You know, when I heard Barbra was touring again (Like Sinatra, MANY farewell concerts over the decades) - I was ALMOST tempted to see her on her Boston Stop. I mean, there is no doubt she is the last of the true "legends" of Show Biz. Can you imagine J-Lo or Ms. Spears still selling out concert halls 40 years from now? It's impossible - because show business doesn't have the foundation anymore to build REAL and LASTING stars. It's all "celebrities" these days. Streisand sang with Judy Garland, Ethel Merman - she was directed by Gene Kelly and Vincente Minnelli ... and she has that voice! But I had a hunch that this would be a political gathering, not just a concert. Lately it's almost impossible to go to a concert without hearing the performer throw out their political views from the stage. K.D. Lang at the South Shore Music Circus slam dunks the administration and blasts the President from the stage ... then Tony Bennett came out for the second half and sang his hits, gave a classy performance,brought the house down, stuck to his legend and not his political views (whatever they may be) and showed everyone what a REAL star is.

That's what I'm talking about here. Now, I don't happen to fall in with Babs'or K.D.'s views, but I wish that these performers would just PERFORM. If you want to go into politics - then go into politics! But I do not want to spend $75.00 to hear K.D. tell me what she thinks of the way the US is being run ... or in Bab's case, $750.00 (thats the top ticket in Boston)!
I have no problem with people speaking their views. If she wants to talk about them on a talk show, or interview - I got ZERO problem with that. But in a concert - I just dont think that's the place. Maybe I'm too old fashioned. And folks - I say this about ANYONE, from ANY party - even the party I belong to! When I go to see a star, I want to hear their songs, not their views on politics. I can go to a rally or a debate for that.
So, when I heard Babs was going to tour, I thought "Hmmmm .... she IS a legend ..." but then I figured I'd have to listen to her political views, so I decided not to shell out the $$$.$$ I'm glad I did, for it seems she has a Bush impersonator as her opening act. I ain't got not problem with that - but not at a concert where I spend $750.00 She is taking the money and turning it over to her charities, which I think is a very noble thing she is doing - but maybe she should have just toured with "A forum with Barbra Steisand." See, she could have filled these arena's with people wanting to hear her political views - and that would be fine. There is a place for everything.
I don't want to use my blog as any kind of political debate forum, and I'm not picking on Babs per-sey, but I just wish these stars would keep their views off the concert stage where we pay to hear it, and that goes for stars of ALL political parties!


Streisand Mocks Bush on Opening Night
Barbra Streisand peppered the opening night of her comeback tour in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with a series of digs aimed at President George W. Bush. The 64-year-old is a staunch Democrat and is still appalled that Bush was elected to the most powerful position in the world despite doubts over the crucial result in Florida in 2000. The concert at the Wachovia Center featured a political satire sketch where an actor playing the Republican president reeled off lines including, "I'm concerned about the national debt, so I'm selling Canada," and, "If I cared about the polls I would have run for president of Poland." Streisand has come out of retirement for a series of shows to raise money for a charitable foundation which supports a number of environmental and educational causes.

THE HEADLESS HORSEMAN RIDES AGAIN! Yeah, I know I blogged this the other day,but SLEEPY HOLLOW is getting some great attention in stores and we're excited about it! You can order it from AMAZON, or BORDERS, or BARNES AND NOBLE - and it's also on shelf at B&N and Borders (so they say). Oh! And if you live in JAPAN - we got you covered! Anyway, that's that.

It's odd how many of these online sites take forever to get the cover art posted! Everything takes so much time in this biz. Craig Slaff in NJ painted the fantastic Headless Horseman painting for us, and then Blackstone's art dept. did the incredible cover design! It's one hot lookin' CD!!

We recorded two more PHIL BYRNES mystery episodes last night. Before the session I met up with J.T. (currently a smash hit as Ben Franklin in the Boston turn of 1776 at the Lyric), his some James, and Diane Capen, at the China Cuisine in here in North Reading (An AWESOME restaurant), the we recorded. Next Monday we record the first FATHER BYRNES episode!!

OCTOBER!

My favorite month of the year, without question! Something about the chill in the air (not cold, not freezing - a chill), and the leaves turning bright yellow, orange, purple ... pumpkins in fields .... October in New England! Busy month of recording ahead, AND today is the release date for our Award Winning THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW! It seems like just a few weeks ago I went to Tarrytown New York with Nick Aalerud (that's us in the photo at the Sleepy Hollow cemetery - Nick is on the left. Thank God we don't look like Jake and Dibble in real life) to do some research on the then up-coming production. It was a trip worth taking, as I got truly inspired for the show.
For instance, our play opens with ghostly voices chanting names and dates from gravestones ... and all those names and dates were taken from the stones in Sleepy Hollow cemetery, next to the Old Dutch Church (which is featured in Washington Irvings story). Also, one evening, we listened to an actor read the entire book - in the Old Dutch Church - and that was something! Lit by candlelight - and looking out the window over the famous graveyard where the Headless Horseman dwells - and the full moon shining outside the large glass windows ... well ... let me tell you that by the time I got home I was ready to write the script for our radio play.

So, two years later, the show is being released nation wide in a double CD set and you should be able to find it at Borders and Barnes and Noble, and online everywhere. I think it's one of our very best productions, and I hope people like it!

Two of CRT's most popular actors have ventured out into other programs! DEREK AALERUD leaves the Powder River behind inbetween seasons and can be heard in the chilling horrorturn THE HOUSE IN THE CLOCK, while DIANE CAPEN is zooming around the galaxy in the spectacular space epic THE SWORD OF WINDSOR

Both shows were produced by DARKER PROJECTS, and I know you will enjoy them. In fact, THE HOUSE IN THE CLOCK will air on the Colonial Radio Theatre XM program Halloween night!
Congrats to both Derek and Diane - you both turned in great performances in these episodes.

We just released a brand-new Dibble episode, his second HALLOWEEN SHOW It even has a musical number in it (well, as much as Dibble can do a musical number). It's a fun little treat for Halloween so check it out!

Getting ready to record two more episodes of A PHIL BYRNES MYSTERY on Monday night, and still working on the new shows for XM (shipping on Monday). Speaking of XM, POWDER RIVER season 3 finished up it's first run yesterday, and I can't believe the response we got from this series. XM started running them back in July I think, with a repeat of seasons 1 and two, and went right into three. So, P-R was on the air for 10 weeks! Lots of great emails from our fans - and thank you again for taking the time to write to us!

One PHIL BYRNES episode in the can, five to go! Awesome cast of regulars (Diane Capen, James Turner, J.T. Turner, Hugh Metzler, Natasha Lathrop, Mike Dent), lots of guest stars (Cynthia Pape, Donna Corbett, Amy Strack, Tom large, Brandon Cole, the list goes on)- an incredible producer (Chris Snyder) Jeff's music is dead-on, and last but not least - the fantastic scripts of Sable Jak! Sable swears she's only writing six of these. I said the same thing, Sable, about another series ...

POWDER RIVER. I only wanted to do a 15 episode serial, and here we are 50 shows later, and starting Season 4 on October 16th. And speaking of October 16th, the third episode of POWDER RIVER we record that night, will be CRT's 200th Commercial Production!! We HAVE to go out for a pint or two after this session!

rantings

So some movie called JACKASS is the #1 box office movie this weekend? That really speaks a lot for our culture and the entertainment industry. I am so sick and tired of these stupid moronic reality shows and filthy flicks with (ahem) "movie stars" whos only talent is the way they look and pose .... gawd. What ever happened to the Richard Burtons and Peter O'Toole's.

Entertainment is all about the numba's, baby. Some suits at the studios dont like the numba's - AXE! They dont give a damn about the quality of the show. A program like Bonanza would NEVER make it in today's society. Today you have to eat worms and spiders to stay on the air, or do some stupid sit-com where every episode revolves around sex and cheating (can you direct me to one that doesn't?)

I sound bitter. I'm really not - I just miss good old fashioned entertainment.

The new thing is hanging up the phone at the end of a conversation without saying goodbye. Classy.

Editing one of our older shows today for broadcast on XM. Some of these old shows can really drudge up old memories that I would rather forget; speaking of which, RED BADGE OF COURAGE airs in November.

That's todays entry. Tomorrow is a day at the hospital with my dad, and surgery the following morning, and we also start taping the PHIL BYRNES episodes tomorrow night.

Next summer I am going away for a month - no matter WHAT.

cheers

Dave in TN hates our production of GETTYSBURG! I just read his review on i-tunes. He gave it ONE STAR! His sterling review is as follows

This is TERRIBLE! I can't believe I bought it! It was on during our road trip for all of 5 minutes before I shut of off. I thought I would give it another try but this is just WAY TOO SILLY

David, David, David. I normally dont respond to reviews (espcially armchair reviews, or carseat reviews whatever fits you best), but this one was something! I can't believe you bought this either!! I was shocked!!

I mean - didn't you listen to the 10 minute preview before you plopped down $11.95?? Surely you would have realized 5 minutes into the 10 minute preview that this show was TERRIBLE! My, my! WHAT were you THINKING???

You see David from TN - some programs take a little time to unwind. A show that runs three and half hours needs more than five minutes in a car with lousy speakers (they must be lousy if the show sounded good enough to download for $11.95 after you listened to the 10 minute preview)- to gain speed. But, I suppose you live in a fast world and want everything zapped into high gear without any structure.

If you didn't listen to the 10 minute preview before you plopped down $11.95 for this TERRIBLE I SHUT IT OFF IN FIVE MINUTES production, you have no one to blame but yourself. But - I think you did listen to it. Maybe it was the traffic. Maybe it was the company. maybe it was the ride. Maybe it was the lousy speakers; maybe its a very short attention span; but I am VERY SORRY for producing such an unworthy production! Please forgive me David from TN! I'll try better next time - and I'll see if I can get i-tunes to shorten the samples to five minutes so you can decided within the space of your attention span if the show sucks or not. Thanks for the review!! I appreciate it! (ps - the guys in blue won)

Starting to write Season 4 of POWDER RIVER - which begins taping new episodes October 16th! Yep, we're going to do 20 more of them, which will bring our episode count to 70! These episodes will go on the air starting in February I think.
I wonder if anyone in Clearmont Wyoming listens in? I'm looking forward to it, and so far, most of the cast is coming back for more!

Our new production of TREASURE ISLAND is just about finished - thanks to our new editor Chris Snyder! I think this is a much better production than our first version from 2001. Joe Z, Tom Berry are back in their original roles as Long John and Captain Smollet, and everyone else is new! It will also be our first feature production presented in COLONIAL 3-D!! How cool is that?? If you havent heard the original version we did - it's on Spoken Network for a few more days - but next week it will be pulled from release and replaced with the "new and improved" version!!

That's all, folks!
- at least for now!

Productive day! Got some more editing finished for our XM show. We delivered 7 weeks worth for season 2 so far, so I have lots more to get ready. Cutting some of our feature programs into half hour episodes. Today I was working on KIDNAPPED. So .. the process goes something like this

1) put a copy of the entire program on the screen - so you see the show on the grid.

2)Cut out all the opening / closing credits, end of act / start of act tags.

3)Figure out how much you need to cut to fit the show into five 24 to 25 minute episodes. (In the case of KIDNAPPED, I needed to eliminate 12 minutes). I start with editing out long pauses, and after that I trim parts of sentences, scenes; so its not a hack job and makes sense!

4) Split it into 5 segments, add the opening and closing CRT theme to each episode, for the broadcast.

5) Split each segment into 2 acts

6) Add bumper music from the original KIDNAPPED score at the end / start of acts.

7) Write the host narration for each episode (Including the credits for what actor is in which episode)

8) Record the host narration

9) Edit the narration, then

10) insert it into each episode, and over the closing theme.

11) Send it off to XM!

Kidnapped took pretty much most of the day today, and most of yesterday. Next up is THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE. We recorded this one five years ago, so it will be difficult to trim because I havent heard it in years and I wont remember where certain scenes are.
Anyway, thought you might like a peek at the process.

A friend said he saw CAPTAIN BLOOD on the shelf at three different Barnes and Nobles! I hope it is selling!!

Still not 100% after my illness, so I think I'm actually going to crash early tonight (which means I'll wake up at 4am. I cant seem to sleep more than 4 hours. Odd)

Keep listening!

Well, I am somewhat back in action again after a week off due to ILLNESS! Hey, at least thats one way to stop working! I rarely get sick, but when I do, it's like the Lusitania going down. Started with some gall bladder issues just before we recorded SOMETHING WICKED, which I didnt want to believe at first, but then I came around to reason. My lower back was a in lot of pain, and then, lets top it all off with the flu! That was my week! I haven't done anything with CRT (except write a bible for a possible tv project) all week. BUT - now that I am living on salads (oh gawd help me) and the only thing left of the flu is a cough, I am back to work editing down "Kidnapped" for an XM Broadcast this season.

Thank's to the The Audio Addict people can now post comments on my blog (I always thought they were turned on but I guess they weren't. I dont know how to do this stuff)! So thanks, AA! Once again you have solved a problem for me! (Now she has to show me how to use these links things because I just wasted a half hour trying to link her site using these stupid link "letters and slashes and dashes" things! AAARRGHHH!

Other news - Next Monday we record a re-make of our 2001 production TREASURE ISLAND. So that should be fun! I love that story - it is one of my all-time favorites, and I know we can do a more polished, trim and snappy version for the CD release! Same script as before, just a new cast and steppin' on the gas peddle.

Recording A PHIL BYNRES MYSTERY starts 2 weeks later - and then I need to start thinking about writing my next 20 POWDER RIVER scripts for Season 4 that I want to get on XM in February.
Speaking of which, POWDER RIVER started its new season (and our second season) on XM yesterday! I am really starting to like this series, and the mail we get from listeners is amazing! Out of all the shows we have made, the ones that people write to us about are DIBBLE and POWDER RIVER! It's great to think that someone likes it enough to spend time writing a letter or an email. That is a wonderful compliment.

OK, time to get back to it.
Aloha!