Cablevision Extortion Scheme

I just received my latest Cablevision bill and I'm now being charged a surcharge of nearly $3 for sports programming that I don't even watch! When I called to find out how I could get rid of these channels and avoid the fee, I was told I would have to downgrade my channel package. This is not fair! I don't even watch ESPN yet I am forced to pay a special surcharge for it and I don't have the option of getting rid of the channel under my current plan. This is extortion! I know $3 isn't much money, but I hate being forced to pay for something I don't want.

Damn you, Cablevision! (Shakes fist at sky.)

Collusion: Coming Soon

I finished my second novel, Collusion, that's a sequel to Clean Hands told from the perspective of Brian.  I'm hoping to get it published rather than self-publishing this time, but I'll self-publish again if I have to.  I recently got turned down by a publisher I won't name, but I will say that they didn't spin any dreams for me (get it??), so I'm moving on and shopping my work elsewhere.  I appreciate the many opportunities writers have to self-publish these days.  I'm quite happy with the way Clean Hands came out and I love the cover that I picked.  The marketing is just so hard to do.  There are so many books on the market that it's hard to have your voice heard in such a crowded room.  I'm seriously considering getting back on Twitter.  I don't know if that will help, but it couldn't hurt, right?  I just hated when I was on Twitter for the three days that I was last year.  I found it addictive and not in a good way.  I also found the following people thing kind of like being a stalker.  Still, I think it can be a valuable tool for getting yourself out there in the universe, so I might give it another try.  Maybe.

South African Overload

I seem to be caught up in a distburing whirwind of South African stuff right now and it's all starting to weigh on me.  I'm reading a book called Philida about a black (or coloured, I guess she would be called since she's of mixed race) South African slave woman and I just saw a Netflix movie called Beauty about a middle-aged white South African man who's obsessed with a friend's college-aged son and both the book and the movie are seriously giving me palpitations.

First, the book.  I haven't finished reading it yet and I intend to give a full review on Goodreads when I'm done, but I'm about halfway through it and I keep feeling that the white South African man who wrote it has some kind of weird, romantic view of slavery and of the relationship between white male slave owners and their black female slaves.  This is nothing new, but that doesn't make the situation any less disturbing. 

Second, the movie.  (Stop now and read no further if you intend to see this film.)  Beauty is a slow-burn kind of movie.  It moves at a snail's pace, showing how disengaged the main character Francois is with his life.  He and his wife are in a loveless marriage, he's annoyed with his youngest daughter who is unfocused, and he's secretly having sex with other men.  Oh, and he's also a racist (no surprise there since this is South Africa).  Francois's obsession with his friend's college-aged son seems freaky, but harmless at first so I was quite surprised when he went crazy on the kid and assaulted and raped him.  The scene just seemed to come out of nowhere and was so violent and awful that I can't stop thinking about it and maybe that's what the director intended. 

The only word I can use to describe both Philida and Beauty is disturbing. 

Good Riddance to a Bad Week

I'm sure I'm not the only one who's looking forward to the end of this week.  Between the Boston bombings, the Texas explosion, and the Chicago floods, it's been an awful week around the country.  Let's hope next week is an improvement and we get some good news for a change.  We could certainly use it.

Stay Strong!

Even in the face of terrible events like yesterday's bombings in Boston, we need to stay strong.  It seems like bad news is around every corner these days.  If someone isn't getting shot, someone's jumping in front of a subway car or doing something equally awful.  But we can't lose hope in the face of adversity.  Now is not the time to retreat in defeat.  We must remain strong and persevere.

Dr. Oz

I got the chance to be in the audience for a taping of Dr. Oz's show today.  Let me go on record and say that Dr. Oz is a fine looking man.  He's got an odd look, but it suits him.  He also has a nice head of hair for a man his age.  No male pattern balding there!  Oz shook hands with folks in the audience and even danced a little between takes.  Who knew he could be so entertaining?  I certainly didn't!  Oz rocks!

Run, Weiner, Run!

I want to go on record to say that if disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner runs for mayor of New York City, I'd totally vote for him.  I think he'd be a good mayor.  He may have been kind of a dick (no pun intended) as a congressman, but I think this is a skill rather than a detriment when serving as mayor of New York.  I'm willing to put the whole Twitter-crotch-shots thing behind me and I'd like to think the citizens of New York could do the same.  Honestly, given the current choices of mayoral candidates, Weiner could do quite well.  He's a booster for the city, he's aggressive, and he doesn't strike me as being a Bloomberg clone (a la Christine Quinn). 

Arby's

I've spent the last few days in Detroit and Chicago due to a death in the family and while traveling I couldn't help noticing that there are a lot of Arby's restaurants out here. I love Arby's but I sure can't find one in the New York area. When I lived in New Jersey, there was one near Princeton that I could get to, but when I moved to Brooklyn, I found myself Arby's-less. There was one in downtown Brooklyn but it didn't last long. What's up with that? Do New Yorkers dislike Arby's???? Inquiring minds want to know.

Local Weather

If you've read my book, Clean Hands (available for sale on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBookstore, and other e-book vendors), you know I have a character who's a local weatherman and, I admit, I'm a little obsessed with local news meteorologists.  In NewYork, the field is vast and wide.  You have reliable, steady folks like Elise Finch, Chris Cimino, and Lee Goldberg who deliver the forecasts without a lot of drama.  Then you have the personalities like Lonnie Quinn, John Elliott, and Mike Woods who seem more interested in self-promotion rather than the weather itself.  Then you have someone like Steve Villaneuva whose voice alone causes me to change the channel.  Who hired this guy to do the weather on Channel 4?  He has a voice made for silent movies.  A weather man or woman should have a voice that commands authority.  Steve Villanueva does not have this kind of voice.  He sounds like a boy whose voice hasn't changed yet.  Who did this guy pay off to get a job on a major New York news station?   I don't get it.

Que?

I was reading about the recent huge Powerball winner who lived in Passiac, NJ and was surprised to read that, despite living in the United States for over twenty years after leaving his home country of the Dominican Republic, he didn't speak English.  Well, he claimed he didn't speak English well enough to answer reporters' questions about his new-found winnings.  How do you live in an English-speaking country and run a business in that country (he ran a bodega in Passiac) and not speak English?  I find this hard to believe.  Maybe he was lying about his language skills so he wouldn't have to talk to reporters.  Whatever.  If I lived in a Spanish-speaking country for more than twenty years, I'd hope to be able to communicate somewhat in Spanish.  Sure, I'd probably sound like Mike Bloomberg when I did it, but at least I'd be making an effort. I'd like to think I'd be able to at least say what I was going to do with millions of dollars I'd just won:  help my family, take some vacations, buy a new car, etc.  If people live in a country for a long period of time and don't learn the native language, they're not trying to learn it.  They're choosing to insulate themselves in an environment where they can speak the language of their home country rather than trying to go beyond those barriers and communicate with others.  I find this sad and a little lazy.