Saturday 9

Saturday 9: You're No Good (1974)

... because Harriet suggested Linda Ronstadt

1) This week's featured artist, Linda Ronstadt, turns 69 next month. Will you be celebrating any family/friend birthdays this summer? I just celebrated Barb's birthday with dinner and the Gloria Estefan play. It was fun. My friend John and I are celebrating his landmark 60th within The Friendly Confines of Wrigley Field. I am soooo excited!

2) Linda sings that she's learned her lesson and it's left a scar. Tell us how you got one of your scars. In 2013 I had a mole removed from my lip. It was the only thing I had in common with Cindy Crawford, and now it's gone. Anyway, the plastic surgeon did a very good job and all that's there is a thin, vertical scar that looks like a laugh line.

3) This song is about a lover who is, obviously, no good. Let's be more positive. Who is the nicest person you know? I suppose my friend Mindy. She tries to see the good in everyone.

4) Linda says that she grew up on Mexican music, which was sung by her entire family. Do you speak any Spanish? Una muy pequeña

5) She toured often throughout her career and is quoted as saying, "they haven't invented a word for that loneliness that everybody goes through on the road." Are you missing someone right now? Yes

6) Ms. Ronstadt was once involved with George Lucas of Star Wars fame. Who is your favorite Star Wars character? Not really. I never enjoyed those movies.
  
7) In 1974, when this song was a hit, The Magic 8 Ball was still a top-seller at toy stores. It retailed for just $1.99, and promised that all you had to do was gaze at it, concentrate, and wait to learn your fate ... "if you dare!" If you could get an answer to one question about the future, what would you ask? How soon will icky Christine be out of my life?

8) 1974 is the year when Mikhail Baryshnikov defected to the United States. Have you ever been to the ballet? Yes. And back in the 1980s I saw Mischa twice: first in a Sinatra/Twyla Tharp piece and then in Le Corsaire. It was thrilling. Watching him dance was like watching Michael Jordan play. It's a privilege to be in the presence of that level of awesome. I'm so lucky to live in a world class city.

9) Random question: What's your shoe size? 6.5. Used to be a 6. Everything spreads with age.

I'm not sorry

I think I hate her.

Christine is the woman my agency brought in, on a free lance basis, to help with my projects until The New Girl gets up to speed. With luck, Christine will be gone around the Fourth of July.

She worked at my agency for 5 years, where she was a (la-de-dah) Vice President. Eight years ago she was let go when her client left us for another agency. Now she's back, as a contractor in a far more junior position. Only she's not acting junior. She's all bossy pants.

"You need to do this …"
"You need to give me that …"

You need to bite my fat ass, Granny. You're not a VP anymore, you're a free lance account exec sitting out in the open, just like the rest of us.

She's tight with my boss and consults him about everything first. Then she asks me what I think we should do (these are my projects, after all) as though she hadn't already spoken to my boss.  She sets herself up as the savior of us benighted savages when she talks to upper management, even though I have explained to her time and again that she's simply wrong about her suppositions. I think she's wangling for a full time position again. Oh, good. Then I can work with someone on a daily basis who alternately doesn't give me what I need and tries to make me look like a failure.

So I went to her boss, The New Girl. TNG likes me because I am, indeed, good at this job, despite what Christine seems to think. I told The New Girl that if I was her, I'd get Christine out of here as soon as possible. That Christine seems to have an agenda that is not about the work at hand, and if she is trying to make me look bad to upper management -- and I'm not even in the way of her possible plans for global domination -- it's more than just possible she's running The New Girl into the ground, too.

Bottom line, Christine: You want to exploit your relationship with my boss? Then I'll exploit mine with yours.

I suppose I should feel bad about being manipulative, but I don't. I want this bitch gone. I have a lot of work to do these days, and I'm enjoying it, and I'm not going to let her get in my way.

Sometimes I worry that I may have backed the wrong horse -- that they may decide to keep Christine and let TNG go. It seems unlikely, though. Christine really does look every minute of her 60 years and this is an industry that idolizes youth. And another new, young (cheap) account exec (Ellen) is starting on May 15th and I don't know how much free lance money we've got in the budget.

So I think I'm halfway through Christine's siege. Let's hope her reign of terror is free of bloodshed.