Well, dear readers, why does today feel like Monday when Monday was yesterday and Tuesday is today? Perhaps because Monday felt like a Sunday. Surely, it is messing with my already messed-with mind. I don’t know why, but I find it peculiarly peculiar when Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day fall on the weekend. I once fell on the weekend, but that’s another story. In any case, even though it’s Tuesday it feels like a Monday due to Monday feeling like a Sunday. I wonder if Monday ever felt like a sundae? I know I do, and yet I haven’t had one in years, mostly because no sundae I know of comes close to my beloved C.C. Brown’s sundae, which I did have on a Monday, occasionally. What the HELL am I talking about? Otherwise, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to Jerry Goldsmith conduct Alex North’s wonderful and unique score to the film Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. While I prefer North’s own version on the soundtrack, that soundtrack release, first on LP then on CD, was marred by the inclusion of dialogue. No one has ever interpreted Alex North like Alex North. I’m listening to it because earlier in the evening I watched a documentary, an HBO thing that was on Amazon Prime, entitled Becoming Mike Nichols, which is basically an interview between Nichols and director Jack O’Brien, some one-on-one, some in front of an audience, along with a LOT of clips, including some great Nichols and May comedy routines. Nichols is charming, effusive, and always interesting. I’ve never actually heard him talk about his life or how he directs and so I was very surprised that he kind of does what I do, which is go in without too much planned, scary as that might be, to let things “happen” and shape from there. I know directors who plan out every bit of blocking in advance, on paper – the theaters here, the bigger ones that only have three weeks of rehearsals, all expect that, and yet that is anathema to me. I might have an idea or two, I might have things I’d like to try, but mostly I’m a blank page who likes to discover the play with his actors. That’s what I say to them on the first day – we’re all going to find the play together and that’s what we do. Yes, I can be tough if I need to be, if I find things aren’t working or aren’t supporting the play or whatever we’re doing – I’m sure some don’t like working with me for that reason, especially if they’re not doing their jobs. Nichols also admits he’s been a prick on certain shows with certain actors, but mostly he says he plays nice. I enjoyed it very much.
Then I began watching a documentary, short and sweet, about Christopher Plummer, a wonderful actor. I still have thirty minutes to go, but I’m enjoying it.
Yesterday, well, yesterday confounded me, day-wise. I got nine-and-a-half-hours of sleep, got up, answered e-mails, did stuff on the computer, had a long conversation with Kay Cole, then moseyed on over to Marshall Harvey’s abode to see the first cut of episode five, an episode that has a lot of material jam-packed into its twelve-and-a-half minutes. As always with Marshall, the first cut was really good. I made mental notes as we watched, but mostly I was just enjoying it and smiling a lot. Brad Oscar is wonderful in his scene as an agent and in that scene, Sami really delivers the physical comedy stuff I wrote for her, just really embracing it. Karen Ziemba is also wonderful in her duet with Sami. They sound great together, and the club we shot in, The Cutting Room, looks great – beautiful lighting.
As always, after we finished, we went back to the top of the show and began finessing the handful of things I thought we might improve. In the first sequence, it was a technical issue that Marshall was able to fix perfectly. The other couple of things were just cutting out of a shot a little sooner, adding a music cue, that kind of thing. In the Brad Oscar scene, it was basically just swapping out a few shots – starting on a close-up rather than a wide shot, making a physical chair gag work a tiny bit better by playing it in two shots instead of one – that kind of thing. In the duet, same thing – just either rearranging the sequence of a few shots, doing some experiments with the vocals, using a brief bit from a different take, that kind of thing. And then, at the end, Sami is watching something on a laptop, and I thought we should add a shot of the laptop and what she was watching. I specifically took a shot of the computer screen to do that, so we did that and that helped that bit. It was a little more stuff than we’ve done for the previous episodes, but still, it took less than three hours to do it. I was very pleased with Sami’s work in it and everyone else’s. We really haven’t had a single weak link, performance-wise.
So, that was a very nice afternoon. After we finished, I went right home, ate the rest of the tuna pasta salad, sent some e-mails, had to fend off another text message irritant, posted the event page for the January Kritzerland show. Here’s that flyer for your mental delectation.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll pray for a major miracle so I can get into the New Year without wanting to walk in front of a truck, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, I’ll eat, and then I can watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow, she of the Evil Eye comes, so I’ll go have a breakfast somewhere – might try someplace new, actually – then I’ll try to get a rehearsal schedule set for the Kritzerland show. Then I’m just relaxing until our Annual New Year’s Rockin’ Eve Bash here at haineshisway.com, the best partay anywhere, and the safest. And then it’s New Year’s Day and I begin writing my new novel, which I can assure you will not have a single colon or semi-colon. You’ll understand when you read the book. At around four, I’ll have three or four people over for some Wacky Noodles with chicken. I just think it’s a nice way to start the New Year, with some friends and nice conversation.
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 whatever needs doing, pray for a major miracle, hopefully pick up packages, eat, then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite films and plays directed by Mike Nichols? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the toad to dreamaland – now, wait just a damn minute – hit the TOAD to DREAMALAND – what the HELL is that about? I’ve never hit a toad in my life. Where was I? Oh, yes, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, very happy with episode five, which puts us at the halfway point of editing the Sami series.