Well, dear readers, I’m trying very hard not to feel under the weather, but the allergies are strong within and without and the Claritin-D, while helpful, isn’t quite getting the job done and a job undone is a job undone. My throat is less scratchy than it was yesterday, so that’s good, but I’m stuffed up, not really sneezing, but just feeling logy and the three hours of sleep I got isn’t so helpful. So, tonight I’ll try and get to bed no later than one and I don’t have to be up until eleven-thirty. I’m currently listening to one of my favorite American composers, one I championed as a teen when I discovered him and certainly I championed him on my first label, Bay Cities and we became nice friends for some time. Robert Ward, someone I’ve written about in my books and certainly in these here notes repeatedly. I’m listening to his first symphony, which I don’t know nearly as well as his second and third, which is something I issued on Bay Cities. The first is a very short symphony of around thirteen minutes duration and it’s quite nice and filled with Ward’s wonderful sense of melody and harmony and orchestration. I did watch a short movie prior to listening, some Lifetime movie based on a true story, entitled The Girl Who Escaped: The Kara Robinson Story. It’s about a girl who escaped whose name was Kara Robinson, in case you were wondering. It’s certainly a dramatic and interesting story, but Lifetime movies are way too formulaic, split into way too many acts so they can show endless commercials, filmed in Canada so they can save money, with bad writing and ordinary direction that occasionally borders on bad, and peopled with some truly mediocre Canadian actors. The lead girl who plays the real-life Kara Robinson is good – Katie Dougas is her name and she’s also Canadian. She’s playing a fifteen-year-old girl but was about twenty-two when it was filmed last year. She looks young and she’s very short, which helps. Kara is abducted at gunpoint by a very bad man in plain daylight, but she’s plucky, memorizes details of the drive and once she’s in the bad man’s apartment she memorizes details from there, too. She is, over the course of a very long day, sexually assaulted repeatedly, but she mostly remains calm, does what she’s told, and when the man has to sleep he handcuffs her hands to the bed and ties her feet to the bottom of the bed. But she’s plucky and smart and manages to escape, running from the house as fast as she can and then stopping a passing car – they take her to the police.
The mother, all this time, has been at HER local police who do absolutely nothing and never have to answer for their stupidity, at least not in this movie. Kara is able to tell the police all the details she memorized and they go to the bad man’s apartment but he’s already fled. In searching through things, they find clippings about three other girls who were abducted and murdered. Eventually they catch up with him, he runs, they corner him and he kills himself.
There is, apparently, a documentary with the real Kara and I’d like to see that and can for 2.99 but would have to watch on the computer. I may do that tonight.
Anyway, I got three hours of sleep, not falling asleep until six in the morning. At five in the morning, I made the decision to cancel the Kritzerland show. I just realized there were too many things that were going to make the show not what I expect from our shows – scheduling things, mostly, but also very low reservations, although I’m sure that would have picked up this week. But I couldn’t take that chance and all that coupled with my allergies and I just did what we’ve never done before – postponed the show for some time in April whatever date works for the cast, pianist, and club. I sent a group e-mail to the cast and musical director and I could almost hear the sighs of relief.
Then I got my three hours of sleep, got up, took a Sambucol, had a couple of telephonic conversations, then Marshall Harvey came by with the external drive with all ten high-rez episodes of Sami. I got to hear tales of the Oscars since he goes every year. I ordered in from Fat Sal’s – a Philly cheesesteak sandwich that was really quite good, along with some fries – 40% off. Then I put the SAMI teaser trailer up on Facebook and it got such a nice reaction. What’s most pleasing from both the art and the teaser is that people are instantly getting the vibe of the show and that’s a good thing. Marshall did a great job on it – it’s just various shots, no dialogue, the theme I wrote, but you really get a sense of Sami herself and the other characters. We also made sure to get in some of the guest stars. For those who may not be on Facebook, here it is for your mental delectation.
I did a few other things related to the project with David Wechter, then Karen Staitman came and picked up the external drive and has begun uploading the episodes. She only got one done because her Internet is the slowest anywhere. So, today she’ll go elsewhere where they have speedy Internet and get the rest uploaded and hopefully there’ll be a way to test them so she can make sure the close captions are working properly and that everything looks and sounds good. Then she has to input the episode titles and synopses, and a little screen grab from whatever episode it is. Once that’s done, then Amazon checks it out for their specs and then I suppose we get an e-mail confirming the launch date we put in. Then I watched the movie and here we are.
Today, I’ll be up by eleven-thirty and I hope I get a really good night of sleep. Then we have to keep praying for a huge major miracle, then I’ll see if anything is at the mail place and if there is and I’m feeling up to it, I’ll go get it and also get something to bring home for food. I do have a Zoom thing at noon-thirty for an hour, but after that I’m just resting and trying to get back to normal. At some point, I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
The rest of the week will be more of that, but I don’t really have any meetings or meals planned. On Saturday, I’ll mosey on over to the Ahmanson to see our very own Ava Madison Gray in The Secret Garden, after which I’ll come home and eat something.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by eleven-thirty, hoping I have a good night’s sleep, pray for a huge major miracle that is desperately needed or there will be hell toupee, see if there’s anything at the mail place, have a Zoom thing for an hour, rest, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What true crime story has fascinated you the most? What is your favorite film based on true crime? And your favorite documentary about a true crime. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, hoping someone will rid me of these meddlesome allergies.