Well, dear readers, it has been very amusing watching the brouhaha since it was revealed that author Robert Galbraith’s first mystery, The Cuckoo’s Calling was, in fact, written by J.K. Rowling. You must understand, this book came out a few months ago, received very good reviews in the UK, was published in the US where it also received very good reviews. And no one cared. It barely sold its 1500 or so copies of the first edition in England. The reveal happened two days ago. And since then I have been following the insanity that followed, and insanity it is. At the time of the reveal, there was one signed copy of the true UK first on eBay – the current bid at that time was forty dollars. Within an hour, it was up to four hundred dollars. At the time of the reveal I found no copies on the ABE book site. None. Within an hour there were several copies – one signed was listed for $2,500 and the others were the US first at $100 a pop. The US copies all sold within a couple of hours. The $2,500 signed copy also sold. Within a day, that forty dollar eBay copy was up to $1,200 and is still climbing with a day and a half to go. Yesterday, several copies found their way to the ABE, all of which sold instantly. Then a lot of copies started appearing (the UK edition) on eBay and the ABE – but if you read the small teeny-tiny print you discovered that all those were pre-orders because the publisher is rushing out a second edition next week – and let me tell you any idiot who pays over cover price for it thinking it somehow will be rare is, well, an idiot.
Never mind that on Saturday if one had been industrious, one most likely could have done a bookstore run and found the US first edition easily. Not any more. I’m sure the US publisher is also rushing out a second edition. Amazon had plenty of copies and then had none. Amazon UK had copies, but said there would be a five to nine day delay in shipping them, which meant that those copies were most likely going to be the second edition. Several other copies of the UK first appeared on eBay, but none with Buy It Now option. Those bids just keep going up and up and up, most hovering around five hundred dollars, although they certainly could go higher. If there were truly only 1500 copies of the UK edition, then that will become a real rarity – but thus far I have not heard a confirmation of that number. I find it fascinating that a book that couldn’t be given away now has its value climbing faster than any book in years. It will be interesting to see how this continues.
Yesterday was a nice little day. I was up at six to announce our new title, after which I went back to bed and slept until ten or so. There were lots of orders to print and A Place in the Sun could be sold out by the end of today and will certainly be sold out by tomorrow. I had a nice visit with our very own Mr. Nick Redman, who left me a check disc of the new Twilight Time release of The Driver. Then I went and had a bacon, lettuce, tomato and avocado sandwich on sourdough toast and a small thing of onion rings as a little treat. Then I picked up a couple of packages, one of which had four huge catalogs for upcoming Profiles in History auctions, including a major Hollywood auction at the end of this month. I looked through that one and there is some amazing stuff there.
Then I finished the commentary for the upcoming Kritzerland show, then did a little editing of it to get it down to exactly five full pages, which is what the last few shows have been and is a length that seems to work best. The show order I came up with seems strong so I’m hoping I’ll feel that way when I actually hear the stuff in order. After that, I did a three-mile jog, then sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a motion picture on Blu and Ray entitled The Driver, a 1978 film from director/writer Walter Hill, kind of his homage to the gangster films of Jean-Pierre Melville, all of which I’m very fond of and all of which are very quirky and strange. It’s such a neat little 70s movie, the kind that made that decade so great, when filmmakers just made films – most of them weren’t about brands and sequels with scripts from the Syd Field and Robert McKee school of screenwriting. Some were hits, some weren’t, but so many films from that decade are just interesting in one way or another. Duds, certainly, every decade has ’em. But more often than not, the films are worth watching. As is The Driver, a movie that is compulsively watchable. Ryan O’Neal speaks very little but has the gravitas to carry the film. Bruce Dern speaks a lot and his cop character is one of his many great loathsome characters. Isabelle Adjani is stunningly beautiful. Great shots of downtown LA circa 1978, one great sequence inside one of the poker casinos on the outskirts of LA (I’m sure it’s The Bicycle Club – I used to play there quite often), and all shot on real locations, with interior scenes shot in low light with pushed film, which gives those scenes their texture and style. The score by Michael Small is a major plus (and still available on Kritzerland).
I think this transfer is going to garner a lot of the usual chatter. There is a lot of crawling grain in the low-light pushed sequences, just as there should be. Once you’re in sunlight or bright light, then blacks are deep and contrast is as it should be. But I think a lot of the wags are going to think they’re seeing “noise” – they’re not, but they’ll think they are. I saw the film several times when it was released, and this is pretty much what it looked like. It’s a brand new transfer done this year and I thought it looked great, just like a 1978 film should look shot under these conditions and on this budget. The color is fantastic, the sound excellent mono. Just for fun, I then put on the DVD and all I can say is wow. No texture, no detail, no grain, just DNR and edge enhancement that is so strong even I could see it. That, BTW, is not what The Driver should look like and boy am I glad they did this fresh transfer. I don’t know that the film is for everyone, but if you like quirky, great 70s movies it’s worth a try if you haven’t seen it.
After that, my friend David Wechter sent me a really interesting article just posted online how in Japan the new age-fighting miracle is letting snails crawl on your face and leave their slime – a snail facial. Now, for those with long memories, back in 2002 I was a producer/writer on the first season of Penn & Teller’s Bullshit. And for one of the episodes they created a hidden camera bit with a faux doctor named Dr. Learly. I played Dr. Learly and the bit was – wait for it – to see how many real people we could get to lay down and have a – wait for it – snail facial! And now in Japan they’ve copied us. I think we need a piece of the action, baby. I not only starred in this bit, but I also supervised the editing and chose the music (temp, then aped by our composer, Gary Stockdale). It’s pretty amusing, so here it is.
And now, continuing on our Kritzer song journey, here’s the second song from the Kritzer Time CD that accompanied the book, a song I was absolutely nutty about when it came out, originally sung by Steve Lawrence and a big hit for him. We kind of just aped that original track – vocal by Guy Haines, track realized by Grant Geissman.
I don’t know how that song would fare today, do you? Not in this version of society.
Today, I shall do a jog, hopefully print out more orders, do errands and whatnot, hopefully pick up some overdue packages, eat, and write some liner notes.
The rest of the week is meetings and meals – tomorrow I’m lunching with Shelly Markham and Andrea Marcovicci, so that should be fun. Friday I have an early lunch meeting, then a meeting with the East Coast Singer and Lanny Meyers, and then the weekend will be consumed with recording her new album. On Sunday, right after the session, I have to hightail it over to The Federal to see Miss Sharon McNight do her show. Then we do final vocals on Monday and Tuesday evening. So, no days off for a while.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a jog, print out orders, do errands and whatnot, hopefully pick up some packages, eat, and write. Today’s topic of discussion: What book was a life-changer for you? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland where I shall dream of escalating prices for The Cuckoo’s Calling – cuckoo indeed. And here is another What If for your mental delectation – what if Frank Loesser, instead of writing Guys and Dolls, had written The King and I? And it goes something like this.