Well, dear readers, I must, once again, write these here notes in a hurry for she of the Evil Eye will be here all too soon and I shall have to hie myself right the HELL out of here so she can clean in peace, whilst I breakfast on my own due to Robert Yacko having an early rehearsal. Tonight’s musical feast sticks with Cal Tjader and his wonderful jazz version of West Side Story – not just vibes and rhythm, but a full orchestra. I’ve always loved this version, but then I pretty much love any jazz cover of this show. Band-wise, nothing really tops the Stan Kenton album, but, for me, that one needs a brand-new mastering from the original three-track session masters and someone doing it with fresh ears. I think I probably have almost all the jazz covers, and they can pretty much all be recommended, save for a couple of newer ones, which I don’t care for. The Tjader, which was released in January of 1961, so it wasn’t done to capitalize on the movie, which wouldn’t come out until much later that year. I watched nothing but some irritating YouTube videos and not many of those. I did watch a Desilu Playhouse hour-long drama called The Time Element, written by Rod Serling and the obvious precursor to what would become The Twilight Zone. Very Serling, good performances by William Bendix and Martin Balsam and lots of good character actors. I enjoyed it. Not well directed, though. Otherwise, I got about seven hours of sleep, answered e-mails, and then got ready to be on my way to the doctor. Thankfully, traffic was very light, but as always, they are ruining the streets of the Valley, this time an entire lane shut down from Coldwater to Laurel Canyon. Happily, I got off Ventura and took side streets to Laurel. Once on Laurel, it was fine. The appointment went quickly – he’s not sure what the issue is but he’s going to start me on the final medicine for myasthenia gravis – the key one, but not one I’m looking forward to as I have to inject myself once every two weeks. Yikes. After the appointment, I came right back to the Valley – no traffic at all, went to the mail place, then came home. I got fried catfish for food and that wasn’t as good as usual – not bad but lacked some of the spices it usually has – then I got the good news that we’ve cast another lead, which leaves only our leading lady and a couple of male ensemble members. Getting there. I dozed off for a bit, had some ice cream for a snack, and here we are.
Today, I’ll be up by eight and out the door by eight-thirty, I’ll have breakfast somewhere, then I have several errands and whatnot and I have to ship a package, then I’ll come home and continue the search for our leading lady and we’re down to the final couple of tracks. Later, I’ll have a snack, and then at some point I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
The rest of the week is more of the same, a Zoom with my set designer to finalize everything, making a week one and two rehearsal schedule, and trying to lock in the rest of the behind-the-scenes folks.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by eight and out the door by eight-thirty, I’ll breakfast, do errands and whatnot, ship a package, come home, continue the search for our leading lady, I’ll have a snack, and then can watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: Have you ever had to self-inject? How was it? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have had a better day.