Well, dear readers, this week is flying by, like a gazelle gone viral. What is this damn phenomenon of going viral? Every day on Facebook there are new bogus things designed to get you to “share” them so they’ll go viral. Who gives a flying Wallenda? Either I’m too old to understand the point or I understand the point all too well – I believe it’s the latter rather than the former, frankly. The latest malarkey going around is hilarious – it begins with something like “This is going to be the longest post I’ve ever written” and it continues with lots of touchy-feely New Age goo and at the end you’re asked to cut and paste it into your timeline (not “share”) and people DO it, assuming that the person who posted it actually wrote it. I think the person who actually wrote it is a comedy writer who is sitting back watching people do is bidding without a thought. And then there are the “shocking” stories that go viral on Facebook – one recent one about a girl who’d been bitten by pit bulls and had her face scarred being asked to leave a Kentucky Fried Chicken venue because her face was scaring other diners. Oh, the outrage. Oh, the threats and the hurling of vile epithets. Oh, the consternation of Nancy Grace. Oh, the $135,000 raised via an online funding place. Only now it seems that it wasn’t actually true because they’ve viewed the surveillance tapes and these people were never there on the date they said they were. There is a lot of back-peddling now and KFC has hired an outside investigator to find the truth. It happened with some waitress, too – something went viral and then everyone found out it simply was a big old lie. So, we then get more outrage, more threats, more hurling of vile epithets from the folks who were duped. People just seem to lose their brains on Facebook. And when you call these people out on it, they get infuriated. Oh, well. Every time I see some outrageous photo of some outrageous deed it takes me all of four seconds to find out it’s a hoax. But others would simply rather have a knee-jerk reaction and post it, rather than actually find out if it’s true or not. It’s actually shocking and it’s why the only thing I really do on Facebook is to promote projects and occasionally post a photo or two. What I don’t do is take anything I see on Facebook seriously. End of rant.
Yesterday, I think I got seven hours of sleep. I just haven’t been able to fall asleep until three or four in the morning – it’s really getting to me and it has to stop. Once up, I answered e-mails, read through the attorney letter and made some notes, then I went to hear a little of the new 5.1 track being created for the Blu-ray of Holiday in Spain/Scent of Mystery. That was fun. After that, I came home, the helper came by to begin preparing the humungous number of invoices for It’s a Wonderful Life. After that I had a long telephonic conversation with the attorney and we made some changes and finessed the letter, which he will now send out this morning. And now, LACC will have to deal with him and not me. It would have been so much easier had they just taken the easy out we gave them. We’ll see what happens, but I do believe we are prepared to further if necessary. When you finally hear the tale, you will understand everything. After all that, I ate two tuna sandwiches and sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched three motion pictures on Netflix, all pretty bad. The first was entitled Fire With Fire, another bomb and quick to video title, even though Bruce Willis is in it. It was just a by the numbers affair, not terrible, but close. Then I watched another by the numbers thing called The Hit List, starring Cuba Gooding, Jr. Another startlingly silly film and another direct to video release. And finally I watched a motion picture entitled Olympus Has Fallen, a kind of Die Hard at the White House thing that was simply preposterous in every way. It stars Gerard Butler and other people, but the plot mechanics are so horrible as to defy credulity. It’s like the writers didn’t care a whit about logic or reality, just blowing things up. It did move along, but the most preposterous thing about the film is the studio’s trying to tell us it actually make $90 million dollars. Just looking at the grosses will tell you how impossible that is. A film like this has no legs whatsoever and usually drops fifty to sixty percent in its second week and more by its third. Not this one. Uh huh. It beat out the other movie that came out six months later, White House Down, which is the same film but with different people.
After that, I did some writing, ate some candy bites and played on the computer a little.
Today, the early morning work session got pushed to the afternoon, so I can try to sleep in, which will be lovely. Then we have the work session, I’ll eat something light but amusing and then I am having something I haven’t had in probably six years – a massage. It will be done by the daughter of my friend Esther, who passed away quite some time ago. I was like a surrogate daddy to her three kids through most of the 1980s. I hadn’t seen her youngest until a couple of weeks ago, when she came to the Richard Sherman event. We chatted and she told me she’s a professional masseuse, so I booked her immediately. I’m so in need of this it’s not even funny, so what a treat it will be.
The rest of the week is meetings and meals and seeing a couple of shows, plus writing two sets of liner notes so we can get our next two releases ready.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, eat, have a work session, pick up packages, and have a massage. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your Facebook likes and Facebook pet peeves? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I shall hopefully get the beauty sleep I need, after which I shall immediately go viral.