Well, dear readers, as I sit here like so much fish listening to Chopin’s first piano concerto with Mr. Ormandy and Alexander Brailowsky doing the pianistics, I continue to ponder the imponderables, which are both ponderous and imponderably imponderable. All the Ormandy CDs are finally loaded into the computer, so that’s done. And I even watched a motion picture, a Showtime original from 1998 entitled The Passion of Ayn Rand, a terrible movie with a wonderful performance by Helen Mirren as Ayn Rand. It’s a soap opera roundelay of who sleeps with whom and it’s just a bore from start to finish. The script is banal (based on a book by one of the characters), the direction has some of the weirdest visual choices ever, it takes place in Los Angeles in New York, and of course, was shot in neither place, but Toronto. The location choices for New York look nothing like New York, especially the modern theater building where Death of a Salesman is in its last weeks. Julia Delpy, who I gather has done quite a bit of work in films I’ve never seen, is just okay as Barbara Branden, the woman who wrote the book on which the film takes place, Eric Stoltz is an actor I simply don’t care for, Peter Fonda play’s Rand’s husband, and the rest of the actors are Canadians. Helen Mirren won an Emmy for her performance. The whole movie just lays there like a piece of herring and I cannot recommend it, save for the performance of Miss Mirren. I listened to quite a bit of music during what was a slightly frustrating day – an interesting piano concerto by Max Reger, several compilation albums, a wonderful performance of Symphonie Fantastique – what truly astonishes on every one of these treasurable albums is the stereo sound – the incredible detail, the immediacy – they don’t do it better today, I’m here to tell you and I’ve told you. I napped for an hour at some point and woke up thinking it was today – so disorienting. I only got six hours of sleep because I got up at six and the galley had arrived. Clearly, they did not bother reading my instruction sheet so they completely screwed up the copyright page, the ONLY page they’re supposed to touch and all they had to do was add the ISBN numbers – that’s it – what could be simpler? Instead, they dropped in their own template copyright page and therefore the design and photo credits were gone. Just inept and I know my guy who supervises was and is incredibly frustrated by them. My gal, too, who is going to have a little talk with these people. As if that wasn’t enough, the sixteen-page photo spread contained nothing but black squares where photos should be. Again, how does that happen on a locked PDF? I was told it would be back to me corrected pretty quickly – it never arrived. That was the frustrating part of the day. Hopefully, it will be waiting for me when I arise. If they fixed those two things, I should be able to approve, although I will check the entire thing now that they screwed up two things – just cannot trust them. Then they need to assemble the dust jacket cover and get me that and the softcover proofs and I’ve told my guy that needs to happen quickly. Before last year’s two books, this part of the process would usually take two or three days – now it’s taking over a week.
I had a very good lunch from Maria’s Eyetalian Kitchen thanks to a 50% off coupon – I had penne pasta in pink sauce with one meatball for protein. It was very tasty and came with a small Caesar salad that was also very good. In the early evening, I got the eBook of Directed by live on Amazon, so if anyone would like to read it in advance of the hardcover, it’s there and unlike the hardcover, the photo spread is in full color. Here’s the link, as it may not be showing up in the search function yet.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CYPHRG3S
Then I napped, then watched the movie. And here we are.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll hope that the fixed galley is waiting for me and that I can approve it, I’ll hope that the covers follow quickly and that I can approve those, I’ll eat something, and then at some point, I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
The rest of the week and the weekend is more of that, and Sunday I have an early dinner thing.
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, hope the fixed galley is here and that I can approve it, wait for the covers, eat, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: Are you a fan of Ayn Rand or not a fan? And what are your favorite performances of Miss Helen Mirren? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, hoping that the ponderous imponderables become less ponderous and ponderable.