Well, dear readers, I made the big decision of yesterday and I am now the proud owner of a new motor car. I was waffling in my head (no mean feat) for hours, but then my pal Mr. David Wechter went online and did some comps and some Kelly Blue Book research and looked at the listing page for the car I was hoping to get, and he determined it was a very good deal. So, yesterday morning I got up at nine, girded my loins and made the decision to do the deal and to deal the do. I talked to the dealer and told him I had just a few more questions and that I wanted to see the Carfax report (and he told me he had another even more thorough report). I told him I’d be there at eleven. Meanwhile, I canceled my appointment at the Glendale Infiniti dealership. That guy wrote me back saying they were offering incredible deals and that I should really come in. I made it simple for him – I pitched him a number and said can you match it. He came back with the one model like mine that he had – it was eleven hundred dollars more, but still much lower than I would have thought he could go. And it was a brand new car – mine was like new, but did have the 650 miles on it. I went over to the Studio City dealer and he showed me the reports, which were exemplary. I then asked a few other questions, which he answered. I then showed him the e-mail from the Glendale dealer – his eyes widened and he honestly said to me, “Maybe you want to reconsider – that’s a great deal – he’s losing money on that car.” But then he realized that not only was it eleven hundred more, it didn’t have the premium package that their car had – that’s an additional $2500. So, I told him we were a go, we did the paperwork, and that was that. An hour later I drove off the lot in a brand spanking new Black Obsidian Infiniti G37 with the Journey trim. I love the smell of a new car and this car smells as new as it gets. It took me a while to get the seat the way I like it, but once you do, it remembers it and always goes back to it. It also took me a while to get used to not using a key – the keyless remote is kept in the pocket and all you do is push a button on the door to enter the car and a button to start it. I hooked up my iPod and got that working. The dealer had already paired my iPhone with the car via Bluetooth, and making or receiving a call from the car is a breeze. It’s one little button on the steering wheel. If you’re making a call, you get voice prompts and then you speak the name or number you want to call. It’s all very amazing and boy have cars come a long way since I got my last Infiniti in 1998. That car will now be given to my darling daughter – she’ll get a new battery and she has someone where she lives who will re-line the brakes very inexpensively. Once those two things are done, she should be good to go and I know she’s very appreciative as her car, I’m told, is a heap o’ junk. Shockingly, my old Infiniti after eleven years has less than 100,000 miles on it. And since she doesn’t drive much, she should be able to get another couple of years out of it, I should think. For me, with the amount I drive, I think the car would have been done in just a month or two, and I didn’t want to get to that point, obviously. Putting the seven grand into it two years ago was not wise – but I couldn’t get a new car two years ago – had I been able to, I would have been seven grand ahead of the game. But all’s well that ends well, and I love the car – it drives beautifully and is very pretty. I also have to get used to actually looking for this car when I come back from a meal or being out. After I ate a sandwich and fries, I came to the parking lot and just admired my car as I walked toward it. Then I noticed a tiny ding on the hood and I couldn’t believe it – I hadn’t seen that at all. I was going to drive right back to the dealer and show it to him – I walked to the passenger door and pushed the button and it didn’t open. I found that odd and I was getting very upset when I realized I wasn’t looking at my car – my car was next to the car I was looking at. Did I feel stupid. My car had no ding and the button worked and all’s well that ends well. I like well endings – happy endings, and I hope this car brings years of good service like my last one, and I hope that the New Year brings Kritzerland lots of good and successful releases so we can replenish the kitty as quickly as possible. The good news is that the one online dealer currently has invoices totaling more than the car cost, so over the next couple of months all that money will be coming in, while we’re generating new invoices on new titles. In any case, send excellent vibes and xylophones for a quick replenishing of the kitty.
I didn’t drive much – just picked up a couple of packages and then did some work at home. Then I had to deal with a little problem I knew would be a problem, which was how to get the new motor car into the garage. There is a rather steep little incline that you have to go up to get the motor car into the garage. With my old car as you’d near the top of the tiny incline the bottom of the car would scrape against the cement horribly – and, in fact, it ended up punching a hole in some oil pan that caused a horrible leak and which cost hundreds of bucks to fix. So, I opened the garage and went up the tiny incline as slow as I could, and sure enough right at the very top the bottom of the rear of the car began to scrape. I stopped immediately and back out. I then came up with a solution to try – I put two pieces of large cardboard on the cement at the top of the tiny incline. I then drove the car up and voila – no scraping on the concrete. So, I’m going to have my handyman put together about three pieces of cardboard that I can just slide in and out of the garage each time I pull the car in and out – a bit of a pain, but that should keep everything safe and sound.
After all that, I finally sat on my couch like so much fish and watched two count them two motion pictures on Blu and Ray. It was a Stephen King double bill – first up was Misery, directed by Rob Reiner, and starring James Caan and Kathy Bates. I first saw Misery at the premiere at the Chinese Theater. We were invited because my then label Bay Cities was putting out the soundtrack (our first really big release). It was an interesting film, I thought, in that it seemed to do all the right things – Rob’s direction was simple and straightforward, William Goldman’s script seemed to hit the right notes, and Caan and Kathy Bates were both great. But at the end of it, there was just something that kept it from greatness, and I’m not sure what it was. You could feel it in the audience. And watching it again, it still baffles me because I still feel exactly the same way. Something about the film just doesn’t quite gel. I still enjoy it, but it’s just not a great film, at least for me. I then watched Carrie, directed by Brian De Palma, starring Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, Nancy Allen, John Travolta, Amy Irving, Betty Buckley, and William Katt. For me, Carrie hits all the right notes perfectly and therefore, for me, IS a great movie. There are only two minor things where I think De Palma falters, but they’re inconsequential and the film still works wonderfully. The screenplay is just terrific, and Spacek should have been nominated for an Oscar for her brilliant performance. Her transformation from shy, awkward mousy girl to prom queen is luminous – she literally shines on the screen. William Katt gives such a good performance and he’s so natural and endearing that it’s amazing that he didn’t have more of a film career. He did well in TV, but this guy should have been a movie star. Everyone else is wonderful, as well. My only complaints are the little scene where Katt and pals are getting tuxedos – they just should have cut it – when it switches to fast motion for a couple of lines, you begin to wonder what movie you’re watching. And De Palma’s then-love affair with split screen dissipates the horror of Carrie’s revenge at the prom, which would have been twice as powerful with conventional montage. I saw the film on a Saturday night right after it opened. I don’t remember why, but I saw it with Diana Canova. When the ending happened you would not believe the scream in that theater – I mean HUGE and LONG. If you watch it at home, you’d have no idea how that moment played, but the audience screaming was so loud and long that it literally covers all of the shots that follow it right up until the screen goes black – about forty-five seconds in total. And, of course, that single moment changed everything – it became one of the most ripped-off ways to end a movie and even De Palma ripped himself off in Dressed To Kill, much less successfully. Both transfers look really good. Carrie is loaded with optical fades and dissolves PLUS it was shot with heavy diffusion, so some of it is grainy and a little soft, which is exactly as it should be.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button because I am quite exhausted but am happy and thrilled to have the new car.
Today, I have little planned other than getting the boxes ready for the overseas orders and our bigger online dealer orders, and having a very belated birthday lunch with dear reader Jeanne. And I have more notes to type up for the new book.
Tomorrow, I will start the day with shipping CDs. New helper will be over around nine-thirty, and we’ll get everything out, hopefully by noon. Then the rest of the day will be more book notes, and a bunch of errands and whatnot. Thursday, Mr. Handy Man comes early and has to attend to several things, and I’m having coffee with the producer who’s interested in the Hofstetter books. And then, of course, Thursday night is hour happening New Year’s Rockin’ Eve partay and I do hope all our dear readers and hainsies/kimlets will be in attendance for the wacky festivities.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, prepare boxes, do a jog, have a belated birthday luncheon (at Genghis Cohen – oh, boy!), type up notes and then do a few errands and whatnot. Today’s topic of discussion: What was the best new car experience you’ve had? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland being thankful that I have the new car.