Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to CD 69 out of 69 – yes, I am five minutes away from having finished the entirety of the Dimitri Mitropoulos set. The final two CDs are of a live Met performance of Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera (The Balls in Mascara). This features some of the same performance in the studio recording of excerpts – Roberta Peters and Jan Peerce, and also includes Zinka Milanov, Marian Anderson, and Robert Merrill. What a set this has been – hours of pleasure and pleasure for hours, not necessarily in that order. And now that I’m through, I’m listening to Walton’s violin concerto, the amazing Jascha Heifetz recording – it is amazingly beautiful in its amazing beauty. But before I wax on I must cut to the chase because I must write these here notes in a hurry, for she of the evil eye will be here all too soon and I will have to amscray. Prior to listening, I watched one count them one motion picture on the Amazon Prime, a thriller, if you want to call it that, apparently made for the Hallmark channel. I suspect this is typical of the quality one gets from the Hallmark channel and Lifetime, too. In other words, a perfectly terrible script, shot in Canada with one American actress and a bunch of Canadian actors trying to sound like they don’t have Canadian actors. For the most part, these Canadian actors are quite subpar, and some are downright awful. I watch these awful thrillers and then I look at the dialogue I write for my mysteries or the recent script with David Wechter and the only thing I can think of is that neither Hallmark or Lifetime would touch our script because the dialogue is too good – and has wit and character. I’ll never understand it, frankly, but it’s the way it is these days. Mediocrity takes the day. Anyway, no redeeming qualities for this film, which was called Stealing Paradise, a title so inane for this particular film that it boggles the already boggled mind. It makes it sound like one of those romantic things that Hallmark and Lifetime do. Anyway, I recommend avoiding this like the plague.
Yesterday wasn’t much of a day, mostly because I got up at ten-thirty after six-and-a-half hours of sleep, placed the book order, so that’s done, and then I went back to bed at noon and slept until three. Once up, I answered a plethora of e-mails and did a few things on the computer, then got dressed and headed to the car to go get something to eat when I decided I didn’t feel like driving anywhere. So, I ordered my spicy cashew chicken from the Cheesecake Factory and it came about forty minutes later. It wasn’t quite as much food as it usually is and that was a good thing. I was going to eat a couple pieces of bread, but it was kind of stale, and I threw it out instead.
After that, I finished reading through our script and making notes, mostly large cuts we need to make. When I get antsy reading then I know something isn’t working. I find there’s a tendency when writing with someone that there’s just too much fat, too much beating people over the head with details and reiterating plot points unnecessarily and all that has to go. There are a couple of smaller characters that I don’t think are playing well, so I’m suggesting we revise them – it won’t be that hard, it’s just locking down their personalities and then making that very evident from word one. But the main characters are really good, the dialogue mostly sparkles, and I think one could interest some A-list talent for this. So, David’s now doing the same thing I did, then we’ll meet, and then begin re-writing it – it’s really more condensing than anything else. It currently runs about 165 pages and forty of those have to go. The first thing we’ll do is remove all the cut stuff and then we’ll see where we are.
After that, I watched the movie and then listened to music and I don’t care who knows it.
Today, I’ll be up by eight-thirty and out the door by nine. I’ll go have a light breakfast somewhere fun – I’m thinking something new in terms of restaurant. I’ll probably have an omelet or bacon and eggs. Then I’ll do some errands and whatnot, then return home by noon o’clock. Then I have a few things to do, and then I can watch, listen, and relax. I’ll probably have a snack at some point, although I’ve pretty much done without snacks this past week, keeping it to one meal a day.
Tomorrow is a ME day, and then next week is busy with a lot o’ stuff, the most important of which is a work session for the Kritzerland show. All songs are now chosen, so that’s a relief. And all the singers have their music.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by eight-thirty and out the door by nine, have a light breakfast, so errands and whatnot, and then return home and watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite violin concertos? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have finished the 69 out of 69 CDs in the Mitropoulos big box o’ CDs.