Tuesday 3/14/23
Overseeing a body of work is like property management. I manage a vast number of properties. There is the upkeep, the tending to, the mending, the replacement of parts when necessary, the looking after, the cataloguing, insuring curb appeal, the readying for resale, the cultivation of the asset.
Saturday and Monday I worked on "Big Bob and Little Bob," which is now 6600 words. We have something special here. Texted a friend over the weekend that the story is a "Fitty" or "Best Present Ever" kind of thing.
Sunday night I was in bed, working on it some more in my head. You can have something that can't be improved upon, that is somehow improved upon. That is, what was there was an utmost. Would stand as an utmost. But then you come up with something else.
I came up with another way to further set up the ending, specifically the two sentences that close the story, and which comprise the final paragraph. I knew where the part of that set-up would occur, and I knew it would involve a "re" word. That is, a word that started with those two letters. I got into that section yesterday and worked on it for a while, to get it just so. And then there it was. I'm still not done. I'll keep going over it and doing what I need to do.
I came up with two excellent op-ed ideas for Easter. One on Rachmaninoff, the other on Richard Middleton's "The Ghost-Ship." I already have an Easter op-ed written on prayer, which I need to go over and likely touch up.
Here is a radio interview from tonight in which I discussed various live rock and roll tapes: the newly discovered Odense May 1971 Led Zeppelin show, the Rolling Stones in Baltimore in November 1969, the Animals in Paris at the end of 1964, Dylan in Philadelphia in October 1964, and the freshly unearthed 8/15/68 Who show from the Fillmore West.
"Chickamauga." Ambrose Bierce knew what he was doing.
Watched more episodes of The Wind in the Willows. Pure delight. I'll be writing a piece about it. Perhaps my favorite ever TV show.
Listened to the final album in Paul Lewis's cycle of Schubert piano sonatas which came out last fall. Additionally, Orson Welles' adaptation of Our Town. Command. He was just so in his element. Welles remarked that out of all of the mediums in which he worked, radio was his favorite. It suited him. And also listened to the "The Crack in the Wall" episode from 1974 of the CBS Radio Mystery Theater, which is disturbing. Upsetting. I shouldn't have listened to it in bed. I do not like the Helper at all, and I say that as a compliment.