Well, dear readers, after a rather irritating morning and day, I am finally sitting here like so much fish listening to the music of one Aram Khachaturian. What a composer. He is occasionally derided as a lesser light to Shostakovich and Prokofiev, but who needs to play those games? The guy wrote amazing music, his melodies are irresistible, and he is hardly a lightweight as the classical pontificators call him. One only need listen to the Spartacus ballet’s amazingly beautiful adagio, or the famous Gayaneh piece used by Kubrick in 2001: A Space Odyssey, or is incredible piano concerto with its use of the flexatone in its second movement – many leave it out – but it’s so perfect and weird and wonderful that I will not listen to the concerto without it – or the genius of the Sabre Dance. His violin concerto is fantastic and so is his cello concerto. His film scores for The Battle of Stalingrad and Othello are equally wonderful. His three symphonies are all worth several listenings. If you don’t know his music or you only know the Sabre Dance and the Gayaneh piece, YouTube is your friend. Very pleasurable listening. Prior to listening, we had our first casting session for the play I’ll be directing. Not too many people turned out, but we’re calling several back. The current show in rehearsal shockingly could not find anyone who could do the entire run so the director had to double cast almost the entire show – meaning she took about thirty GRT members, many of whom would have auditioned for us, including two actors I really wanted. So, we’re gonna have to go outside the company for sure. I’m putting feelers out now with friends. We were done by eight-thirty, I stopped at Gelson’s and got a snack, then came home and ate said snack and took pill three. I hope I took the Prednisone yesterday morning – I thought I did but then I had doubts – but I think it preferable to miss one rather than take two in one day. I have to devise a way, so I know what I’m doing. I’ve been looking for some kind of pill box to no avail. Prior to all that, I only got five hours of sleep, got up, and had a completely wacko e-mail from “content evaluation” for my friend’s book – when I brought the project to them and said it had to go just as if it were one of my own books, including content evaluation, they agreed. Well, this e-mail was basically saying she had to change every name and the name of every place so it was not recognizable, and that included her own name. I mean, have these idiots never read a memoir? More importantly, have they never read one of MINE? That’s what a memoir is – you write about your life from your point of view and you have every right to tell the stories honestly even if it’s unflattering – that’s called free speech. I mean, there are memoirs out there – tell-all things – with every name right there in big, bold print. Did they check out Mia Farrow’s book? Did she change Woody Allen’s name. And here, we’re talking about an author who’s gonna sell, tops, a hundred books. So, I spent way too much time trying to get my gal to respond to me, I was promised she would, she didn’t, so that’s three days of crickets. So, I finally went to the big brass – I’ve had to do that a couple of other times – they’ll do what they can do, but at this point I want a call from my gal and an explanation as to why she did this to me – I’ve been nothing but wonderful to her, we have a great and relaxed relationship, have fun, and then this, which she’s done a couple of other times.
Well, I’m not having it, and I want an apology and assurance it will never happen again. I’ve been loyal to this company to a fault, I’ve been the guinea pig for many of their services, and I’ve defended them online. I’ve been with them since the end of 2001, am there most published author, have VIP status there and will not be treated with casual disregard by anyone. The bottom line at this point is that they refund the author what she paid (they have no position on this, as they haven’t even been sent a contract yet, so they’ve signed nothing – they were only sent the link for payment – and then, we’ll just do it on Kindle for both eBook and softcover. I don’t like that platform much, but she’s not changing a word of the book, and yes, it’s frank and yes, she calls out a couple of folks for things they did to her, and yes, she uses their names. I even wonder if these people have ever read one of those specious biographies of celebrities that are filled with lies, guesses, half-truths, and more. Just ridiculous. If they’re so nervous, they can just type up an indemnification paper, and she’ll be happy to sign it. We’ll see what this morning brings. That was a lot of my day. I had a pastrami on rye with coleslaw and Russian dressing from Daughter’s Deli – very good – shaved and showered, stopped by the mail place, then went to auditions. The rest you know and here we are.
Today, I’ll be up by nine or ten, I’ll do whatever needs doing, hopefully have some positive news one way or another and a call from my gal, then at 11:45 I’ll mosey on over to Quest for my bloodwork appointment at 12:10. Hopefully, that will go quickly and with no pain. Then I’m continuing my research on Zepbound and if my PCP thinks it’s safe, then I may start that because I’m told that unlike Ozempic, Zepbound could be covered by insurance. Without insurance it’s pretty pricey. But I hear there are too many side effects with Ozempic, and I don’t hear much about that with Zepbound. I don’t want to go crazy with it, but I do have to lose minimally thirty pounds and eventually another twenty for sure. Then I’ll feel better, and I know be happier. I’ll eat something, pills will be taken, and then I can watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow and the weekend look pretty open, then next week I’m hoping we can finish casting so I can get people tracks and plunk tapes and sheet music. I have to do rough vocals on all the songs, so they know how the parody lyrics sit on the music.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by nine or ten, hopefully hear from both the higher-ups and my gal, I’ll do bloodwork, eat, check with the mail place as I think the painting trade I did is supposed to arrive, then continue my research, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What is your favorite use of a classical piece in a motion picture? I’ll start – all the music choices in 2001 work really well. But, for me, the first-choice answer will always be the use of the Albinoni Adagio in Orson Welles’ The Trial, and then soon thereafter the same piece in Sundays and Cybele. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to be hearing the brilliant piano concerto of Khachaturian (with Flexatone) – kind of a Khachaturian as Khach Can.