Well, dear readers, let me just rant for a moment. Sometimes it is just a moment for ranting, and one must simply rant because nothing else will do. Ranting is an important emotional release and to rant is to release and not hold in, and to release and not hold in is to rant. Of course, now I can’t remember what I wanted to rant about. Oh yes, let’s title this rant Red Light/Green Light. So, here’s how this game usually goes, and I’ll use last night as an example. I left the home environment at 6:15 and moseyed on over to the theater, taking my usual route. Other than two ill-timed lights early on (for no reason), I hit every green light and got to the theater in amazing time. We call that part of the rant, Green Light, for obvious reasons. We had our auditions, not many attendees, but two of them were really excellent – unfortunately, both are in the show before us and while that closes three weeks before we open, it doesn’t begin its run until November 21, which means that prior to that date neither would be able to attend a single rehearsal. I don’t know how that could ever work. But I was impressed with both people. Anyway, back to the rant. I stopped at the Coral Café and got their tri-salad to go. Then I headed home. That’s about seven miles or thereabouts. And I hit every single red light due to stupidly timed signals. Every single red light there was, I hit it. Which begs the question, which human or bot or AI is doing this and why when there is zero traffic? I understand if a car pulls up at a light going the opposite direction the main traffic – they hit a sensor and the light changes. But that never happened – instead, those cross-street signals changed to red when there were no cars there on either side. That means someone or some thing decided it would be fun to just program those lights to turn red just for the fun of it. I think this is bad and it’s certainly irritating. End of Red Light/Green Light rant. Otherwise, I am sitting here listening to one of the weirdest and boldest rock albums ever made. I was kind of obsessed with this album when it came out, playing it over and over again. And I was not that much of a rock fan. But this was something wholly other. The group was called The Moody Blues, and the album was Days of Future Passed. The first four minutes is purely symphonic and orchestral with brilliant orchestrations by Peter Knight – that is followed by more symphonic music with narration. It was one of the very first rock concept albums and, for me, certainly one of the greatest. It was released in 1967 and was a moderate success. But its reputation steadily grew and Nights in White Satin, its signature song, grew more and more popular and finally by 1972 the album became a top ten hit.
I bought it at some point in 1968. The album was designed to show off the stereo brilliance of the record label Deram and boy did it. It follows a day in the life of an ordinary person, or so they say. The songs are fun and the group sounds great, but the hero of the album is Peter Knight – his arrangements are stunning, as is the band – recorded in a single three-hour session – one rehearsal, one take. His work makes the album. Today, it’s thought of as a real groundbreaking album. Of course, Rolling Stone can endlessly hang its head in shame over its dismissive review. If you’ve never heard this album, you need to.
Prior to all that, I got six hours of sleep, met Robert Yacko for breakfast at a jernt I’d never been to called Good Neighbor. We both had omelets and their breakfast potatoes, which were amazing. Now, here’s the amusing part. The restaurant opened in a strip mall east of Lankershim on Cahuenga Blvd. West – which is what Ventura Blvd. turns into after Lankershim. The strip mall is directly across from Miceli’s Eyetalian restaurant. But that’s not the funny part. The funny part is that after I finally sold my North Hollywood home, I moved into a beautiful house on a double lot – I believe it was the first time anyone had been allowed to build two residences on the same property. Three bedrooms, three bathrooms, upstairs and downstairs, living room, dining area, kitchen, den, and a HUGE deck. I was there for three or four years. But that’s not the funny part. The funny part is my street was called Fredonia – the name of the country in the Marx Brothers’ movie, Duck Soup. But that’s not the funny part. The funny part is that Fredonia and my residence was one block east of Good Neighbor. And in all the time I lived on Fredonia I never tried it. I ate at the Poquito Mas in that strip mall all the time. Anyway, I’ve finally had the Good Neighbor experience, and we’ll definitely be back.
After that, I did a Gelson’s run – didn’t get anything – and then looked at 4K OLED TVs at Best Buy. Then I came home, answered e-mails, had one telephonic call with the publisher about the future and for now everything is fine, although he was very defensive, which he’s never been before, and which means he was getting push back from someone higher than him. Knowing more about my options now, I may choose one of them if anything is not to my liking, once of which is to do something I’ve thought about often – just starting a Kritzerland publishing arm – that way if friends have books they’d like to be published and I think they’re a good fit, they’d find a home. I’d still go through a company that could get the book everywhere – that’s the downside of Kindle Direct Publishing – your only two online stores you can get into are Amazon and sometimes Barnes & Noble, but I’d want all platforms.
I had a muffin so I could take pill two. I dozed off for a bit, and then at six-fifteen I moseyed on over to the theater and rest you know.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, for food I may do the Cheesecake Factory, since I still have a lot of dough left on my gift card. I hope to have all the information I need so I can get the copyright page redone along with the back cover and spine. Otherwise, I’ll be listing stuff on eBay so I can get that out of the way. I’ll let you dear readers know first, before I tell people on Facebook’s various groups that will definitely be interested. Then we have callbacks in the evening.
Tomorrow, Friday, and the weekend will be for catching up on stuff, hopefully getting at least two more tracks done – I got the first from act two the other day and it’s great. And we’ll try to finish casting our show.
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, eat something, get the new copyright page done and the new back cover and spine, list stuff on eBay, have callbacks, and then come home. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear reader any old question you like and we get to give any old answer we like. So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, preferring Green Light to Red Light in the Red Light/Green Light game.