Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to another beautiful Vaughan Williams piece, The Lark Ascending because sometimes if the lark ascends so can the listener. And whilst the lark ascends perhaps I’ll tell you about the Flix of Net “limited series” I just finished, this one entitled Behind Her Eyes, based on a novel entitled Behind Her Eyes. It’s only six episodes of about fifty minutes each. First two episodes were fine and interesting, if not by the numbers – ubiquitous song opens episode one – check – other ubiquitous songs appear in various episodes – check – and on and on. Episodes three and four have quite a bit of repetition – what else is new? And then in episodes five and six we get – THE TWISTS. Ooh, THE TWISTS. The complete themselves in the final episode and THE TWISTS are so ludicrous that you just sit there with mouth agape. I’m sure the novel does them and perhaps in a novel it works (but I doubt it) – but here, it’s just inane and makes you feel, well, like you just wasted four hours – such as it is with most of these things. And now I am listening to Vaughan Williams’ score to Scott of the Antarctic, a film about Scott of the Antarctic. It’s a great and haunting score, which, some years later, Vaughan Williams turned into his seventh symphony, Sinfonia Antarctica. The score is, of course, a wholly different experience than the symphony, whereas the symphony is, of course, a wholly different experience than the score. And vice versa. I suddenly feel an Antarctic chill in the air, so evocative the score is.
Yesterday was a somewhat irritating day in certain ways, but we won’t dwell on those ways. I got a bit over eight hours of sleep, so that was good. I had some e-mails to respond to, ascertained that there was a package for me to gather up but I decided to pick it up today prior to rehearsal. With the price of gas what it is I don’t feel any extra driving is a good thing. All I can tell you about the gas prices right now is that we are being taken advantage of and the price gouging is nauseating and should be investigated because it is completely unnecessary, and the oil companies will probably profit many billions more than the billions they already profit. The sooner everyone has a hybrid or electric car the better and then we can put these horrible people right the hell out of business and then they won’t run and influence this country anymore. I has spoken, baby.
I’d ordered food the night before – my spicy cashew chicken over rice with cashews from the Cheesecake Factory. That was the food for the day, and it was very good, as it always is. I didn’t get around to any writing because of the irritants, but I did write a rather long e-mail addressing them and then had a telephonic conversation about it, so hopefully the irritants will disappear at some point soon. Then I decided to watch Behind Her Eyes, which, as you know, I did. And now, the lark has ascended, and Scott is on his way to the Antarctic, courtesy of Ralph Vaughan Williams, a composer of greatness.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll try get jump start some writing on the project with David Wechter, and then I’ll eat something from somewhere, perhaps even going somewhere for food. Then prior to rehearsal, I’ll hopefully pick up some mail. Then we’re back to rehearsing and I think we have our full cast. My plan is to start at the top of the show and run everything we’ve staged. That should only take about ninety minutes. Then the rest of the rehearsal will be for staging the three new songs – one is very simple, one will be fairly simple, and one will require a bit of work. After that, I’ll come home and relax.
Tomorrow is more of the same, with a similar kind of rehearsal. Then for the final ninety minutes I’ll begin to stage the wrestling match – we should have our mats by then. Thursday is more of the same. I think we have full casts for all three rehearsals, at least that’s the hope. Friday is off, then on Saturday we’ll run the show start to finish and start doing detail work as we go – we don’t have everyone, but we enough that we can cover whoever is missing. Then Sunday is off. On the Friday off, I think I’ll be having a nice, early meal.
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, jump start the writing, eat, hopefully pick up some packages and then rehearse. Today’s topic of discussion: What movies with THE TWISTS do you love, and which movies with THE TWISTS do you find ludicrous? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, tiring mightily of THE TWISTS.