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August 5, 2014:

THE DUNDERHEADS AND HOW TO DEAL WITH THEM

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, rant ahead.  Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, rant ahead, and I’m frankly bored of ranting but rant I must.  What is it about Facebook that turns people into raving idiots?  I just don’t get it.  As we discussed the other day, it’s the automatic sharing of the stupid Facebook memes that’s one of the big things that I can’t stand – you know the kind – “Name a fish that doesn’t have an “A” in it.”  Really?  We need to share that?  Really?  But yesterday, I got into it with a comedian who I’ve known since the mid-1970s.  First he posts that stupid meme about “This is the longest post I’ll ever make” and on and on.  It’s been going around for ages, that one, and everyone just shares it as if THEY’D written it, which is what he did.  All ten of his little sycophants came on and told him how deep he was and that they were going to share his brilliance.  He did nothing to correct them.  I of course pointed out that it was just another stupid meme and that it was NOT written by him.  He blithely ignored that and kept up the sham, which really irritated me, but I refrained from posting anything else.  Then today another of his jerky things shows up on my newsfeed – this about the current situation that you all know about involving Israel and Hamas.  He posted something that had no basis in fact – he posted it to inflame, and then, when it was pointed out to him that it had no basis in fact, he immediately played the victim and said he was just posting it to find out if it had basis in fact.  Well, Mr. Not-So-Funny Man, no, that’s not why you posted it, and it’s not why everyone posts inflammatory stuff every single minute of every day.  They don’t think.  They don’t do the most perfunctory fact check, they just click that “share” button or post it on their own.  And then friends and friends of friends spread it like wildfire, despite it being bogus.  I finally let him have it, and told him I was one minute away from unfriending him because I did not want to see one more stupid post from him.  Amusingly, before I could even do it, he blocked me, which is fine.  Same result.  The fact that this person used to actually be an amusing comic, and now basically has no career and spends all his time on Facebook, not being funny, mind you, but being an idiot and an offensive one at that, well, I think you reap what you sow or even reap what you sew.  I mean, what is it that causes reasonably intelligent people to behave like complete dunderheads on Facebook?  It’s just shocking.  It’s like people have regressed to high school.  It’s why I love our board so much – it does just about everything right that Facebook does wrong.  Facebook is okay to keep in touch with folks and to promote stuff – but it is NOT okay to share these endless memes and completely bogus stories over and over again.  It’s like McCarthyism or The Crucible – all this innuendo and accusations without proof, and everyone joining in every witch hunt imaginable.  And when they’re proven wrong they get defensive rather than apologize and stop.  It doesn’t matter if someone is innocent of all accusations – they will keep at it, posting their opinion as fact, ignoring facts altogether.  It’s shocking, nauseating, and it’s really made me take a look at some people who I thought were reasonable.  Note to once funny comic: Look in the mirror, pal, and see what you’ve become.  It isn’t pretty.  Not too long ago, he asked me to help spread the word about something he was doing.  I’m really glad I did not.  End of rant.

Yesterday was a day in which I was so tired I don’t even remember much of anything.  I fell asleep around one in the morning, but awoke at three and could not fall back asleep.  I finally got up, wrote some liner notes, and then got everything ready to announce our new title.  Once that was done, I went back to bed around seven and fell right asleep and slept until eleven-thirty.  So, maybe I got five hours of sleep all told.  Then I got up, printed out a LOT of orders, did some work on the computer and finally got dressed.  At around two, I went and got something to eat – a grilled hot dog with chili, cheese and onions and some fries, my treat to myself after a very light eating day on Sunday.  Then I picked up a couple of packages, after which I came home.

I finessed the liner notes and got them where they needed to go.  I printed out more orders and then finally had to sit on my couch like so much fish.

I tried watching a motion picture entitled Endless Love, the awful 1981 film, but I kept dozing off, over and over again.  I finally shut that monstrosity off and put in a DVD of Eugene Ormandy conducting Holst’s The Planets.  Taped in 1977 in Philadelphia, it’s a wonderful performance of a great warhorse.  It’s amazing how influential certain pieces of the classical repertoire were, especially on film composers – to this day you hear echoes of various movements of The Planets in film scores.  In fact, I’d say it was one of THE most influential pieces of music ever.  Again, I’m just enjoying so much watching Mr. Ormandy conduct.

After that, I sat at my computer and listened to Stokowski’s 1956 stereo recording of The Planets, which I did not like much at all.  I then listened to the Charles Ives first symphony with Ormandy – Ives has never been a favorite of mine, but I did enjoy the performance.  Then I listened to Ormandy’s reading of Orff’s Carmina Burana.  I must admit that I was only familiar with the famous movement that every movie trailer for the last twenty years has used, and every Hollywood composer has “borrowed” in some way for the big action scores.  But the rest of it is really delightful and a wonderful listening experience, plus it’s fun having the male soloist be Harve Presnell, right at the time he was doing The Unsinkable Molly Brown on Broadway.  Finally, I listened to Ormandy’s recordings of Rachmaninov’s first and third symphonies, neither of which approach the absolute perfection of his second symphony.  The first symphony is the least affecting to me personally – I enjoy it, but it doesn’t “get” to me and never has.  I keep hoping it will, but it doesn’t.  But the third symphony has gloriously beautiful moments and I really like it a lot – I hadn’t heard it in years, so it was really nice to revisit it.  And that was pretty much my day and night and night and day.  I did snack on some Chicken in a Biskit crackers and one little Bonbel light cheese thing, plus I’d gotten two teeny-tiny little cheesecake things at the cheesecake place near the mail place.  Hadn’t been in there in ages – it’s really good, and they’re just bite-sized things, about half the size of a small cupcake.  I had a really good coconut thing, and a chocolate peanut butter thing.

Today, I shall hopefully arise after a good night’s beauty sleep.  I’ll finish choosing songs and gather up the music – I’m actually ahead on this show and we’re still over four weeks away.  Then I’ll eat, hopefully pick up some packages, and then I need to return several telephonic calls.

The rest of the week is meetings and meals, and I’m seeing two shows, one on Friday night and one on Saturday night.  We’ll also be shipping out Centennial Summer and Won Ton Ton either Thursday or Friday.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a jog of some sort, choose songs, gather music, eat, hopefully pick up some packages, return calls and relax.  Today’s topic of discussion: What is the best production of a farce that you’ve ever seen?  For me it was Gower Champion’s amazing production of A Flea in Her Ear, which I saw on Broadway at the ANTA Theater in 1970.  It was brilliant beyond belief and the audience roared with laughter.  The entire production was designed in black-and-white so he could do one fall out of your seat gag in the second act.  It was breathtaking to watch.  Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have one less “friend” on Facebook so that I don’t have to see the tripe he posts.

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