All good things have to come to an end and sadly our recording is almost over. Just two or three late ones coming in and we're done with the taping part. But now comes some fun for us: we get to mix everything and master it all and HEAR IT ALL AGAIN! So I'm really looking forward to that!
Here's my last long-day recount:
The day started with a bang. The great Tyne Daly come in (thanks to David Garrison who also named the CD--Gratias!) and set the room on fire. At 9:30!! Wow. Turns out she's a real poetry maven; in fact she's on the board of the Edna St. Vincent Milley Organization. She read a beautiful Auden poem called But I Can't. But she could! Indeed!
Next in came Edward Hibbert (thanks to Harriet Harris.) He read a divine poem by one of Britain's most famous poets, John Betjemin. Sun and Fun is a short story of a poem all about a Proprietress of a sleazy bar who is dining and remembering the good old days. Edward was hysterically funny and remarkably poignant all at the same time. I'm thrilled he read that poem and is on the album.
We had a rights problem with a poem that Nancy Anderson chose to read so Nancy kindly offered to come in and re-record a public domain piece. I asked her to investigate some William Blake as he is not represented on the album. She didn't really respond to the ones I suggested, so I thought she'd pick something else. Then when she came in she said she found a Blake that she really loved called Mary. What a great poem. I didn't know it. It's all about a beautiful girl in town who gets ostracized for BEING beautiful. The perfect Blake on this album. Of course, Nancy knocked it out of the park. Wonderful.
Thanks to George S. Irving, we were introduced to Louis Zorich and he did Passing The Bar. Those of you who know Lou can just imagine the power he brought to that piece. Those of you who don't, well you only have 38 days to wait!!!!
The day finished up with a special surprise visitor from the UK, Harriet Walker! Guy Paul suggested her and we've been trying to fit her in during her few days in NYC. Well, her plane was delayed and she came in to read before going to the airport! THANK YOU SO MUCH! I suggested a few poets to her, poets that weren't yet represented and when she said that Thomas Hardy was her "local" poet, naturally I jumped. She read two gorgeous poems that he wrote about his wife after she had died. In the interview, she told about how Hardy was not very kind to his wife during her lifetime, but after she passed, the poetry about her flowed and flowed.
Now I have the unhappy task of trying to pick one of the two.
Peter Fitzgerald (the P in GPR) and the head of Sound Associates came to do some work and mixing for us in between Dame Edna rehearsals. Yesterday, Dame Edna taped the pre-show Cell phone announcement but decided she didn't want to do it. But she wrote out a speech. Guess who got to do it? Me! I'm back on Broadway! Must be all the good poetry Karma.
So, that's the latest.
Hopefully GPRRecords.com will be up tonight.
Hopefully people will be able to pre-order the CD on Amazon tomorrow.
Hopefully Peter, Richard, Megan and I will be able to master the album in time.
Very soon, I'm going to send out a blanket e-mail asking for a Head shot and a bio of 100 or so words for the web site.
But for now,
THANK YOU ONCE AGAIN!
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