Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to Elmer Bernstein’s soundtrack to Birdman of Alcatraz, from his greatest period, the early 1960s. His output during that time was simply spectacular, with many classic scores. Otherwise, I did manage to watch a motion picture last night entitled The Sentinel – no, not the shlocky 1977 horror film, one of the most reprehensible movies ever, but a paranoid thriller from 2006 or thereabouts – too tired to look it up – starring Michael Douglas, Kiefer Sutherland, and Kim Basinger. The script is by the numbers, the direction is strictly from TV and occasionally worse, but I guess I just like these kinds of movies – critics complained about implausibility – of course it’s implausible, it’s a movie. In the beginning, it doesn’t quite know what it wants to be, with its crazy killer-like flashes about assassination, but they quickly give up on that, since it has nothing to do with the movie. But it’s hard not to enjoy Michael Douglas, Kiefer Sutherland, and Kim Basinger – they’re all fine and the film moves right along and I don’t care who knows it, but it’s certainly better than most movies I saw in 2022. That’s my two centimes. If you like paranoid government thrillers, there are many worse films you could watch.
Yesterday was actually a nice little day. I was up at ten after eight hours of sleep, shaved and showered, and then I moseyed over to the recording studio, which was in North Hollywood, just three blocks from where the ex-wife and I lived when we first married. I could have walked over to our apartment. But I didn’t. Sami and her mom arrived and we began re-recording the song. She recorded to picture while listening to the new piano track she’s been working with. And I have to say, she was amazing – we went section by section – two A sections, a B section, and a final A. She was so spot on it was frightening. We’d go back if something was even a little loose, sync-wise, but she had it done in twenty-five minutes. I’ve seen pros struggle with that kind of thing, myself included, when I had to loop the entire The Last of Howard episode of The Partridge Family. Not only was her sync uncanny, I also got the performance I wanted. Then I recorded three lines of another song, because she was slightly off the beat on that particular song – I’d already had a new piano track done, but I wasn’t happy with it because it’s a critical point in the song where the tempo change and solving the fact that she rushed it when we shot it just wasn’t a great solution. So, my hope is we can use these three lines and perhaps do some editorial trickery, because then everything before and after it works great. We’ll see, but my hope is we can make that work. I really like the engineer we had – same guy who did the songs that take place in a recording studio. I’ll use this guy whenever I can now that John Adams is out of LA. We’ll still have John mix everything, but this guy is top-notch to record. And we really get along and that’s a huge part of it.
We were out of there by one-thirty and I stopped at the mail place and picked up nothing. I was going to do Subway for food, but they’re renovating it and it’s closed until Saturday. But they just opened a Fatburger in that strip mall, so I went there and got my 1000-Island burger and some onion rings, then came right home and ate both items and they were much better than my local Fatburger, so this new location will be one I frequent often, since I can pick up mail and packages and walk a few steps and get my food to take home. After food, I listened to the last of the mixes and approved it and sent it to Marshall Harvey to put in. Marshall also sent me the two incidental music cues cut in and I have to say they both work great. So, I think that basically takes care of Richard Allen’s fine work, and then I’ll get the mix of the re-recorded song and the mix of the other song with the two or three lines cut in and then we’ll try to make that work.
Then I had a two-hour Zoom with David Wechter. That’s the bit of writing I’ve been doing, a small rewrite of our project, based on notes we got and 90% of those notes were good and logical and very simple to fix. There was one note that involved a very big change, but it’s one I’ve wanted to make from the start and I’m thrilled were going to make it because it will make everything better. That’s all I can say about that.
I was pretty zonked after that, but I girded the old loins and did a quick Ralph’s run and got four twelve packs of diet sodas for fifteen bucks. If I’d gotten the same thing at Gelson’s it would have been almost double that. If one has a Ralph’s card, it’s really the place to shop. I also got some frozen dinners and as you know I’ve been talking about fish sticks, but rather than those, I got some Gorton frozen fried fish filets and some Bob’s Big Boy tartar sauce and some hamburger buns and now I can make my very own filet o’ fish sandwiches, which I may do for today’s food. I got a few other items and with the Ralph’s card saved about twenty bucks.
I came home and put everything away, then finally sat on my couch like so much fish and watched the motion picture. And that pretty much covers it, although I’m not sure if it appreciates being covered by that due to being claustrophobic.
Today, I’ll be up by eleven at the latest and I’ll be doing a little work on the book and then today is going to be a big shipping day for CDs, which requires forwarding all those orders that have piled up – it will be so good to get those on their way. I’ll probably make the BK filet o’ fish things and then I have to read a play prior to a meeting later in the week and then I’m going to try rewriting the big change on the project with David Wechter – I’d really like to get that out of the way. At some point, I can watch, listen, and relax.
The rest of the week is more of the same plus some meetings and meals and getting the book in for designing.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by eleven at the latest, do a little work on the new book, ship CDs, eat, write, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite political thrillers? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, amazed at how great Sami was at looping the loop.