An Apple a day...

This morning, I found that my computer wouldn't connect to the internet via the ethernet cable that connects my cable modem to my laptop. The Airport wireless was working just fine, but I didn't have a wireless router in my apartment. So after spending almost 30 useless anytime minutes with Time Warner's crack support team (who simply kept rebooting the modem remotely and then asking me to reboot my computer to no avail) I marched my precious - yes, I have the same affinity for it as Gollum does to that silly little ring - laptop to the Apple store at Carousel Mall. There, a brilliant, nice man named Martin tested it and determined that yes, my ethernet port was indeed faulty. The remedy? To send my computer off to the Apple Gods someplace in California where they will replace the logic board along with the faulty port. They are usually pretty speedy with this type of service, but I am in the middle of writing my thesis and can't afford to be computerless at the moment. What's worse is that I can't pay a whole fortune for that kind of service because I am a non-income-generating student right now. The wonderful "genius" (that's the Apple name for these guys - I didn't make that up) Martin checked my Apple Care warrantly and saw that it had expired on May 7, 2007. Naturally. Well, he and his manager, Donna, worked their collective magic and authorized the repair under the warranty since it had just been a couple of weeks since it expired. AND, they are letting me wait to send it in for repairs until after my thesis draft is due on June 8. I couldn't have been more delighted or more surprised with the easy, intelligent, and purely excellent service that I encountered.

It's almost as if the Apple company realizes that their customers are valuable. What a concept! (It's sad that we don't have more stories like this about customer service. Everyone's just annoyed with everything everywhere, it seems.)

I did walk out of the store with an Airport Express, which took me all of five minutes to unwrap and install. I love how Apple products are so easy to use. Just plug in and go to town. And now I am happily online again.

As if I needed another reason to rave about my Mac. (By the way, I have NEVER owned a Windows machine. It was love at first Mac.)

Are you living (what?)... Are you living (what?)...

When did the '90s become a musical genre in itself? In honor of this month's long weekend, a radio station in Syracuse decided to play only "90s" music, which was surprisingly amusing and reminiscent at the same time. When I was a kid, '70s music was meant for ridicule, and when I was in college, all things '80s were similarly considered silly. But when did it become ok to relegate the '90s to such loving mockery as well? I missed the memo completely on that, especially since that decade barely ended seven years ago. It still feels so fresh...



After I saw a couple of episodes of In Living Color over the weekend, I realized there is actually much to mock from the '90s. Just to name a few: Beverly Hills 90210, Kato Kaelin, grunge, Vanilla Ice, the Spice Girls, etc. (I guess VH1 has already figured that out with their I Love the '90s series.) However, those wacky Wayans were rocking the mock in while still living in the decade!

What do Erica Kane and Brit Pop have in common?

My friends and family who know me well know that my ultimate guilty pleasure is the ABC soap, All My Children. Truthfully, I have been exposed to this show since I was in my mother's womb. (And now, with the advent of my life-altering DVR, every delicious episode is ready and waiting for me when I come home at night.) So today, I almost fell off the couch when the typically mundane reflection scene (in which many of the characters at their individual crossroad situations are shown to be thoughtfully pontificating their next move) at the end of the show featured the new Travis single, "Closer." I mean, talk about two great things that taste great together! It actually provoked me to write a blog post revealing my shameful delight to the world (or rather, to the 15 people that actually read this blog regularly.)



On that note, let me tell you about the new Travis album which came out on May 7.

But first, some background: If you are unfamiliar with this band, they are from Glasgow, Scotland, and they really were the forerunners of the whole Coldplay frenzy, also seen as the "sensitive stadium rock" thing in America and the UK. (This particular phrase was stolen from a Guardian article that talked about a recent Travis show in London, but most rock scholars agree that Travis was doing the Coldplay thang long before Martin and Co. came along. An Independent article says that Travis were able to take Radiohead's moody brooding style and Brit-pop-ify it.) Anyway, Travis have always been huge in the UK, but not so much on this side of the pond. It's a shame, really, because these guys are really poignant, write good melodic pop songs, and are even smartly humorous at the same time. Their biggest US hit was a song called "Why Does it Always Rain on Me?" which, incidentally, John Mayer used to cover when he played at Eddie's Attic in Decatur, GA to crowds of 15 people back in the early '00s. (I don't know why I just threw that tidbit in.)

Travis took a break of about 18 months since they last went on tour. During that time, the band wrote and recorded new songs, and welcomed new members into their families. Their last album, 12 Memories, was more politically charged than their earlier work, and the industry deemed it a mainstream failure. (I thought it was a really good record, myself, but it was definitely deeper and darker than their usual stuff.) So there was a bit of buzz around Travis's latest effort, The Boy With No Name. Would they be able to come back to their early '00s glory?

The album does have a bit of a throwback to earlier musical styles, but the lyrics are more mature and insightful than The Man Who or The Invisible Band and certainly more than 1997's, Good Feeling, which is just a fun album. On the latest record, many of the songs are influenced by singer Fran Healy's newly acquired fatherhood status, and the feeling of despondence which was present on 12 Memories is replaced with the nice feelings of joy and pride.

On a different note, my fabulous friend, Carolee, got tickets to a sold-out industry concert in London back in March. It was one of three shows that Travis were doing before the album came out, and it was at a significantly smaller club than the band usually played. I have followed this band since college (ages ago!), and this was my first time seeing them live. It was a treat like nothing else for me. The band members were in great spirits and played many new songs intertwined with some old favorites. The show was quite well-received, but it was obvious that the audience was full of solid fans. The most interesting thing that I noticed was that everyone seemed to be able to sing along with the single, "Closer" even though the album hadn't come out yet. Ah, the joys of the internet.

I think that The Boy is selling pretty well so far, and I have heard the single on the radio and in the background of a couple of TV shows or commercials. That's a pretty good sign, but nothing says MAINSTREAM more than your song being featured on an American soap opera! (Note to AMC producers: This almost redeems your decision to kill off Dixie.)



(Side note: The Rosebuds' new album Night of the Furies is pretty good also. **Marge, this one's for you. You know how those North Carolina bands just rock.** Check them out if you haven't yet.)

Photos courtesy of ABC, Travis, and The Rosebuds.

Traveler

Coming to ABC next week... I reviewed the pilot episode for this program during my internship at the Museum of Television and Radio. ABC pretty much gives up the whole story in its promo for the show. It's about a group of guys who are college buddies, and they decide to take one last road trip after graduation before they have to be responsible adults. It all starts off generically frat-party-esque, and then things go terribly awry. The pilot was interesting enough that I would watch a few more episodes to see where it goes. The characters are kind of plain, each guy fitting into a particular stereotype. (That aspect didn't excite me much.) It tries to be more suspenseful than the average twenty-something drama, which makes it kind of The OC-meets-Prison Break. It's an interesting choice for ABC, because I would've expected this show on FOX or The CW. But anyway, I don't want to give up the entire plot right here, so if you're curious, go watch the preview at ABC.com. The show premieres Thursday, May 10 at 10 p.m.