OK, not quite Saturday night at the diarist time of posting. But if you're in the Mountain or Pacific time zones, or Alaska or Hawaii, then it's OK :) . Explanation later, and that aside....
Self must confess that when he sees a diary on DK with a misspelling in the title, I tend to post a comment asking the diarist to fix the title, usually with the mildly self-mocking comment "sorry, spellcheck on overdrive". Not everyone honors that request, of course, since after all, "it's my diary, and I can misspell what I want to" :) . Of course, most people do not deliberately misspell words, but it can hit one (i.e. 3CM - so, literally, one/1) like a trainwreck when they occur.
One recent misspelling caused a bit of embarassment to this local band, especially as it was tied to their first new CD release on a commercial label (i.e. not self-produced) in well over a decade. So what was the misspelling? Well.....
First, a little background, namely that the new Nonesuch recording by the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, of John Adams' Doctor Atomic Symphony and Guide to Strange Places, put together from live performances of each work in February 2008 and September 2008, respectively (I was at both, of which more anon), was originally scheduled for release this past Tuesday, July 21. Nonesuch's fuller blurb is here. However, as the SLSO drily puts it here:
"Due to a production issue, the John Adams' Doctor Atomic Symphony CD release has been delayed until July 28, 2009."
Hey, what's a week between loser friends, right? OK, so now on to the "production issue" which you can educe from two images of the album cover, but they're not actually shown here, because 3CM is a loser and doesn't know how to embed images, but he also doesn't want to make it too easy for you to spot the mistake. I make you work for your loserness, after all :) . Namely:
(1) The erroneous image
(2) The correct image
David Ng on the LA Times Culture Monster blog covered it here, as did Sarah Bryan Miller, the classical critic of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on her blog here (note by time who was first). Not sure, though, if the mistaken cover will acquire the commercial cachet of that 1918 stamp with the upside-down plane.
Oh yeah, mentioned that self (pretentious "culture monster" loser, he) was at the concerts of both works. John Adams himself was there to watch over the concerts and patch-up recording sessions later, as well as take a bow. At the second Doctor Atomic Symphony performance, one "eejit" shouted "Bravo!" the microsecond that the work ended, so of course, that totally spoiled that moment, and wouldn't wind up on the recording. At least all the audience the night before had the decency to wait a bit longer before applauding. With Guide to Strange Places 6.5 months later, since it has a spookier and quieter ending, no such worries.
So why waste all your time, mine, and DK bandwidth on this, besides the obvious reasons, that (a) 3CM is a loser and that (b) he can? In DK diaries, just to use the obvious parochial example, you need to back up your assertions with sources and data, of course, first and foremost. But you also need to communicate clearly your message so that everyone understands what you're saying without second-guessing your meaning. In short, presentation matters.
So of course, you get to have fun finding the spelling errors in this diary, at least the non-deliberate ones :) , and tripping up 3CM. With that said, it's very late on Saturday night, and the time is nigh, for your loser stories of the week below. If they involve spelling mistakes, so much the better :) .