A Walk In the Neighborhood

I slept in this morning and spent an hour or so after breakfast adding more music to my new MP3 player and experimenting with arranging songs. I've never really done that before. I did soundtracks today, and the only one I ended up just taking straight off was the soundtrack for the first Back To The Future movie. I only added the vocal numbers from Brother Bear and rearranged the soundtracks for Grease and the Hairspray remake to better reflect the way the songs are actually organized in the films. I also added three songs from the second disk of my two-disc Hairspray movie soundtrack - a ballad that was intended for Tracy when she's hiding in the Pingletons' bomb shelter that was cut, "I Can Wait", and two vocal background numbers, "Breakout" and "Trouble On the Line."

After I did the soundtracks, I decided I needed to just get out and about, so I went for a walk. It was a lovely day, lower-80s and sunny, with no wind. It was warmer than yesterday, but still not nearly as bad as it usually is this time of year. I just walked around the neighborhood, down Manor, down the back roads behind West Clinton, and over to the park/schoolyard. I didn't have enough time to play in the playground this time. I wish I had. It was quiet there and in the park. Everything looked so much better than it did the last time I went for a walk there. Water plants grew in the lake, which no longer had alge in it. Canadian geese feasted on the very green grass on the field behind the school, which no longer looked like one big patch of straw. (And the geese must have scared the bees away. I was wearing sandals again, and this time, I made it across the field with no stung toes.)

Work wasn't nearly as fun. I had plenty of people who were obnoxious and rude, and things just plain didn't go right. One woman kept insisting that the 23 oz boxes of Frosted Flakes she bought were $2.49, even though they came up 5.19. I sent a bagger to check. He said $5.19. I went to see myself. Turns out they WERE on sale...a month ago. The sale had ended in July. Somebody forgot to take the tag down! And not only that tag, but a couple of other Frosted Flake tags on that shelf, too. One was from May! Not only that, but this is the second time in three days an item came up wrong, and a dated tag was to blame. Whomever is putting up tags now really has to be more careful. I gave the lady what she wanted, but it held up a long line and was just plain frustrating. (And it might help if they made the print for the sale expirations on the tags larger, like they used to. I'm sure the customers wouldn't notice it, but the employees might see it quicker.)

Oh, and I finished Get Smart today. Most of Get Smart seems to have aged very well. Spy spoof, movie parodies, and cute, goofy little men who think they're James Bond and are paired with voluptuous and intelligent Mata Haris never go out of style. PC sensitive folks might want to be warned that there are a few Oriental stereotypes here, both negative and somewhat positive (Harry Hoo was so popular he became a semi-recurring character and is a big help to Max, but as with his inspiration Charlie Chan, he's obviously played by a white man). Other than that, this show is still hilarious fun for the whole family, kids too. (My 15-year-old brother Keefe is a big fan of this show. He once told me he used to watch it before school when it ran on TV Land in the early mornings around 2000-2001. He loves Mel Brooks, so this show is right up his alley.)

Favorite episodes from this first season include the black-and-white pilot "Mr. Big" mentioned in a previous entry, the delightfully funny and suspenseful two-parter "Ship of Spies" (the first story handily deserved its Emmy win), and our introduction to lovable Hymie the Robot, "Back to the Old Drawing Board." Ok, so the new box set doesn't have the extras the big full-show set from Time Life did, but it's also 15 to 20 dollars in most places and does have a few commentaries and Barbara Felton's lovely introductions. That's good enough for me. Beyond the Disney Platinum sets, I'm not that big of a fan of extras anyway. I just want to see some shows that don't get re-run nearly as often as they should anymore. (Which is why I try never to buy shows that are still on the air or seen frequently in re-runs on DVD. Same goes for movies unless I really, REALLY like them. If I want to see newer stuff, I can rent it or borrow it from the libraries.)