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Three years ago this month, I wrote a blog entry about my discontent with the Official Website of Glenn Miller. The site formerly was hosted at glennmillerstore.com and sometime after 2006 went off the web for good. Well, I did a Google search today and found it’s now hosted at glennmiller.com. For the longest time, glennmiller.com never came up as even being a website and I would guess was being squatted on by somebody else.  Great to see the domain name part of the official stable and see the site back but they still haven’t updated it.

Okay, folks in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. I haven’t updated Serenade in Blue since 2008. But at least it’s 2008! The last news item on the OFFICIAL GM site is from 2004.

And guess what? They still have Tommy Dorsey in the desktop wallpaper section. But there’s good news! Their feedback/comment page is back so I left a note about the faux pas. I will probably continue to complain about this site until they at least fix that.

About the only thing they did update was they did add a nice lil’ iTunes button to the front page. Click on it and you’ll be taken to the iTunes Store where you can purchase tons of GM tunes.

Forbes.com recently took the time to probe the question that burns in all of our minds. What does the car you drive say about who you are? (“What Your Car Says About You.” Oct 9th). Using vastly complex processes and highly complicated mathematical models (aka surveys and statistics) they’ve determined, for example, that by owning a Chevy you’re telling the world that you don’t use the Internet.

I think Brian might have something to say about that.

Others vehicle makes in the list include Bentley, Lexus, Honda, Ford, ect… Each particular brand says whether you’re rich, married, old, young, college educated and Internet savvy.

Of course, Pontiac was not listed which, for myself, must just mean I’m obsolete.

Some may wonder why Forbes magazine would run such a list. After all, Forbes is more geared toward financial and business news, not automotive trends and car styling. The answer is obvious. They’re doing a service for their financial and business minded readers. If you read Forbes magazine in order to look financially smart and successful then you MUST drive the car that conveys this message!

Of course, how many of us, while driving day to day, actually stop and think “Oooo…that person is driving a Ford. I bet they don’t have a college degree or use the Internet!”

Unless you happen to not be a fan of Fords in which case, you probably think worse of the person driving it.

By the way, for you Chevy drivers out there… Internet? You don’t need no stinkin’ Internet.

Recently, I tried to open an online bank account at iGoBanking.com. I went through their application process, gave them every bit of information they could possibly want short of my bra size and was good to go once I could verify my address with them. To do so, I had to mail one of three supporting documents to them: A copy of an electric/gas bill, a copy of a bank statement showing my address or a copy of a land line telephone bill (not a cell phone bill).

Well I couldn’t provide the utility or the phone bill because neither is in my name. My bank statement is an electronic statement and I wondered if they would accept this but it was all I had.  I downloaded the estatement anyway, printed it and mailed it off.

I got an email that it wasn’t acceptable as it did not show my bank’s name or logo on it. (Did I mention it’s an estatement? My bank simply sends out the generic statement that would be printed on statement paper if it were mailed, the statement paper of which has the damn logo on it).

So I called iGoBanking and explained that my statement is an estatement and that I do not currently get statements in the mail. Could I send them an older statement? I was told I could if it was less than 90 days old. My last paper statement was over six months ago.

The woman on the phone, however, asked me to forward my estatment to her to look at, which I did. Half an hour later, I received an email saying my application was declined.

By the way, I was trying to open a CD. I was trying to give THEM money! I could maybe understand if this were a loan application, but where they obviously verified my credit report, I don’t understand what the big deal was. My credit report shows I’ve lived at my current address for a very, very long time.

Ah well, their loss. I have no qualms about taking my business elsewhere, but I can’t believe I’m the only person in this particular situation, where utilities are not in my name and I do a lot of banking online and get a generic estatement. I tried iGoBanking originally because at the time of this writing, they have the highest CD rate in the land. If iGoBanking doesn’t want deposits from customers, then they simply should just drop their rates, not make folks go through loops and then be turned down for something that is really rather insignificant to the deposit application.

I should also note that I’ve opened online accounts, CDs and what have you, through other online financial institutions and never had this issue before.  So it looks like iNoGoBanking with iGoBanking.com!

A sampling of my recent YouTube viewing…

First, some drama. The Los Angeles wildfires of ’09.

I think these two vids speak for themselves. Both are time lapse photography of the LA fires, spanning several hours on August 29, 2009. The first one has music, the second does not nor does it need it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncSosDIKbb0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qqxjO5nr8k&NR=1

Although there’s no music on the second one, I couldn’t help but have The Door’s “LA Woman” running through my head.

I see your hair is burning
Hills are filled with fire…

Next, some comedy.  The cast of Hogan’s Heroes on Hollywood Palace with Bing Crosby in 1965. (It’s a Christmas themed show, thus the Christmas music at the beginning of it).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WexLDsdOGwY

Later in the program, the cast does come back to sing some carols. I know it’s only September but…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWxgo6WhABg&feature=related

Check out the commercial for the Sylvania Bluedot Flash Cube for your flash cube camera. How far we’ve come indeed since 1965. Isn’t it wild?

I was cleaning out some old papers and stuff today and came across an old magazine article pulled from an early ’90s issue of Seventeen Magazine. The article had to do with taking care of your car. (Surprised I kept it? LOL).

Anyway, on the backside of the article is part of an ad for General Motors. It’s only half the ad and I can’t tell what the photo is supposed to be (it’s a faded black and white photo of either a truck or maybe even an older car. But there’s not enough for me to tell which is which. LOL). Anyway, in light of the current situation with General Motors, it was the words that I found interesting.

“I want a car that helps me exercise my right to pursue happiness.”

Our engineers are concerned with safety, reliability, fuel economy, corrosion protection, ease of maintenance and hundreds of other important things you definitely need. But they’re not the only things you want. That’s why our designers are on hand to make sure GM cars and trucks are also a pleasure. A freedom. An independence. A reason why the driving age comes before the voting age. It’s an attitude expressed throughout our new engines, road-handling features, audio systems, interiors and designs.

All of which means that buying a new General Motors car or truck will never be a compromise between driving bliss and driving boredom.

General Motors.

I’ve always been partial to GM cars (with Chrysler/Mopar having a spot in my heart too…dang them Duke boys) and the words of that ad really struck me. Especially now, with the fact that the Pontiac brand is no more. I really believe that GM did build cars that were a pleasure, both to own and to drive. My hope, as GM works it way through this bankruptcy, that it will emerge a smarter business and realize that their history of building quality, fun cars, is their greatest asset.