Well, dear readers, what can I say about yesterday that hasn’t been said a million times before. What HAS been said about yesterday a million times before, actually? Who could have said anything about yesterday one million times? That is simply ludicrous on the face of it or even on the chest of it. Whatever I say about yesterday will be said for the first time, starting here, starting now – what am I, Maltby and Shire all of a sudden?
Yesterday, about which nothing has been said, was a fine little day, I suppose. There really isn’t much to say about it because I was actually doing one thing for the majority of the day. That process began when I arose just before ten, after seven hours of sleep. I got dressed, answered a few e-mails, and then moseyed on over to Staples to Xerox the designed book for my final proofing. Happily, there were able to do it while I waited, which was great. I came right home and began proofing. Originally, I thought I’d read the entire book, but after twenty-five pages of that I realized it would take far too long to do it that way, when the purpose of this final proofing was to basically look for bad breaks, indention problems, em dash issues, and anything we missed. So, that’s what I did – it still took almost four hours, but I got it done. There were not nearly as many issues, because a lot of what I usually find – indentation problems – had already been addressed and in point of fact I found none. I found a couple of weird issues – my bullet points for one section had disappeared, so I caught that, and I caught my three uses of using a smiley face had all turned into “J” for some reason. I found about ten bad breaks, a couple of spacing issues, and the one major issue – Grant had missed a chapter heading and moving one page over to the right, and two pages after that two page numbers were missing. I also caught the twelve or so em dashes that hadn’t converted.
After that, I went to the mail place and picked up a few packages and some mail, then came right back home.
Grant got here about four so I went to him and we were able to do everything in about forty minutes. That process used to take hours upon hours, but we’ve got it down into a science. He e-mailed me a new copy and I’ll do a cursory look-through today.
After that, Grant, his ever-lovin’ Lydia, and I went to Barone’s for dinner. I had a salad, carbonara, and a couple of pieces of garlic bread. Thankfully I hadn’t eaten anything during the day. It was all very good. Then I came home and sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a motion picture on Blu and Ray entitled Queen of the Stardust Ballroom, a surprising release of which I expected almost nothing in terms of quality, given that the DVD release was barely better than a VHS. But to my surprise, this was a beautiful transfer, with great color and contrast. I’m very fond of the TV film, even though it’s a little downbeat a little too often, including the ending. The singing by Miss Maureen Stapleton and Mr. Charles Durning isn’t going to win any awards but they get it done. The music by Billy Goldenberg is gorgeous, and the lyrics by the Bergmans are fine. One of the problems is the direction – it was directed by Sam O’Steen, a great film editor, and a very ordinary director. The musical stuff and dancing is very ham-fisted and boring and so is Marge Champion’s musical staging. Of course, some years later Michael Bennett choreographed and directed a production on Broadway, in which he excised all the depressing stuff from the top of the movie, and got rid of most of the plot songs – it is a production I so wish I could have seen, but alas I don’t think any footage exists, outside of a thirty-second TV spot, and Miss Dorothy Loudon’s Tony broadcast performance of Fifty Percent. Back to the movie, the performances of Maureen Stapleton and Charles Durning are wonderful, but the supporting cast outside of Michael Brandon, is a bit weak. Anyway, highly recommended by the likes of me.
After that, I listened to music and relaxed and pondered the age-old question, what can I say about yesterday that hasn’t been said a million times before.
Today, I’ll be up by ten, I’ll do some errands and whatnot, including banking, I’ll give the book one more once-over, I’ll have a work session for the Kritzerland show, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, and then I’m hoping Grant will finalize the cover and back cover of the book and get everything sent in before Friday or by Friday. Then I’ll relax and watch something fun.
Tomorrow I do a three-hour coaching session, Friday I have a meeting, Saturday I’m seeing a show, and I may see a matinee on Sunday.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do errands and whatnot including banking, give the book one more once-over, have a work session, hopefully pick up some packages, eat, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear reader any old question you like and we get to give any old answer we like. So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy that I had something to say about yesterday that had not been said a million times before.