Well, dear readers, yesterday I’m afraid I went to bad BK-land and had to throw my weight around (no mean feat). Have you ever thrown your weight around? Try it some time, it’s amusing, depending on how much weight you actually have. This began when I woke up at noon o’clock after eight hours of sleep. I was rather surprised to find no e-mail updates, so I left some messages for the head guy and my gal, who I knew were both in. After thirty minutes, I picked up the phone and called the lady who was responsible for actually resubmitting. She’s assured me after I approved the new galley on Monday that it would go through a quick final QA (quality approval) process and the new print files would probably go off that night. That didn’t happen. I got the exact same story on Tuesday – that didn’t happen either. So, I was not in the mood to hear the same story again – unfortunately for her, she told the same story again and I must tell you I turned very nasty – VERY nasty. I raised my voice to a rather loud level, telling her I was tired of the “should be done today” and “hopefully print files will go off tonight” and that I was done listening to that tripe. I asked her if she knew what “VIP author” meant – she assured me she did. I asked if she knew what VIP meant and before she could respond I told her that right now it meant Very Irritable Prick and that I was done being reasonable and that I would make it my business to see that everyone involved in this debacle would be in deep trouble. Then she told me she’d escalate it with her supervisor. I loudly reminded her that she should have escalated it on Monday and that she had, in fact, told me she’d done exactly that. I finally got off the phone with her, sent messages and insisted that my gal call me immediately, which she did. In those messages I also said someone had to get this woman to do her job. I had a nice conversation with my gal and while we were having it I got an e-mail from the other gal telling me the galley had gone through QA and the print files were on their way to the printing plants. If I hadn’t raised the ruckus it would probably have taken another week. So, my gal said as soon as it showed up in the printer system she’d place my order to overnight me books, but sadly I will not have them for Sunday’s signing. I should have them early next week to ship out, however. Of course, I never got confirmation that the books had been ordered, which means they weren’t but probably will be today.
VIP, baby, that’s what I’m talkin’ about. I didn’t go to the next stage of VIP – Vicious Irate Prick. The rest of the day was much nicer. The two o’clock lunch with Grant didn’t happen until four-fifteen, but at three I got a call from Sami’s mom asking me if I was home as she had something to drop off. A few minutes later there was a knock at the door and she delivered – Sami, home on Spring Break. Sami looked great and we had fun yammering away for about a half-hour. We laughed and laughed and just when we thought we could laugh no more, we laughed again.
Then Grant came by and we went to Dino’s Pizza for our meal. We each had a small pizza – it’s six slices but they are very small slices, perhaps the equivalent of three or four normal slices. It was so great – simply the best pizza in LA, no matter what anyone says. It’s real pizza, not faux pizza. We stopped at the mail place after and I picked up an envelope. Then we came back home and I went over to Ralph’s for some Diet Coke, waters, and a few treats.
I came home and sat on my couch like so much fish and finished watching Up to His Ears. It’s so over-the-top, which is what was intended, but with only a silly story to hang the action sequences on it just feels relentless and way too long. Some of the stunts are spectacular and the photography is lovely with all the film’s exotic locations. The transfer, like That Man from Rio, also included in this two-disc set, is, at times, really nice, but mostly it’s to yellow and green (what the wags call teal about transfers that have NO teal, just blue – THIS is textbook teal – green skies and such) – it’s infuriating, actually, because if some scenes are perfect it all should be perfect. I’m happy to have seen it, but I’ll stick to That Man from Rio, which I love.
Then I did some more newspaper stuff – I also cancelled my free subscription and they nicely let you complete the full seven-day free trial, then make you all kinds of nice offers. I may call them and tell them if they give me the LA Times at the non-inflated rate, I might do six months, as it’s just really fascinating. But I’ve looked at so much stuff that if that’s all there is, I’m fine. I also printed out about twenty interesting pages. Oh, and our very own Rob Stevens corrected me – he never was a Drama-Logue critic. He wrote for a different publication back then. I listened to some music and did not, at any point, write the commentary, which I really must do.
Today, I have a one o’clock lunch meeting about our revue, but the rest of the day is mine all mine. I will hopefully pick up some packages, write the commentary, bank, and relax.
Tomorrow is more of the same, so is Saturday, and Sunday I’ll be in the Dale of Glen doing a signing at the paperback show, and I think Grant will be there and we’ll probably hang out and look around at stuff.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, have a one o’clock meeting, bank, hopefully pick up packages, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite movies featuring Miss Ida Lupino and Mr. Robert Ryan? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have lived up to my VIP moniker.