Well, dear readers, I must write these here notes in a hurry because I must be up at six in the morning to announce the new Kritzerland release, which is Victor Young at Paramount – three great scores on one great CD – Appointment With Danger, The Accused and September Affair, classic Golden Age film scores, and all the surviving cues from each film. Here’s the cover.
I must say, I am not one who jumps on all the new-fangled things to do, and one thing I’ve been avoiding like the plague is something they call streaming. I don’t know from streaming, I don’t care, but last night I became a streamer. Hi, I’m BK, and I’m a streamer. The cause for becoming a streamer was simple – I didn’t care to wait for the Blu-ray of season two’s House of Cards. So, I signed up for something called Netflix – you get a free month there, and then it’s 7.99 a month if you continue. So, I created an account and then I fired up the Oppo Blu and Ray player and there’s a “Netflix” button right on the remote – when one first fires up the machine there are all sorts of logos on the TV screen, including such exotic things as Hulu and Vudu – or is it Hudu and Vulu – I have no idea what those things are and I want to keep it that way. But I clicked the “Netflix” button and was whisked to Netflix. It asked me to sign in, but the remote had no keypad so I couldn’t figure out how to do so – so, I called them and they talked me through it and suddenly I was watching season two episode one of House of Cards.
As I’ve said, I really liked a lot of season one – not the greatest thing since sliced bread, but often compelling, often funny, and kind of addictive. In reading about the series on various sites that Google led me to, I was surprised to see how many people are addicted to the show but who pick apart every detail of it, thereby not really loving what they’re addicted to. It’s funny to read. The season two opener was the best they’ve done so far, just a really good and tight episode with a lot of interesting stuff going on, including one of those “SHOCKING” moments so necessary for a show like this. After that, I just kept watching and got all the way to the end of episode six. I’m finding the second season, thus far, better than the first. The cast is terrific and Mr. Spacey is more than terrific. I’ll probably finish with it by Tuesday.
Other than that, I woke up at ten and found it was eleven, because we sprang forward. I really don’t like this endless Daylight Saving Time, but I suppose it’s here to stay. I reset the two clocks I needed to (the oven and the microwave – The Oven and The Microwave – that’s the title of my next novel), and then the darling daughter arrived and we went and had lunch. She had a super-duper breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon and French toast, while I had a cup of chile and a ham and Swiss on rye. We both had pudding for dessert – I had tap tap tapioca and she had rice rice rice.
Then we took a drive to the Dale of Glen to visit Malcolm and Christine at Mystery and Imagination Books. Parking was ridiculous – I found a spot (two actually) but one of those stupid, humungous motorcycles was parked between the two spots, making it difficult for anyone to access them – thank you stupid motorcycle and stupider motorcyclist. I tried backing into the space but it was just too tight for my taste. While trying to see if I had a teeny bit more room to back up, I tapped, and I mean TAPPED (going less than one mile an hour) the car in back of me, which set off its alarm. Lovely. So, I pulled out, turned around and found a space across the street. As I was parking, some guy came out of a building and shut off the alarm, then gestured wildly for me to come over. At that point, he’d only shut off his alarm. I looked at him and said, “What? I tapped your car and the alarm went off – sorry.” But he kept gesturing and I finally went over to him. He THEN pointed at the front of his car, where I saw there were two little scratches. I said to him, “Yeah? You’re not trying to say that my tapping your car caused THAT, are you?” But that’s exactly what he was trying to say. He asked me for my info, so I gave him my card and wrote my cell on the back. I asked him for HIS info, and he asked me why I needed it, and I said because we BOTH need the info. I told him I’d just let my insurance company deal with it and he said, “We don’t have to do that – I’ll just get you an estimate – your deductible is probably $500 and this won’t cost that much to get fixed.”
Meanwhile, my darling daughter came over and she looked more closely at the front of his car and then called us both over and pointed out two punctured holes in the front of his car next to the scratches. She said to him, “You think us tapping your car PUNCTURED holes in your bumper, get real.” She then insisted he come look at the back of my car – of course, once he did he saw that a) there were no marks whatsoever on my car and b) that it was impossible for me to have caused any damage to his car because of how my bumper sits on the back of the car. He said, “I’ll get the estimate, but I see your point.” He hurried back from whence he came and the darling daughter thinks he was just trying to strong arm me – sure seemed like it on reflection – she also doesn’t think I’ll hear from him at all, but if I do I will not pay him anything because it’s all a load of malarkey.
We had a nice visit at the bookstore, and I brought them a beautiful color Xerox of the Red Gold cover and they went nuts for it – they thought it was stunning and they put it up on the wall. So, as soon as I know exactly when the book will be ready, I’ll book a signing there. Then we came home, the darling daughter left, and I began my streaming adventure. I also got everything ready for our announcement.
Today, I didn’t think I had all that much to do, but I was ever so wrong. I’ll announce our new title, I have a lunch meeting in Pasadena, hopefully I’ll print out a LOT of orders, hopefully I’ll pick up some packages, then I have an actor meeting in the late afternoon, and then dinner and show at The Federal – Jason Graae is doing a new show.
Tomorrow, I’m meeting with our Daisy Mae, and I have other meetings and meals and possibly a work session with Lanny and Sandy. Then the rest of the week is meetings, meals, work sessions, and seeing a couple of shows.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, announce our new title, hopefully print out a LOT of orders, have a lunch meeting, hopefully pick up some packages, have an actor meeting, and then sup and see Jason Graae. Today’s topic of discussion: What things do you stream from Netflix – what’s the best use of it? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, a streamer at long last.