Lou Pickney's Online Commentary
Revival
Wednesday
June 23, 2004
"Oh, you think so, doctor?"
Colonel James in Boogie Nights
This morning I performed my daily ritual of calling my home number with my cell phone, hoping on some outside chance that today would be the day that my mobile phone service would kick back in. Unlike the past several days, I saw the red light on my home phone go off, accompanied soon after by the familiar ring of an incoming call. Presto. I was in.
So, now at long last, I'm on board with SprintPCS (or is it just Sprint -- I'm not quite sure). Being without a cell phone made me realize just how much I relied on having one. I mean, I knew that it was an important thing to have (I knew that even before I ever owned one, such as during Guavaween 2001). Actually, it was because of not being able to meet up with Amy Barnett at Guavaween '01 that I finally said enough was enough and ponied up the cash to buy a cell phone. And I haven't looked back since then.
I've been remiss in not mentioning my congrats to Jamie Anderson, who's escaping from Executive Meddler hell at Channel 10 to become a high school teacher in Maine. I'm happy for him, as that's something he wants to do. Quality of life should be nice, too. Though he tells me that he won't have cell phone service up where he lives. I didn't realize that there were places in the U.S. in 2004 where you have people living (i.e. I'm not talking New Mexico deserts or empty Wyoming plains) where there isn't cell phone coverage. Hmmm.
Here's a get well soon wish to my co-worker Tony Capers, who had to be rushed to the hospital last night after collapsing due to him having TWO kidney stones. Earlier in the day he had been complaining about being in pain, and he was asking questions about having kidney stones. I cavalierly told him that if he really had kidney stones, he wouldn't be able to have a normal conversation with us but instead would be doubled over in agony. Oops. I guess that's why I'm not a physician, eh?
I watched the introductory show on Comedy Central last night for the forthcoming "The Graham Norton Effect" show. He's a British talk show host who, from what I saw in the half hour preview show, is pretty damn funny. They had some A-list U.S. stars on the British version of his show (I presume from the build-up that they're going to be doing an American version, though it could be a simple port-over of his UK show, which really would be fine by me). His debut show is tomorrow at 10 PM Eastern on Comedy Central -- check it out if you get a chance.
My Mom sent me an e-mail about the Simon & Garfunkel concert that she went to last night:
Your dad and I went to Gaylord for the concert and it was so fabulous! It was supposed to start at 8:00 but nothing happened until 8:30. The Everly Brothers had 3 songs (one of which they did with S & G), but other than that for 2 solid hours they performed all their old hits. We were about 2 miles away from the stage on the floor (not very good seats for the $210 the 2 tickets cost us) but there were huge monitors with close-ups which made it work great. Both Simon and Garfunkel are 62 years old but their voices have held up well. The Tennessean said that it was a "mostly over 40s crowd" and I'd say that was right. Everyone seemed to be like me in their appreciation of the music too. I knew all the words to all the songs and I never get tired of them.
This is billed as a good-bye tour so I doubt that I'll ever have this opportunity again. But, even though this was something I wanted to see for 40 years, I wasn't at all disappointed. Your dad said I was almost like a teenager last night. I hope I didn't embarrass him!
I'm glad my Mom got to see them in concert, since they're her favorite band of all time and all. And as for this being a farewell tour... well given their age it probably is, though if they're pulling $210 for two far-away floor seats, the goodbye can always be extended (a la KISS).
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