How not to get my business

I just didn't order some brewing equipment from, Learn to Brew, LLC, by way of Amazon.

It was a five gallon carboy, a bottle capper, some caps, a carboy sling, some bungs and an vapor lock. The total for the order was about 60 bucks. The shipping, standard ground, delivery date 1-3 weeks, came to more than 50 dollars.

I figured this must be because of the carboy being hard to package. Since there is a brewing supply in Queens, I figured we could go to get it. So I droped that from the order, which reduced my goods to about 30 bucks, and the shipping to 29 dollars and change.

I went to their website (which is not user friendly. The stoppers don't say what size bottle carboy they fit, and the "continue shopping" button doesn't take one back to the page one was on, but rather to the homepage). From them directly, the shipping was 7.99.

So, whatever kickback Amazon gets from them, Amazon lost.

That meme about the top song

So... the week I was born the week the number one song in the US was Groovin'.

In the city I was born the top song on the local radio station was Windy.

Dailies

Yesterday I got a call saying that a friend of ours had an extra ticket for "The Daily Show, with Jon Stewart", and it was mine if I was willing to brave the weather.

D'uh.

So I got dressed, hit the Path, grabbed an E Train to 50th, walked over to 11th Ave, and no one I knew was in the line. The drill for the Daily Show is, get a twitter feed saying there are spots open, be one of the people who fills out the form in time, and show up before 1430. First come, first served. If you want to have someone who isn't with you get a ticket they have to show before 1600, at which time it's open to all.

But my party found me, we got tickets, and then went to grab a bite eat. We'd been told to be back at 1645, but we (along with lots of others) misheard that as the line would start being admitted at 1645, so we were all there at about 1635... in the roughly 30F weather. They let us in early.

There is a metal detector. If you have a bag, you have to leave it (with a piece of ID). If they see you using a phone, iPad, etc., they will collect it. They are (with some justification) worried about photos/surreptitious taping. About three people had their phones collected. The wait is sort of timeless. The set is evenly lit, and nothing really changes for the hour, or so, one is sitting. It's a studio, so the space is cavernous. They play music, and people are sitting. I had a book, and passed the time reading, and chatting with my friends.

The Warm-up guy came out. I don't know if this was a tough crowd, or if the Daily Show attracts that sort of person, but it's a good thing he has a low-key Don Rickles ability, since the folks he called on weren't the most outgoing sorts. His first person was the friend who had the extra ticket... I don't recall just what he said, but it was a bit deadpan. Then he called on a kid (the minimum age is supposed to be 18, but this kid wasn't (he was with his parents, which may have made the difference. There were some other people who looked to be in the 15-16 range too). The kid balked at giving his name, that was when the Rickles-lite came out. It wasn't too bad.

Then came the guy with the accent. When the warm-up duded asked if was from England, the answer was no. When he asked where he was from the response was, "How many other countries do you know". The guy was from Australia, and not being cowed; there was a bit of back and forth and he moved on. The point was, of course, to get us loosened up. The stage is a sinkhole for sound. The chuckles you hear on the telly... deafening in the studio.

Stewart came in, did a few minutes of warm up. We'd been told he'd take questions, and that the odd non-sequitor which starts so many shows comes out of that. My friend asked him, coming from a comedy background (he's done a fair bit of improv), what was like to be speaking truth to power. Stewart took exception to this, and I know why.

As he explained he gets compared to serious news personalities (I forget if it was my friend, or Stewart who mentioned Cronkite), and he's not that. He's doing a comedy show. Yeah, they did a survey asking who people trusted more, a trio of the taking heads, or Stewart, and Stewart came out on top, but (said Stewart), a sequined dildo would have beaten them.

Which is probably not true, but I think, in the larger context, the kernel of what Stewart is really doing, and why people like his stuff is there. It's, oddly enough, in the reference to Cronkite. People trusted Cronkite. They thought he had integrity. Not that he didn't have a personal set of views, but that he didn't let them intrude into his work. That's why Nixon said, "If we've lost Cronkite, we've lost the American people."

Stewart seems to have that same sort of integrity. When he's talking about how the news is made with Wallace, or O'Reilly, one can see it. He's skewering the ways in which that sense of integrity seems to have gone by the boards. When a big deal is made of, "The War on Christmas", and that's treated as being as important as the economy being in the toilet. When the arrant obstructionism of one party, and the feckless lack of spine in the other is lost in the hoopla over, well just about any hoopla... be it the Kardashians, or Michael Jackson's doctor's trial, or that annual outrage fest over the war on Christmas (right... last night I saw commercials mentioning the need for follow on items to make those Christmas presents better.... replete with Santa Claus; but next November, as the turkey and pumpkin pie are settling in the stomach of America, Bill O'Reilly will be waving the bloody shirt of the "War on Christmas" to rally the reactionaries, and distract from real news).

In his five minutes of focus, Stewart talks about real things, and points out the Emperor, if not naked, is running around in his underwear.

The taping, was fun. We were loud. My friend and I can be heard, if you knew what to listen for, at the, "I look forward to the day I get to hear, "We are all Austrians"; because it took a minute for most people to process.

There is a non-sequitor joke at the beginning, a smile and a nod to the audience. I don't think the show (or Colbert, which I'd also like to attend) would still be going without the audience, and, for all the schedule has got to be brutal; the crew seems to be aware of it, and to appreciate it. It's worth going. If you go, be loud, it's all done in long takes. Each segment is done, front to back, in one single shot, and they are good. You may not be able to see, because of the cameras, but the graphics are on the monitors.

And there's no bleeping when someone says, "fuck".

If you want to watch the episode is starts here