Romance in the night

Zounds, I almost forgot to check in! The day just passed and I did not notice.

I spent an hour and a half or something on the phone with the assistant to Leonard Pennario's manager at Columbia Artists. That was a highlight! She will be very valuable to the book.

But I hope I was not too ditzy! Because I had trouble sleeping lastnight. It must have been all that talk of Michael Jackson and his sleep problems.

Lastnight when I could not sleep ...


I was sitting downstairs on the couch reading "Somewhere in Time."

Goofy book, yessirree. But you have to be careful what you read when you cannot sleep. You do not want to read something work-related and if I read about music I often end up spring-boarding in my mind to my own book and things I want to do and do not want to do with it based on what I am reading.

I saw the movie "Somewhere in Time" when I was in high school which is when you should see it. Wow, my friends and I cried buckets. When he has to go back to the present day -- in the book, it's 1971! -- and then when he sees her and they play that Rachmaninoff.

That Rachmaninoff kicks in, you are dying!

But ahahahaha, that ballad they put in this video after the Rachmaninoff, it sounds so dated and forgettable. Was that even in the movie? I do not remember it.

Since when it came out I saw the movie again once and I have to say this, it did not hold up. Incidentally Leonard Pennario saw the movie too. He thought it was based on an intriguing and kind of touching premise but in the end it did not work out. I always seem to agree with him on movies. In this case I love that he took time out from his touring and whatever to see "Somewhere in Time" when it came out. That is Pennario!

Reading "Somewhere in Time" I was surprised to find that in the book, the hotel is the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego. I went to see that place and I remember Pennario thought it was wonderful that I went to see it. We used to talk about going there for lunch but we never got to because of his health.

In the movie the action takes place at that Mackinaw Island hotel in Michigan.

But even though I have been to the Hotel del Coronado I was not thinking romantic thoughts lastnight, I will tell you that. Because the bad news is, the book "Somewhere in Time," I just do not like the writing.

No reason I can put my finger on.

Just do not like it.

"She kissed him casually, a woman tasting freely of her lover's lips."

I do not know why I do not like that sentence but I do not!

Then there are something like three pages of total porn. In the movie it is pretty tame but in the book he really goes to town with it. I was sitting on the couch lastnight reading it thinking, I cannot believe I am reading this.

Perhaps Michael Jackson ended up in that situation. Perhaps that is what sent him over the edge to seek out that powerful sedative.

If they find a copy of "Somewhere in Time" in his house then we will know.