I Married Ethel Merman
Volume 3 Book 2 Part 7 of
Living in the Bonus Round

Sunset on the studio lot.

[ Book 3-1 ] -- [ Pt 1 ] [ Pt 2 ] [ Pt 3 ] [ Pt 4 ] [ Pt 5 ]
[ Pt 6 ] [ Pt 7 ] [ Pt 8 ] [ Pt 9 ] -- [ Book 3-3 ]

January 7-12, 2003.
Enjoying Lots of Sunshine.
 

Postponing The Big Voice - Rochester for a couple of weeks made me feel like I was getting a reprieve of sunshine. The other night I was picking up some of my meds, driving north on Fairfax through downtown Hollywood. The air was warm and pleasant. I had on my preview copy of the Boy Meets Girl CD playing this song called, "I'm Climbing."

I rolled down the windows, felt the warm breeze, music cranking, the lights of Hollywood, traffic not bad at all. I pass Melrose with its tunnel of neon lights going off to the right, and I realized, "Wow. Some people pay a lot of money to just be here at this time of year." The palm trees were arching over me.

And I know I'm going to a place that's going to be really cold. But I'm kinda thinking of it like theatre camp. Now that Jimmy and I know this show really well, doing it five times a week is going to tell us a lot. Here we were doing it twice a week and it always felt clumsy on night one, and just as we really got our stride on night two, it was time to take five days off.

In Rochester, we'll be doing it Thursday, Friday, two on Saturday, then a Sunday matinee. I finally spoke with Ann Marie and we've set the new start date: January 30, ending February 23.

I did some volunteer work down at MCC-LA this week. Just stuffing envelopes. Reminded me of the big mailing days we used to have at NAS around the conference table. I miss those days. Our tiny little staff did so much with so few supplies. Thousands of songwriters all looking for a break. And us trying to figure out how to help them.

Michael S. and I have been seeing a lot of movies together. He works for one of the major studios and on the weekends they show current movies and he invites me along. This last time I brought my camera. I told him, "My international readers love pictures of Hollywood."

It says Music Department on the front.

Here I am acting. Will I get the part?

I couldn't resist taking this shot of Michael in front of "King of Meat."

The backs of the huge sound stages are painted with murals.

This was the sign on the side of a trailer house
parked on the lot.

NYPD Blue police cars!

Here is how they get around on the lot.

Entrance to a sound stage. Huge doors to let in huge egos.

Notice these windows and fire escapes are painted on the side of the building.
This is a completely flat wall.

One more pose in "New York City."
Notice the LA buildings in the background peeking over the NY fronts.

I wanted to take more but suddenly a security guard appeared and told us to put the camera away. They don't want you taking pictures of the things they take pictures of.

[ Book 3-1 ] -- [ Pt 1 ] [ Pt 2 ] [ Pt 3 ] [ Pt 4 ] [ Pt 5 ]
[ Pt 6 ] [ Pt 7 ] [ Pt 8 ] [ Pt 9 ] -- [ Book 3-3 ]

© 1996-2003 by Steve Schalchlin. You have permission to print from this diary and distribute for use in support groups, schools, or to just give to a friend. You do not have permission to sell it.