portion. I figured it was really like eating one dish for lunch and one for dinner. I’m actually still kind of full from it and have eaten nothing else since and I see no reason to keep it that way.
The Offenbach was a nice puff pastry operetta and I enjoyed it because why not? And now playing is Wolf-Ferrari’s opera Il Segreto di Susanna, which I’m really enjoying very much. Renata Scotto stars. I’ll probably seek out the CD. After the Chinse food and Offenbach were done, I sat on my couch like so much full fish.
Last night, I watched a motion picture DGA screener entitled Borat Subsequent Moviefilm. I turned off the first Borat movie because I couldn’t stand him or the entire idea of it. I expected nothing more from this one, but it’s gotten such good notices and some awards, so I thought I’d give it a go. I still can’t stand him, and I still hate this kind of humor, but I did chuckle a few times mostly because the actress who plays his daughter is a real find – Maria Bakalova – she’s really excellent and very funny and almost carries the film and allows the film to not seem so disgusting as it mostly is. That said, her Oscar nomination is a puzzler because the young girl from News of the World really should have been up for supporting actress. But thanks to Maria Bakalova I stuck it out to the end.
After that, I began the listening adventure and the rest you know and you know the rest.
Today, I’ll be up by eleven-thirty, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll have a busy couple of hours or work, then I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, then have my Chinese chicken salad from Stanley’s, which has already been ordered thanks to two 40% off coupons from Uber Eats. After that, I’ll find something to watch, even if it’s on Amazon Prime, where I have quite a few things “saved.” Then I’ll listen and relax.
Tomorrow is more of the same sans the busy afternoon. Then this coming week is all Kritzerland show stuff and project two aka project two stuff – it will be a VERY busy week, and then we have our Kritzerland show and the morning after that I get my second vaccine shot.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by eleven-thirty, do whatever needs doing, have a busy couple of hours of work, hopefully pick up packages, have my Chinese chicken salad, watch something, then listen and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What is your opinion about all this “outrage” over books and films and musicals that young people now think are problematic and want to go away? I know how I feel. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy we jumped from 68% to 74% – my kind of day.