No more TV for me… for a while at least

Well, after a gruesome struggle to get my cable TV service back up I just threw in the towel and called it quits. It’s been so long since we’ve had a month without problems that even my wife got fed up with it.

I can’t possibly explain the sense of relief I feel at not having to wait for the monthly bill to find out what outrageous mistake they are going to make this time around.

So I’m essentially TV-free and expect to continue so for a good few months until the competition offers up it’s services in my area and I decide to give them a try.

Until then I can still catch the news on the four public channels that I will always get and it’s going to be DVD movie, TV series in digital format and videoblog show bonanza for a good while.

I actually feel like singing! :-)

(Humming) heaven, I’n in heaven…

Technorati Tags: portugal, tvcabo

Sights and sounds from Parque das Nações

Last weekend I went for a little walk in Parque das Nações and took my camcorder with me.

It’s been a long time since I posted any videos and, in fact, since I’ve done any video editing at all, even for my personal film projects.

So I decided that regardless of what I would capture I would make a videoblog of it.

Luckily there was a setup of a few musical instruments for people to experiment and play with with and, even if I didn’t get any decent footage of the instruments themselves (duh!) I did get to record some nice sounds from them to be the base of the whole video.

Here it is then, sights and sounds from Parque das Nações:

Elogio à TVCabo

Bom, na sequência da minha mais recente aventura com a TVCabo resolvi tomar uma atitude diferente e mais saudável face à minha situação e tentar procurar a parte positiva da coisa.

E não é que com essa nova perspectiva consegui, hoje mesmo, encontrar um facto maravilhoso sobre essa bem-amada empresa?

Não me contive e tive de lhes enviar uma mensagem para expressar o meu agrado e, como consumidor consciente dos seus deveres, achei que era minha obrigação espalhar a palavra por todos quantos conseguisse.

Aqui está, então, uma cópia da minha mais recente mensagem para o serviço de atendimento a clientes da TVCabo.

Exmos Srs.

Venho por este meio congratulá-los por, uma vez mais, corresponderem por inteiro às expectativas dos vossos clientes.

Mas deixem-me elaborar um pouco sobre a razão desta mensagem e da minha congratulação: os vossos serviços efectuaram uma marcação de uma visita à minha residência. O objectivo dessa visita era o de verificarem presencialmente que estou realmente sem serviço de qualquer tipo, para além dos 4 canais básicos em analógico (neste momento há já dois meses). A marcação foi feita há duas semanas pois eu (por incrível que pareça) não tenho disponibilidade para estar uma manhã ou tarde inteira à espera dos vossos técnicos em casa e, obviamente, um caso de falta de serviço de um mês e meio não é de todo preocupante nem prioritário. Sendo assim lá marcaram a visita para hoje entre as 19h00 e as 20h30.

Eis que chegou o dia da visita e, como esperado os vossos serviços técnicos resolveram não aparecer.
Mas melhor ainda do que isso, não deram qualquer indicação de que iriam faltar e nem sequer fizeram qualquer diligência no sentido de re-marcar a visita para uma altura mais conveniente aos vossos pobres técnicos.

Assim não me resta mais que render-me (uma vez mais) à evidência que a TVCabo é, efectivamente, a empresa Portuguesa mais coerente que alguma vez existiu. É deveras impressionante o modo como durante tantos anos e em diversos locais conseguem manter exactamente o mesmo nível de serviço e atenção para com os vossos clientes. Qualquer outra empresa com o vosso historial teria, por esta altura, alterado os seus princípios e valores e, em consequência, o seu relacionamento com os clientes e o nível de serviço a eles prestado. Por essa mesma razão o méritos da vossa empresa é ainda maior e devo dizer que estou rendido.

Penso que concordarão comigo que a vossa equipa está deveras de parabéns e sugiro humildemente que preparem uma campanha alargada de comunicação e celebração do facto de serem sem dúvida a empresa mais coerente e fiável deste nosso país.

Posto tudo isto, é com algumas reservas que volto a relembrar-vos que estou sem serviço há dois meses e que, caso pretendam desviar-se um pouco da vossa norma, podem contactar-me para marcar uma nova visita.
Essa visita poderá ser efectuada todos os dias de semana a partir das 19h00 ou no fim-de-semana em qualquer hora, de acordo com a vossa conveniência.

O facto de eu estar a fazer um reply ao email referente ao ticket inicial deste caso e, portanto, a incluir o número do ticket no subject garante que os vossos serviços podem ter acesso imediato a todos os meus dados mas, como habitualmente, fico na expectativa de receber mais um email vosso explicando que para dar seguimento ao meu pedido terei de vos enviar (pela N-ésima vez) os meus dados de cliente. Nem eu esperaria, aliás, outra coisa dos vossos serviços e confesso que ficarei bastante desiludido se este facto não se verificar.

Despeço-me, então, com o maior apreço pelos senhores e pelo serviço que prestam e dou-me mais uma vez por muito feliz pelo facto de não ter qualquer alternativa ao vosso serviço na zona da minha residência actual.

Melhores cumprimentos, Nuno Nunes

PS- Após a composição desta mensagem apercebi-me que não posso deixar de fazer a minha parte para espalhar os elogios à vossa empresa, pelo que os informo que se pretenderem assistir à imortalização destes meus elogios poderão encontrar uma cópia deste email on-line e em permanência no seguinte URL: http://local.nunonunes.org/weblog/storiesthoughtsandrants/elogioa_tvcabo Afinal, todos temos de fazer a nossa parte…

Ed Harcourt at Santiago Alquimista

Last evening Ed Harcourt did a show at Santiago Alquimista.

I went to the concert without having the faintest idea about who he was or what kind of music he played. Tuxa Heard a couple of his songs on the radio and liked it and so we decided to give it a shot.

Well, after the fact I must say I’m more than pleased I went. I really liked the show, technical problems and memory faults and all. The only thing that bugged me was that this guy showed up almost an hour late, so that the show started nearly at 23h00 on a Sunday…

This is a kind of performer that I don’t get to see much of nowadays, the singer-songwriter who does it all by himself on stage, plays lots of instruments and fiercely loves his piano. And a really powerful voice to boot!

The songs themselves are all over the map, from the pure sentimental, to the mellow to the noisy rock-style songs. Oh and the loops, we mustn’t forget about that because even if (as he said) it is not terribly original, it still is great fun to watch it be done and to listen to it.

Now that I’ve done a little research I found out that this guy already has 5 albums. He slipped right under my radar until now, but not anymore. Well, at least not for live shows as I don’t really know how I’ll feel about listening to a full record of him…
Anyway, live and on stage he rules!

Oh and another thing: this was the first time I’ve ever been to Santiago Alquimista and I must say I absolutely loved it!
The whole concept is great, the theatre/concert/show/bar hall. And the physical space itself, very roomy, very aired (huge windows for all the smoke to go out of), very small (it tops up at 200 people and yesterday there were far fewer people than that which made it all the better for this particular concert)…

I definitely must track down what goes on in there in the future because it just lends itself to the type of shows that I enjoy the most.

I took a few pictures of the show with my cell phone (my my, how I’ve fallen for this one…). They’re at Flickr.

Technorati Tags: music, live shows

X-Men III: The Last Stand

Could someone please just take Brett Ratner and somehow make sure he just can’t get anywhere near a movie studio again in the future? Ever? Please? Seriously!

Call it a merciful act. Merciful on all of us!

I think this strip sums it up pretty well.

Spreading the disease / Mixed feelings

Yesterday when I was about to post the latest episode of the Undercover Songs podcast I had really mixed feelings about it. Was it too dark and brooding? Was it too creepy? Was it too strange? Was it OK?

In the end I decided to just post it and stop thinking too much about it.

Well, today I’ve been receiving feedback on it and no one tells me that they thought the show was “OK” or “good”. No, what people tell me is either that this is by far the best show I’ve ever produced or else that they don’t really know if they liked it because it left them feeling strange and unsettled.

So I guess I was right all along to post this episode, that was exactly the sort of feeling I got from those songs.

Now the question that comes to mind is: but is that a good thing?

Music does indeed rule!

Technorati Tags: music

Dead beat

That’s what I feel like today, dead beat.

After a week which has been particularly tiresome I get a day like this…

I got up really early in the morning to get to the airport and wait inside of a plane for almost an extra hour for the food to get on board, which was bad.

During the flight I got to finish up most of the editing I still needed to do on the new episode of the podcast, which was good.

Got to Paris and went straight to a meeting which lasted the rest of the day (even lunch was had in the meeting room), which was exhausting.

Left the meeting and went straight to the airport to wait for yet another extra hour to board the plane (never even knew why), which was infuriating.

During the flight back finished editing the podcast and drafted up the post for the blog, which was made out of sheer dedication and the strongest desire not to miss the (self-imposed) dead-line.

Got home and posted the new episode, which was nice.

Now to eat and get some sleep because tomorrow is friday and I’ll have to get up extra early (again) to beat the traffic to get to the office, which will surely be almost impossible.

Thank God it’s (almost) Friday! I don’t think I could stand much more of a week like this one