Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to the marvelously marvelous composer David Diamond’s orchestral settings of some marvelously marvelous Satie piano pieces, including the one Gymnopodie that Debussy didn’t do – the second of the three – and it’s wonderful. Diamond was very special – we released a few things by him back in the Bay Cities days. His symphonies are excellent, although I’m not a fan of the recordings of them by Gerard Schwarz on Delos (and all reissued on Naxos in the same poor sound). The American music Schwarz recorded is admirable, but, for me, his performances were all lacking. Leonard Bernstein served Diamond’s music much better. The symphonies are all on YouTube and are worth hearing even with Schwarz. Otherwise, I did end up watching Orphan again and I enjoyed it just as much if not more than I did the first time. It’s a modern horror classic – it’s not overtly violent and there aren’t any real “boo”-type scares. And the performances are just superb and really make the whole thing work, especially the lead performance of the then ten-year-old Isabel Fuhrman. It’s one of the best child performances and it involves her having an accent that is so believable it’s astonishing. The film is directed very well and has a terrific score by John Ottman. Well worth your time.
Yesterday was another non-stop day of non-stop things that were non-stop. I was up at eleven-thirty after seven hours of sleep, answered a ton of e-mails, watched the callback videos of the two contenders for the fourth of the series regulars and made the decision on which of them would do the role, so that was a big thing filled. I snagged another wonderful guest performer, one who does a duet in one episode, so that was one of the two huge things done. The other duet is still awaiting a performer, after the original gal, who accepted, gave us the time and day that worked, and then got her agent involved, which is always the kiss of death, and he made sure it WAS the kiss of death. We almost had someone else, but that’s just a bad week for her. So, we continue to think of people – the very premise of the episode dictates that it should be a well-known theater performer – if we don’t find anyone by Wednesday, then we’ll cast someone we like who’s not well-known, although she has been on Broadway – and I’ll rewrite a few lines so that it makes sense. But I’m still hoping to find someone that will fit the bill. We have offers out to several others, so hopefully they’ll all accept – none have that many credits, so this is a great way to get an imdb credit and a TV credit for their resume on a show that has great people in it. So, we’re getting closer. That all went right up to the minute that rehearsal began. We had three people and that went very well. Once they were gone, then it was more e-mails, more telephonic conversations, and more of more. I ordered fried catfish from Uncle Andre’s and that came and was very good – two filets, which are around 250 calories each from what I’ve found on the Internet – a tiny corn on the cop, which was really good, and some potato salad. After I finished that, I went right into a seventy-five-minute Zoom thing with David Wechter. We went back and forth on several things I didn’t feel should be changed, and all of those stayed the way they were, thankfully. Once that was done, I finally sat on my couch like so much fish and watched Orphan. The rest you know.
Today, I have to be up by ten-thirty because the helper is coming by to pick up the stuff that’s ready for her to ship. That will clear off the counter and that will be nice. Then at three we do our stumble-through and I always look forward to that. Then I’ll catch up on the other stuff, but mostly I have to relax and rest my voice.
Tomorrow, I’ll sleep in and then just relax and rest my voice until it’s time to mosey on over to Vitello’s for sound check and show. Some of us will go downstairs after to have a proper dinner. And I will, of course, have a full report.
Thursday, the helper person will come around twelve-thirty to do the rest of the Indiegogo perk stuff – that will probably take three hours or so. I’ll eat, and then I may or may not have a Zoom session with my cameraman in New York. Hopefully, I can relax in the evening. Friday is more of the same – Zoom things, organizing the shoot days as to what’s being shot at what time. If any of you dear readers would like to actually be IN one of the episodes, let me know. We have several where we need groups of people. The weekend will be busy as can be and then next week is all prep work every day until we fly to New York late Friday evening. Whew!
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by ten-thirty, give the helper all the stuff that’s ready to ship, do whatever needs doing, have a stumble-through, eat, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: When you were growing up, what were your favorite cough drops? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, as I prepare to do more and more of more.