Well, dear readers, another day has gone by, barely noticed by the likes of me, and another day is upon us, namely Friday. This month is flying by, like a gazelle eating potato salad in the shank of the evening. Amusingly, I, too, am eating potato salad in the shank of the evening. Why not, I say? Did you know that the shank can refer to the early OR late part of the evening? Don’t you find that endlessly and needlessly confusingly confusing? I do. There should be only one damn shank. As I am writing these here notes, after an evening of not watching anything, I am listening to the piano stylings of Mr. George Greeley, a favorite of mine because he did several wonderful “concerto”-type albums of movie themes for Warner Bros. Records, in their glorious stereophonic sound. Interestingly, none of the movie theme albums are on CD. Isn’t that disgusting. Thankfully, they’re on the Tube of You – vinyl transfers that are pretty decent. This potato salad from Mel’s is pretty decent, too, and the gazelle concurs wholeheartedly. What else can I tell you about yesterday? Well, I got eleven hours of sleep, so that was nice. Once up, I answered a lot of e-mails, spent over an hour at the piano with the new songs, ordered penne pasta with meatballs from Maria’s Kitchen – that arrived pretty quickly and was excellent. Then I continued something I began a few days ago – cataloging books of authors where I have more than five books – mostly a precaution against double-dipping because I don’t always remember what I have. Some authors include Anthony Burgess, Ernest K. Gann, Agatha Christie, John Gardner (his Bond books), Evan Hunter aka Ed McBain, Donald Westlake aka Richard Stark, Ross McDonald, Margaret Millar (Mrs. McDonald), Peter O’Donnell (I have firsts on all the Modesty Blaise books), Dean Koontz, John Wyndham, John Collier, John Cheever, and most of all, Georges Simenon. Over many, many years I’ve amassed eighty-four first editions in primo, like new condition and at incredibly cheap prices. I got in it when the getting was good and got most of the primo stuff from one dealer about twenty-two years ago. Of course, I don’t think there’s any way to get complete because the early firsts are all but impossible to find and the books from the early to mid-1940s are also very rare and hard to find. Once you hit the late 1940s it gets easier. There are several book dealers who watch my buying habits, and so while there are still some Simenon bargains to be had of later books, they jumped in and snapped up a lot and are trying to sell at inflated prices. Fun to watch them do this. There will come a day in the next three to five years, due to the popularity of Inspector Maigret, that my collection will probably quadruple in value and that’s when it would be time to sell as an “instant collection” of the best copies around. And that was pretty much it, really.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll work at the piano, then I’ll get ready for the theater, which I’ll precede with a meal at a jernt close to there – several to choose from, thankfully. Then I’ll come home right after.
The weekend is pretty open at the moment and then next week is very busy.
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, I’ll work at the piano, eat, go see a play, and come home. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player and your DVD/Blu and Ray/streaming player? I’ll start – no idea. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, as the shank of the evening ends and we enter the shank of a new day.