Make Me A Rock & Roll Song

I can't believe this trip is almost over, I've been having such a wonderful time. Saturday morning (yesterday), we slept in a little bit and then got up, got ready, and then went to Colony Records where I was apparently their star customer. I asked if they had How Now Dow Jones and Woman of the Year, and while they didn't, the guys that worked there were very excited that I was asking about them. I ended up getting the London Song & Dance (funny that they had it when I couldn't find it anywhere in London), the 1984 (?) revival of Zorba with Anthony Quinn, 70 Girls 70, Young Frankenstein, and the one I'm most excited about, a show by Frank Loesser called Greenwillow staring Anthony Perkins. I had never heard of this last one, but as soon as I saw it, I just had to have it. So, I spent a lot of money, but I think it will prove to have been worth it. We then went acros the street for lunch at Ruby Foo's and then went to the Jacobs Theatre for Rock 'n Roll. We were in the second row, on the aisle, which was really nice. We did have to crane our necks a little bit, but it wasn't uncomfortable and it was great to be able to see everyone up close. Initially, I wasn't sure what I thought of Rufus Sewell's performance, when he first comes in he seemed really out of it without that being part of the character, but once the show settled in, I got used to it. Sinead Cusack was just superb as was everyone else. It really didn't feel like 2 3/4 hours, it just flew by. It was a very engaging story. Afterwards we went back to the hotel to drop our stuff off, rested a bit, and then went to Aquavit for a terrific dinner. That is the best restaurant in New York. We then walked over to New World Stages, although we had to pick it up to a brisk trot at the end to make it there on time and saw Make Me A Song, which, along with Gypsy and Grey Gardens, was one of the best things I've seen this year. We were in the first row, again on the aisle, and I was thrilled to see that the adorable DB Bonds, who was so terrific as Freddy in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels in August, was one of the casr members. If I had put that together in my head earlier, I definitely would have invited him as well to meet at Starbucks, but since that didn't pan out anywyas, that's fine. Unfortunately though, up close, he's pretty expressive when he sings and sends a lot of spit off the stage. It was rather unnerving to watch, but it was a fantastic show. Even without anything from Spelling Bee, they had a terrific assortment of songs, and I realized during the Falsettos segment, that since the show is closing today, someone would be well advised to mount a revival of Falsettos with these four anchoring the production. It really was wonderful, I can't wait for the CD. Then it was back to the hotel to get packed and get to sleep. I was pleasantly surprised with everything that I bought that I was able to fit it all into my new computer case/carryon, which should make things much easier at the airport. So now, we're sitting in the Hilton lobby near City Center enjoying some coffee and waiting for The Receptionst to start. My companion just called the airline and our flight is still on time, so I'll see you back in Chicago.

Hello Darlings!

Once again, greetings from New York. I've been here about 24 hours now and am exhausted. The flight last night went very smoothly. My companion made it to the airport about the same time I did, so there was no repeat of March's fiasco, and while the previous four flights to LaGuardia before ours were delayed, ours was on time. It's a good thing we left last night, apparently they got about 6 inches of snow today, which could make Sunday's return interesting. Still I'd rather be stuck in New York than in Chicago.

As I mentioned earlier, we're at the Holiday Inn Midtown, and it's actually much nicer than I expected. The lobby has been redone and is not nearly as 60's looking as the pictures on their website. The renovations haven't made it up to our floor though, the hallway coming away from the elevator is pretty ratty, but the room is huge and nice. I was hoping to ditch my companion this morning and get to Starbucks to see who might be waiting for me, but try as I might, he wouldn't cooperate, so sorry guys, maybe next time I told him to go down and get breakfast while I got ready, I said I'd meet him there after he got ready, but there was no getting rid of him, even for just a few minutes to run the two blocks over there, meet whoever was there, and duck into the bathroom for some makeout and maybe over the jeans/under the shirt action. Instead, my companion and I made it to B&H Photo (quite an experience, it really was total anarchy inside like an adult FAO Scheartz) and got my carryon laptpop bag, then hit Strand Books and had lunch next door, walked to NYU only to find the bookstore closed, returned to the hotel to drop off our purchases, walk through Central Park to the Neue Gallery to check out their bookstore, then the Met's giftshop, then returned to the hotel to change, had a great dinner at Petrossian, and then made it to the Met for War & Peace. It was a great, although rather long, production, a terrific first Met experience. All that in about 14 hours, no wonder I'm exhausted. It's off to bed now and tomorrow will be Colony Records and then Rock 'n Roll, dinner at Aquavit, and Make Me A Song. Oh, for Christmas I got Hairspray (the DVD), The Pirate Queen, and the 1996 revival of The King & I. I also got a good gift certificate to Borders, so there will be more. Anyways, good night and I'll let you know about the shows tomorrow night.

Attend The Movie of Sweeney Todd

First of all, this is not being written on my new computer, but more on that later. The big news is, I saw Sweeney Saturday night and not only did it not suck, it was superb. Finally, a movie musical that ranks back up there with Chicago. There is very very little to complain about and a lot to love. Seeing the entire thing from start to finish, the singing styles as seen in commercials and previews makes so much more sense. Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett are played as ghostly figures outside of real life, yearning for alternate realities in which they each can be back with the person they love. So, their breathy, missed note style of singing works wonders. Like the best movie versions of musicals (think Cabaret, the Sound of Music, and Chicago), Sweeney succeeds by not just replicating the stage show onto the screen, which was Evita's and Phantom's (and to a lesser extent Hairspray's) downfall. This is a movie that stands on its own. The story is similar, with some cuts (no flagellation scene, shorter versions of most of the songs, particularly those at the end of the stage show's first act and beginning of the second act), some expansion (a phenomenally menacing scene inside Judge Turpin's house between the Judge and Anthony, more courtroom scenes), and some rearranging (the second act Joanna comes before God That's Good). Most importantly, there's one long story arc carrying the story along instead of a first act arc and a second act arc, which works well when there's an intermission, but can really slow down a movie. Everyone is perfect for their roles, but Alan Rickman and Jamie Campbell Bower are the true standouts as Turpin and Anthony. Dante Ferretti's cinematography really muted Tim Burton's worst instincts and the movie is a visual treat. Mot importantly, the music sounds fabulous. Jonathan Tunick did a superb job with the orchestrations (how delightfully unusual for a Broadway pro to actually have the resposibility for orchestrating a Bway score for the movies), and Paul Gemignani's music direction was masterful (there, something about the Gemignani family and terrific productions of Sweeney). Unlike most splashy musicals, there are no group numbers here. There's no Welcome to the Sixties, no Cell Block Tango, no Do Re Mi, no America, no Mein Herr. All the songs are solos or duets, which for the mos part is in keeping with the original score, but all occurances of The Ballad of Sweeney Todd have been cut as well as the chorus in God That's Good. However, this allows the movie to feel much more intimate and emotionally impacting. I imagine this is the chamber musical feel that Sondheim had originally intended and it certainly works. Go see it, and often, it's an experience not to be forgotten.

Now, as I mentioned, this is not being written on my new computer, but it's not as big of a problem as it could be. There was still drama on Friday waiting for it to finally arrive. The UPS guy usually comes between 10 and noon, so when it didn't arrive by noon, I began obsessively checking the tracking. Then, around 3:30, my boss said we could leave, which is the first time in history I've ever not wanted to leave early. So, I gave the receptionist my cell phone number and ran some errands in the area, and finally, around 4:15, just as I was giving up and about ready to head home, I got the call that it arrived. I picked it up and rushed home. First off, the bag I got with this is so much better than the one I returned to Circuit City. I was then afraid to actually open the computer, but the screen was not cracked and there were no obvious defects. It started up and initialized fine and so far is running well. However, when I attempted to install the driver for my cell phone modem, it failed, so I cannot connect to the internet (it's been too disgusting all weekend to take it to Starbucks or Borders to try the wireless). I sent an email to T-Mobile customer support asking if there's an updated driver for Vista, abd hopefully I'll hear from them before the trip to NY, otherwise I'll have to lug the old piece of crap with me. Other than that though, it works fine, although I cannot figure out how to turn on the built in camera, and I'm a little concerned that the built in card reader doesn't show up under My Compute, but since I don't really ever use memory cards, I'm not too concerned about that and am hoping that if I do insert a card it will then show up, like a USB flash drive. So, that's about it. I'm heading home tomorrow afternoon and hopefully will get some good showtune CD'S on Tuesday from someone in my family willing to lie to themselves. Happy Holidays, I'll see you in New York.

One Day More

Tomorrow's the day! For better or worse, Sweeney will finally be forever immortalized on the silver screen. Hopefully he'll get a better treatment than the Phantom did. The only advance word so far (other than the Golden Globe nominations, which, since they're not real awards, I'm not going to waste time talking about), was Entertainment Weekly's review last Friday. I'm not sure why they reviewed it last week, must have been a slow weekend, but they gave both the movie and the soundtrack CD a B+. At first glance that looks good, but remember, they gave Hairspray an A- and that wasn't the slam dunk I was expecting. Reading the review, they basically said it was good because it wasn't awful, which is hardly a ringing endorsement. Same with the CD. Both reviews also said that while Johnny Depp is pretty good (and seeing Logo's half hour preview special, he is starting to grow on me, his performances of My Friends and Pretty Women were actually good), Helena Bonham-Carter is terrible, and unfortunately, as the Lyrics 2002 production proved, a poor Mrs. Lovett can sink the whole show. Waching her in the aformentioned Logo special, she didn't sing one note in tune and her performance of The Worst Pies In London was downright anemic. She's got to do better with Nothing's Going To Harm You, or else the entire thing is a waste. I'm definitely not going tomorrow night, but I'm trying to decide whether to go Saturday and have all Sunday to myself to wrap presents and psych myself up for dealing with the family on Monday, or if I should spread out my weekend activities and go on Sunday like I did for Hairspray. Whatever I decide, I'm definitely going this weekend and you'll be the first to hear my thoughts.

Fortunately, if it is bad, there's hope that another Sondheim classic may be on it's way to the big screen, although given the developments with Nine, it's going to depend on how long the writer's strike drags on. It was announced today on playbill.com that there's interest in developing a movie version of Follies, which I think is terrific. It could actually be a better movie than it is a stage show. So far, nothing's gone beyond talks, but Sondheim's aboard so hopefully something will happen. Word is, he's also pushing for a movie version of Company. As long as they cast Raoul, it should work.

One week from tonight I hop on a plane for NYC and some great shows. Apparently I'm going just in time. Make Me A Song is closing on the 30th, the day after we see it. If that one had closed before we got there I was going to be pissed. The 30th is also last call for The Drowsy Chaperone, which is closing in something of a hurry, although reportedly in the black and it at least has a tour going on, even if London failed to fall in love. Even with the upcoming tour, I'm glad I got to see it on Broadway with most of the original cast, particularly Bob and Georgia who, according to reports, may or may not still be with the show by the time it gets here.

One show that will keep it's leading stars is Gypsy. Boyd Gaines and Laura Benanti signed on earlier this week to join Patti. That's going to be a stellar cast album and it'll be nice to hear it the way I remember.

Hopefully, the next post you read (hopefully a review of Sweeney) should finally be written on my new computer. Despite promising it would ship in 1-2 days, JR sat on it for almost a week, but finally shipped it yesterday and gave me a free upgrade to 3 day select shipping. I've been tracking it across the country on UPS's website and it's on track to arrive sometime tomorrow. I'll be so glad to get it, although I'm almost afraid I'll open it up and find the screen cracked or something. That loud scream out of nowhere you hear tomorrow will be me if there's even the slightest thing wrong with it.

Lastly, for some fun, check out the most fabulous thing ever: http://www.celebritycellars.com/index.php?cPath=32

Happy holidays!

Heaven

Well, it seems the drama is dying down, finally. I'm still going to be a little neurotic about my computer until it actually arrives, but hopefully that will happen this week. On Friday I got home and found the Xanadu cast recording waiting in the mailbox for me. I ran upstairs and popped it in and then took a look at the booklet. PS Classics definitely knows their customers. The booklet is quite thick and contains tons of color photos, so I get both Cheyenne and Curtis to drool over. The CD of course is great, but the capper is the plot synopsis in the booklet. I'm not going to ruin anything, but if you're trying to choose between buying the physical CD and downloading it, get the physical CD, the commentary is so worth the extra money. Next up will be Young Frankenstein, which I'll try to grab on my trip in 2 weeks, and Little Mermaid, which is slated for February. Speaking of the trip, I got some bad news on Saturday when I looked up playbill.com. Apparently since it's a holiday weekend, a lot of shows are doing Friday matinees, including Grease, Xanadu, and Hairspray, which pretty much wipes out all the guys I was hoping to meet. With a 2:30 show, I'm not sure they'll have the time for a late morning meeting. I guess that works out though since my companion may not be working after all that morning, and that would just make things a little awkward to have him around. However, Matt and Chad, I don't know if you've got rehearsals/an Altar Boyz matinee, but if you do happen to be free, I'll still be popping in to the 57th Street Starbucks around 8th Ave. Between 9:30 and 10, and if you still want to meet, that would make my trip. I thought briefly about trying to squeeze in the Young Frankenstein matinee, but then decided against it. We've got War & Peace that night, which would make for a very long day, and I'd rather do some shopping since we'll be all shows for the rest of the weekend. Plus, we've got an 8:30 flight on Thursday night, so if there's any sort of weather delay, we probably won't leave until sometime Friday and that would make me too neurotic. So, I'll just save it for next time. Lastly, I saw Die Frau Ohne Schatten today and it was fab. Debbie was terrific as was Jill Grove. It's a phenomenal, eye and ear popping production, a terrific early Christmas gift. Go see it before it's over.

Emergency

Everyone, say a quick prayer now for Liza. Apparently she was in Sweden yesterday for part of some all-star or pops-type holiday concert and collapsed. The headlines screamed that she collapsed on stage, but reading the articles, it's unclear if it happened on stage or just as she stepped off stage. Either way, whatever it is, it's serious enough that she's been rushed back to the states for medical care. Last March's trip may have proven to be well-timed after all. Here's hoping she makes another full recovery and brightens concert stages around the world for years to come.

After receiving this distressing news, I clicked over to JR for my daily check on the computers, and this time when I did the search for the Toshiba U305, it only pulled up the current ones, the upgraded Coming Soon one was nowhere to be found. All week I had been attempting to do research on it but when I entered the product number into Yahoo, it kept coming up with no results, whereas entering Toshiba U305-S7477 comes up with thousands of results. So, I have a feeling it was a custom job that got returned to the store and scanned into inventory and some lucky SOB got to buy it in the store. However, the S7477 was onsale for $100 off, which made it almost comprable to Circuit City's fradulent sale price, so I went ahead and ordered it and should have it by this time next week. I selected regular free shipping so that if there's any problem, that's one less fight I'll have. Fortunately, there's a 30 day return period, so if it's a total lemon when I get it, I can take it with to New York on the 28th and return it to the store. Plus, unlike Circuit City, they won't charge my card until it ships, so if they did make a mistake by offering it for sale, I won't have the drama of having to harass them to get my money back when they cancel the order, and this time I will keep the bag, it is the one I really wanted, I had just ordered the other one from Circuit City so that I'd get one at the same time as the computer and was actually a little annoyed that I had to get a 15.4" bag for a 13.3" computer, now it all works out. Anyways, start praying and I'll update as I find out more.

Good and Evil

And the cycle is continuing. Just as I thought the drama couldn't get any heavier after my last post yesterday afternoon, it did. I was on my way home, and, as any of my readers in the Chicago area know, the weather was terrible. It took forever, and then, as I turned left off of Lincoln onto eastbound Foster, as usual the traffic between Lincoln and Western was at a dead stop because they cannot coordinate those lights at all, even though they're like 10 feet apart. So I stopped and about 30 seconds later, flew forward in my seat as I heard a loud crash, then slammed back, with my head slamming the headrest. Given that I was already mulling over the situation with Circuit City in my head, I was not in a good mood. I looked in the rearview mirror, and there was a gigantic-ass SUV right behind me. I got out, and by some miracle, there was no damage to the back of my car, and no apparent damage to my person, also I was so charged up with adrenaline and rage that I could have been decapitated and would not have recognized it. I just did not need more fucking drama with my car than I have already had this year, and did not have the time to have to deal with the situation since I had a client in about 45 minutes and thanks to the horrid traffic was still nowhere near home. Unfortunately, I let this irritation blossom into anger and was not very gracious about the situation. However, the idiot driver did nothing to make his position any better. I just glared at him and then went back into the car and got some paper and a pen and came back out and started writing down his license plate number, and for some reason, that freaked him out. He kept saying, there's no damage, there's no damage, what's the big deal? The big deal was you hit me for now reason. Then he tried to say that his car had slid on ice, but he had made the same turn I had and I didn't slip on any ice. Maybe it was because I was in a car that was appropriately sized for driving around the city and not some gas-guzzling jumbo auto. SUV's are just evil, and this moron was apparently incapable of handling the car he bought to overcompensate for other issues. Now, I've had this car for almost 10 years, and after parallel parking throughout the city in these 10 year, the bumper has gotten pretty scratched up, and then he started freaking out about that. He's like, I think we should call the police because I don't want to end up getting punished for problems with your bumper that aren't my fault. Seriously, if I wanted to punish him, I can think of a lot more entertaining ways that don't involve the police. So, I told him he could make the report if he wanted, I just wanted his info just in case and he could have mine. That seemed to shut him up, although he then pulled out his phone and took pictures of my bumper, which I should have charged him royalties for. Oh well, missed opportunities, shoulda would coulda. He's just lucky that I was listening to Patti which kept me as marginally calm as I could be, and that I'm only planning on keeping the car for another 5 months or so (btw, she hit 100,000 on Friday, and I was so thrilled that the engine didn't fall out as soon as the odometer turned over), so he could have totally smashed in the entire rear of the car and I really wouldn't care other than the inconvenience at the moment of having to deal with him. So, if anyone in the Chicago area knows a John Khouri with a too-big Jeep SUV, tell him he's a retarded moron and needs to get a car that he can actually handle.

So, fuming about the entire day, I made it to the office and hopped onto playbill.com where I cycled again to an even better high. The lead headline was "Morrison to join Lincoln Center's South Pacific" and there was a gorgeous, new, full color photo of Matty Morrison. Clicking on the headline, the story stated that he has been cast as Lt. Cable. One can only hope the costumes will be as tattered and skimpy as they were in the 2001 national tour. I've already got 3 different soundtracks of the show (the original Mary Martin, the 1967 Florence Henderson, and the 1986 Kiri Te Kanawa/Mandy Patinkin/Jose Carreras), it looks like I'll be getting a fourth. Since the show is opening in February, I'm assuming Matthew should be in NY by the end of the month for rehearsals, so if you happen to be free on the 28th Mr. Morrison, please feel free to meet me at the 57th street Starbucks between 7th and 8th Aves around 9 or 9:30. Now with Chorus Line, Little Mermaid, Patti's Gypsy (and hopefully the lead of South Pacific won't pose the obstacle that LaChanze did at this year's Tony's; as much as I loved Kerry Butler, the role of Nellie is probably the only serious competition for Patti and I can see the retarded voters again denying Patti to reward a far less deserving performer for a not-terrible job) and Young Frankenstein, I'll have plenty of shows to go back for next spring.

So then, feeling a nice glow (and to keep that glow, I'd love to get that new picture of Matt silk screened onto my bedspread), I ordered the Xanadu cast recording and got an email this morning that it has been shipped.

Lastly, in a sign that hopefully this odd bi-polar episode is over (and no, thanks for you're concern, I'm not bi-polar or otherwise crazy, it's been the past 10 days that have been cycling between highs and lows, each one getting more intense), when I looged into my bank this morning, I finally had a refund from Circuit City for the computer. However, they only credited the amount of the computer and the associated tax, they did not refund any portion of the shipping they charged. The computer accounted for about 95% of the subtotal, I would have expected them to at a minimum credit back 95% of the shipping just do to the decent thing. Fortunately, after having dropped the complaints to the Virginia Department of Consumer Affairs and the Illinois Attorney General in the mail as I was walking to my office last night, I had decided to take things into my own hands and go ahead and return the bag to the store today. At lunch, I headed to the nearest Circuit City, and I do feel bad for the people that worked there, but it was the closest one to me, and with Circuit City's policy of being able to return online purchases at a store, that just made them collateral damage in my dispute. I had to talk to a few people, but finally got the manager who processed the refund on just the bag, and then did a petty cash withdrawal and gave me a cash refund for the shipping. I was a little worried he was going to try to give me a store credit or a gift card which I was not going to take because I'm never shopping with them (and it really sucks to have lost both Circuit City and the Banana in the same year, but that's their fault, not mine, and it will ultimately be their loss, I've already found replacements for the Banana, I'm sure I'll do the same for Circuit City), but I think he could tell how pissed off I was, and he did the right thing. I am so glad to be fucking done with this drama. Now of course I need to actually get a computer, but I'm just going to wait until JR gets its hands on the upgraded Toshiba U305 and I'll order that then and just continue to deal with my piece o crap Gateway while I save up some more money. That was kind of a large charge to make this time of year anyways. So, here's to a much more even keel for the rest of the year. No more store drama, no car drama, no work drama, only on-stage drama.

A Bi-Polar Week

I know it's been a while since my last post, celebrating the return of Broadway shows, but it has been quite a hectic week and a half or so. To start with, on Friday, November 30th, I did my daily check-in of playbill.com and saw a headline that the Urinetown dispute between the Broadway and Chicago producers that I mentioned in my very first posting, has been settled. I read the story, and for the most part was satisfied with the outcome, except the fact that the Chicago producers paid the Broadway producers extra money to settle the dispute. They absolutely should not have had to do that, that was extortion by the Broadway producing team. There was no proof of wrong-doing, and the show is set in a public urinal, there isn't a lot of potential to do the set differently, the Chicago team did the best they could with the material. However, I was glad that the Chicago team did get it on the record that the production contained their original material, and I think both sides are happy that the case didn't go to court. Neither side would have wanted to risk an adverse judgement. A judgement for the New York producers would have shut down regional theatre across the country out of fears of trigging a lawsuit every time they put on a show that originated on Broadway (and that's most shows), and a judgement for the Chicago team could have encouraged New York producers not to license new shows for regional productions, which would have cut down on the amount of shows available for regional theatres to produce. So, for the most part, I think it worked out well, although the Ohio suit is still pending. Stay tuned, this may not be over yet. . .

After reading this story, I engaged in my daily post-Thanksigiving ritual of visiting certain websites and pricing the new laptop computer I want to buy. Several years ago I bought a Gateway laptop, and it has been nothing but a Piece O' Crap. It is finally close to being paid off, and I have started looking at options for a new one. I want a Toshiba U305-S7477. It is small (13.3"), light (4.5 lbs), fast (2.0 GHz with an Intel processor, 2 GB L2 cache, upgradable memory to 4GB), has a large hard drive (200 GB, although the speed is only 4200, but since I don't game or use multiple applications at one time, I'm not too concerned), and has wireless N and bluetooth capabilities. It is the only machine that has everything I want. Every other laptop on the market, include other Toshiba models has some sort of trade-off. There are 4 computers currently in Toshiba's U305 line, and the S7477 is the top of the line, which means that most stores only make it available online, and some stores, such as CompUSA, Best Buy, and Staples do not carry it at all, they only carry lower models. I found several warehouses in New York that have it (BH Photo Video, where I bought my mp3 player and had a good experience, JR, and Data Vision), but even with my good BH experience, buying a computer is a little different. Tiger Direct also has it, but again, I'm a little wary buying a computer from a store that does not accept returns and instead instructs you to contact the manufacturer. Circuit City has it, but has always had the most expensive price, so I've been leaning towards JR, which has the lowest price out of the New York warehouses, so if it ends up tanking, I'm out the least amount of money. However, on Friday, November 30, Circuit City put the computer on sale for $200 off, making it the cheapest available. I jumped on it and ordered it and a carrying case (the case was for computers 15.4" and up, Circuit City didn't have much of a choice of bags for 13.3" units, but I didn't mind since it was nice and I was getting the computer for so cheap). As they processed the order, they said both items were avilable, however since the computer was only available online, I had to have it shipped, I couldn't do the order online and pick up in the store option. I selected the 3 day shipping so I could get it as quickly as possible and finished the order. I immediately got an email stating that both items were immediately available and would ship by Monday, December 3 (the day after my birthday, a very nice present). That night, I got an email stating that the bag had shipped, and on Monday, it arrived. However, Monday night came and went without any email stating the computer had shipped, and by Tuesday afternoon I was starting to get a bad feeling. Sure enough, at 9:20 pm Tuesday night, I got an email from Circuit City stating that after further review, the computer was no longer available and the order was cancelled. Furious, I called their 1-800 number to complain about being told that it was avilable when I bought it only to get a message 3 days later that it wasn't available, and to arrange to return the carrying case, which was now useless, and demand that they refund the shipping on it since it should have been obvious I was ordering it to go with the computer and even a brain-dead monkey should have known that if the computer wasn't available, they should have at least called me to ask before shipping the bag. Well, their call center does not sound like it is located anywhere on the American continent and I had the worst time getting anyone to understand me. I was transferred to numerous wrong people and eventually had to end the call and start over. This time, the woman kept me on the line to help me, but couldn't give me any more information other than the computer was no longer available (which didn't really satisfy my demand to know why it was no longer available), I could return the bag to any Circuit City store but the shipping was non-refundable, and I could expect a refund on the computer in 3-5 days. So, the next morning when I got to work I went to their site and sent them a vicious email, demanding the same things I asked for on the phone. As of today, I have not received even an acknowledgement that they got the email and are looking into the issues, much less an email resolving the issues. I then went to my credit card's website and logged in and saw that they had not yet issued a refund. I wanted to get the refund first before ordering the computer from JR so that if the JR order went bad, I wouldn't be fighting two bogus charges at the same time. After a couple hours, I whipped off another email (I had saved the text in a Word file for my records) and added a demand for an immediate refund. Still, as of today, no reply. Over the course of the day and all day Thursday, I periodically sent copies of the email, still with no reply as of today. So, on Friday, I wrote them a physical letter and mailed it to their corporate headquarters, and sent a letter to my credit card company disputing the charge for the computer and it's share of the shipping and tax. Also, for fun, I looked up the computer, and it was again listed as available for sale at $200 off, and I mentioned this in the letter. Tomorrow I will be taking the bag back to Circuit City and I'll let you know how I do getting a refund on the shipping from them. I'm expecting quite a fight. So, today, Monday morning, I logged into my credit card website and still no refund. So, I called their 1-800 number again, and again spoke to some guy obviously located on the Indian subcontinent, and when I gave him the order number, he first said "The item is in transit." I asked for a tracking number since it had not yet arrived and he put me on hold and then came back and stated "I'm sorry, the item has been cancelled." Obviously there is something wrong with their system and that's what I'm afraid of, that there's some glitch that caused their system to cancel the order but not to communicate it to their billing department and they're going to think that I got it and I'm going to have to keep fighting. He then asked when I cancelled the order, and I almost blew my lid. I remained calm as best I could and reminded him that they cancelled the order on Tuesday, I had nothing to do with it. He then said I should get a refund 3-5 days from the day the order was cancelled. I pointed out that today made 6 days since they cancelled it and he put me on hold again while he went to research it. He then came back and said something really fast that I couldn't understand, and then said it could take up to another 6 days to get the refund. I said something to the effect that he must be shitting me, and he backpeddled a bit, but only obviously to tell me what he thought I wanted to hear, and he said if I didn't see it posted back to my credit card tomorrow to call them back, wished me happy holidays, and hung up. So, I went to the Virgina (where their corporate headquarters are related) Department of Consumer Affairs' website and the Illinois Attorney General's website and downloaded complaint forms which I have filled out and made more copies of the order confirmation and order cancellation emails and attached. As soon as I get home, those will go into envelopes and get dropped in the mail as I walk to my office to meet with my private practice client tonight. I also went to the FTC's website and filled out their online complaint form but have not yet heard anything from them. We are going to nip this in the bud now, I'm not waiting until after the new year to get my fucking money back. However, the bit of good news out of all of this is that I went to JR's website today and saw that Toshiba is about to introduce an upgraded version of the U305, fixing even the minor quibbles I had, boosting it to 2.1 GHz, 3 MB L2 Cache, and a 250 GB hard drive with a speed of 5300, while only increasing the weight by about 2 ounces). So, I'm going to wait until that comes on the market and then go ahead and buy that. So, as long as I get my money back, this should all end well.

As I mentioned, Sunday was my birthday. I was going to celebrate by meeting my family in Oakbrook Saturday night to have dinner at Braxton's. Well, Friday night Tom Skilling came on TV and forecast a crippling ice storm for the entire weekend. About 15 minutes later my phone rang, and as I expected, it was my mom asking if we could do it the next weekend, which was my one completely unscheduled weekend between now and the end of January. Still, I didn't want to drive in an ice storm, still having PTSD flashbacks to the night before Thanksgiving in 2004, so I agreed, and I'm glad I did. It was a disgusting weekend, but it was nice to spend my birthday lounging in my pajamas watching episode after episode of Melrose Place Season 3.

Earlier in the week, on Thursday, my companion finally got serious about our travel plans to New York and booked our plane tickets. I hopped onto playbill.com to log into their discounts, and the lead story was "Off-Broadway's Frankenstein to close December 9." Boy did that kill my buzz like nothing else. The one show I wanted to see. I knew I should have hopped on a plane during the strike. So, we are going to see War & Peace at the Met on Friday December 28, Rock n Roll on Saturday December 9 at 2, Make Me A Song on the 9th at 9, and The Receptionist on Sunday at 2, and then head back to the airport (although there was more drama ordering the Receptionist tickets, but the City Center box office staff was really great helping me get it straightened out, so we're back on for it). However, pay attention Lance, Cheyenne, Max, Jonathon, Chad, and Curtis (that's Bass, Jackson, Crumm, Groff, Dourett, and Holbrook), the Crowne Plaza was booked, so I will be at the Midtown Holiday Inn on 57th between 8th and 9th (or Amsterdam and Columbus depending on if you're standing on the north or south side of 57th), so we should plan to meet at the 57th St. Starbucks Friday morning. I've got one urgent errand to run to BH Photo, which closes at 1 pm on Friday and remains closed on Saturday and Sunday (I want to get a computer case that doubles as an airplane carryon for my cruise and future trips to Europe, but I want to get a look at it first instead of just ordering it online and then hating it and having to deal with the hassle of sending it back). So, let's meet Friday morning and either have some quick fun or you can accompany me on my trip and we can have some quick fun at your place or head back to the Holiday Inn for some fun. It's all up to you, and if more than one of you shows up, you don't have to fight over me, I'm sure we can figure out something to do together :)

So, after being ecstatic, then disappointment, then happy again about New York, and ecstatic, then disappointed, and now furious about the computer situation, we got to Saturday night. There were rumblings from Mr. Skilling about another ice storm, but they held off and I met my family at Braxton's for a great dinner and belated birthday celebration. My parents gave me Philip Glass's Early Keyboard Music CD which I've been trying to track down, and Valery Gergiev's recording of War & Peace, which I'm listening too right now and loving, can't wait to see it, although we're in row Z, so I'm hoping that's in the middle of the auditorium with ZZ in the back and not the very last row with ZZ in the middle. Then on the way home, I stopped at the Oakbrook Borders to use a Birthday coupon they had sent me for 25% off, and picked up Lovemusik. I had done a search earlier in the day, and they were the only store in the Chicagoland area to have it in stock, so it was very fortunate that my parents wanted to meet there. I haven't listened to it yet b/c War & Peace has taken up my entire afternoon, and I'm not going to finish it in the next 10 minutes before I leave work, but I'll get to it tomorrow.

Lastly, speaking of cast recordings, tomorrow is X day! Ghostlight Records will be officially selling the Xanadu recording from their website and shipping it out in time for Christmas. It won't be in stores or on Amazon or other online retailers until January 8, but you know what site I'm heading to tomorrow. If Cheyenne's out of town while I'm on my trip (and the fear of Holiday Vacations is why I didn't go for Young Frankenstein this time, I don't want to risk Megan being gone since she's the biggest reason why I want to see it. My companion saw Dirty Rotten Scoundrels in mid-December and both Joanna and John were out, so I don't want to risk it), I'll still have his voice and hopefully some pictures (and hopefully he'll get better pictures than Max got in the Grease CD) to keep me warm.