My friend and BBC Producer, Chris Vallance, has been in Los Angeles for a few months, working full-time on a podcast called Pocket Planet Radio. I did an interview with him when I was in Las Vegas for the WPT. (I just listened to my segment, and noticed the strangest thing . . . I sound exactly like my younger brother. That’s weird.)
Chris is a talented producer, and his wonderfully dry British humo(u)r comes through in everything he does. His podcast will always be entertaining, so check it out.

It seems like the majority of bloggers are divided into two camps on The Huffington Post:

1. Some have decided to dismiss it out of hand, and criticize the shit out of it. Though they won’t admit it, I think it comes down to petty, childish jealousy.
2. Others just don’t care one way or another, and it’s not even on their radar.

Until this morning, I was in the second camp. I took a look the day it launched, and though the newswire was pretty good, I was unimpressed, and didn’t think THP had anything relevant to offer me . . . then I read this fucking awesome post by Robert Evans:

The two walk into my bedroom. Me? My feet still in cement

When I was in Vegas for the WPT Championship, my iBook completely crashed, and made me very unhappy. If you’d like, you can refer to the Audioblog or moblog entries, and relive all the excitement for yourself.
When I got back from Vegas, I had a few e-mails from people who worked in various capacities at Apple. They all suggested I talk to different people in Customer care, and they were all optimistic that my problems with my iBook would be resolved. I was still pretty pissed about losing my laptop when I needed it most, so I was less inclined to expect the best, but I figured it would at least be worth a call to see if they’d be interested in helping me get the damn thing fixed.
So here’s the deal with Apple Customer Care: before I could even call one of the numerous people I’d been referred to, one of them called me!
He never told me how he knew, and I didn’t think to ask, but he said that he understood that I was having problems with my iBook. He listened patiently as I recounted my woeful tale, and he apologized that I’d had such rotten luck with my two iBooks. We talked for a few minutes, and though I’m legally bound to keep the details of our conversation confidential, I don’t think Apple will mind if I reveal that the Apple rep who helped me was patient, understanding, and completely helpful.
And late last week, my faulty iBook was replaced with a shiny new Powerbook. And I mean shiny. It’s all silver and tough.
So looking at the scouting report:

iBook: 0 for 2.
Powerbook: 0 for 0, but it looked great in Spring Training.
Apple Customer Care: 3 for 3.

Put another way . . . Will definitely do business with again!!!11 TOP RATING!!! A+++++++++!!!!!!!
Har. Har. Har. Gods, I slay me with my funny.
If you’ve ever had a problem with a huge company, you’d probably agree that (in most cases) customer service has all but ceased to exist. I can’t speak for all their customers, but it’s supermegaawesome that Apple cares about this particular customer.
. . . afterthought: In comments, Starkman says:“. . . you cannot even talk about the experience because you received free stuff in return.” I want to be clear: I can’t talk about the details because I signed the same NDA everyone who replaces a product signs, and I didn’t get anything for free. I don’t expect, nor would I ever accept, something for nothing.
Apple is a HUGE corporation, and I’m sure the problems of one user aren’t going to make a dent in their Big Picture, but they’ve always made me feel like they care about me as a customer. I appreciate that, and I wanted to share that appreciation in a public forum.
. . . one more thought: If you’re so invested in cynically believing that this wasn’t just good customer service, nothing I can say will change your mind, so don’t waste our time reading the rest of this.
Quite a few people think that I got some sort of special treatment because, they say, I’m some sort of big celebrity or something. Newsflash: I’m not.
I’m sure experiences at the genius bar vary from store to store (I’ve always had a fantastic experience in Pasadena), but my experience, at the corporate level, is the same as I’ve heard from countless other Apple owners: if a problem can’t be solved at the store-level, and it’s properly escalated, Apple takes care of it. That’s awesome customer service. I got called because I was already in the system from my previous problem, and that’s just Apple CS protocol.
So why did I write about this? I didn’t have to say anything, but I wrote about it when things went wrong, so I thought it was only right to write about it when things got fixed.

Even though I felt like total crap (that’s better than a pile of ass but not as bad as complete and utter crap), the Midi-clorians that make me an actor took over just before showtime, and I had a great show last night. I had as much fun and felt as relaxed during and after the show as I did last week, which means that the performance last week wasn’t a fluke — this show really is as good as I think it is.
In fact, that’s the whole point of this entry: I want to make sure that everyone who reads my blog knows how honored and proud I am to work with the amazing actors and writers who are in ACME: A Day In The Life. I didn’t think there would ever be a show as much fun as Love Machine, but it turns out I was wrong.
I wish we could extend for another ten performances, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen; with ten actors, many of whom have families, it’s just too hard to commit to that long of a run, especially through summer.
The run ends on June 18th. Please, please please come out and see ACME: A Day In The Life before it’s just another poster on the wall.

I think I have 81 cubic feet of solid mucous in my head. When I blow my nose, it’s thick and dark yellow — that means I have an infection, right?
Note: The preceding two sentences were awfully gross, and shouldn’t have been read by the squeamish.
So I never got around to watching Star Wars yesterday. Instead, I read about half of Aces and Kings and studied Harrington On Hold’Em. Aces and Kings is really fantastic, man. If you liked Big Deal, Biggest Game In Town, or Diary of a Mad Poker Player, you’re going to love Aces and Kings. And Harrington on Hold’Em is officially the most useful and easy to understand poker book for advanced players I’ve read. If you’re serious about winning tournaments, it’s totally worth the investment. (Winning Low-Limit Hold’Em remains the best for beginners, if you’re keeping score at home.) In fact, I like these books so much, I think I’ll write reviews of them at Amazon when I reduce the mucous in my head to a more manageable 11 cubic feet.
Note: The preceding sentence was awfully gross, and shouldn’t have been read by the squeamish.
When I finally did watch TV, I watched this fantastic old movie called Fail-safe, and some episodes of Futurama. Speaking of Futurama, what the hell is wrong with [adult swim]?! They took Futurama off to run American Dad?! Are they high? Worst. Cartoon. Switch. Ever.
Today I think I’m doing some more Cold War thrillers: The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, and the original Manchurian Candidate. Then I’m loading up on cold remedies and sleeping a whole bunch, so I can hurry up and get better.
I have to be well by tomorrow, because we’ve got a couple of reviewers coming to see ACME: A Day In The Life, and a head filled with mucous really interferes with my funny.