March 28, 2006
I thought Netflix and I had a good thing going. That was up until about a month ago when things started to go bad.
I guess you could say I'm kind of needy. I couldn't go a few days without a new movie. In the beginning, Netflix seemed fine with this. It seemed like every other day I'd check the mailbox and find a new present inside.
Holidays and long weekends were the best. More quality time. I remember one vacation day watching Once Upon A Time In The West in the morning, Once Upon A Time In Americain the afternoon, and The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly at night.
Netflix even got along with my family. My wife wanted to see Hitch and The Princess Bride. As soon as I put them atop my queue they were being shipped out.
But even back then, things weren't perfect. I remember receiving a badly damaged copy of Secret Honor and my plans for the evening were ruined. I didn't complain, though. I overlooked it. We all have our faults and I felt that by pointing one out to Netflix, it might become remote or hurt.
Times change. It happens gradually, but one day you realize you aren't in sync anymore. I'd return a movie and it would take three days before Netflix said it even received it. This would throw off my plans and there would be whole weekends when I'd be without a movie.
Resentment grows. I received a significantly scratched copy of Shadow of a Doubt and didn't even try to smooth it over with a soft cloth. I went right to my laptop and filed a report demanding a replacement.
In the beginning, there was no need for demands. We gave freely.
The final straw came when I heard through the grapevine what Netflix really thought of people like me. "Heavy users" like myself are flagged and "throttled." We make profitability impossible and so our allotment of films is artificially suppressed.
I was too needy.
I always thought Netflix and I were together for life. I never thought about, you know, being unfaithful.
But recently Blockbuster Online has been looking good. It seems to have a good selection and turnaround time. It also says that it doesn't throttle guys like that old ball and chain Netflix...
Splitting up won't be easy. After all, I've got 230 items in my queue that I'll have to move wherever I end up.
Sure, I have moments of nostalgia. I remember the shipping efficiency of the first few weeks and how exciting those little red envelopes looked.
My wife asked me the other day if I think I can work things out with Netflix. I've been around long enough to never say never. People change and so do successful online companies.
But I also know about the bitterness and mess that are left behind when a love affair is over.
One of us is going to have to compromise for this to work out and it sure as hell isn't going to be me.
Stephen Latessa
November 22, 2005
I read with sadeness today that the musician Chris Whitley died after a battle with lung cancer. I remember reading a glowing review of Whitley's first disc, Living With The Law in Rolling Stone and going out to buy it. It is a really impressive disc, with some fine National Steel work and strong songs. After buying the disc I lost track of him, probably because, reading today, it took him four years to record a follow-up.
A few years after buying the album I saw that he was to perform at a Barnes and Noble near my house. I went with my brother to see him. We waited for quite a while before being told that his bus had broken down somewhere and he wouldn't be able to make the show. The organizers took down all of our names and addresses to notify us if the show would be rescheduled. It never was. However, about a week later, I received an autographed copy of his latest album in the mail. It was a classy gesture and I thought about it and the integrity it showed when I read about his death.
October 1, 2005
Stephen Latessa has been hired as a Local News Correspondent for the Lowell Sun newspaper. You can read all of his stories on the Lowell Sun web page. In addition, we will do our best to notify our loyal readers here whenever a new story will be published.
January 31, 2005
It is with excitement that we announce that Stephen Latessa has been brought on staff at JazzReviews.com to write album reviews. You can read all of his reviews on the Featured Writings page.
January 27, 2005
It is with excitement that we announce that Stephen Latessa has been brought on staff at AllAboutJazz.com to write album reviews. You can read all of his reviews on the Featured Writings page.
June 10, 2004
Stephen Latessa makes it into the mainstream media! Below is a column from Kendall Wallace, the publisher of the Lowell Sun and then the response from our own Stephen Latessa. The reply from the Editor makes it clear Mr. Latessa struck a nerve!
America needs support in the war on terror
By KENDALL WALLACE, Sun Publisher
LOWELL This past Memorial Day had some jolting reminders of the will and sacrifice of America's Greatest Generation the brave men and women who served in World War II.
The dedication of the Memorial in Washington, the sterling concert on PBS, the special on the D-Day decision of Dwight David Eisenhower, combined with the new book I'm reading called Fly Boys raises the issue of whether Americans still have the will and the character to preserve freedom and keep the world as safe as it can be in the terror-laden climate in which we live. The vicious terror attacks on the U.S. on Sept. 11, showed clearly the peril in which we live each day and grew great patriotic pride.
The tremendous effort by U.S. troops to wipe out the most brutal dictator since Adolf Hitler in just a few days, certainly displayed the will and the character of our troops. Continuing dissidence in Iraq has the U.S., almost on its own, seeking to stabilize a government for people who lived in terror for three decades, to give them the chance to live in peace. But the lingering fight has drained the American people.
The real drain, however, comes from nightly television news that almost undermines the goals of the country, daily newspaper attacks on the President and a Democratic political campaign that somehow blames the U.S. for world terror.
It's doubtful that the U.S. would have prevailed in World War II if President Franklin Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill had to operate under the same circumstances as President Bush.
In Fly Boys some pretty horrible stories concerning things the U.S. troops did to Japanese civilians and soldiers in the Far East dwarfed the stupid acts of a few U.S. soldiers in the Iraqi prisons. But in World War II, incidents like that were not reported and the country was united to oust Hitler and Japanese warlords.
We certainly can't condone inhuman actions, but somehow if the U.S. does it, we spread it all around the globe, yet many of us forget what happened to innocent civilians in New York on Sept. 11 or the horror in which people lived under Saddam Hussein for decades. And we seem to forget who financed terror around the world and that we are the only ones trying to do something about it.
President Bush has drawn a line in the sand. We are not going to let terrorists or those who finance them intimidate the remainder of the world.
War is ugly. Watching the youth of the next generation die in battle from vicious sniper attacks is heartbreaking. But assaulting a president who is trying to end the terror and in so doing may have made mistakes, seem self-defeating.
If more of us put a greater effort toward pushing the rest of the world to do its share, it would be a much more positive approach. Giving in to terror would be a huge mistake. Flag waving is nice, but do we mean it? Do we still have the will to do all we can to preserve a decent way of life for all?
The parade in Chelmsford was nice. Laying a wreath in Lowell in honor of war dead shows great respect for those who sacrificed their lives for the rest of us.
Do we still have that same will to stop fanatical terrorists who want to alter our way of life? I would encourage you to read the real D-Day stories in tomorrow's Sunday Sun.
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Publisher's View Concerns Reader
Thursday, June 10, 2004 - It is troubling indeed when the publisher of a newspaper pens a piece criticizing the reporting of news. In his June 5 column, Kendall Wallace laments that the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal and any critique of the president are reported on television or in newspapers.
Mr. Wallace writes with hazy nostalgia about D-Day and employs empty rhetoric about the need to "preserve freedom," all the while arguing that freedom of press "undermines the goals of the country."
While total objectivity is impossible to achieve, such a statement from the publisher of a newspaper raises truly disturbing questions about the mission of The Sun. If Kendall Wallace believes that reporting unpleasant facts and the voicing of dissent (including the message of the Democratic candidate for president) is "self-defeating," than how can readers trust the paper to present news and not just cherry-picked, feel-good propaganda?
STEPHEN LATESSA
Lowell
Editor's note: Hopefully, The Column didn't imply the media shouldn't report "unpleasant facts." The point was: radio, TV and newspapers should be more balanced in telling both sides of the story. We often revel in anti-American stories and downplay atrocities committed by others.
