Well, dear readers, we had us a very fun stumble-through of the Kritzerland eleventh anniversary show. There wasn’t much stumbling, either – just a few lyric fumfers – and I had almost no notes. I never know how the show will play (other than guessing) until I see the stumble-through. My track record is pretty good, though – I think in 115 shows I’ve switched up the show order maybe two or three times and that was just flipping one song with another. What I hadn’t realized about this show was just how funny it was. The stumble-throughs are always great for us, because it IS just for us – no pressure, we’re all supportive – and therefore we just all have a really good time no matter what happens. So, that was a very entertaining afternoon. Robert Yacko brought cupcakes because Kerry O’Malley just had a birthday. So, lots o’ cupcakes were consumed, although none by the likes of me. Otherwise, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to music, specifically Bernard Herrmann’s masterpiece of a film score for Fahrenheit 451. For me, it’s one of my two favorite Herrmann scores – North by Northwest being the other – two perfect scores that function perfectly in the films for which they were composed. But Herrmann was a favorite from the moment I saw The Man Who Knew Too Much in 1956. That was cemented two years later when I saw The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, and then North by Northwest solidified in my mind that Mr. Herrmann was one of the greatest film composers ever. And I was surprised and delighted that he was a frequent composer for The Twilight Zone. Of course, the same year as The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad I’d also loved his score for Vertigo. And still to come were some of his greats – Psycho, Marnie, Fahrenheit, and then his final two scores, both of which showed he was still at the top of his game – Obsession and Taxi Driver. Prior to my listening, I’d watched a motion picture on Blu and Ray entitled Judex, a movie I really like a lot, from the director of Eyes Without a Face, Georges Franju. The feel of his films is like no other director. And the music by Maurice Jarre, a composer I’ve never really loved, is just so weird and somehow so right in Franju films. Plus, it has the wonderful Edith Scob in it. I hadn’t watched the Blu-ray since 2014 when it came out, so it was fun to see it again, and boy is the transfer terrific. And now, the final three cues of Fahrenheit 451 are playing – The Road, First Snows of Winter, and Finale – they all basically play as one long cue in the film and are approximately four minutes of the most beautiful film music you’ll ever hear.
Yesterday, as you’ve heard, was a pretty nice day. I got a little bit over nine hours of sleep, which was great. Once up, I answered e-mails, got everything ready for the stumble-through, got dressed, shaved, did some stuff on the computer, and then Peyton arrived so she could run her song, since she wasn’t at the other rehearsals. She asked if we could take it down a half-step from the already down a third of the written key, which was E-flat. We’d taken it down to C, which is how she did it in the online show. But her voice is still changing a bit. Since we have that music in the computer, I wrote Richard Allen and asked him to send it in B, which is just the push of a button for him. But I knew we wouldn’t have it for the stumble-through. Lloyd Cooper somehow managed to sight-transpose it into B and did it perfectly. While I love the key of B and have written many songs in that key, it’s not necessarily a pianist’s favorite key with all those sharps. But the song sat in her voice much nicer in B. Meanwhile, I got the chart so Lloyd will have it for the show. Then we did the stumble-through.
After that, I just wanted something quick and easy, so I got Taco Bell, came home, ate it, posted the last cheerleading post on Facebook about the show, and I’m hoping that some people will make last-minute reservations today, as it would be great to have another eight to ten people, which would put us exactly where we were for the last show. And that’s what happened with the last show – we were at exactly the number we are now, and then day of show we went up and we even got some people who just showed up.
Then I watched the movie and listened to music.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll relax and rest my voice, then I’ll shave and shower and mosey on over to Vitello’s for our four o’clock sound check. Then people will arrive, I’ll have the small Caesar to tide me over until after the show and a proper meal, and then we do our show. Afterwards, we’ll have that proper dinner, which I shall eat properly, and I’ll have a full report for you.
This coming week is a lot of disparate stuff – meetings and meals, catching up on stuff, reading this other play thing, getting two titles ready and announcing them by the end of the week, and more, plus doing whatever needs doing.
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, relax and rest my voice, do a sound check, do a show, and then eat a proper meal. 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 had a fun stumble-through.