Category Archives: Stupidity

Derivative Works, Influenced, Music, My Stories, Stupidity

Rise Of Skywalker

It’s a Star Wars movie and I’ll always devote time to the franchise, plus my money.

But in the end, it’s more of a stand alone fantasy flick which will be forgotten because Disney kept changing the vision and the end game of the story. And they didn’t have the guts to take risks.

I still came away with the same viewpoint after watching it. There is a crop of writers and directors being used in big movies who just don’t know how to write and rewrite scripts.

George Lucas rewrote the Star Wars script so many times over so many years that there is even a special edition book available of the original script/story, because it is so different.

Christopher Nolan should have been tasked with these films. Just think of his Batman trilogy and how he showcased the battle between good and evil.

And Disney destroyed the expanded universe from Star Wars canon but then delivered movies based on fan fiction.

However, all the scrips needed was some serious editing on some scenes and a little bit of extra context and explanations added to important scenes. But this means that the writers had to think and people don’t like to think these days, it’s too hard for them, so we get awe inspiring visuals without any meaning.

Then again, JJ Abrams and even George Lucas have both said that people want to see a new Star Wars movie and then yell at you when it’s not to their liking.

Watch it and make your own mind up.

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Music, Stupidity

The Irishman

This is why organisations fade away.

At first, organisations ignore the new threat, then they try to kill the new threat and eventually they accept the new threat or join it or get overtaken by it.

Martin Scorsese’s new flick, “The Irishman” is a passion project. Rejected by all the big movie studios, Netflix came to the rescue with funding and allowed Scorsese to do the movie however he wanted. And Scorsese wanted a film 3.5 hours long. This is how a filmmaker wants to operate.

But in order to show the movie in the large cinema chains, which could lead to Academy Awards and what not, the corporate bodies who represent the major cinema chains want a 90 day window, while Netflix really didn’t want any window but would have agreed with 45 days.

All of this is old world stuff.

The new world is different.

I would happily avoid a cinema experience, to watch a movie in the comforts of my own home. But the Cinema chains and the movie studios have a cabal set up, which exploits a family for multiple tickets instead of the one month streaming premium.  

And if anyone is facing a challenge to their business model it is the cinema chains.

Once upon a time, when the control of the distribution was in the hands of the movie studios, a film’s commercial potential was judged by its cinema box office receipts. It’s a viewpoint which is still carried to this day and it only pleases the people in the media and the websites that re-report box office takings.

There’s no reason why the cinema experience cannot be an event, but it’s got a long way to go to become a concert like experience.

And “The Irishman” is trending on Twitter highlighting the stupid move from the cinema chains to not screen it. Here are some screenshots from Twitter highlighting the idiocy of the cinema chains and how independent cinemas are winning.

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A to Z of Making It, Music, My Stories, Stupidity

Personality Era

Its the era of the personality, those who’ve been in the game for decades seem to have the perfect forum to broadcast.

To spread their viewpoints or criticisms.

So many play it safe and try hard to be liked by all. Others have handlers or social media teams to run their accounts.

But the ones who have control of their accounts, the ones who are true to themselves and their beliefs, and stand by what they say, will be the ones we talk about.

Because these personalities can enact change. Only if they are willing to be uncomfortable and put themselves out there.

“We are all just actors trying to control and manage our public image, we act based on how others might see us.”

Erving Goffman, a Canadian sociologist came up with the above quote from one of his studies, and he’s been dead since 1982. So the social conditioning of being liked in the pre-Internet era existed and got amplified with social media.

It’s not about likes, it’s about having a voice.

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Music, My Stories, Stupidity

Surveillance

Tom Morello posted the following on Twitter on the 24 October 2019;

Surveillance breeds conformity and obedience. Fuck that Shit.

There is a link to a buzzfeednews article which covers how musicians and activists stopped creepy, racist facial recognition technology from ruining live music events, and why we have to stop it everywhere.

It’s important, even more so today than ever before.

With the exponential rise in technology and our take up of devices to be connected, we are under surveillance more than ever before. Our text messages and mobile phone calls are stored for years. Our search histories are stored and any key words that law enforcement are on the lookout for, are immediately sent to the right department. Our purchases go through a database to see if dangerous stuff purchased separately end up at the same address.

Criminals once they get access to our devices or computers put us under surveillance, tracking our clicks and cyber movements until they have enough information to take our identity and empty our bank accounts. And there is no one there to help with the trauma that comes from this.

We have more surveillance in democracy than totalitarian regimes have.

The Electric Eye in the sky is really watching.

Computer algorithms can scan your face and decide if you are drunk or if you look suspicious. Once you make it through the screening, facial recognition tech can then track you the whole time you are in the area, like a concert venue, a spirting stadium or an airport. Ever been pulled out of a line for a desperate pat down or scan at airport security. Well it was your face that did caused the problem, because it had something the algorithm didn’t like.

And businesses who stand to profit will lie to any investors or government officials, just to protect their business models.

If we thought the nuclear arms race was a threat, well I guess we ain’t seen nothing yet. The clock is ticking and it’s two minutes to midnight.

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A to Z of Making It, Music, My Stories, Stupidity

Rehab

When artists get into a situation when their life feels like it is out of control, how much blame should be levied at management or band mates?

Sometimes a simple conversation over coffee can change things. Sometimes, a simple question, “are you okay?” could change things. But people need to ask those questions like the band mates.

But without good managers, it’s an uphill struggle to world domination. And you don’t get good management if you are not making money. So in order to keep the good managers, you need to be making money.

And Metallica is a worldwide cultural phenomenon. I was at a fundraiser last night for Beyond Blue, a Call centre which deals with mental health and a guitar signed by the Metallica members was the highest auctioned item.

And the people who in most cases start the downward spiral are the main people, like James Hetfield.

If Hetfield wants, he could really fire all of the other band members and it will still be Metallica. He is the riff meister, the singer and the lyric writer (well ignore that album called “St Anger” when others were made to contribute lyrics because a life coach said so and because the main writer wasn’t really interested).

So is it any wonder that James Hetfield is back in rehab. The reality is, without James Hetfield, Metallica cannot tour. And if they cannot tour, they don’t make money. And if they don’t make money, band members and management don’t get paid. So they tour, until something breaks.

But Metallica is a corporation, a business, with employees. It needs to roll on.

The band owns all of their masters, so they negotiated favourable license and royalty deals with streaming services.

A movie is released about S&M 2. They will eventually license that to streaming services and DVD/Blu-Ray replications.

They form partnerships.

Metallica with Billabong for a special run of surf clothing. Metallica with a football sporting team for a special run of jerseys with the Metallica logo. Metallica watches. Metallica whiskeys. Metallica with lipstick and nail polish companies. Metallica mugs, glasses to drink from and glasses to put on your eyes. There are other licensing deals with other companies to have their T shirts in various stores around the world.

But the main person is in rehab. And until they fix that, they are in trouble.

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Music, My Stories, Stupidity

Censorship

The rise of the internet broke down borders and connected people. And that’s a good thing. Businesses came about and started to make money from this new technology. With every evolution in the technology, more and more businesses came about.

Who would have thought that the App store would be the first place we go to get something?

And who would have thought that the App store would support a dictatorship and censor applications because the Chinese government run newspaper slammed the company for keeping certain apps on its store. I guess having factories in China and the profits/kickbacks that come with that are more important than free speech and people’s right to demonstrate.

There will always be governments who will suppress and restrict what people see. The Russian’s are doing it, the Chinese are doing it, the North Koreans are doing it, hell, Turkey even found a backdoor and switched it off during an uprising a few years ago.

In democratic countries, governments introduce legislation to control the internet and all the technology which comes with it at the behest of the companies who pay them the most and in the name of national security.

And freedom is over simplified. In the past, torture and public hangings would be used as a way to control people through fear. But as society got more civilised and advanced, our minds became the focus.

Suddenly, surveillance and discipline is used to produce obedient citizens. When the mind believes that it is being watched, it acts properly. And over the last 30 years, surveillance cameras have become a part of life. They are everywhere and democracy has entered the surveillance society. The same society from Eastern Europe, which the fall of the Berlin Wall was meant to eradicate.

As Geoff Tate wrote in “Speak”, the system we learn says we’re equal under law, but the streets are reality, the weak and poor will fall or in “Revolution Calling”, Tate tells how he used to trust the media to tell him the truth, but now that he is older and wiser, he has seen the payoffs and he’s not sure who he can trust when everyone is a crook.

Corruption is real and somehow it finds other corrupted individuals to collude with and suppress/censor freedom. I guess the halls of justice are painted green and money is talking.

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Music, My Stories, Stupidity, Treating Fans Like Shit

Disruption

When something new happens, the organisations who don’t want to change at first ignore it, then they protest against it and eventually they accept it.

But it takes time.

Remember Kodak, who had a billion dollar business selling film for cameras, and didn’t really want to cannibalise those sales and by 2012, when all of their digital patents expired, they filed for bankruptcy, to emerge a few years later, a much leaner and smaller company.

Well, today, cinema complex owners are refusing to screen movies created by Netflix, because they believe Netflix cannibalises their business. Film festivals are refusing to consider Netflix films because the festival organisers don’t want to upset their main sponsors, which are the traditional movie studios and cinema organisations.

Read the story, about how “The Irishman” from Martin Scorsese, is being ostracised because Netflix picked up the financing when no movie studio wanted to do it, and gave Scorsese free reign to film it how he wants to. In the process, Scorsese, according to critic reviews has delivered a 5 out of 5 movie.

The cinema experience will not disappear, but if the film industry wants to run the cinema’s the same way it did back in the 50’s, then they will die a painful death the same way Kodak did.

Being flexible to change and being able to adapt is the key to survival.

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My Stories, Stupidity

The Shits

My wife and I do some cleaning on the side. One of the jobs we do is at a building which has a plumbing problem. In other words, when the pipes get blocked up, the overflow is in the area that holds the bins for the rubbish we need to throw.

In case you are not sure what I’m saying, when the pipes get blocked up, all of the urine and shit and paper, spill out into the storage area for the bins.

Yep.

So imagine our surprise when we open the door to the bin storage area and see the floor all contaminated with shit.

So we alerted the owners of the building about this. As far as we know, they read our texts and see the photos, but we get no reply. We turn up the following day and someone had cleaned it. We just assumed it was a plumber. Maybe the owners are thinking why we don’t clean it, since we are cleaners.

As I said to them once, “we don’t clean shit and piss”.

Then our client, the one we service who also rents a lot of floor space in the building, came across this situation a few days later. So they spoke to the owners and the owners (a husband and wife team), blamed the cleaners for putting paper in the overflow.

Yep that makes perfect sense. We turn up to clean only to sabotage and make a mess.

What the fuck?

Manipulative arseholes.

The fact that their building is dodgy, made with so many faults and leaks, well they blame the cleaner.

The fact that every time it rains heavy and the sewage overflows is now also caused by the cleaners.

The fact that the building has a moisture problem is also blamed on the cleaner.

And Five Finger Death Punch comes to mind. Hell, I thought of even doing the move that Uma pulled in “Kill Bill”.

“You’re a fake mother fucker, I hate you mother fucker, such a fucking waste of my time.”

Yep, waste is what these people are.

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A to Z of Making It, Music, My Stories, Stupidity, Treating Fans Like Shit

The Labels Complain Again

It’s typical of the recording industry to complain about anything which benefits the consumer. They seem to forget that the profits they make is due to a relationship between the artist and the consumer. There is a zero relationship between the record label and the consumer. From the consumers point of view, the record label doesn’t even exist in their mindset.  

So the labels license their music to various streaming services for a fee and then pocket the majority of the multi-million fee instead of spreading it to the artists, because hey, why would the labels compensate the artists, since it’s the works of the artists that give them the negotiating power at the table.

Apple is considering putting a bundle together that incorporates Apple Music and Apple TV. More subscribing customers who normally wouldn’t subscribe to a music subscription would increase the pool of money. But then again, how many people would give up their Netflix and Spotify subscriptions for an Apple Entertainment bundle. We wouldn’t know because no one does their due diligence. For the record, I wouldn’t give up my Netflix, Spotify and Amazon Prime subscriptions for an Apple bundle.

So all of this is based on feelings. And somehow these feelings from the label executives that they will be ripped off are not based on any research or evidence.

Read the article.

Of course, the labels will sell the story that if they lose money, then it would have a flow on effect to the artist. But the labels haven’t been losing money for the last 5 years, so why aren’t the artists getting paid.

And artists bash up Spotify, but no one is speaking up about these bundles that Apple is proposing.

There is a blog post over at Seth’s Blog about ways to grow. It basically states that if you persist and get the word out, you will be the same. There will be no growth. This is the record label model, do what they have always done.

However to grow, they need to change something, like enter a new segment, earn trust or do work that matters to someone.

But it’s hard to grow and help the artists when the label executives are dragged kicking and screaming into a new segment.

Steve Jobs convinced EMI to sign on for $0.99 mp3 digital downloads and the rest came, only after years of negotiations. It took 3 years for Spotify to be licensed in the U.S. and during that time, YouTube became the unofficial streaming provider. And then again, they had to get a stake in the company in order to give the approval.

Artists really need to have a look at what they are signing away, because the label doesn’t care for you at all.

If they did, they would be proud to enter new market segments which could lead to more income. Instead they are scared to lose what they have, so they persist and do more of the same.

Complain.

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My Stories, Stupidity

Tournaments And Enemies

A few days ago I got back from a football tournament the kids played. The kids won two games and lost two games in the group, but their superior goal difference got them into second place and a Minor Semi Final game.

The Minor Semi game ended in a loss and the tournament was over. All good from my end, as the opposition proved to be a lot better individually and in any sport, when you have individuals losing the 1v1 battle, the problem compounds a lot all over the pitch.

And the lesson I got out of it as a coach, is to inspire the kids to work on their technical game outside of training, sort of like how guitarists practice on their own to get better and to also bring in a session that also aids their technical game. Because it’s these hard skills that need to be nurtured.

But the reason why I am posting this is because of one parent from 24 parents. There is always one parent who will cause trouble and the media that hate soccer/football will generalize it and say parents. Even coaches will apply the same viewpoint to all parents because of one parent.

Let’s call this parent “Snake”.

After the semi-final loss, “Snake” said that he asked his son, “what are the other kids thinking about the game”, and his son said that if the Goal Keeper plays with the Club again, he will leave.

The Goal Keeper’s parents (let’s call them “The Good People”) have BBQ’s and get-together’s with “Snake” and his family, however “Snake” is slithering and conniving to oust their son.

What a brilliant friend to have?

My first thought was to call “The Good People” over and ask “Snake” to repeat to them what he said to me, however “Snake” has this code name for a reason. He is very good at coming across authentic and sincere and when it comes time to be truthful, he will just slither away from it, making it a conversation about how the “Snake” didn’t say that versus mine, “yes you did say that”.

So that didn’t transpire, as a confrontation was the last thing I was looking for.

From my own point of view, I find it hard to deal with toxicity like this, and fake people.

And it got me thinking of “The Enemy” from Godsmack and the lyrics, “you’re another shit talking punk to me, you’re living inspiration for what I never wanna be.”

Communities thrive because of a communal spirit, with people helping each other and today, it feels like its everyone for themselves. In this instance, here is a man close to 50, conniving to kick out a 14 year old child in secret.

In other words, if I don’t select the child next year, I am the bad guy, and the “Snake” comes away unstained.

But the attitude of the children are so different.

The goal keeper is thankful for his opportunity, tries 150% and is respectful. Every time he turns up to training, he shakes my hand, and when it’s over, he shakes my hand again. The child of the “Snake” does none of that. And I am pretty sure, that the goal keeper didn’t want to make the mistakes that led to easy goals. No player/competitor walks out on the field with that viewpoint.

And with each loss, with each failing, there are lessons to be learnt. The “Snakes” child was missing in the game as well, however it looks like the lesson they got out of it, was to blame someone else, when the real lesson is that their child needs to improve, like all the rest of the children, and they need to do these improvements on their own, away from the 4.5 hours of training they do with me each week.

But its easier to blame, because what happened to one person, will never happen to the other person, not in quite the same way. And by relying on the story people tell themselves, the real truth is ignored.

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