Thursday 12/9/21
Home and sweaty from running the stairs. 3000 today, without stopping. Missed yesterday. Did 3000 as well on Tuesday. Getting back up to speed. Yesterday was a brutal pace day. Wrote a 2700 word piece on Sam Cooke on Christmas; wrote most of a short story; wrote most of an op-ed on Scrooge; and wrote a couple entries on here. Today I finished the Scrooge piece, worked some more on the Louis Armstrong Christmas piece. Need to get that done quickly, as well as this review of a jazz album which I am late in delivering. I sent the F. Scott Fitzgerald proposal after I worked on it some more. Just sent a letter to someone about maybe running an excerpt of the Scrooge book. I need to sell this Otis Redding Christmas piece and do this piece on an animated version of A Christmas Carol. I have three Christmas op-eds now, and a New Year's Eve one, and none of them have homes yet. Hopefully this Wall Street Journal piece on Sam Cooke's My Kind of Blues album runs in the next few days because it's a good one. I came up with a Thelonious Monk feature idea for next year pertaining to his Blue Note recordings of 1947. Listened to the Grateful Dead in St. Louis in 1969 as I ran my stairs.
Ordered some coffee from this place in Maine. The shipping was free, and it was only $7.99 a bag. I like their coffee. I drink a lot of coffee. Black. It's good for my heart health. I like dark roasts, morning blends, and Columbian coffee, so not hazelnut or things of that nature. I don't like anything diluted or compromised. I want the essence. Which makes sense with me, if one knows me or my work. The essence. Nothing artificial.
Not a lot of people say nice things about me, even the ones who like me or who are on my side, or who are in business with me. I don't have a kissable ass, and people are almost without exception intimidated by me. When we're intimidated by someone, we say nothing, or we say something awkward, or something that is very low-risk; by that I mean, we dial everything back. We take the conservative approach. We use lesser terms (or no terms), because they feel safer. They're not as splashy. So, with all of that being true, I want to put this letter up, because I'd like to have someone saying something nice in this record--or this portion of it--and I don't think this person would mind. This is actually the first time I've seen a letter written on my behalf.
A successful coach, phone app designer, financial prognosticator, or tech wizard is often lauded as a genius, when his or her success may be but intelligence bonded with determination and luck. Colin Fleming’s work, however, across multiple genres, demonstrates true genius.
I edit [XXX} and when not on pandemic hiatus, read as many as a thousand short stories in a calendar year without coming across one as compelling, human, literate, and moving as any of the hundreds I have read by Colin.
Fleming’s fiction output alone is deserving of this award, but when that stellar work is included with his writings on music (Jazz, Rock, Pop, Classical, and Blues) film, sports, current trends and events, one cannot help but be stunned by the totality of his brilliance.
Fleming is a skilled and engaging radio guest and commentator who appears on local stations and national networks around the country. I am privileged to hear him speak with authority, humor, insight, and precision on a variety of topics and themes each week and am not only entertained and intrigued by his comments but enlightened and educated as well. Unlike the talking heads and dilettantes who inhabit far too much of our airwaves, Fleming brings clarity to diverse topics to the radio world.
Bach, Mozart, DaVinci, Joyce all needed financial support to flourish as artists and with fewer paying venues for the best writing in all genres, support for our greatest talents is more important than ever.
I encourage you to award Colin Fleming a [XXX} so we may all benefit from the art it will allow him to create.
If I may be of any further assistance please contact me at your convenience.
That was nice of that person to do that for me, and to simply say things as they are. Sounds so simple to do, but it's not.
Finished the Lyle book. Excellent baseball read, and more than baseball. Lyle is a sharp and funny guy. Great insight into the game and what makes a player effective--which is beyond the bounds and rules of WAR and analytics--and also a person in life.
Saw some quotes from Brady's latest video series about himself. Why he's so hung up on 2007 I don't know. I've learned a couple interesting things about Brady. That he was scared in that 2001 AFC Championship game surprised me. Scared to the point that the moment was too big for him. It sounded like he wanted out. I would not have expected that. He's always overrated that 2007 team, though. I didn't think much of that squad even as everything was playing out. They had an old, soft defense with no playmakers. Not by that stage. The offense was one-dimensional. It was Moss down the field or Welker underneath. No running game. This shows me that Brady has real blindspots even when it comes to assessing football. He said that was the best team ever, which I find laughable. The 2004 Patriots would have croaked that team. But because he had things a certain way, he projects that on everything else. A very limited way of thinking. Watching that final regular season game between against the Giants, I was certain the Patriots wouldn't win it all. They were barely getting by at that point, struggling hard for this record/perfect season. In a way, I'm glad they didn't get it, because I wouldn't want to listen to how they were the best team ever, which is what everyone would say, and what could you say otherwise? Can't take the record away, and loss-less season is a loss-less season. The Giants had nothing but pride to play for in that last game of the year, because their seeding was set. And they nearly beat the Patriots running their most basic, scheme-less defense. When they matched up again a few weeks later, I thought, "Oh no, this isn't going to go well." That same week Brady made his dumb, arrogant comments about how much the Patriots would score. I couldn't believe when he did that. I thought that this guy is gone in his own head with this team's hype, he's not seeing the reality. And in all of this time, he still hasn't realized that that team just wasn't that amazing. I didn't like the way that team played at all. Of course I wanted them to win, following and rooting for the Patriots my entire life. But in the time after, I was really okay that they didn't.
What was Bills coach Sean McDermott thinking with his postgame comments about not giving Belichick too much credit? Why are you even talking about that one way or the other? The guy coached a bad game. Had a dumb challenge, a faulty game plan. You can always tell when someone is weak. William Sloane called weakness the one unforgivable sin in To Walk the Night. This man is weak. If he was my opponent, I'd know that I always had him that way. His team was bullied on Monday night. And they just took it.
The moment someone says “literally,” the argument is usually lost.
The Honeymooners is so much funnier than anything on right now. I'm watching the original thirty-nine episodes again.
