Well, dear readers, I have me a brand spanking new, faster speed modem. The old modem was, in the words of the gentleman who brought the new one, a relic. Kind of like me. I think we need a new, faster me, too, but that’s another story for another day on another planet. Of course I was told by the Time Warner people it was just a simple swap out and that everything would work precisely as it did. And, as always, it was anything but simple. Oh, he got it up and running right away, but by plugging directly into the computer, which I’ve never done since I have a wireless router. And of course the wireless router lost its signal, despite me being on the Internet and no amount of plugging and unplugging helped. Well, while it was fine to be plugged into the computer, it was not fine for the router not to be working because my phone, my iPad, my printer and my laptop all work wirelessly. But the guy couldn’t figure it out, so he just left and had me call his supervisor. They tell you they can’t help you with your router because it’s not their product, but I got very snippy and said it WAS their problem because they were the reason it wasn’t working. We unplugged from the computer and tried to hook up wirelessly to no avail. It simply could not find my network – I suspect an Apple person could have solved it quickly, but since I’m no longer under warranty that call would have cost money. So, he gave me a quick fix – to take a paper clip, push a little thing on the back of the router while it was plugged in, then unplug, do the same, and plug in and do the same again, all of which I did. At that point, nothing worked until I plugged directly back into the computer. As soon as I did so a window popped up asking me to create a new network, so I did, the router found it and all was well. The guy suggested I stay plugged directly into the computer because that insures the fastest speeds. And I must say it was noticeably faster especially in downloading the big clips from Welcome to My World. Of course I then had to set up the phone and iPad for the new network, as well as the printer, but it’s all done now and I am happening and with it, not necessarily in that order.
Prior to that, I’d gotten about seven hours of sleep, maybe a little less. Once up, I answered e-mails, did some work at the piano, the interim helper came by and got a few invoices, and then I went to Gelson’s and bought the fixin’s for my meal o’ the day – some chicken breast slices, mushrooms, onion, sour cream, no-fat milk and pasta, as well as some apples and carrots for those who insist I eat some fruits and vegetables. I brought all that home and as I began boiling the water for the pasta, Time Warner called and said they had a guy in the neighborhood who could come shortly rather than between five and six. I was jiggy with that, although he didn’t end up coming for about ninety minutes. So, I sautéed the chicken, mushrooms, and onion, made the pasta, dumped the sautéed stuff on it, and then made the Wacky Noodles sauce. I think I accidentally made about ten ounces of pasta – I didn’t mean to do quite that much, but since it was going to be my meal o’ the day eaten over the course of several hours, it was fine. I ate the first helping before the Time Warner man arrived.
Then as fate would have it, he arrived at the same exact time as someone else I had to meet with, so I was running back and forth between them. It was all fine. Then I finished conforming the rest of the Welcome to My World script and finally sat on my couch like so much fish.
First I finished watching The Sky’s the Limit. It’s certainly no classic, with an odd story and some very forced comedy bits with Robert Benchley, but I must say I really enjoyed it thanks to the Arlen/Mercer songs, Mr. Astaire, and most importantly, Miss Joan Leslie, with whom I fell head over heels in love. The most amazing thing about her in this film is that she was all of seventeen when it was shot.
Then I was amazed to find that the DGA screeners have started to arrive, or at least one has – Stright Outta Compton. I knew nothing about the film other than it had gotten very good reviews and had been a hit. So, I didn’t know it was, in fact, a biopic about the rap group NWA, and its members, which included Dr. Dre and Ice Cube. Now, I don’t think it’s much of a secret that I really don’t like rap music and especially what was then called gangsta rap, so I really didn’t even want to watch the movie, but I did anyway. And whereas I thought I was going to love Love and Mercy, the Brian Wilson biopic and didn’t (I liked but did not love it), I was really expecting to hate every minute of this film, and yet, oddly, I really, really liked it – a lot. The acting is great, the film captures the feel of time period of the mid-1980s on really well, and captures that world really well – it’s not my kind of world, but the film really held my attention for all two hours and twenty minutes of its running time and I found the story interesting. It was a nice kind of surprise.
After that, I jogged, then relaxed, had an apple and some carrots and finished the last of the chicken pasta Wacky thing.
Today, I shall have a similar meal (bought enough to make two portions, although today’s will be much smaller), I’ll jog, I’ll hopefully pick up packages, I’ll put the finishing touches on what turned out to be a rather sprawling song for the LA show, and I’ll send a copy of the script to Welcome to My World to an actress in Canada who’s keen to do it early next year. Then I’ll relax and watch something fun. I’ve been getting a lot of SAG screeners since I’m on the nominating committee for TV and cable. I’ll watch an episode of Younger, then I got something yesterday called UnReal and I may watch a bit of that. I have some History Channel stuff, and a ton of other stuff I’d have to watch on the computer.
Tomorrow will be more of the same, and at some point Sami’s mom will come by with a hard drive containing all the performances we shot of Welcome to My World. I’ll then go through each and choose the best bits to edit together into one performance. That we’ll start doing on Monday, I think. Otherwise, next week is choosing songs (we’re now one person away from being fully cast – and it’s an incredible cast), and gathering the music, even though we have more than enough time – the show isn’t until December 6.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a jog, hopefully pick up packages, eat, write, and relax and watch stuff. Today’s topic of discussion: Is there any form of hip-hop or rap music that you’ve enjoyed, and, if so, what? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have a new, faster modem and I will, of course, endeavor to be a new, faster me.