Well, dear readers, it is late and therefore I must write these here notes in a hurry. As you know, yesterday I put the new book up for pre-order and so far, so good, I must say. I did a Facebook page and over 130 people joined it in just the first few hours, and let me tell you that is very good for a new Facebook page that no one knows anything about. I’ve received wonderful comments about the cover and especially the blurbs, so that was a very nice part of yesterday. And actually as days go it wasn’t such a bad day at all.
I was up at seven-thirty, announced the book everywhere online, and then went back to bed, fell back asleep at nine-thirty, and slept until noon, so I think I got eight hours of sleep somewhere in all those hours. Once up, I answered e-mails, made the Facebook page, and then ate some lovely tuna pasta salad but with the wrong pasta. I’d forgotten to buy the elbow macaroni so I used penne instead. It’s not nearly as good with the penne – the noodles are just a bit too big for the dish, but I’m still enjoying it. Over the course of the day I ate three helpings, half of what I made, or eight ounces, and that’s pretty much all I ate.
The helper came by and helped and she also brought a couple of packages from the mail place, so I listened to some more Sibelius. I never tire of this music, I must say. Several more performances conducted by Alexander Gibson, including two more from his Chandos cycle. The sound varies from piece to piece, and sadly my favorite, the fifth, is the worst of it – the band sounds like it’s a mile away. That is just horrid engineering. So I immediately listened to Gibson’s 1959 version and that recording is simply amazing, as is the performance. Comparing the sound of those two CDs is like night and day. And then I listened to three symphonies conducted by Paul Kletzki – I’d loved his performances of the Rachmaninov symphonies. These weren’t quite up to that – two were in mono and those were the best of it. His second symphony performance is certainly excellent, but the early 1956 stereo sound is not up to snuff and it really hurts the music making. Every time I listen to a new performance of these symphonies I discover new things. I know I’ve been writing a lot about them, but anyone with any interest in classical music should have one of the complete sets – of all the ones I have, none of which are perfect for every symphony, I’d recommend the John Barbirolli, for the excellent sound and always interesting performances, and it can be had pretty reasonably. You can thank me later. I may have some duplicate Sibelius CDs, so I’ll let any interested parties know if that’s so.
It was raining most of the day, and I only went out once, because it was so cozy in the warm home environment. Then I finally sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched some documentary on the Flix of Net about the Internet, made by Werner Herzog. The history of the Internet is really fascinating and while Herzog is quite weird as a filmmaker, this is enjoyable and certainly illuminating in many ways.
After that, I took a hot shower and relaxed with a little Mahler – not that you can relax with a piece of Mahler’s. We were originally going to announce a new CD release yesterday, but at the eleventh hour I found a better source for the music that I’d forgotten I had – it’s scads better and so I delayed announcing until I knew it was going to work better (and there’s a couple minutes more music than we had). So, early next week we’ll announce and fans of cheesy fifties sci-fi should be very happy with this one.
Today, I have no real plans other than casting our final gal for the Rupert show – I don’t know why I haven’t settled on someone but I really need to do it and get everyone their damn music. Other than that, I’ll finish the other half of the tuna pasta salad, I’ll hopefully pick up packages, I’ll relax, and I’m sure I’ll watch a motion picture or two. Today’s topic of discussion: What was the best pop music you grew up with – the songs of your life? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have had the very nice part of yesterday.