Well, we got the first Nutcracker under our belts tonight. Ann Richards
did a great job as Mom Ginger, like I knew she would. She's really a
flamboyant trooper and Lord knows, the audience loved her. Luckily somebody
down at the Ballet came up with the idea of her pulling out a Texas
flag and waving it around. I really enjoyed seeing her get into it.
I got to do the role on Thursday night and it was more fun than I can
tell you. Ball came up with the idea of using a Pokemon and I elaborated
on it by having the yellow creature defeat a rat after the Nutcracker
failed to do so.
Talked to Margot Brown backstage. She's the Sugar Plum Fairy the last
three nights and she is really looking forward to it. As usual these
days, I tripped over the name of someone I should know and felt awful
about it. Definitely getting senile. We went to Zoot after the Ballet
Thursday and saw a friend and her male interest. They sat with us for
a while. She is one of the cooler people I know and I'm glad she's found
somebody.
It's funny how some plays or books stick with you. The more I think
about it, the more I remember that "Four Hands, Two Pianos." This play
was at the Paramount about a year ago. Way too much slapstick that wasn't
needed; but so many lines stick with me. Like, "You classical guys come
in here and think you can play jazz-I've got thirteen year olds in the
projects who can do better than that!" "Why don't you go play like the
other kids." Then, "You don't practice enough." It was about becoming
a pro at piano playing, of course, but the drill could apply to starting
a business, too. You've got everybody in the world telling you different
things and acting like they know the score and poo-pooing each other
in the meantime.
Linda found some old Xmas cards and I was laughing at one of them where
I'd put some comments from a certain bigshot. The month before I started
Good Right Arm, he derided me with "My cousin in Chicago has been trying
to do that for years . . .snort." Well, great. Twenty-three years later,
I'm still in business, so stick it up your nose, turkey. But that was
just the tip of the iceberg in 1977. And every step of the way since
then, I've had people telling me a mass of conflicting things. That
old Ricky Nelson song was corny, but now that I'm an old jerk, it sure
makes a lot of sense: "You can't please everyone, so you've got to please
yourself. "