Well, dear readers, after a very busy but mostly lovely day, the merde hit the merde at 8:45 last night, when Time Warner crashed. I called, got the Philippines and got suckered into their usual horse manure of unplugging and doing because they simply will not acknowledge the problem is theirs. After wasting my time with that, I hung up on that person, called back, got the Philippines again and insisted they transfer me to the United States, which the did. After being on hold for thirty minutes I finally got a technician in this country who immediately acknowledged their outage. He said they were working on it and it might take one or two hours, but that they could make no promises. Well, as I write these here notes Time Warner is still down and it’s close to three hours later. Therefore, I have no idea when these here notes will get posted and I’m quite annoyed about it, although there is nothing to be done. The problem, of course, is that I have to be up at six in the morning to announce two new CDs and I have no idea if the Internet will be working or not. Add to that that Time Warner went down just before I was going to prepare the eBlast, and I have to do that in order to announce, and THAT takes thirty to forty-five minutes. Add to that, I have to leave at seven-thirty to take my car in for servicing, and be back at nine to take delivery of a LOT of CDs. So, I have no idea how any of this is going to go. I’m sure Time Warner will be back up at some point tomorrow, and if they aren’t I’ll simply put these here notes on a little memory stick and go to Panera and post them from there, and do the blast from there. A pain in the ASS, thank you very much Time Warner and may one day you get your inept act together. They are very adept, however, at taking one’s money every month, that they do in a very timely way, that they never EVER have a problem with.
Prior to the merde hitting the merde, I’d gotten seven hours of sleep, set the clocks back, saw the Melodyland packaging and made a few fixes, after which I sent it to Melody’s mother – and they were THRILLED with it and it is quite a handsome package. Then I got a call from Elizabeth Sherman telling me she and Richard were going to a party in Valley Village and that they’d be happy to come to me to sign the booklets – of course, I said that was fine by me. So, since it was cold and rainy out, I didn’t do the four-mile jog and instead went to Jerry’s Deli to grab some eggs and bacon. Only there were about fifteen people waiting for tables. I left immediately and went to the Studio Café where it was the same story. I then went to Four and Twenty Pies and got right in, had a very nice breakfast, and that was that. Apparently Four and Twenty Pies, being reasonably priced, isn’t good enough for the Studio City entitled – they don’t spend enough there, even though the food is actually better than Jerry’s Deli. Go know.
Then I came home and the Shermans arrived soon thereafter. Dick signed 150 booklets and we had a very nice chat whilst he did so. He also said that, schedule permitting, he’d be one of our guest stars for the LACC show. That’s great news. Then they left, and I took music to get Xeroxed, printed out some other music, and did a lot of work on the computer. I was also very thrilled all day with the wonderful reaction episode one of the web series was getting. It was truly fantastic and warmed the cockles of my heart, and I don’t know about you, but I rather enjoy my cockles warm rather than chilled. Right now, however, my cockles are quite chilly thanks to Time Warner. Since I could do no further work on the computer, I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a motion picture on Blu and Ray entitled Airplane! As most know, Airplane arrived and was an instant sensation. It became what comedy was about. It was hardly unique in being self-referential – Mel Brooks had been doing that for some time, but it did take that sort of thing to new heights and ushered in about three decades’ worth of self-referential spoofs, most of which I, personally, find completely unfunny. The fact is, I don’t find a lot of Airplane funny. It’s the kind of comedy where they just came up with hundreds of visual and dialogue gags, threw them all in, and hoped for the best. For most audiences the hits were much more frequent than the misses, but that’s because all this seemed very fresh back then. The one thing that Airplane did that totally broke completely new ground wasn’t in the movie itself – it was in the trailer. Up to that point, in comedy trailers you really didn’t want to give away the great jokes, you wanted those to be surprises. But with Airplane they gave away all the big jokes in the trailer. So, people were primed and ready even though they’d already gotten the funniest stuff in advance of seeing the movie. But it became talked about and turned into a must-see film. So, how is it thirty years later? Some of it is indeed very funny, with some good laugh out loud moments. And some of it isn’t, at least not watching it alone in one’s den. But that’s the way it is with comedy, although I’ve watched some comedies that get me laughing really hard and keep me laughing – but those are plot and character driven films, not collections of gags. Where Airplane is genius is in its casting. It’s perfectly cast with such stalwarts as Leslie Nielsen, Robert Stack, Peter Graves, along with Robert Hays and Julie Hagerty. It’s just the right length at eighty-seven minutes and Elmer Bernstein’s score is also a big plus. The transfer’s fine – lots of opticals so lots of grain.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I just want to finish these here notes and get some beauty sleep, because thanks to Time Warner the morning is going to be more than a little insane.
Today, I shall be up at six in the morning and hopefully I’ll have the Internet back. Actually, right now it looks like lights are blinking on the modem, but unfortunately the router is still blinking amber, thanks to the idiot in the Philippines who had me unplug stuff. It should reset itself but so far it’s just sitting there like so much amber fish. If it’s indeed fixed, I’ll have to call Time Warner so they can talk me through getting the router to work again. It’s so damn annoying. IF everything is working in the morning, I’ll announce the CDs, get these here notes posted – wait – BULLETIN – the amber has turned green. Hold on now… We are BACK. Notes will go up, eBlast will be prepared. Whew! Then I have to take my car in, CDs and helper will arrive, CDs will be shipped, and then I have to grab a bite to eat, pick up music, do the four-mile jog, do banking, and meet dear reader Jose two hours before rehearsal starts, to get organized and go over everything. Then we have a four-hour rehearsal, and then I’m comin’ home and goin’ to bed.
Tomorrow and the rest of the week is more of the same. Hoping we keep getting more wonderful comments – I do know it’s getting a lot of views, but unfortunately You Tube freezes the counter after three hundred and it stays frozen, sometimes for a day, sometimes a week, sometimes a year, and sometimes the 12th of Never. We’ll see what happens. In the meantime, share it with friends, and you can also watch it on funnyordie.com. The You Tube link is www.youtube.com/outsidetheboxseries.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, announce CDs, take the motor car in for servicing, ship CDs, do the four-mile jog, eat, pick up music, work with Jose, and rehearse. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite post-Airplane comedies? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland now that the merde is no longer hitting the merde and Time Warner is working again.