Christiern

Apropos Penguin in London, in 1986 they published a Bessie Smith biography by Elaine Feinstein that was a total rip-off of my Bessie biography. It was so bad than one reviewer suggested the woman's first line should have been—"According to Chris Albertson:" It could not have been more blatant, she even included little things that had no direct bearing on Bessie, things that I added to anchor the period, for ex.: round the corner, a movie house was playing...." Feinstein also included a list of recommended recordings that was identical to mine, except that the catalog numbers were outdated by the time Penguin published her plagiarism. I should have sued the hell out of this woman, and I did bring it to the attention of my publisher, Sol Stein. He asked me to send him the woman's book with the plagiarism highlighted. I told him that every page would be yellow and sent him a few samples. Stein & Day was in the early stages of bankruptcy proceedings so all they did was send a letter to Penguin. That produced a ridiculous response from an editor who, more or less, "reminded" Sol that Penguin is the antithesis of plagiarism. The Feinstein woman is still on the loose, writing (copying?) like mad. I bring this up because here is a case where editors did not do their job. It's not as if they had to leaf through piles of Bessie Smith biographies! BTW, love your blog.

Apropos editors, one of the two who worked on my original Bessie book (at Stein & Day) systematically removed the "P" from James P. Johnson. When I restored it, she told me, "We don't use middle initials." I told her that Mr. Johnson did. No such problem with he later edition, Yale hired an outside editor at no apparent cost to me—she was very good, although a couple of typos made it into final print.

A sweet man, sad to see him go. When I met Sirone, he had a loft-type apartment on West 31tst Street. Cecil Taylor had the apartment below him. I think that's how I met Sirone.

What Chuck Nessa said, but here are a couple of ads...

Unscrewed is the operative word here

Steve, I think one would pretty much have to write a new book were one to mention everything that needs correction in Ross's. It's not an uninteresting read—I rather enjoyed it many years ago, but it just wasn't so.

Because that rare shot of the Weintraub Syncopators in Tahiti is nowhere to be found?

I think it's called, "I have taken pictures"

A free balloon ride!

For once, I spent a quiet day at home, working on my St. Croix project an blog. BTW, thanks to all you Organissimos who have visited my blog. Hope it makes up for the vanished "I came across..." thing I used to do. Chris P.S. Congratulations, Jim!

This story/confession may clarify things.

When I was preparing to update and expand my Bessie Smith biography (which I originally wrote on a typewriter), I used OmniPage (a Mac version) to scan in all the pages from an original edition. It really didn't take long and it was pretty accurate (the software should be even better now, 7 years later). You have to go over it, page by page, to catch the inevitable mis-reads, but that is to your advantage, because you will always find something that cries out for change. Were I to do the same thing today, I would probably read the book into my Mac. I find that to be even more accurate these days (I use MacSpeech Dictate). Much of what I post on my blog is dictated.

You needn't worry, I took these pictures 3 hours ago. Randy's fine.

This evening, Robin had a book party to celebrate the publication. I took some photos... ...more here.

Then you should be suspicious of Johnny E, too. Hey, speaking of stalking -- don't look now but Chris A is back to haunt Use3D!! Chris, how goes it? Vic Christianson's been looking for you. It goes well, Weizy. I never stopped peeking in here, but my posting days here are essentially over, because I have my own, no hassle spot: http://stomp-off.blogspot.com. Victor can find me there every day.

For the record I'd normally close 'Why is such-and-such this?' threads instantly. I bet you would. You did the right thing, Jim. I just wonder what took you so long

Niko, I think you can drag it wider (from the lower right-hand corner)

Thanks for all the encouraging words and constructive criticism. I have changed the blog's look to accommodate people who share my aging eyesight.

Having been Goulded many a time, I am glad to see the mask come off in this thread. No, I'm not back, but I do peep through the cracks. Rest assured, newcomer, many have felt that venom before you—some leave, some ignore. Both approaches work. My ultimate solution—it really works! Happy birthday, Lon!

Thank you, HBO

I have changed the link to a direct one. Once you get there, you will find further links that a relevant. Lil Hardin on Oliver

Was I wrong about the WMDs Dan? You called me all kinds of vile names back then, so it must have been tough to realize that I was right and you ere way off. You may recall the aforementioned gutter language that you resorted to years ago when all I had done was to voice a political opinion that contrasted with yours. Well, do you also recall how I went out of my way to help you when you decided to enter the jazz writing field? I guess not, but I am not sorry that I buried the hatchet at that time turned to a positive approach. It obviously meant nothing to you, but it taught me a sad lesson. I did not make any "promise" like that, but truth is not your metier, is it? This kind of nonsense is precisely why Organissimo no longer holds any interest for me—mean-spirited argumentative posters and snooty, infantile remarks add nothing to any forum, and they have even less weight when posted anonymously. So, Dan, although I made no "promise" to make my departure permanent, I will probably go that route now. The other day, I posted a link to an outrageous lobbyist's hypocritical deceits,a day or so later, a link to the sad news of Cronkite's death (both posts were made sans comment). I did so, because I thought these items might be of interest to some of the good people here; it was not an attempt to "return", although some people thought it might be. I thank those who had positive things to say, but let's hope we can meet up in a friendlier atmosphere—too many untruths and slurs from posters and administrators have soured me on a forum that I once couldn't say enough good things about. In all fairness, I understand why Jim feels a need to protect his baby brother, and perhaps I should not have mentioned what he did, but.... Removing over the line political utterings is one thing, but the censorship I became a victim of was totally unpolitical, just letters, photos and mementos that I wanted to share and which many of you encouraged me to continue. Apropos fairness, I should mention (again) that baby bro probably noticed a few photos disappearing from my "came across" thread and jumped to the conclusion that I had deleted them. In fact, it was my mistake to move them from the site where I had parked them—I should have realized that doing so would make them inaccessible by other bards. It was also, imho baby bro's mistake to jump the gun. Anyway, that's water under the bridge and the Gould and "Rock Center" sandbox gang can rejoice. I can't believe that I am back here writing this, but it is obviously beyond my power of restraint to not just sit back when lies are being told about me. I will continue to miss many of the posters here, but my return peeks tell me that I made a wise decision, and if it makes other members happy? Hey,all the better. The armchair analysts will now scrutinize what I have said, but I ain't returning to read their opinions. Jim, I'm sorry that it came to this—if it can be done, you have my blessings to totally exclude me from this site. Allan, I appreciate the fact that you stepped in for me, and I thank all who sent e-mail and did not simply buy the spin the shrinking O seems to be in. Finally... Huh?

Sigh. It was NOT a moderator that deleted Chris' posts. He claims that, but he is mistaken. I not only asked my brother about it (who would not lie to me, especially about something so inconsequential) and I checked the moderator logs. He (my brother) did not delete any of Chris' posts. Larry did not do it. Nor MG. Nor myself. The person deleting Chris' posts was Chris. I deleted clementine's account and his posts per his request. He said he was being stalked and it was causing him a lot of grief in the real world. I don't usually do that... I have been asked before... but in this case I thought it best for him and for the board. Nice to protect baby brother, but...