Well, dear readers, I must write these here notes in a hurry for she of the Evil Eye will be here all too soon and therefore I must arise early. So, let’s just cut to the chase, shall we, and say we finally had some good news yesterday, after a truly horrifying and terrible week, where each new day brought more horrifying and terrible things. But the saga seems to be coming to an end, and a hopefully happy one. I got a call from the repair shop at eleven – it woke me up, but I got up and checked just in case and glad I did. I called them back and was told that he thought he’d been able to save almost everything. Of course, the “almost” scared me, but he said to come to the store and he’d show me what he extracted to a hard drive. He asked when I could be there and I said five minutes. So, I dressed, brushed the teeth, and headed over to the shop, which is only about twelve blocks from here. He plugged in the hard drive and we were both fairly certain that it was, in fact, everything – all 560 gigs of it. We looked through my main folder and everything was there and opened fine, it looked like all the music was there, photos, too. He’s not sure whether I’ll have to download whatever apps I had, like Dropbox, but my hope is because it got everything that was there, that that stuff will be there and show up. So, now he wipes the computer clean and clean installs Big Sur – I’m sure doing so will trigger all the updates it’s had, but I may leave him a message to make sure it gets done so I don’t have to do it. Once Big Sur is on there, then he transfers all the stuff from the hard drive onto the computer. In essence, it’s doing what it should have done in the first place, but didn’t. For the first time in a week, I was actually able to breath a little easier. He said it would be ready on Monday. I can’t wait – working on this teeny-tiny 2011 laptop has not been fun – at all. The other good news is that the replacement router has been fine and I’ve been on the Internet without issue, which is great. And that was the good news.
I did watch some motion pictures – well, two – on the Firestick and Amazon Prime. Interestingly, both were directed and written by the same fellow and both were based on true events. The first was entitled Breach, and was about the worst data breach in the history of the FBI. It’s not a great movie, but it’s an interesting tale and star Chris Cooper does a terrific job. And apparently, not trusting that the story is interesting enough, much of it is fictionalized. The film is almost undone by an awful musical score by Mychael Danna. It’s one of those mournful, tinkly piano things with chords. Well, this is kind of a thriller in its way and the score just doesn’t help at all – in fact, it hurts the film every step of the way because it removes every ounce of tension. The second based on true events except for the fictionalized stuff was entitled Shattered Glass, the story of Stephen Glass, a young writer for The New Republic magazine, who made up most of the stories he wrote, causing major embarrassment to the magazine and a major apology to the public. It’s an interesting film in many ways, with excellent performances, but, for me, it wasn’t quite successful. What’s fun about both films is just how primitive computing was in the late 1990s. It is absolutely staggering how far we’ve come in a mere twenty years.
Prior to all that, I’d gotten seven hours of sleep. I got back from the store at around eleven-thirty and decided to get in bed to see if I could sleep a couple more hours. I must say, the minute my head hit the pillow I was out and stayed out until the alarm woke me up at two o’clock. I went to Panda Express and got some crispy almond chicken, some orange chicken, chow mein, and white rice, and also Kung Pao chicken. I came home and ate everything but the Kung Pao chicken, as I was really full.
Then we had our rehearsal. First, we rehearsed the duet, You’re Just in Love. We ran it about five times and it’s going to be excellent. Then we ran the entire act, start to finish, and I was finally happy with the structure of it. I didn’t time it, but I suspect it’s an hour or thereabouts. The young girl’s mom laughed in all the right places, so that was nice for the singer to hear. I revised some patter after the kid and mom left, and gave a few notes.
Today, I’ll be up at eight-thirty, and then I’ll go have an early and light breakfast. Then I might stop by the used CD store for a bit, but I have to be home by 11:45 for my noon o’clock call from the senior tech – I’m sure he’ll be happy to hear the good news. I’ll schedule another call with him for Monday afternoon, just in case I need any help with things on the computer. After that, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll probably have a light snack later in the day, but mostly I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow, we a noon-thirty rehearsal at noon-thirty, which is, after all, the best time to have a noon-thirty rehearsal. That should last about ninety minutes and allow time for running anything we need to run and for whatever notes I may have. Then the rest of the day and evening are mine all mine. Monday, I’m hoping the computer will be ready by early afternoon, so I can get it home and set up well in advance of the scheduled call from the senior tech. What I hope will also happen is that we’ll get it running in the store so they can show me what’s what. Presuming all that’s fine, which I hope it will be, then things perhaps can get back to normal and may we never have another Mercury in retrograde like we’ve just had – never again. Let’s just kick Mercury and retrograde in their respective ASSES.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by eight-thirty, have an early and light breakfast, maybe visit a used CD store, have a call from the senior tech, hopefully pick up some packages, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite films based on true events? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, so happy to have finally had some good news – and a big thanks to all you dear readers – could not have gotten through this without all your excellent vibes and xylophones.