#i heard it in an apple commercial originally and it became one of my favorite songs

[velvet-disc]

no if, buts or maybes, i’m still your baby 🎞️

#💿 #ts4 #ts4 cas #simblr #sims #this song is extremely nostalgic for me #i vividly remember listening to it on repeat while playing ts4 on my middle school laptop in air conditioner air #i heard it in an apple commercial originally and it became one of my favorite songs #and the video is magical 😞😞 #i love this song so bad #draft posting

[compellingselling]

Here are my favorite advertising podcasts. Well, podcast. Singular.

Tagline, with Tim Nudd of Muse by Clio, is an oral history of some great advertising campaigns. The podcast's description says, "Tim Nudd digs into classic commercials and campaigns by talking to the people who made them." And they mean ALL of the people.

The account handlers, the planners, the creatives, the clients, the directors, the actors, the editors, the composers, the key grips, the caterers. Okay, maybe not the key grips and caterers. All the people who played a role in shaping the campaign's success.

For us old-timers, it's a great reminder of the roller coaster of luck, triumph, and tragedy that is the creative process. For newcomers, it's an accurate peek inside a process that seems mysterious from the outside.

Here are my 5 favorite episodes. I strongly commend them all to you.

5. Motel 6 / We'll leave the light on for you

We know this has a tragic ending, but it's still great to hear the origin story. You also get to hear a bunch of the campaign's best spots as well as that infectious music track on its own without Tom Bodett's voice.

4. Skittles / Blank the Rainbow

This starts with a good reminder that the brand assets this team inherited were centered around the rainbow and twee "magic." So it's especially fascinating to find out that this campaign wasn't trying to be weird, it was trying to be DARK. There are also some fun backstories on now-classic lines of dialogue. 

3. Apple / Get a Mac

Campaign US compiled an oral history of this campaign in 2016. Those articles’ colorful, horrific descriptions of the hell of working on the Apple account must have made it hard for Media Arts Lab to recruit after it came out.

This podcast covers the same ground, but it's easier and more fun to digest. We hear about the germ of an idea that gets alley-ooped by the CD, and we hear how the idea evolved into the campaign we know and love. I was surprised to hear how many they shot that never aired.

2. Bud Light / Real Men of Genius

What a ride! This is SUCH an accurate depiction of the big agency creative process – a stressful jump ball involving a ton of creatives, someone who has a kind of idea rooted in a human insight, a CD who spotted a germ of an idea and improved on it, the account lead who champions it, and the client who killed the idea the moment he first heard it. I'll stop before I rob you of any more cliffhangers and plot twists.

I especially enjoyed hearing how they ended up with the music and voice that were so integral to the campaign.

I also had never noticed how templated it was – for hundreds of spots for 10 years. There's a lesson here about not ruining a good campaign and shouting down any new team members who suggest "we need to mix things up to keep it fresh."

And then of course it's a delight to hear so many of the laugh-out-loud-funny spots in their entirety.

The only thing missing that I heard in an Advertising Week presentation by this team back in the day was that this started as a big flip of the bird at Budweiser's "This Bud's for you" campaign.

1. Dos Equis / The Most Interesting Man in the World

I loved this campaign. I was intrigued how the visuals didn't match the soundtrack, how the vignettes would jump all over the place chronologically, and I loved that wonderfully so-understated-it's-believable line at the end. So it was great to hear how it all came about.

This, too, is an accurate glimpse into agency life. A creative team who didn't like the brief and begrudgingly brought a few lame tries to their first internal review. And a CD who spotted a germ of an idea for a campaign that became a legend. (If you're seeing that I as a CD am drawn to stories where CDs save the day, YOU'RE RIGHT.)

It's great to hear the details of the casting process on this one, too. And while I always assumed this whole schtick was ripped off from Chuck Norris jokes, you'll find out that it was inspired by something from Saturday Night Live.

Listen to them all and fall in love with advertising again.

#advertising #ads #adverts #creative advertising #advertising education #radio ads #advertising campaigns #I'm a mac #The most interesting man in the world #Real men of genius #We'll leave the light on for you

[freshdotdaily]

I wrote this blog post in 2012 but tumblr deleted it.  It was called sumn like, “My main critique w/ Talib Kweli” I wasn't allowed to listen to rap or any secular music growing up. My mom did me a grave disservice in that regard. So appropriately when I came into age I began sneaking all the music I could. I liked hip-hop and wanted as much of it as possible. The first record that I got that informally changed everything for me was Arrested Development's "Arrested Development 3 years 5 months 2 days". Probably because A) It was non-violent hip-hop I could RELATE to & B) After being raised by a Puerto Rican mother I had little to no real Knowledge of Cultural self.The next albums that followed after I devoured that album were Fugees "The Score" and Busta Rhymes "When Disaster Strikes" it'd be a little while before I was able to get my hands on any new cd after those two, so I had those 3 albums for a good year or two in heavy rotation along w/ Future Flavors on Hot 97 to keep me current. I was writing my raps pretty regularly around this time and I'd graduated from performing gospel raps at my churches Youth Night to  nervously performing at little local open mic spoken word poetry nights w/ my friend Jason.The next album I got my hands on was "Mos Def & Talib Kweli are BlackStar".

That album changed EVERYTHING for me. As far as I was concerned I never needed another rap album. This was the penultimate affirmation of all the things I'd come to feel were true about myself and hip-hop and my culture. Mos was the Charismatic emcee who was forever on beat and in pocket w/ his flow and Talib was the well-read, technical lyricist. I immediate began trying to become an amalgam of them both in one emcee since I felt they so aptly represented what I felt. Reflection Eternal's "Train of Thought" album dropped and blew my head clean off my shoulders. The beats, man. Kweli was at his apex w/ that album. Raps + beats + Brooklyn being well represented. Oh, and let us not forget the Ecko advertisements. I wore Ecko exclusively for about a year and change. I mean footwear to underwear at one point. Talk about artists being brands and marketing alignment & etc.  I bought Triple 5 Soul because that's apparently what Mos Def wore, right? I bought & read Ntozake Shange's "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf" because Kweli made a reference to it. I read Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eye" because Kweli made a reference to it. I mean, this is what hip-hop, good hip-hop anyway is supposed to do, right? Spark discussion, open minds, create thought and growth, etc. I felt like I was a part of that MOVEMENT. Rawkus. The Okayplayer board. The Spitkicker site. SoulQuarians. I had all the albums from everybody. Probably TMI, but I lost my virginity in 1999, while Pharoahe Monche's "The Light" was playing in the background for some reason. smh. For crying out loud, Black Star's "Respiration" is the top song in my top five favorite songs of all time.

It gets deep, nigga. (c) Kendrick Lamar

As my writing progressed and evolved and I found my own voice eventually through trial and error, Mos Def's "Black on Both Sides" dropped. While "Train of Thought" was still my favorite of the two albums, Mos's charisma eclipsed Kweli  and he became my favorite of the two emcees. I judge rappers work against their own previous work instead of their peers, because that's fair to do artistically. So I'd never pit Mos & Kwelis work against each other because that's like arguing about which is more delicious of a fruit, apples or oranges? Two different fruits altogether, bruh. Also, at this point, I'd moved out my moms house, put out my 1st album, discovered early Eminem and Canibus and had a blossoming cd collection. Not to mention my attention was being held by a burgeoning Kanye.When Kweli's solo project "Quality" dropped, it hit me kinda like "meh". Gone was the signature Hi-Tek sound. I mean, Tek had joints on there but it wasn't the same. Dj Quick? Dj Quick is a mothafuckin' legend, sure. But his relevance at the time? Nah. Especially to a n00b EAST COAST hip-hopper as myself, it was baffling. The general consensus was Kweli used his first truly solo debut to attempt a move toward a more mainstream sound. It received some mainstream attention thanks to the West-produced single "Get By" which peaked at #77 on the Billboard Hot 100. That was Kweli's lifesaver. That album would've drowned otherwise. I did like the Kweli/Kanye connection that seemed mutually beneficial for both of them. It seemed to be going well even got him a Hov shout out on "The Black Album", in which Jay-Z rapped: "If skills sold, truth be told/I'd probably be, lyrically, Talib Kweli". Then the Strugglesome "The Beautiful Struggle" album dropped and I wanted to like it, but it too, hit me like "meh". The Neptunes, Just Blaze and Kanye couldn't save that album. The album failed to cross over into the mainstream and suffered a critical backlash. For example, Britt Robson of The Washington Post  said: "Struggle" was a "frequently awkward, too-obvious bid to exploit the commercial buzz Jay-Z created." Mos was trying his hand at rock music w/ Black Jack Johnson and dropped "The New Danger" to my disappointment. By this point I'd bought Common's "Like Water For Chocolate" and it made him instantly my new favorite emcee. I went and bought "Resurrection" and "One day it'll all make sense" in the same day and consumed those albums daily.In listening, I noticed Kweli's aging. His attempts to remain relevant by looking around him and seeing what was popular and trying to compete. I was willing to overlook his stuffing a thousand syllables into a bar and over usage of the word "like" in every rap song w/ semi-obscure literary references (that I dug, actually). I was willing to overlook the preachy tone his raps somewhat took. I was still BUYING Kweli's music. Brooklyn. over. everything, my nigga. I downloaded '"Liberation" and wasn't mad at that at all. Kweli and Madlib? Dope. I stopped there. There was too much disappointment for me to continue. I wished he'd maintained his aesthetic. Emcees like Kweli and Fat Joe will always look around and try to emulate to maintain relevance. I'm sure there's more money and more opportunity in it, but you lose that core fanbase for the possibility of a bigger, newer fanbase who's not familiar with your older work and doesn't love you the same as a fan. Whereas an artist like Ghostface or DOOM will continue to do what they do in their lane and gain cult followings. Mos learned this the hard way. It wasn't until "The Ecstatic" (and stepping the live show up by giving people what they came to see) that heads began fucking w/ him again.Eardrum? Nope. Finally, a new Reflection Eternal album? With post G-Unit Hi-Tek? It was a little too late. I bought it & reluctantly handed my money over. I'd lost my will to be be a Kweli fan. Gutter Rainbows? Nope. Idle Warship? Hell no. 

Did Kweli become wack? nah, he's still nice. I feel like it's the same problem Nas had with putting out 2 great albums out the gate and then trying to maintain relevance in a changing musical environment where the consumers are getting younger and the music is warping to accommodate. It took Nas about 10 albums to figure out how to get BACK to his original formula.I ask myself often if my critiques on Kweli came about because I rap and hold him in my influences. You know how you get older and realize your parents weren't the geniuses you thought them to be as a child? Once I figured out my stride and perfected how I wanted to rap and write, I think I began flaw finding. Flaw finding is both my nature as a virgo and my right as a consumer & fan. The power to critique constructively is also my right as a fellow artist. The biggest iniquities were the syllable cramming at the expense of flowing on-beat to get a point out as well as beat choices. But overall, I wanted that vibe back. I wanted that hi-Tek, Geology and Shawn J. Period vibe back from when I found myself as a young man and emcee. In 2013 Kweli is dropping "Prisoner of Conscious" a title derived from Talib's constant labeling as a "conscious rapper" and based on Nigerian reggae artist Majek Fashek's album "Prisoner of Conscience." I plan on purchasing it via an experiment. I'm gonna download all the albums of his I missed and see if there's been any hints or glimmers of what I've been missing that could lead up to this being his "Life is Good" album. Based on that, hopefully I can "experience dedication" and "move something", before it's "too late" for him to "get by".-F.Daily

It’s 2019 and I think Kweli is super important to raps annals and history.  Albeit his hubris and righteous stances especially on social media mixed w/ distasteful personal stories I’ve heard + how he handled ReS’s music issues have rubbed me all the wrong way. I still think there’s really some slivers of relevancy for Kweli in the current hip-hop climate. I think he’s in tune with the culture and good for hip-hop and an important voice in socio-political justice for the advancement of people of color. Ionno how good the music is for me personally anymore, but I’ll always have Reflection Eternal. 

content sourced from Talib Kweli's wiki page

[aion-rsa]

Why The Jerky Boys Are Back After Two Decades Away

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

The last time Johnny Brennan picked up a phone to make a prank call, Apple was a decade away from releasing the iPhone. Hell, “texting” was virtually nonexistent. After a nearly 25-year hiatus from recording original material, the comedian and co-creator of The Jerky Boys is making a comeback with a new self-titled record featuring his classic characters. 

Brennan’s return was in part inspired by a series of successful live shows over the past few years. The reverence fans showed for the crank call albums, including reciting back even the most obscure details from the recordings, convinced him it was time to dust off voice characters like Frank Rizzo, Sol Rosenberg, and Jack Tors. For years fans showed an appetite for new material. But the 59-year-old Brennan entered the studio again to make one person in particular laugh. 

“You gotta do it for yourself,” Brennan tells Den of Geek about his desire to revive The Jerky Boys. “You can’t force anything. The people are absolutely loving it. They’re saying, ‘Johnny, I can’t believe it. I can’t believe how awesome the characters just flowed right into 2020.’ It’s a good feeling.”

The Jerky Boys started in 1989 with Brennan and his childhood friend Kamal Ahmed. The comedic group released four records from 1993 to 1997, and two additional records (1999’s Stop Staring At Me and 2001’s The Jerky Tapes) from previously recorded material. Ahmed officially left The Jerky Boys in 2000. Though Brennan became the sole steward of the Jerky Boys brand, it sat mostly dormant through the 2010s as he continued his voiceover work as the recurring character Mort Goldman on Family Guy. 

The new record, titled The Jerky Boys, was released on Nov. 27 by Comedy Dynamics, a budding powerhouse in the comedy album business after earning all five Grammy nominations in the comedy category in 2019 (the company has 17 nominations and four wins overall). The landscape for releasing a record has changed in nearly every conceivable way since The Jerky Boys 4, and the release strategy for Brennan’s new set of calls reflects that. The album is available on Spotify and anywhere music can be streamed these days. Within a week of release, it hit No. 1 on the comedy charts on Apple Music and Amazon Music. 

What hasn’t changed is Brennan’s commitment to the bits. Sol Rosenberg is the album’s MVP; standouts include an unfortunate mishap with a stair climber and his side hustle teaching yoga with goats. Jack Tors is in the market for an aggressively large kettle drum to get groovy and out-of-sight with. Bridge-and-tunnel New Yorker Frank Rizzo is a little beat up from base jumping and needs leg braces on the album’s opening track and looking for pipe bombs on another. Surprising no one, Rizzo seems to live his life constantly on the precipice of an expletive-laced tirade. Rizzo is seen orbiting in space on the album’s cover, which was illustrated by artist Sean Taggart, who’s produced artwork for every Jerky Boys record.

We spoke to Brennan about why he decided to make a comeback, how a throwaway track became a fan-favorite and the title of a Radiohead album, and what the Jerky Boys means to fans in 2020.

DEN OF GEEK: What inspired the first new Jerky Boys record in almost 25 years?

Johnny Brennan: The best way I can put it to people is you got to feel it. I know the record company over the last two years probably lost their patience because I announced it at a nightclub. 

I’ve never done live shows before because I’m not a stand-up comedian. I said, “Fuck it.” I’d go out and do some live shows and get two or three hundred people in the room. It’s really nice because I can look at each person. I’ve done shows where there’s 5,000 people out in the audience. Actually, I did Woodstock where there were 500,000 people out there, but it’s nice when you do a small room because you get to make eye contact with pretty much everybody in the audience. 

I would see the people know every single word of every single skit because we’d play six, maybe seven, skits during the show. Then it’s a bunch of back and forth, fucking with each other. And the audience members, they have tons of things that they want to ask me.

I said, “You know what? Let me do it.” I made the announcement on my birthday, it was December 1st at a club called The Kingsland in Brooklyn. I just thought about the fans and I thought about how much they really enjoy it and love it. The truth is, I haven’t done anything new in almost 25 years. I’m talking where you sit down and you actually do brand new calls where there’s nothing in the can. So these are all brand spanking new calls and the response has been absolutely amazing. I couldn’t ask for more, to be honest with you.

We could spend hours talking about how comedy has changed and evolved in the last 25 years, but why do you think the prank phone call format just continues to endure?

It’s odd because I was never really into prank phone calls and the whole idea of doing prank phone calls. I was more into actual live pranks or fucking with people or doing things that are real, in real life. But either way, what happened with my stuff is just an amazing thing that occurred. Let’s put it this way, I don’t listen to my own stuff. I don’t watch or listen to prank phone calling and prank phone callers and who’s doing what. I don’t pay any attention to that. That’s a good question though.

When fans come up to you at shows what are some of their favorite characters and calls? 

Everybody’s got their own favorites. It’s literally thousands. Some people will come up to me and they’ll hit me with a line and I’ll have to be like, “Oh, shit.” It’s a little more obscure. It’s a little bit more like, “Oh, shit. I remember that, of course. Yes.” 

But everybody has their favorites, just something as simple as Jim. The word Jim, the name Jim. They add a B to it, so it’s Jimb. I even have a t-shirt that says Jimb. Just something as simple as one name. The reason is because I spent a lot of time in the studio trying to get that B out of there because he said his last name and I don’t remember what it was but it began with a B, so I couldn’t get rid of the B so I just thought it was funny. I said, “Fuck it. Leave it.” So now, whenever people say, “Is Jim around?” They say, “Is Jimb around?”

You know what the most amazing thing is? I just did the new record and Rolling Stone teased people with a couple skits, and people are hitting me with catch phrases already from a brand new skit. It’s the most fascinating feeling.

What was it like sitting down and doing these calls in the studio all these years later? Did it take a few calls to get it to where you wanted it to be?

I intentionally said, “I’m not going to overthink this whole fucking thing because that’s when you get into trouble.” I’m going to put my mind in a setting, the same setting that it was in many moons ago, before the bootleg even hit the street, where I was just doing this for me. 

If I sit down and do an auto mechanic or if I sit down and talk about selling cars, I’m doing it for me. I’m going to relax. I’m just going to let the phone ring or make the phone calls and just let the characters flow as it happens. That’s how I did it.

The way albums are released and promoted has changed dramatically since the last Jerky Boys record. What are you expecting in terms of how fans will engage with the material this time around? 

I have to be honest, I’ve been out of the loop so long. I don’t even know how they do this today. I heard something about vinyl and Spotify and all this tons of stuff, but like I said, back in the day you used to get CDs and cassette tapes. Now today, I don’t really know how they do it, to be honest with you. It’s all out everywhere you can possibly get it. The more, the merrier, which is so interesting. It’s such a different dynamic.

On the new record, is there a standout track you think people are going to really gravitate toward?

The interviews that I’ve been doing, each of them has said, “Johnny, oh my god, I love this skit.” And they would give me one of the skits. I would say, “That’s so cool,” because it reminds me of many years ago. 

For example, “Pablo Honey.”I didn’t put that on my first record because I didn’t think it had legs. A few people said to me, “John, I’m telling you, you should start off the second record. I’m telling you, ‘Pablo Honey’ is just killer.” I said, “It’s killer?” I said, “I kind of dig it, but…” And how wrong I was. I put it on my second record and it instantly became one of the all-time favorite skits. People to this day go nuts for “Pablo Honey.” All I’m doing is just telling Pablo to come down to Florida and [ask] if he is washing his ass, keeping his ass clean.

I got a call at my mom’s place years and years ago from a group of guys that were at the record label. They were asking, “Hey, Johnny, do you mind? Would it be okay if we used your track ‘Pablo Honey’ to name our debut album in America?” I said, “Absolutely. Have at it. Go ahead.” Little did I know that this was a band called Radiohead. Next thing you know, they charge me up the charts and it’s The Jerky Boys No. 1 in Billboard Magazine and Radiohead No. 2, with Pablo Honey.

That’s incredible. On this new record, which characters aged the best for 2020?

They’re all in perfect shape. It’s so funny. They all just roll right into everything that’s going on. Don’t forget, I’ve been obviously around for the last 20 years on Family Guy and doing little bits of whatnot here and there with my Jerky Boys characters as well, commercials and things like that. That’s why it’s so unique with this whole new album kind of deal. It’s nice to get fired up about it.

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Of the previous CDs, which one do you feel is the pinnacle of The Jerky Boys?

They’re all like children. They’re all like babies. Jerky Boys 1 people were just completely mesmerized, blown away. Jerky Boys 2, same thing. Jerky Boys 2, that was pressure because they say in the record business, “It’s almost impossible to follow up.” But in my case, I was able to pull it off. Jerky Boys 2 is just incredible. Then you look at Jerky Boys 3. Jerky Boys 3 has so much incredible work and the album cover is the whole King Kong theme and I introduce five new characters on Jerky Boys 3. So, I can’t really pick one and say, “Oh, my god.” They’re all literally like your kids.

The post Why The Jerky Boys Are Back After Two Decades Away appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3lX0yom

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

[rockrageradio]

For Immediate Release

UFO Guitar Legend Vinnie Moore To Release New Album “Soul Shifter”

NYC - The follow up to Vinnie’s critically acclaimed 2015 “AERIAL VISIONS” album will be released on October 9, on his label Mind's Eye Music. Titled “Soul Shifter”, Vinnie's 9th solo album features guest appearances by legendary artists Rudy Sarzo and Jordan Rudess, with Richie Monica on drums, Michael Bean (bassist from Vinnie’s TIME ODYSSEY album), John Cassidy (Keyboards), and John Pessoni (Drums).

Vinnie is considered one of the originators of shred guitar, and has released eight influential solo albums, and six albums and a LIVE DVD as a member of rock royalty legends UFO. He’s made countless album guest appearances, and has even recorded the soundtrack for a PEPSI TV commercial. He’s been a member of Alice Cooper’s band and was opening act for RUSH on their ROLL THE BONES tour with his own band. His solo and UFO recordings as well as LIVE performances have amassed rave reviews all around the globe from both fans and music press, catapulting him into guitar icon distinction! He has been an inspiration for fans and guitarists worldwide.

Say’s Vinnie, “I have been touring all over the world extensively with UFO and my solo band for the past 16 years. I started this album a couple years back and have been working on it religiously between tours. It’s quite different than any of my others. It has elements of things I’ve done in the past, but has gone much deeper into certain areas. There is an overall sort of contrast between energetic upbeat songs, versus ballad-like soulful ones which has always been a big part of my style. There are some Jam elements in places too. This is likely the most emotional and soulful thing I have ever done. Very moody, with lots of feel”. “I wrote a song as a tribute to Carlos Santana, called BROTHER CARLOS, and another called GAINESVILLE STATION which is a tip of the hat to Steve Gaines. Both players were huge influences on me when I was learning to play, and continue to be now”.

“He’s hands down the greatest Moore since Demi, Roger, Dudley and Mary Tyler”, and the greatest Vinnie since Vinnie Barbarino.” – Johnny JizzleJam, Planet Guitar Gods Magazine

“When something moves me, what I am feeling flows directly into music. That’s how I deal with reality. I woke up one morning to the news that Chris Cornell had passed and it really hit me hard. I went into my studio, picked up a guitar and immediately wrote and recorded MYSTIFIED. Without intending to do so, and because of what was going on around me at the time, this album in a way became a tribute to people who meant something to me. The Allman Brothers were always one of my favorite bands and I was working on a song called SOUL RIDER that was inspired by them. While writing it, unfortunately Greg Allman left us. A lot of heart went into recording that song. Also, I wrote a song called HEARD YOU WERE GONE for my friend and band mate Elliott (Dean Guitars) who left us unexpectedly a couple years back.

“There are definitely some downhearted cathartic moments on this album, but they’re balanced out with songs like KUNG FU GRIP and FUNK BONE JAM that represent the opposite side of my personality, which is my constant joking and goofball sense of humor”.

Vinnie has done hundreds of shows all over the planet, including Europe, UK, Scandinavia, Brazil, USA, as well as India, S. Korea, Lebanon, Mexico, Russia, and Canada. The UFO “Last Orders” tour began in England in March, and will continue in the USA on October 9.

“Ancient astronaut theorists suggest that Vinnie may have been spawned from alien DNA! Or at least his left index finger anyway” – Giorgio Thessaloniki, Ancient Aliens

“Solo records are a great vehicle because the canvas is totally open and I can paint whatever and wherever I want. There’s total freedom in not having boundaries. All of my influences are on the canvas, from Rock to Blues to Be-Bop to Funk, even R&B and beyond. I have always felt music deeply even before I played guitar. After I began playing, it became my vehicle to express and release what I feel inside. I love channeling my soul into melodies and songs.”

To pre-order:

iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/album/id1479017115?ls=1&app=itunes

Apple Music: http://itunes.apple.com/album/id/1479017115

Find Vinnie Online:

www.vinniemoore.com

https://www.facebook.com/Vinnie.Moore.Official

https://www.facebook.com/vinniemooreofficialfanpage/

https://www.instagram.com/vinnie_moore_guitarist/

https://twitter.com/Vinnie_Moore

http://ufo-music.info/

#soundcheckwithgentry #rockrageradio #rock #heavymetal #hardrock #rockmusic #metal #vinniemoore #rockisNOTdead #hornsup

[wbwest]

New Post has been published on WilliamBruceWest.com

New Post has been published on http://www.williambrucewest.com/2017/07/28/west-week-ever-pop-culture-review-72817/

West Week Ever: Pop Culture In Review - 7/28/17

One of the best discoveries I’ve made has been the digital subchannel Heroes & Icons. If you’re a cord cutter, then get yourself an antenna and check this thing out. My favorite aspect of it, however, is the fact that it runs a 5-hour Star Trek block six nights a week. Star Trek at 8, Star Trek: The Next Generation at 9, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine at 10, Star Trek: Voyager at 11, and Enterprise at 12. Sunday through Friday. And on Sundays they actually kick things off with Star Trek: The Animated Series at 7. I’ve pretty much watched nothing but Star Trek for the past 2 weeks. I’ve been reacquainted with favorite episodes, like TNG‘s “Chain of Command” and DS9‘s “Far Beyond the Stars”. I’ve discovered some hidden gems, like TOS‘s ” The Cloud Minders”. I’ve even discovered that I don’t hate Voyager or Enterprise as much as I thought I did.

I don’t talk about this too much, but the first 12 years or so of my life were comprised of pretty much NOTHING but Star Trek. From 1987-94, my favorite show on television was The Next Generation. When DS9 debuted, I expected it to continue my love affair, but it felt too preachy with its Space Holocaust allegory. It was in the later seasons, once the Dominion War began, that it actually ensconced itself as my favorite iteration of the franchise. By the time Voyager debuted, I had discovered comics, and they became my new mistress. While I watched about 4 hours of TNG a day in high school (Channel 20 REALLY loved playing TNG), my heart didn’t have room in it for a new Trek, so I “No time for love, Dr. Jones”‘ed Captain Janeway and her crew. Enterprise debuted when I was in college, and  I was simply too busy worried about other shit to watch Captain Quantum Leap and his crew. Plus, due to some kind of contractual fallout, Ithaca didn’t get UPN. So, since the finale of DS9, my Trekkerdom lay dormant.

But when I say “I’ve forgotten more than you’ll ever know”, that’s primarily about Star Trek. I had several editions of the Star Trek Encyclopedia, I had the Technical Manual, the Technical Journal, the Star Trek Chronology. All of it. I’ve got the figures, and the role play toys. I even created my own uniform for Halloween back in the 90s. I was all Trek, 24/7, and you couldn’t tell me shit. Over time, though, that trivia got overwritten by X-Men 1st appearance notations and the names of TNBC actresses. What I’m saying, though, is that Heroes & Icons brought it all rushing back. It’s like I’m 15 again, blowing the evening watching Star Trek episodes I’ve already seen hundreds of times already. It’s also given me new perspectives on things that completely went over my head when I was younger. For example, Sisko is the Bajorans’ Space Jesus, and that’s pretty heavy. Even he doesn’t believe it, but in the end, yup it turns out he’s Space Jesus. I’ve also got thoughts on the current state of the franchise, too.

At SDCC, we got the above trailer for Star Trek: Discovery, which will air in North America on CBS All Access (yes, Dean, I know you’ll say All Anal Access because it sucks that we have to subscribe to another service just to watch this thing). I had no interest in this show because everything I heard about it didn’t sound like Star Trek. Now, though, the more they try to sell it as a bunch of new ideas, the more it just sounds like DS9. It’s gonna be Trek with interpersonal conflict. Great. I can get down with that. Its aesthetic seems more like late-era Stargate than Trek, though – especially those Klingon designs. There are certain things, though, that still feel like they miss the mark.

Take for example the fact that the show will feature the first same-sex couple on a Star Trek series, played by Rent‘s Anthony Rapp and My So Called Life‘s Wilson Cruz. Yeah, I get that representation is important, but it bothers me that this is being done in a prequel series, set before the events of the original Star Trek. With the exception of Enterprise, this is the series that takes place the closest to our timeline, so it’s really not much of a leap to think that same-sex couples exist. Ya know what would’ve meant more to me (as a straight, cis male who really doesn’t have a dog in the race but is still opinionated)? If the show had actually been a post-Dominion War, sequel series to TNG/DS9/Voyager, and it featured a same-sex couple. Science fiction tends to go 2 ways: it’s either dystopian or it’s about HOPE. As it stands, from what we’ve seen, same-sex couples are pretty much nonexistent in the 24th century. Yeah, I’m sure they exist, but we never saw them. It seems like it would be a testament to how enduring they are to see them that far in the future as opposed to just a couple of hundred years from now, when Discovery is set.

I could also be politicizing this for my own agenda, as I really want to know what happened after the war ended. Sure, there are books and stuff, but those things aren’t canon. I feel there are so many stories to tell from that era, and I’d love to see the franchise move forward instead of dance between the raindrops of continuity in the past. It feels like they’re stalling, which is how it felt with Enterprise and even the Kelvin movies. Someone, somewhere out there has got to have a great idea as to how to move the franchise forward and I hope CBS/Paramount finds them sooner rather than later.

SDCC Bullet Points

The bulk of San Diego Comic Con took place over the weekend, and here’s some stuff that debuted:

Michelle Pfeiffer is Hank Pym’s lost wife, Janet Van Dyne, in Ant-Man and The Wasp

The Captain Marvel film will be set in the 90s, and introduce the Skrulls to the MCU. Oh, and Nick Fury will have 2 eyes

We got this trailer for Ready Player One, which was hella polarizing. It seems a lot of folks hated the book on which it’s based. If you ask me, it just looks like a cinematic version of this commercial:

Comic creator Frank Miller, of 300 and Sin City fame, is writing a Superman: Year One story with art from John Romita Jr. Nothing about that sentence makes me want to open my wallet.

We got a new trailer for X-Men spinoff, The Gifted. I’m actually surprised they used established mutants like Polaris and Thunderbird. And is that actually Fenris?! I want to like this, but it just looks so…Fox.

We got a new trailer for The Defenders on Netflix. I get that this is the culmination of all the Marvel Netflix shows, but it didn’t do much for me since I’ve only seen 2 out of 5 seasons so far. There’s no way I’ll get caught up by this premiere date, but I’m sure it’ll mean more to me once I’m up to date. Kinda tired of the hallway fight trope, though.

Legends of Tomorrow is such a fun show. It started kinda dry, but got so much better last year. It reminds me of a syndicated Saturday afternoon show, but in a good way.

This Justice League trailer did very little for me. It’s like, sure, Wonder Woman’s cool, but we JUST saw her. Aquaman seems cool, but he’s not really “Aquaman”. I’ll see it, but I ain’t looking forward to it. No, for me, November belongs to:

Things You Might Have Missed This Week

We’ll have to wait a bit longer for our annual dose of Abbi and Ilana, as Comedy Central has moved the Broad City season 4 premiere from August 23rd to September 13th

A few months ago, it was reported that Amy Schumer would be starring in a Barbie movie. Well, I made fun of that, she blocked me on Twitter, and then eventually dropped out of the role. Now they’re reporting that Anne Hathaway is up for the role, which is somehow more bewildering than the Schumer choice…

Justin Bieber cancelled the rest of his Purpose world tour because he was “committing his life to Christ”. This pissed off his crew, as they were left without jobs. He, then, proceeded to run over a paparazzo with his truck while leaving church. I swear, you can’t make this shit up!

Amazon’s Jeff Bezos has replaced Bill Gates as the richest man in the world.

Beginning September 29th, Hulu will begin streaming the Warner Bros shows that comprised ABC’s TGIF lineup, including Perfect Strangers, Family Matters, Full House, Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper, and Step By Step. Meanwhile, Netflix is feverishly developing Perfecter Strangers, Family Still Matters, Chillin’ With Mr. Cooper, and Step By Step By Step.

I haven’t seen a non-country music video in years, but apparently they still make them, as Katy Perry will host the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards

Speaking of the VMAs, following the lead of the MTV Movie Awards, they’re doing away with the gendered categories Best Male/Best Female Artist, to be replaced by Artist of the Year. Also, in a bit of pandering,  they’ve created the Best Fight Against the System, for those artists who have called for folks to #RESIST and all that.

Though I felt its farcical nature wore a bit thin during its first season, TBS’s Angie Tribeca has been renewed for season 4.

Smallville‘s Tom Welling is joining Fox’s Lucifer and *yawn* that’s really all there is to say about that.

Netflix has ordered 20 episodes of the animated series Disenchantment from The Simpsons creator Matt Groening. It will features the voices of Nat Faxon, Eric Andre, and Abbi Jacobson. Apparently it’s about elves and trolls and shit. Not really my bag, baby.

Person of Interest‘s Michael Emerson has been cast in a mysterious role for Arrow‘s 6th season. So, he’s probably Deathstroke’s accountant or something.

Because SyFy just doesn’t care anymore, and because they need something to air between Sharknados, Wynonna Earp has been renewed for a 3rd season.

The Wonder Woman sequel has a release date of December 13th, 2019

Apple discontinued the iPod Nano and Shuffle models, as they are the last remaining models that cannot run iOS apps.

Current Superman Henry Cavill grew a mustache for his role in Mission Impossible 37: Mission Harder, which will have to be digitally removed for Justice League reshoots. Ya know, the movie where he’s supposed to be dead, but is actually the worst kept secret in Hollywood.

Lionel Richie and Charlie Puth are in talks to join ABC’s American Idol reboot as judges. Yeah, that’s funny. Unless they’re coaching the contestants on how to get caught cheating while dancing on the ceiling, I’m not sure what Richie’s old ass brings to the table. And Puth is simply too new to be judging anybody.

New James Bond film in 2019. Nobody knows who’s playing him or directing the thing, but it’s coming. Yesiree, Bob!

Since they’re handing out cinematic universes like chicken samples at a food court, the John Wick universe will be expanded by the female-focused film, Ballerina.

Michael Phelps raced a CGI shark and people felt betrayed. He’s the friggin’ son of Poseidon! He can’t race ACTUAL sharks! There would be civil unrest beneath the surface!

With DC being the political capital of the country, it’s hard for a news person to stand out because the place is crawling with them. That wasn’t true, however, for Jim Vance. Everyone knew him and the man was an institution. Coming to NBC4 in 1969, he was one of the first Black anchors in a major news market. He anchored for over 4 decades, ingraining himself into the families of those who watched him.

When I was a toddler, I was really into the local news (I’ve always said I’m regressing as I get older), and I could name every anchor on every local newscast. And this was a golden age of DC news. You had the great Glenn Brenner, you had Maury Povich before he became a talk show host, and you had Vance. There was something about him that made him seem like your aunt’s cool boyfriend. He was an old man with a hoop earring. We used to laugh about it, but secretly I was hating because I knew I’d never be able to pull that off at his age. He rode motorcycles and laughed inappropriately at news stories he found funny. He was a guy who made you glad to watch the news, especially as the cries of Fake News! grew louder.

Back in May, Vance announced that he had been diagnosed with cancer, and it advanced rather quickly. He passed away last Saturday morning, and the announcement touched all corners of the DC area (no, I’m not calling it the DMV!). It was touching to see all of the tributes to him on the local stations, from those who were colleagues and competitors. Last Saturday night, News4 spent the entire 11 PM news talking about Vance and what he meant to DC. This might sound crazy, but it was so refreshing to watch the news without a single drop of actual news being reported. No Trump b.s., no local murders, not even a weather report. Just 30 minutes about a man who we basically grew up with in our homes. I always kinda took him for granted because you just expected he would be there every evening, but I’ve certainly missed him since he’s gone. I know he won’t mean much to those of you outside the DC viewing area, but believe me when I say that everybody here knew who Jim Vance was, and we’re all going to miss him in one way or another. For that reason, Jim Vance had the West Life Ever.

#Books #Comics #Marvel #Movies #Music #Politics #Pop #Race #Relationships #Religion #Social Media #Star Trek #Syndication #Television #TNBC #West Life Ever #West Week Ever #X-Men

[scoobert-doobert-fanclub-blog]

Interview with Jon Colton Barry, Creator of Be Cool Scooby Doo

My Questions:

What inspired you to get into the business of cartoons? What does Scooby Doo mean to you? Do you have a message to the people who criticize your creation for sharing other styles of other shows? Do the characters have any little quirks that you've added in that you picked up from real life people? What's the behind the scenes look like for you? An average day in the life of being a writer/working on the show? Any tips for future writers and the like out there? Do you have a favorite line you've written in the show? Or a best moment? What inspires you to wake up in the morning? Any moments when you were bummed when something didn't make the cut? Or do you have all of the power?

Jon Colton Barry:

What inspired you to get into the business of cartoons?

I was actually writing sketch-like comedy for the stage, honing my voice and style in front of live audiences (which I'd recommend to every writer), when Dan Povenmire saw one of my shows. I'd known Dan for years and he liked the comedy in my show and offered me a job on a new animated show he just sold to Disney called "Phineas & Ferb." I had no particular inspiration to get into animation, but it was a good job and, from the beginning, Dan made it clear he wanted me to write like me, to just write naturally in my own comedic voice, plus I have a background in commercial art and songwriting - so the show was just a perfect fit, creatively.

What does Scooby Doo mean to you?

Before I began writing on BCSD, Scooby Doo was mostly just a feeling of nostalgia to me. Saturday morning cartoons as a kid, eating Apple Jacks in my pajamas. The character or show didn't mean more to me than, say, the Superfriends or any of the other crudely animated series we'd all stare at as the sugar kicked in. Now, after having created a new Scooby Doo series from scratch, I have more respect for the durability of the core ideas built into the show. There has been almost 50 years of different Scooby Doo series, most of them radically different from one another and, I've discovered, that, basically, whatever iteration of Scooby Doo was on when you were growing up will always be the "real" Scooby Doo to you and/or the "best" Scooby Doo. People have very clear ideas on what Scooby Doo is, which is so odd because the only consistent element in Scooby Doo is change.

Do you have a message to the people who criticize your creation for sharing other styles of other shows?

I just find it so strange. We literally got death threats because we pushed the art in a more cartoony direction. We, apparently, also "ruined" a LOT of childhoods. I think it was a mistake to allow the new (unfinished) designs to leak out a year before the series began airing because people built up this violent, irrational hatred for the show and made assumptions about the show's substance based on some rough drawings. I mostly feel bad for Seth MacFarlane for being accused of creating the new designs endlessly. The characters are just more cartoony, that's all - and it was essential that we pushed them that way because we wanted to have a broad comedic and tonal palette to play with, from broad slapstick to real, touching human moments and a lot of our humor would not have worked with the more realistic looking designs. I never heard anyone say, "Wow, the Simpsons are such attractive looking characters!" - but they had that ability to do surreal, broad comedy and also break your heart. That's what we wanted, as well. My experience has been that the vast majority of people who actually sit down and watch the show and give a few episodes a chance all in love with it and discover that it's actually one of the most conservative Scooby Doo series in terms of the original, classic 1969 series, but we simply fleshed out the rest of the Scooby Gang and gave them dimensional personalities for the first time, turning them into a real comedic ensemble. From what I understand, scientifically, once you give the show a chance and get what we're doing, your childhood becomes instantly "un-ruined," which is a pleasant side-effect.

Do the characters have any little quirks that you've added in that you picked up from real life people?

Well, as I mentioned, Zac and I decided to turn the entire Scooby Gang into an equal comedic ensemble, which, we were surprised to discover, no one had ever done before. There are so many Scooby shows where they just leave out Fred or Velma or Daphne because "people don't care about them," instead of saying, "Well, why don't we MAKE people care about them by actually giving them personalities and points-of-view as characters." They'd, historically, just been "The leader/jock," "The pretty one," "The smart one" - these one-dimensional stereotypes. We started with Fred and our main inspiration for him was young Gene Wilder, particularly in "Young Frankenstein." We sort of plugged Gene Wilder into Fred as an engine and gave him control issues - and he began to come to life. Daphne was the most radical change and we thought of her as a Rapunzel-type character, who had lived a sheltered, oppressive childhood under the thumb of her strict, eccentric mother, who came from old money and had great wealth. Daphne is now free and out in the world finally able to do all the things she was never allowed to do as a kid and the world is a candy store to her. She's also highly creative and eccentric, not caring at all what people think about her. It was important to us that nothing about her character, nothing about how you'd describe her personality or her behavior had ANYTHING to do with her gender. Oddly, people started calling her "stupid," which is just strange and clearly demonstrates they haven't actually watched the show, because Daphne is actually really smart and funny - she's just REALLY eccentric and bold, but she's also the soul of the gang, the most empathic and insightful where it comes to the others' needs and problems (although she does get a kick out of annoying Fred when she thinks he's being too uptight). Grey DeLisle, who does Daphne's voice is actually a LOT like our Daphne in real life - smart, quick-witted, eccentric and creative and she really met Daphne halfway and "got" her perfectly. From what I can tell, Grey is basically one oppressive childhood away from wearing a fake beard for no reason. It's actually much the same with Kate Micucci and Velma. We wanted to give Velma more social anxieties. She grew up around books and her superior intellect isolated her as a child, so she lacks some basic social skills, like not always knowing that the truth isn't always the best way to go in certain circumstances. Kate brought a really beautiful, nuanced neurosis to Velma and a vulnerability that humanized her in ways you can't see on the script page. There was so much more we wanted to do with Velma, but, sadly, we didn't get the opportunity. Warner Brothers was actually very open to the changes we wanted to make to Fred, Daphne and Velma, even though they were pretty radical, but they were, understandably, more conservative when it came to Shaggy and Scooby, who were seen as the most beloved and, therefore, least changeable. That said, we made our case that if Shaggy and Scooby were the comic relief before and we're now elevating the entire gang to a comedic ensemble, we HAVE to, somehow, raise Shaggy and Scooby proportionately or we'll lose them all together, bogged down in stale 1969-era puns and pizza jokes. We noticed that even in 1969, Shaggy and Scooby would defy the laws of physics and do some surreal things, so we decided to push that aspect and give Shaggy and Scooby the more absurd, physical and surreal comedy, breaking the fourth wall and sharpening their wit. Shaggy was always a jokester, but we injected him with a healthy dose of Groucho Marx, which played nicely and freshly because Groucho, as a character, is fearless and Shaggy is terrified of everything, so plugging that sensibility into a coward created a lot of fun, original scenes and moments for Shaggy. Scooby was basically Harpo on all fours. We held him to only four words per line of dialogue because we found it unsettling and strange when he talked too much in other series, like Mystery INC. Four words was a nice restriction because they had to count and we found that the more erudite we made them, the funnier he became. In the end, I think we got the math of the characters pretty right on and my favorite scenes are always the ones with the gang all together bouncing lines off each other like a pinball machine. Everyone's point of view is clear and unique from one another and the cast always brought that perfect sense of old, best friends who tease each other and joke around and get on each others' nerves in a really truthful and relatable way. I really feel like we created the most human, real and funny Scooby Gang yet seen.

What's the behind the scenes look like for you? An average day in the life of being a writer/working on the show?

An average day would be me holed up in my office, pacing around in a small circle holding a wooden pointer stick because I tend to write on my feet, twirling a stick (which became a habit back on "Phineas" when we'd pitch the episodes up on a wall with pointers). I'd often have freelance writers in and we'd break a story together and they'd go off and write a draft and I'd spend the rest of the day (and most nights) writing or rewriting scripts with unholy deadlines with a gun to my head, which is called "writing for television." It's great fun, actually.

Any tips for future writers and the like out there?

Tips for future writers... hmmm. Well, try dating Dan Povenmire's wife's sister. It worked wonders for my career.  If, for some absurd reason, THAT fails, then I'd say develop your own style and your own voice as a writer. It's been such a pleasure for me to have been hired on shows with the expectation that I would be "writing like me," which was the case on both "Phineas" and "BCSD"  and all the things I've worked on since. As I mentioned, writing for the stage - even small, equity theater - is GREAT for developing your writing and honing your unique voice. There's no money in it, but you learn what works and what doesn't and you learn to trust yourself - to know that if YOU like it, then there's an audience out there who will ALSO like it. Other than that, you know, WRITE.

Do you have a favorite line you've written in the show? Or a best moment?

I think my favorite lines are in season 2, so lemme think about what's aired already.... I loved Grey's read of Daphne doing the Fred puppet in the van, "I have a weird accent now. Bo bo bo." That just crystallized the character for me. I'm also fond of the vending machine sequence because it was something I made up off the top of my head with a lot of very serious-looking WB executives staring at me who had no idea who I was and were wondering what kind of fresh new food-related comedy I would be bringing to Shaggy and Scooby. I got up in the large conference room and just acted out that scene from "Mystery 101" pretty much exactly as you see it in the show. Thankfully, they all laughed and I was allowed to stay in the building another day. Oh, one more - I always loved Daphne's off-handed response to Bradford in "Party Like It's 1889," when he tells her she looks stunning, That Daphne doesn't give a crap about that kind of stuff and dismisses the compliment with a good-natured, "Yeah, that's me: set for stun. Pew! Pew!"

What inspires you to wake up in the morning?

I have a four-year old (at the time of this writing) son, Jones, who is all the inspiration I need to get up in the morning. Also all the noise and jumping I need.

Any moments when you were bummed when something didn't make the cut? Or do you have all of the power?

Yeah, there were/are plenty of times I was bummed by something not making it into the show or getting changed along the way. WB keeps a pretty strict hand in their large, beloved franchise properties like Scooby Doo and Batman, so I'm actually really pleased and grateful they let me get away with as much as they did with the series. That said, I had no real power other than the trust and faith of Zac, the show runner. He hired me to be in charge of the writing and he just let me get on with it. I was never actually a producer on the show, although I did equally create this version of the series with Zac and the whole tone of the show was technically "in my voice" (which made it VERY difficult for freelance writers to come in cold and write an episode), but, alas, I was still ONLy the writer and we all know the old joke about the dumb blonde who tried to break into Hollywood by sleeping with the writer - unless, of course, the writer or the blonde is related to Dan Povenmire's wife, in which case you're golden. For the most part, though, I'm extremely proud and pleased of the work we did on BCSD and I hope people will give it a chance and watch a few episodes to get a real sense of what we've done with these characters and this beloved property. I know they'll fall in love with it and, in fact, it will retroactively IMPROVE their childhoods.

#Be Cool Scooby Doo #Jon Colton Barry #Scooby Doo #professional writer #interview

[andrewdburton]

Death by a thousand cuts

I've been on the internet for a long, long time.

Via local Bulletin Board Systems, I started reading USENET newsgroups — mostly Star Trek and comic book and computer game stuff — during college in the late 1980s. I got sucked into the world of MUDs. Soon after graduating, I heard about this new thing called the World Wide Web, so I installed Mosaic on my Macintosh SE.

Before long, I taught myself HTML and built my first website. Eventually, in 1997, I started my first blog — back before blog was even a word!

I was drawn to the web (and the internet) in part because it seemed so egalitarian. Anyone could start a website about anything, and as long as they produced great stuff and shared it, people would read. I also liked the fact that almost everything was free. It didn't cost anything (besides your $19.95 monthly dial-up service) to access any of this information. The early web was a de facto sharing economy.

Best of all? The web was a wide open space, a blank slate, a platform free from dominance by mainstream media. Little people like me could have a voice.

None of this lasted long.

The Monetization of the Web

Soon, banner ads came along. I hated banner ads when they first appeared. “My site will never have banner ads,” I told my friends. (This was my first real lesson that you should never say never. My friends have been giving me grief about this for more than fifteen years!)

In 1998, Google arrived and changed everything. Until that point, web search was a miserable experience. It wasn't very good and it was overly monetized. Google was the opposite. It was amazing and had no monetization at all.

Hahahahahahahaha. How things have changed. Today, Google is all about ads. And using it is more and more a miserable experience. Look at this mess:

How long until Google has transformed itself into AltaVista?

In time, the mainstream media realized that the web wasn't going anywhere. By the early 2000s, they were treating it as an important part of their operations. By the early 2010s, the web had become the most important part of most media companies' platforms. And if it hadn't, those companies would soon be dead.

Meanwhile, two parallel (but related) trends developed.

First, there was the rise of “software as a service” (Saas). In the olden days — 1995, say — when you wanted a computer program, you went down to Circuit City and bought it. You paid for it once and you owned it forever. As “web apps” became a thing, companies shifted from one-time payments to a subscription model. Today, even big companies like Microsoft and Adobe have adopted the practice of continually charging for their products. (And if they don't use a subscription model, they often “sunset” their software, which is essentially the same damn thing.)

Second, forward-thinking sites and companies learned there was money to be made by disrupting existing business models. Netflix is a great example. Founded in 1997, this company has single-handedly destroyed multiple industries, most notably retail video. And, eventually, Netflix began to disrupt the monolithic television industry itself! Initially, this was beneficial to consumers. Now, in 2019, it's become apparent that oops, nope it's not. (See also.)

Twenty-five years ago, when the web was young, it was all about free. Anyone who could afford a computer and a $19.95/month dial-up connection was free to create and publish whatever they wanted — and free to consume what other people had created. It was like some sort of digital utopia.

Death by a Thousand Cuts

Today, the web is most decidedly not free. And it's getting less free with every passing month. Let's be honest: More and more, life online is fucking expensive. It's like death by a thousand cuts.

This morning as I was pulling together the latest edition of the GRS Insider — this site's weekly email — I experienced the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. And that prompted this article. (And delayed the newsletter haha.)

First, I tried to read a New York Times article: “Health facts aren't enough. Should persuasion become a priority?” But I couldn't. I've already read one article from the NYT this month: “D.I.Y. Private Equity Is Luring Small Investors”. It used to be that the NYT was free. Then they instituted a limit on article consumption unless you subscribed, but it was a limit I could live with (something like ten articles per month). Besides, I could bypass the paywall with my browser's incognito mode. Then they got wise to incognito mode, which is fair enough. Now, apparently, you get one free article per month.

Next, I wanted to read this article: “Families Go Deep in Debt to Stay in the Middle Class”. I mean, I really want to read that article. But I can't. It's at The Wall Street Journal and the WSJ has been locked behind a paywall for years.

Crashing into paywalls is a daily occurence now. No — it's an hourly occurrence. I follow a promising link and bam I'm brought up short because I have to pay to access the article. This happens at newspapers, magazines, and even internet-only sites. It makes me grateful for the publications that produce terrific content and still provide it for free. (One example? I find that I'm frequently drawn to articles at The Atlantic. They provide top-notch quality without asking for payment. But for how long?)

Meanwhile, the subscription software model is starting to take its toll too. I completely understand that some apps and services require subscriptions in order to function properly. I pay a monthly fee to have Get Rich Slowly hosted on a webserver. That makes sense.

It does not make sense to me that some of the tools we use to build Get Rich Slowly require monthly (or yearly) subscriptions. There's no ongoing maintenance. There's no draw on the vendor's resources.

It does not make sense to me that my favorite weather app for the iPhone requires an annual subscription. In fact, it's insane. (Yet I still pay it.)

It does not make sense to my that Pzizz, a sleep tool that I've used for over a decade, moved from standalone pricing to subscription pricing. (And hey, Pzizz people, how many times do I have to pay for your product before you give me lifetime access? Because I've paid three or four times already.)

Generally speaking, SaaS and subscription plans aren't necessary — they're just profitable for the companies that use them. And as long as we keep paying, they'll stick to the model.

All Good Things Must Come to an End

The “cut” that's really going to mess with people's minds? The upcoming high price of television.

When Netflix and Hulu and similar companies came along, they offered low-cost alternatives to cable. Cord cutting became an act of frugality. I ditched cable television in 2007 and have never looked back. Until now.

Now, big media companies have recognized that they too can get on the act. They too can inflict one of the thousand cuts.

CBS was quick on the draw. Want to watch the latest Star Trek shows? No Netflix for you! You have to pay $10 per month for CBS All Access — or $6 per month if you're willing to put up with commercials.

Disney is a heavy hitter and they want to get in on the act. Disney+ — coming November 12th — will cost $8 per month. Want to watch the latest Marvel and Star Wars shows? Want to watch Disney and Pixar movies? This is your only option.

By far, the most popular show on Netflix is NBC's The Office, which accounts for a mind-boggling 7% of all Netflix viewing in the U.S. NBC knows a golden goose when it sees one. When its current deal with Netflix expires, it's yanking The Office and using it as a tent pole to launch its own subscription service.

Meanwhile, Netflix and Hulu and Amazon all offer their own original programming. (At least the latter is free for folks who pay for Prime, which is nearly one-third of the United States. Holy shit!) Apple will soon get in on the game and they're using big names to draw viewers: Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg, Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Aniston, and more.

Streaming used to be a cheaper alternative to cable television. As Consumer Reports notes, these days it's a toss-up. And soon, streaming is likely to be the more expensive option.

Note: The one huge advantage to this proliferation of options? Users can pick and choose which content they subscribe to. For years (or decades), folks had been asking for a la carte pricing for cable channels. Well, I guess now we have it.

No Free Lunch

To provide supporting evidence for this article, I started to make a list of all of the software subscriptions I have, my software that's being “sunsetted” and needs to be upgraded (Quickbooks 2016 just notified me yesterday that it's no longer supported), the most common paywalls I encounter, and the television-related payments I make. I gave up. It's a doable thing, but it'd take too much time right now. It's a project for another day.

I know I sound like a cranky old man (again!), but I've had enough. I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore! Except that I probably am.

“Don't you expect to pay for services?” Kim asked me as I bitched to her this morning. “How does anybody run a business if it's free? In your mind, their business model should be to not charge the customer?”

Okay, fair point. I don't want to be taken for a choosing beggar.

As somebody who runs a website himself and knows how much it costs (in terms of time and money) just to maintain my tiny corner of the web, I absolutely do not begrudge anyone the desire to make money.

And, in fact, my biggest challenge since repurchasing Get Rich Slowly two years ago has been balancing my desire to provide excellent information without destroying the user experience with monetization. It's a delicate balance, one that I'm not sure I'm achieving. (But hey, I'm working on it!)

My frustration is that there are just so many companies extracting a pound of flesh from me. It's too much.

Yes, I realize most (of not all) of these expenses are voluntary. Yes, I realize this is capitalism in action. Yes, I realize there are often free (or cheaper) options. Yes, I realize we can't reset the internet to 1995. Believe me: I've been thinking about this issue for years now. I understand all of this stuff. But I don't like it.

In the end, my solution recently has been to KonMari my digital life. I've removed most of the apps from my iPhone and iPad, opting to cut those with subscription fees first. When possible, choose software with a one-time fee instead of an ongoing subscription. I try to steer clear of sites with paywalls. I killed Hulu. (But then Kim promptly joined.) Even though I love Star Trek and the Marvel Universe, I refuse to pay for CBS All Access and Disney+. I never will.

But then, I was never going to have banner ads on my website either, was I?

The post Death by a thousand cuts appeared first on Get Rich Slowly.

from Finance https://www.getrichslowly.org/death-by-a-thousand-cuts/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[podcastcoach]

Lessons From Steven Spielberg - Podcast Woodshed

Because of My Podcast, I Will Be Attending A Taping of the Black List Television Show - Troy Heinritz

1:58

Troy Heinritz has had story after story when it comes to his Black List Exposed show. He recently won a podcast award, and now was called by Sony to attend the taping of the 100th episode the Black List. Troy was on the Ask the Podcast Coach show and talked about he when he gets these opportunities, he prepares and delivers, and consequently keeps getting more opportunities.

Check out his show at www.goldensprialmedia.com

Questions of the Month

3:00

I need the answer to two questions by November 13th 2017.

What will you be doing differently in 2018 with your podcast?

What is your favorite podcast (if you could only pick 1)? What is it, what is it about? where is it? and most importantly WHY is your favorite? (be sure to mention your show as well).

I need your answers by November 13th, 2017. For more information go to www.schoolofpodcasting.com/contact 

Embracing the Experience Gap

4:52

When podcasters first start, they put a lot of thought into their launch (sometimes too much), and they get their show out and into Apple Podcasts and the other directories. 

Then they do one thing that can really knock the passion out of them: they compare themselves to others. 

They want to know how many downloads other shows get, and start to focus on other podcasters instead of focusing on their audience. 

Back to the Woodshed

I've played the guitar since I was 11. When I got done with school I would deliver my papers to my paper route, eat dinner, and my friend would come over and we would play guitar for hours. We weren't very good. We weren't taking lessons, and I was learning to play lead by trying to recreate the sounds I heard on albums. 

In other words, I would study music, and then practice, practice, practice, until I could play it. The music that was produced on the path to "getting it" was not pretty. I have hours of tapes of us playing Ted Nugent's Stranglehold for hours. Each of us would take turns soloing over the top of it. 

I recorded these so I could evaluate my process. I never intended to release them to the public. You can do the same with your podcast. Record a couple test shows for evaluation.

How Can Podcasters Get Better?

Podcasters get better by podcasting. I know that sounds stupid, but there is no way to know if you're content is good unless you get it in front of your target audience. 

You can also study other podcasts and entertainment. You see podcasting is part of the entertainment industry. Sure some of it is educational. Then again so is Sesame Street, and it's pretty entertaining. 

I recently watched a documentary on Steven Spielberg. Spielberg got turned down to be in the USC film school due to grades.

He would take a tour of Universal Studios, and when the bus stopped for a bathroom break he would sneak away and watch people like Alfred Hitchcock direct. 

One of his first films  (Amblin 1968 ) was geared toward studio executives to show he was not a normal independent filmmaker. - he knew his audience, and it worked it got him hired.

As the youngest director under contract, he was a bit of a novelty item, so he had to prove himself over and over.

One famous director pulled Steven aside and said, "There are days you will go on the set and have no idea what you're doing. Your job is to make sure the cast doesn't know that. The film interviewed Richard Dreyfuss who sais he was hired on the third day of the Movie Jaws. He said they didn't have a script, and they didn't have a shark.

Steven decided to the movie on the ocean instead of a back lot of a movie studio. 

In fact, the first shark doesn’t appear until one hour and 21 minutes into the two-hour film. This was partly due to the mechanical sharks they built didn't work. The cost was 225,000. So you'll notice the use of barrels moving instead of the shark. You didn't need to see the shark. Just the music and the thought of the shark made it scary.

The sharks were smaller than expected so they hired shorter actors to be next to the shark.

The line, "“You’re going to need a bigger boat" was improvised.

Jaws became the first motion picture to gross more than $100 million and won three Academy Awards (for Best Sound, Best Film Editing, and Best Original Dramatic Score).

So how did Steven Spielberg get getter? Jaws had come in way over budget, and instead of taking 55 days, it took 159. His next two films also came in way over budget. This actually stopped from studios from working with him. Yes, he was making a lot of money at the box office, but his integrity was on the line and he improved. 

As podcasters we are storytellers. The only way we can get better is to keep podcasting.

Final Lessons

In the same way that Steven Spielberg didn't have all the equipment he wanted, you can make great content without having the top of the line equipment. 

Your next episode should be better than your previous one. You will get more confident, and your skills will improve. 

The only way to get better at any skill is to do it. 

Don't be distracted by other podcaster's success. Keep working to improve your own skills (keep woodshedding).

The Best Compliment a Podcaster Can Receive

24:20

For me, to have someone say that I am the same off the mic as I am off the mix is a huge compliment. This happened to me when Jim Collison from theaverageguy.tv was a guest on the Podcast Junkies Show. They talk about Jim's background, a bit about his network, working with me, and how Jim balances his podcast and his life.  Its a great interview, and Harry Durran is a great interviewer. 

My First Impression with Squarespace

28:42

I was under the assumption that the Squarespace platform for building a website was so easy that the site almost built itself. I've head a million commercials about it. I decided to try it for my Podcasting in Six Weeks Course. 

While it is flexible, it is more or less a "page builder" tool. I've seen these on WordPress like Divi From Elegant Themes. The Second Line theme I mentioned comes with a page builder. Squarespace is not that different. You add an element to a page and edjust the properties of that item. I was surprised there weren't more elements. While they had enough elements to make most websites, you can look at it two ways, "hooray I'm not overwhelmed with the choices," or "Hey where is the FAQ template?" 

I was surprised that I couldn't change the background color of different elements. The biggest complaint is they have an e-commerce tool. This ties in with Paypal and Stripe. Both of those tools take about three percent plus a transaction fee. This is normal. What is not normal is Squarespace takes an additional three percent. When you are talking about products that are four figures, that can be a chunk of change you are paying to keep people on your website (instead of sending them to another page to check out). 

The bottom line is everyone says this is super drag and drop easy, and while it is easy to drag and drop, to really adjust customize items, there are lots of little boxes that pop up based on where you click. While I didn't expect zero learning curve, the onboarding process was not as easy as expected. 

Speed up Podcast Production

36:20

If you're on a pc, you can add a folder to the quick access area (left column) of the File Explorer Window. Go to the folder you want to access all the time, and right-click and choose Pin To Quick Access." Now you will see it on the left-hand side. You can remove it by right-clicking on it and choose "unpin from quick access." This avoids you having to "Drill down" by double-clicking on folder after folder to get to that folder.

Mentioned In This Episode

The School of Podcasting

Podcasting in Six Weeks (Early Bird Special Ends December 1st)

Podcast Junkies Show

Squarespace

Elegant Themes Divi

Second Line Podcast Themes

Check out this episode!

#podcasting #podcast #coaching #new media

[chriscoleman]

San Juan Island Trip Report

The San Juan Islands are an archipelago in the U.S. state of Washington known for rural Pacific Northwest landscapes and wildlife. At mean high tide, the archipelago comprises over 400 islands and rocks, 128 of which are named, and over 478 miles of shoreline. We visited the main island - San Juan Island - for a 4 day adventure October 2017.

Thursday the 12th we left Seattle early. GPS had an ETA of 9:25am for our 9:30am ferry sailing. Luckily my expert driving and a surprising lack of rush hour traffic going north allowed us to arrive about 9:15am, enough time for coffee and a dog walk.  

Julia, Skye, and I sat on the sun deck of the Elwha ferry with our car parked below. I ate an average breakfast sandwich as Skye tried to drink from rusty puddles along the deck. She had been thirsty all week after visiting Whidbey island and drinking a bunch of sea water.  

We arrived at our VRBO rental about 11am. The property was on 6 acres just north of the main downtown area – Friday Harbor. Our own private beach at the end of a secluded dirt road. There was even a big dog bed under the stairs leading to the lofted second story.

Cattle Point was our first adventure on the island. A 15-minute drive from the house at the south end. There was a lighthouse and national park where the Americans setup camp during a land dispute with the British.

History Lesson: In the mid-1800s Great Britain and the United States disputed ownership of the island. Americans considered the British presence an affront to their "manifest destiny." The British believed they had a legal right to lands guaranteed by earlier treaties, explorations and commercial activities of the Hudson's Bay Company. In June 1846 the Treaty of Oregon was signed in London, setting the boundary on the 49th parallel, from the Rocky Mountains "to the middle of the channel which separates the continent from Vancouver's Island” then south through the channel to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and west to the Pacific Ocean. Difficulty arose over language. The "channel" described in the treaty was actually two channels: the Haro Strait, nearest Vancouver Island, and the Rosario Strait, nearer the mainland. The San Juan Islands lay between, and both sides claimed the entire island group. By spring 1859, 18 Americans had settled on claims staked on BC prime sheep grazing lands. The crisis came on June 15, 1859, when Lyman Cutlar, an American, shot and killed a company pig rooting in his garden. San Juan Island remained under joint military occupation for the next 12 years. In 1871, when Great Britain and the United States signed the Treaty of Washington, the San Juan question was referred to Kaiser Wilhelm I of Germany for settlement. The kaiser referred the issue to a three-man arbitration commission who met for nearly a year in Geneva. On October 21, 1872, the commission, through the kaiser, ruled in favor of the United States, establishing the boundary line through Haro Strait. Thus the San Juan Islands became American possessions and the final boundary between Canada and the United States was set. We won!

Rabbits leading out to South Beach were hilarious to watch. There were dozens of them in a big field - if Sky only knew… The beach was deserted and full of bleached driftwood. Julia explored as I laid down to nap.

On the way home we stopped at a farm stand - Heritage Farm. Picked up super sweet tomatoes, kale, peppers (we even paid for a pumpkin that we forgot to put into the car). Then we stopped at the local Bakery for raspberry tarts and the Co-Op for veggies and tiny chocolate bars. A fisherman named Matt was selling fresh caught Keta salmon in the parking lot and we bought a 5 pound half fish for $17.

Relaxing night with warm drinks on the porch and a big salmon dinner, plus apple dessert. Julia even read a bit for Project Manager class.

Friday the 13th was full of fun, not fear. We started at Lime Kiln Cafe in Roche Harbor on the north end of the island. The fresh biscuits with local jam was my favorite part. The Harbor was extremely nice all around. Fancy boats, a nice hotel, shopping, and a sculpture park. Definitely a spot we’d visit again with more time on the island.    

An alpaca farm was next - Julia squealed as we turned the corner. They had about 150 alpaca’s and a country store. We walked along the field but they didn’t take interest in us since we had no food to share. The owner explained her story of how she came into this life as we checked out. She had retired to San Juan Island, but quickly became bored with a house on the water. Buying the first 2 alpacas was not planned, they got them during a charity auction because her husband was trying to bid up the price for a good cause. That resulted in them eventually selling everything to buy the alpaca farm. Pro Tip: males and females are separated because the farm believes in Planned Alpacahood.

Pelindaba Lavender Farm was just down the street. We did a quick tour and bought a bunch of pretty smelling things. Then back to the house to pickup Skye and continue our hiking exploration of the island.

English Camp was a highlight of the trip. Originally a non-interesting destination - the weather, history, and trails made it super-interesting. We started high up on the hill at the Commander's house looking down on the waterfront where he had a garden built for his wife. Then we took a trail out to Bell Point where the 3 of us sat on a small beach with eagles and herons flying overhead.

A quick trip to the Lime Kiln Lighthouse was our last activity of the day. I was tired and set on annoying Julia to the fullest. No whales spotted from this western shore.

On the way home we stopped back at the Heritage Farm to pickup the pumpkin we forgot, plus a few other veggies to keep the salmon dinner going for night 2 (we had a ton of fish!). We also popped into Kings Grocery to round out dinner and breakfast. Dinner with views of the sunset over Mt. Baker was a real treat. Then Julia read another long PM chapter and I relaxed. 

Saturday the 14th was our scheduled Whale Watch boat tour with Western Prince. Before we even left the house Julia called me out to the back yard where she first heard blows and then saw whales/porpoise. An amazing way to start the day, without going anywhere. Then we jammed fish guts into a rusty crab pot and tossed it out back at low tide.

Downtown we hit up the farmers market before setting sail, with many pastries and fresh roasted coffee. Spring Street Deli hooked up a big sandwich for lunch which I jammed into my already full backpack (tons of clothing layers, drinks, food, and camera).  

Weather was a bit rough as we started. Captain told us to hold on for a rough ride as we zoomed out to the farthest point the boat could hit for a day tour. After about an hour and a half we arrived just off the shore of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Right away we were greeted by 2 huge humpback whales. Blowing water high into the air with each breath, the boat tracked them as they whipped their tails every time they went down for a deep dive. They ate a huge bait ball of fish that was fascinating to watch (the crew knew what was about to happen as the birds indicated the underwater situation). Then we saw another 2 whales and continued to track ‘our 2’. In all we were next to these magnificent creatures for a half hour before speeding back towards San Juan Island. We even got a pass by of Spieden Island - which is privately owned and once used for Big Game Hunting - and still today there are some of the exotic animals roaming the 500 acres.  

1 cab was in our pot when we returned to the house. Unfortunately he escaped as we pulled it in. We should have gone out for dinner, but we were both tired and my stomach wasn’t amazing after a rough day on the water. We lit a fire which was warm + romantic. Julia read more PM chapters while the dog chased deer outside.

Sunday the 15th we cleaned, packed, and hit the ferry. One last tour around downtown as we waited for the 11am sailing. Anacortes to Seattle was another 2 hour drive before we got home to Ballard. Sounders game at 4pm - no time to unpack or rest. The boys won and we clinched a spot in the MLS playoffs yet again. I even got drunk to celebrate, then cleaned the house after Julia drove us home. HA!

Last year we visited Lopez Island, this year was San Juan Island, next year should be Orcas Island. October is an amazing time to visit these beautiful spots, I can’t wait to go again!!

#SanJuanIsland

[cohesionarts]

This just in from Cohesion Arts

New Post has been published on http://cohesionarts.com/2017/10/16/dispatches-from-the-outskirts-of-facebookistan-october-16-edition/

Dispatches from the Outskirts of Facebookistan – October 16 Edition

I have often referred to Facebook as the Internet’s “infinite random trivia generator” – a notion largely derived from the mind-numbing habit of staring at the display – laptop, desktop, or hand-held – and scrolling on, forever thinking that the next post will be something genuinely interesting or profound. OK, maybe the next one. Or the one after that. Or the one… you get the picture.

I have refrained from posting anything on Facebook (OK, maybe a comment here or there…) for the past week.

I suppose you could say that by trying to avoid Facebook I’m actually more fixated on Facebook than if I was just interacting with it normally. Maybe the problem is I just don’t know what ‘normally’ means anymore. But two weeks in to this self-imposed quarantine, I think I can safely say I’m not missing it all that much.

Anyway, here’s what you missed:

*

From Monday October 9:

There’s been a lot said both pro and con re: TN Senator – MY Senator – Bob Corker offering some choice observations about the Moron in Chief in the past few days. I tend to fall into “where was he when we needed him?” camp, for reasons that are alluded to in this delectable bit of diatribe from Wonkette– my go-to site for caustic and profane commentary on current affairs:

https://wonkette.com/624020/gop-sen-bob-corker-has-only-just-begun-to-talk-shit-about-donald-trump

The money quote:

It’s true that Corker has done a lot of fucked up things. The race-baiting ads he ran against Harold Ford Jr. in his first campaign come to mind! He is not a hero. But he is doing something important right at this moment. We feel like both of those things can be true at the same time, no?

*

OK, so Harvey Weinstein is fat and ugly. Couldn’t he at least shave? #UglyStubble

– – – – – –

Thursday, October 12:

Why do men still wear buns in their hair? You would think with all the ridicule and scorn that has been cast upon man buns that by now they would know better. #NoThatDoesNotLookHip

*

Now on to the really important stuff:

It’s discouraging to think that the Cleveland Indians could finish the regular season with the best record in baseball, and then lose three consecutive games to the New York Yankees and be knocked out of the playoffs.

The whole wildcard system sucks. The Yankees could’t even win their division, and yet they get to compete in the ALCS. Did I mention that the whole wildcard scheme sucks? That’s why.

Maybe I just feel that way because I grew up in a time when one team won each league and then went to the World Series. You won the season, you got to go the World Series.  There was no “Post Season.”  There was just the World Series.  Which was played in early October.  And during the day. That made a whole lot more sense than than this idea that a second-place team can be the “World Champions” – after playing all the games in the cold nights of late October.  Jeezus.

I still think of the Houston Astros as a National League team, so I don’t understand why they’re playing in the American League Championship Series, but at this point, at least they won their division, and they’ve never won a World Series. So I might start rooting for them.

The Astros were originally the Houston Colt 45s, and became the Astros when they started playing in that dreadful Houston Astrodome. For that alone they should be condemned to baseball purgatory, but I’m going to overlook that now that they’re playing in a modern new park – with a retractable roof so they can play outdoors when the weather and Houston humidity permit.

The Astros / Colt 45’s were among the first “expansion teams” in 1962 – the same year the Mets were formed – and the Mets won their first World Series a mere seven years later in 1969. So maybe it’s the Astros’ turn this time.

Anyway, I bought a Cleveland Indians hat and was gonna root for them in the playoffs this year.

Because I really don’t have a personal favorite team any more. I grew up with the Yankees, became a “closet Dodger fan” after I read a biography of Roy Campanella (nobody ever mentions the second black man to play in the Major Leagues…) in the fourth grade, and was a Braves fan for a long time after moving to Hawaii in the 80s (TBS was the only “live” national television station in the Islands for a long time).

But over the last decade or so, my interest in baseball has waned considerably – thanks to the interminable post-season games and the endlessly repeating commercials. Since I got TiVo in 2001, I just can’t sit through commercials anymore. So I don’t really have a favorite team any more and I have no idea who any of the players are.

So when it comes to the post-season and it’s time to try to care a little, I go by the theory of “root for the team that has gone the longest without” winning the World Series. Last year that was the Cubs. who hadn’t won a World Series since 1908 – even though they were playing the Indians, who haven’t won a World Series since 1948.

Now that the Cubs have won a World Series, I figured it’s the Indian’s turn. I bought a cap and was gonna root for ‘em. I got to wear the hat for exactly ONE game before the second-place-in-the regular-season (in other words losers!) Yankees knocked ‘em out of the stupid “Divison Series.”

I think I’m just going to keep wearing my Indians cap in mourning, but root for the Cubs in the National League and the Astros in the American League (that still sounds weird). But I’m not gonna buy another hat.

*

Famous questions from the Apple Store: “Do you have a thing that can get the boogers out?” (of an iPhone’s Lightning connector socket).

– – – – – –

Friday, October 13

I keep hearing about a news service called “Axios.” The references treat it likes it’s a credible news service that’s been around for a long time, but I swear I never heard of it until about a month ago. Whathefuck is “Axios” and why is its suddenly getting all this attention?

*

Here is my definition of an asshole: somebody who will stand in the middle of an audience, and not even look around to see if he’s standing in front of somebody. Hey, asshole… down in front!

– – – – – –

Saturday October 14:

More baseball: Is it really necessary to a emblazon all the uniforms and caps with a “Post Season” logo? I know it’s the post-season. I don’t have to keep being reminded every time I look at one of the players. #CrappyMarketing

– – – – – –

Sunday October 15:

This is “the Facebook effect” : In the one instant that I look at Fucking Facebook, I see something that somebody I know is photographing Jason is bell at the Ryman. I immediately feel terrible if that’s not me. Fuck you, Facebook.

*

I’m pretty tired of hearing people complain about the USB-C ports on the new MacBook Pros. It’s the port of the future. You need adapters to connect to the gizmos of the past. Get used to it and shut the fuck up.

*

Well, there ya go.  1200 words worth of witty and profound.

See ya next week.

[swimintothesound]

Artistic Integrity and Commercial Success | Part 3

This is the third (and most negative) installment in a series of four posts on the same topic. This was originally intended to be the last, but I wrote more than I expected, and I wanted to end on a more positive note. View the first post here the second one here, and expect one more wrap-up coming soon.

The New Scott

Before I fully dive into Travis Scott, I feel like it’s important to give some personal context. I can’t decide if that’s because I think memories are important, or because I’m retroactively embarrassed at my own fandom given recent developments, but either way, here’s a quick rundown:

As previously discussed, Trav has released some of my favorite hip-hop albums of the past few years. His 2015 debut Rodeo is one of my all-time favorites, and one of the handful of albums released that year that made me “believe” in hip-hop as a genre. That’s a powerful notion. And even if the album has some wack bars, it’s production, aesthetic, and sonic approach are all so impeccable that I’m willing to overlook a handful of goofy lyrics.

As great as Rodeo is, it (and Travis Scott as an entity) are prime examples of style over substance. And don’t get me wrong, there are some legitimately great songs on this album, but as a whole, Rodeo undeniably relies on textures and production to make up for its lyrical shortcomings. I’ve already made it clear that I don’t think lyrics are music’s end all be all (even for hip-hop), but I can totally see how someone approaching this album from a traditional rap mindset could leave Rodeo disappointed if they came in looking for clever writing.

But this is all me preemptively addressing valid criticism. I personally think that every track on Rodeo is great for one reason or another, and my positive memories associated with the album are more powerful than any objectivity I can ever offer up. In fact, I loved Rodeo so much that the next summer I ventured further back into Scott’s discography and found myself spinning his prior release Days Before Rodeo. I listened to the mixtape more times than I ever would have expected, and it ended up becoming my second-most played album of 2016 and currently sits at my 7th most played album of all time on last.fm. So yeah. I like that album quite a bit too.

Many of the same criticisms of Rodeo could also be applied to Days Before, but (again) I’m willing to overlook those shortcomings for the overall experience of the tape. So as I ravenously devoured these two albums I found myself rapidly advancing up the next step of my obsessive fandom staircase. I collected everything Travis-related that I could get my hands on. From tracking his features to obsessively compiling my own B-sides album it was safe to say I was in full-on hype mode.

Now is when crushing reality sets in. I’ve already linked to this reddit comment detailing the history of Travis’ broken promises in the lead-up to his second album, but I think it bears repeating. Delays and false release dates are nothing new for Travis, but this timeline highlights the absurdity of this particular album’s cycle. As someone following Travis very closely at this time, it was disheartening to have nearly weekly promises that ended up broken and eclipsed by yet another revised “announcement” the following week.

Things began to look up in June of 2016 when Travis dropped the Young Thug and Quavo-infused “Pick up The Phone.” Already a known quantity for months at that point, and fraught with last-minute legal troubles, it was a relief simply to have a fresh Travis song. I won’t get too deep into it here, but PUTP was one of my favorite songs last year and more recently has gone on to become my most listened to track of all time on last.fm within a year. It’s a breezy, ad lib-riddled summer banger. The syrupy bass line filled with intermittent 808 taps and distorted steel drums combines into a drugged-out soundscape that serves as the perfect backdrop for the three artists sharing the track.

“Pick up the Phone” felt like a positive sign to me. I couldn’t stop playing it, and it became my summer anthem within a matter of weeks. If this is the type of stuff Travis had in store for us on his next album, then maybe all the delays will have been worth it. And according to Travis, all his singles and loosies up to this point weren’t even on the album, because he wanted to give listeners a ‘fresh experience’ on their first listen. So if “Pick Up The Phone” wasn’t even good enough to make the cut, then I was officially hyped.

Travis followed that single up weeks later with a small feature on G.O.O.D. Music’s “Champions” another summer anthem that celebrates the return of Gucci Mane and showcased a rotating cast of hip-hop’s current stars and up-and-comers. Champions specifically brings to mind memories of my graduation which happened around the time of its release. In fact, my nostalgia for this track is so strong that I’ve even downloaded the version ripped from the radio because the drops evoke waves of nostalgia in me. I still remember sitting underneath Portland’s Moda Center in a cap and gown surrounded by friends and checking my phone in between conversations to see the explicit version of the track had been officially released. This comment thread specifically made me laugh so much that I still have the screencap of it saved in my phone.

But I’m getting horrifically off-topic. All signs were pointing towards a great release as Trav continued to promote his upcoming album. As mentioned above, the lead up to Birds was essentially a weekly string of broken promises and unfulfilled blue balls. And I get that it’s selfish to “expect” an album, but when you repeatedly say ‘my album is coming out in X days’ or “tonight” I’ll start to get pissed after the third or fourth time.

In early August Trav ended up droppings two loosies on his Apple Radio show: “The Hooch” and “Black Mass” they were both cool… but I was glad they were just loosies he was tossing off on his radio show. Weeks later, September 2nd he finally dropped his sophomore album Birds in the Trap Sing Mcknight.

I remember I was on vacation at the time and without a music streaming service. It agonized me that I couldn’t listen to the album until I got home. All I could do was enjoy my vacation *shudders* and read comments online.

They were exceedingly negative.

How could this be? I’d seen this happen before. In some ways I was glad. Whenever the internet mob preemptively lowers my expectations like this, I’d come out the other side enjoying what they were bitching about far more than I would have otherwise (see: Mass Effect 3, and Chance the Rapper’s Coloring Book.) But I saw the bright side. I knew that when I did get back home and sit down to listen to the album, I should lower my expectations. If your expectations are low enough anything can exceed them, right?

Right?

The Problem With Birds

Birds In the Trap feels like drab, dark, and lifeless background music. That’s not to say I don’t like dark albums, there’s a time and place for them… but it just feels so incomplete and half-hearted here. Birds is devoid of life. It is (intentionally?) poorly mixed, lacking of substance, and the album art looks like an edgy Myspace background circa 2006. Look. I’m not saying Rodeo was high art or that it even had anything new to say, but it’s far more substantive than Birds ever tries to be. What Rodeo brought to the table was a metric fuckton of different ideas and sounds that were all produced impeccably. It commands attention and each track sounds different from the last. We ended up with the polar opposite on Birds.

As a person that talks about music, it feels like a cop-out to just link to someone else’s review, but The Needle Drop’s dissection of Birds is a pretty spot-on breakdown of what feels wrong with the album. Going back to the idea of an album’s substance, Birds feels like the album equivalent of an item off the McDonald’s Value Menu. It’s about the lowest of the low (even for fast food) but it still qualifies as “food” on a technical level.

At the risk of making a horrific pivot (or just to take a break from negativity), check out this video about True Detective. If you can’t watch all eleven minutes skip straight to 2:40 and watch the section on Rogue One. I can’t tell if this is a hyper-specific example, a universal one, or just something that I’m trying to crowbar in because I’m in the mood to rewatch True Detective, but this video felt oddly poignant. Specifically, the line “when the plot is motivated by a writer or director's aesthetic needs instead of character motivation, something just inevitably feels missing.” To me, this describes Birds to a tee.

As mentioned ad nauseam, I do not go to Travis Scott for hyper-lyrical bars, so I didn’t expect that from Birds. What I did expect was thick production, varied textures, and (at the very least) some competent song structure. I ended up receiving very little of anything. It felt like Travis was chasing some aesthetic desire and forwent anything else that made his work interesting previously. And don't get me wrong, I like some songs off of Birds, but in the year since its release, I’ve realized that it has become symbolic of him not trying.

The single standout from Birds is “Goosebumps” a Kendrick Lamar-collab with a drowsy bloop-filled beat accompanied by one of the most infectious hooks I’ve heard since “Pick up the Phone.” And speaking of “Pick up the Phone” the song ended up on the album. This is after Trav promised that Birds would be “all new material.” After he had already released the song three months prior in June. After it had already been included on Young Thug’s JEFFERY as a bonus track in August. Similarly, the sparkly weekend collab “Wonderful” ended up on Birds as the album’s closer after having already been released as a Soundcloud throwaway at the end of 2015. And that was the album’s closing track.

The whole thing just left a bad taste in my mouth. Alongside these repurposed tracks were songs like “SDP Interlude” that just come off as half-finished, under-developed scraps of songs that Travis just decided to toss onto the album. It was underwhelming in every sense of the word and didn’t clear my already-low expectations. But maybe this was just a sophomore slump. A byproduct of constant touring combined with the monumental task of following up an excellent predecessor.

This is truly my hope, but with each new piece of music emerging from Travis’ camp, I become less and less hopeful in a return to form anytime soon. I’ll dive deeper into my thoughts on Travis Scott’s current output and future in the fourth and final post coming very soon.

Read Part 4 Here

#travis scott #birds #birds in the trap #birds in the trap sing mcknight #rap #hip-hop #music #tunes #young thug

[pretentiousrecordstoreguy]

Fuck Seth Cohen

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally appeared on MySpace back when Adam Brody still had a career and indie love was still looked upon with hope and reverence because Zooey Deschanel and Deathcab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard were over the moon for one another. Time is a motherfuck.   

If you’re like me then you’re 5′10″, rail thin, ridiculously good looking and your hair is the elixir from which dreams are made. You’re also a pretentious music fan - an aficionado of the underground - the litmus test by which any band who is anyone will be judged and blogged by before their fist single even makes it to a mall to be sold at Sam Goody and purchased by know-nothings who will only buy whatever Rolling Stone, Spin or A.P. advertisers steer them towards. We are the taste makers that serve up our sacrificial lambs to the mainstream so that they can die and be be resurrected in the temple of rock.

SIDE NOTE: I suppose today it would be Pitchfork, Spotify, Pandora and Apple Music because nobody reads magazines anymore and record stores are rarer than Big Foot sightings.   You might even watch The O.C., which brings me to my point or rather to the question which I pose herein:

If an Indie band sold out on The O.C. would there be any hipsters left to watch?

More and more every concert I go to is being populated by a litany of teens and preteens. I now find myself having to navigate the narrows of the pit with sinewy, gawky, thirteen year olds who are all elbows, while their parents stand three feet behind me staring at me, silently judging me, while I drink my intoxicants and smoke my Camel lights.  This has seriously begun to dampen my joy for the live show, a staple of my pretentious existence. While I cannot hold this against the young, for we were all once preteen unpretentious music lovers at one time or another before we became schooled in rock, I do hold one man personally responsible. That man is Seth Cohen. Fuck Seth Cohen! Seth Cohen has ruined my life! He has taken the one thing in the world that I hold dear and prostituted it for the world to take turns with and discard after their momentary desire is satisfied. He has taken a great many of my favorite Indie bands and served them up for the mainstream masses to suckle upon their teat. And, oh how every band is lining up for their turn to bare their breasts! Now I am all for spreading the word and getting great music heard, but at the same time music is the one thing, the only thing that I care about. Discovering a band is a very special thing. Getting in on the ground floor, being one of the first people at the concert who knows all the songs, meeting the band after the show and helping spread the word through the underground is an unequaled experience.  When a band finally breaks the mainstream you feel some sort of satisfaction in knowing that you did your part to help them along the way; they will always be your own little special band. Not anymore. Now every Thursday Seth Cohen and The O.C. breaks my heart each week while serving up another one of my favorite bands to be gorged and devoured by mainstream America. And each passing week I feel a little bit sadder and a little bit older and a little bit more meaningless. Thanks a lot, Seth Cohen. If I could ever meet Seth Cohen this is what I would say, “Go fuck yourself, sir.”

EDITOR’S POSTSCRIPT: What a difference a decade or two make. In the 90s, the absolute worse thing a band could do would be to license their music to a TV commercial. After the music industry tanked in the early 2000s, bands - especially indie bands - started to license their music to any and every TV commercial that would throw money at them (The Shins, Modest Mouse, The Dandy Warhols, Spoon, etc.). This reached a nadir when popular TV shows began to follow the trend, with The O.C. being the forerunner of this trend and Grey’s Anatomy and all of Shonda Rimes shows fast-following (and later eclipsing them). When making money in the record industry is a pretty rare thing, does selling out even matter or is it just using the patronage system to crowdfund your art project and get the most amount of people to hear your music? Definitely a debate for another column, but isn’t it funny how things change? As noted previously, time is a motherfuck. 

#music #indie #sethcohen #fuck seth cohen #the o.c. #deathcab for cutie #the shins #modest mouse #the dandy warhols #spoon #adam brody #ben gibbard #zooey deschanel #90s #2000s #tv commercial

[djrelentless]

“The Loss Of My Friend, Rick West”

October 10, 2013 at 7:23am

On September 29th, I was reading some posts on facebook and read that my best friend from 1986 was no longer with us. I am still trying to wrap my head around the death of my friend, Rick West. It's funny how life moves you in different directions. And try as we may, you cannot escape your origins. I grew up in Tampa, Florida. All my life I dreamed of living in a big city. I knew that one day I would find my way to New York City. As an art student at Hillsborough Community College, I would sit on the fire escape of my entire floor apartment I rented in Ybor City back in 1986 and draw extra buildings to Tampa's skyline to make myself feel like I was anywhere else but Tampa.

My one year of college is about the time I met Rick West. I was exploring my sexuality and my sense of fashion. I had a fake ID. I had slept with a guy named Melvin Isadore Wilson and talked him into letting me use his birth certificate to go down to the DMV to get an identification card. I lived above a vintage clothes called Bon Ton.

And every Saturday night I would go to the El Goya (which would later become Tracks). There were a group of alternative patrons who would dance to the alternative music for a gay bar (Depeche Mode, The Cure, Shriekback, The Cult, Front 242, CCPR, etc). And I bought all my clothes from thrift shops and vintage clothing stores. And in that scene was a group of nightlife celebrities like performance artist John Dean and the ultra fabulous Maurice who performed as Prince in Rene's talent show on Mondays. Always feeling like a big fish in a small pond, I wanted to be as well known as they were. Mind you, I had just graduated from King High School where I was known more for dressing like Michael Jackson. So, I had some work to do to get rid of that image. I would show up at El Goya in silk pajamas or some ensemble with rhinestones and a trench coat.  

I hung out with a girl named Ann (don't remember her last name, but I called her "Ranking Ann" from a Scritti Politti song). She looked like a cross between Aretha Franklin in the "Freeway Of Love" video and Grace Jones. She was as tall as me and very athletic. She was always in some sport biking outfit. We would be on the floor most of the night and really enjoyed the alternative sets that DJ Bobby Caldwell and his lightman Jimmy Strickland would do while the drag shows were on.

There was a group of kinda clean cut kids who would come and dance during those sets. I don't remember everyone, but the main people were Christopher Littel, Richard Riccio, Rick West and his friend Sabrina. Chris was the most outgoing and introduced himself to Ann and myself one night. So, we were all dancefloor friends. An then one day some of the non-alternative folks started complaining about the alternative music and started calling us "twinkles". Chris Littel came up with the idea to have "The Great Twinkie Party" one Saturday night out of rebellion. Our theme song that night was "Since Yesterday" by Strawberry Switchblade. Rick and I somehow really connected over their cover of "Jolene" and struck up a conversation. We discovered that we both loved music and wanted to be DJ's. I had already started working at the Northside Lounge without even being able to mix. Rick had already started mixing, but only in his bedroom.

I'm not sure how it started, but Rick and I would go record shopping every Thursday. Our favorite store was Vinyl Fever on Fletcher Avenue in North Tampa. Eventually we would expand our shopping to Yolanda's Record Store on Henderson in West Tampa. Then we both joined Suncoast Record Pool. We spent hours at his house out in Seffner breaking the seals on our new records and practicing mixing.

I remember once I kicked him out of my apartment off Bayshore in 1987. You see, Rick (for as long as I had known him) lived at home with his parents. Because he didn't have expenses like rent and utilities bills, he could afford Technic 1200 turntables. I was out on my own and could only afford some belt driven turntables and a Realistic 2 channel mixer from Radio Shack. Of course, we got passed this incident. I don't think he ever really knew how important his friendship was to me.

Even though I began my DJ career before him, I don't think that I would have ever learned to mix without his help. He dreamed of spinning at Tracks. I explained to him that he would have to take a shitty job first. So, I got him hired with me at Paradise Lounge on Nebraska Avenue just north of Fletcher. He hated that job! Mainly because I had already set the format to Commercial, Pop, R&B, Jackswing and Rock. After all…it was a lesbian joint. I changed it from the Country and High Energy Dance that Jimmy Strickland had programed. There's a rule when you are the head resident DJ of a club or bar…..never hire anyone better than you to work with you. And even though I knew Rick was a better DJ than me, I knew he would never take my job from me. He hated the place, but it was experience and extra money. Plus, the owner hated him. Rick just never looked happy to be there.

When I talked the owner, Larry into hiring my brother (who really was not my brother), Anthony Evans, it gave Rick some relief. We really didn't need another DJ and I knew that Larry would only hire another one if I said Anthony was my brother. And then it became common knowledge that Anthony was my brother on the Tampa scene. Larry actually seemed to have a crush on Anthony. Larry really didn't care for me either, but the customers loved me because I brought a new sound to them. Rick and Anthony would curse my name for playing Joan Jett and Bobby Brown. They were already into House Music and would talk for hours about it. When I got House records in the pool, I'd give them to Anthony. I was always the one out of our group who appreciated the Commercial Pop hits. They didn't understand me at all. And I couldn't understand how they didn't love playing for the audience we had. I built my name off of Paradise, Rene's and Puzzles in St. Pete. My last job in Tampa was at BVD's on Busch Blvd in 1991. By then, Rick had finally made it into Tracks where he always dreamed of working. But it was not the dream job he thought of. He had to play stuff he didn't want and didn't connect well with the customers.

BVD's got shut down after the owners were busted by the IRS and FBI for a murder. So, all the employees were out of jobs. I had worked at all the clubs in Tampa (except for Tracks) and there weren't really any other options for me. I was dealing with the fact that I was HIV+. I was seeing a guy named Wilfredo Cosme who was from NYC and HIV+ as well. Anthony and I lived together in an apartment on Westland Avenue near Howard and Kennedy Blvd. Rick was spinning at Tracks and working for Richard Riccio at his new record store in Hyde Park called "Digital Wave". Wilfredo was going back to NYC and I wanted to follow him. I didn't want to have to tell too many people about my status. I told Rick and Anthony, but very few others.

After Wilfredo left, I met Michael Gagne (a Tampa celebrity because he had just sued the ROTC and won for losing his grades before graduation because he way openly gay). When I met him, I had no idea who he was or had heard anything about him. He was just this skinny kid who sorta looked like Clark Gable. I guess he took a shine to me because I didn't know who he was and I wasn't political. I quickly learned about him and politics. Before I knew it, I was helping him with his public access show and attending ACT UP rallies. But the problem with him was that I truly believed he only dated me because I was HIV+ and it looked good politically. We were't having sex and I started suspecting he was cheating on me. So, I called an ex of mine who lived in NYC and asked if I could come up to look for work. Plus, I wanted to find Wifredo.

When I left Tampa, I guess that's where the slow down in my friendship with Rick started. With so many miles between us, expensive long distance calls and no internet friendships took harder turns back in those days. Plus, my education in The Big Apple was taking up most of my time. I would see Rick when I came back for visits, but those were every 2 or 3 years. I think the last time I saw him was around 2003 when Anthony and I stopped by his house for a visit. I had come down to handle the arrangements for Lady Charlotte's funeral. By this time, Anthony was the head DJ at The Parliament House and Rick's career as the top Break Beat DJ in Central Florida. He was the ol' Rick that I remembered. Still making jokes about his mother and her interrupting us while listening and talking about our new records. He and I used to call his mother, father and brother Jonathan "Lisa Lisa & The Cult Jam". He even had a dance he used to do imitating his mother if she was at the club. I would alway burst out laughing when he would do it. I never really was into the Break Beat scene and being that I lived in New York at this time it was not something I had an interest in. Break Beat was not a huge thing in New York City.

Rick tried to explain this genre to me, but it just sounded like he had taken those old 2 Live Crew records and put them with other songs. I never knew that he was such a huge deal. I would read articles every now and then and see that he was spinning at events with my other friend Chris Milo (who I had spun with for an alternative night at Rene's). It all seemed like another world since I no longer lived in Florida. It was weird to come back and find Ybor City this mecca of night clubs. When I hung out there, it was a lot of abandoned stores and cigar factories. The big city that I wished for had happened. Tampa grew and grew while I was away.

The last time I spoke to Rick, he called me to apologize for being incoherent in our previous conversation while I was in town (April 2011). I wanted to see him while I was there. So, I called to see if he could come into Tampa for lunch or dinner. I had no idea that he was on prescription drugs. I could barely understand what he was saying. And he suddenly hung up in mid-sentence. So, when I got back to Toronto, he called and apologized. He explained that his medication was really strong and had that affect on him. We promised to stay in touch, but it didn't happen. I feel guilty for not reaching out more. Rick never seemed happy. He had some fun moments and plenty of laughs, but I never heard him say that he was truly happy with his life. And many will say I am wrong for saying so, but I told him a long time ago that he needed to move out of his parents place. I could not imagine how different his life would have been if he had spread his wings and saw more of the world.

Whenever I go back to Tampa, I always see some of my old friends and they look pretty much the same. They are doing pretty much the same things they did years ago. The ones who seem happy have at least left Tampa at some point and returned. I truly hope Rick is seeing a new world of places and things he never got to see while he was here. I hope for his sake that it is not like that Albert Brooks' film "Defending Your Life" where they show you all the things where you made poor decisions and didn't take chances. Or maybe I am wrong. Maybe he was happy with his life. Maybe his title of top Break Beat DJ was exactly what he wanted. Perhaps he stayed because his parents lost his younger brother all those years ago. Our connection faded too long ago. I'll never know because we did not stay in touch like Anthony and I did.

What I do know is that Rick West was a very loving person and a really good friend to me in some of my formative years. His patience and guidance help develop me into the DJ that I am today. I call Walter Winston my mentor. I call Rick West my savior. There would not be a DJ Relentless without him.

[swimintothesound]

Artistic Integrity and Commercial Success | Part 1

Views From One Year Out

In February of 2015 Canadian rapper Drake released a surprise mixtape titled If You’re Reading This It's Too Late. Subject to critical acclaim, label-related conspiracy theories, and surprisingly little memery IYRTITL was a bold, beautiful, and fresh sound for Drake at the time. Second only to Queen B, If You’re Reading This was easily the second biggest surprise album of all time. The tape’s unceremonious drop was a shock to hip-hop heads the world over, made even more impactful because it represented a tonal shift for Drake that had shockingly high crossover potential. The album was followed by a high-profile beef that summer as well as a collaboration mixtape with codeine crazy Future in the early fall. It was a banner year for Drake, and (as I’ve discussed previously) IYRTITL served as one of the catalysts for my hip-hop fandom.

In 2016 Drake segued all of this attention, acclaim, and even his surprise one-off viral hit into his next release Views From the 6. Then an album years in the making, Views was supported by a massive marketing budget, a slew of singles, and months of build up on Drake’s own Apple Music station OVO Sound Radio. All signs were pointing towards a great album. How could he fail after a year like 2015??

And Views didn’t fail. At least not fully.

Initial reception to Views (both fan and professional) was middling, to say the least. With all this buildup fresh in our minds, it was hard not to go into the album with certain expectations. After a surprising, fresh, and rap-leaning album like If You’re Reading This, you’d expect some decent bars. After a high-profile rap beef (that you won) you’d expect some flexing and teeth showing. After collaborating with another artist for ten tracks, you’d expect some different sounds to enter your musical lexicon. None of this happened. Some of it did, but the little that did was a half-assed version of what we expected. Views ended up being a long, masturbatory rehash of things Drake had already done better. Perhaps worst of all, it was safe. He didn’t experiment, he didn’t grow, he didn’t take any risks whatsoever.  

Months after release after all the dust has settled, Views is just an okay album. It’s serviceable. It’s just serviceable. From a sonic perspective, it feels as if 2015 just didn’t happen. It was like he fully embraced a genre, had all these new experiences, and then just threw it all away to pick up where he left off two years before. It was disappointing, but like a battered wife, I’ve come to enjoy Views for what it is. I still think it’s a bland, boring, overly long piece of mediocrity, but at the end of the day, it’s just okay.

The only problem is that the album performed phenomenally.

It’s gone on to sell one million copies, accumulate 1 billion streams, and have the most successful Spotify song of all time. So he did something right... right?

Within weeks of the album's release, fans began to worry that Drake would see the numbers attached to Views and then go on to think “oh, okay, so this is what fans want.” Rapper, oldhead, and noted curmudgeon Joe Budden released a series of diss tracks directed at Drake with the sole purpose of “inspiring” him to do great work again. Fans and peers alike wanted to send the message that despite all the accolades and commercial success, Views was not a successful album. It was a plea to Drake. Please don’t settle. We’ve seen you do better. Don’t mistake numbers for success.

Birds and Vultures

Fast forward to 2017 and the reason that I dug this draft out of my cobweb-laden Google Drive folder. I love Travis Scott, but lately, he feels like he’s been on a similar trajectory to Drake. His 2015 album Rodeo is one of the reasons I “stuck around” to see what else the genre of rap had to offer. It's one of my favorite albums of 2015, and I firmly believe that it’s a “trap masterpiece” that will be viewed as a turning point for the genre years from now. It’s lush, well-produced, and brimming with new sounds and ideas, unlike anything I’d ever heard in hip-hop or music.

I loved Rodeo and Travis Scott’s aesthetic so much that I spent the summer of 2016 revisiting his previous release Days Before Rodeo and listened to it so much that it currently sits at my seventh most listened to album of all time on last.fm. I feel the need say this to preface what I’m about to say. I love Trav, but lately, his output has been piss-poor.

In September of 2016 (after almost a year of delays and broken promises) Travis Scott released his highly-anticipated follow-up to Rodeo titled Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight. Birds faced a similar fate to Views in that it followed an awesome predecessor and was accompanied by months of hype and built-up expectations, yet failed to deliver across the board. Also similarly to Views, Birds in the Trap was inexplicably commercially successful. Racking up over 50 million streams in its first week, Birds became Travis’ first number one album, and (again) fans were worried that the artist may be receiving the wrong message.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about this “successful paranoia” exhibited by fans (myself included) and whether or not it’s warranted. It’s a very hipster-esque notion of discovering an artist and viewing their older work as superior, but it’s also about wanting to dictate (or at least guide) an artist and their work. It’s not wanting them to become too pop-influenced, or commercial sounding. It’s wanting them to retain some level of edge and originality in the face of an “easy” way out.

At the end of the day, someone is listening to these songs. It may be kids, and it may be fans, but either way, some message is being sent. At the same time, you have to respect these individuals as artists who will create whatever they feel the need to express. If an artist creates something solely based off of financial success, then they’re not much of an artist, are they? If I put out a song that makes me a million dollars in a week and then I sat down to write a similar song with the sole purpose of recreating that success… then I’m not really an artist, am I? I’d just be chasing that commercial high. I’d be creating art in the process sure, but it wouldn’t be coming from an artistic place.

To make an extreme pivot: for all I know, “The Twist” may have come from a deeply human place, but “Let’s Twist Again” sure as hell didn’t. That’s commercialism informing art. That’s an artist (literally) saying let’s do that again like we did last year.

Not that Drake is 2016’s Chubby Checker (or is he?), but I think that comparison is at least an interesting one to make. The internet shouldn’t dictate art or artists. Whether it’s through sales numbers, or through holier-than-thou commenters who think they know what direction an artist should go in. It’s easy to say “follow your heart” from the sidelines because there are millions of individuals whose livelihoods depend on the sale and perpetuation of music, but I firmly believe that the artist should be free to create. Your album should be an expression of what you feel. It shouldn’t be based on sales, your peers, or even your fans. Music is a sacred form of communication, and we’re not meant to understand all of it. If you’re worried about Drake creating an album similar to Views based solely off of him seeing that success and trying to recreate it, then Drake isn’t worth listening to anyway.

Read Part 2 Here

Read Part 3 Here

Read Part 4 Here

#Drake #travis scott #views #more life #birds in the trap sing mcknight #hip-hop #music #tunes #review #Chubby Checker #integrity