Well, dear readers, this week is flying by, like a gazelle eating herring whilst listening to the dance stylings of Lester Lanin in stereophonic sound. I owned a Lester Lanin album, did you? I owned a Clebanoff album, did you? Actually, I owned several Clebanoff albums, not to mention several Ornadel albums, an Aquaviva album, many Mantovani albums, most of Percy Faith, a few Don Costa, many Ferrante and Teicher albums, a few Peter Nero albums, a few Melachrino albums, some Dick Schory albums (ping-pong stereo, baby), one Acker Bilk album, several Norrie Paramor albums, and on and on, although I freely admit to never having owned a Lawrence Welk album – one simply had to draw the line somewhere. Why the HELL am I talking about my propensity for easy listening albums when I was but a young youth? Well, I suppose these here notes are easy listening in a way. I have no idea WHAT way, but they could be, in a way. After all, they’re easy on the eyes, they’re occasionally nicely arranged, there’s not much to them, but they’re like comfort food for the eyeballs.
WHAT a paragraph that was. Yesterday wasn’t much of a day, even though I did get a lot done. I got about seven hours of sleep, sent some e-mails that needed to be sent and even got a couple of responses, then I went to the bank to make a deposit and was greeted by another huge line and the business window closed. Every time I mention a line someone pipes up with some excuse for it – the first of the month, the last of the month – I think today’s excuse would probably be last day to file taxes. So, I just used the ATM and got the HELL out of there.
I then went to Jerry’s Deli – hadn’t been in a whole week, really. I had my chili, cheese, and onion hot dog (grilled) and a side Caesar salad – very good. After that, I went to the mail place and picked up one package, then came home.
Once home, I listened to music, wrote the liner notes I needed to write and sent them off, finished choosing the songs (whew!), got the singers their music, wrote a brand new What If to open the May show (I think it’s pretty funny, but we’ll see), I had several telephonic conversations, the helper came by and got invoices for the two titles shipping in the next couple of days, and printed out a decent amount of orders. I wonder if with these Ben Bagley reissues, all of which have been out of print for YEARS, I wonder if anyone checks the prices they’re going for. Most of them are over fifty bucks, even the ones we’ve reissued. I’d hate to think of some poor sucker getting bilked like that. And yet we haven’t sold out of one Bagley title at only 500 units each. We have a mailing list of over 2,500 people – unfortunately they’re mostly soundtrack folks, but every time I get an order from a newbie show person, I add them to the list. The real problem, of course, is Facebook, which used to be a great way to spread the word – now with their awful algorithms, no one sees the news, or many miss it. The living proof of that was when I posted in the two musical theater Facebook groups I frequent – each have close to 10,000 members. So, a few weeks ago I posted about our Follies CD – just for fun – and said, let’s see how many people show up and say, “I had no idea.” And I got about seventy orders that day. I mean, you’d have to live in a cave not to know about our Follies – it was praised EVERYWHERE, and yet, the Facebook algorithms work their non-wonders every day in every way, even when I boost the damn post.
At some point I had to go to Ralph’s for Diet Coke and I went to buy some Mexican shredded cheese to make a little tortilla and cheese thing for my snack and discovered they now sell Taco Bell shredded cheese – the same that they use for their tacos. So, I bought that, too. I came home and made two tortillas with Taco Bell cheese – very low-calorie and they were very good and hit the spot, after which the spot hit them back. Then I listened to music and relaxed, and also shaved so I wouldn’t have to do that in the morning.
Today, I’ll be up by ten, and I’m hoping I have a telephonic call I need to get. Then I’ll get ready and mosey on over to some jernt in West LA for a lunch meeting at noon o’clock. That should last about ninety minutes, then I’ll head right home and I have a little meeting around two-thirty that will be very quick. Then I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, then come home and relax.
The rest of the week is meetings and meals and doing whatever needs doing. I don’t think I have to see anything this week.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, have a noon o’clock lunch, have a quick two-thirty meeting, hopefully pick up packages, hopefully print out a LOT more orders, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: Easy – what easy listening albums and artists were your favorites? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where the soothing sounds of easy listening music shall lull me to sleep.