I had a wonderful experience two weekends ago attending TimeGate
2010 in Atlanta, GA. Truth be told, the main reason I attended the
convention was because it was the first North American convention
appearance of my friend and mentor Dominic Glynn. But the
convention was a great success and I had a lot of fun there.
Upon
arriving there Friday evening, I called Dom and we went out for
drinks. We had a lovely time catching up. As we were discussing the
convention schedule, I mentioned the Doctor Who music panel on
Sunday. The program billed it as “Dominic Glynn and a panel of
enthusiasts,” and I joked to Dom about it. “Enthusiasts? Why am I
not on it?” Dom, ever gracious, thought that was a perfectly
legitimate suggestion, and said that he would pull some strings
with the hosts at the convention to get me on it.
On Saturday, I
attended the Eighties Doctor Who panel (which Dom was on), and then
Dom introduced me to some of the people running the convention.
They very kindly agreed to allow me to sit on the Doctor Who music
panel on Sunday. After the Eighties panel, we went out for lunch
and then regrouped with Dom a short time later. I had started
downloading Saturday’s Doctor Who episode, “Cold Blood,” back in my
hotel room, and it had finished by the time we returned from lunch.
I asked Dom if he wanted to join us for the episode, and he
accepted. A good time was had by all.
After the episode we made our
way back to the convention for the cabaret performance. Dom did a
lovely improv piece on the piano, which heavily incorporated the
Doctor Who theme and some of his incidental music. I recorded it,
but Dom in his modesty has requested that I not post it. Later that
night we attended a screening of “Bad Day,” the film Dom scored
last year. It was a low-budget British crime thriller. The film was
dark and gritty (I liked it) and Dom’s score was excellent. The
score is
available on iTunes
now as well.
On Sunday, we headed down to the convention in the
morning, where I had the privilege of sitting on both the Doctor
Who music panel and the Q&A session with Dom. We talked about
Doctor Who’s rich musical history, I demoed some of my isolated
elements of Delia Derbyshire’s original theme, and we discussed
some of the subsequent versions of the theme. Dom also
deconstructed his 2008 remix of the theme for the audience. We also
took a look at Dom’s score for “Survival,” and he demonstrated what
it was like with and without music. It was a wonderful, informative
set of panels, and I really wish we had more time to really dive
into it. Perhaps next year?
After the panels on Sunday, we went out
to lunch with Dom one last time and then made our exit. I almost
wish I could have stayed longer, because I had a truly exceptional
time there. Hopefully I can coordinate a return next year, and
maybe I can even work with the convention hosts on expanding their
music panel offering. That would be something truly
special.
UPDATE: As an added treat, here is the “TimeGate Mix”
that Dom did for the convention. It is a remixed version of his
2008 DVD theme.
(Please ignore the “Danny Stewart” attribution. I am hosting the mix on my Bandcamp site, but it is solely the work of Dominic Glynn. I have attributed it correctly on the track itself.)
While I was at TimeGate, Dom was gracious enough to provide me with
his updated 2008 Doctor Who theme multitrack. Since I returned
home, I’ve been hard at work on a new theme based on it. This is a
new mix of Dominic Glynn’s theme based on his 2008 remix for the
Trial of a Time Lord DVDs, using elements from his original and
2008 multitracks, plus several new elements of my own. It’s a
pretty good indication of my conception of a “perfect” mix of
Dominic Glynn’s theme. Enjoy!
While in the Apple Store buying
my iPhone 4, I was treated like royalty by Apple. It was like I was
their only customer. They asked for my name and constantly referred
to me by it. They asked if I had questions or concerns and walked
me through the process. The guy even made casual conversation about
bumpers and some other design-related things about iPhone 4 while
we were waiting for my iPhone to activate. But since I was using my
brother’s upgrade eligibility, we needed to switch the numbers on
the phones, which required AT&T.
AT&T had a small table of their own
inside the Apple Store. It was, to say the least, a stark contrast
to my experience with Apple. The Apple employee introduced me by
name to the AT&T workers, who ignored him. They were sitting at the
table with ugly Dell laptops running Windows XP, Internet Explorer,
and some incredibly ugly proprietary software that still had the
Cingular logo on it. The AT&T employee I dealt with was coughing
and sneezing into his hands, then handling my phone. Another AT&T
employee jokingly chided him for not using gloves to handle a
customer’s phone, which they both then laughed about right in front
of me.
It took AT&T several failed attempts, repeatedly entering the
same information, to get the numbers switched on my phones. It
seemed to me like carelessness and not being entirely sure what
they were doing. Dealing with AT&T took roughly three times as long
as dealing with Apple.
While I found some of the experience amusing,
I found a lot of it disturbing. How is coughing on a customer’s
newly purchased and just unboxed property and then joking about it
with your fellow employees in any way professional or acceptable
behavior?
I was frankly astounded at how great of a job Apple did
with their service. I would have probably broken down after a
couple of hours of iPhone launch sales. But they were the image of
politeness and professionalism. AT&T was embarrassing.
Just thought
I should share that.
(Regarding iPhone 4 itself, my experience
echoes that of most other people. The device’s design, display, and
speed are a joy to experience while making the iPad feel outdated
just months after its release. There is little else I feel the need
to add. It’s an amazing update and well worth it for anyone
considering it.)
