Arrggh morning

[talktooloose]

Not functioning well yet...

Okay, let's start with good news before I bitch. Elvis Costello's "North" is extraordinary. After a blistering loud guitar album last year, he's returned with wall to wall ballads composed on piano with his own orchestrations. I have never heard of an artist like EC who is so connected with the whole treasury of 20th Century pop. These songs evoke everything from Bacharach to Cole Porter. They are perfect gems -- understated, ambitious without pretension and altogether swell. I got the early release bonus edition with the three-song DVD, two of which are performed live on an ancient out-of-tune piano. *sigh* happiness.

And now I bitch:

I'm kind of discombobulated after having visited a cardiologist yesterday regarding my frequent heart disrhythmias. He's sending me for another echo-cardiogram to rule out out any physical abnormalities like cardio-myopathy which my dad has. He says he's not expecting to find anything wrong there as my echo eight years ago showed no problems. I'm also going to have a stress test (treadmill time!) and wear a monitor for 24 hours which will record all the activity of my heart in that period.

The fun one is that we want to get picture of the disrhythmias so I'm going to be walking around with a requisition for an ECG and the next time my heart goes into one of its wonky periods, I'm supposed to run to the nearest lab and get it recorded. It may turn out that it's not atrial fibriliation at all. This would be good news. But if it is fibrilation, he's going to try to talk me into taking beta blockers for the rest of my life to prevent these episodes. He scared me with talk of a 42 year old patient of his who just had a major stroke...

Well, that does scare me, but I'm rebelling against becoming dependent on any medication. Is it pride? Is it mistrust of the medical establishment? Is it not wanting to feel like I'm getting old? Hey, kids! I'm having a mid-life crisis! Wouldn't it be great if this were a mid-life crisis and that somehow guaranteed that I have another 40 years left? It's like the old joke: "I'm going to live to be 120! I'm 60 now and I'm half dead!"

The other thing eating my ass (and, as Donny says, not in a good way) is my phone call with my publishers yesterday. I'm starting to get bullshit feedback on the first draft. Y'know, things like: "The 10 plauges picture is a little dark!" I'm sorry, I guess I should have made the cattle disease cuter.

The hardest thing we're facing now is researching the rights to the songs. I've handed that job to my production supervisor at the publishers but she's not terribly motivated to do it. They don't quite get the idea that the CD is what really makes this project work. Her response is "If we can't find the rights, we'll just jettison the songs."

YES, I KNOW!! We should have cleared the rights before we recorded!!

SHOOT ME, I'M NEW TO THIS!!

Comments

[epanastatis.livejournal.com]

"Look at all the happy Egyptian children, dancing with their boils!"

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

Actually, that reminds me of another issue. The woman at the publisher's also mentioned that she wants to see more women included in the hagaddah. This is a reference to recent dubious rejiggings of the seder to include new roles for women, such as the invention of a "cup of Miriam". My sister, an ardent feminist and champion of egalitarianism in shuls, is livid about this stuff. She suggests I make the Egyptian with boils into a woman. I personally suggested some additional chochmas and recipes from the Rebbisten Gamliel and Mrs. Hillel.