A Series of Minor Disasters, Then Tranquility

I hate when this blog starts out with all these negative things that go on at the studio, but since the blog is about the experience of doing the show, it is appropriate to do that. Nonetheless, unless you like hearing about horror stories, I apologize, but this is reality. I arrived at the studio and Ellen and I spent a lot of time talking about the history of the studio for a book I am writing, my week off from doing the show which will cause her to show an old show on August 24, and a variety of other things. Suddenly she told me she lost power, and started to work on the power strip which is right next to my table, unable to get it working. We plugged in the system to another outlet, and suddenly that darn bulletin board fell down again, and there I was with ten minutes to go, holding up the power strip with one hand and the bulletin board with the other. We got that all squared away, she returned to the console, and said she couldn't get the Tricaster to work. I don't care that much anymore, because after last week, when the same thing happened and we did the show using the Focus Method (whatever any of these things actually are !!!!), and I liked it. The photos were just slightly off, and I like that little window in the right hand corner with my picture, although it obscures some of the photos I am showing. Then suddenly everything clicked into place, and the magic words that I just love to hear, "quiet on the set," rang out by Ellen, and everything just became very mellow as I started the Opening Segment of the show. Ya know I should say those words when I can't quite fall asleep at night and see what happens, because when I hear that I immediately relax."Quiet on the set" sort of harkens back to my childhood when my mother would close the book she was reading to me, kiss me on the cheek, whisper "good night" and turn out the light, and I would fall peacefully into that wonderful sleep that only a happy, secure, young child could possibly enjoy. The movie "All Quiet on the Western Front" kind of epitomizes that feeling that even amid the absolute incredible unrelenting horror of World War I, there could possibly be some peaceful moments. So back to the show and as I stared vacantly, but happily at the images and listened to that music for the umpteenth time, I never get tired of it, but actually to me it is like taking a tranquilizer. Then into the show on Orvieto with all the videos and images left over from the previous week. The wonderful video of Gianpiero at the restaurant, La Palomba was the highlight for me. It was so much fun that night when Franco Sala took us there for dinner, and we were treated like kings. Gianpiero and his family are wonderful people. Then the photos of the other restaurant we loved, La Grotta with Franco (another person) and his waitress, Mirella being taught by me how to fold a napkin using my "special" technique, which I will demonstrate next week before the main part of the show. I wanted to do a video of Mirella, but she felt that after a whole night of serving people, she didn't look her best; actually she looked beautiful. Also, after a while it gets weird always taking videos in every place we go, my new life. Even when we were in Rome in an outdoor restaurant, our favorite in Rome, Teatro di Pompeo, we vowed not to even mention Alan's Italy, but wound up talking all night about it and taking a video of a bunch of people. The show was fine, and that's it for Orvieto until perhaps next year, when Gianpiero promised some kind of cooking demonstration that I would like to take him up on, only of course if Alan's Italy is still in existence. I mean how long can this thing go on ?