It Died Like a Character in an Evelyn Waugh Novel

I think the CBC is trying to smooth things over with Pinchas Zuckerman*, after that odd interview with Walter Prystawski. They had the chairman of the National Arts Centre**, today, spreading goodwill on both sides. Mr. Zuckerman, he said, is a kind man, and generous with his time and talent. Mr. Prystawski is a devoted musician, who has headed the National Arts Centre Orchestra since its inception. The chairman said no-one was at fault, that it's good folks on both sides--but then he said certain factions within the orchestra (I kid you not: he said "factions," as if it were a war) feel possessive towards what they've built, and don't like conductors and other temporary staff getting in the way. Facilitators have been hired to resolve the tension. Zounds!

After that, they had Zuckerman and Itzhak Perlman playing Mozart (which, I should think, did more to still the troubled waters than talk of factions and facilitators!)

Later on, the conversation turned to the chairman's impending retirement. He mentioned that he plans to get in some writing, now that he'll have the time. I had to laugh, then--not at him, but at myself. When I started the novel, last month, I was thinking I'd left it awfully late, if I wanted to be a writer.

As you might've deduced from the fact that I'm talking about the National Arts Centre, again, nothing much is afoot in the Rat's Nest. I'm still a bit under the weather, and have been devoting my off-hours to sleep. What can I tell you? I bought a full-spectrum bulb for my desk lamp, and it smells bad. It's giving me a headache. Oh, and they tested the fire alarm today: ten minutes of clanging bells. Maybe that's why my head hurts.

I was trying to write a sonnet yesterday, by the way. Those four lines about wind, those were its remains. It died like a character in an Evelyn Waugh novel: amusingly, but not terribly well. Not with a whole lot of dignity.

I think I'll read Vile Bodies again, or the one with the--the--"Where's Prendergast, today?"

* I still don't know whether it's Zuckerman or Zukerman. The CBC's site has it without the C, but there's a CD in my collection that has it with. Strange.

** Not only can I not spell his name, but I don't even remember it.