Well, dear readers, this day is finally at an end and what a wild and wacko day it’s been. I haven’t had a day like this in a ‘coon’s age. Frankly, the moon or Mars or Pluto must have been in Uranus, because something was going on today and I’m sure it had everything to do with Uranus, if you get my drift, which I know you do, since you are savvy dear readers. This day was like amusement park bumper cars: A lot of smashing into things left and right but thankfully with no harm done, at least not any real harm. It started almost the minute I got up. I had an e-mail from my biggest online dealer asking what the HELL was going on, because someone had posted an e-mail from the e-mail blast I sent privately to my loyal Kritzerland customers. I had no idea what he was talking about, so I went to the film music board in question and sure enough someone had posted my e-mail. Bad form, to be sure, and the poor fellow was castigated roundly. People got nervous and because of it I got a ton more orders than I would have – in fact, if the e-mail hadn’t been posted, I’d only gotten about seventy orders from the blast. So, people were ordering from the online dealer and from me, and I had to then write the other online dealers and tell them they could also list it if they wanted to. The official release still isn’t happening until the morning of the 24th – I hope I have some CDs left to sell by then. But while I was about to start reading that thread, the phone rang and I was informed that we had some audio hiccup on the master of this release, discovered by my webgal. That was potentially disastrous news, but I managed to get hold of the boss of the pressing plant and was happily told that it hadn’t gone to press yet (I didn’t think it had, since the booklets and inlay cards aren’t arriving until tomorrow). That was a major relief. I then talked to the mastering guy and he fixed the problem and will be overnighting it to the pressing plant and they’ll have it first thing Tuesday, so it really shouldn’t slow anything down. All that took an hour, so I didn’t get to jog. Then I left and did my morning stuff, after which I returned home, and had a visit from my pal Jon Burlingame. That was very nice. Then I got a call from my helper, who was going to try and get my AOL address book into gmail, saying she couldn’t get together until three-thirty. That was fine, and I did the long jog and some work on the computer. Then I picked up said helper and we went and had a bite to eat at the Studio Café. Coming home, I was involved in a little car mishap, a real bumper car situation. I believe I was completely in the right, and the fellow who I believe caused the accident because he wasn’t looking where he was going and tried to go around cars in a non-existent lane believes he was completely in the right. I told him my opinion, we exchanged information, and luckily he and the young man driving with him seemed not to be hurt at all, and from what I could see of his car, it didn’t look like it had any major problems, and my car lost its front license plate but only suffered some scuffing on the front bumper. I was quite angry, but what can you do about it? I called my insurance company’s hotline and gave them all the information and exactly what happened. We both, of course, have witnesses who were in the car with us, so it’s going to be his word against my word but I’m insured and what will be will be, I suppose. I then came home, and we tried to figure out how to do this AOL thing. She figured out how to import the AOL address book into a Yahoo account, which worked quite easily, but she had trouble getting it from Yahoo into gmail, so we’ll continue trying on Monday. After that, I dropped the helper off, and I drove over to my friend’s screening room to see Milk.
Last night, I saw a motion picture entitled Milk, starring Mr. Sean Penn. I didn’t know a huge amount about Harvey Milk, and only vaguely remembered that he was killed. So, I came to the film pretty fresh. It’s not my favorite genre of film, frankly, and Gus Van Sant’s direction really annoyed me for the first twenty minutes, until he finally settled down and stopped doing all that dopey “hip” camera crap. The movie was very interesting and held my interest from start to finish and its sense of time and place was terrific. Mr. Penn inhabits Mr. Milk in a pretty amazing way – it’s a real Oscar-worthy performance. Josh Brolin is good as Dan White – his drunk scene is especially powerful in a very subtle way. Anita Bryant plays herself and gets what she deserves. There are things that have happened in this country that occasionally make me ashamed to be living here – the events of Milk are filled with them (and it hasn’t changed, what with the travesty of Proposition 8, a measure that should never have been allowed on the ballot). As with all films today, there is no blue – just yellow and green and brown as the palette. If find this very odd and have no clew as to why today’s filmmakers favor this ugly look. The end of the film is really well done, and all in all, it was an excellent film. This was actually a DVD screener – not even Blu-Ray – but on this guy’s projection system it looked incredible. I guess projection systems have come a long, long way, baby.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because it’s the Christmas season and I hope to have no more bumper cars for the next two decades.
Today, I shall do the long jog, and then I shall do whatever pleases me. I may take some trade stuff over to Amoeba, but then again, I may not. I may listen to some CDs, and I may watch some DVDs. I will definitely find something light but fun to eat.
Tomorrow, I must make sure everything is proceeding apace in terms of the new master being sent to the pressing plant and I also need to do some important errands and whatnot, and then, in the evening, I shall do the shopping for the Christmas Eve Do.
I have no plans for any other days this week, save for the Do and a Christmas Day partay at Cissy Wechter’s home environment. She always has quite a bash, and I’ll have to be VERY careful about what I eat there, because THIS Christmas season I refuse to gain any weight at all.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do the long jog, do whatever I please, and eat something amusing. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst we pray that the adventures with the bumper cars is over and done with and that we have only good things come out of Uranus from now on, if you get my drift, and I know you do.