John Williams, The Master, To Score Star Wars VII

Interview with John Williams:


Williams' music made the Star Wars films come alive.  Star Wars fans have something to rejoice about. John Williams, the world famous and extremely successful composer who worked on the first six Star Wars films, has agreed to work on the seventh installment in the Star Wars franchise.

Williams has worked on a lot of big budget movies that you’ve probably seen, includingJaws, Indiana Jones, and E.T.! He’s won a Grammy and an Oscar, and has been a majorStar Wars fan since he worked on the first movie. Abrams has wanted him to come back since the seventh movie was announced, and he’s publicly got his wish.

The seventh movie is set to come out in 2015, with the eighth and ninth installments following shortly thereafter. In case you didn’t know, J.J. Abrams will be directing the movies and Michael Arndt, the man who brought us Toy Story 3 and Little Miss Sunshine, is writing the script. Mark Hamill (Luke), Cassie Fisher (Leia) and Harrison Ford (Han) will be reprising their roles as older versions of their characters in the new film.

Hope I get excited, rather than depressed to see the "older" versions reprising their original roles; It's been almost 40 years, after all.  And aside from Ford, time hasn't been kind to the other two. Just sayin'.

And so it goes.

Stormy Weather Ruins an Evening.

Yesterday began with overcast skies
and a 60% chance of Thunder Bumpers by mid-day.  This news didn't deter the boss from opening the huge front doors to give the impression of outdoor dining.  I warned them, but that fell on deaf ears.

Overcast means fewer people venture to the beach in the morning and wait to see how the day unfolds.  It was to get worse; far worse.

We had a half hour wait-list by noontime and there was no rain.  The place was packed and suddenly at around 2 pm, thunder rolled, lightning flashed and torrents of rain sent the locosguys scrambling to close those damned front doors - crawling over customers nearby to get them closed before total chaos - the screaming had already begun.  I mean, people, you are at the beach, you're going to get wet anyway.

I've never seen those two move so fast and all was closed and dry within a few minutes. By the time the rain hit I had already served 150 customers and now more were spilling through the doors for shelter, food and drink.

Near the end of my shift there was a let-up of the wind and rain, so  I made a dash for home. I wouldn't have been very wet upon arrival if some Pennsylvania Prick hadn't gone out of his way to hit a deep puddle head on and drench me up to my shirt collar.

As I got closer to home the rain and wind kicked up again with more thunder and lightning; by this time I didn't care anymore.

After shedding my drenched work drag and taking a shower, I prepared a festive cocktail and set about prepping supper.  At about 5 PM I heard a loud POP and my lights flickered.  I didn't lose power.  I didn't know it at the time, but the restaurant went dark at that moment. The place was booked:  a sold out evening, but it wasn't to be. Calls and emails were sent to reservation holders telling them that without power there would be no restaurant, though they held on til 7:30, then decided it was best to shutdown.

Supper prep was done here, the food was cooking when, at 6:45  pm, my world was plunged into darkness.  Turned off, or unplugged the big appliances, grabbed the Kindle and went to bed.  No WiFi, but that didn't matter, the book I'm reading is saved on the Kindle, not the Cloud.

There seemed to be no let up in the many storms passing through.  It was after 9 when I chose to turn off the weather radio and turn in for the night.  No AC, so I opened the windows before turning in. Of course, no fans to circulate the air.  My evening meal was a tossed salad made prior to the lights going out.  Hey!  Better than nothing.

The power was restored around 10:30 pm, but I hardly noticed until the air became a bit cooler and woke me up. Closed the windows and went back to sleep.

Mind you, I had no idea of the dramatic happenings at the restaurant, so I walked to work as usual this morning to find hand-written signs "We are closed for the evening - there is no electrical power  -  we are sorry for the inconvenience." I set about my usual tasks but found more than a dozen circuit breakers that had been tripped.

There was a knock at the door and when I opened it 8 kitchen staff filed in.  They were told to get in early to fix any mess, get all the dishes washed, replenish supplies and prepare for a very long day.  They were fine.  I made coffee for everyone, which was deeply appreciated and went about my business taking care of my usual tasks before the waitstaff arrived.

When the locosguys made the scene they were upset that they lost about $15K yesterday, (we were totally booked for the night.)  but pleased that the outage and restoration had done no damage to the walk-ins and freezer.  That would have been a far worse nightmare and could have shut us down for days.

We related our individual stories and timeline of events and that was that.  We were off and running for this new day - which while being quite humid - we were all ready to tackle and make up for last night's disaster.

We did OK, it turned out to be a fine beach day, so we didn't begin to get busy until about 2 pm when folks came in from the beach and joined us for cocktails and late lunch.  Reservations cancelled last night were re-booked for tonight.  Aside from greeting and seating diners, the phone rang constantly with idiots asking if we would be open tonight.  Yes, I know.  The stoopid burns.

Thirty One Days til Labor Day...

And so it goes.

Silent Screen Star Colleen Moore's Doll House/Castle

I had only heard rumors about her obsession with doll houses and dolls of all kinds, but after all, her first haircut for the movies was taken from a Japanese cupie-doll.  She sported the first bangs of the 20s in flapper movies. During her career she worked with all the greats.

"As one of the most popular actresses of her day, the star of 1934’s The Scarlet Letter had the resources to enlist top talent to produce her miniature dream home.The doll house even had an actual architect, who said ‘the architecture must have no sense of reality. We must invent a structure that is everybody's conception of an enchanted castle.’"

This article and the photos just blew me away.  Go and enjoy the story and all the wonderful pictures  and a video HERE

And so it goes.
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T. G. I. (My) F.

Made it through another one, only just, and ran out of the place at shift's end - without an AS cocktail.  Our lunches have been averaging between 150 and 300 diners every day.  More if it rains.

It's been so busy that many of us don't have a chance to get a shift meal.  I just have a hearty breakfast with eggs, toast and fruit - banana, orange, or grapefruit - and that gets me through until 4 pm.

I think I detect a little jealousy on the part of the boss. I am mentioned favorably in reviews lately. Trip Advisor, Open Table, Yelp, and Urbanspoon.  Unfortunately, he takes these reviews way too seriously for his (and the restaurant's) own good.

Still he's mentioned all the time, but seems to covet all the attention.  I am happy if someone enjoyed their time with us and I could spread a little humor and friendly chatter, but I am not interested in reviews - bad or good.  I don't take that stuff seriously.  Many of the reviews I've read were written by people who clearly never stepped through our doors.  He doesn't care, all he sees is the 1 or 2 stars and goes ballistic for a half hour. Not my problem.  When he stops foaming at the mouth, I read the full review to him pointing out all the misinformation included.  People with an axe to grind?  Maybe, but who cares?

I've not seen this side of him and it ain't pretty. I know the job I do and I do it well. He was my teacher and he taught me well.  Perhaps now he thinks he taught me TOO well.  We'll see how it all shakes out after the season is over and we settle into the Fall/Winter/Spring routines.

Half a Cornish Hen is roasting (I cannot eat a whole one anymore) and olives are about to go into the gin.  I am grateful to be off tomorrow, but the car needs to be looked at. Last week the "check engine" light came alive as I was about to run a few errands. That will never do.

And so it goes.
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I know exactly how kitteh feels. Though there are 3 more days til my Caturday rolls around.

And so it goes.
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A Brief Update

Sheer exhaustion by all at work, having served 284 at lunch today.  At one point we were on a 45 minute wait for a table. Oh, and BTW, Labor Day is 37 days away and my holiday begins 2 weeks later.

The Windows desktop will not boot and remains totally useless. I have learned the hard way(like so many others) that Microsoft Windows 7 is severely flawed,  (though not as bad as VISTA) Windows 8 has become a joke, and the virus scares, system updates, and annoying reboots happen too frequently taking precious time away from the actual computer user experience.

As I wrote recently, my home phone almost never rings, but I received 3 phone calls tonight asking if I was "dying"!!! Ah, the rumor mill has become active again. Now I wonder where these rumors are coming from.  What can I say, it's a very small town. It would appear that someone finally jumped the shark and it couldn't happen to a worse person at such a good time.

Talked to the sister last evening. Well, I talked and she mostly cried for the 40 minutes of our "conversation" repeating over and over that "you deserve this time away, even if it wasn't to be in New Orleans. You need to get away somewhere." I thought that statement a bit odd, since she was sobbing most of the time. I will send my itinerary and she can choose when - where - and the length of time she would like to spend together.  As I wrote a while back, I think there will be some closure for both of us, at least that is my hope.

The Kindle is quite active revisiting Mark Twain's  many works and enjoying them much more than the first time around when I was a child.  He was such a great writer, satirist, and humorist that even Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn were written for adults as a reminder that they too, once had similar crazy, wonderful, and dubious adventures. It has been a great ride; one I am grateful to enjoy as an adult.

Had a chat with Ron (the dear of Retired in Delaware fame) via FaceTime and, again find the communication medium remarkable and fun to use. Yep, I guess I am hooked, too.

And so it goes.
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Remember, 37 days...

What Super Hero Are You/

I stole this from Sassy Bear's site. Just had to give it a shot.  Little did I suspect...

our results:
You are Superman

Superman 70% Robin 62% Spider-Man 60% Supergirl 57% Green Lantern 55% Wonder Woman 52% Iron Man 50% Batman 45% Hulk 30% The Flash 30% Catwoman 30%

You are mild-mannered, good, strong and you love to help others.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz

I just know that Java's Superman is all those qualities, and more.  I just hope they will still talk to me.

And so it goes.
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Bye-bye Bill Gates.

The desktop PC died again 2 days ago.  It could no longer launch Windows - and for no apparent reason.  The error message repeatedly that "Windows did not shut down properly and technical maintenance  would be required, or some such gibberish.  

Nothing out of the ordinary occurred in the previous days  to even get me remotely prepared me for the morning shock.  This makes me very angry because all my personal files, graphic files, and photo files will  be lost forever.  So it goes.

"Wave your little hand and whisper 'so long dearie, you ain't gonna see me anymore." - Dolly Levi.

 I am going to become a MAC user in the near future. I'll use the laptop until after the holiday in NOLA. I don't want any new expenses before that happens.  For the time being, the laptop will do just fine. 

Before disposing of the desktop, I will have to perform major surgery on the thing, and remove the hard drive before I send it to the great tech recycling center in the tech dumpster nearby.

I'll have the Kindle, iPod, and iPad for the trip and the hotel provides free wifi, so I'll not be out of touch.

Time to make a few new memories with old friends - yet another new beginning is at hand.  I'm tired of all this Microsoft madness.  At my age I want something reliable, present & accounted for,  without some joker's bag of tricks. 

And so it goes.

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Shopping, Planning, and a Deluge.

Though the heat has let up a bit, (around 90' today) the humidity remains high.  Still, I had a list of errands to run and a bit of shopping to do for the upcoming holiday so I bravely drove out of town onto Coastal Highway to do battle with the visitors from surrounding states whose driving skills leave much to be desired.  There have been many accidents, some fatal, this season. Bicyclists, pedestrians, cars and even buses.  It needs to be said that the majority of these could have been prevented had cell phones not been in use at the time of the crashes.

It's been way too hot for even the most die-hard sunbathers, so of course, in the early morning everyone heads to the outlets until the multiplex theaters open.

I've been looking for spice grinders for a while and was pleased to find one at Kitchen & Company - where I haven't visited in over a year. A stop at the Hallmark store was followed by a visit to the liquor store to replenish vermouth, wines, and purchase a small bottle of Tequila.

I've been thinking about wardrobe for the trip, now please understand working long days and hours with no outside social activities I've not worn shorts in a long time except at home when I'm cleaning or doing other chores. The holiday being in mid-September means it will be quite hot and humid in NOLA.  I un-packed some old shorts and tried them on.  They are old, well, practically new really, not being worn in 7 + years, not fashionable, and too large for me, anyway. (They will go to the Thrift Store later.

So, the next item on today's gay agenda was in search of a few fine new threads, er, Cargo shorts, maybe one or two pair.  The pickings were slim since stores are already gearing up for back-to-school here. How annoying is that?  I was somewhat successful finding a gun metal gray pair and a plaid pair.  I looked for a "convertible" pair of pants that feature zippered legs that, when removed turned into cargo shorts.  Not to be found here.  There are no outdoors or camping stores in the area.

Returned home, put away my treasures, and tried finding the pants online. Initially the search was discouraging as all items were between $90 and $200. These might be worth the price and great for the camper or hiker, just way too much money for my needs in my book.  I mean, just to wear the brand name? I don't think so. I checked websites of the best known outdoor outfitters - Cabela, L.L. Bean, Patagonia, and the like.  They were all in the same price range.  Then I found Columbia Sportswear & Outfitters and their prices were more to my taste and budget. I ordered a pair.  (Image is above.)

I am not familiar with the technology that goes into these products, but it sounds impressive.  Here's the posted information from the site:

A quick zip at the legs, and you've got a 10" inseam short. Quick-dry nylon ripstop is super lightweight and incredibly durable. Omni-Wick® advanced repellency offers superior moisture management and UV-busting UPF 50 sun protection is built right into the fabric, so you’re covered when the afternoon sun fires up. 

I don't know what any of that means and really don't care. As long as they wear well and live up to their reviews.  Shipping is free and takes 3 to 5 days.  Since my travels are over a month away, I think they'll arrive in plenty of time.

I tend to travel light, so I'll add 2 pair of casual slacks, a couple of tee-shirts, and a few collared shirts for evenings spent with friends or the sister at a fave restaurant. Semi-formal attire is out of the question. Sport-coats and Blazer are too large and will likely meet the same fate as the old shorts.

If the rain holds out, a visit to the Farmers Market this afternoon is the last item on the gay agenda.

Weather didn't cooperate. Rain came down with such great noise and fury that my street looked like a river so, I stayed in and hoped we wouldn't lose electric power.  Fortunately, we haven't so far.  Yes, it's the little things.

It's cocktail time and I smell olives.  Have a happy.

And so it goes.
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BTW, today is my birthday, but please don't tell anyone.

Airport Precheck for a Fee?

How does this make anyone safer? 

WASHINGTON -- The government is expanding the ways airline passengers can enroll in an expedited screening program that allows travelers to leave on their shoes, light outerwear and belts and keep laptop computers in cases at security checkpoints.Under the Transportation Security Administration's Precheck program, only travelers who were members of the frequent flier programs of some air carriers were eligible for expedited screening. On Friday, TSA Administrator John Pistole said beginning later this year U.S. citizens will be able to enroll online or visit an enrollment site to provide identification, fingerprints and an $85 enrollment fee.
About 12 million people are currently enrolled in the program. Pistole said he expects about another 3 million people to enroll before the end of the year.

Oh, cough up $85.00 and feel safer instantly?  I get it.  No, I don't get it. More like a bribe to me.

I wish I could drive to New Orleans rather than face the indignity. Oh well, it is what it is.

More later.

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Hot Caturday

Sounds good to me.  Especially if I had to wear that fur coat.  Te-Heh!

And so it goes.
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"This Is a Woman's World" - New Release from Cher...and

adapted to The Golden Girls.  No joke.



The song is OK, (maybe it will grow on me) but the mixed  video clips are wonderful.

And so it goes.
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