Well, dear readers, I’m finishing the Bruckner symphonies as I write these here notes, namely the Bruckner ninth. I have gotten to like a few of them better than I previously did, so I’ll keep slogging away as familiarity breeds familiarity and that helps. I hear familiarity also breeds contempt. That familiarity is a busy little beaver. I personally breed Wacky Noodles, but that’s another story for another day. The Bruckner symphonies are rather hefty affairs – most run well over an hour, some seventy-plus minutes. Other than that, we had a productively productive two-and-a-half-hour rehearsal that was both productive and productive, not necessarily in that order. Our leading lady is in every scene in the play and in addition to her we had four other actors. The rest come tonight. I was able to focus things somewhat and I came up with a few funny things to do because Doug and I both feel that that’s what makes dramas work best – when they’re leavened with humor. Even though I’d taken an allergy pill a couple of hours prior to rehearsal, they were really acting up for a while. Seems to have abated now, thankfully. Prior to rehearsal, I’d watched the first two-thirds of The Man with the Golden Gun. It’s not great, certainly, but it’s certainly a step up from the hideous Live and Let Die. I think they realized quickly that they needed to make Roger Moore tougher, and that they did in this one. Christopher Lee is fun, too. But just when you think these folks actually learned something, along comes Clifton James from Live and Let Die, playing the same idiot sheriff he did there. That is when the series jumped the shark, so to speak, turning into Smokey and the Bandit. Why would you bring a character like that back? And so, they jump the shark a second time and this time the shark takes a huge bite out of the film’s butt cheeks. Hopefully, he’s only in for the one scene, but who knows. There’s another thirty minutes left. After rehearsal, I stopped at the Studio City Gelson’s and got some low-calorie buns and about three ounces of ham, Swiss cheese, and some sweet mustard, came home, and made two teeny-tiny sandwiches and ate them. Not great, but took care of the little hunger pang.
Yesterday was certainly a day. I got up after about eight-and-a-half hours of sleep – could have used a bit more, but that wasn’t in the cards. I got the good news that the wonderful ninety-six-years-young Bill Hayes will be joining us for the December Kritzerland show, got the news that we had to push the January Kritzerland one week forward, which was fine by me since our Sunday was going to be on the long Martin Luther King holiday weekend. So, that won’t be an issue now, which is good.
I had a few telephonic calls, dealt with a little shipping mishap that was, thankfully, corrected easily, then I had Taco Bell for lunch – very good. Then I watched the first two-thirds of the movie, then had to shave and shower and then mosey on over to the theater for our rehearsal.
Today, I’ll be up by nine-thirty – the helper is coming by to pick up a couple of things I had here – then I’m going right back to bed and will be up when I’m up, at which point I’ll do whatever needs doing. I’ll continue taking all my preventatives, which I’ve been doing since Sunday night because our little girl had gotten a little cold, and I thought it would be good not to catch it and so jumping on the preventatives was probably a wise thing. Then I’ll finish the movie and do stuff until it’s time for our rehearsal. After this evening’s rehearsal, I’ll have done detail work on all the scenes, so that on Sunday, with the cast that I have that day (about sixty percent), I’ll run stuff several times so the actors keep getting more and more familiar with the material. Then I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow, I need to get a really good night’s sleep, and then it’s pretty much a ME day. Saturday, she of the Evil Eye comes, so I’ll be up early and have an early breakfast somewhere. Then I have no other plans that day. Then Sunday we have an afternoon rehearsal, and then we do our reading on Monday. We’re hoping all the actors can be there at five-thirty on Monday so I can run all the transitions and stage a little ending that’s needed. And Tuesday, we start the whole process over again with another play reading.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by nine-thirty and back in bed soon thereafter, be up when I’m up, do whatever needs doing, hopefully pick up packages and envelopes, watch the rest of a motion picture, eat, have a rehearsal, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: Were you a fan of those Smokey and the Bandit type hick comedies that were so popular with the populace back in the 1970s? If so, which were your favorites? And your least favorites? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy in the knowledge that familiarity breeds familiarity.