Tuesday, January 17, 2012

OUR WEBSITES AND BETTY WHITE'S BIRTHDAY







Just in case you've never seen it, my creative company's endeavors has not one, but two web sites. The first is http://www.creativehorizonsmusicals.com/ which shows off our many musicals by subject matter and the other sister web site is similiar but is a bit simplier . It is : http://www.showbusinessmusicals.com/ which lists all of our many musicals by title. The first also shows off our ever growing list of Television sit com pilots now completed and available including "FIRST MOTHER" which has Lainie Kazan attached, "TAXING LAUGHTER" about two twin Italian men who hate one another but are now forced by their parents will to live together for five years as well as SENIOR HIGH DROPOUTS, IRISH LEFTOVERS and the newest of them called "BREAK A LEG"-- that title comes from the good old show business term one uses when you wish to offer a performer grand good luck. Take a look at them. John Nugent and I continue to seek new ways to market our many shows. Our agency sends out lots of queries but theatres today are less and less inclined to answer these even with a stamped self addressed envelope enclosed. The results from the ASCAP-DREAMWORKS musical theatre workshop that will be held the first two weeks in February were announced and we didn't make the cut, but so didn't many of writer friend's efforts. We all wonder just what these guys want as we have been trying many many years to get in here. Today is also Betty White's 90th birthday. We watched her birthday bash on NBC last night and it was simply terrific. Even Jerry Herman got into the act by altering the lyrics to "Mame" to accomodate the name "Betty". Big shock on how badly Mary Tyler Moore looked. Tank God for creative camera work. Diabetes is a real lady killer. And Ed Asner looks absolutely ancient these days, but we all must get older. So a new marketing campaign begins for the New Year and we hope for the best. Big laugh today as I read that a poor guy who had pneumonia in a New York Hospital last summer finally got his hospital bill. It was for forty-four million dollars and change. Now that's enough to make you sick all over again and for the real fellow it did. I laugh because my friend Tim Doran gets so many of these unexpected surprise bills, many for meager amounts, but some really substantial. I can only imagine what his reaction would be had he been the one who opened this one. Of course, it was an error. The hospital's computer had accidentally put the invoice number in front of the actual amount due and put a dollar sign in front of it. Ah, our dear computers: we can't live with them and we can't live without them. It's a cold, but beautiful day here and the stret is very quiet here once again. That makes a nice change from the usual.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012


It's a brand New Year: 2012 and already things with big changes have started with a bang! Our first surprise came from the Westfield Fashion Square mall and the little free community room that we used for absolute ages dating back at least four years for rehearsals and parties in countless numbers. This great "free little room" with a kitchen and restrooms stopped being FREE as of January 1st. That nice little room now costs $150 a day to rent. Unbelievable. It was designed and built to be of service to the community and I can only guess the Westfield Fashion Square Mall folks have no more community service spirit. Everything is about the buck: the almighty dollar. This is the same room that just had mold cleaned out of its bathrooms at our multitude of requests. Oh well, I guess I won't be using their room any more, but I also will NOT be shopping at that mall anymore. It's too expensive anyway. I should know. I ran a retail store there upstairs next to Macy's. The second big shock came when we were told that our beloved sound engineer, Mr. Robert Roth is no longer an associate of Smooth Sound Studios in Van Nuys. We've been recording there since 1999 and I just can't imagine that Robert is not a part of this any more. He tells that he has his own place now and so John and I are quite eager to discover what the new venture will be at a new address, I'm told. Well, one thing for sure is we won't won't miss the parking congestion the dear studio had. We also wait for the results of the winner to be announced for the ASCAP-DREAMWORKS Musical workshop. It changed sponsorship this year from DISNEY and the results were supposed to be announced on Friday, January 6th, but there's not a word heard YET. The year began badly when the power supply went out the second time on New Years Day at 8:19 am. I was without a computer for an entire week. What a bummer! Let us hope that the rest of the year fares better than it began. Beautiful summer like day here the first of January is encouraging. We can finally turn the heater off for a while. And it's a quiet morning here for once on Fulton Avenue-- not the usual endless stream of cars. trucks and sirens. Have a great day this 10th day of January 2012.