Rant of the Week

Review of the Year: Raging Kitsch

Extremely Unhappy Canadian (and other) Cell Phone Users. Why does the government allow cell phone providers to behave like this?

The Smart Phone I'm thinking of buying. Or maybe not. I won't buy an iPhone because I don't want Apple telling me what I may or may not install on my phone.

Thank you Lord-- Manitoba does something that actually benefits voters instead of corporations. When, Ontario?

It appears to me from reading endlessly about customers' experiences with cell phone services is:

the salesmen will lie through their teeth to sign you up
they will break contracts and deny you services with impunity. They don't even seem to fear bad customer relations.
if your phone breaks for whatever reason and you can't use the service they are providing, and can't get a replacement phone, they will gleefully continue to bill you to the full term of the contract. Unlike the utility companies-- water, gas-- they don't need to actually provide you with any product in order to get your money
they will make it as difficult as possible to resolve any issues you may have
the goal of the "contract" is to squeeze you for as much money as they possibly can while providing as little real service as possible

I believe they must now rank near lawyers and auto repair shops in terms of customer satisfaction.

2012-12-23

Best paragraph from a movie review this year (Manohla Dargis, NY Times, on "Extremely Loud a& Incredibly Close"):

But it’s an impossible role in an impossible movie that has no reason for being other than as another pop-culture palliative for a trauma it can’t bear to face. In truth, “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” isn’t about Sept. 11. It’s about the impulse to drain that day of its specificity and turn it into yet another wellspring of generic emotions: sadness, loneliness, happiness. This is how kitsch works. It exploits familiar images, be they puppies or babies — or, as in the case of this movie, the twin towers — and tries to make us feel good, even virtuous, simply about feeling. And, yes, you may cry, but when tears are milked as they are here, the truer response should be rage.

Best line from a Wikipedia entry about a washed up former actress:

I've just been robbed by the girl who played Kimberly on Diff'rent Strokes" From a 911 call, February 28, 1991. How did the police know she wasn't kidding?

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