Emma Redmer Vs the Internet

I wasn't able to post last night because Verizon was down from the time I got home at 8:30 until almost 1:30AM! I'm still soooo mad. The DSL light was on, but the Internet itself wouldn't go on. I finally called them around 10. Found out that a computer had gone down at headquarters and a whole swatch of Camden County and Philadelphia were out, including us. And when I did finally get back online, they made me completely re-do my account just because I called them...again. For at least the third time in the last year.

That's it. I've had enough of their nonsense. I'm going to look into Comcast or other high-speed internet browsers this week. If I continue to have trouble with them, I may check for other options for my land-line phone as well.

(I did get some things done last night. Read Zorro and worked on my half-double and double crochet.)

Other than that, I've had a very pleasant weekend. It was gorgeous and sunny yesterday morning, though windy. Perfect weather for my first yard sale run of the season.

Audubon had it's Spring Town-Wide Yard Sale. I picked up a whole stack of great albums from five different sales:

The soundtracks for The Sting, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and Fame

Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

The Doors - 13

The Original Cast Album for the 1960 Broadway hit Fiorello!, featuring Tom Bosley as Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia

Frank Sinatra - Strangers In the Night

Judy Garland - Live at the Palace Opening Night

The Spinners - Pick of the Litter

Two kids' albums, Disney's animated version of Robin Hood and The World of Strawberry Shortcake, a slightly expanded variation on the first special.

The Strawberry Shortcake record was a particularly meaningful find. My sisters and I wore our copy of that record into the ground in the 80s. The woman I bought it from said she hoped to save the records for her children, but didn't think she'd ever get around to buying a record player. She also had fond memories of listening to it over and over again.

I also found four CDs:

Natalie Cole - Stardust

Linda Rondstat - Simple Dreams

Billy Joel - Glass Houses

True Value Hardware Happy Holidays Vol 39 (I love those! I have 28-33 on cassette and CD and am always on the look-out for more.)

My best find was closer to home. I went to St. Mark's Lutheran Church across from PNC Bank in Oaklyn for their Indoor Flea Market. I found in a collection of mostly odds and ends a video copy of the 1971 movie version of the British musical The Boy Friend. Twiggy is the usherette who becomes a star; Glenda Jackson is the star she replaces. Ken Russell, who directed the truly strange Who musical Tommy, made this...which means it's probably pretty weird. Sounds like fun, though, and I do love the music from the original The Boy Friend.

Work was extremely busy yesterday and today. It was even worse today, thanks to a lack of help. No one called out; we just didn't have enough people to handle the heavy beginning-of-the-month crowds. At the very least, it went quickly both days.

I started off this morning with Brunch With the Beatles. "Rock and Roll Music" was the theme today. In addition to the remakes of "Twist and Shout", "Rock and Roll Music," and "Roll Over Beethoven," we heard Beatles songs with more of a rock edge. Among these were "Come Together," "Revolution," and my favorite George Harrison solo song "All Those Years Ago."

Mom was in the shower, but I talked to my brother Keefe for a while. He was going to practice archery in the backyard after we chatted. That's awesome. I don't remember learning archery when I was in high school in the mid-90s.

I watched Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World while making granola bars this afternoon. This is the story of the young man of the title, a slacker wanna-be rock star who plays in an alt-rock garage group with his buddies and ex-girlfriend. He's dating an effervescent teenager to make himself feel better about a recent break-up...until he meets the girl of his dreams. Turns out that mysterious, independent young lady carries a lot of very literally baggage. Can Scott defeat her seven exes in order to get the girl of his dreams...and learn that true love is really worth fighting for?

I ended up getting a big kick out of this one. Adapted from a series of indie graphic novels, Scott Pilgrim has a marvelous time sending up video game cliches, from Mortal Kombat's "Round 1 - Fight!" intros to the coins that appear whenever Scott defeats an "ex." The cast had a lot of fun, too, including Michael Cera as the confused slacker musician and Kieran Culkan as his gay roommate.

I can, however, completely understand why this was a huge bomb last year. I like it because, even though I'm not a gamer now, I played enough video games as a kid to get what they're making fun of. If you've never played video games, aren't into comics, and/or can't handle slacker teens and youths, this is definitely NOT the movie for you. This has "cult" written all over it in letters six feet both ways.

Got home in time for The Dress Circle. "The Shows of April" was the theme this week. Among the hits, flops, and limited releases that first appeared in the spring were Destry Rides Again, Carousel, Follies, the late 70s hit I Love My Wife, the 1996 revival of A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum, last year's Sondheim on Sondheim, and one that's about to debut this month, the Frank Wildhorn Wonderland (a modernization of Alice In Wonderland).