by rustedrobot | Oct 30, 2006 | Random
- So last night I’m flipping channels and I come across a snippet of the CBS show, Cold Case. You know, the one with the blonde who looks like she’s from Mars who solves old murder mysteries? Lots of people seem to think she’s good looking, but I think she looks like a combination of that Versace woman and a duck. Mean-spiritedness aside, I’m flipping through and I stop here because they’ve got song lyrics written on a chalk board that they are trying to analyze, then one of the other cops says that the Elton John song “Daniel” was originally written with an extra verse and that nobody really knows that the song is really about Vietnam. Interesting if it’s true.
- Last night as I microwaved some frozen Whole Foods corn I realized that I still don’t like to use rounded-off microwave times. You know how everybody puts something in for 1:00 exactly or :30 seconds exactly? Why do people do that? I remember as far back as high school my dad poking fun at me because I put stuff for 1:13. Or 2:52. I always pick random numbers. I have no idea why – maybe it’s because I’m totally insane.
- I am still waiting for the Bruins to prove it to me.
- I couldn’t help but laugh when I opened the Globe this morning to find out that Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell III is coming out this week! That’s right, THREE! Meaning there was actually a TWO! What? I also happened to catch “the making of” the original Bat Out of Hell album on VH1-Classic over the weekend, an album that got plenty of airplay from my parents while growing up. I’m so-so on that album – I do think “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad” is a damn great song, but “Paradise By The Dashboard Light” is bombastic, ridiculous and overplayed. The documentary was actually great, though. Like it or not, the Loaf worked hard.
- Saturday Night Live’s best single performance of the season was the great Maya Rudolph portraying a local St. Louis singer who wins the opportunity to sing the national anthem at the World Series. I was absolutely rolling. I wish YouTube or NBC.com would put that up for people to see. Beck was the musical guest and the second song was spectacular. Beck was standing with a guitar while the rest of the band sat at a dinner table and played percussion using forks, spoons, knifes, plates and teacups – all while a puppet show of the entire band mimics what the real band was doing. I’m not Beck’s biggest fan, but this was terrific. I’m sure this will be up on the web at some point soon. Has to be seen.
Last 10:
U2 – Wild Honey
Rolling Stones – Waiting On A Friend
Pete Droge – Hardest Thing To Do
Belle & Sebastian – If She Wants Me
Johnny Cash – Cocaine Blues
Built to Spill – Goin’ Against Your Mind
The Cars – Double Life
Elliot Smith – Ballad of Big Nothing
The Decemberists – Eli, The Ballad Boy
The Figments – Provide, Provide
by rustedrobot | Oct 27, 2006 | Random
As our bathroom renovation finishes up, I should share a story about one particular event that reaffirmed my faith in contractors and customer service.
Before I get to that, though, I should add that we purposefully made sure to completely avoid Home Depot during this project. We bought all of our materials through local merchants. I’m not some kind of crazy left-winger who boycotts retail stores or anything, either (although I will not shop at Wal-Mart. Ever). To the best of my knowledge, Home Depot doesn’t exploit underage children in third world countries or anything. My problem with Home Depot resides solely in two camps: their horrendous customer service and the fact that it’s a 20 minute ride vs. a 3 minute ride to the local, family-owned place.
Look no further than our kitchen renovation a couple of years ago when Steph and I went to Home Depot in Natick, MA to shop for kitchen fixtures. In examining a refrigerator we liked, we summoned an employee and asked a couple of questions and then we asked if we could see the back of the unit. His reply: “no.” Simple as that. He didn’t even give a reason and was unfriendly about it. It’s safe to say we will never forget that moment in our entire lives. We’ve had quite a few other horrifying experiences with their people, but that one sticks out.
Now, let’s swing the pendulum the other way. Since we have a pretty old house, whenever we do any kind of renovation, we have to bring the electricity up to code. Our old bathroom didn’t even have an outlet in it, so the only thing in there was an overhead fan and a mirror/light unit on the wall. The electrician’s job for this renovation was pretty simple and quick: add an outlet, add a light to the ceiling, remove the old mirror/light unit and replace it with two wall lights. All told, it took two visits, each taking about two hours of their time.
But here’s the kicker: on the first visit, they said they would be at our house by 8am. We had used them before and they were usually spot-on in terms of punctuality. However, it got to be 9am so I called and in a very friendly manner, checked in with them. They said they had me on the schedule for 1pm. Not a problem for me, really, since I have the option to work at home, so I just told them to come at 1pm.
At about 10:30 – an hour-and-a-half after I spoke with them – came a knock on my door. Standing on my front step is the electrician. Not the one who’s coming at 1pm, though. It’s the owner of the company and he’s begging for my forgiveness and apologizing profusely because of the scheduling error, saying they never like to inconvienence their customers like that and he wanted to personally come and apologize for it. He then came upstairs and took a look at the job and inspected the electrical box downstairs. Now that is service!
A few weeks later, I called to schedule the second part of the job (the finish) and had to leave a message. A few hours later I got a call back from the owner to schedule the job. Then he told me that he was in Disneyworld with his kids, but he wanted to get back to me quickly! How sad is it that this kind of customer service is now the exception to the norm these days?
So, kudos to Harland Electric. You’ve earned yourselves a customer for life.
by rustedrobot | Oct 26, 2006 | News
Well, it’s official. The world has gone to shit.
by rustedrobot | Oct 25, 2006 | Memories
Stephanie likes to kid around that I’m a hypochondriac (wait – is she kidding?). The definition:
“A person with hypochondria is preoccupied with physical health and body. The diagnosis is used when a person for at least 6 months believes, fears or is convinced that he has a serious disease despite medical reassurance. This fear of disease or preoccupation with symptoms is unpleasant, interferes with the patient’s daily life in a negative way and leads to medical examinations and/or treatment. The patient can only temporarily accept assurance that there is no physical explanation to his symptoms.”
I don’t know. Some of this is probably true, but my case is not nearly as dramatic as the definition. For example, it doesn’t really interfere with my daily life and I’m not a serial visitor to the doctor. Once-a-year physicals are plenty. That said, I readily admit that I’m prone to believing that I might have a serious disease if I get, say, a headache (brain tumor). Or a stomach ache (appendicicits). Always been that way and the two recent deaths of people I know don’t help things. Even back in high school, when I played on a team each autumn made up of various local high school players, I remember Dan McNabb, a funny guy who played for St. Bernard’s and Joe Lisio, who played for North Middlesex, asking me before every game how my heart was because I had told them previously that I had some pain in my left shoulder – sometimes a symptom of heart attack. I bet if I saw McNabb today he’d ask me how my heart is. I wonder what those guys are up to these days…..
My grandfather was much worse than I was with this stuff. I don’t know specific details, but I do believe he’d go to the hospital on occasion and insist he was ill or suffering and needed surgery. They would test him, turn him around and send him home with no diagnosed problems. Now that is what I call “interfering with daily life!” And god forbid you ever asked him how he was doing! You’d get a fairly detailed diatribe, complete with information that was totally unnecessary. If I ever do that to anyone, stab me with a fork.
How do you handle such things?
by rustedrobot | Oct 24, 2006 | Media, Music
I recently upgraded my ITunes player to a newer version and after a couple of weeks, realized that I hadn’t been hearing certain music. It didn’t take long to put two and two together: for some odd reason, when the upgrade occured, it removed all artists from my library that started with the letters “Be.” The Beastie Boys, Beck, The Beatles, The Beau Brummels, Belle & Sebastian, Ben Folds Five, Ben Kweller, Beachwood Sparks…..all gone. Had to re-rip. Odd.
Which reminds me of a brief story that Frank Padellaro from King Radio told me back in the late 1990’s. Apparantly the Beau Brummels, a 1960s rock band, gave themselves that name because they thought it would be advantageous for them to be filed directly next to The Beatles in the record bins. With more people looking at Beatles records, there was more of a chance they’d look at the Beau Brummels record and maybe give it a shot. Clever! About a week later, it dawned on me that Frank might have named the band King Radio because he wanted to be filed next to The Kinks. While never confirming it, he certainly didn’t deny it!
Which begs the question: if you had a band of your own, which band would you want to be filed next to and what would it be called?