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THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL IS NOT A TRAIN:

Now that the booklet is finished, I now move onto the final business actions to get the album ready for release. I'll be in contact with both CD Baby and CD Baby Manufacturing, about getting the release and distribution of both the digital and the physical versions of the album out. Plus there's all the composer copyright and phonogram copyright business to start dealing with, with the U.S. Copyright Office.

I'll also be putting together a promotional video for the album sometime soon. I have a relatively good idea about the concept. Obviously, I'll use little snippets from each song; now that I think about it, it's not obvious, but it is what I plan. Exactly what snippets, I'm not sure about for all the songs, though I do know for a few. The big question is, what will be the order? The bigger question is what will be at the start and what will be at the ending? as those two points in the promotional video are important.

There will also be the rerelease of the music videos for "Just One Shadow" and "The Night Before the Night Before Christmas," with the remastered audio, though those releases will probably be staggered, with the latter out closer to Christmas. Both will coincide with digital rereleases of their respective remastered digital singles ‐‐ this time, neither with extra tracks. Exactly when the remastered "Just One Shadow" single releases will depend on how big a hit my finances take on the album release and its related costs. There's also footage shot for another music video, but that's down the road, as is consideration for another singles release.

B'WAY BOUND TREKKING:

This week I'm not called any night with the possible exception of Thursday, which is currently a "to-be-determined" rehearsal for which Director Margie will decide the content of as it approaches; so I may or may not be called Thursday.

Speaking of off-book, speaking of character: My virtual, or complete, week off rehearsals gives me a lot of room to work toward the October 10 off-book deadline. Also, I'm not in the pages being worked on Oct 10, anyway, so I have until the 11th to be off-book.

At the end of last week I mailed out some of my shameless, self-promotional Broadway Bound postcards to a few people, mostly via the U.S. mail (snail mail), but a few through the on-campus mail system to some particular folk who are associated with the university, you know, where my rent-payer job is.

I had big plans to work on sound design, in one capacity or another, over the weekend. But between that not feeling well and the personal business stuff, I hardly attended to Broadway Bound at all, much less any sound work concerns. I'm not behind on sound work in any stretch of the imagination, and actually am probably a little ahead of the game right now, anyway, so, I have no worries.

My shameless, self-promotional Broadway Bound postcard, the card partly in the envelope, and a small stack of stuffed envelopes, addressed and postage-stamped.

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BOOSTED & BEAT-UP:

Monday afternoon I got the new bivalent Covid vaccination booster. Many people I know who had already received this one reported little or no side effects. My experience has been different, as you can see the screenshot of my late Monday night facebook post, above. I went to work yesterday, but I did not stay ‐‐ fatigue, headache, a bit of naseau, joint soreness, and for a little while, it hurt to lift my left arm, where I got the shot, more than about eight inches above my hip. I also got the flu shot but I don't think there's and correlative causation there. I might also note that I did not have the elevated temperature yesterday that I had Monday night. Today, Im still fatigued, till have a headache, and still have sore joints.

Well, so there's a little bit of feeling crappy, but the big picture is that this guy with an underlying condition (heart disease) is better protected against dying or getting long Covid if I ever, in fact, do get infected.

OFF-BOOK BOUND:

At this point I have a pretty decent handle on my lines in all three of my scenes, though my ratio of paraphrasing is still quite high. I'd rank my off-book quotient at about 85-90%, which is not bad but not the target number, whatsoever. As I've written before, I especially want to get the words as close to exactly as written as I can, because Jack's word choice, his syntax, and his grammar is key to this character. And, again, it really always is, for all characters, but this time it seems more pointedly relevant.

I'm feeling better about his voice, too, both his spoken voice and his personality. At rehearsal last week I said I felt like my Jack was coming across a little too educated, and I think now I've toned that down a bit, but I still feel like I could tone it down more. But Jack is coming to me and I am confident he'll be here fully long before Opening Night.

Yesterday evening, still recovering from booster side affects, yet still able to work on memorizing lines on my patio.

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THE ELEVENTH HOUR HAS BEGUN:

I also want to allow time to do a couple promotional things such as the video teaser that features snippets from all the songs, that which I wrote about in the October 3 blog post. It also rests on how soon it looks like I can release the remastered version of "Just One Shadow" as a single re-release. Still, I am doing all the business stuff to get this thing out. I also have an idea floating around in my head for an on-line release party, and that will take a little work to put together.

Plus let's remember that I am also in rehearsal for Broadway Bound by Neil Simon at DTG during this same period of time. It's kind of a challenge dealing with these two different artistic ventures at the same time, but I have not felt overwhelmed as of yet.

Back to the album: in consultation with CD Baby Disk Manufacturing I have made a choice for the physical CD packaging, which now has spots for even a little more art. It going to cost me a little more, but I was going to have to do a custom jewel case, anyway, which also would have cost more.

The physical CDs will come in a four-panel digipak with a tube pocket in the left sleeve and a tray on inside of the right sleeve. So I have two more panels for artwork: the inside sleeve on left (the inside of the tube), and the inside sleeve on the right, behind the clear disk tray. Below are the two new images for these two new panels. I wasn't initially sure which would be on which inside panel, but, I had an inclination. I asked a friend and his recommendation matched my inclination so that's how I'm going. I have been prepping all the art to meet CD Baby's specs for the upload.

Now that I'm digging into copyright procedure, rules, process, etc., I just discovered that the U.S. Copyright Office now has an option called Group Registration for Works on an Album of Music (GRAM), which allows one to register up to twenty separate compositions, music and lyrics, on one album in one group copyright application for a significantly lower fee than if each composition was registered individually.

The problem for me, I think, is that it appears that all the songs need to be completed in fixed form in the same calendar year, and my songs on this album range from 2019 to 2021. Then there is the issue of the collaboration with Rich Hisey, which I am a little vague on how that works in this group registration since there is more than one author. Plus, it should bear the copyright date of 1977.

I have an inquiry into the copyright office about the different years issue. I suspect I will have to register each work separately which will cost me more than ten times as much in fees ($470), plus another $65 for the phonogram (sound recording) copyright.

Shock of shocks! I found what HAS to be the last tweaks of mixing for the album. Among other things, there were some sound levels on some "woodwinds" in "Memories of the Times Before (pt.1-4)" that were bugging me, and I finally decided I had to go in and adjust them, especially the piccalo flute voice which was just a tad too loud, especially since the pitch and tone, are by nature a little piercing to begin with. While I was there I brought the main bass line up just a smidgen, too, and I pulled back the reverb on a vocal section, as well, because it was overwhelming the mix just a bit. Then, I fixed a glitch in the fadeout of the remaster of "The Night Before the Night Before Christmas," where at the very end there was an abrupt drop off rather than that fade into infinity that you want from a fadeout.

I have now sworn an oath that I will do no more remixing nor remastering. I have now declared the audio for the album: Finished.

		Example: 4-panel CD digipak with art on the front, back, inside left & behind the clear CD tray. The booklet fits in the left sleeve slot.
New artwork, the two images for the inside sleeves of the physical CD digipak.

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BROADWAY BOUND-ING ALONG:

I'm not called tonight, so I have an extra day to work on it, but I'm in decent off-book shape , anyway. Tomorrow night we run the Kate & Jack scene, which I'm probably the most solid on. Wednesday it's The Boys & Jack, for me anyway. Thursday it's Ben & Jack. I'm not exactly in bad shape with either of those scenes. I'm not 100% on anything, but I'm not worried. Though there's no question I will stumble through these stumble-through rehearsals, at least to some extend. You can bet I will call "line" more than once.

Most of the cast were called Thursday for some bit of costume fitting. As were several others for their characters, I was fitted for Jack's shoes, as well as for his winter overcoat.

The whole cast also had a photo call Thursday night for a group publicity photo, taken by Rick Flynn, who will also be taking the production photos. For this show, he'll also take the group cast shot for the lobby movie, since the guy who usually takes that is actually in this cast.

Yesterday, I spent a few hours at the theatre working on the sound design, doing some programing in Show Cue Systems and also just combing through the script to identify all the sound cues. I've made inventory and pulled from my sound library all needed sound effects. I also curated the pre-show and intermission music, as well as one piece of production music. There's a certain amount of production processing that needs to be done on most of the music recordings ‐‐ essentially, adjusting the EQ and changing any stereo recordings to mono, so they will sound like they are coming from a 1948 radio. I started that process yesterday.

The infamous flashcard/cue cards.	At the theatre, yesterday, working on the Broadway Bound sound plot.

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IT'S ONLY A FEW MINUTES 'TILL MIDNGHT, NOW:

Well, the announcement of the release date for Virtually Approximate Subterfuge is just around the corner, like, just around the corner. The actual release will be pretty damn soon, too. It'll just be far enough away that I can get all the promotional stuff ready, and some of it will be pre-release, of course. The album release will either be later this month or early next month.

I bit the bullet yesterday and uploaded all the artwork and the sound files of the master recordings for the album to CD Baby Manufacturing. I finally let go and close off the mixing and mastering process ‐‐ no more tweaking! I'm sure that after the album's out I will hear all sorts of shit that I'd like go back and fix, but, it's in CD Baby's hands now and I'm just going to make myself be chill about it. I should receive the shipment of CDs in about two weeks.

The graphics layout of the artwork for the 4-panel digipak CD container.

The unchanged CD label.

I did have to reconfigure the artwork in order to give CD Baby the proper layouts for both the 4-panel digipak and for the 8-page booklet. It wasn't a monumental task, though there was some reworking of some elements. Without going into detail, the background for the cover is now a bit stretched from what it originally was, but that doesn't interfere with the concept nor the affect of the background, so it wasn't an issue for me.

It's actually the background for the CD label, too, but I did not need to reconfigure that, thus I didn't need to stretch the image, but I don't care about that particular inconsistency.
Stay tuned! It's REALLY about to happen! The album is almost here!

STUMBLING TO BROADWAY (PART 1):

So, tonight I'm called to rehearsal. We're doing the second half of Act 1, which contains my (Jack's) scene with Wendi Michael (Kate). It's my first off-book night, but, I'll be alright. The line study has paid off, I'm pretty solid, though I have room to improve. As I wrote before, I will certainly stumble, at least to some extent, during these stumble-through rehearsals, but I won't break a limb or anything, just maybe bruise one. I am gaining a lot of ground on filling out Jack's personality. Again, he's not totally here yet, but he's on his way.

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MORE THAN VIRTUALLY ON THE VERGE:

I will be hearing soon from their sister company, what I guess should be called "the main CD Baby entity," CD Baby Music Distribution, about getting everything set up for the electronic distribution to the streamers and the sites that will sell the digital version of the album, as well as the management of the physical CDs through Super D, Amazon, and Alliance Entertainment. CD Baby Manufacturing says I'll be hearing from their sister very soon. It may even be sometime today.

This means the announcement of the release date is on the verge of being made.

Last night, after my rehearsal for Broadway Bound at The Guild, I dropped the remastered recording of "Just One Shadow" into the Final Cut DV movie project for the song's music video. I made no edits to the video from its original form, with the exception of some updating to the credits roll, such as updating the year for the phonogram (sound recording) copyright, and the motion picture copyright for the video; I also added the url for this website. Otherwise, besides having the new, remastered, and I hope, better-sounding audio, it's the same as the current version of music video.

I won't put this new version of the music video out into the wild until I have put out the song in its remastered form as a rereleased single. The plan at the moment is to not pull the old video off the web when the new version is live, but I may change my mind about that.

*) Dec 1, 2022 addendum: in fact, I DID change my mind about that, on two counts. I made the video with the new, remastered, audio live on Nov 30, 2022, and am likely to delete the video with original audio, as soon as the new video is completely findable on YoutTube. Click here for the new version

STUMBLING TO BROADWAY (PART 2):

My stumble-through rehearsal number one is out of the way. Last night's scene with Kate (Wendi Michael) went pretty damned well. Neither of us called for line very often. Kerry Simpson, our stage manager, says between the two of us it was about four times, which I think may be a slight undercount, but still, for the first time off-book, we did well for a 10-page scene with some pretty hefty paragraphs of lines for both of us.

Director Marjorie Strader did give me a note that she'd like for me to give Jack a little bit more of a Brooklyn dialect, which probably was going to happen anyway as I better form him. I certainly hadn't thought that I had found his vocal voice as of yet.

Tonight my scene is that of Jack and the sons, Eugene (Dustin Schwab) and Stanley (Michael Ferrarelli). It's the scene with THAT monologue. But, I have certainly better mastered THAT monologue; I've drilled it quite a bit. I also realized that if I slow it down a bit, I will squeeze the awkwardness out of it. Jack is indignantly angry at that moment, and that energy causes me to instinctively speed him up; but, actually, if I slow him down, I can make the anger, the indignation, stronger and more effective. We'll see how I do tonight.

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A COMING MUSIC VIDEO PHOTO GALLERY & THE COMING ALBUM RELEASE DATE:

Otherwise, right now, I'm just waiting to hear from CD Baby to finish the process to get the album distribution ready, and to finalized the release date.

STUMBLING TO BROADWAY (PART 3):

Welp....last night was the first stumble-through rehearsal for my Jack and sons scene, (i.e.: Eugene (Dustin Schwab) and Stanley (Michael Ferrarelli)). How did it go? It went: meh. Actually it didn't really go all that badly, but I called for line far more than I thought I would. I did have to call line during THAT monologue, which I was hoping I'd nail. It wasn't awful but I was hoping I'd do better.

Tonight it's Jack and Ben (Saul Caplan).

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'JUST ONE SHADOW' VIDEO STILLS GALLERY, &....:

As for the album release date, I'm still waiting for word from CD Baby about finalizing everything.

STUMBLING TO BROADWAY (PART 4):

Last night I did the last of my scenes for the first time off-book, the scene with Jack and Ben (Saul Caplan). It was, once again a true stumble-through rehearsal, with plenty of calling for lines. I'm being a bit too critical of myself; once again, for the first time off-book it was not at all a bad rehearsal for me. I just get so pedantic about my work.

Obviously, my actor's work now is to fully get off-book, which I am actually not worried about despite that I am bitching a little too much about the imperfections of my stumble-through rehearsals. The other thing is to start incorporating a bit of the dialect of a Brighton Beach Jew from the late 40's into Jack's voice. That'll be another big part of my weekend. Mr. Caplan recommended I listen to Kevin Pollak's Moishe Maisel from The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which is, I think, a good suggestion. Granted, Moishe is late 50s/early 60s, but still.

Then there's that other hat I wear for the show: the sound designer. We have a DTG board meeting tomorrow morning, and after that, I'll be in the tech booth getting as much of the soundwork out of the way as I can.

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THREE WEEKS OUT; & A CALL FOR A SOUND TECH:

There's also my role, in general, for the Guild as the social media person. I have some "Meet the cast/crew" images to start working on, but have some time and they are close to what we can call boiler-plate, so no worries there. There's the promotional DV movie trailer, too. But again, I have time budgeted for that. And there's the lobby movie, which runs on the TV in the theatre lobby before each performance. That again is a boiler-plate situation so it's easy to put together.

This past Saturday, I virtually finished the sound work for the show. I curated the rest of the production music, programmed all the sound cues into Show Cue Systems, and updated the sound technician's cue book. Now all that is left is the inevitable tweaks.

I also secured the sound and power cords running to the speaker that is setting inside the vintage floor radio on stage, taping them down with good ol' gaffer tape ‐‐ gaffer tape being one of the stage and screen tech's best friends.

Sunday was mostly a day about line work for me, all of pushing toward a more solid off-book status, firming up a Brooklyn (Brighton Beach) Jewish dialect, and tightening my line readings. I went to IDEA: International Dialects of English Archive and pulled up some examples of the dialect to listen to, as well as listening to Moishe Maisel (Kevin Pollak's on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel). Can't say that I've gotten the dialect down 100%, but I am working on it. Working on the dialect is naturally having some effect on the line readings, too, most especially on cadence.

As for working toward a better off-book place, I took my trusty flashcards to the nearby Pearl's Fen and Oakes Quarry Park, and drilled myself while hiking both parks. Also, on Saturday, at the theatre, Wendi Michael and I took a break from doing non-actor things for the show to run the scene once, since we were both there, anyway.

The weeks with me having nights off from rehearsal are now over. This week we're running full acts each night and as I am in both acts, I am now called for every rehearsal from this point forward. Tonight we run all of Act 1, which contains my first, and my longest scene, the Jack & Kate scene, which is somewhere around half my stage time; it's a long scene.

Next week we begin full runs of the show each night.

Gaff-taping down the sound & power cords that go into the set's vintage radio.		Writing the cues into the cue book.
Line study yesterday in the Oakes Quarry Park valley, then on an Oakes Quarry Park overlook, then on the wetland boardwalk at Pearl's Fen.

ON A SHOW-RELATED NOTE, A CALL FOR SOUND TECHNICIAN:

The production is in search of a sound technician. It will be a relatively easy sound plot to execute.

The sound tech would be involved in some rehearsals starting immediately, as there is a need for some cues to be ran even before Tech Week begins.

Rehearsals start at 7:00 pm.

Tech Sunday will be October 30 (call time TBA)
Following tech rehearsals will be Mon-Thu of that week, starting at 7:00 (6:30 call)

Performances are as follows:

Fri, Nov 4 - 8:00 curtain, (call about 7:15)
Sat, Nov 5 - 8:00 curtain, (call about 7:15)
Sun, Nov 6 - 3:00 curtain, (call about 2:15)
Fri, Nov 11 - 8:00 curtain, (call about 7:15)
Sat, Nov 12 - 5:00 curtain, (call about 4:15)
Sun, Nov 13 - 3:00 curtain, (call about 2:15)
Fri, Nov 18 - 8:00 curtain, (call about 7:15)
Sat, Nov 19 - 5:00 curtain, (call about 4:15)
Sun, Nov 20 - 3:00 curtain, (call about 2:15)

Anyone with an interest please contact:
Producer, Scott Madden at redwhtblu3@yahoo.com
or me at kl.storer@daytontheatreguild.org

If you are not interested but know someone who may be, please pass this along.

RICH REGISTRATIONS:

Other than that diverted action, I'm still waiting for word from CD Baby about finalizing everything toward the release date of the album, and I'm laying plans for the promotional DV movie as well as my plans for a release party.

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IT'S NOW ABOUT, AT LEAST, 11:55, MAYBE 11:57, OR LATER:

The album promo project in Final Cut Pro X.

Production of the promotional DV movie for the album is well underway. It's going to be a little longer than I had anticipated. I was thinking of a video of about two minutes but it will be around twice that length. In order to fit all the music samples I want into the promo the longer length is necessary.

There's at least a piece of each of the ten songs included, with two portions of one song, each of the two parts bookending the DV movie. Of course, I can't consider it in final cut until I have the release date to include. I may actually settle on that date later today or tomorrow.

Yesterday, I went to the CD Baby site and saw that Virtually... was added to my catalogue and I was able to start the process of filling in information about it toward the digital release and the sales distribution of the disks.

But there are a couple things I need answers to, specifically if I am to upload the cover art and the sound files or if the music distribution wing will be getting those from CD Baby Manufacturing, who already have those for the physical CDs. So the process on the distribution side is not completed.

Another issue I have is that one of the bits of information I am to provide as the artist is what famous recording artists I sound like. Believe it or not, I am not wholly sure how to answer that. I listed The Beatles, first, because there's no question I am one of the thousands upon thousands who are heavily influenced by them, so I must, to at least some extent, sound like them, especially Paul and John. I, in fact, also listed Paul, separately, since he is clearly my absolute favorite recording artists.

I am to list three artist I sound like, and it's the third that is the real delima. Yesterday, I put Bowie, but mostly because several people told me they think "Just One Shadow" sounds like him; I personally can't hear it, but if several disparate people are making the same observation, it must have merit. But as to me overall giving off a David Bowie vibe, in retrospect, I don't think that has merit. So, when I go back in to finish the process, I hope I can edit that choice and make it something else ‐‐ what that something else is, or who else it is, is now the question of the hour.

But, still, I can feel it: The finish line is only yards, neigh, only feet away!

JACK'S ARRIVAL & SOUND TWEAKS:

Monday and yesterday we ran Act 1. Originally Act 2 was scheduled for last night, but Director Marjorie Strader decided that we should have two nights in a row on each act so Mon/Tue was Act 1, Wed/Thu, Act 2. This was a good call on Margie's part, because though we were all doing an alright job Monday night, everybody did much better last night. Of course, we're none of us at performance level, yet, but for this stage of the game, we are all clearly in more than good shape.

Tweaks to the "finished" sound design have already begun. One sound cue has been cut and one piece of production music will probably be switched out for something new.

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THE RELEASE DATE IS SET:

Technically, the digital album is "in the inspection queue" at CD Baby Music Distribution waiting final approval that all the ducks are in a row, yadda yadda. Since I anticipate no problems or delays, I am putting the November 15 release date out into the world, risking the slight chance that I'm being too impatient.

Stay tuned, because the promotional DV movie will be finished and posted as soon as possible. I am targeting this evening or tomorrow as the final cut and upload points.

Meanwhile, as illustrated in the screenshot above, CD Baby Manufacturing sent me an email yesterday informing me that the CDs have shipped. UPS estimates they will be delivered Monday by 7:00 p.m., but I suspect I'll hold a CD in my hand by lunchtime that day.

As for David Bowie as an artist I sound like, I decided to leave that entry in the meta data. Listening to the master recording of the album, I concluded that, though my voice doesn't sound like his at all, a bit of material does reasonably sound like material he might have written, and there's the occasional melodic line that is vaguely Bowie-esque. It kind of ties into the "Virtually Approximate" stuff, if not the "Subterfuge." The real thing here is: who do I sound the most like, even if not really much like. And I am making the argument to myself that people who like Bowie's music might like mine.

There will also be impending news about a virtual release event, so stay tuned for that.

Then, as the album releases, I'll be finally adding entries to the "on-liner notes" page. I'll probably start with essays on each song in the order of appearance on the album.

WE ARE BOUNDING, QUITE SUCCESSFULLY, FORWARD:

Jack has pretty much arrived now. Sure there's some fine-tuning to do but both Margie (our director) and I are happy with him.

Margie nixed the music I curated as the curtain call music and has asked for a specific piece of music which I will add in before we get to Tech Sunday. Other than that, the only other things we have going on is working to coordinate cues with the specific actors. Tech Week still being more than a week from now, we are certainly ahead of the game as far as sound is concerned.

UPCOMING DTG AUDITION, PLUS:

I am also signed on now as the sound designer for the show, though it's pretty sure that Ms. Sarah Saunders is also on board as my collaborator.

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LADIES, GENTLEMEN, AND ALL THE PEOPLE OF THE LAND, WE HAVE VIDEO:

As promised, I got the first promotional DV movie for the album up and running last night; okay, technically reeeeaaaalll early this morning. This one comes in at a length of 3:37. The future promos for the album will be shorter, but this one has the bare minimum of music that I wanted to include in this first video, which serves the purpose of saying, "Here's the range of music on the album."

A friend made the comment that the younger crowd will likely find three-and-a-half minutes too long, and whereas I agree and was already fully cognizant of this, this first promo isn't targeted at younger people. As I told him, this first promo is "targeted at others 'of a certain age,' represented by people whose names and faces I know, many whom I've known since dirt was new and Keith Richards was young."

That "of a certain age" phrase was part of another discussion with the friend. The promo tag for at least this DV movie, and also that I have used at the Hear Now promo page, is:

An eclectic collection of rock, jazz, and pop from a mid-western boy of a certain age.

The friend suggested that I nixed the word "boy" for something like "'fella' or 'fellow' or...'gent.'" His opinion is that only The Beatles will ever successfully be known as boys in the music biz, "even as they become decrepit." My response to that is that I don't agree at all that John, Paul, George, and Ringo have some exclusive claim on "boy" or "the boys," or that there is a public out there that has that mindset. "Mid-western" removes it even further from any Beatle association. The bottom line, as I told my friend, is that I like the sound of "a mid-western boy of a certain age" and find it wholly appropriate, so it stays.

As for younger people, I certainly will target them, but I have serious doubts that my music is going to appeal much to many of them. I will be thrilled if I appeal to anyone in the younger crowd, but it's not going to be a tragic disappointment of unrealized anticipation if I don't.

But he's spot on about the need for shorter promo videos, a plan that is already in the works.

On the news about the physical CD packages, I checked the UPS site a little earlier today. The shipment is on its way to the Dayton area. The ETA is still Monday by 7 p.m. But as I said before, I bet I have them by noon on Monday.

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THE CD SHIPMENT IS HERE! & THE FORTHCOMING RELEASE PARTY:

My prophesy has come true!

Friday, I wrote, here, that "I'll hold a CD in my hand by lunchtime [today]...." The first photo to the right was taken at 10:40 this morning.

I just can't deny it, it is a thrill to hold my first, published, full-length album in my hand. I'm pleased with how the art turned out in print. The package looks good *(see the pics provided here). I haven't listened, yet, but I have some time at the ol' rent-payer desk today, so that will be taken care of soon.

Over the weekend, I began creating the virtual release party. It's going to be an hour-plus DV movie on my YouTube channel with the audio of all the songs on the album, in song-list order. The imagery is going to be simple, probably one photo per song, and the lyrics will be shown over the images. The Release Party movie will stay up for a limited period of time.

I'll be giving the editing of this movie as much attention as I can, as quickly as I can, because I need it to be in final cut by the album release date, which, as we know, is November 15, just three weeks and a day from today.

Closely on the heels will be putting together those shorter promotional DV movies for the album. Most of which will undoubtedly reach final cut prior to the release party movie.

TECH WEEK BOUND:

However, though we are technically dark Thursday, the idea has been floated of the cast getting together at the theatre, or elsewhere, to do a line run rehearsal. Personally, I'm all for it, and that seems to be the general consensus, so I expect it will happen.

As for tonight's rehearsal, there's a giant chance that this is the last night we actors may call for line. My goal is to not do so. At this point I believe it's time to start finding ways to dig out of the hole if I go up, and not going up in the first place is the better accomplishment, tonight and beyond.

In terms of that goal of not calling line, of not going up, (i.e. being well off-book), I did line drills over the weekend with my trusty flashcards. Most of my line work was done while taking advantage of the lovely weather we had, with me hiking Saturday at John Bryan State Park, then yesterday in the Biology Preserve at Wright State University.

I'm doing well in the off-book game, as reported before. Remember that, as far as I remember, I did not call for line during Thursday's run of Act 2, and remember that no else remembers me doing so that night, either. As to whether I was 100% verbatim from the script, with no paraphrasing, at all, that may be another issue. I don't think I did, and if I did, I don't think it was too far away from Simon's text. Though I did, either Thursday or Wednesday night, at one point in the scene with Saul Caplan (Ben), call him Jack instead of Ben. I can't remember, now, which night that was. But Director Margie Strader did complement me last week for being close to dead-on verbatim with my lines.

Of course, as I wrote in an earlier blog post, speaking exactly the dialogue the playwright has written is always my goal, but with a show like this, where there are particular cultural diction, syntax, and gramar considerations and ones that are slightly different than my own, it's particularly crucial. The odds of me not paraphrasing with my own English usage is pretty slim, so I'm going to be diluting Jack's persona when I do that.

Jack says: "Why do you bring a thing like that up now for?"

If I were to paraphrase that, it would very probably come out: "Why are you bringing that up now?"

That second one is not Jack Jerome, the middle-aged Jewish garment district worker living in the Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn, New York, in 1948. That shit's important, and that's why I walked in the woods with my cue-line flashcards both days this past weekend.

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COPYRIGHTS & AD SPACES:

The process of copyright registration with the U.S. Copyright Office has begun. I have created an on-line user account with the Copyright Office, and have applied for registration of the album, i.e.: the sound recording, and have sent the physical disk to the Copyright Office. I'll be gradually registering all the compositions as I can spare the registration fees.

Of course, I already own all the copyrights, but it does behoove me to have all the rights registered with the Copyright Office.

I have purchased a half-page ad in the DTG playbill for Broadway Bound and have created and provided the art for it. At the moment, I have only purchased a space in the playbill for this show, but will likely put an ad in at least the next playbill, for For the Loyal by Lee Blessing, too, and maybe for the show, or shows, after that, as well.

The advertisement art that will appear in the Broadway Bound playbill at DTG, and with updated variations likely in other playbills.

I'm seriously considering ads in other local theatre playbills, since I do have, at least to some extent, Dayton theatre name recognition. I realize that the last thing I am is a household name, even in the Dayton theatre community, but I'll have at least some notoriety with a portion of the audiences, especially other local actors and theatre production people, 'cause we do make up a decent percentage of the audience at other productions we aren't directly involved with.

In fact, I inquired about ad space in the playbill at the Human Race Theatre Company, but I'd forgotten that, as of right now, they are not yet back to printed playbills and aren't including ads in the digital playbills.

I'm also trying to think of where else it would be wise, or at least not a waste of time and money, to place ads. I wish I had a budget for radio and TV ads, but, I do not. I have looked at some print and on-line media outlet options and those prices are a little out of my range, at least at the moment.

I know I have to get better-schooled in how to take advantage of social media self-promotional opportunities. I have some knowledge, but certainly not a comprehensive amount. It did become clear after reading an article days ago, from CD Baby, that I should probably start a TikTok account. I must admit I am not exactly ecstatic about the idea of attending to another social media account, but we're a couple decades into the third millennium, so today's game is today's game.

CAPPING THE LAST WEEK BEFORE TECH:

Monday was a "Meh" night for me. I just wasn't cookin'. I didn't go up but I wasn't as close to verbatim to the text as I have been, and I called Wendi Michael Blanch several times, rather than Kate. Casandra Engber plays Blanch, and we don't even have a scene together. My performance was also relatively blah. I had a few good moments, but overall: blah.

Tuesday was a better, though I did partially go up on something I've never gone up on before. I didn't need to call for line, (I pulled a paraphrase out of my ass), but it was a particular piece of text that has never eluded me before. I also did a few other paraphrases, none about which I am happy. Otherwise, it was a pretty good night for me and Jack, despite that Director Marjorie Strader gave me a few notes to do things I thought I was doing, so I clearly need to make those things more pronounced so they communiate better to "the audience."

On Wednesday, however, I 100% went up on a line, and never was able to retrieve it. It was, again, something that I have not had problems with before. I did not resort to calling for line because, at this point of the game, I think I need to be pulling myself out of the hole as if I'm in front of the audience. Yet, I did not pull myself out of that hole, unfortunately. Wendi pulled me out by moving on in the scene. There were a couple other places where I paraphrased, not horribly, but I was not faithful to the text. I forgot a piece of blocking during a scene, too. It was simply that I forgot to take my suit jacket off and leave it in a particular spot. I was able to work around it, but it was a mental note for me to remember that action. The characterization of Jack was good on Wednesday, but the line flubs put it again, overall, on the level of "Meh," in my book.

Last night we had a line run rehearsal. Once again, I went up on something that I have never had a problem with before. Not sure what's up here. I don't think I'm into hubris. I don't believe I'm taking anything for granted. Maybe it's just a case of a little fatigue. Whatever it is. I clearly need to run lines as much as I can.

Even though we haven't technically gone into tech, yet, there have been some opportunities to adjust some volume levels, since we've been running sound during a few specific spots. I've also added one sound cue as well as swapping out the curtain music, as planned.

Wendi Michael (Kate) & Me (Jack), in rehearsal, Tuesday. ‐‐ photo: Rick Flynn

In front, Dustin Schwab (Eugene), in back, Michael Ferrarelli (Stanley), also Tuesday. ‐‐ photo: Rick Flynn

Wendi & Saul Caplan (Ben), during Wednesday rehearsal.

Cassandra Engber (Blanche) during last night's line run rehearsal.

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AND TECH WEEK BEGINS:

Today is, of course, Tech Sunday, and I will be heading into the theatre shortly after uploading this blog post. I'll start the day off wearing the sound designer hat, and will have to periodically wear it today and during the rest of Tech Week. This morning I will be addressing a few volume levels that need to be adjusted slightly in the SCS software. But my hope is that, overall today and from now on, I can wear the actor's hat predominantly and focus far more on Jack than on sound design.

Part of yesterday's multi-tasking: fixing dinner while drilling my lines with my flashcards. A dude's gotta eat....

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NEW PROMO DV MOVIE:

TECH WEEK & A TRAILER:

I did have a couple weird line glitches last night, however. I, once again, went up on a line that I've not had problems with before. I also called Saul Caplan's character Bill rather than the appropriate Ben; I have no idea where that came from. So, it's clear that I still should carry on with my line work.

Last night, we only ran Act 2. Director Margie Strader felt we were much more solid on Act 1 and decided that we could work on several issues in Act 2, including some timing for both actors and the sound techs for two sections of the act. We have two sound techs who will each cover some of the total of nine performances, and the second tech was only able to finally join us last night, so for her sake, as well some timing practice for the actors, we ran both the sound-heavy sections twice. Plus, since we didn't do the whole show, we were wrapped a little earlier than we would have been, to which I don't believe anyone objected.

I shot the footage for the promotional trailer Monday night and edited the DV movie together and posted it yesterday. Click here for the Broadway Bound promotional trailer.

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Click here for the promotional trailer of the show

And, Opening Night is upon us.

Our director, Marjorie Strader, said on Wednesday night, during notes, that we were ready for an audience, and I agree 100%. We had two good finishing rehearsals. I was happier with my work on Wednesday night than I was with my work at last night's Final Dress, but I wasn't unhappy with last night's work; I just felt a little better about the night before.

Especially, I felt my scene with Wendi Michael (the Kate & Jack scene) went exceptionally well. It was still in damn good shape last night, but we were really on fire Wednesday night, Wendi even maybe more so than I. That's not to cheat my other two scenes or those scene mates. Everybody was on top of it both nights. Michael Ferrarelli (Stanley) has been hitting it out of the park when Stanley confronts Dear Ol' Pop. Everybody's perfomances are strong all the way through the show. I do know I'm perhaps a tad bias but I stand by my analysis.

SO....

Three of the official production photos, taken at Wednesday night Dress by Rick Flynn. From left to right, (across the three photos): Me as Jack, Wendi Michael as Kate, Michael Ferrarelli as Stanley, Dustin Schwab as Eugene, Cassandra Engber as Blanche, and Saul Caplan as Ben.
A photo of the photographer, Rick Flynn, with Director Marjorie Strader in the background.	A little peek behind the scenes: the dressing room area.
Behind the scenes, again, in the greenroom: the snack table and the monitor screen.		My half-page ad for my album, Virtually Approximate Subterfuge, in the Broadway Bound playbill.

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OPENING WEEKEND ROCKED!:

I know a few other actors had some minor line flubs over the weekend, either because I was in scene with them or because they spoke of the flubs. I certainly had a few, but none of them were horrible, and I would guess no audience member caught on. I think that's true of everyone's little errors.

One example for me is a line that I had to think fast to fix. Jack (being me) says to Kate (Wendi Michael), according to the script: "Because I know where I belong." Kate's following line then throws the word "belong" back at Jack, twice. During one performance, I believe it was Saturday, I paraphrased the line as, "Because I know my place," but fortunately, I instantly realized Wendi needed to have "belong" to throw back at me, so my line that performance became:

Because I know my place, I know where I belong

Little line curfuffles aside, we all rocked our performances as our characters, even if I do say so from A place of extreme bias. Certainly, I was happy with my work as Jack, and those whom I did scenes with all gave back to me as much as I gave to them. And, Cassandra Engber, who plays Blanche and with whom I do not have a scene, gave three stellar performances in her role, as I watched from the monitor in the greenroom.

So, yeah, we had a good opening weekend.

Meanwhile, I did my line-work drilling in the great outdoors as much as possible. Saturday I did a hike at George Rogers Clark Park, without bringing my flashcards. I ran the lines from memory and was able to thusly employ my hiking stick. Sunday I went to Mad River Gorge & Nature Preserve, a much flatter area, so I had the flashcards, and I ran the whole show four times during my time there. During these first few days, this week, before we get to our brush-up rehearsal this Thursday evening, I will still run my lines no less than once per day.

Saturday afternoon at George Rogers Clark Park, hiking and running lines from memory
Then, Sunday, late morning at Mad River Gorge, hiking and running lines, this time with the flashcards.

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ALBUM RELEASE & VIRTUAL RELEASE PARTY, COMING IN ONE WEEK:

I did a bit of editing on the virtual release party DV movie last night. I have a bit more to do. Fortunately, between dark nights at The Guild this week and having Friday off from the rent-payer, I'll have enough time to get the whole, hour-plus movie ready for consumption next Tuesday. Click here for the album release party page.

There should be enough time to whip up at least one more short trailer for the album release, as well, if not more than one.

I also need to start thinking about mailing CDs to public radio stations and such. I'm not 100% sure how effective that will be, but it still seems like I ought to take the action.

'NOUGH SAID:

Yeah, I did the democracy thing today, and voted in favor of it rather than third-millennium American fascism.

Not to be too political or anything.

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AS THE RELEASE DATE APPROACHES:

Production of the DV movie that will be the virtual release party continues. At the moment the movie is 70 minutes long, but that length will change, likely to a few minutes shorter. I suppose I could estimate the completion at about 50%, perhaps a little less. I am adding lyrics to songs in the current stage of editing. Commentary of one type or another, during instrumental sections, will be next, and will probably begin tomorrow.

In the process of the copyright registrations for the various elements of the album, I have learned that the phonogram copyright (the sound recording copyright) does not cover the artwork, that must be registered separately. I'm now trying to learn if I can register the whole of the album package design as one unit or if each element needs to be registered separately. I also am not sure which form is the appropriate one to use. I should probably seek legal advice from a copyright attorney, and it may come to that.

THE CAST OF FOR THE LOYAL:

CHARACTER		ACTOR
Mia		Heather Atkinson
Toby		George Merusi *(recasting)
Coach Tanner Hale		John S. Kasper
Coach Mitch Carlson		Robert Brumberg
The Boy		Casen Kidd *(recasting)

Speaking of Mr. Blessing, I have secured permission from him to use dialogue from the script in the promotional trailer for our production. I was confident that would happen, as he has granted such twice in the past, for our 2012 mounting of Going to St. Ives and our 2014 mounting of Nice People Dancing to Good Country Music. Mr. Blessing is always amenable and generous about this request.

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STILL PUTTING THE RELEASE PARTY TOGETHER:

Production of the virtual release party DV movie still continues. It will pretty much be most of my afternoon today. I got up mid-morning ‐‐ (it IS a holiday and a day off from the rent-payer, so, you know, I'm not getting up at the crack of dawn) ‐‐ and I do have some other business to attend to today, mostly social media stuff promoting Broadway Bound at The Guild.

I am still dropping lyric text into the movie. I have four songs left to do so with. Then I'll move on to adding commentary text: facts and info about the songs and the making of the album. The goal, the HARD finish line is by end of day Sunday. I want to have the movie in final cut and rendered before Monday, and certainly before Tuesday, since it is scheduled to go live Tuesday at noon.

OUR SOPHOMORE WEEKEND BEGINS TONIGHT:

Last night our brush-up rehearsal was an Italian run, with only some specific sound cues employed to keep timing fresh for the actors. Other than that, there was no tech nor even costumes, except for one actor who did work with his necktie in a scene; also, I did use my hoody sweater as Jack's dress coat in a couple scenes. These are both cases where we have business with those clothing items.

NEXT OPEN AUDITIONS AT THE GUILD:

Auditions will be held Mon & Tue, Jan 16 & 17, 2023, starting at 7:00 pm both nights. Auditions will consist of cold readings from the script. A résumé and headshot are not required but are appreciated. Please provide a list of all known conflicts between Jan 18 & Apr 2, 2023. All cast and crew are required to be vaccinated for COVID-19 Albert Einstein: 60s to early 70s Margaret/Lieserl: mid to late 40s Miss Helen Dukas: 50s *Note on character ages: The director is less concerned with your actual age as she is with whether you can play the ages listed above as near as possible. Do not let concern about your age prevent you from auditioning! *Note on dialect: Both Albert and Miss Dukas will have a slight German accent. Give it a try at auditions, but do not focus on making sure it is perfect! For more information please contact me at kl.storer@daytontheatreguild.org The show runs weekends Mar 17-Apr 2, 2023 First Weekend: Friday 8pm, Saturday 8pm, Sunday 3pm Second & Third Weekend: Friday 8pm, Saturday 5pm, Sunday 3pm

As Lee Blessing recently did for our production of his play, Mark St. Germain has also granted us clearance to use dialogue from this show in its promotional DV movie. Let's see what happens with Christopher Shinn and his adaptation of Hedda Gabler, which closes out the DTG season.

PROGRESS ON THE ALBUM RELEASE PARTY:

Still working toward final cut on the DV-movie virtual album release party, which is still scheduled to go live tomorrow at noon Eastern U.S. Daylight Savings Time. All the lyrics have been dropped into the movie and I am now in the midst of adding the commentary text. It's going to make for a full evening for me tonight. I'm also sure that rendering the movie will take some time. It's going to be 60 to 70 minutes long with a lot of text overlays, which take a bit of processing memory and time to render. However, I don't anticipate not going live with the final cut on time.

A GOOD SECOND WEEKEND:

We did get a standing O Saturday night, but it was almost a sold-out house. The Saturday audience was also very responsive during the show, laughing harder and more often than any other house we've had. They even laughed at a few things in the Kate & Jack scene that none of us have considered comedy material.

Sunday was another smaller house, a quiet house, but the feedback after the show was still positive.

This 2nd icon is really for musical vocals, but it's close enough to work.

My voice started to give on me during performance Saturday, in my first scene, that Kate & Jack scene. I was able to maintain vocal projection but my vocal trouble had to be obvious to at least the more theatre-astute members of the audience. My later night at home, while working on the album release party movie, which is the subject of the above entry, included several cups of Throat Coat tea, as did my whole day, yesterday.

In fact, I was constantly drinking the tea, with honey and lemon juice, as well as sucking on a cough drop pretty much every moment I wasn't on stage, yesterday. For the most part my voice held up quite well, but I did have a couple moments, especially in the scene with Jack's two sons, where at one point he yells at them. During that section my voice started to give on me, but I made it through. I will continue the throat care for the next several days, hoping to get my voice into peak shape for next weekend.

My voice maintenance on Sunday: lots of Throat Coat, with lemon juice and honey, and constant cough drops.

THE ALBUM HAS RELEASED!:

The album has finally released, only fifteen months later than my original goal. But, the damn thing's out! And as you see, the virtual release party is on-line. Go check the album out. And, just let me put this thought in your head: capturing the music without purchasing it is not anywhere in the relam of supporting an artist and that artist's blood, sweat and tears. Just a thought to put out there.

MORE ON THE VIRTUAL RELEASE PARTY, AND WHERE ALBUM AVAILABILITY CURRENTLY STANDS:

For the record, the DV movie made final cut maybe about two hours before it went live. That would have been a much earlier time, say, five or six hours earlier, but, after having rendered the movie, and even after having then rendered the compressed version for upload to YouTube, I caught some serious typos and grammatical errors in the commentaries that, in my fatigue and haste, I did not catch as I proofread while composing.

I had to go back in, edit those passages, then re-render both the master DV movie and the compressed version. YouTube finished processing the video for live-stream literally minutes before the scheduled noon debut. Actually, only the standard definition version was fully processed at that time; the high definition version wasn't done until a few minutes after noon. It's up now, and, I'm ashamed to say, with at least two errors: a missing grammatical article "a," and one instance of "it's" when it should be "its." If there are other errors, I don't want to ever know about them.

But the party is on-line and live!!

The only place, at the moment, that it seems the album is available for sale is at Amazon.com, and only the physical CD seems to be available for purchase, not the download. It's not available for download at iTunes, yet, either. I also don't think it's streaming yet on any platform. And I have not yet set things up to order the CD directly from me, either. I have no control over the other stuff, but the last one is for me to deal with.

Monday evening during a long editing session to get the virtual release party movie to final cut, first at the computer desk in my bedroom, then at my office desk in the living room, where I moved to break up the monotony, with a dinner break thrown in there.

The CD is available at Amazon

UNOFFICIAL BRUSH-UP:

Last night Wendi Michael and I ran our scene in an unofficial brush-up after I'd finished with some unrelated business at The Guild. Of course, I have also been running my lines on my own.

SHOOTING AN AUDITION:

The set up for the three-camera shoot for the audition.

Fred Blumenthal

Yesterday, the Dayton Theatre Community lost a titan with the passing of Fred Blumenthal, and I lost a friend. Fred was a long-time Dayton Theatre Guild member, and long-time Dayton Theatre Community veteren, who appeared on stage, directed, designed sets, did graphic artwork (he designed the specific comedy/tragedy faces for the Guild logo), and was a pillar of local theatre, an elder statesman.

An inductee into the Dayton Theatre Hall of Fame, Fred has appeared in or directed many productions at the Guild. He also been on The Human Race Theatre Company stage and on the stage at The Phoenix Theatre in Indianapolis ‐‐ both professional venues. He has directed and appeared on many other theatre stages, as well. And he's appeared in several films.

Fred was been an active member at DTG for most of it's existence, starting in 1953 at the age of 18. He only was away from active involvement while serving in the military. I first encountered Fred when, as a high school student and member of the Wilbur Wright High School Thesbian Club, I attended the dress rehearsal of the Guild's first mounting of Neil Simon's Sunshine Boys, circa 1975. He was on stage playing opposite another local theatre legend, Ken Hardin.

It would be about three decades later when I would encounter Fred again. This time it was in late 2003 at the auditions for the DTG production of The Cripple of Inishmaan. I distinctly remember him expressing how incompetent he thought George W. Bush was as president. I also remember that I recognized him from Sunshine Boys all those years before.

I won the role of Johnnypat in that play, and I remember that Fred also auditioned for it, and his audition intimidated the crap out of me. Fred, the gracious man that he was, told me later that he had wanted the role very much but that the director, Greg Smith, had made the right call, and that I had done a superb job as Johnnypat. That's a class act.

Not long after that, I was a new member on the DTG Board of Directors, where Fred had been a member for many years, so we became colleagues and we became friends. In our time together at The Guild, I have produced three separate shows that Fred directed: Fuddy Mirrors, Heroes, and 45 Seconds from Broadway. In that last one, I was also on stage, directed by him. I'm sorry to write that we never appeared on stage together.

My favorite story to tell about Fred is the time he name-dropped, but not really on purpose. It was the summer of 2016. As relevant background, it was about a half-year after I had my heart attack and the subsequent open-heart surgery. Fred and I were in the lobby of The Guild. I don't remember the circumstance, but I believe we were the only two in the building. He asked me what theatre plans I had coming up, what shows would I be working on as a producer, sound designer, or hopeful auditioner. I knew of one I was producing in the upcoming 2016/2017 season at DTG, and I believe I was on board to design sound for a few, but I wasn't sure about auditioning.

I had recently auditioned for a show that would be up at the start of the new season at another theatre in town. I had not been cast. I told Fred that I had ultimately realized that I wasn't ready to do a show at all, that I was wanting to go to bed every night at about 7:00, 8:00 at the latest. I was still in recovery from my heart attack and surgery. I had even refrained from auditioning for the generals at HRTC for the new season, because I didn't see myself working 40 hours a week at the rent-payer then putting in another 30+ hours at rehearsals.

Then the conversation went on like this:

FRED: "Well, you know my friend Jamie Farr? We were talking on the phone a few weeks ago. The Pasadena Playhouse where he started has an anniversary coming up and they called him about being in a show to celebrate. And he told me, 'Fred, I'm almost eighty-two, I just don't think I can do eight shows a week for several weeks.'"

ME: (A smallish pregnant pause, then) "Okay, well, Fred, I have two things to say. First ‐ Your friend, Jamie Farr?. And second ‐ Jamie Farr is eighty-two!?"

It turns out that Fred and Jamie have been friends since serving together in the military, and they have stayed in touch over the years, always being sure to at least call each other on their birthdays.

Like so many others, I have many fond memories of Fred, not as many as a lot of others will have, by shear number of years they out-rank me in having known Fred, but still, I have many.

When you produced for Fred, you could count on the show going over budget. Fred ignored the ceiling on expenditures. "K.L.," Fred would bark, (but not an aggressive bark, just a get-your-attention bark), "I have some receipts for you!" This when we were perilously close to, or already over, the budget max. Fred didn't care about that, he cared about realizing his vision. Fred was always the set designer when he directed and he was the set decorator or was heavily involved in set decoration. Most of the budget busting had to do with one or the other, or both. But, his sets were always first rate. As the producer, I just had to accept that he was going over budget; the theatre had to accept it, too, because it was going to happen, but at least not frivolously.

For reasons too in depth to go into, the 2012 production of Heroes had some big challenges to overcome, challenges with problems that as producer I was charged with solving. When the show was wrapped, Fred took me to a really nice Italian restaurant as a thank you. Fred and I went to lunch or dinner several times over the years; he always insisted on picking up the check. We hadn't done that for a long time. We were suppose to sometime soon. We kept mentioning it. Then he fell ill.

I was very fond of Fred and was gratified that he seemed to be very fond of me. Plus, I remember once telling him that if I can figure out a way to successfully and logically sneak a Beatle song into the music for a show, I would. And he said he would, too. Spot him 95 out of 100 points for that!

Goodbye Fred, my friend, you are already missed.

Fred on the set of 45 Seconds from Broadway, which he directed, giving his practice curtain speech at dress rehearsal.

WHERE THE ALBUM WAS BRIEFLY UNAVAILABLE AND WHERE IT IS AVAILABLE ‐ PLUS THE ALBUM BOOKLET PDF FOR DOWNLOAD:

I suspected what had happened and my suspicion was correct. CD Baby, who administers my song composition publishing rights, had slapped a copyright claim on the movie and put a block on it.

I think the action comes from a coded algorithm, so even though CD Baby is acting "on the behalf of K.L.Storer," the facts were not detected that the movie was posted by "K.L.Storer" to the YouTube channel owned by "K.L.Storer" and bearing "K.L.Storer" as the channel name.

I disputed the claim. I had to do a separate dispute for each of the ten songs on the album, and, correspondingly, in the movie. Right now the release party movie is live again on YouTube. I would assume that once the dispute forms get to CD Baby, they'll see my argument that I am both the creator and the copyright owner of the content and they will lift the claim that calls for blocking the content.

There is actually supposed to be a copyright claim from them on the content. That, so CD Baby can monetized the content to collect my composers royalties. But they can't do that if the movie is blocked.

Obviously, the block was more than a little inconvenient, and I wasn't thrilled that the party was unavailable for some period of time; I'm not sure when the block went up, but I believe it was over the weekend. One the other hand, it's good to see that CD Baby is that aggressive about potential copyright infringement.

Looks like the album is now almost fully available ‐‐ or should that be "virtually" fully available? Here are what I guess can be called the big venues:

Amazon.com ‐ where you can purchase the physical CD or a download of the album (or songs from it) iTunes ‐ to purchase downloads Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify, Pandora, and YouTube Music ‐ to stream the album

The songs have also been delivered to quite a few other services, some international. Some of that list follows:

• 7digital ‐ downloading
• Adaptr ‐ music licensing
• Anghami ‐ downloading
• AWA.fm ‐ streaming
• Deezer ‐ streaming
• facebook ‐ streaming
• iHeart Radio ‐ streaming
• Live X One (formerly Slacker Radio) ‐ streaming
• MediaNet ‐ music licensing
• Napster ‐ streaming
• PlayNetwork ‐ music licensing
• Qobuz ‐ streaming, downloading, & CDs
• Resso ‐ streaming & downloading
• Shazam ‐ music identifier
• Tidal Music ‐ streaming
• TikTok Music ‐ streaming
• TouchTunes ‐ restaurant & bar jukebox music streaming

As for income that I've earned, directly from revenue collected by CD Baby, as of last night, I have 54¢ coming to me. I didn't look close enough to see what that was generated by (streaming or downloads), but this is income due me since the first single release in August of 2021. I won't receive payment until I have accumulated $20 or more. On the other hand, I have taken in $40 from direct, in-person cash sales.

I'll be heading to the Lamborghini dealership in just weeks now, I'm sure.

I am not sure how I get this word out to those who download the album, but I have made a PDF of the booklet available to download here. iTunes used to include a PDF of album booklets with the purchase of a full album. They are not doing that any more. I have no indication that anyone else offers such, either. So, for those who purchase the album via download and are lucky enough to stumble upon my site, the booklet is available here.

There will be a dedicated page at the site for the booklet, soon, between tomorrow and the next few days. But for now....

Click here for the Virtually Approximate Subterfuge album booklet PDF

THE WRAP-UP:

Saturday, however, was probably the stinker of the run. It was, relatively speaking, our disaster show, though admittedly, if that was our disaster show, our run was in good shape. Still, there were all sorts of weird moments and line flubs. I had several. My biggest one came in my second scene.

If you are some sort of a regular here you may remember me writing about "that" monologue, or really, "that" passage, the one that was such a convoluted run-on sentence that it was a bear for me to get down. I did, I am happy to report, conquer it, except for Saturday night.

The passage as written starts thusly:

Well, I'll tell you something else. Not only do these walls have ears, the walls on the house next door have them, and the house next to that one have them....

This past Saturday, that particular section of the passage came out my mouth as:

Well, I'll tell you something else. Not only does this house have walls, but the house next door has them, and the house next to that one have them....

Other actors had line blunders, and one actor choked on some food on stage, which threw that actor for a bit afterward. Another actor tripped on stage. Saturday still was not a horrible performance by any measure, and the audience gave us good feedback afterward. So, again, it was only our "disaster show" relative to the other eight performances.

We all agree that we went out on a bang. The consensus of us all is that our closing show was our best one. This despite that I dropped a line. It didn't destroy the point Jack was making at that moment, but his point would have been stronger had the line been included. That was during the Jack and Kate scene, and even with that little minor screw-up the scene went it's best that day; and it's always gone well.

All three of my scenes popped on Sunday. Every scene I was able to watch of the others popped well, too. We absolutely went out on a high note.

This production has been a damn fine one, all the way around. We had great direction from Marjorie Strader and a really strong cast with everyone giving fine, fine performances.

Wendi Michael gave such a strong performance as Kate, giving the woman the full range of her humanity. And MAJOR kudos to Wendi for tackling and mastering all those gothic monologues!

Dustin Schwab's Eugene was exactly the affable, genuine persona that was called for. His easy relationship with the audience as he broke the fourth wall to address them with his asides was as close to perfect as it could be.

For only his third outing on stage, and his first time in such a big role, Michael Ferrarelli rocked the shit out playing Stanley! Our stand-off in the Jack and the Boys scene was always intense and powerful, and at least half the credit always went to Michael.

Dustin and Michael, in fact, really brought off the energy and dynamics of two brothers experiencing sibling love and sibling rivalry.

This was, I believe, my fourth time on stage with Saul, though in two prior shows our characters did not directly interact. Saul's Grandpa Ben here was equal parts funny and dramatic and he carried it off with finesse and weight. Our one scene together in this was always strong and it was a joy to finally play something with him on stage with such significance.

Cassandra Engber only got one scene as Blanche, but it was a well-written, meaty scene that gave her the chance to give us a wonderfully emotionally expansive performance, and she delivered.

As for me. It's difficult to judge the actual merit of my own performance, of course. All I can say is that I felt good about it, and I got a lot of really good compliments from not only my castmates, my director, and the other company members, but those who sat in the seats. After all, it's the audience ‐‐ that's the end game: the audience's experience is the game. So, I think I did alright; I think my Jack was effective.

We had a great production team, too. Scenic Designer Ranger Puterbaugh gave us a lovely set to play on. Jason Vogel was on top of his lighting design. My sound design was at least up to par. I'd love to take credit for the Chubby Waters radio program, for having produced and recorded it, but, that was supplied to us by Concord Theatricals. I also have to add, that I was relieved they provided it, because it would have been a lot of time and effort to produce the radio program sound files, and I am not at all upset I didn't have to.

My biggest contribution as the sound designer was to have the radio program, as well as the pre-show and intermission music come out of the vintage floor-model radio on set, rather than from the overhead PA speakers. It was especially effective, I believe, while the family on stage listened to the radio program.

Kerry Simpson, usually on stage, was our stage manager, keeping her cool despite the million-and-one things she was responsible for every show.

Carol Finley will probably win another DayTony, to throw on the top of the mountain she already has of them, for her precise costume design for the show. And, though many may not have noticed, Deirdre Root gave Ben (Saul) a great mock-up of a period newspaper to read every night.

And in the booth we had Rhea Smith (also our assistant stage manager), who was our ever-dependable lighting tech. Sarah Saunders and Ashley Ahmed split duties as the sound tech. Sarah, who is an old hand, was, of course, on top of it on her nights; Ashely, who is new to us, but not at all new to theatre, was also on top of it. I told Ashley that she's on our radar now!

As for Margie's direction. She was easy to be directed by and did exactly what I believe a director should do. She directed us toward the goal of her vision, the certain feel and affect she wanted, but she also was wise enough to let us actors find things that might not have occurred to her. That is a director with wisdom and brains, one who knows to trust her actors and creative team. She rarely said no to an idea, and only when it went too counter to her vision, her personal goal. And she absolutely had insight into the script and its inhabitants.

As our castmate Saul Caplan said, at our last gathering, dinner after the Sunday set strike, "This was one for the books." I will forever have fond memories of this show. No back stage drama, no bullshit, seriously strong work from everyone involved. Can't ask for anything more than that!

THE CAST OF BROADWAY BOUND BACK (left to right): Dustin Schwab, me, Michael Ferrarelli FRONT (left to right): Wendi Michael, Saul Caplan, Cassandra Engber

The Happy ThanksGiving I wish you is the one that celebrates friends and family coming together for commensality in celebration of the things for which we should be thankful. I don't recognize the mythology surrounding the propoganda of that so-called "historical first ThanksGiving dinner." Just for the record. And once again, Happy ThanksGiving. K.L.

THE ALBUM'S CD BOOKLET IS NOW AVAILABLE TO DOWNLOAD:

As I have written before, the booklet that accompanies the physical CD version of the album does not accompany any of the digital download versions of the album. There was a time when at least iTunes automatically provided a PDF of any booklet for an album ‐‐ I have purchased several digital versions of albums from them in the past where I also got such a document. But iTunes no longer does that, and I was not asked to provide the booklet in PDF format for any other digital download vendor.

So, I am providing it for download from this website. I now have the official page up and running for the CD booklet PDF. I am not sure how to get the word out to those who might purchase a digital download, but here it is for those who somehow stumble across the information.

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1) OH YEAH! ‐‐ WHERE TO PURCHASE THE ALBUM; 2) AND ME, A PRACTICING MUSICIAN?:

It was pointed out to me that there were no clear indications on the site of where the album is available for purchase and/or streaming. There was supposed to be; I made plans for a page with that information then got distracted by other ventures and let that slip through the cracks. Since the release, that album info has been spattered about in blog posts but wasn't on the album page or any of the related pages, with the exception of links to its hearnow.com, which gives such info, but I did not explain that fact. I fixed that last night after having been reminded about the lack of clear, easy signposts to find links, etc. The dedicated page is up as well as clear directions to that page.

The page is here: Where to Purchase or Stream the Album.

I'm also going to be shortly, and finally, setting up a page to sell the album from my site, personally. As well, I'll offer the physical CDs for the first two singles. Someone also mentioned other merch like t-shirts; I think there probably ought to be some sort of a fanbase first before I presume it's time for the likes of t-shirts.

This past January, I finished the album, by finishing "Cozy Anxious Chaos." I erred in the liner notes for the album and said I finished in December of 2021, but, what-a-ya-gonna-do? Here's the thing: I have not played an instrument since I wrapped recording the album.

Nothing. None. Nadda.

I am not a big fan of the new year's resolution, but I definitely have to resolve to, you know, actually be a practicing musician on a regular basis. Of course, I have come to this conclusion before, and I have commented on this before in this blog.

There was a time when I played at least an hour almost everyday, and often a few hours, especially on band nights, obviously. I don't know if there would be that kind of time commitment these days, but it's pretty shameful that I have had none of my basses nor my piano out of their cases for ten months. I cannot let that happen again.

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REMINDER THAT TODAY IS GIVING TUESDAY:

Here is an official statement from Dayton Theatre Guild As we know, Tuesday, November 29 is Giving Tuesday. We at the Dayton Theatre Guild would greatly appreciate it if we were one of the organizations that you remember as you plan out your end of year giving. Help us continue our mission of providing entertainment, encouraging the advancement of theatre art, and providing the opportunity for cultural and technical growth through experiences in live theatre, as we continue to give you "Good theatre done well." Dayton Theatre Guild 430 Wayne Ave. Dayton, OH 45410 www.daytontheatreguild.org/donations

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1) THE SINGLES' MUSIC VIDEOS WITH THE REMASTERED AUDIO; 2) THE VIRTUAL RELEASE PARTY IS OVER:

Here, are the links to the new versions ‐‐ the visual content has not changed from the originals, only the remastered audio is new:

• "Just One Shadow"
• "The Night Before the Night Before Christmas"

Check the new configuration of the page here.

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AN ARRAY OF MUSIC-RELATED ITEMS:

At the time that this blog entry is posted, promo 4 can be seen at the bottom of this page; and it's on the front page for the website, and on the page for the album. Otherwise, click here to see it.

Recently, I have had several recommendations that I should probably start a TikTok account, too. So, as much as I'm chagrinned, personally, to get involved with another social medium, I will probably succumb. Of course, I know virtually nothing about TikTok, so there's another learning curve to navigate.

I also need to start sending promotional copies of the album to public radio stations. I have only done so with my local one, WYSO, though I have no indication that said station has taken notice, i.e.: I'm not aware of any airplay. But my hope is that the disk made it to their library and not the trash can.

In September of 2021, pretty much when this website went live, I started the On-Liner Notes page. The idea is to have a dynamic on-line place for targeted self-commentary on my songs and recordings. I hadn't posted anything since September 22 of last year, with the entry, "The Album Project," Today I add, "Opening Track Off Virtually Approximate Subterfuge ‐ 'Identity.'" I'll be gradually adding commentary in each song off the album, in playlist order. So next up will be something about "The Night Before the Night Before Christmas."

About a week-and-a-half ago I once again blogged here about how I have a habit of not being a "practicing" musican, how I only seem to regularly play my basses or my keyboards when I am actively working on something ‐‐ writing and/or recording. This week I have been moving into what I am determined to make the new normal, the new habit: to pull those damn instruments out and practice, to woodshed, on a regular basis, to not only keep myself up-to-speed, but to actually achieve that process of ever-increasing skill level I bemoan not engaging in.

Certainly on bass I am far below where I want to be, where I ought to be on all of speed, precision, and finesse. Hell, let's be honest, I could stand to have a better grasp of proper hand positioning on the fret board. No formal training, whatsoever, will do that, or, I suppose, not do that for you.

To be clear, I am happy with my creativity on the bass. I believe I compose pretty nice bass lines, that are creative and quite musical. But they are within my technical skillset, which is not any sort of high level, at all. I am happy with what I have created, in terms of judging the compositions on their own merit, but, my constructive criticism of my work must acknowledge that were my skills better, the parts would be better. I've done good with what I could, but had I more, I do more.

One of the things I really ought to do, and am going to attempt to force myself to do, is learn some bass lines by others that I admire. I should target parts that are beyond my skill set, to the endgame that mastering them forces improvement. That's not at all an original idea; it's been the way most musicians, especially in rock, pop, and jazz, have honed their craft. I have spent most of my time on bass working on original material. Even back in my twenties, when I was in a band that did covers, I often only vaguely worked out the lines from the recordings of the songs we were doing. I need to purposefully attempt faithful renditions of the bass lines from players who have something to teach me: McCartney, John Entwistle, Flea, Jaco, James Jamerson, Geddy Lee, Carol Kaye, Chris Squire, Tina Weymouth, the list can go on for a quite a bit longer.

Some of these players and their bass lines will be a much taller order than others, but they are the targets to aim for, they have the magic to aspire toward. These players, plus a longer list of others, have their own lessons to teach within their styles, choices, and amazing skillsets. I have that down intellectually, now the action is to embrace it and form a new habit, and take some journeys to conquer the mountains of some kickass bass lines*.

*The loud, agonized moans you will be hearing from just a little north-east of Dayton will be me, frustrated as I engage in the mountain climbing.

I Might also consider woodshedding the bass work off Virtually Approximate Subterfuge, most of which I would have to completely relearn, as I haven't played any of it since recording each part.

Then, there is the keyboard, where I have even less proficiency....

Me, being a "practicing bass player" the last several days this week.

MY DEPARTURE FROM 2022:

The first choice was to rent a cabin or cottage, but, I really can't afford it this year. In the scheme of things, it won't be a lot of money, but for me, right now, it is a lot of money. My credit card is pretty hot right now, my bank account is anemic, and I still have some postproduction business expenses for the album. I really would love to go away for this coming retreat, and I really so desire that it be in a cabin or a cottage, but it's not at all probable I'll go anywhere.

This one is almost assuredly going to be a stay-at-home Artist's Retreat, so the giant question mark, above, is not as much about where it will happen as it is about what will happen. Music is certainly going to be a part of it. There are, however, a few musical options on the table.

I have the old, four-track, analogue master tapes of the first, and as of now, unpublished, album, which I recorded, back in the mid 80s. I have already digitized that stuff once, but I think I want to do that again. Then I'll mix the album and master it. There's also one song that still needs a bass part; I'd add that after I have re-digitized. I also have an ambient-sound album that I put together eight years ago for the Dayton Playhouse production of George Romero's Night of the Living Dead™, for the pre-show, based on suggestions from the director, Geoff Burkman. I have plans to master and market that, too. Though I am loathed to admit it, it might actually be the most marketable thing I have.

There's also starting new songs. It would be lovely if I started at least one new song, or, worked more on some things that have already been started. It's safe to assume I'll be woodshedding on bass, and perhaps the piano and maybe other keyboards, too.

There's also that play manuscript, setting in the midst of draft number 5f. I haven't worked on it for a little while. The next thing that needs be done is to kill some little darlings, to both eliminate redundancies and also to help momentum from being bogged down. In other words, I have some tightening up to do. It can be difficult to determine what should be cut, made more concise, or left as is. But this is something that easily deserves at least a little attention over the course of my little Artist's Retreat.

There are several plays by others I need to read to satisfies various personal agendas, too.

So, regardless of where it takes place, this Winter Artist's Retreat should be busy.

THE TENNESSEE KID IS COMING TO TOWN AND I'LL BE THERE:

Well, it's a half year away, but I splurged and got myself a premium ticket to see one my favorite newer stand-ups, Nate Bargatze. And I got a good seat for the June 2 show ‐‐ virtually center in the second row!

Bargatze was featured a couple years ago on Netflix's The Standups, and has since done two really funny specials on Netflix: The Tennessee Kid and Greatest Average American. And he has an earlier special titled, Full Time Magic, which appears to have originated on Amazon Prime. If you haven't seen his act, I highly recommend that you check him out.

My seat, second row, just a little off from the center.

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NEW ADDITION TO ON-LINER NOTES:

Click here for the new entry, "'The Night Before the Night Before Christmas' (Virtually Approximate Subterfuge)."

Next up will be "I'll Be Home for Christmas," the extra track for the 2021 single release of "The Night Before...."

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ANOTHER ADDITION TO ON-LINER NOTES:

Click here for the new entry.

Next up will be the third track on the album, the instrumental, "Icebergs."

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LOYAL SOUND DESIGN:

I am actually considering composing the opening show music. I have the time, and it can be part of my Winter Artist's Retreat, which is coming up in less than two weeks from now.

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LAMBORGHINI, MASERATI, FERRARI, OR PORSCHE?:

My friend Lou sent me these photos of his copy of the Virtually Approximate Subterfuge CD, which he purchased from Amazon.com. As of the last time I checked, it was one of two CD copies sold on Amazon. The second one, was purchased this past Friday.

So right now, between these two Amazon sales and my in-person cash transactions, the album has wracked up seven CD units sold. I'm not aware of any whole album downloads, but, if I'm reading the report at CD Baby correctly, there may have been a few download purchases of individual songs ‐‐ right now there is just over $12.00 waiting to hit the $20.00 threshold to be distributed to my bank account. Clearly that Lamborghini, or whatever, is only a few months away!

UNPACKING ALL THE BLOG PAGE LUGGAGE IN THE NEW HOUSE:

I had seventy-some quarterly-annual pages to change over to the new look for the new location, and I had not done them all when the switch to the new server was made. I was, and still am, coding the blog pages and their updates, and I'm doing so in the antiquated 3.2 HTML code. I'm not even using the 3.2 version style sheets code. This means that every individual blog entry on the outdated pages has to be individually updated from the old format to the new one. Not only that but some graphics have needed to be altered to fit the new look. I've been gradually doing all this reformatting, or "remodeling," if you will, for most of this year. Recently, I've stepped it up some, and have started to address the image alterations.

Right now I have eighteen left to convert from the old format to the new. I had been revamping the pages in date order, from earliest to latest. But now I'm reformatting them in reverse order. So next will be Jul-Sep, 2021, then moving backward to Apr-Jun, 2017. I'm also going through all the pages to find glitches and incidental code inconsistencies to address. It's all just a little side project that I use to distract me when I probably ought to be addressing other things.

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INSTALLMENT #5 OF ON-LINER NOTES:

Click here for the new entry.

Next up will be the fourth track from the album, the first of a few songs started on a vacation, the rocker, "Chilled October Morning."

IT BEGINS TODAY!!:

Like I wrote, somewhere above, I wanted to go away right after the holiday with the family. I wanted to rent a cabin/cottage somewhere and have an Artist's retreat there, in a bit of isolated awayness. But, I can't fund that this year. So, I will have my retreat at the homestead.

The retreat officially begins today. I haven't completely decided what I'll attack first, but there is a nice little list of things to get to. Some will need to be finished sooner than others. Some just need for me to start or get back to.

There's still a lot of business administration as well as further promotional stuff to do for Virtually Approximate Subterfuge Some may know that I have a couple more full-length albums that can be mixed, mastered, and released. One of those is the first album I recorded, way back in the mid-80s. It's titled Heart Walks and I have hopes to transfer the analogue four-track recordings to digital via playing them back on my Fostex four-track cassette recorder and recording the tracks on my Tascam 24-Track Digital DP-24SD. I also need to record one bass line for that project. This one is pop, rock, some jazz, and a lot of very 80s new-age sounding material. There's also an ambient sound album I have plans to write an instrumental for the upcoming Dayton Theatre Guild production of For the Loyal by Lee Blessing, for which I am co-sound designing with Sarah Saunders. The music is intended as the opening production music into the top of the show, but mat also serve as music for promotional trailer. Also, music-wise, I just simply plan to get myself worked into a routine where I am practicing on my basses, on my piano, and also doing vocal exercising on a regular basis. I want to at least spend a little time on draft 5F of my full-length play manuscript. There are some catch-up to play with some intended pages for the website, too, as well as few other little slight redesigns that could happen ‐‐ honestly, though, this last item is pretty low priority.

Some of this stuff doesn't need to be finished by January 1 for me to feel accomplished; a lot of it just needs to have been worked on or started.

Prep for making digital versions of the four-track recordings for the old Heart Walks album project, recording the tracks from the analogue cassette recordings from my old Fostex four-track cassette recorder to the Tascam 24-Track Digital recorder. The first pic on the left is the Fostex along with packages of RCA-to-quarter-inch adaptors which i just bought more of. I need them to facilitate the recording from one machine to the other. The second pic is close up of the adaptors. The third pic, to the right, is both recorders, with the adaptors attached to RCA cables, which are plugged into the Fostex and ready to plug into the Tascam. Now, the only prayer is that the cassette tapes with the original four-track master recordings from four decades ago have retained good sound quality. They are on high-quality TDK tape, so that could be an advantage.
There's a good chance I'll start with this transfer since the set-up is close to complete.

WHOSE CINDY LOU WHO WAS AWESOME?:

Alex, whose work I have enjoyed in several other HRTC production rocked her performance. I also have to say that the set and the rest of the production values were top notch, too.

Unfortunately, the show closed last night, but, who knows, Cindy Lou Who might just make an appearance next Christmas. That would be great, especially if Alex again reprises the role.

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MUSIC FOR A SHOW... MAYBE:

Yesterday I pulled out my Williams piano to begin writing a potential theme song for For the Loyal. What I have started seems pretty promising. If the music ends up working, its first use will be as the opening production music into the show, with a strong probability that it'll be the music for the promotional trailer.

Will this music end up on a future album? Well, maybe.

Last night, the beginnings of writing the potential For the Loyal music.