Apologies for my long silence. I’m trying to finish a book: originally meant to be a novel but it’s turning out to really be a collection of short stories. My aim is to have it published along with my English translation of famous Czech writer Karel Capek’s slim novel “The Life and Work of Maestro Foltyn” Capek (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karel_%C4%8Capek) was quite ill and passed away before he was able to complete the novel. Prague was occupied by Wehrmacht forces a scant few weeks after his passing. When the Gestapo showed up at his house, his widow sent them away, relieved no doubt that the Angel of Death had taken her husband before Reinhardt Heydrich could. I’ve always wanted to bring this marvelous novella to English speaking readers and now I’ll be able to.
[if you are interested in a pdf copy of the book, please include your email address in a comment or email me georgegrosman at gmail dot com]
Incidentally, the house where Capek lived and worked is just a couple of hundred yards from our former Prague apartment. It is located in a narrow alley on fairly steep hill (the street is now called Brothers Capek Street) and us boys used to go tobogganing down that winding way and past Capek’s house as soon as the first snow fell in December.
My own stories are a mixture of autobiography and my febrile - often obsessive - preoccupations: music, women, regret and guilt. And humor! Some take place in Prague, some in unnamed locations, the one I’m trying to complete now starts and ends at New York’s Kennedy airport but winds through a couple of different locales between the two bookends. I’m trying to emulate my literary idol Milan Kundera (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milan_Kundera) but it would take me three lifetimes to come close to Kundera’s smooth mastery.
In addition to my paroxysmal literary efforts, I am working on recording my original music. Over the years, I have performed and produced music by old jazz masters - Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, Cole Porter, George Gershwin - simultaneously amassing at least 200 original compositions of which regrettably few have received wider distribution. Radio play-wise, the exception is my 2013 album “Sidney, Mon Ami” which generated quite a bit of interest - but that album contains mostly work by Sidney Bechet (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Bechet) and only two or three of my original compositions. Check it out here: tinyurl.com/sidneymonami
I have just put out an album of original songs called “Vagabond George” (georgegrosman.hearnow.com) with fabulous cover art by Catherine Nessworthy (see header picture) Take a listen on Spotify or any one of your favorite streamers. At the moment, I’m in the process of recording and mastering four additional original compositions. And since I am the most easily distractible individual you’ll ever meet, all these efforts take an inordinate amount of time, as my attention flits and flutters.
Perhaps there is an additional reason for not writing on here as much as I’d like. It’s a state of unending ennui caused by the moral, political, societal decay all around us. Never before have I lived in a world which is not only falling apart in front of our eyes, but doing so unnoticed by the great majority of the populace. If Rome burned as Nero fiddled, our world is burning as millions of Neros have earbuds stuck in their ears, their eyes glued to TikTok
“If Rome burned as Nero fiddled, our world is burning as millions of Neros have earbuds stuck in their ears, their eyes glued to TikTok” --
My day is now complete.