Well, dear readers, I have breaking bombshell news – it is December. Yes, hold on to your hats, it is December, and it is my fervent hope and prayer that December will be a month filled with health, wealth, happiness, creativity, and all things bright and beautiful. It is, after all, the start of the holiday season. How many of you immediately put on a hat so you could hold onto it? Wait – does anyone still wear – a hat? Over in these here parts, we really need December to be a stellar month or there will be hell toupee. One thing we always know about December – I will be one year older, a big birthday it is, too. The other two things that are sure bets in December are the annual Christmas Eve Do and our annual New Year’s Rockin’ Eve partay, the best place to celebrate safely on New Year’s Eve. But for now, it’s still November and I am sitting here like so much fish listening to Paul Glass’ third symphony. It’s modern but appealing, like most of his music. As some may recall, we’ve issued several Paul Glass scores on CD, including Lady in a Cage, Overlord, and Ethan. I spent several hours on several occasions on the phone with him – me here, he in Switzerland, which, I’m told, isn’t all that close to Kritzerland. Prior to that, I began watching the director’s cut of Doctor Sleep. I’m an hour in and enjoying it, but I’m not sure we needed a three-hour version. That’s twenty-four minutes longer than the theatrical cut, and I thought the theatrical cut was just the right length. In the director’s cut, we get additional dialogue in several scenes, additional shots, and later I believe there’ll be a couple of additional scenes. Even at the one-hour stage, I think this will be a one-time affair and if I want to see it again, I’ll watch the theatrical version. And prior to that, we had our stumble-through, and I must say there wasn’t much stumbling – just a couple of the usual lyric flubs and that was it. The show order worked perfectly, and I had very few notes afterwards.
Yesterday was certainly a day, notably the final day of November. I got up at eleven after almost eight hours of sleep, the helper came by and delivered some stuff and picked up some stuff. Then I went to the mail place and picked up three screeners and thankfully an important envelope. I came back home, and Jason Graae dropped by to pick up some of his CDs. Then I got the room set up for our stumble-through, answered e-mails, and then folks began arriving at 3:45.
After we finished and I gave the few notes I had, I ordered a Chinese chicken salad from Stanley’s and that arrived twenty minutes later and I ate it all up – very good, it was, too. Then I sat on my couch like so much fish.
I decided to watch one of the screeners, The Son, written and directed by the guy who did The Father, a film I was very fond of, especially directorially. Well, sadly, lightning did not strike twice. This film has none of the style The Father had, the dialogue is perfunctory and occasionally sounds like writing rather than people talking. And the movie, at least the first fifty minutes, has not one ounce of humor. It’s dreary to the nth degree, and I don’t think I’ll be up to finishing it. It actually got a ton of terrible reviews. Then I put on Dr. Sleep and the rest you know.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, then I’ll go do my banking, after which I’ll come home and relax and rest my voice. At four-thirty, I’ll mosey on over to Vitello’s for our five o’clock sound check. Then at eight we do our show. We’re seven seats away from being sold out. They’ve been blocking off the back booths because they haven’t been selling and they don’t really want just one or two people back there – but if we sell out, they’ll probably open those up for seating. After the show, some of us will go have a bite downstairs. They do close the kitchen at ten, but Robert Yacko will go down there twenty minutes prior to that and put in our order. Then I’ll come home and tell you all about it in vivid detail, so put on your hats and hold onto them.
Tomorrow, I need to rest and catch up on stuff. And I think I’ll take it easy on the weekend, too. Then it’s the birthday week. I have not a clew whether something is happening on my birthday, so we’ll see how that plays out. I’d like to think for a big birthday like this that someone will step forward, but who knows? And hopefully, I’ll see a first cut of episode three.
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 banking, come home, relax and rest my voice, get ready, mosey on over to Vitello’s, do a sound check, do a show, have a proper meal, and come home and write some notes. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your plans, if any, for this holiday season? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, as we begin December and the holiday season, and it is my fervent hope and prayer that December will be a month filled with health, wealth, happiness, creaitivty, and all things bright and beautiful.