Well, dear readers, the Time Warner farce continued yesterday for way too many hours. Everything was fine when I awoke. Everything was fine after I did a three-mile jog and some errands and whatnot. Everything was fine after I ate some bacon and eggs and then picked up some packages. And then it wasn’t fine. It was the same damn thing as Friday night – one minute up, the next down and on and on. I called them and the voice told me that there were no outages. I got someone on the phone and demanded a supervisor – they hung up. I called back and got the person’s full name THEN demanded a supervisor. None were available – one was on the phone with another customer and the rest were in a meeting. He told me there were no outages. I told him otherwise. He blamed my modem. I blamed their ineptitude and lies. One HOUR of this back and forth crap while I waited for a supervisor. He told me as far as he could see there’d been no outages Friday night. At that point I screamed at him so long and loud that he finally admitted there HAD been – he’d just missed it when he looked. I told him their own voice mail repeatedly said there was an outage. We just kept going in circles. I told him I was tired of the games and I wanted a supervisor NOW and that one hour later it was not possible for the supervisor that was on the phone to STILL be on the phone. He admitted she wasn’t, but was now working the “floor” and wouldn’t take the call. He then assured me that a supervisor would call me back. He also repeatedly told me my modem was responsible for dropping the connection and that a tech needed to come out. I made the appointment for Monday at three. Before I let him off the phone, I demanded the full name of the supervisor who would not take my call – and I got it.
Now, why do we think they are instructed to lie? Why do we think that the notes that were taken during my phone calls of Friday night have conveniently disappeared? The lie part is easy – they won’t admit anything because then a whole slew of unhappy people would be asking for credit for the down time. Much easier to blame everyone’s modem. My guess is they have instructions in front of them, not that I think we’re talking to anyone in the United States of America. At that point I called AT&T and got the details about UVerse – unfortunately, I didn’t like what they had to tell me about how their service works, so I don’t know that I’ll be going with them.
Then I watched the rest of Cloak and Dagger – bad transfer, filled with endless scratches, splices, and negative dirt. Decent Fritz Lang film with some really good sequences, a nice performance by Gary Cooper, and a wonderful screen debut from Lilli Palmer. After that, I came back to the computer to find everything working perfect. Wow, that problematic modem sure wasn’t having any problems suddenly. And throughout the evening it continued to work perfectly because maybe, just maybe, their idiot technicians finally fixed the problem. If it works perfectly all day and evening today, then Monday morning I will cancel the technician and go right to the top of the Time Warner food chain about this – as high as I can go. When they flat out lie to their customers maybe it’s time to rethink the way they are running their business. I will recount in detail the entire history from Friday night on, and I will demand they admit that there were repeated outages on their end and that their customer support people lied to me about it. One supervisor already admitted that the first person I’d talked to on Friday had lied. I have all the names.
Other than that crap, I watched two other motion pictures on Blu and Ray. The first motion picture was entitled Brubaker, starring Mr. Robert Redford. I’d somehow missed the film when it came out, and have continued to miss it through the years. Well, it was nice to catch up to it, and it’s quite an excellent motion picture, with a sterling performance from Mr. Redford and some great performances by some of the best character actors working back then. Mr. Redford, unlike today’s crop of horrid little nerdy whispering actors, is the real deal – a movie star, a wonderful actor who is VERY real and yet who never, not one time in the entire film, whispers. Funny that. It’s excellently and simply directed by Stuart Rosenberg. Today it would be all about whispering and “LOOK AT MY BRILLIANT DIRECTION!!!!!!” and pyrotechnics and overdone sound design, all accompanied by rap music and droning chords, instead of the brilliant score it has by Lalo Schifrin. Best of all, the transfer is fantastic – a poster child for what films of that era should look like. Highly recommended by the likes of me.
I then watched the second motion picture on Blu and Ray, which was entitled The Verdict, one of my very favorite movies of its era. Paul Newman is great, as is Jack Warden, James Mason, Wesley Addy, Charlotte Rampling, Milo O’Shea and Lindsay Crouse. The script by David Mamet is terrific, as is the simple, understated and non-show-off direction of Sidney Lumet. Add to that a great Johnny Mandel score and you have a winner that no matter how many times I view it remains riveting and surprising. I wish I could say the transfer was the equal of Brubaker, but it isn’t – not even close. It’s a very mediocre transfer of a beautifully photographed film – mediocre contrast, milky, and decidedly older looking. A shame.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must get a good night’s beauty sleep.
Today, in case you haven’t noticed, is Mother’s Day, so a very happy haineshisway.com Mother’s Day to all you mothers out there in the dark (you know who you are). I shall be spending a relaxing Mother’s Day doing a jog, eating something like but amusing, paying a visit to Mystery and Imagination Books, and watching more motion pictures.
Tomorrow we’ll hopefully cast the one remaining cast member of our upcoming show and then I can assign the songs and get the singers their sheet music and mp3s. The rest of the week is meetings and meals and seeing a couple of shows and getting ready to announce our next release.
Let’s all put on our pointy party hats and our colored tights and pantaloons, let’s all break out the cheese slices and the ham chunks, let’s all dance the Hora and the Hokey Pokey because today is the birthday of dear reader Sam. So, let’s give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to dear reader Sam. On the count of three: One, two, three – A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO DEAR READER SAM!!!
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a jog, eat, visit, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to 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 I hit the road to dreamland, where I shall behave like the mother that I am, if you get my meaning – I know Time Warner will.