dukowsical?

hmmm... maybe that's what the show will be called.


buk's widow has contacted gary, the composer, and we're trying to get her in contact with john, the producer, so everything gets smoothed out.

the reality is that since he's a public figure, we can do whatever we want, but we sure don't want to piss anyone off. especially buk's widow. perhaps we'll just call the show "Dukowsical!"

or not.

in other news: the shoe is killing. the cast is perfect. we are on the right track for opening next friday. it is really exciting. man.

it began as a joke in email. and now... it's a real shoe. holy shit.

in some other news, fuck directv. those motherfuckers. i haven't had tv in 25 years. i had a roommate around '89 who paid for cable, so i had tv for about a year, but i haven't really been in touch with the technology of tv. we have a monitor with a dvd/vcr for movies and whatnot, but we've never gotten the evil messages from the outside world.

figured we'd go for it with the new house, especially since tivo sounds perfect. you don't have to scroll through channels to find something... it just records what you want... blah blah.

so directv had some partnership with tivo. i searched on the directv site for tivo and it brought up some results for a dvr and a tivo© thing. i ordered it and they came and installed everything. very efficient, very cool...

when i go to the dvr thingy, it becomes apparent that it is definitely *not* tivo. the fuck? i email them saying "your web site returns pages with "tivo" and even has "tivo" in one of the pages' address bar so why are you not sellling me tivo?" the reply was "well, yeah, we used to partner with tivo, but not anymore... our dvr has a lot of the same features as tivo" i called and spoke to someone who was clueless.

i figured they'd want to do the right thing, so i wrote aksing where i should send the unit for return.

Here's their reply:

Thank you for writing. I am sorry to hear about your dissatisfaction
with your DVR units. If you follow the link that you gave us that
page does not even mention TiVo or the TiVo specific features. We do
still offer TiVo units, however they are high definition TiVo units.
Unfortunately, all sales are final once the equipment is installed.
We are unable to have you return them at this point.

If you have any further questions about this situation, you are
welcome to respond to this letter and we will answer as quickly as we
are able. You are also welcome to call our Customer Installation
Support team between the hours of 6:05 AM - 1:00 AM Eastern Time
(Daily), at 1-888-355-7530.

Thank you again for writing and stay tuned to DIRECTV.com for the
latest news and information about our services.

Sincerely,

Christopher A
DIRECTV Customer Service

my reply... hey.. maybe i could get a show out of these motherfuckers.

Hi, Christopher A:

No, it doesn't mention tivo, but the address bar mentions tivo. Every
search on your site for Tivo brings up those pages.

How is "DIRECTV® DVR WITH TiVo®" not a mention of Tivo?

"Where is that?"

Right here:

http://search.atomz.com/search/?sp-q=tivo&x=0&y=0&sp-a=sp1001d23b&server=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.directv.com&secureserver=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.directv.com&path=glb&page=Search.dsp&assetcount=5&login=0&home=0

If you have a page that comes up when I'm searching for Tivo on your
site then I expect it is Tivo. There are advertising materials sent to
my home mentioning Directv with Tivo. I understand branding and
partnering and figured you have some deal with Tivo where your units
don't say "tivo" on them.

This is really, really, really wrong of you to do this.

I am going to send the box back to you. You go ahead and keep it. Keep
it on your desk. Let it remind you that you have a brand new customer
who you mislead. I'm serious. Let it sit there and remind you that you
toed the company line and didn't listen to reason. You win.

I am a brand new customer and I already hate your company. I don't
believe you're sorry. If you were sorry, you'd take the unit that I
have no use for back.

How about at least cancelling my dvr service so I can get tivo? How
about that?

Enjoy the paperweight. Think of the $200 you saved DirecTV.

Motherfuckers. Motherfucking motherfuckers. they are on my list of shitheads. right at the top.