NEW YORK GROOVE

Lily and I got tickets to see the new Mel Brooks musical, YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN and I wasn't sure what to expect from this 20 milliion dollar event.

First of all... I'm a HUGE fan of the film, as is everyone who walks into the theatre, so to say this show has a LOT to live up to is no small statement.

It lived up to it.

It was fun, the songs were fantastic and Andrea Martin... good lord, this woman is just so fucking good. Her creepy housekeeper, Frau Blucher, steals every scene and her big number "He Vas My Boyfriend" will have you screaming.

Megan Mullaly got top billing for this show, but she's not IN that much of the musical. She's in one scene in the opening act and then disappears until the end of the first half. But in that second half, she's hilarious.

Sutton Foster as Inga, Shuler Hensley as the Monster and Christopher Fitzgerald as Igor all do wonderful justice to the monumental performances in the movie by Terri Garr, Peter Boyle and Marty Feldman.

Fun time. REALLY fun time.

START SPREADING THE NEWS...

Lily and I will be in New York this week to attend a friend's wedding and enjoy the big city.

I'm ALSO going to be doing a signing party at JIM HANLEY'S UNIVERSE in Manhattan store, Friday, October 26th from 6-7pm. The address is:

JHU- MANHATTAN
4 WEST 33RD STREET
NEW YORK
(off 5th Avenue... opposite the Empire State Building)
tel: 212-268-7088

I'll be signing books and I'll do as many sketches as I can during that hour. Looking forward to meeting you all!

WELL, WHADDYA KNOW...?

I get a phone call today from a microsoft person to tell me that my xbox360 has already been fixed and shipped back to me. Not only that... when I checked the tracking number on the ups site, I discovered that my little xbox was being shipped to me 2 day air.

Now, it's a shame that Supervisor Amy couldn't have said "let me see what I can do" instead of "I can't do anything." That would've made this all the more nicer to discover this morning. But I couldn't believe how hard I had to fight to get someone to do a job that should've only taken two weeks to fix.

Anyhoo... it's on its way home where it belongs. I'm hoping to be online by the end of the week and I'm praying this will work like it should.

Gamertag is tombelandtsstg. Look me up.

MY XBOX 360 EXPERIENCE

Never owned an Xbox.

I've always been a PS2 gamer. But, since I've heard how great XBOX 360 is... and since there aren't too many games for PS3 for me to invest in, I thought I'd try a 360.

Paid for the system (it was actually a $460 birthday gift from Lily) and a day after the in-store warrantee expires and after, say four days of gaming, the machine quits working. It kept taking me to the Xbox Live menu and wouldn't read discs anymore. FOUR days of gameplay.

So my in-store quarantee was gone and I couldn't just replace the system. I, instead, have to mail my system in for repairs... but it shouldn't take longer than two weeks to fix. They (microsoft) even sends in a repair request to get a jump on the work. I still have a warrantee with Microsoft for the machine, I'm told... so it'll be free to have this done.

Except... guess what..? They don't ship from Puerto Rico for free. I had to pay, which was about $50.

I call after ten days and, yep, my system has arrived, I'm told. Not to worry, all will be well and my machine will be sent back to me and I'll get an email with a tracking number for it. Great.

Except when I contact them ten days later, for an update and y'know what..? Nobody seems to be able to find my little xbox anywhere. I'm on hold for 20 minutes and I'm told "Ahhhh here it is. It hasn't been repaired yet, but we'll put a rush on it for you."

Except when I contacted them again, a week later, darned if these people couldn't AGAIN find my xbox 360. I'm on hold for 45 minutes and told "thank you for your patience" about eighty times while I'm on hold.

"Oh, here it is... it seems that it hasn't been repaired yet," Mary tells me. "I'll send an email to the service center and make sure they get right to it. I'll tell you what, I'll make sure they add some stuff to it to balance everything out for your inconvenience."

I sigh.... "yeah, okay, whatever. Look... WHEN will I be holding this Xbox in my hands..?"

"Should be about five days and then shipped out." She replies.

Which brings us to tonight. Because tonight I contacted them for an update and SON OF A FUCKING BITCH they cannot find my system... AGAIN. I'm on hold for 35 minutes and then I hear... wait, everyone say it together:

"Okay, not to worry... here it is. It's waiting to be fixed at the service center."

So I'm obviously not happy at this point. I ask for a supervisor and Amy tells me now that she's PERSONALLY sending an email to the service center, so there won't be a delay." When I told Supervisor Amy that I've been told three times my problem would be fixed right away, she tells me not to worry. I'd only have to wait a bit for it.

I then asked how long this would take. Five to eight days, according to Amy. So then I ask her, how will this be sent to me? UPS ground.

UPS ground.

So, I tell her... "so that'll take up to ten working days to get here.."

"Yes."

"After hoping the service center does what's been guaranteed to do three times now... which will take five to eight days."

"Ummmm.." she says.

"Which now means I'll be waiting EIGHTEEN working days, which is three weeks. After having my system for over a month."

"I'm very sorry about the inconvenience, Mr. Beland" I hear her say as she tries to get back on the corporate unicycle.

"So then why not have the system sent to me via air mail?" I ask her. I mean, I already had to pay for the shipping there, which should've been covered in my warrantee.

"I... can't do that." she says.

"Couple of free games..?" I ask.

"I.... can't do that either."

"ahhhh..." I say. "So what you'd really appreciate here is me just saying 'thank you' and hanging up. Because, other than that... I really don't feel much appreciation coming from you guys."

I can see why everyone loves Xbox. Fuck.

NEXT ISSUE GOING TO PRINT!!!

It comes out later this month and it was one of THE hardest issues I've ever worked on. Writing on the events in this issue, combined with the loss of Mike Wieringo made this a very difficult issue to finish. I hope enjoy the results.

FROM THE SKETCH FILES...

One of the things I do for my readers is this. When someone buys a trade paperback at a convention, or book signing, I'll include a free sketch in the book. I'll be honest... I've done so many of these sketches, I've forgotten most of them in my time.

In this case, however, I did a bit more. A reader named Bill was getting married to his financee, Erin. They loved the TSSTG series and wanted to give their wedding party copies of CHANCES ARE, my first trade... as gifts. They asked me if I'd sign the copies and I thought, "Damned... if they're giving them away as WEDDING gifts, that's pretty special."

So I busted out the colored pencils and did a colored sketch in every book.... and included one for the bride and groom. This took a lot time, but it was worth it.

Bill recently featured the sketch I did for them on his blog and it was nice to see it again. It's sort of like getting a photo of one of your kids in a way. Thanks Bill!

MY FAVORITE SHOW IS BACK ON THE AIR

Funniest, most immature show on the air and I. Love. It.

It's also the greatest theme song. Evah.