Rude Much?

Advertising Fail

One of the most rewarding things I've done in my professional life is directing high school plays. And, as anyone who works in live theatre will tell you, the ubiquity of modern gadgets like cellphones and tablets is a bane for both audiences and performers alike. It was bad enough in the early days when all we had to worry about was phones ringing during the show, but now the problem is the obliviots who can't tear themselves away from their bright, glowing screens at all.

So you'll forgive me if I devote a bit of space today to excoriating the clueless nitwits at AT&T's advertising agency, and their equally clueless clients at AT&T itself, for approving the following ad for their new All in One Plan, sent out yesterday on social media platforms...

That's correct, ladies and gentlemen: this ad campaign is actually encouraging people to watch football on their smarphone while at a live theater performance. Not that doing so would be at all disruptive for other audience members, or disrespectful of the performers, of course.

After a firestorm of criticism, AT&T pulled the ad, and sent out a lame message that it "wasn't meant to be taken literally." Apparently, we're supposed to believe that watching your fucking football game at a play (the wording of the ad wasn't accidental, was it?) is just a metaphor for watching it in other places. Right. Hard to believe everyone who saw the ad missed that nuance, isn't it?

Of course, what actually happened is that the lamebrains who came up with the concept and the lamebrains who approved it believe their target audience won't give a damn about disrupting the audience's enjoyment of a mere theatrical performance. It is difficult to say they're mistaken, but at least in this instance they were publicly shamed for being so obvious in their support for boorishness.

Makes me proud to say that for the last 12 years I've been a customer of...

It did, actually...

A Little Bit of Heaven

I'm into my third week as the proud owner of a Mr. Coffee Café Barista espresso machine. It makes my mornings much more bearable...

At the moment I am using Starbucks Italian Roast coffee (ground at a Starbucks store specifically for an espresso machine), and of course Starbucks' own Vanilla Syrup.

All I need to do now is find somewhere that will sell me a pump like the one shown on this bottle. If you know where I can find one, leave me a message in the Comments. Thanks!

Making Allowances

As I have mentioned in previous posts, I read Wiley Miller's wonderful comic strip Non Sequitur every day, and recommend that you do the same, even though Wiley's politics are pretty much the polar opposite of my own. That means making allowances for not-so-funny strips like this one every so often...

Until Next Time...

Yesterday's AT&T kerfuffle got me thinking about live theatre, and how much I enjoyed directing plays. As I reminisced about specific shows and the students who performed in them, I decided to listen to an iTunes playlist I have consisting of music I have used in those shows over the years. It was a nice trip down memory lane, especially since it had been years since I had heard some of that music.

Today's send-off is a performance of Maurice Ravel's Berceuse sur le nom de Gabriel Fauré, a piece Ravel composed to honor his former teacher at the Conservatoire de Paris (the only teacher who really "got" him; he was eventually expelled from the Conservatoire for being "unteachable").

This particular performance features Brigitte Engerer on piano, and Régis Pasquier on violin. 
I used it for the final scene in two separate productions of John Patrick's heartwarming comedy The Curious Savage. Enjoy...