And then John's Songs of Praise and Thanksgiving, which he recorded so that all of his family and friends might have a memory of him singing Thanksgiving and Christmas tunes.
There's also a tremendous CD of John performing his night club act, live, at the Restuarant Panache, in New York City, accompanied by two incredibly gifted pianists, a drummer, and two back up singers whom John got to know while performing in Godspell in Washington DC, at Ford's theatre.
Yes. I must confess, I come from an extremely talented family!
ANYWAY - Janet had such a crush on John that she switched from German to French to be in the same class with him, but then John went and complicated things by switching to Russian, where he had the great benefit of having Randy Nolde teach him Russian, and Russian Dance, and Russian Culture. Too bad Janet didn't follow him there. Too bad she never told him about the crush she had on him; he would have asked her out to Senior Prom in a heart beat, had but he known (the three lovely young ladies that he DID ask all had legitimate excuses for turning him down, but how is a homosexual 18-year old boy ever gonna confirm his sexual preference unless he has a chance to press flesh with nubile 16+ teen-aged nymphs? AND NO, Colleen did NOT deflower John (although they were in naked bed together).
Here's a cut-and-paste copy of the correspondence from Janet to me. Hope you find it illuminating.
Hi,
I just got the recordings and look forward to listening to them. I remember that adorable face.
So are you an author? I wish I loved writing as much as you do as there are a few academics who want me to do lots of research. I'd rather dance circle dances.
Be well,
Janet
Subject: YES, I ARE AN AUTEUR
Academic research - SHUDDER!
My favorite story in re: academic research is about D. J. Bennett (too soon deceased), wife of Dr Kenneth Bennett, PhD, emeritus Chair, Department of English Language, Lake Forest College.
While working on her Master's Thesis, D.J. created some original Blake scholarship. The experience was more than enough to convince her to not become a research PhD. And thus she sojourned to Soho, in the late 60's, early 70's, where she perfected her hand crafting - sewing, needlework, etc, etc, and eventually wrote an published two volumes on hand crafting! Both volumes can be found in the Lake Forest Public Library.
I've worked as a free lance writer doing answer keys for junior high school mathematics text books, writing questions for Jr Hi math texts, and script writing for Junior College Algebra and Trig courses. It was a fun gig, while it lasted, until I got a new editor who let one of my first drafts go virtually unremarked. HER boss told her "that's no way to be (an editor)," and thus she found manifold and a magnitude of methods to brow beat me to a pulp, all the while the new company (I think it was one of Rupert Murdoch's purchases) decided that rather than write SCRIPTS, I would write OUTLINES and rather than paying actors to read from scripts, they would pay Professors to teach from the outlines (although the "screens" - visual aids, those I still produced), that for all this "reduced" writing load (dontcha know?), they would cut my rate from $400 / chapter to $250 (or maybe it was $225 - what's too painful to remember, I simply choose to forget).
W E L L - a technical writer is NOT writing to illuminate, elucidate, or even educate, but to please his / her editor, and I had worked dozens of chapters (making thousands of dollars) with my previous editor and we REALLY had developed a good understanding, so that I could usually finish the first draft of the script, the screens, and the second draft in 6-10 hours. Alas and alack, with the new editor, it was more like 12-20. Sigh! It meant I had to forego about four regional duplicate bridge tournaments and thus finished in the top 775, rather than the top 500 master point winners for the year.
You're a writer? THEN WRITE! And write only to please yourself.
There are actually many opportunities to even get paid for what you write, but then, you've got to write about something somebody is willing to pay you for.
With the advent of the internet and blogging, however, a writer ALWAYS has a forum, and SOMEBODY will always find the writer.
These are my top three "writing" blogs:
MarkGanzersBlog.Blogspot.com - international affairs
This might be one of the most remarkable blogs ever published. I intended to kill it, after about 4,000 posts when my professional career, my politics, and my creative writing merged upon my decision to be a traveling minsteral / fund-raiser. I hadn't posted for about three months when I went back to view it and discovered I was STILL getting 200 hits a day! (At its zenith, it got 2,200 hits in one day). One of the big secrets is to write about stuff people are interested in - which pretty much devolves to sex and money. For many months my post on Marlon Brandon's co-star from Last Tango in Paris "I felt raped by Marlon Brando" was the most popular piece I had posted - and all I did was cut and paste an article from some French newspaper. Subsequently an aritcle I cut and pasted from PriceLine took over the #1 slot.
While I do a LOT of cutting and pasting here, I am more frequently offering my own commentary, ESPECIALLY when I think the article and its author are full of shit (and this happens frequently, as any who read the MSM can readily understand).
In point of fact, ONE of my pieces was published on the Black Activists Writers Agenda blog.
One of the most rewarding things about blogging is, especially when you have cut and pasted, to send the author or the article your thanks, and compliment them on what they have done. Invariably, when you have had something positive to say, you will get a fairly prompt reply. This has led, in my situation, to four invaluable pen pals, sadly, two of whom have died, and way too young.
DONT be shy Janet. Just DUET!
MarkGanzersInsanityBlog.Blogspot.com - US media criticism, social commentary, political commentary
MarkGanzersWritings.Blogspot.com - my own personal "stash" which I had started out to be a repository for my creative writing to help me orgainze the four volumes I was working on, simultaneously, of course, rather than serially. It ended up morphing into something altogether different, as I continue to uncover my writing (poetry, social commentary) over the last 45 years.
Sorry it took so long to get back to you. My inbox is crammed so full up, I must sometimes return to the end of the Queue to catch up.
Be well, and give full attention to all your endeavors.
With Love to You (agape), and ALL YOU LOVE,
Mark Raymond Ganzer
