Business chatter 16.07.2023

In an ideal world where people are interested in funding my musical: I always thought 110 in the Shade with MacFarlane would have been a really good movie musical.

Instead he did that stupid million ways to die in the west film. 🤣 -

That tune - I Have My Own Way - though, he should do. I don't have a score for Donnybrook! I could learn it, but meh. I've got my repertory of love songs, and most of those are evergreen.

I miss the Internet of 10 years ago. That's where I got all those rare tapes that I have. I used to yes (for real) have a tape of Sondheim's demos from Merrily from MEGA. They were really interesting, I heard his Like It Was, but I don't have them anymore (for Richard). Look it up, though, I've seen it offered on some of those trade sites where people trade obscure show scores and records. It has Old Friends too, and a draft version of the party scene that opens the musical.

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I reckon I've given Barbara a great piece for the second half of her career. Now that she's old, she can't sing those ingenue songs anymore - my first memory of her is her singing Glitter and Be Gay, years before I met her - but she can still sing my cycle.

Jennifer probably could too. I haven't worked with her, though, Mark would know what her range is.

I think Rose is an octave and five or so. -

Barbara has a full 3 octaves.. I think she used two-octaves-and-six for the 2017 recording of the cycle.... She's an amazingly versatile singer, which is why I love her, plus she actually understands orchestration too.

There's not many women like her. Mark said she was the best, and so far I'm yet to see another soprano better suited to my rep than her.

I like Lauren's voice too, but not so much her show voice. I think her cocktail piano + voice is seriously good, though.

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My guess re: Chloe is that she can sing, but probably has a more limited range.

She's actually quite well-trained as a stage performer; she used to do comedy shows as part of her promotional stuff.

I think she brings that to her TV persona. She brings the easy-going vibe of a former DJ, but also the dramatic shit that a stage actor would do.

While me, I fucking hate plays. I love reading play scripts, but theatre mostly annoys me. I love visual art and that's one of my main passions.

I wish I could paint or draw, but I feel like my VFX skills are probably my way of compensating for that.

- Business time:

Lauren's still my first choice for MD. Mark's great, but he's busy, and that's why we've never worked that closely.

I dunno if she'd handle the Preludes, though. I was thinking that Ewan might be good, but I wonder if Vince might also be good.

Vince conducted my Double Indemnity overture in school. But yeah, I always thought he was epically gifted, so felt inadequate.

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Staffing the music department:

So, yeah, Lauren would be my first choice for MD, but Liam struck me as a really good pianist, so maybe he'd be the rehearsal pianist.

Then I reckon we probably need a dance arranger too. There's some sequences where I've planned it out, but I think there's a few guys like Thomas or Stephen who would quite enjoy fleshing out the choreography and music stuff.

Plus a conductor for the session. If Lauren thinks she could handle that, then I trust her, but if she doesn't, then I guess Ewan or Vince would be my first choices.

- Personal life stuff - for people who care about that:

My Dad went to Thailand. And Japan. I wasn't on those trips, though: they were strictly business trips. My brother Phil has been to Japan on several occasions.

Singapore is the only Asian country I've spent any time in. We spent 2-3 weeks there all told on various legs of flights and things.

I know Eilish lived there. I gave her a Singaporean coin I found on the streets on our first 'date' - the quote marks are very intentional. I mean, obviously we were dating, but we never used those words or anything like them.

I remember a drawing Eilish made for me. It was a Bhuddist thing... very detailed but I forget the semantics.

I like girlfriends who create too; Lucinda's poems are very good, though she's quite modest about them. I think she was more discouraged by her short story being rejected than I was. 🤣

Admittedly, I entered the Star-Times competition, so I wasn't expecting to win. I took Witi at his word and tried to impress him.

The obvious influence on my stories is Loitering In a Turf War, which RNZ had at the office, and I read most of. 👍