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I received my shipping notification this morning so things are happening and they are getting the orders out. I hope the people who were sick are feeling a lot better. I'm looking forward to hearing Archer!
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I also ordered Supes and Archer together, and today received, packed thoroughly enough to be shot from a shirt canon off the moon and land in my yard undamaged, my package, which contained only Superman.
I emailed them with my info - the order and their shipping notification - in case that might make sorting things out easier for them. Either they'd already caught the error and were already about fixing it, or they cared very much about my note, because I received a new emailed shipping notice 40 minutes after I'd sent my note to them, on this very Saturday.
That's the point of ordering from them. Everyone makes mistakes. Not everyone demonstrates how much they care not to, both in their exceptional packing, which really covers the mistakes of shippers, not them, and in their rapid response, or even pre-response, to this particular one.
Contact them. Let 'em know what's up. They give more than a few damns - they'll sort it out.
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I received my ARCHER/WARNING SHOT yesterday. Played it tonight and the ARCHER reminds me of his POLICE STORY type stuff, but I'd say POLICE STORY has a lot more energy and a better more engaging Theme. Only a couple of cues total close to two minutes in length. One cue totals 2:45 and it's the longest cue on the CD. Most average between 30- 45 seconds to a minute in length. For some reason some of the short cues have an ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES suspense sound to them. Is it just me? It's definitely Goldsmith. Nice to have as a Goldsmith Completest. It's fun stuff and pretty cool.
WARNING SHOT sounds great. The two scores on one CD go nice together.
Curious about how Warning Shot main title compares with the first LALA release. They added some stereo ambience on that one and I gotta say the original release sounded better when comparing the sample of the new main title.
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Running a mail order operation to sell the FSM CDs, subscriptions and other items (a few books as I recall) was great for cash flow but the most stressful and exhausting period of my life. To this day I have a recurring nightmare where I am still in that Culver City office (with the Kaplan bros., haha) trying to clear out the inventory and office furniture. I think it was 15 years ago when I finally had enough and said, "no amount of money is worth this," and called Craig at SAE to ask if he would take the mail order business. He said yes and we put all the merchandise on four or five wooden pallets for pickup by Fedex Ground. When the pallets were sitting on the sidewalk on the corner waiting for the truck, I saw though the window a blind man with a cane crossing the street, and it was like a slapstick setup as he got closer and closer to these giant obstructions. I think I finally called out the window and/or went outside to let him know what we were doing to block the sidewalk.
This is a longwinded way to say that I have a lot of empathy for the folks who run one of these mail order operations. There is always a low-level "buzz" of problems that you have to resolve: expired credit cards, broken jewel boxes, creased booklets...and yes, certain customers who have fixations on booklet creases or scratched discs...or asking us to lie on customs forms or double-pack the merchandise. You can reduce the amount of "buzz" but never eliminate it entirely. The inevitable manufacturing problems (recalled booklets, discs) happen no matter what you try to do to proof everything and are these weeks-long nightmares. People complain via phone and email at all hours of the day and night and you just have to eat it and say you're sorry and send them whatever they want. For me personally, I had an impossible time handing off the customer relations to anybody else inside the office, because I always wanted the customers to be fully satisfied with the experience. I had to send the entire operation 3,000 miles away to be free from the stress. And then it killed our cash flow and we had to stop printing the FSM magazine and close the office and lay everybody off a year later.
Be nice to the merchants! And yes they should absolutely be nice to you—it's their job!
Lukas
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from what I read somewhere on this forum, there was some delay due to some of the LLL crew being sick.
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Hi Lukas
Nice is one thing. Not even receiving a response form anyone--despite sending numerous requests via their site and the email update they sent me several weeks ago about the order is another. That is not being nice to me--and no justification for that.
I'm sure they have a lot to catch up with and countless people emailing them, as an office bug hit everyone around this key time when they just announced Superman. Let's give 'em a little leeway and patience?
Yavar
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Sorry we are not getting these orders out faster than a speeding bullet nor answering the constant "Where's my order?" questions that we have been plagued with since Feb 15 (yes, Feb 15...it amazes me how people do not know how to read that shipping starts on Feb 22)
We did get hit with a nasty bug at the office, causing two major players (Matt and Scott) to be out for 4 days (including the weekend). It caused a major log jam until I hired a new guy to come in and help. Scott and Matt returned Wednesday, not 100%, but they came in and worked all week and weekend along with the other folks.
As for emails from customers, we have received more emails asking where their order is than any other time in 17 years of business. We are focusing on getting orders out first to the customers, then to wholesalers, then emails from folks who want:
1. Cancel their order for one reason or another / refund them
2. Change their shipping address or have the cd shipped to another place
3. Add an item to their order (if possible)
4. Replace damaged goods
5. Send out the correct item because they got the wrong cd in the mail
And when there is time, someone will then take time out from packing up orders look up someones order number or name and find out if their order has been shipped. Then, email that person back. 9 times out of 10 that person gets a response and then laughs because the cd was sitting at home in front of their doorstep that same day they got a response.
As for me, I'm currently supervising the production of 25+ titles, finishing up inventory reports, getting our corporate tax stuff taken care of that is due March 15 and on top of that working on royalty reports.
We do apologize for not answering every "Where is my order?" email, but there you have the reasons why.
MV
PS I figured it would be best to take a few moments today to address this matter publicly on the board so all can read it.
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That's a great post MV -- you should put it up on your FB page and maybe even a more generic version of it on your main site! 
It amazes me when people expect Amazon level response and shipping time from a small outfit. First of all, you only have a few employees...and second of all, you don't treat them like absolute shit and require them to work through sickness!
Yavar
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Posted: |
Mar 4, 2019 - 1:30 PM
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By: |
Graham
(Member)
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Sorry we are not getting these orders out faster than a speeding bullet nor answering the constant "Where's my order?" questions that we have been plagued with since Feb 15 (yes, Feb 15...it amazes me how people do not know how to read that shipping starts on Feb 22)
We did get hit with a nasty bug at the office, causing two major players (Matt and Scott) to be out for 4 days (including the weekend). It caused a major log jam until I hired a new guy to come in and help. Scott and Matt returned Wednesday, not 100%, but they came in and worked all week and weekend along with the other folks.
As for emails from customers, we have received more emails asking where their order is than any other time in 17 years of business. We are focusing on getting orders out first to the customers, then to wholesalers, then emails from folks who want:
1. Cancel their order for one reason or another / refund them
2. Change their shipping address or have the cd shipped to another place
3. Add an item to their order (if possible)
4. Replace damaged goods
5. Send out the correct item because they got the wrong cd in the mail
And when there is time, someone will then take time out from packing up orders look up someones order number or name and find out if their order has been shipped. Then, email that person back. 9 times out of 10 that person gets a response and then laughs because the cd was sitting at home in front of their doorstep that same day they got a response.
As for me, I'm currently supervising the production of 25+ titles, finishing up inventory reports, getting our corporate tax stuff taken care of that is due March 15 and on top of that working on royalty reports.
We do apologize for not answering every "Where is my order?" email, but there you have the reasons why.
MV
PS I figured it would be best to take a few moments today to address this matter publicly on the board so all can read it.
Success does bring with it many headaches.
Keep up the stellar work!
Graham
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Posted: |
May 10, 2021 - 4:41 AM
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By: |
Graham Watt
(Member)
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I couldn't find an appropriate thread for comments on this release, so mine are going here.
Part of my 2021 batch which I must spend more time with, I've given the CD about three spins and it's really growing on me. In fact it'll probably end up being considered one of those under-the-radar gems, minor in the grand scheme of things but with so much to enjoy within.
ARCHER was completely new to me, and I think to probably everyone. The theme might be borderline annoying but I always end up loving those synth-driven TV scores and themes that JG did in the '70s. Tracks are short and it works as a listen much better if you don't look at them and just let it all flow. There's a heck of a lot of interesting stuff going on which might pass one by on first listen. Sometimes in the middle of a quite chirpy track we'll get a sudden detour into dark territory, with a tablas (?) interlude, or a creepy electronic effect. Kept me awake anyway, always something of interest going on. And those little piano touches, like a rolling downward scale are amazing little details which lift this score way above average. I think I even hear a bit of North's "Grant Me an Honorable Way to Die" from CLEOPATRA in the tortured draggings of the longest track (13 - "A Matter of Judgment").
Not sure if the kind of "fading in and out" sound in the second part of the Main Title is an anomaly or if it's really the intended synth effect. Whatever, there's a lot more to these twenty minutes than meets the ear, so it's going on re-spin.
I hadn't been familiar with the earlier WARNING SHOT release(s), so this was as new to me as ARCHER. And, well, sorry to bore you all - but it's great. Am I so easily pleased? I don't know... I'm usually a very demanding listener. Anyway, I'm lovin' this. Yeah, it starts off maybe just TOO close to FLINT, but I actually think I prefer the darker tone of WARNING SHOT over both the Flint scores. Great stuff. Artie Kane on piano, and it's all just brimming with imagination, sharing some of its soundscapes with SEBASTIAN and the more avant-garde squawking cornet (?) bits of A STEP OUT OF LINE. I have a great fondness for this, even the Batman-like "POW!" exclamations, which might (or might not) take some gravitas away from the film. I dunno. Never seen it. Don't really want to. It'll spoil the music for me.
Ah, I have to say that those two song demos of the theme are horrendous. Terrible lyrics both times, and an awful crooner (who was that?). But they do show just how difficult it was to make a song out of Jerry Goldsmith's perfectly effective melody. It wasn't the first or last time either. Putting lyrics to a Goldsmith theme was often akin to trying to drive a square block into a round hole with a mallet.
Another question - Is the stereo bonus track, "The Gasser, part 2" different music from the mono "Gasser" in the main prog? I haven't compared them side by side. I know that the stereo bonus is a lot shorter, but is it really just a stereo section of the same track which was (somehow) found?
And another question - WARNING SHOT has the credit "Orchestrations by Jerry Goldsmith". I thought he always worked with an orchestrator, certainly at this stage in his career. Is this a one-off? How did that happen?
And to finish with, I heartily recommend this CD. It really is a joy and shall be getting a lot of mileage in my house. But I think I have to hear FACE OF A FUGITIVE next, and that might not be until next weekend.
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And another question - WARNING SHOT has the credit "Orchestrations by Jerry Goldsmith". I thought he always worked with an orchestrator, certainly at this stage in his career. Is this a one-off? How did that happen?
I'm guessing it was a small enough orchestra that there was no real need for additional orchestration. Of course as many know, Jerry entirely orchestrated his first four feature scores... which might explain why Bernard Herrmann was supposedly upset and gave him a hard time when he had orchestration help on Lonely Are the Brave. Up until that point it probably seemed he had a comrade in arms for the whole "I do all my own orchestrations" thing. But I don't think Warning Shot is the only thing from 1962 or later which Jerry orchestrated on his own...I think he did some of the other small orchestra things for TV without any additional orchestration help.
And to finish with, I heartily recommend this CD. It really is a joy and shall be getting a lot of mileage in my house. But I think I have to hear FACE OF A FUGITIVE next, and that might not be until next weekend.
Another score Jerry entirely orchestrated on his own -- looking forward to your thoughts on it, as always!
Yavar
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I think the story of the ‘stereo’ “The Gasser” mix came up on Yavar’s excellent Goldsmith Odyssey podcast.
There were two different mono fold-down mixes for a section of it. One emphasised the percussion a bit more. Lining them up, and correcting for speed variations and other wonkiness, allowed a rudimentary stereo mix to be made from these two mono ‘angles’.
Chris
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