Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much late fish, listening to a symphony by another pretty much unknown female composer named Elsa Barraine, very good. It’s such a shame that no adventurous orchestra just programs a season of all female composers – wouldn’t that be fun and intriguing and interesting? But noooo, we just get the usual suspects over and over and over again. And now, it’s quite late because I had a telephonic call and that lasted quite some time. I did manage to watch a motion picture last night and not even fall asleep, my second viewing of Orphan: First Kill, the prequel to Orphan, which, as you know, I feel is a little classic. If you’ve seen Orphan, the prequel is now streaming for free on Amazon, so you might want to check it out – but definitely see Orphan first, if you haven’t. The prequel isn’t as good as the first film, of course, but it’s very loopy and fun in its own way, and like the first film has a little surprise that no one will ever see coming. The director isn’t as good as the original director, either, but the cast is decent and the wonderful Isabel Fuhrman repeats her role as Esther, the orphan. That part is very cleverly done – Ms. Fuhrman was eleven, I think when the first film was made, so she’s in her mid-twenties now, but still pulls off the prequel where she’s supposed to be even younger. Lots of fun and leads us right up to where the original began. I have to say that everyone I’ve introduced Orphan to has absolutely loved it.
Yesterday was okay – uneventful, which actually was a blessing. I was up at eight-fifteen after only five hours of sleep, answered some e-mails, then went and had some matzoh brei and a bagel at Art’s Deli. After that, I went to the mail place and picked up mail from the past six days – a few screeners from TV shows that I have no interest in, and a rare Japanese CD of David Saville music, he of The Chipmunks, but this is all pre-Chipmunks. I had the LP of this (lots of bonus tracks on the CD) and loved it as a kid, a mono record on Liberty Records. I was a big fan. Then came The Chipmunks. By that time, I already knew that Mr. Seville was actually Ross Bagdasarian. If you’ve seen Rear Window, Mr. Bagdasarian plays the composer in one of the apartments. I’m looking forward to playing that one. After that, I went to Gelson’s and got a few shrimp cocktail shrimp and some clam chowder from their soup bar, and then a baked potato to have later.
I came home, had two spoonfuls of the chowder and tossed it – way too fishy tasting for the likes of me. I ate the shrimp and that was fine. Then I got both proofers final go-through of the new book. The first proofer’s were all really good catches – missing words, typos, spacing issues – just great stuff that I never would have caught. So, I entered those, then I did the second proofer’s stuff and no more proofing until the designed book is done, because stuff shifts around when it’s reformatted and we have to make sure there are no bad breaks and widows and orphans. This book will be much easier than previous books because we’ve really been thorough and there aren’t that many chapters. That was a lot of the day, but I also did about half the writing I needed to do, so that was good. Then I had the baked potato, which was good whilst eating it, but which wasn’t so good a couple of hours later – too much damn butter, but what IS the point without the damn butter? Then I watched the movie, had the telephonic call, and sent a PDF of the book to someone I’m really hoping will like it and blurb it. We shall see.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, which will only be trying to finish the writing I need to do – not that much left to do. I will stay far away from the Super Bowl and I’ll either bring in something to eat or go pick something up, but basically I’m staying put and relaxing and I’m sure I’ll do some viewing and listening.
This week – hard to know how it’s going to go, but I know certain parts will be very difficult if we don’t get some major miracles around these here parts, and I do mean VERY difficult. We have to prepare two new releases but I don’t know when I can announce them. And we have to ship a LOT of CDs. Well, we’ll hope for the best, which is all one can do, really.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up when I’m up, do whatever needs doing, finish up my writing, eat, and watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have at least had an uneventful day.