Well, dear readers, I must write these here notes in a hurry, not because she of the Evil Eye is coming but because He of the Piano is coming for a work session for the Kritzerland show, he being Tom Griep. I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to an interesting performance of the Mahler 10 conducted by Jean Martinon, a live recording with the Chicago Symphony, not long after Eugene Ormandy’s pioneering first recording. While that will always be my tenth of choice, this one is excellent and better than any of the other tenths I’ve heard and I’ve heard ‘em all. Sound isn’t bad at all, and it could be helped with a good mastering engineer. It’s on YouTube, from whence I grabbed it whence upon a time. I did manage to finish the long Spielberg documentary and I found it very enjoyable. I don’t think they covered every movie or if they did I missed seeing Always in there. There are lots of very good interviews with interesting people, so it’s baffling to me why critic Janet Maslin is in there and a lot, and the ubiquitous Annette Insdorf, who seems to somehow show up in all these things and I find her quite irritating, I’m afraid. After that one, I managed to watch a motion picture on Blu and Ray that I’d never seen, called The Internecine Project, a 1974 film from 1974, with James Coburn, Lee Grant and some fine British character actors. It’s a rather typical film of the period, and I found it convoluted and poorly written. Kevin Thomas of the LA Times liked it, thought, but it opened with terrible ads on a double bill with Papillion sharing equal ad space and not in any real top theaters. They were also scared of the title, so the ad actually says, James Coburn in A Fancy Name for Multiple Murder, The Internecine Project. It does have a good 1970s score by Roy Budd.
Yesterday was certainly something. I only got about six hours of sleep because the damn phones, both landline and cell, were ringing every two minutes, the usual spam calls. So, I was up at nine, had to follow up on a few things, then began futzing and finessing around ten-thirty. That took a long time and then I ordered food from nearby Antonio’s Eyetalian restaurant, which I always forget about. I had a pasta dish – corkscrew pasta in a pink sauce with chicken and it as really good, although VERY garlicky. I also had some garlic bread with it, which was also very garlicky for obvious reasons.
Before the food arrived, I did write three pages, and after I ate I wrote about seven more, then two more after that and by then the day was done and done was the day and I needed a serious sitting on my couch like so much fish break. I only left the house once for a trip to the ATM.
After the viewing was done, I managed to write one more page before beginning to write these here notes, and since I’m only a page and a half away from fifteen pages I’ll try to do that after showering. I talked to Muse Margaret’s ever-lovin’ Richard and they were just leaving for a forty-eighth anniversary dinner, so Muse Margaret will call me today and I’ll then send her the first 105 pages of the new book and pray she likes them. I really haven’t a clew whether she will or not, although she voted for the this to be the one I wrote.
Today, I’ll be up by nine, we’ll have our work session at ten and it shouldn’t take longer than an hour or so, then I’ll futz and finesse yesterday’s writing, go through everything and add the style thing I decided on, which will take an hour, then I’ll send it to Muse Margaret. I’ll go to the mail place and see what’s there – haven’t been in three days – I’ll eat, I’ll write new pages, I’ll hopefully hear from Muse Margaret, and then at some point I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow I’ll write however many pages and then I have to have at least a partial ME day because this coming week is very busy with stuff. Monday is our first Kritzerland rehearsal, Tuesday through Thursday is all writing, but also making sure I have the show order right and the commentary done, our second rehearsal is on Friday, then a stumble-through on Saturday and then I’m still waiting to hear about whether we’re adding the show on Saturday night – part of me hopes no, but if we have good reservations then we’ll do it and we’ll all just go straight from here to the club. Sunday we have our sold out show.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by nine, have a work session, futz and finesse and do the style fixes, send pages to Muse Margaret, eat, go to the mail place, write new pages, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite films of Mr. James Coburn? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, from whence I shall arise whence upon a time.