Also, a review of Fox's "The Next Great American Band", now down to six and this week with a Rolling Stone theme. With a video Remix of all the finalists.
Guest writer Michelle warns us not to move without moving.
It's worse than you would think.
Pic of the Day
IMPORTANT MESSAGE
Starting Monday, November 26th, Move America Forward will wage a huge, cross country pro-troop holiday tour called "Honoring Heroes at the Holidays Tour."
We'll have pro-troop rallies and events in 40 cities across America for the next three weeks, and at each event we'll collect signed Christmas, Hanukkah and holiday greeting cards that we'll deliver to our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan . We're collecting over 100,000 cards in this effort - and given the current rate the cards have been coming in to our headquarters at Move America Forward we could well exceed that goal.
I have a request to make of you: can you please help us spread the word of this effort and a link to our tour route so patriotic Americans all across the nation can do their part to show their support for our troops who will be serving more than 7,000 miles away from their families, friends and homes during the holidays.
When the "Honoring Our Heroes at the Holidays" national pro-troop tour ends on December 16th (in New York City), Move America Forward will then have a delegation fly to Iraq and hand-deliver the final batch of cards to our troops on Christmas Day.
We want to bring out great crowds to these events and collect huge numbers of Christmas/Hanukkah/holiday cards for our troops.
PLEASE HELP GET THE WORD OUT!
Complete details can be found online at: Move America Forward.
Ryan Gill - Move America Forward
”The Next Great American Band” Down to Six Finalists
On the night of 11/23/07, seven bands were left. Cliff Wagner and the Old Number 7 were sent home. Well first, that’s a really dumb name for a band and that didn’t help.
It was Rolling Stone night and most of the tunes were well-played and entertaining.
The band Tres Bien played “Get Off of My Cloud”. The judges remarked that their guitar was out of tune. I hadn’t noticed but this seems damn important I would think. Tres Bien thought that the tunes of the Stones were right up their alley. Hey, “Get Off of My Cloud” is one of the greatest Rolling Stones songs of all time. Tres Bien didn’t even come close.
Denver and the Mile High Orchestra, also a dumb name for a band but perhaps because this band is really an orchestra, we’ll overlook it, played “I’m Free”. The judges thought the song was “too safe”, whatever that means. I like this band but they’re hardly of the Stones’ genre.
Six Wire, my fave band to win this thing, revealed they used to work for Englebert Humperdink. Although I could have misunderstood. I think they’re too young to have played for Englebert.
Light of Doom is the band of little boys and I don’t like them at all. Literally, they are little boys, maybe 11,12…around that age. This band played “Jumping Jack Flash”, another great Stones’ tune. The Light of Doom rendition was perfectly horrible. It’s my assessment and I’m sticking to it. The judges said those boys needed more harmony. I say they need to grow up then maybe come back and try out again.
The Clark Brothers…hey, they’re really brothers and you gotta like this. The judges really like this band and say they are the band to beat. I’m sticking with Six Wire. The Clark Brothers performed the Stones’ tune “Gimme Shelter” and received a standing ovation from the brothers.
Dot, Dot, Dot…a sort of punk rock band, performed “Let’s Spend the Night Together”. They weren’t half bad. The lead singer really has three dots on his face, whatever that means.
So no one performed “Satisfaction”? Isn’t that odd?
Anyway, below a Remix of the six finalists. Enjoy.
Top Ten Bands in Fox's "The Next Great American Band" Fall 2007
======================
Six Wire
Tres Bien!
Franklin Bridge-sent home 11/16/07
The Clark Brothers
Light of Doom
Dot, Dot, Dot
Cliff Wagner and the old number 7-sent home 11/23/07
The Muggs-sent home 11/9/07
Rocket-sent home-11/9/07
Denver and the Mile high orchestra
Prior Links to Posts for "The Next Great American Band" Fall 2007
======================
The Top Ten Announced
Two sent home
Brooklyn Bridge Sent Home
Cliff Wagoner and the Old Number 7 Sent Home
=============
Focus on TV Posts of Fame
Those Wacky TV Chefs. Includes Rachel Ray and the sexiest chef of them all.
TV News Pundits including Russert, spitting Matthews and the one I adore.
"Dancing with the Stars" of 2007, reviews, pics and videos.
American Idol 2007 and The Bachelor. One night's review with links to all the others.
===============
Feeling “Upside Down”
“I feel crazy; I feel upside down,” Kaitlyn said and I thought this was clever.
Although the child could have, just throwing it out there, been sleepy maybe as it was 10 pm and she was still up and chatting.
Well sure as the grandmother I allow the child, a tad under 4 years of age, a little extra time with me when she comes to visit. Grandmothers do that sort of thing. But along about 10 pm I am tired and ready to sleep myself.
On the first night of her visit in mid-November 2007, Kaitlyn Mae was excited and not ready to sleep. Might miss something.
“You know, everything’s upside down,” Kaitlyn clumsily explained her description of the world to a 3-year-old greatly in need of some sleep.
No, I didn’t know about everything being upside down except there was a time, back in the 60’s, when the inhalation of certain substances made the world seem upside down. So hey, maybe Kaitlyn was feeling like a former hippie does after a long toke from the bongs. While I maybe could understand it, I wasn’t sure a child should be feeling this way.
Sleep did finally claim the exuberant Kaitlyn Mae and over the next few days she and Mom-Mom had great fun. We walked the autumn neighborhood, played with the dog and went to see “The Bee Movie”. We went to church and visited the ocean.
When Kaitlyn went home, Mom-Mom felt upside down.
Heh.
============
Kaitlyn Mae is what it's all about. No, not MY Kaitlyn Mae but her generation. For they are the children who we are charged with leaving a society and environment at least as moral and pristine as we inherited; ideally even better than we inherited.
So I document her life as one little American baby is born, grows and learns about life and the world around here.
Some examples below:
Kaitlyn's birth. Her mother amazed the medicos but unborn Kaitlyn's two grandmothers were not fooled.
Kaitlyn's first birthday party was a huge success. Although there was the mystery of Kaitlyn's rather unusual way of expressing her joy.
It was Kaitlyn's second Easter. She was but a little over a year old and such as giant rabbits did tend to scare the child.
The Postal Orifice
Don't ever move.
Okay, if you must, you can. But don't ever move without moving.
Those of you who've been keeping track know that our road moved. The new route bypasses our old section, and one end was sealed, so we're now situated on sort of an appendix of a road. With the move, the name was an issue and we ended up battling for the county NOT to name it
something horrendously long. (Thirty-six characters, plus the house number and space which add another six.)
We won! We thought. Little did we know the battle wasn't over. After the county, we had yet to struggle against . . . (drum roll please) the Postal Orifice.
The proposed road name was approved, and eventually a new road sign went up, with its much shorter name. Mail still arrived to our old address without issue, but I knew eventually we'd need to change it.
So as a bill came in, we added our address change information to the slip and sent it off with our check. Some of those changed without a hitch. Many came back with "Rd." instead of "Ct." A few were ignored.
Then I did what I thought was the standard process. I went to the Postal Orifice and got a change-of-address packet. I filled the information out and sent it in. For about a week, I noticed no change.
During this time, I called our phone service, since their bill had arrived, again, with our old address. "I need to change my address," I told the person I finally got to after several "push three"
selections.
She switched me to someone else. I told this person I needed to change my address.
"Have you contacted your new phone provider yet?"
"I don't have a new provider. The road moved, and I'm still physically where I was before. Only the name has changed; you are still my phone provider."
"Oh, I see. Okay, I've got your account information up now. Would you verify your old address for me?"
I did.
"Thank you. Now, what's the address for the last bill?"
"It's not a last bill. We haven't physically moved, I just need to change my street name."
"Oh, I see. Give me the new address please?"
I did.
"Thank you. Would you like to set up an appointment for our service tech to connect your new phone?"
Aaaaahhhhhh! Eventually, I *think* I made her understand that I wasn't boxing anything and wouldn't be cutting my phone service off. So far, the phone has stayed on.
A week went by since I put in the address change with the local Postal Orifice, and suddenly I get no mail at all. Now, that's highly unusual. We get our mail, the business mail, "resident" mail, ads
and junk mail for all of those, and occasionally Desk Drawer mail. The last day without anything at all was several years ago. But okay, it could happen. I let it slide.
That afternoon, I tried to order something from online. When I got to the billing address part, I hesitated. Was this credit card address changed or not? I couldn't be sure. Still, I think it always looks better if shipping and billing are the same, so I put in the new address and hit Submit Order.
The Web page refreshed and big red letters appeared.
WE'RE SORRY. WE CANNOT VERIFY THE ADDRESS YOU'VE SUBMITTED.
Maybe I typed it wrong. It is new. So I typed it over (down there where it's highlighted in red) and clicked Submit Order.
WE'RE SORRY. WE CANNOT VERIFY THE ADDRESS YOU'VE SUBMITTED.
I tried typing in the old one, and it rejected that, too. Too many tries, I think it said. And PLEASE CONTACT CUSTOMER SERVICE (click here).
So I clicked. Then I was given a choice. Email or phone? Normally I do email but I was in the mood to be done with this, so I clicked phone. A pop-up appeared, giving me an explanation of how their phone system worked. I don't call them, they call me. Really? How bizarre. I clicked OK.
Another pop-up, this one asking me to enter my phone number and select when I would like to be called. "Immediately" was pre-entered. I typed my phone number and hit OK.
My phone rang.
I looked at my screen and the pop-up now said "Dialing. Do not close this window until your call is complete."
I answered the phone. A computer voice informed me that my call was being connected. Soon I was talking to a service rep who was able to override the rejection of my new address. After I hung up, I remembered that I'd had a similar issue with ordering my new address labels. I can only speculate that these places receive address information from some kind of upload and they haven't got it yet, since the road is a newly created one. We do show up on the USPS.com site, but other retailers often have issues with my address.
I promptly forgot about it, but the next day, we again received no mail.
And the next.
I called the Postal Orifice, and explained my dilemma, not knowing what they could possibly do about it. "Oh," the man laughed, "it's so silly. You're going to think it's just silly." He paused, perhaps waiting for me to say I thought it was silly, even though I hadn't heard the story yet. When I didn't say anything, he went on, "You see, you've put a forward on your mail. Even though you really haven't gone anywhere, the forward acts like a, well," he chuckled, "a forward!
"Mail comes to your city, heading for your old address. Here at the Post Office, we see that address has a forwarding flag, so your mail is rerouted to the forwarding office." He paused again, and I knew the punch line was coming.
"The forwarding office is in Sacramento."
"Oh." I said, eloquently.
"Yes! Isn't it silly? Mail from your city goes to another city 20 miles away, and then to Sacramento, to our forwarding office, where the yellow forwarding note gets put on. Then, the mail goes back to
your city, because that's where the yellow slip says it goes. No worries. Your mail is fine, but the ones that get forwarded will probably be seven to ten days late."
When the man hung up he was still laughing. I didn't find it quite so funny. But sure enough, yellow-stickied mail began arriving the next day.
All of this doesn't even include the package from Amazon.com that got sent back because the Postal Orifice doesn't forward packages.
So heed my warning. Don't ever move. And if you must, don't move without moving.
Michelle, winebird@winebird.com
The Desk Drawer, writer's exercise email list
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More Guest Writer HERE
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