Steve's Top 5 Top 5's-- #3 Top 5 Movies of 2009

Merry Christmas to You All!! Hope you are having a great day. Today I'm going to share my top 5 movies of the year. We have a true life story, a music concert/documentary, a Sci Fi blockbuster, a romantic comedy, and a humorous look at a fringe sport. Check out my choices, and let me know yours.

5) Star Trek: Take all your favorite characters from the original 1960's TV series. Replace Shatner and the crew with a bunch of young Hollywood rising stars. Throw in the directive twist of JJ Abrams (Alias, Lost) and you have a summer hit. And a guest appearance by Leonard Nimoy is just icing on the cake. Action from start to finish, just what the tired Star Trek franchise needed.

4) Whip It!: The directorial debut of Drew Barrymore is a quirky look at life inside the Texas roller derby circuit. Juno's Ellen Page shines as a young beauty pagent contest who longs for more. Daniel Stern is priceless as her dad. And we gotta love Drew Barrymore as the almost star of the Roller Derby team.

3) This Is It: The documentary about the preparations for Michael Jackson's tour of England. A tour that unfortunately never happened. I mainly went to see this in order to see Orianthi, the amazingly talented guitarist Jackson had hired for the tour. But I was impressed and amazed at the Jackson I saw. Expecting a sickly tired man, on the verge of collapse, if you were to take the word of his father just after his death; I found rather a professional performer ready to take the stage and restart a sagging career. If you haven't seen it yet, be sure to catch the DVD releasing in late January.

2) (500) Days of Summer: A quirky, wonderfully made romantic comedy about a boy who falls madly in love with a girl, and the girl who likes the boy. From my experience I can tell you, not always a good combination. Told in a series of flashbacks and flash forwards, this is one of the cutest and most enjoyable movies I've seen. Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt sparkle!! Just out on DVD this week, I promise you its worth the money to rent or purchase.

1) The Blind Side: The true story of a young man plucked from poverty by a caring woman and made to be part of the family, part of a team, and finally to become an NFL star. Already up for some Golden Globes, and sure to get a few nods at Oscar time. You'll laugh, You'll cry, You'll laugh again.

Not Easily impresed, and bulding customer Loyalty

Today I give you two posts in one, because somehow they run together, and my brain is producing blog post faster than I can post. I want to start by saying that in general, I'm not easily impressed anymore. Blame it on a cynical nature that I have gained as I age.

Now last Sunday the U2 show impressed me, but I expected to be impressed. The band paid big bucks to build a huge stage designed to impress, and it did its job. And the music impressed me, but I have always loved their music, so no surprise there. That is why I'm not going to talk about the U2 show anymore in this post (read my last two posts if you want more on the U2 show.

Instead I'm going to start by talking about 6 things that impressed me this past Friday. Six things is a lot to be impressed by, but here goes. 1) I went and saw THIS IS IT on Friday. If you are not in tune to media outlets at all, let me tell you what THIS IS IT is-- it is a film that documents the rehearsal process for what was supposed to be Michael Jackson's England tour. I was very impressed by Michal in this film. I have never been a huge MJ fan, but this film really brought me around...sadly a bit late. He was such a professional and such an amazing performer. Even in rehearsals he gave 110%. 2) The second thing that impressed my on Friday was also in the movie. It was the young woman MJ chose as his lead guitar player for the tour, her name is Orianthi (yes that's her in the picture). All I can say is AMAZING!!

Moving on from the movie, (sort of) traveling briefly back in time to last Wednesday evening at around 9:30. I went to Amazon.com and ordered Orianthi's CD. I am an amazon prime customer, so I got two day shipping. They told me it would arrive Monday (today). Back now to last Friday, I got a call a little after noon from the Postal Connection where I have a box for getting packages. They said I had a package from UPS. This of course had to be the Orianthi CD. 3) I was very impressed by how quickly Amazon had gotten my order out. 4) I was impressed that UPS had delivered in less than the 2 day time frame and 5) I was impressed that Postal connection took the time to notify that I had a package...this is an example of building customer loyalty, which will be discussed in the last part of this post.

Before I move on to customer loyalty let me tell you the last thing that impressed me. 6) Orianthi again. The same guitarist who rocked the Michael Jackson movie delivered again on her CD BELIEVE. Edgy rock music, not super heavy on profound lyrics, but fun music and great guitar work that comes to a head with the instrumental number Highly Strung, a duet with Steve Vai. a truly great album..get it.

Now on to customer loyalty. Besides my great experience with postal connection, today I wen into a vacuum shop in San Bernardino where my father-in-law had called in a payment on some vacuum bags that I was to pick up. I picked them up, but realized they were for our old vacuum, not our new one. I went back in and the right bags were three dollars more than the ones that had been paid for. I offered to pay the owner the difference, he told not to worry about it, just take the bags I needed. That builds customer loyalty. That is also how I try to work at Domino's when I answer the phone. I will give customers deals even if they don't have coupons. This drive my manager nuts, but I don't care because I know a happy customer is more likely to a) tip and b) become a return customer. Tell me I'm wrong, I dare you.