Well, dear readers, your most excellent vibes and xylophones were very helpful yesterday, and the e-mail I wrote the night before also was helpful and I don’t have to think about anything for a couple of weeks now. So, many thanks. The phone call that was supposed to happen at eleven didn’t but I did have a response to the e-mail and it wasn’t a bad response. The person did finally call around five, but I was off at a meeting by then.
I only got about four and a half hours of sleep – active brain syndrome. Which I suppose is better than the alternative. I’ll always opt for active brain syndrome, frankly or even stevely. And now I sit like so much fish, having listened to the Duke of Ellington’s very early 1950s album, Ellington Uptown. I must tell you that on Amazon and not from a third-party seller and used but new from Amazon itself, the CD cost four bucks. And here’s what I can tell you – the music is, of course, amazing, as is the band. But it’s the sound – one of the most amazing mono recordings I’ve ever heard. The depth and clarity is truly astonishing. Whoever did this mastering is brilliant. The CD is filled out with another album, Liberian Suite. I have a CD of that all by its lonesome, an import I got in the late 1990s – but this one blows the sound of that one away – far away. Highly recommended by the likes of me.
Yesterday was a kooky day. The helper came early and got some stuff from the garage. I was up at nine-thirty and really tired. I answered e-mails and did work on the computer, but when the telephonic call never arrived, I did a few other things, then went and had a chili, cheese, and onion grilled hot dog and a side Caesar salad – very good. Freshly delivered this week, but naturally they got to the mail place as late as they possibly could, like six, so I never picked up the package and there it sits – perishables – all thanks to the sickening ineptitude of the local Ontrac driver. One of these fine days I’m going to be there when he arrives and he will get a piece of my mind, oh, yes, he will get a piece of my mindy. A piece of my mindy??? What in tarnation is THAT? I guess you’d call it my mind’s Y. In any case, hopefully the ice packs are keeping it nice and cold until I pick it up this very morning.
At five, I attended a meeting at the Group Rep, regarding a potential project for next year. I’m not sure they want to go down the road that the project requires – it may simply be beyond their means, but Doug feels very much at home there and has been there for three decades and the resistance to him today seemed really peculiar to me. The meeting lasted about forty minutes and then I came home and wrote a long e-mail to the artistic director, telling my feelings about the meeting, the project, and the fact that the decision is wholly theirs to make and that whatever that decision is is fine by me – if it’s a no I’m not sure Doug will be fine with it, and I frankly wouldn’t blame him. It would be a fun project to do, and if it doesn’t happen there I can probably make it happen elsewhere, if that’s something we decide we want.
After that, I listened to music and did some more work on the computer and then just relaxed, as I was too tired to really pay to much attention to anything.
Today, I’ll pick up the Freshly package and get the meals in the refrigerator. If the ice packs have either failed completely or failed to keep it as fresh as I feel it needs to be, then they’re going to have to refund me and they can lay that squarely on the shoulders of the idiot Ontrac person. At noon I’m getting a haircut, then I’ll hopefully pick up some other packages, and I’ll eat the first of the Freshly meals and then do a jog. I’m hoping to finalize the final Kritzerland cast – just waiting on an answer from two people. Happily, it looks like Jason Graae will be with us. Then I have a few other things to do before I finally relax.
Tomorrow, I’ll be up by nine and out the door and on the road by eleven, driving to Coachella, about one hundred miles from here. I’m hoping two hours will do it. Then we’ll have our tech cue-to-cue, then Robert debuts his act. And I’ll hopefully be on the road home by eight-thirty or nine at the latest. I have a few things to do on the weekend, including hopefully meeting up with composer Pete Anthony so he can sign the Betting on Zero booklets – we’ll be shipping that on Tuesday. Otherwise, I hope to get some relaxation in.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, pick up the Freshly package and get the meals in the refrigerator, I must have a haircut, I must hopefully pick up some other packages, I may have to have yesterday’s telephone conversation today, but if I do it will be brief. And I must do some work on the computer and then relax. Today’s topic of discussion: Who were and are your favorite big bands and singers and leaders? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, hoping that I always have at least a little active brain syndrome.