Director’s Cut(s)

Just a note that in order to streamline the final episode of “Bluebirds & Dead Canaries” as much as possible, considering that the entire podcast consists of pretty much one very long scene in one room (Hitchcock could pull off such things, as in “Rope” and “Lifeboat,” but not yours truly), I cut about 5 minutes of dialogue from the final podcast. Most of the cuts didn’t impact the story much, but there were items regarding the connections and similarities between Nab and Beechert that helped show their mutual respect and like for one another that I did regret having to jettison. C’est la vie.

Also, further details about our evolutionary physiological triggers (from a more scientific standpoint) had to be excised from the podcast’s final version as well—such as our predisposition to certain sounds and environmental stimuli—all in hopes of keeping the story moving along.

And speaking of sounds, at the end of Episode 6 of “Bluebirds & Dead Canaries,” I had planned to use a song called “You Took Advantage of Me” (by Lorenz Hart and Richard Rodgers) as the creepy closing tune of the story. I’ve included some of the lyrics below:

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I’m a sentimental sap, that’s all.

What’s the use of trying not to fall?

I have no will,

You’ve made your kill

‘Cause you took advantage of me!

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I’m just like an apple on a bough

And you’re gonna shake me down somehow.

So what’s the use,

You’ve cooked my goose

‘Cause you took advantage of me!

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I’m so hot and bothered that I don’t know

My elbow from my ear.

I suffer something awful each time you go,

And much worse when you’re near.

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Here am I with all my bridges burned,

Just a babe in arms where you’re concerned,

So lock the doors

And call me yours

‘Cause you took advantage of me.

—Lyrics by Lorenz Hart (from “Present Arms” 1928)

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Quite appropriate given the story’s subject matter…

Alas, the music house that owns the tune—apparently thinking I couldn’t do math—tried to shyster me into paying several thousand dollars for a small excerpt of an ancient 1928 recording of this song—something which could have easily ended up costing me around $40,000 or more just for using one 60-second clip of one song. Yeah, right…   Talk about “taking advantage” of people (especially when it’s just a guy & his laptop computer — my whole production staff!). How terribly, terribly fitting… So, instead of shelling out an untold blasphemy in bucks, I decided to include the song’s lyrics in this blog post (woo-hoo! still free), or hey, go listen to the recording yourself at http://www.archive.org/details/PaulWhiteman-450-460 (again, all free). Nice how that works out.

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MM

The Theater of the Midnight Sun

www.theaterofthemidnightsun.com

The Theater Schedule

In case anyone out there is wondering, I’ve started uploading each new TOTMS episode every Monday. And when a particular story completes, I break for two weeks to polish and prepare the episodes for the next story.

So hopefully that means the first episode of “Bluebirds and Dead Canaries” will go up on Monday, April 27^th. (I’m trying to iron out some legal issues in regard to some songs used in those episodes, so that date is slightly tentative as of this writing. But only slightly.)

The sister web site of TOTMS, “The Great Big Bungalow” (www.greatbigbungalow.com), which should launch officially in late June, will run on a separate schedule, again with one story appearing each Monday. (So far, I’m looking to post 22 podcast stories, perhaps more.) GBB’s travel tales about my visits to places like China, Turkey, and other countries, including encounters with Geishas, camels, and precocious elephants, will be slightly simpler affairs than TOTMS, with me reading the stories accompanied by music. No sound effects or, uhm, “method” acting in those, sorry

So why did I choose Monday as the day to post each new TOTMS story? Well, dear reader, I figured that Monday was already such a miserable day for most folks that a little more miserableness like another story from TOTMS would kind of get lost in the shuffle. Or perhaps it was the sadist in me… “Hey, how can Mondays be any more worse than they already are? Oh, I know…”

Aw, spank me.

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MM

The Theater of the Midnight Sun

www.theaterofthemidnightsun.com

Field Notes from Left Field

No, I’m not gay

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Oh and, btw, for those who are offended by the portrayal of Reverend Pryce… Trust me, I’m offended, too But he’s certainly not without precedent, from Archdeacon Claude Frollo in Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame to Upton Sinclair’s titular character in Elmer Gantry (and many many more in today’s world unfortunately).

In fact, all of Pryce’s statements (at least the not-nice stuff) paraphrase something Pat Robertson or the Reverend Jerry Falwell have uttered in the past. They just didn’t say it as loudly perhaps—instead conveying such ugliness with a cherubic smile. And despite it all—or maybe partly because of it—over the years their legions have donated more millions to the coffers of these two gentlemen than there are keys, cassettes, and pocket calculators in the brane.

It is a wonder we ever made it to the 21^st century

And for those out there who’ll say this is just more bashing of today’s Christians, keep in mind that there is a compassionate and truly good character in the story who is Christian: J.P.’s best friend, Nate. He just happens to be gay is all.

Lastly, if you really don’t like how this sort of topic is presented (you know, intolerance/prejudice, blah, blah, blah), keep in mind that age-old chestnut about the fellow whom, upon visiting his doctor, says to the medic…

“Hey Doc, it hurts whenever I do this.”

Wherein his Doctor replies: “Well then don’t do that.”

So… to those critical of such criticism, my response is the same as that age-old physician: “Don’t do that.”

And it’ll all be better  Now here’s your lollipop.

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MM

The Theater of the Midnight Sun

www.theaterofthemidnightsun.com

Good Friends and The Good Earth

Just a note here on the story Uniform… The character of Kyung, unusual (or unbelievable) as he might seem, is actually based on a very good friend of mine who was born in Korea and immigrated to the U.S. at age 13. Now, as “bad” as my friend can be sometimes, we nevertheless all love him and revel in his company, despite the sometimes, uhm, atrocious things he might say (and often because of them, too), no matter how jaw-droppingly prejudiced or sexist. Some of it he says merely TO get our jaws to drop, just before we give him a quick verbal backhand. Thus, he makes our conversations all the more lively, and as a result he is one of those people in our lives who’ll we’ll remember all our lives.

I’m writing this because I didn’t want anyone thinking his character was meant to be yet another denigrating portrayal of an Asian male, something that rears its ugly head all too often in Hollywood and other venues. Not that Asian females have gotten much better treatment over the years. For instance, imagining the limitations that, say, Anna May Wong, the first Asian superstar in Hollywood, faced because of her race (like her losing the lead in 1937’s The Good Earth, which she’d fought so hard for, to the very white Luise Rainer, not to mention the loathsome anti-miscegenation laws she was up against at the time) makes for pretty sad reading.

So that’s why I thought I’d jot this down, to say that Kyung’s character could have been any ethnicity, white, black, purple, plaid. I only kept him Korean because that’s what my friend is, and it would have been just as dishonest to have put him in another body as it would’ve been to abjectly create an imaginary Asian character and fill him with lamentable stereotypes. I also didn’t want to “convert” him to “caucasian-ness” since a certain Mr. Bunker is already quite the cultural icon in this area. Plus, my friend’s idiosyncrasies and mannerisms in real life offered a wealth of rich character detail that I felt might bring his character to life, right down to his catchphrases like “Bumskull” (which he uses on me all the time – pinhead).

Nor is he alone in this story, either… The character of Paul is modeled after another friend of mine, while Ryza is based on a lovely and feisty young woman I know in Turkey. They are good people, fascinating people, and people I love, and so it was a treat for me to gather them all together under one big literary roof and let them have at it, making the story—thanks to their unique personalities—far richer than I could have ever done on my own.

You’ve stopped reading already haven’t you? Aw, I was afraid of that…

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MM

The Theater of the Midnight Sun

www.theaterofthemidnightsun.com

‘Round Midnight

As I mentioned in the closing credits of Big Business, I decided to use this particular story as the first podcast because it was easier on me from just about every standpoint: casting-wise (obviously), music, sound effects, and so on. It was quick, in other words. In fact, it was quick on all fronts, considering I wrote the story in the space of a day. Actually, it wouldn’t let me go to sleep. It woke me up around midnight one night, the silliness of it buzzing about in my head, and then every time I’d try to fall back asleep I’d have my arm mentally twisted, sending me to my desk at 1 a.m., 2 a.m., 3 a.m., like a literary cuckoo clock, jotting down more of it each time—and leaving my 9-to-5 employers not altogether happy with my work performance the next day.

Perhaps part of the reason this was one of the easiest stories for me to write was because some of its themes parallel a novel of mine—a far more serious tome—and it was probably all that pent-up “drama,” shall we say, from the novel that generated a psychological backlash (part of a yin–yang seesaw), which so quickly produced Big Business. I have a feeling other people, when dabbling in the creative, often face similar output swings—serious/comic/serious/comic. Perhaps it’s one of those little requirements of life that’s meant to keep us sane

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MM

The Theater of the Midnight Sun

www.theaterofthemidnightsun.com

No Rehearsals, No Readthroughs, No Experience, No Wonder!

If it isn’t blatantly apparent already… There are no rehearsals involved in these podcasts. My friends who volunteer (ok, are drafted typically) just don’t have the time, and I just don’t have the money to pay them to make that time. They are too busy being financial consultants, school teachers, computer techs, and book editors, who are trying to have actual lives.

Now, I think with a couple of my friends we did have one readthrough of some portions of the podcast story Left Field, but even that’s probably playing fast and loose with the word’s definition. So, we do the best we can, since we are all good-hearted amateurs. And while we might not all have the enthusiasm of, say, Bottom of Shakespearean fame—despite being almost as tragically talented—we all try our best, given the vast acting experience none of us has.

In counterpoint to this, the local theater actors who performed the fourth story, Goodbye Cruel World, did do one readthrough before we recorded—so that, and their immense talent, helped immeasurably with those podcasts. But only those.

So there you go… How NOT to run what is essentially a radio theater group.

Orson Welles would have my hide…

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MM

The Theater of the Midnight Sun

www.theaterofthemidnightsun.com