(no subject)

Last night, went to see Chicken Little with Corb, Annie, and her boyfriend. We were practically the only ones in the movie theater (Annie's ex-boyfriend was sitting on the opposite side of the theater, coincidentally, but he's a fat oaf, so I don't think he much counts). We had ourselves a great old time, especially during the closing credits, when "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" came on.

Speaking of which, yesterday I discovered the musical that I'm going to be obsessed with for the next few months. As I was thumbing through the New Yorker yesterday, I came across a full page ad for Lestat , the musical version of Anne Rice's Vampire chronicles, with music by Elton and Bernie. I remember reading about proposals for that project, many years ago (during my honeymoon, for God's sake!) in You'll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again by Julia Phillips, and even then, it was old news.

Almost twenty years in the making...sounds to me as though it'll either be fucking brilliant or a total piece of who-let-the-dawgs-out poo. With Elton's track record in theatre, I'm hoping for the former.

(no subject)

Can I just say that I REALLY hate the food courts in some malls?

I actually try to avoids in general, nowadays, because the clerks are so RELENTLESSLY aggressive about trying to upsell you. No, I don't want to reserve order anything. No, I don't want to pay whatever to join your stupid "super savers" club--I did it once, with Best Buy, and I'll NEVER do that again, no matter what you're offering. No, no, no, no. Just let me buy my stuff and leave me in peace, okay?

But the food courts are the worst, especially the Chinese fast food restaurants. They try to sucker you in with their lure of a "free sample," and then try to push you in line. "You try free sample?" No. "You buy?" No. "What you want?" Nothing.

Corb and I have a three strikes you're out rule for these places. Because we do like Chinese food, a lot. But if they get too pushy, while we're making a decision, we'll just walk away. Our line of demarcation is if they try to shove the stupid free samples of chicken in our faces more than twice. After the second time, they really should get the idea that we're not interested.

It happened again to Corb this afternoon. He was just looking around, and someone immediately shoved a plate of cajun chicken under his nose. "You try free sample?" the persona asked.

"Ummm...no, thank you..." said Corb.

"Come on, you try. It's good!" They persisted.

"No. Thank you," said Corb, a bit more emphatic.

And then they took the crummy chicken off the plate, and tried to place it in his hands! At that point, he walked away, and took his business elsewhere.

I tell you, businesses really need to learn that there are limits to what American consumers will take when it comes to the whole stinking "increased share of consumer wallet" concept. With all the businesses out there, the decision to make a purchase wherever you want is made increasingly easier for people, and for my money, if you get too aggressive or too greedy with me, I'm going elsewhere. Period, end of sentence.