Pleased To Meet Me

Umlaut felt old this afternoon when he was in a mall store and 'Can't Hardly Wait' started playing on the instore music.

The Replacements in a fucking mall!? Oh, man...... Hopefully Westerberg owns the publishing rights to the song so at least he's getting paid royalties for the mall play.

As I went up to the register to pay, The Replacements ended and the next song on the store's playlist kicked in: 'I Want It That Way' by The Backstreet Boys.

The two young ladies behind the counter started singing along to it, no doubt because they've heard it hundreds of times during the course of their employment.

I couldn't help but notice that the young ladies didn't sing along to The Replacements; I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing. Either way, Chinks dig BSB too...

I never want to hear you say, I want it that way... when Alex Chilton he comes 'round... 'kay?

The Opposite Of Jog

Umlaut got his new Motorola MOTORAZR V3 from Sprint a mere forty-three (43) days ago. In those forty-three (43) days:

• I've spent at least one plus (1+) hours on the phone with three (3) different members of the Sprint technical "support" staff, including one who barely spoke English.

• I've had the phone replaced three (3) different times, which speaks volumes about Motorola's quality control.
  

• I've spent at least four plus (4+) hours at three (3) different Sprint "service" centers attempting to have my problem fixed. At two (2) of those visits the "service" center told me they didn't know what was wrong and instructed me to wait twenty-four (24) hours, remove the battery for one to two (1-2) minutes to reset the phone, and then see if the problem was eliminated at that time. This was the cell phone equivalent of your company's IT staff telling you to reboot your computer to solve your computer issue. Of course, those bullshit instructions didn't solve my problem. Wait twenty-four (24) hours? I think they said that so they wouldn't be working when I returned to their "service" center to yell at them.
  

I don't remember pay phones causing me this much grief and wasted time back in the Twentieth (20th) Century... and I just realized that The Replacements song 'Answering Machine' will make no sense to most kidz these days.. some clever Twenty-first (21st) Century indie band should redo the song as 'Voice Mail'.

"Try to free a slave of ignorance... Try to teach a whore about romance..."