Well, dear readers, the long and restful and relaxing holiday weekend is done and it was just what I needed. I suppose I’m still fighting something, but hopefully I’ll win the fight and be completely well. But before I go any further, may I just say that the new episode of Outside the Box is up at Broadway World – thus far the reaction has been great and I couldn’t be happier with how many views its had in less than eight hours – over 2500 and that’s on a Sunday night. The big traffic hits Broadway World this morning and I’m hoping we’re still the lead story by morning, which would be helpful. I sent out an eBlast to friends and obviously I posted on Facebook. And why are reasonably smart people so gullible as to fall for the same Facebook hoax over and over again – that if they post some garbage legalese they cut and paste from the hoax perpetrator that their privacy will be protected. This same stupid hoax happened six months ago and has been happening in one form or another for over a decade. Note to the gullible – before immediately posting this bogus stuff, just do a Google search and you will immediately be led to Snopes and several other hoax sites that set these things straight.
The final day of the long and restful and relaxing weekend was long and restful and relaxing. I got up at nine-thirty, then fell back asleep for another two hours of sleep. Then I got up, answered a few e-mails, did some casting (I really do need about twenty people for the first shoot day – it’s an audition sequence rather than our usual set-up scene – I’ve got about eight so far), and several people I’m using will really be fun – I’ve got the original Brain from LACC coming in, and one of the gals who was a student when she was in Lost and Unsung last year. I had to do some schedule arranging for Adrian Zmed but it all finally got worked out. I made two yummilicious tuna sandwiches (hadn’t had one in quite some time), and then I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Yesterday, I watched a motion picture on Blu and Ray entitled The Postman Always Rings Twice, the John Garfield/Lana Turner version, which, if you ask me, is the best of all the versions. It’s mostly a terrific picture, with excellent direction by Tay Garnett, and wonderful performances by everyone. It only falls apart at the very end when, I’m sure because of the motion picture code, the film gets very preachy to make sure the audience knows that crime can never pay. I wasn’t too thrilled with the transfer – it’s not bad, but it’s lackluster and doesn’t hold a candle to the best black-and-white transfers of that era. The film has a very good score by the very underrated George Bassman.
Then this whole business with the Fed Ex slip left on my door finally made sense to me, after I realized there was supposed to be a pick-up at my house – the slip said a package couldn’t be delivered and that’s what confused me. Apparently I missed the guy by three or four minutes – he was coming to pick up a 35mm print of Nudie Musical for a screening in San Francisco in early December. We’ll have to reschedule and I’ve told the guy who arranged it it can be today, tomorrow, or Wednesday.
Then I watched a motion picture on Lifetime entitled Liz and Dick. I’m sure the ratings will be very good, because everyone tuned in to see just how much of a lox it was and just how bad Miss Lindsay Lohan was. Well, it was a major lox, as big a lox as I’ve ever seen – horribly written, horribly directed and filled with stupid mistakes, starting with the usual “on set” which is a TODAY expression and was NEVER said back then. It wasn’t “Miss Taylor is on set” it would have been “Miss Taylor is needed on the set.” Lazy, slothful writing all the way through. The man who played Burton had nothing to play – well, he had the same scene to play about forty times. He was okay. And then there was Miss Lohan, who was such a charmer in the remake of The Parent Trap. She went down the wrong road unfortunately and was painful to watch such a promising talent shoot herself in the foot over and over again in an attempt to be popular with her cronies and hipper than hip – I see this occasionally in young people and I just want to scream at their parents to stop them from going down that road. It’s not cute, and it’s not funny, and it’s not being a normal teen. It’s destructive and can lead nowhere good. As most know, I worked with such a talent long ago, starting in the mid-1990s. I tried to nurture the talent and gave as much work to this person as I could. But eventually the wrong road was chosen and I walked away and from everything I’ve been told and from what I’ve seen, it isn’t pretty, except to those who are on that same low plane. Miss Lohan was simply dreadful as Elizabeth Taylor – there was not one believable moment in her performance. The size of her lips seemed to change from shot to shot, and all those years (all those years – she’s twenty-six) of drugs and abuse make her sound hoarse and like she has a cold. She made no attempt at all to personify who she was playing. The crassness of Lifetime with this film is appalling and I hope they lose a lot of viewers. Certainly they’ve lost whatever tiny morsel of credibility they had, at least with me. Horrid in every way.
After that, I did some work on the computer, sent three actors their song and material for the first of the two episodes we’re doing, and I’ll be sending everyone else their stuff as soon as the casting is all locked down so I just have to send one e-mail rather than fifteen. Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I really must get a good night’s beauty sleep.
Today, I shall get up by nine or so, try to finish the casting, eat, do some banking, pay some Kritzerland bills, hopefully pick up some packages and doubly hopefully get my replacement debit card and my renewed driver’s license. Then we rehearse four singers starting at six.
Tomorrow, we rehearse one singer at noon, then I have lots to do, Wednesday I have to do a lot of writing, plus lunch with dear reader Jeanne, plus have a dinner, Thursday is our second rehearsal with five singers, and I rehearse Friday with the sixth, then it’s our stumble-through, sound check and show. Reservations are actually decent for a week ahead.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, finish casting, eat, bank, pay bills, hopefully pick up some packages and my replacement debit card and hopefully receive my renewed driver’s license, rehearse, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: Our next Kritzerland show is Bock and Harnick – so, what are your all-time favorite Bock and Harnick songs? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy that episode two is up and running and getting good reaction.