As some of you may have heard or experienced, Netflix is having lots of problems with like every part of their system right now with their shipment system. After I realized the problem and got the message from Netflix apologizing for the problem, I have watched the whole thing for its humor value. I shipped in four movies on Monday, which are normally received on Tuesday (city life is awesome). I normally go through movies at a pretty fast rate (it was a summer goal of mine to watch and ship in movies the next mail day–I feel proud), so I first though it was Netflix fucking around to screw me over. On Wednesday, I got emails for the two of the four, but on my queue, all of the movies appeared to have been received on the website as the status was listed as ’shipping today.’ Normally, that message is only up for an hour or two; all of the movies I was requesting were common enough that there shouldn’t have been a problem with supply, so I realized the problem when status stayed that way that something was up. Imagine my surprise when I got Serpico on Thursday, but none of the others that were slated to come! Supposedly, everything is fixed and the last few were sent on Friday (a call to customer service revealed that there are still some more to be sent today). I got the documentary Fuck today (that was one for headphones in the maclab; the movie uses the word ‘fuck’ more than any other movie by a lot: 834 times in 93 minutes), but I am still missing two. The best part of it all is that the website is just totally and completely borked. Serpico still reads as “shipping Wednesday” along with the other two I still haven’t received, although I did receive an e-mail for Serpico on Friday. Fuck (or ‘F**k’ as netflix calls it) is registered correctly, but it was still in my queue of things yet to be shipped as well, but I deleted it. I also got an e-mail for it after I had already watched it. We will see what Monday brings…. I am supposed to receive a 15% discount for this month, which comes to about $3.50 on a 4 at a time plan, which is really just exact compensation. I average a little over 20 movies a month or more, so that means that I am paying around $1 per movie with my rental. One was delayed a day, which I can’t really complain about, but I was outed a full watch-return cycle, which by that logic is about $3. With the Olympics, there is plenty to watch, but the failure to provide service is a bigger sting. I was pretty close to canceling before they announced the problem, and I don’t really feel like they have done a whole lot to make feel better about them.

The problem is rather curious. Seems like some sort of database problem, especially with the website, but they are still managing to ship, just slowly. If the whole system was down, nothing would be coming out, and if it was some problem updating the site, the shipping would presumably still be working fine. They are somewhere between those two states. I suppose the details of the problem will  meet the news in some form sooner or later, so we will have to find out.

Without immediate work to do, and without a desire to do any, last Friday I decided to go see Beowulf in IMAX 3D at the only place in the city limits of Chicago playing Hollywood movies on IMAX: Navy Pier. Besides the other people in the theater, a particularly obnoxious group of tourists/Chicagoans, the movie was great. I can’t imagine that this film will do to great on DVD; unfortunately, the film seemed to demonstrate that the art of films in 3D has not moved far beyond waving random things around in front of the screen. Granted, with the amazing CG on IMAX 3D, I enjoyed the experience of watching it, but I have to agree with the many critics who point out how much more shallow this movie is compared to the original poem, as much as I like Vikings in any context.

Anyways, as the title of this post suggests, I wasn’t so satisfied with Navy Pier. Friday was in fact the third time I have sworn never to return to Navy Pier as well as the third time I have been there. I suppose it is little more than a tourist trap, but I think that gives it a little too much credit. The main problem I have with it is that I can’t think of anything that is actually there. There are plenty of crap shops there, but if you really want to get pointless Chicago junk, you are about a ten minute walk away from the most trafficked part of Michigan Ave (the so called “Magnificent Mile”, as I have never referred to it as). Why anyone would want to go to Navy Pier instead of Michigan for shopping is a mystery to me. There are boat tours that do down the Chicago river or go around Lake Michigan, but the benefit to these seems to be that they in fact take you away from Navy Pier to something more interesting. When it is not freezing cold outside, there are vendors along the paths. In the summer, I can understand the attraction to a point. On the one hand, you are on the lake, which is nice, but it is still kind of like going to Disney World for a drink: you just don’t do it. Likewise, the ferris wheel is all but useless outside of summer, given the freezing temperatures and gusting winds. As I wondered around for I while, I noticed that there was a sign that said something about how the ferris wheel was brought to you by McDonald’s, complete with there slogan, “I’m Lovin’ It.” Beyond the ferris wheel and the IMAX theater, there is the Chicago Shakespeare Company’s theater, for reasons that are far beyond me. If you have a kid who needs to go to the children’s museum (I am doubtful of the quality), then it might make sense, but all in all, Navy Pier is a worthless piece of trash. The restaurants are all chains of course, which adds to the pointlessness of this place. Again with Michigan so close, I don’t know why anyone would want to go the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company or to the McDonald’s of the future (complete with the generic science museum plasma ball). After I got my ticket, I wondered over to Billy Goat Tavern for lunch–always a good time. To an otherwise great city, I consider Navy Pier to be a pretty horrid blemish.