Well, dear readers, yesterday at this time we’d reached 81%. Tonight, I believe we need a bit of a drum roll for – 87%!!! That’s what I’M talkin’ about. Wonder of wonder, miracle of miracles, that was a very good leap and now we’re very close to 90%, which I hope we can achieve today, which will put us right where I wanted us to be going into the final seven days of the campaign. Quite a few of the new perky perks went and so did a couple of the older ones. So, let’s have another really good day today, and to that end I’m putting up quite a few new perkilicious perky perks as soon as I post these here notes. Several hand-written letters and notes from film composers, a fantastic letter from Ira Levin – in fact, the very letter that would lead to the recording of Drat! The Cat! Couldn’t ask for better content than this letter. Also, another Leon Joosen sketch, this one of Odette from The Swan Princess, whose dialogue was voiced by Michelle Nicastro and whose songs were voiced by Liz Callaway – who, coincidentally, were my first two solo artist album performers. Leon worked on Ariel and Flounder for The Little Mermaid, and Odette for The Swan Princess. A sad and fascinating letter from Jerry Siegel to a local LA publisher, offering his services as a proofer. Sad because Mr. Siegel was one of the creators of a little comic book and character called Superman. When they sold it, they retained no rights and so never made a cent from all that revenue. It’s the only Siegel letter I’ve ever seen come up. And how about a lot of fourteen stills of The Three Stooges? From Have Rocket, Will Travel, The Three Stooges Go Around the World in a Daze, and The Three Stooges in Orbit – all original stills. I may test the waters with some first edition classic plays – if those prove to be popular with the populace, I have quite a few and no one has these things in better condition. So, be sure to check ‘em out because the new stuff seems to be going very quickly. Here, as always, is the handy-dandy linkilicious link.
I did start to watch some awful motion picture called London Fields, which stars Amber Heard – I knew she was a horrible actress from her obvious performance on the stand in the Johnny Depp trial, and this film proves it in every way. I got through about twenty minutes but kept dozing off. Then I watched a very disturbing documentary entitled The Family I Had, about a thirteen-year-old boy who stabbed and killed his baby sister, not stabbed her once but seventeen times. The delusion in this documentary is palpable, from the formerly drug-addicted mom to the psychotic dad who disappeared almost immediately, to the mom’s mother, who may or may not have arranged for the murder of her husband. The most chilling thing, for me, was hearing about some psychotic episode with the boy and him being taken to a psychiatric hospital, where mom was told he had homicidal tendencies. Rather than get him treatment, she just brought him home and a few months later he killed his sister. He’s been in adult jail ever since and there are interviews with him, too, and there’s still a lot of self-delusion going on with all of them.
Yesterday was a very nice day. I got six hours of sleep, got up, saw we hadn’t really gone up, percentage-wise, but then soon after that we jumped two percent right away and then it was pretty consistent all day and into the evening. I had my favorite pasta dish from Stanley’s for food, then after the movie I had some corn from the Cheesecake Factory (just a small side) and a piece of cheesecake. All good, but now I’m feeling a little gooey and hopefully that will go away soon. I then wrote the first half of the second episode of the web series and worked out the beats for the second half. I may write more once I post these here notes. Then I watched the documentary and the rest you know because you’ve been paying careful attention to these here notes.
Today, I’ll be up by eleven and the hope is to at least get to 90% by the end of the day, which means a lot of cheerleading from the likes of me. I’ll eat at some point (I really have to have a calorie-friendly meal, I really do, I really, really do), I’ll finish writing the episode, I’ll cheerlead more, and then I have to make a serious decision about what would be the most expensive perk since the original Kritzerland campaign – my entire archive of Sondheim notes – over ninety of ‘em, maybe more as I think there are some lurking in other places. I’ve had these notes starting way back in 1991 and continuing through 2018, when it became exclusively e-mail. Over thirty years of notes. Obviously, I’m not giving these away – I think the average price will come out to $50 per note, which is a steal, but they all have to go together. Someone could probably triple their money if they were so inclined, but I’m just trying to get rid of too much stuff. I’ll keep one for myself. What do you think about that? Then at some point, I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow will be more of the same and I’ll probably start writing on episode three of the web series. Then it will be a nice supper – Marshall Harvey and I are being taken to The Smokehouse by Laura Wolfe – her thank you for us doing her sizzle reel. Sunday will be more writing and cheerleading and then next week will be the final puuuuush to the finish line as we bring this puppy home.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by eleven, hopefully get to 90% and to that end I’ll be cheerleading a lot, I’ll eat, I’ll finish episode two, and then I can watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player and your DVD/Blu and Ray player? I’ll start – CD, I have to upload a few things. Blu-ray, I have a hankerin’ to watch Anatomy of a Murder. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, so happy we got to 87% as we keep moving closer than ever to our goal and then infinity and beyond.