The movie shooting outside on Frenchmen Street finally wrapped for the day. They told us we couldn’t venture outside this afternoon as they were shooting in front of our building, and they’d be finished on Saturday, so it’s been a rather frustrating day.

It’s been especially annoying since I have literally spent the entire freaking day on the phone with Apple computers trying to find a way to work with my iPhone.

I love the phone itself, but apparently it does not play well with my PC computer. However, no one at Apple seems to be able to tell me what’s wrong with the iPhone or the computer, after trying various “fixes” (none of which worked). Ah, technology: it just stole eight hours out of my day!

I’m interested in getting more input from our readers of OffBeat and the Weekly Beat. We depend on you to tell us what you’re interested in reading and hearing more about. I think about this often, and it’s always brought home to be when we compile the nominee suggestions for Best of The Beat. There are bands I haven’t heard yet; luckily our staff is familiar with them! Plus I can always access music now from web sites and Myspace.

We have a few regular bloggers in our sphere, and we’d like more. In years, past the print magazine (pre-internet) had many columns that covered different types and styles of music. I’d like to create something similar again online with blogs that are devoted to live shows, band types, club scene, festivals, etc. So if you are knowledgeable about different types and genres of music that you think might be of interest to our readers, and you have the commitment to post in an OffBeat blog format regularly, send me an email with a cover letter and some samples of your writing and your subject’s expertise. Ditto photographers. The more interaction OffBeat has with our readers, the better! Send to me at [email protected]. And please, comment directly here on how you think we can improve what we do—am not looking for slams, but constructive criticism! We do read all comments on our blogs, and take them to heart. Looking forward to hearing from you.