Well, dear readers, I think it was a holiday yesterday, so I hope everyone had a very pleasantly pleasant day off from the daily grind. I, for one, didn’t really have a day off from my daily grind as I ground away doing the grind I do daily. Ground grind, that was my yesterday, but it was altogether pleasantly pleasant so I didn’t mind the grind or the ground.
I got about six hours of sleep, even though I’d intended to get more. I answered e-mails, had a telephonic call, then had the conversation with Muse Margaret to run by her the final few things I’d found, all but one of which she liked and agreed with. Then I did some work at the piano, then on the computer. At one, Grant arrived and we began entering the final fixes. It went pretty smoothly and easily because I was very organized.
After we finished, I gave him the images for what may or may not turn out to be a little gallery in the back of the book. I think it would be fun to have, but we’ll see how it looks and feels. Then we went to a nearby Mexican jernt that Muse Margaret had recommended – La Fugata, right up the street from Corky’s. Grant ordered some weird kind of tacos, while I ordered the more conventional two cheese enchiladas and one beef taco, plus rice and beans. We got some chips and salsa – chips were very fresh and good and the salsa was really good, too. As it turned out, Grant didn’t like his weird tacos at all, so I gave him my second cheese enchilada, which he really enjoyed. I thought the food was very good and I’ll definitely be returning. This jernt is literally a half-block from the Japanese jernt I liked so much, so in a three-block radius I have Corky’s, Mexican, and Japanese at my disposal.
After that, I dropped Grant off and I went and picked up a couple of packages but no important envelope, then came back home. I had the latest copy of the book so I did my quick tour through it and, as always, found a few more things because sometimes when you adjust one thing it screws up something else. But the book looks great, and I really only found six tiny things, four of which were bad breaks at the bottom of pages, and the other two were bad breaks at the ends of sentences. So, I noted them and sent them to Grant and hopefully he’ll put in those today, along with the acknowledgements that I’ll send when I’m up in the morning.
Then I did some more work on the computer, then finally sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a motion picture on the Flix of Net, a thriller from a few years ago called Closed Circuit, a kind of meaningless title, although they try very hard to make the title have meaning. But in the scheme of the actual story, it really is kind of meaningless. It wasn’t truly horrible – it moved right along and had moments of interest, and I liked its leading lady (Rebecca Hall, I think was her name), but I really did not like the leading man, Eric Bana – just not my cuppa actor tea. The script had some truly bad dialogue and the whole thing just peters out at the end. Can’t really recommend it, but I’ve seen worse.
Then I took a shower, listened to music, and began writing the flap copy for the dust jacket. I found a way in, but boy is it hard because I just don’t want to give away much in the flap copy. For example, I hate coming attractions for movies these days because they give away everything, every plot point, every interesting line, and I always feel like I don’t need to see the movie. And that’s how I feel about some flap copy. But this one’s really hard – I think I’ve got at least the bones of it now, and I know I could easily just reveal a few things, but I just don’t want to. I even use the coming attractions analogy in what I wrote. I also got an incredibly sweet and touching e-mail from a performer I’ve worked with for years, just thanking me basically. I found it very moving because there are just times, as there are for everyone, when you sit and wonder if anything you’ve done has actually meant something.
Today, if I get the updated book back I’ll just do a quick perusal and hopefully that puppy will be put to bed. I’m hoping I get the one and only blurb I want for this one, then Doug will be figuring out the back cover and getting things to the publisher, because Grant is on a deadline with a huge coffee table book for Taschen. I’ll eat, hopefully pick up packages and an important envelope, bank, make a show order, write some commentary, and finish writing the flap copy.
Tomorrow I have a meeting at one, Thursday we’re having a video viewing, and then not sure what’s happening on Friday or the weekend.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, peruse the final book copy, eat, hopefully pick up packages and an important envelope, bank, make a show order, write commentary, finish the flap copy, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite instruments? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, after hitting the ground grinding the daily grind.