Well, dear readers, some days are simply eclectic. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, some days are simply eclectic and yesterday was such a day, an eclectic day, albeit not one spent at the Eclectic Café. Once again the alarm didn’t go off – this is simply because my ancient, first generation iPad is pretty much giving up the ghost. Soon, I fear, it will join other first generation iPads in the sky. She of the Evil Eye woke me up with the ringing of the doorbell. I then left her to her own devices, did some banking, then went to the Apple Store because my iPhone is also having issues. My helper there saw immediately what the problem was – an “expanded” battery gone bad, which is why it’s not holding a charge very long. I made an appointment to come tomorrow to have them do what need be done. In the meantime, the helper showed me the iPhone 7-Plus and we checked online and I was eligible for the upgrade, with the only upfront cost being tax. So, I got it. Right there in the store we were able to set up the entire phone by backing up from the Cloud. Gone are the days when you’d have to back up your phone to the computer, then transfer it to your new phone. It’s all in the Cloud now and it goes very fast indeed. This new phone is much faster than the other phone, in terms of navigation, and it also operates slightly differently. And it’s lighter and thinner, too. But tomorrow I go in and they most likely will buy back the old iPhone and that will cover the tax and Apple Care money I paid. So, that was all very nice and easy/breezy. And I must say, because she of the Evil Eye came a day early I kept thinking it was Saturday.
I came home, Doug Haverty arrived, and we moseyed on over to Genghis Cohen to lunch with Sandy Bainum. It was a delightfully delightful and long lunch, with much amusing conversation and catching up. I never enjoy lunches there because the day chef is not a patch on the butt cheeks of the night chef, but perhaps there’s a new day chef, because this was one of the finest Genghis Cohen meals I’ve had, and that’s saying something. After that, I picked up a couple of packages and came home.
Once home, I answered e-mails, got word the Thrill Ride books had shipped, and began a set of liner notes for our next release, which we’ll probably be announcing next week. I had some telephonic conversations, took care of some business, and then I finally sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched the motion picture that contains the score we’re issuing next, just so I could write some coherent liner notes, so I can’t really talk about it because we like to be mysterious until we announce. Then I watched a motion picture on the Flix of Net entitled Déjà Vu, one of those Jerry Bruckheimer/Tony Scott things, this one starring Denzel Washington. I was expecting the worst, but the first ten or fifteen minutes made me think I was going to see an interesting mystery thriller. Then that all changes and we get a – wait for it – time travel thriller that becomes so preposterous that it’s preposterous. And it just gets worse and worse from there, which is what happens when you suddenly turn what appears to be a real mystery thriller plot into a sci-fi plot. I knew the dangers of time travel over-explanation, which I scrupulously avoided in Thrill Ride. Here they take up so much time trying to explain the time travel aspect (which only involves four days and the usual trying to change the past malarkey), and of course it’s all just words – long and boring, which is why The Time Machine, for example, works so well. He’s got a machine. It can go into the future or the past. The end. No explanations at all – same with Time After Time. There is simply no reason wasting time with all those details that everyone knows aren’t real anyway. This movie gets just about everything wrong after the first fifteen minutes. And the villain is introduced so late in the film he may as well have not been there at all. Tony Scott’s direction is, as always, kind of ludicrous, and being a Bruckheimer/Scott movie all they really care about are the ridiculous action scenes – it’s like they’re both eight year old boys.
After that, I listened to some music, had a sandwich and some low-calorie ice cream, and relaxed.
Today, I’ll finish the liner notes and get them on their merry way, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, and then at some point Sami and her mom are coming over to chat and I’m not sure whether a meal will be involved or not.
Tomorrow I have my appointment at the Apple Store, and then I’m relaxing and having a ME day. Monday is our first Kritzerland rehearsal, and then the rest of the week is meetings and meals, announcing a new title, our second rehearsal, our stumble-through, and then sound check and show.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, finish liner notes, hopefully pick up packages, have a visit with Sami and her mom, eat, and then relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite films of Denzel Washington? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, having enjoyed a rather eclectic day.