Well, dear readers, we didn’t win any awards today, nor were any given out, BUT, and it’s a big BUTT – I did feel better and my voice did get a bit stronger, so if I can just not talk much at the rehearsals, I think I’ll be okay. If for some reason today has any issues, I can still do the virtual visit. There was some gunk still, but much less, so less gunk is always appreciated by the likes of me. I got eight hours of sleep, got up, answered e-mails, but not too many, had no telephonic calls at all, didn’t get the corrected galley, had carbonara for food from The Cheesecake Factory – just as I remembered it – okay, not great, but not bad. After that, I buckled down, Winsocki and made a show order – took a while to get it right because I wanted all the Sherman tribute stuff together and that all comes in the last third of the show. After I got it as good as it’s gonna get, I did the commentary. We’ve done almost all of the songs before, so it was cut and paste and then only a couple from scratch. I purposely kept all the commentary bits short and what usually takes six pages at fourteen-point type took just over three. But then I enlarged it to sixteen-point, and that brought it to just over four. Most of it is just a few lines because frankly I’ve done most the patter before, so it’s really just the pertinent bits and some humor. I do have what I hope will be a funny gag for the opening patter. We shall see. It was good to get that out of the way. Then I sat on my couch like so much fish and watched an old ABC Movie of the Week from 1969 called Daughter of the Mind. I haven’t seen it since that showing, which happened to be the night after my twenty-second birthday, just before the then-pregnant wife and I moved back to LA from NY, which happened three weeks later. I watched it because dear readers Laura mentioned it. It has a really good cast – Don Murray, Ray Milland, Gene Tierney, Ed Asner, John Carradine, Pamelyn Ferdin and lots of other fine character actors. It’s kind of a ghost story thing and it’s done very well – excellent direction by Walter Grauman (he made Lady in a Cage), and a really good score by Robert Drasnin. I had many dealings with him years ago, back when I got Varese Sarabande into soundtracks. He ran the CBS music department and it was he who licensed me five volumes of The Twilight Zone music, which I gave to Varese and received a nice royalty for over the years. Those five volumes were groundbreaking – no music from that show had ever been released prior to that. But I also opened the floodgates and before I could get anything else others got in there. Anyway, the wrap-up to the movie is not hard to figure out, but I just love many of the ABC Movie of the Weeks. Daughter of the Mind was based on a book by Paul Gallico, the man who wrote the novel, The Poseidon Adventure.
After that, I began watching a true crime documentary on Prime entitled One Night in Idaho: The College Murders. Interestingly, a competing ninety-minute documentary about the same thing is airing on Peacock. But the Prime doc is almost three hours (over four episodes), so I can’t imagine the other one is as thorough. I watched the first three episodes and will finish the fourth as soon as I post these here notes. I knew nothing about this 2022 awful crime mostly because I don’t watch the news. It’s a really compelling documentary and aside from the heinous crime itself and the grief of the parents, families, and friends, is the vile amateur internet sleuths casting blame on innocent people, who then receive death threats and horrible messages. Why those people cannot be tracked down, arrested, and convicted is something I will never understand. And when an arrest is finally made, do you think they apologize, these losers on social media. No, they just move onto the next thing. Anyway, I can certainly recommend it. And then it was time to write these here notes.
Today, I’ll be up by ten-thirty at the latest, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll hopefully keep feeling better and have less gunk and more voice, then we have our first Kritzerland rehearsal, starting at two-thirty and ending around five at the latest, but probably before. I will do my best not to talk too much. I’ll just make it known that even though I’m better, I got very hoarse, and I have to rest my voice until the stumble-through day. Should be fine. As soon as we finish, I’ll order food – I think I know that I want a big salad for food. If the corrected galley has arrived, I’ll check all the fixes and if it’s fine, that will go immediately to the publisher and THAT will be out of the way. I’ll tell you what it all is next week at some point, and I may even put it up for pre-order at that time. Then I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow, I’ll just rest my voice and relax. Saturday, I’ll go to the mail place and see what’s what, then we have our second rehearsal at two-thirty. Sunday and Monday, I’ll keep quiet and rest, Tuesday is our stumble-through, and Wednesday is sound check and show.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by ten-thirty at the latest, do whatever needs doing, hopefully keep feeling better with less gunk and more voice, have a rehearsal, eat, check the corrected galley if it arrives, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite true crime books, documentaries, and movies? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have had less gunk and more voice.