He spent too much!
And he was Doug's guy and it's now Rob's company.
Come on, you expect history to repeat itself ad infinitum? For things to never change? For the wall to fall and democracy to reign in Russia and Napster to happen and for recording CEOs to continue to be big swinging dicks?
The power has shifted. To promoters. To managers. To producers. The guys at the labels are traffic cops, signing based on relationships and heat, they're about as memorable as the guys running movie studios, can you name ONE? Sony just upped Tony Vincequerra to the top post and I doubt even insiders know who that is, proving the point.
First and foremost you've got to spend less. L.A. Reid was in the league of Clive Davis, who pissed off the Germans, even if you're making dough, why do you have to live such a large lifestyle, why do you have to waste so much money? Do that at a tech company and you're history, and today record companies are tech companies. It's all about the data. And when the data says yes you push go, if the data says no you hold your horses, maybe make a few small bets, try to build a fire, which is the exact opposite from flying everybody across the country to appear on late night television, with all that hair and makeup, nearly six figures, for no impact.
Maybe a slot on the Grammys still counts. But that's all about relationships, not bread, and Ken Ehrlich runs that with an iron fist.
And today's execs have learned the Doug Morris lesson, who got so big for his britches he got canned at Warner. Doug flew lower than that thereafter, you want to fly low today, the talent rules, not you. However, right now the talent is evanescent and it's your job to promote acts that last but you won't take a risk, you won't make the long investment, because you're paid on yearly numbers and who knows how long you'll be there.
And the era of Ahmet and Jac Holzman is deep in the distance, music lovers with their own money at risk. Just about everybody at a label today has come up through the system, they don't know what it's like to lose their own cash. The recording industry is mature, no wonder it no longer attracts the best and the brightest, they're looking for room to move, but all the label says now is NO!
But the generations are changing, and that's a good thing. Royalty deals will get better, because the acts will have leverage. You don't need the major to get started, and if you start yourself and get traction you can extract a better deal. The dirty little secret is all these companies need the revenue, for their market share, for Wall Street, if they suddenly show no cash flow the majordomo is gonna get blown out, proving once again that finance is key and L.A. Reid is out of time.
And we're headed for a wholesale revolution in the business anyway, because no one seems to see that the hottest medium, i.e. music, is taking a back seat. Comedians are all over the news, but musicians are just famous for their TMZ antics. Why is that? You can't say it's a lack of publicity, we're all on Beyonce baby watch.
And the new acts will realize they are not a tool of the machine, not there to be manipulated by either the media or the major, but to direct their careers themselves.
And other than the trades, who knows what labels these acts are on anyway, it's not like you've got a 45 with a spinning label, and all the hit acts have vanity/custom labels... It's a banking deal, you just want someone you believe in to push the button. You don't need the label for guidance, to make the record, all the greats are hirable individually, from Max Martin to Jeff Bhasker to even the radio promotion people. The label develop you? Once again, the label says NO! And just like in tech, we're in a world where you develop yourself, and then the big boys buy you.
So if you're waiting for a deal, for mommy and daddy to save you, you're living in a bygone era.
L.A. Reid was living in a bygone era. He thought he was a kingmaker.
But that was in an era when we all watched MTV, physical dominated and we all knew the hits on the radio.
Now music is much more surgical. You've got to learn how to win on bunts and singles, with the occasional doubles. If you're lucky a home run like Ed Sheeran or Drake will come along, but you can't count on it, and now, more than ever, acts have a hard time repeating.
So, those on the street are empowered.
But just like with your tech devices, there's little help.
They're still evolving the record company of the future.
And there's no room for old farts overspending anymore.
Now you don't lead with your relationships but your data.
Data is everything.
Except for the tunes, of course.
Have a hit tune and you can own the world!
L.A. Reid just did not have enough hit tunes, not enough for the amount of money he spent. If he can come up with more hits that others can make money on he'll re-emerge.
Otherwise...
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Saturday 13 May 2017
I Love Dick
Kevin Bacon is a revelation. Like a less loquacious Don Henley. A not quite as nice J.D. Souther. He's a Texan of few words who's completely confident in his opinion and is unafraid of expressing it.
And Kathryn Hahn is obsessed with him. Believing herself a filmmaker previously, at dinner Bacon cuts to to the bone, outs her personality, identity, her hopes, wants and dreams and she becomes infatuated with him, becomes a writer, pecks out all her fantasies.
And this happened in real life. Only it was the downtown art scene, not Marfa, and it wasn't about visual art, but writing. And to be this naked and honest is what art is all about, which is why "I Love Dick" became a cult classic, not that this was clear back in '97, when it was released, it had to marinate in minds for years and be rereleased to get its well-deserved victory lap, and this limited series on Amazon, which is a failure.
Not the initial episode. Watch that, it's all you need, it sets it all up, delineates all the issues and the tension and...
Is that really Griffin Dunne? We're unallowed to age in today's world, but he did and gained not only weight, but gravitas. He plays Hahn's husband, she worked so he could write, they both gave up children for their careers, which they believe are still gonna happen.
Hard to fathom if you're living in internetland. Actually, that comes up much later in the series, one of the institute attendees makes a viral video, and of course its attraction is sex, i.e. nudity, but it gets Bacon wondering, the five hundred people who visit his museum a year, his work, is it worth it?
People like this still exist. But they don't live in Manhattan, they can't afford to.
Some smarties go to Harvard and get on the fast track, write for late night comedy shows, become rich and famous.
Then there are Oberlin graduates like Lena Dunham, who through sheer will and pluck and endeavor capture the zeitgeist and are recognized for it.
And then there's a plethora of nobodies going nowhere, part of a community of analysts and creators that does not include us, with its own hierarchy, its own fellowships and rewards, and "I Love Dick" is about them.
Now prior to Reagan, prior to the great greening of America, and I mean mazuma, cash, dollars, your mind was more important than your bank account, and if your mind was good enough you could always find a way to survive. But those times have passed us by. Even the elite institutions are focusing on jobs, with their entrepreneurship courses, the parents paying 60k a year want to see tangible results. As for the schools further down the totem pole, it's always been like this. But we relied on the best and the brightest from the elite institutions to be a beacon, to show us where to go, to be the soft underbelly of our culture, to illustrate that life is worth living, that it's all just not work and accumulation. But as the rich got richer the intellectuals became self-satisfied, resentful of their low economic status, and drifted apart from you and me.
And if these worlds have ever touched yours, you'll be reminded of all this watching "I Love Dick."
Which got made because Jill Soloway had such success with "Transparent," deservedly so. And we need deep pockets like Amazon to fund creativity. And creators don't always succeed. But there is something different about this production, it has a woman's viewpoint. And the end result is it's much more raw than a man would make. You feel Hahn's desires, you see both the weakness and the attraction of Griffin Dunne. If you can endure the four hours you will be rewarded with a foreign film, the kind you used to go to the theatre to see, that made you feel good about yourself, a member of the club.
And some were better than others.
This is not a good one.
But Kevin Bacon, whew! He's just so calm and collected, yet coiled tight like a snake inside. This is not the sneering a-hole of the past. He's mature, he's past his peak, he's comfortable in his clothing, and that makes him oh-so-attractive, it draws you to him.
And Kathryn Hahn's intellectualism. Men believe looks are everything. But watch Ms. Hahn long enough and you become attracted, even if you weren't previously, to her character anyway. Who is brave and not subservient, a woman of heart and mind who cares about you, but not at the cost of herself.
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And Kathryn Hahn is obsessed with him. Believing herself a filmmaker previously, at dinner Bacon cuts to to the bone, outs her personality, identity, her hopes, wants and dreams and she becomes infatuated with him, becomes a writer, pecks out all her fantasies.
And this happened in real life. Only it was the downtown art scene, not Marfa, and it wasn't about visual art, but writing. And to be this naked and honest is what art is all about, which is why "I Love Dick" became a cult classic, not that this was clear back in '97, when it was released, it had to marinate in minds for years and be rereleased to get its well-deserved victory lap, and this limited series on Amazon, which is a failure.
Not the initial episode. Watch that, it's all you need, it sets it all up, delineates all the issues and the tension and...
Is that really Griffin Dunne? We're unallowed to age in today's world, but he did and gained not only weight, but gravitas. He plays Hahn's husband, she worked so he could write, they both gave up children for their careers, which they believe are still gonna happen.
Hard to fathom if you're living in internetland. Actually, that comes up much later in the series, one of the institute attendees makes a viral video, and of course its attraction is sex, i.e. nudity, but it gets Bacon wondering, the five hundred people who visit his museum a year, his work, is it worth it?
People like this still exist. But they don't live in Manhattan, they can't afford to.
Some smarties go to Harvard and get on the fast track, write for late night comedy shows, become rich and famous.
Then there are Oberlin graduates like Lena Dunham, who through sheer will and pluck and endeavor capture the zeitgeist and are recognized for it.
And then there's a plethora of nobodies going nowhere, part of a community of analysts and creators that does not include us, with its own hierarchy, its own fellowships and rewards, and "I Love Dick" is about them.
Now prior to Reagan, prior to the great greening of America, and I mean mazuma, cash, dollars, your mind was more important than your bank account, and if your mind was good enough you could always find a way to survive. But those times have passed us by. Even the elite institutions are focusing on jobs, with their entrepreneurship courses, the parents paying 60k a year want to see tangible results. As for the schools further down the totem pole, it's always been like this. But we relied on the best and the brightest from the elite institutions to be a beacon, to show us where to go, to be the soft underbelly of our culture, to illustrate that life is worth living, that it's all just not work and accumulation. But as the rich got richer the intellectuals became self-satisfied, resentful of their low economic status, and drifted apart from you and me.
And if these worlds have ever touched yours, you'll be reminded of all this watching "I Love Dick."
Which got made because Jill Soloway had such success with "Transparent," deservedly so. And we need deep pockets like Amazon to fund creativity. And creators don't always succeed. But there is something different about this production, it has a woman's viewpoint. And the end result is it's much more raw than a man would make. You feel Hahn's desires, you see both the weakness and the attraction of Griffin Dunne. If you can endure the four hours you will be rewarded with a foreign film, the kind you used to go to the theatre to see, that made you feel good about yourself, a member of the club.
And some were better than others.
This is not a good one.
But Kevin Bacon, whew! He's just so calm and collected, yet coiled tight like a snake inside. This is not the sneering a-hole of the past. He's mature, he's past his peak, he's comfortable in his clothing, and that makes him oh-so-attractive, it draws you to him.
And Kathryn Hahn's intellectualism. Men believe looks are everything. But watch Ms. Hahn long enough and you become attracted, even if you weren't previously, to her character anyway. Who is brave and not subservient, a woman of heart and mind who cares about you, but not at the cost of herself.
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Ohio
There was a common enemy.
And Neil Young was Canadian. Talk to today's Canadians, the electors of a snowboarding instructor, they're completely flummoxed with what's going on south of the border. And in the seventies they sewed Canadian flags to their backpacks before they ventured overseas, so they wouldn't be confused with their American brethren, responsible for Vietnam.
Yes, Vietnam united us. Our hatred for our country's policies. Our fear that we'd die there. Truly palpable. A lot different from being executed in a video game. Rich men could get their kids in the Coast Guard, the Reserves, but there were not that many rich people and not that many who were connected so you turned eighteen, registered for the draft, and started to worry.
But the bifurcation of society began before. One can try to pinpoint the separation of the youth from their parents but let's settle on 1964, when the Beatles appeared on "Ed Sullivan." Overnight kids had new heroes. And this mass was just that, a huge segment of the population, known as the baby boomers. And at first the Beatles were singing about love, but it wasn't long before they weighed in on deeper topics and we listened.
To "Surrealistic Pillow" too. Then Cream and Jimi Hendrix. We were implored to "feed our head," on national radio, in an era when most people had never even heard of marijuana and most considered drugs to be heroin. And then, suddenly, you knew someone with reefer, and people switched from alcohol to herb, it was a badge of honor, to reject your parents' lifestyle, beliefs and mores. You took your instructions from countercultural heroes, mostly musicians.
Now it's not like "Ohio" was created in a vacuum. Stills had written and Young had been in the group when Buffalo Springfield had a monster hit with "For What It's Worth." Even though most listeners were unaware of the Sunset Strip riots, had no idea what Pandora's Box was. Still...
"There's something happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware'
There's the dividing line right there. Awareness as opposed to conformity. In an era where guns were anathema amongst the youth, long before the NRA permeated their consciousness, demonstrating that music and love are more powerful than firearms.
And the Byrds made their bones on a cornucopia of protest music, providing insight into the happenings of the day.
And then, on the second side of Crosby, Stills & Nash's debut, David Crosby penned and sang "Long Time Gone."
"Hear, you must hear what the people say"
Powerless? The younger generation believed it could move mountains.
"Speak out
You got to speak out against the madness
You've got to speak your mind
If you dare"
If you dare... You're home in your bedroom with the album you bought that everybody owns and your hero, your teacher, was not only telling you what was going on, but he dared you to take action, to do something about it.
And you were not the only one. There were protests in the street. There was a path to follow. And then there was a trigger moment.
Kent State. Proof of all our paranoia. Not radically different from last week's FBI shenanigans, only in this case four of our brethren died, how many of our brethren will die if Obamacare is overturned?
And action begets inspiration. The famous photos in "LIfe" magazine had Neil Young putting pen to paper, pick to strings.
"Tin soldiers and Nixon coming
We're finally on our own"
We. The youth. There was no division. This was a wakeup call.
Most people had little idea who Neil Young was. He was just the fourth guy added to Crosby, Stills & Nash, but his songs, his playing, had been included on "Deja Vu," that spring's monster hit, with Graham Nash's composition "Teach Your Children" high on the chart.
And Young's scorching guitar was a sound unknown to most. But when it emerged upon the airwaves in May of 1970 the audience clamored, became aware, ultimately made his fall album "After The Gold Rush" a monster.
"Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been done long ago"
What should have been long ago? Upgrading your mobile phone? Posting to Instagram?
A hit is not what it used to be, the "Billboard" chart is irrelevant, most of America does not know the hits, ubiquity is history. However there are stars. But as close as most get to saying what's going on, standing up to the insanity permeating our nation, is Kenny Chesney singing about "noise." No one wants to take a side, for fear of alienating a potential customer. So leadership goes elsewhere, listeners are on their own, even though they're hungry for direction, but musicians have abdicated their power.
But the songs are written by committee, oftentimes by Europeans, who see it as commerce rather than art, who seem not to know the power of a song, how it can impact people, change their thinking. Hell, most baby boomers were for the war before the musicians convinced them otherwise. It's always the artists who think for themselves, at least true artists.
"How can you run when you know"
That's one thing for sure, today everybody knows. It was easier to tune out the news back then, just turn off the TV, stop reading the newspaper. But today we're bombarded with messages. Yet there's no unification, there's you and me and we just disagree. Because we no longer have similar values. Because life is so much harder in the twenty first century than it was in the twentieth, when you could survive on a minimum wage job and upward mobility was rampant.
So you've got a vocal crew telling musicians to shut up. But they're not the only ones being told to keep quiet.
And since there was an election we are supposed to shut up, which is like asking Neil Young not to sing about Kent State because Nixon was President, he just called him out.
You cannot predict history. But you can see for all the similarities to what was, today is completely different.
Musicians were rich. They followed their own muse. They were brought up in an era of possibilities and felt it their duty, were thrilled to push the envelope.
Today the best and the brightest put their head down and rape and pillage in the name of the almighty dollar. Working for Goldman Sachs, the tech company, they're afraid of being left behind so they screw you, they don't care about you.
And you wonder why we have no protest music.
Oh, we've got a lot of niche acts, veritable unknowns, protesting loudly. But what we need is those with power, those with influence, to take a stand, like the Republicans in Congress.
Good luck waiting.
http://spoti.fi/2qDFZ8a
http://bit.ly/2qgLpmB
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And Neil Young was Canadian. Talk to today's Canadians, the electors of a snowboarding instructor, they're completely flummoxed with what's going on south of the border. And in the seventies they sewed Canadian flags to their backpacks before they ventured overseas, so they wouldn't be confused with their American brethren, responsible for Vietnam.
Yes, Vietnam united us. Our hatred for our country's policies. Our fear that we'd die there. Truly palpable. A lot different from being executed in a video game. Rich men could get their kids in the Coast Guard, the Reserves, but there were not that many rich people and not that many who were connected so you turned eighteen, registered for the draft, and started to worry.
But the bifurcation of society began before. One can try to pinpoint the separation of the youth from their parents but let's settle on 1964, when the Beatles appeared on "Ed Sullivan." Overnight kids had new heroes. And this mass was just that, a huge segment of the population, known as the baby boomers. And at first the Beatles were singing about love, but it wasn't long before they weighed in on deeper topics and we listened.
To "Surrealistic Pillow" too. Then Cream and Jimi Hendrix. We were implored to "feed our head," on national radio, in an era when most people had never even heard of marijuana and most considered drugs to be heroin. And then, suddenly, you knew someone with reefer, and people switched from alcohol to herb, it was a badge of honor, to reject your parents' lifestyle, beliefs and mores. You took your instructions from countercultural heroes, mostly musicians.
Now it's not like "Ohio" was created in a vacuum. Stills had written and Young had been in the group when Buffalo Springfield had a monster hit with "For What It's Worth." Even though most listeners were unaware of the Sunset Strip riots, had no idea what Pandora's Box was. Still...
"There's something happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware'
There's the dividing line right there. Awareness as opposed to conformity. In an era where guns were anathema amongst the youth, long before the NRA permeated their consciousness, demonstrating that music and love are more powerful than firearms.
And the Byrds made their bones on a cornucopia of protest music, providing insight into the happenings of the day.
And then, on the second side of Crosby, Stills & Nash's debut, David Crosby penned and sang "Long Time Gone."
"Hear, you must hear what the people say"
Powerless? The younger generation believed it could move mountains.
"Speak out
You got to speak out against the madness
You've got to speak your mind
If you dare"
If you dare... You're home in your bedroom with the album you bought that everybody owns and your hero, your teacher, was not only telling you what was going on, but he dared you to take action, to do something about it.
And you were not the only one. There were protests in the street. There was a path to follow. And then there was a trigger moment.
Kent State. Proof of all our paranoia. Not radically different from last week's FBI shenanigans, only in this case four of our brethren died, how many of our brethren will die if Obamacare is overturned?
And action begets inspiration. The famous photos in "LIfe" magazine had Neil Young putting pen to paper, pick to strings.
"Tin soldiers and Nixon coming
We're finally on our own"
We. The youth. There was no division. This was a wakeup call.
Most people had little idea who Neil Young was. He was just the fourth guy added to Crosby, Stills & Nash, but his songs, his playing, had been included on "Deja Vu," that spring's monster hit, with Graham Nash's composition "Teach Your Children" high on the chart.
And Young's scorching guitar was a sound unknown to most. But when it emerged upon the airwaves in May of 1970 the audience clamored, became aware, ultimately made his fall album "After The Gold Rush" a monster.
"Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been done long ago"
What should have been long ago? Upgrading your mobile phone? Posting to Instagram?
A hit is not what it used to be, the "Billboard" chart is irrelevant, most of America does not know the hits, ubiquity is history. However there are stars. But as close as most get to saying what's going on, standing up to the insanity permeating our nation, is Kenny Chesney singing about "noise." No one wants to take a side, for fear of alienating a potential customer. So leadership goes elsewhere, listeners are on their own, even though they're hungry for direction, but musicians have abdicated their power.
But the songs are written by committee, oftentimes by Europeans, who see it as commerce rather than art, who seem not to know the power of a song, how it can impact people, change their thinking. Hell, most baby boomers were for the war before the musicians convinced them otherwise. It's always the artists who think for themselves, at least true artists.
"How can you run when you know"
That's one thing for sure, today everybody knows. It was easier to tune out the news back then, just turn off the TV, stop reading the newspaper. But today we're bombarded with messages. Yet there's no unification, there's you and me and we just disagree. Because we no longer have similar values. Because life is so much harder in the twenty first century than it was in the twentieth, when you could survive on a minimum wage job and upward mobility was rampant.
So you've got a vocal crew telling musicians to shut up. But they're not the only ones being told to keep quiet.
And since there was an election we are supposed to shut up, which is like asking Neil Young not to sing about Kent State because Nixon was President, he just called him out.
You cannot predict history. But you can see for all the similarities to what was, today is completely different.
Musicians were rich. They followed their own muse. They were brought up in an era of possibilities and felt it their duty, were thrilled to push the envelope.
Today the best and the brightest put their head down and rape and pillage in the name of the almighty dollar. Working for Goldman Sachs, the tech company, they're afraid of being left behind so they screw you, they don't care about you.
And you wonder why we have no protest music.
Oh, we've got a lot of niche acts, veritable unknowns, protesting loudly. But what we need is those with power, those with influence, to take a stand, like the Republicans in Congress.
Good luck waiting.
http://spoti.fi/2qDFZ8a
http://bit.ly/2qgLpmB
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Friday 12 May 2017
The Chris Stapleton Album
Sounds best with no distractions.
But we live in a distracted world. One in which concertgoers can't get off their mobiles, where we need a hit of adrenaline 24/7, otherwise we become depressed, feel like we're falling behind. But what if someone made a record for a different time, when we lived life much more slowly, when we paid attention!
In case you haven't been, paying attention, that is, Chris Stapleton is the number one hero in Nashville. Because he did it his way. He's old and experienced and overweight and that does not seem to bother him whatsoever. He's just walking into the wilderness, doing it his own way. Wowing people, especially his fellow artists, who are forced to cowrite and make radio-friendly music or risk obsolescence. He not on the hit parade does not matter. But is this true?
Please, let's separate the wheat from the chaff. I hate to even stoop down and say this, but most people are wannabes, even if they believe in themselves. In the old days they never would have gotten a deal, never would have been heard, and that's a good thing. Today they're in our face, spamming us all the while, saying THEY'RE DOING IT EXACTLY LIKE STAPLETON!
Only they're not. They're not aged journeymen with hit songs under their belt who lived the life of AC/DC's "It's A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock 'N' Roll)." And what's amazing is Stapleton's new album, "From A Room," is not rock and roll. It's like he's had the radio turned off for a decade, maybe longer, when country music evolved into the rock of the seventies. That's right, if you like country because it's the closest thing to classic rock, you're not gonna like "From A Room." It sounds like it was made in the south decades back, all languid and loose, it's all the stuff you hated...
Before you began to hate rap music.
Rap made its bones on its honesty. Who knew it would be so lucrative? But now you can't leave the money out of the equation. It's a motivator and an influencer. And rap is filled with braggadocio, you know the story if not the music, but Chris Stapleton is nearly mute.
And pop music is a producer's medium. No one is as big a star as Max Martin, not Katy Perry, Lorde or even Harry Styles. It's Martin who lasts. But what is fascinating is he lasts because he keeps changing his sound, which is astounding when you consider all the legendary producers in the rearview mirror, who could not make the transition to modernity, like Roy Thomas Baker and Mike Chapman, never mind Stock, Aitkin & Waterman. But if you read the Martin interview you'll see that he's playing by modern rules, a world wherein attention is precious and you've got to grab the listener right away, otherwise they'll be on to something else.
But either you give "From A Room" your attention or you ignore it. There's no flash, no bombs, few obvious hooks, but if you turn off your phone and do nothing else, it resonates.
Now in the old days you'd buy a record unheard, except for maybe the single, you'd drop the needle and get a first impression. Hopefully a track or two would pop out, which would be hooks for further listening, to bring you into the album.
And I found two of those cuts on "From A Room," but mostly I felt this was a guy cutting a record who didn't give a rat's ass what I thought, that this was a musician following his muse not worrying about the chart, only himself and his peers. That's right, first and foremost Chris Stapleton is a musician, and we haven't had that spirit here in quite a long time.
The first of those two cuts is "Last Thing I Needed, First Thing This Morning." Which you'll notice is so SLOW! Who would risk this? Right after the opening initial single, "Broken Halos." And "Last Thing I Needed, First Thing This Morning" is a 35 year old Willie Nelson hit. Don't acts do covers to fill out LPs, for obvious radio play? But this rendition fits neither of those paradigms, but it does set your mind a'thinking. Which is what music used to do, when it was everything.
And the best cut on "From A Room" is the final one, entitled "Death Row," just when you think you've digested the message, the gestalt, like "Moonlight Mile" at the end of "Sticky Fingers," Stapleton goes all quiet, all touch-feely, and you are enraptured.
"Well up here's the window sitting way up high
I can't look up enough to see the sky
There ain't no good light here below
Death row"
This is not that celebrity movie starring Sean Penn, nobody cares about this inmate, nobody cares about you, you're faceless, most of us are, and that's why "Death Row" is so haunting, you believe if not for fate, you could be there too.
And there's a forty five second intro, sans explosions, just a groove, enough to lay your body and mind within before Chris starts to sing.
And when he does...
He reminds me of Lowell George, who didn't have the best voice, and neither does Stapleton, but both have a way of singing that's completely unique that touches you, evidences humanity, you know there's someone home.
And there's so little on the track. Almost nothing beyond Chris and occasional guitar accents, but the axe never starts to wail, this definitely does not go to 11. As a matter of fact, the break at the end is even less dramatic than the playing in the verses, as if the lead were wiped off, and then the whole thing walks down a country road and fades out.
WHAT?
It's like Stapleton heard none of the hype, wasn't on all those TV shows, is uninfluenced by the pressure, to have another hit, to belong.
And I'm not sure "From A Room" will be a big hit. But I'm positively stunned the number one star in Nashville has gone down this path. As if to say I'm a musician, not a money machine, a creator, not a star, if I can't do it my way, if I can't explore, I don't want to do it at all.
But that's what happens when you're 39 instead of 19. You know life is full of ups and downs, and if you don't do it your way you'll end up regretting it.
I'm not sure people can slow down enough for "From A Room."
I don't know if the music industry knows how to sell something based on music as opposed to beats and statistics.
But if you care, turn off the lights, tune out the noise, lay back and check this out. Tell me what you think. Does it set your mind free, do you think to way back when, when you lived to buy albums and discover them, go to the show not for the fireworks but for the tunes?
I'm not predicting huge commercial success for "From A Room." I don't hear that obvious radio track that ensures that.
But it's an artistic triumph. Because of the RISK!
"Death Row"-
Spotify: http://spoti.fi/2rb4wyy
YouTube: http://bit.ly/2qBF2x9
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But we live in a distracted world. One in which concertgoers can't get off their mobiles, where we need a hit of adrenaline 24/7, otherwise we become depressed, feel like we're falling behind. But what if someone made a record for a different time, when we lived life much more slowly, when we paid attention!
In case you haven't been, paying attention, that is, Chris Stapleton is the number one hero in Nashville. Because he did it his way. He's old and experienced and overweight and that does not seem to bother him whatsoever. He's just walking into the wilderness, doing it his own way. Wowing people, especially his fellow artists, who are forced to cowrite and make radio-friendly music or risk obsolescence. He not on the hit parade does not matter. But is this true?
Please, let's separate the wheat from the chaff. I hate to even stoop down and say this, but most people are wannabes, even if they believe in themselves. In the old days they never would have gotten a deal, never would have been heard, and that's a good thing. Today they're in our face, spamming us all the while, saying THEY'RE DOING IT EXACTLY LIKE STAPLETON!
Only they're not. They're not aged journeymen with hit songs under their belt who lived the life of AC/DC's "It's A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock 'N' Roll)." And what's amazing is Stapleton's new album, "From A Room," is not rock and roll. It's like he's had the radio turned off for a decade, maybe longer, when country music evolved into the rock of the seventies. That's right, if you like country because it's the closest thing to classic rock, you're not gonna like "From A Room." It sounds like it was made in the south decades back, all languid and loose, it's all the stuff you hated...
Before you began to hate rap music.
Rap made its bones on its honesty. Who knew it would be so lucrative? But now you can't leave the money out of the equation. It's a motivator and an influencer. And rap is filled with braggadocio, you know the story if not the music, but Chris Stapleton is nearly mute.
And pop music is a producer's medium. No one is as big a star as Max Martin, not Katy Perry, Lorde or even Harry Styles. It's Martin who lasts. But what is fascinating is he lasts because he keeps changing his sound, which is astounding when you consider all the legendary producers in the rearview mirror, who could not make the transition to modernity, like Roy Thomas Baker and Mike Chapman, never mind Stock, Aitkin & Waterman. But if you read the Martin interview you'll see that he's playing by modern rules, a world wherein attention is precious and you've got to grab the listener right away, otherwise they'll be on to something else.
But either you give "From A Room" your attention or you ignore it. There's no flash, no bombs, few obvious hooks, but if you turn off your phone and do nothing else, it resonates.
Now in the old days you'd buy a record unheard, except for maybe the single, you'd drop the needle and get a first impression. Hopefully a track or two would pop out, which would be hooks for further listening, to bring you into the album.
And I found two of those cuts on "From A Room," but mostly I felt this was a guy cutting a record who didn't give a rat's ass what I thought, that this was a musician following his muse not worrying about the chart, only himself and his peers. That's right, first and foremost Chris Stapleton is a musician, and we haven't had that spirit here in quite a long time.
The first of those two cuts is "Last Thing I Needed, First Thing This Morning." Which you'll notice is so SLOW! Who would risk this? Right after the opening initial single, "Broken Halos." And "Last Thing I Needed, First Thing This Morning" is a 35 year old Willie Nelson hit. Don't acts do covers to fill out LPs, for obvious radio play? But this rendition fits neither of those paradigms, but it does set your mind a'thinking. Which is what music used to do, when it was everything.
And the best cut on "From A Room" is the final one, entitled "Death Row," just when you think you've digested the message, the gestalt, like "Moonlight Mile" at the end of "Sticky Fingers," Stapleton goes all quiet, all touch-feely, and you are enraptured.
"Well up here's the window sitting way up high
I can't look up enough to see the sky
There ain't no good light here below
Death row"
This is not that celebrity movie starring Sean Penn, nobody cares about this inmate, nobody cares about you, you're faceless, most of us are, and that's why "Death Row" is so haunting, you believe if not for fate, you could be there too.
And there's a forty five second intro, sans explosions, just a groove, enough to lay your body and mind within before Chris starts to sing.
And when he does...
He reminds me of Lowell George, who didn't have the best voice, and neither does Stapleton, but both have a way of singing that's completely unique that touches you, evidences humanity, you know there's someone home.
And there's so little on the track. Almost nothing beyond Chris and occasional guitar accents, but the axe never starts to wail, this definitely does not go to 11. As a matter of fact, the break at the end is even less dramatic than the playing in the verses, as if the lead were wiped off, and then the whole thing walks down a country road and fades out.
WHAT?
It's like Stapleton heard none of the hype, wasn't on all those TV shows, is uninfluenced by the pressure, to have another hit, to belong.
And I'm not sure "From A Room" will be a big hit. But I'm positively stunned the number one star in Nashville has gone down this path. As if to say I'm a musician, not a money machine, a creator, not a star, if I can't do it my way, if I can't explore, I don't want to do it at all.
But that's what happens when you're 39 instead of 19. You know life is full of ups and downs, and if you don't do it your way you'll end up regretting it.
I'm not sure people can slow down enough for "From A Room."
I don't know if the music industry knows how to sell something based on music as opposed to beats and statistics.
But if you care, turn off the lights, tune out the noise, lay back and check this out. Tell me what you think. Does it set your mind free, do you think to way back when, when you lived to buy albums and discover them, go to the show not for the fireworks but for the tunes?
I'm not predicting huge commercial success for "From A Room." I don't hear that obvious radio track that ensures that.
But it's an artistic triumph. Because of the RISK!
"Death Row"-
Spotify: http://spoti.fi/2rb4wyy
YouTube: http://bit.ly/2qBF2x9
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Thursday 11 May 2017
Authenticity
Comes before attention.
Once everybody's paying attention you can't walk back your personality, you can't undo the changes, whore yourself out to get noticed and that will be an imprimatur upon your "brand" forevermore.
But maybe you don't care.
Kind of like Kim Kardashian and the rest of the influencers. Sure, they've got legions of followers. But it's truly about fashion, style, something evanescent, skin-deep at best, which has no meaning.
But Bob Dylan and Eddie Vedder have authenticity.
What does authentic mean?
You can look it up in the Oxford Dictionary and find it's "of undisputed origin; genuine," but really it's something you feel, it's a resonance, deep inside, that what you're encountering is human, albeit more successful, that the authentic person is making the same choices you are or would, or is more experienced and more informed and therefore you can learn from their work.
Learning...
That went out the window in pop culture long ago. Hell, just look at the movies! It's been proven that fame attracts acolytes. But that's very different from the flies drawn to the light of authenticity.
Authenticity means focusing on the art first. Even if it's uncommercial.
Authenticity means saying no to that which does not feel right, which is evidence of your privilege. Kurt Cobain famously wouldn't take a limo in South America, because he thought it wasn't "punk." He hated fakeness, he didn't want to be that person either. He wanted his life to be a living badge of who he was. Unlike Bruce Springsteen, seen frolicking on David Geffen's yacht. Geffen is rich, smart and connected. But sometimes you have to say no, because it doesn't square with your fan base. Or make fun of it, kind of like Grace Slick planning to go to a school reunion at the White House to drop acid in the punch.
Now before you can become authentic you must become an artist.
An artist has chops and inspiration. No one emerges fully-formed, everybody woodsheds, and not only do they get better, they discover the path they want to go down. That's the great thing about art, it's not zeros and ones, it's more free-form, you can make it up as you go, go your own way. As for inspiration... Talk to any creator, the irony is you've got to live a life to be inspired. If you're on the computer 24/7 you'll get little inspiration. You've got to go old school, experience the great outdoors, read a book, make a phone call. One of the greatest halls of inspiration is the shower. Some of my best ideas are hatched there. And they come from thin air, they're not business plans built brick by brick, they emerge intact.
And then you've got to lay down your art when lightning strikes in an unfiltered way. There are always excuses not to work. You've got to get up early, you've got commitments, but artists know inspiration is fleeting, you've got to nail it while the thought is hot.
And you can't self-edit. That's death. That's the antithesis of authenticity. Once you're worried about the audience you're inhibited, vast plains of creativity are no longer reachable. And contrary to what wankers say, much great work flows directly from the brain and requires little editing, it's the editing that kills it.
Right now we've got music made by committee that fits a formula. It's sleek and it shines and it sells.
But what we're looking for is something with rougher edges, that captures the zeitgeist. You know it when you make it and people know it when they hear it but the truth is you can achieve these goals only on rare occasions, the rest of your work is not of the same caliber, it's the filler between the hits.
But the people are drawn to the hits.
And by "hits" I don't mean radio-fodder, just something you've got to hear again and again, see again and again, that you can't get out of your mind, that you can't stop talking about.
But in this internet era everything's become quantified, we're data-rich and content poor. Social media is about image as opposed to truth. But truth resonates.
And authenticity is just an element of the package. Wrapped up with talent, dedication, inspiration and creation. But it's the conscience you must pay attention to if you want to stand out, if you want to be different, if you want to last.
Everybody's telling you to take the money, to do it their way.
But the only way out is to do it your way.
Discover your way and stick to it.
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Once everybody's paying attention you can't walk back your personality, you can't undo the changes, whore yourself out to get noticed and that will be an imprimatur upon your "brand" forevermore.
But maybe you don't care.
Kind of like Kim Kardashian and the rest of the influencers. Sure, they've got legions of followers. But it's truly about fashion, style, something evanescent, skin-deep at best, which has no meaning.
But Bob Dylan and Eddie Vedder have authenticity.
What does authentic mean?
You can look it up in the Oxford Dictionary and find it's "of undisputed origin; genuine," but really it's something you feel, it's a resonance, deep inside, that what you're encountering is human, albeit more successful, that the authentic person is making the same choices you are or would, or is more experienced and more informed and therefore you can learn from their work.
Learning...
That went out the window in pop culture long ago. Hell, just look at the movies! It's been proven that fame attracts acolytes. But that's very different from the flies drawn to the light of authenticity.
Authenticity means focusing on the art first. Even if it's uncommercial.
Authenticity means saying no to that which does not feel right, which is evidence of your privilege. Kurt Cobain famously wouldn't take a limo in South America, because he thought it wasn't "punk." He hated fakeness, he didn't want to be that person either. He wanted his life to be a living badge of who he was. Unlike Bruce Springsteen, seen frolicking on David Geffen's yacht. Geffen is rich, smart and connected. But sometimes you have to say no, because it doesn't square with your fan base. Or make fun of it, kind of like Grace Slick planning to go to a school reunion at the White House to drop acid in the punch.
Now before you can become authentic you must become an artist.
An artist has chops and inspiration. No one emerges fully-formed, everybody woodsheds, and not only do they get better, they discover the path they want to go down. That's the great thing about art, it's not zeros and ones, it's more free-form, you can make it up as you go, go your own way. As for inspiration... Talk to any creator, the irony is you've got to live a life to be inspired. If you're on the computer 24/7 you'll get little inspiration. You've got to go old school, experience the great outdoors, read a book, make a phone call. One of the greatest halls of inspiration is the shower. Some of my best ideas are hatched there. And they come from thin air, they're not business plans built brick by brick, they emerge intact.
And then you've got to lay down your art when lightning strikes in an unfiltered way. There are always excuses not to work. You've got to get up early, you've got commitments, but artists know inspiration is fleeting, you've got to nail it while the thought is hot.
And you can't self-edit. That's death. That's the antithesis of authenticity. Once you're worried about the audience you're inhibited, vast plains of creativity are no longer reachable. And contrary to what wankers say, much great work flows directly from the brain and requires little editing, it's the editing that kills it.
Right now we've got music made by committee that fits a formula. It's sleek and it shines and it sells.
But what we're looking for is something with rougher edges, that captures the zeitgeist. You know it when you make it and people know it when they hear it but the truth is you can achieve these goals only on rare occasions, the rest of your work is not of the same caliber, it's the filler between the hits.
But the people are drawn to the hits.
And by "hits" I don't mean radio-fodder, just something you've got to hear again and again, see again and again, that you can't get out of your mind, that you can't stop talking about.
But in this internet era everything's become quantified, we're data-rich and content poor. Social media is about image as opposed to truth. But truth resonates.
And authenticity is just an element of the package. Wrapped up with talent, dedication, inspiration and creation. But it's the conscience you must pay attention to if you want to stand out, if you want to be different, if you want to last.
Everybody's telling you to take the money, to do it their way.
But the only way out is to do it your way.
Discover your way and stick to it.
--
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Navigating Modern Life
You will always feel left out, left behind, out of it.
Everybody is cool in their own way. The old concept of coolness was based on scarcity. In a limited universe we look inward, in an unlimited one we look outward.
Posting is not belonging, just a facsimile thereof.
Everybody is a star. When there is no mystery, when everybody's warts are revealed, there's a great leveling of the playing field, the old icons fade and the proletariat is empowered. Right now all the talk is about personal branding, becoming a mini-empire, but not everybody is deserving of mass notice. The future is amplifying your identity based upon your work. Think local, not global. Especially in a world where those perceived to be global are not, they're just the beneficiaries of massive publicity campaigns, how many people actually go see that movie, how many people actually listen to that album. You have such power and surprising impact as long as you stop shooting for the stars and focus on a goal you can see. This is the opposite of the seventies ethos, developed by the band the Police, who toured the world in an effort to achieve domination. No one has domination anymore, own the piece you've got.
Say no, not yes. In the information economy there's too much, information that is. So you've got to learn how to separate the wheat from the chaff. Read the headlines but not the articles unless they're in a publication that filters for quality. Writing is a skill. "The New Yorker" is always readable, the links sent from other publications and blogs...are not. A concept is not a story. Most of what is written is ignored and you can ignore it too. You can never keep up and there is no catching up. Find your trusted sources and depend upon them.
You're on your own, baby. There's no tech help and no one will curate your Twitter feed, you have to decide who to follow. Which is why so many have abandoned Twitter, it's easier to post photos on Instagram. Not that you have to be addicted to Twitter, but if you're an information junkie it's the best way to keep up to date. But you must forage the internet to find out who's worth following.
Everybody wants your money. It used to be clear who was selling and who was not, and most everybody was not, but now they are. They want you to buy their wares on Etsy, spend your valuable time online looking at their stuff and promoting it. We've been overrun by salespeople, to our detriment.
It's not news, it's HYPE! So much of what fills the pages of newspapers and websites is glorified press releases, stories on subjects that are supposed to make you want to buy. Ignore the stories on the actors and musicians and all the rest of the purveyors. If you hear the movie's good, go. If you hear the record's good, listen to it. And then if you want to go deeper you can Google them and find a cornucopia of information. It's all about time management, yours.
Tech serves us, not vice versa. We've been enraptured by tech for two decades, but the tide has turned, we're not wowed by new websites and don't need new devices and know that most of what is announced will fail. You don't have to be first on your block anymore, with either hardware or software, you must see the Silicon Valley creations as tools, no more. Once they were the essence of cutting edge cool, but now you are.
Create in a vacuum. Read the Richard Russell piece in "The New Yorker": http://bit.ly/2qgU4bt Although disappointing, it illustrates you must create and consume without distraction, without worrying about what others think, but only yourself. Artists dig down deep into themselves, but once Napster eviscerated sales they got so into interacting with their audience that they lost touch with the art. If the art is good enough, the fan base follows.
You're climbing the hill every day. If you're not confronted with something you do not understand, if you're not flummoxed, trying to figure something out, you're doing it wrong. It could be a political situation, it could be how to extract more power out of your mobile device. Life is about stimulation and we've never lived in a more stimulating era. Life is also about learning, and functionality. Oldsters have all the devices but don't know how to use them, which is why youngsters run circles around them. You have to know how to change a light bulb, and the settings on your computer, you personally are responsible for making things work. If you depend upon others, tech help, employees, you're losing touch. You never want to sacrifice your everyman status, because you have to reinvent yourself every day.
Ignore conventional wisdom. E-mail is dead, but it survives. Slack is superior, but you don't work in a corporation. Do what feels right to you, no one knows your world better than yourself. Sure, poll your friends, take advice, but make your own decisions.
Define your own success. Much harder to say than do in a world that is hell-bent on making you feel inadequate. Revel in your personality and accomplishments.
Don't be defensive. Everybody gets it wrong. Credit Silicon Valley for expounding this ethos. You fail, you pivot... When someone criticizes you for contradicting yourself laugh in their face, have principles, sure, but situations change and knowledge is gained and if you're not willing to re-examine your positions and statements you will be left behind.
There is no center. No one has the answer, no one knows what's going on, despite them telling you so. This is incredibly frustrating, but it's the world we live in.
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Everybody is cool in their own way. The old concept of coolness was based on scarcity. In a limited universe we look inward, in an unlimited one we look outward.
Posting is not belonging, just a facsimile thereof.
Everybody is a star. When there is no mystery, when everybody's warts are revealed, there's a great leveling of the playing field, the old icons fade and the proletariat is empowered. Right now all the talk is about personal branding, becoming a mini-empire, but not everybody is deserving of mass notice. The future is amplifying your identity based upon your work. Think local, not global. Especially in a world where those perceived to be global are not, they're just the beneficiaries of massive publicity campaigns, how many people actually go see that movie, how many people actually listen to that album. You have such power and surprising impact as long as you stop shooting for the stars and focus on a goal you can see. This is the opposite of the seventies ethos, developed by the band the Police, who toured the world in an effort to achieve domination. No one has domination anymore, own the piece you've got.
Say no, not yes. In the information economy there's too much, information that is. So you've got to learn how to separate the wheat from the chaff. Read the headlines but not the articles unless they're in a publication that filters for quality. Writing is a skill. "The New Yorker" is always readable, the links sent from other publications and blogs...are not. A concept is not a story. Most of what is written is ignored and you can ignore it too. You can never keep up and there is no catching up. Find your trusted sources and depend upon them.
You're on your own, baby. There's no tech help and no one will curate your Twitter feed, you have to decide who to follow. Which is why so many have abandoned Twitter, it's easier to post photos on Instagram. Not that you have to be addicted to Twitter, but if you're an information junkie it's the best way to keep up to date. But you must forage the internet to find out who's worth following.
Everybody wants your money. It used to be clear who was selling and who was not, and most everybody was not, but now they are. They want you to buy their wares on Etsy, spend your valuable time online looking at their stuff and promoting it. We've been overrun by salespeople, to our detriment.
It's not news, it's HYPE! So much of what fills the pages of newspapers and websites is glorified press releases, stories on subjects that are supposed to make you want to buy. Ignore the stories on the actors and musicians and all the rest of the purveyors. If you hear the movie's good, go. If you hear the record's good, listen to it. And then if you want to go deeper you can Google them and find a cornucopia of information. It's all about time management, yours.
Tech serves us, not vice versa. We've been enraptured by tech for two decades, but the tide has turned, we're not wowed by new websites and don't need new devices and know that most of what is announced will fail. You don't have to be first on your block anymore, with either hardware or software, you must see the Silicon Valley creations as tools, no more. Once they were the essence of cutting edge cool, but now you are.
Create in a vacuum. Read the Richard Russell piece in "The New Yorker": http://bit.ly/2qgU4bt Although disappointing, it illustrates you must create and consume without distraction, without worrying about what others think, but only yourself. Artists dig down deep into themselves, but once Napster eviscerated sales they got so into interacting with their audience that they lost touch with the art. If the art is good enough, the fan base follows.
You're climbing the hill every day. If you're not confronted with something you do not understand, if you're not flummoxed, trying to figure something out, you're doing it wrong. It could be a political situation, it could be how to extract more power out of your mobile device. Life is about stimulation and we've never lived in a more stimulating era. Life is also about learning, and functionality. Oldsters have all the devices but don't know how to use them, which is why youngsters run circles around them. You have to know how to change a light bulb, and the settings on your computer, you personally are responsible for making things work. If you depend upon others, tech help, employees, you're losing touch. You never want to sacrifice your everyman status, because you have to reinvent yourself every day.
Ignore conventional wisdom. E-mail is dead, but it survives. Slack is superior, but you don't work in a corporation. Do what feels right to you, no one knows your world better than yourself. Sure, poll your friends, take advice, but make your own decisions.
Define your own success. Much harder to say than do in a world that is hell-bent on making you feel inadequate. Revel in your personality and accomplishments.
Don't be defensive. Everybody gets it wrong. Credit Silicon Valley for expounding this ethos. You fail, you pivot... When someone criticizes you for contradicting yourself laugh in their face, have principles, sure, but situations change and knowledge is gained and if you're not willing to re-examine your positions and statements you will be left behind.
There is no center. No one has the answer, no one knows what's going on, despite them telling you so. This is incredibly frustrating, but it's the world we live in.
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Wednesday 10 May 2017
More 13 Reasons Why
I finished the tapes. Now it's your turn.
I can't believe I dedicated 13 hours to a TV show. Sure, my mother was always telling us to turn off the damn box, to go outside and play, it was literally illegal to watch during the day, hell, she placed the damn set where there was an insane glare anyway, but by time I went to college I gave up television, and it stayed that way for fifteen years, you see it was a vast wasteland, a low-level time-suck, one wherein the producers didn't respect the viewers and there was all this feel-good fakeness to the point it'd make you puke.
Then came "thirtysomething."
Well, first came David Letterman. At 12:35 AM, before he was wearing a suit, when wrestler shoes adorned his feet, when anything went. Suddenly, we had a voice on television. Of course, we had a voice at the end of the seventies, on Saturday night, but once the original cast of SNL left it was never the same. Dan Aykroyd may have not soared on the big screen, but not a single man or woman plying the Studio 8H boards was as good as him thereafter, he not only acted in the sketches, he WROTE THEM!
And then came "The Sopranos" and it was all over, the music era ended and the television era began. Because there was more truth in these dramas (and comedies!) than you could find in any LP. The shows tested the limits, became part of the national discussion in a way no record ever did. There's a universality in television, music has become niche.
To the point where I dedicated half a day to watch a screen take of a young adult book. That's what blows my mind about the backlash, the book's been hiding in plain sight for years, where were the parents then?
It was different in our era. Our parents were not our best friends. They had no idea what we were up to and the truth is today's parents have got no idea what their kids are up to either, even though they think they do. It's the human condition, a point in this series, does anybody really know what time it is, can anybody ever see another person's identity, their hopes, feelings and desires, clearly?
Hannah wants Clay but she pushes him away.
If this doesn't resonate with you, you're probably one of the jocks, one of the popular people, the ones who hate the most according to this show. It's good to have a wingman, like Jeff, but relationships are a risk you take on your own, and I'm not sure we ever figure them out, even when we're aged and experienced. What's the right thing to say? Do you ask again when you've been blown off? To watch Clay be tortured is to identify with the hell that is adolescence.
And the hell that is high school.
They got that right.
I know people say it was the best days of their lives, but why is it always those who were popular who never did anything thereafter? The rest of us, with zits, with issues, who were striving for distant destinations, i.e. good colleges, endured high school, and endured the abuse.
The only difference was our parents did not march down to the principal's office to complain, we had to fight it out on our own. And I'm not gonna sit here and say that's better, but I am gonna wonder if you can ever sanitize the cauldron that is high school. Hell, if your kids ever told you what was going on you'd lock the door and home school them.
And doing the right thing. That's another big theme of this show. You watch the characters fail and you realize you've failed yourself, and you're haunted by your mistakes, your inability to step up and do the right thing, even though it's decades later, you think about going back and making amends, but unless you're a friend of Bill W., you never do.
That's right, life is full of regrets. And excuses. On one hand I admire those who manage to soldier on, but like in "Apocalypse Now" the horror sticks with me.
And no one is innocent. And no one is above the law. And we're all in this together. Except we want to believe that we're not.
Adulthood is about separating yourself from the pack, insulating yourself from hatred, but then you see their name, their picture, and it's all brought back to you. It's one of the reasons why I'm not on Facebook, why in hell would I want to connect with all these people I once knew, no way.
So this is the way it is in modern society. Television rules and music comes thereafter, if at all. Hell, Lord Huron's "The Night We Met" has 38 million plays on Spotify (but only 8 million on YouTube, is the video service really the problem, I think not, I believe it's going to fade away to de minimis stature all by itself). Even more rewarding is Roman Remains' remake of Echo & the Bunnymen's "The Killing Moon," you can't watch these shows without Shazam, you wanna know what numbers these are, that fit so perfectly in with the story, the mood.
And the juggernaut is just beginning. The buzz will not die. Hell, I didn't watch the original "House of Cards" until six months after its release. And for all those parents and mental health professionals pontificating on the show's impact, I wish you'd watch it first, why is everybody rendering an opinion without experience, then again art's been the enemy for all time, remember Tipper Gore's PMRC? Like lyrics are gonna ruin kids.
No kid is gonna watch "13 Reasons Why" and be surprised, this is the life they live.
It's only the rest of us, with school deep in the rearview mirror who will be shocked, that it's still the same, growing up is so difficult, you don't fit in, you don't know who to turn to, you think about ending it...
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I can't believe I dedicated 13 hours to a TV show. Sure, my mother was always telling us to turn off the damn box, to go outside and play, it was literally illegal to watch during the day, hell, she placed the damn set where there was an insane glare anyway, but by time I went to college I gave up television, and it stayed that way for fifteen years, you see it was a vast wasteland, a low-level time-suck, one wherein the producers didn't respect the viewers and there was all this feel-good fakeness to the point it'd make you puke.
Then came "thirtysomething."
Well, first came David Letterman. At 12:35 AM, before he was wearing a suit, when wrestler shoes adorned his feet, when anything went. Suddenly, we had a voice on television. Of course, we had a voice at the end of the seventies, on Saturday night, but once the original cast of SNL left it was never the same. Dan Aykroyd may have not soared on the big screen, but not a single man or woman plying the Studio 8H boards was as good as him thereafter, he not only acted in the sketches, he WROTE THEM!
And then came "The Sopranos" and it was all over, the music era ended and the television era began. Because there was more truth in these dramas (and comedies!) than you could find in any LP. The shows tested the limits, became part of the national discussion in a way no record ever did. There's a universality in television, music has become niche.
To the point where I dedicated half a day to watch a screen take of a young adult book. That's what blows my mind about the backlash, the book's been hiding in plain sight for years, where were the parents then?
It was different in our era. Our parents were not our best friends. They had no idea what we were up to and the truth is today's parents have got no idea what their kids are up to either, even though they think they do. It's the human condition, a point in this series, does anybody really know what time it is, can anybody ever see another person's identity, their hopes, feelings and desires, clearly?
Hannah wants Clay but she pushes him away.
If this doesn't resonate with you, you're probably one of the jocks, one of the popular people, the ones who hate the most according to this show. It's good to have a wingman, like Jeff, but relationships are a risk you take on your own, and I'm not sure we ever figure them out, even when we're aged and experienced. What's the right thing to say? Do you ask again when you've been blown off? To watch Clay be tortured is to identify with the hell that is adolescence.
And the hell that is high school.
They got that right.
I know people say it was the best days of their lives, but why is it always those who were popular who never did anything thereafter? The rest of us, with zits, with issues, who were striving for distant destinations, i.e. good colleges, endured high school, and endured the abuse.
The only difference was our parents did not march down to the principal's office to complain, we had to fight it out on our own. And I'm not gonna sit here and say that's better, but I am gonna wonder if you can ever sanitize the cauldron that is high school. Hell, if your kids ever told you what was going on you'd lock the door and home school them.
And doing the right thing. That's another big theme of this show. You watch the characters fail and you realize you've failed yourself, and you're haunted by your mistakes, your inability to step up and do the right thing, even though it's decades later, you think about going back and making amends, but unless you're a friend of Bill W., you never do.
That's right, life is full of regrets. And excuses. On one hand I admire those who manage to soldier on, but like in "Apocalypse Now" the horror sticks with me.
And no one is innocent. And no one is above the law. And we're all in this together. Except we want to believe that we're not.
Adulthood is about separating yourself from the pack, insulating yourself from hatred, but then you see their name, their picture, and it's all brought back to you. It's one of the reasons why I'm not on Facebook, why in hell would I want to connect with all these people I once knew, no way.
So this is the way it is in modern society. Television rules and music comes thereafter, if at all. Hell, Lord Huron's "The Night We Met" has 38 million plays on Spotify (but only 8 million on YouTube, is the video service really the problem, I think not, I believe it's going to fade away to de minimis stature all by itself). Even more rewarding is Roman Remains' remake of Echo & the Bunnymen's "The Killing Moon," you can't watch these shows without Shazam, you wanna know what numbers these are, that fit so perfectly in with the story, the mood.
And the juggernaut is just beginning. The buzz will not die. Hell, I didn't watch the original "House of Cards" until six months after its release. And for all those parents and mental health professionals pontificating on the show's impact, I wish you'd watch it first, why is everybody rendering an opinion without experience, then again art's been the enemy for all time, remember Tipper Gore's PMRC? Like lyrics are gonna ruin kids.
No kid is gonna watch "13 Reasons Why" and be surprised, this is the life they live.
It's only the rest of us, with school deep in the rearview mirror who will be shocked, that it's still the same, growing up is so difficult, you don't fit in, you don't know who to turn to, you think about ending it...
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Tuesday 9 May 2017
Comey
My inbox went quiet.
Are we in a constitutional crisis, is it the end of the world as we know it, or is it business as usual?
I DON'T KNOW!
The internet is de rigueur. Everybody's got a smartphone. Technologically we're up to date, but emotionally we haven't digested the change.
Twenty-odd years ago we would have turned on the TV and been told what was right, by esteemed personages we believed more intelligent and more informed than ourselves.
But now we know most of the talking heads are overpaid wankers and the experts...EVERYBODY'S AN EXPERT NOW! My opinion is as good as theirs, so is yours.
And frighteningly, not a single so-called expert got it right last November.
So is this just an issue of two camps, each in their own silo?
It certainly isn't about fake news, that's a canard employed by those who are living in the last century. People have the power of discernment, WHEN THEY WANT TO! But they like reading stories that reinforce their viewpoint. But where did they get said viewpoint to begin with?
There's been all this talk of the Saturday Night Massacre. And yes, Nixon had just been reelected, but we'd come off the sixties, an era of tumult, everything appeared to be up for grabs. But today our heroes are Ivy League dropouts who run the internet and billionaires, sometimes the same people. We've got so many channels we can afford to cut the cord. The wall fell and Communism ended and it was supposed to be clear sailing.
Only it isn't.
So you flip the channels and hear diametrically opposed views. And this is one crisis wherein the written word does not suffice, we want talking heads, we want live, we want video, we don't want to read, we're living it in real time, EXPLAIN IT TO US!
But what they're not explaining is how we got here.
I'm not talking the 109 days since Trump became President, but the changes in our country that allowed him to become President.
And one thing's for sure, we've got no idea of the temperature of the country, will not until there's another election. Hell, look at France, the good guy won, but the polls were off significantly, it was never that close.
And is this about math? With the Republicans in power so it's business as usual?
Is this about carpetbaggers or ineptitude?
And it's hard to see this as being confined to D.C. when our health care lies in the balance, when so many are struggling economically, never in my lifetime have more people been looking for guidance.
But we're not getting any!
We've got a bunch of talking heads and no leaders, no one to get behind.
And it's a veritable field day for the news business, this is what they live for.
And Fox's ratings have taken a hit since O'Reilly got canned or is what's happening here bigger than Fox/MSNBC, bigger than 538/Hannity. Is this what happens in a culture where money is exalted and everything else is trivial and those who've got it rule and those who don't try to climb the greased totem pole and...
How can you trust the biased, money-making media to begin with?
It's the best we've got, but it's not good enough.
I have no idea what's going on, what the pulse of the country is. There are no markers, nothing definitive.
This is the new reality. We can connect for free over thousands of miles but we've never been so disconnected in our entire lives.
There is no such thing as multitasking.
Short attention span millennials are a hoax.
We've got endless platitudes that are incorrect, their explanatory powers nonexistent.
It's just you and me, arguing, going to bed looking at the ceiling wondering...
WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?
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Are we in a constitutional crisis, is it the end of the world as we know it, or is it business as usual?
I DON'T KNOW!
The internet is de rigueur. Everybody's got a smartphone. Technologically we're up to date, but emotionally we haven't digested the change.
Twenty-odd years ago we would have turned on the TV and been told what was right, by esteemed personages we believed more intelligent and more informed than ourselves.
But now we know most of the talking heads are overpaid wankers and the experts...EVERYBODY'S AN EXPERT NOW! My opinion is as good as theirs, so is yours.
And frighteningly, not a single so-called expert got it right last November.
So is this just an issue of two camps, each in their own silo?
It certainly isn't about fake news, that's a canard employed by those who are living in the last century. People have the power of discernment, WHEN THEY WANT TO! But they like reading stories that reinforce their viewpoint. But where did they get said viewpoint to begin with?
There's been all this talk of the Saturday Night Massacre. And yes, Nixon had just been reelected, but we'd come off the sixties, an era of tumult, everything appeared to be up for grabs. But today our heroes are Ivy League dropouts who run the internet and billionaires, sometimes the same people. We've got so many channels we can afford to cut the cord. The wall fell and Communism ended and it was supposed to be clear sailing.
Only it isn't.
So you flip the channels and hear diametrically opposed views. And this is one crisis wherein the written word does not suffice, we want talking heads, we want live, we want video, we don't want to read, we're living it in real time, EXPLAIN IT TO US!
But what they're not explaining is how we got here.
I'm not talking the 109 days since Trump became President, but the changes in our country that allowed him to become President.
And one thing's for sure, we've got no idea of the temperature of the country, will not until there's another election. Hell, look at France, the good guy won, but the polls were off significantly, it was never that close.
And is this about math? With the Republicans in power so it's business as usual?
Is this about carpetbaggers or ineptitude?
And it's hard to see this as being confined to D.C. when our health care lies in the balance, when so many are struggling economically, never in my lifetime have more people been looking for guidance.
But we're not getting any!
We've got a bunch of talking heads and no leaders, no one to get behind.
And it's a veritable field day for the news business, this is what they live for.
And Fox's ratings have taken a hit since O'Reilly got canned or is what's happening here bigger than Fox/MSNBC, bigger than 538/Hannity. Is this what happens in a culture where money is exalted and everything else is trivial and those who've got it rule and those who don't try to climb the greased totem pole and...
How can you trust the biased, money-making media to begin with?
It's the best we've got, but it's not good enough.
I have no idea what's going on, what the pulse of the country is. There are no markers, nothing definitive.
This is the new reality. We can connect for free over thousands of miles but we've never been so disconnected in our entire lives.
There is no such thing as multitasking.
Short attention span millennials are a hoax.
We've got endless platitudes that are incorrect, their explanatory powers nonexistent.
It's just you and me, arguing, going to bed looking at the ceiling wondering...
WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?
--
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The Oliver Paradigm
Me, me, ME!
That's the mantra of the musician.
I'm a nobody on the way to somewhere. I'm big but not big enough. I'm a superstar and I've got a new release and you've got to HELP ME!
Like me, share my post, listen on Spotify, subjugate your own interests on behalf of mine.
But that's not how John Oliver does it.
Oliver has created a club, a tribe, a group of believers who will follow him anywhere and do anything for him. But he doesn't ask for anything for himself. Instead, he motivates his people in a cause! And if you know anything about millennials, you know they're cause-driven. Every business has a charity component. Assets are secondary, otherwise they'd all be in pursuit of hot iron instead of living in L.A. without cars and taking Uber, unthinkable to their parents. It's all about meaning and belonging.
And Oliver has tapped into that.
So during the show he's a ringleader. Pointing out the inanities of society. Going into depth on abuses you might be unaware of. Actually, it's not that different from the Howard Stern paradigm, but Howard keeps himself separate, he keeps wanting to take himself out of the equation, pointing out problems that piss him off but not imploring his audience to take action. But when he does...
Stern moves mountains. His fans buy products, he helped Christie Todd Whitman get elected. Stern has a better bond with his audience than any rock star.
And John Oliver's got that same essence. But his game is to use his power for the common good.
Net neutrality. No one cares anymore. Kind of like privacy. We can't fight the same war over and over and over again. Hell, Oliver himself has already done a long segment on net neutrality.
Only this time, after pointing out how the government makes it so hard to express your displeasure, he reveals a shortcut, wherein you can go directly to the site he created, click once and be brought to the page where you can tell the FCC where to go.
It's ingenious. It's like hanging with your high school buddies and hearing someone reveal a great prank and saying I'M DOWN WITH THAT, LET'S DO IT!
Yes, there is a sense of humor, which none of those in Washington have whatsoever. We can run rings around them if we just unite and use our brains.
This is the future of entertainment. It's not about top-down worship.
Hell, look at music festivals. The lineup is announced AFTER tickets go on sale! Proving that the festival itself is a greater attraction than the talent.
Think about this. You're nothing without your audience, but your audience no longer wants to be passive, and it's only tweens who pay mindless fealty to entertainers. Whereas modern masters can move mountains and burnish their own image by focusing on the EXTERNAL!
It's not as simple as donating a dollar a ticket to charity.
It's got to be active. On both sides, both the performer and the audience member.
You're a team, of disrupters. Unite us and we have untold power.
Furthermore, the first time Oliver attacked net neutrality his acolytes crashed the government servers. Which had them doing dances in their brains, they stuck it to the man, the somnambulant press covered the story. That's right, the media just reports, WE MAKE THE NEWS!
And you too can make it. If like John Oliver you harness the power of your audience not for yourself, but for good.
Think about it...
"Net Neutrality II: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92vuuZt7wak&utm_source=phplist5839&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=The+Oliver+Paradigm
You can watch the whole thing, or forward to fifteen minutes in, where he says "So sadly, it seems once more, we the people must take this matter into our own hands"
P.S. Google News shows over 100,000 links on the search "john oliver net neutrality." Want to reach people? Don't make it about you, make it about EVERYBODY!
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That's the mantra of the musician.
I'm a nobody on the way to somewhere. I'm big but not big enough. I'm a superstar and I've got a new release and you've got to HELP ME!
Like me, share my post, listen on Spotify, subjugate your own interests on behalf of mine.
But that's not how John Oliver does it.
Oliver has created a club, a tribe, a group of believers who will follow him anywhere and do anything for him. But he doesn't ask for anything for himself. Instead, he motivates his people in a cause! And if you know anything about millennials, you know they're cause-driven. Every business has a charity component. Assets are secondary, otherwise they'd all be in pursuit of hot iron instead of living in L.A. without cars and taking Uber, unthinkable to their parents. It's all about meaning and belonging.
And Oliver has tapped into that.
So during the show he's a ringleader. Pointing out the inanities of society. Going into depth on abuses you might be unaware of. Actually, it's not that different from the Howard Stern paradigm, but Howard keeps himself separate, he keeps wanting to take himself out of the equation, pointing out problems that piss him off but not imploring his audience to take action. But when he does...
Stern moves mountains. His fans buy products, he helped Christie Todd Whitman get elected. Stern has a better bond with his audience than any rock star.
And John Oliver's got that same essence. But his game is to use his power for the common good.
Net neutrality. No one cares anymore. Kind of like privacy. We can't fight the same war over and over and over again. Hell, Oliver himself has already done a long segment on net neutrality.
Only this time, after pointing out how the government makes it so hard to express your displeasure, he reveals a shortcut, wherein you can go directly to the site he created, click once and be brought to the page where you can tell the FCC where to go.
It's ingenious. It's like hanging with your high school buddies and hearing someone reveal a great prank and saying I'M DOWN WITH THAT, LET'S DO IT!
Yes, there is a sense of humor, which none of those in Washington have whatsoever. We can run rings around them if we just unite and use our brains.
This is the future of entertainment. It's not about top-down worship.
Hell, look at music festivals. The lineup is announced AFTER tickets go on sale! Proving that the festival itself is a greater attraction than the talent.
Think about this. You're nothing without your audience, but your audience no longer wants to be passive, and it's only tweens who pay mindless fealty to entertainers. Whereas modern masters can move mountains and burnish their own image by focusing on the EXTERNAL!
It's not as simple as donating a dollar a ticket to charity.
It's got to be active. On both sides, both the performer and the audience member.
You're a team, of disrupters. Unite us and we have untold power.
Furthermore, the first time Oliver attacked net neutrality his acolytes crashed the government servers. Which had them doing dances in their brains, they stuck it to the man, the somnambulant press covered the story. That's right, the media just reports, WE MAKE THE NEWS!
And you too can make it. If like John Oliver you harness the power of your audience not for yourself, but for good.
Think about it...
"Net Neutrality II: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92vuuZt7wak&utm_source=phplist5839&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=The+Oliver+Paradigm
You can watch the whole thing, or forward to fifteen minutes in, where he says "So sadly, it seems once more, we the people must take this matter into our own hands"
P.S. Google News shows over 100,000 links on the search "john oliver net neutrality." Want to reach people? Don't make it about you, make it about EVERYBODY!
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Monday 8 May 2017
E-Mail Of The Day
Subject: Thoughts on 700 new subscribers and Mauldin - from John Mauldin
Bob,
I've been meaning to dictate/write this letter to you for some time. I've been reading your pieces for at least a few years, and while we are of the same age (more or less as I am almost 68), radically different growing up experiences. I have to apologize to you that you only got 700 new subscribers. I should've put a link in and it would have been much higher. Next time I will.
Will the new readers stick? Hard to say… I am not sure that your tribe and my tribe are all that different, but then again I'm not sure who your tribe is. And that's where your writing speaks to me. You talk about musicians finding listeners and giving them what they want. We think about expanding our investment information junkie tribe and making them feel included, feeding their information needs. We actually hired a person this year whose entire job description is to make new readers, who sign up for my free letter, feel appreciated and wanted. Hopefully they will buy something. Eventually. Like a musician, I appeal to a certain audience/tribe. It's an interesting business model and not unlike the music business. Really, the investment publishing business has a dozen different genres as different as country music and hip-hop.
If we should ever find ourselves in the same ZIP Code, I think you might be fascinated to sit down and compare the experiences that I go through in Internet marketing investments and newsletters and the music business. I make my marketing team read your letter religiously.
It's lines like this from today's letter that inspire me: We don't need much, but we do need great. Every week when I sit down as I have for soon to be 18 years, I look at a blank screen and say, "dear gods, don't let the magic stop now." I started with a few thousand names back in 2000 and the letter just took off. I did a few things right, got lucky on more things.
I read you because you remind me that my focus has to be on the quality of my writing material that I give to my readers in the experience they have. And everyone on my team has to have that same focus. Seven books and five bestsellers and a million readers later I haven't made a dent in your world, and likely never would or will accept that I do drive traffic when I mention a name. No reason for you to read me or know me.
But mostly, your letter was the reason you got 700 new readers. People far outside the music business intuitively understand that attention is everything. And you seemingly effortlessly just let the words of wisdom roll off your fingers on the screen helping us focus on what we should be focused on which is making sure that we deserve the attention of our readers. And so they searched for your name on Google and subscribed. From my experience, readers who have to work to get to you or your best subscribers. And they become the most loyal. I will likely read that letter on attention once a month for many years.
Frankly, from reading you it sounds like those in the music business are a bunch of whiners. Their business changes over a few decades. They should be in a business where Google changes the search parameters every three years and you go from being the number one to somewhere on page 37. Overnight. And then the same damn thing happens again three years after you claw yourself back up to where you are on page 1 again, meeting their new parameters which are again just changed and so every penny you spent on SEO is down the drain. And bitching to Google does absolutely no good so you just deal with it. Because they're in the business of trying to improve their customer experience.
And then you find yourself putting in a six-figure budget just for the ability to be able to send out millions of email addresses a week without being flagged as spam. Wasn't even in the budget line 4 years ago. Now we are spending mid-six figures just growing our list. Five years ago we grew organically. Then Boom, the world changed. One of my main competitors is down 80% on their deliverability and income. And these guys are pros, having been around 30 years. Early Internet pioneers and then everything just changed. And then changed again. My executive team fully expects to have to reinvent the entire business delivery model every 3 to 4 years now.
Getting attention and follow through is much harder today than 15-10-5 or even two years ago. We seem to run harder just to stay in the same place, let alone grow the business.
I know I've only got 25,000 followers on Twitter. I find Twitter to be mostly noise as far as revenue production. But you're right, I will get somebody on my team starting to focus on getting more twitter followers. There's no reason I shouldn't have a hundred thousand with some effort. It's probably good for the branding and all, but still not sure how you make money out of it. We keep trying to figure out how to monetize Facebook. We know we have to do it to stay relevant but damn it's not easy. It's like being on CNBC or FOXBusiness or Bloomberg. Its validation but as far as I can tell it does almost nothing for increasing my readership. Honestly? I get more viewers from putting a link in my letter to the segment I was on than they probably have watching it to begin with. Business news aggregators? They are changing even faster.
My cell phone is ___-___-____ and you are welcome to call. I am writing a book on how the world will change over the next 20 years I would love to pick your brain.
All the best and good luck on the health front!
With warm regards,
John Mauldin
President
Mauldin Companies
2900 McKinnon, 1708
Dallas, TX 75201
www.mauldineconomics.com
------------------
P.S.: ALL 700 NEW SUBSCRIBERS STUCK!
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Bob,
I've been meaning to dictate/write this letter to you for some time. I've been reading your pieces for at least a few years, and while we are of the same age (more or less as I am almost 68), radically different growing up experiences. I have to apologize to you that you only got 700 new subscribers. I should've put a link in and it would have been much higher. Next time I will.
Will the new readers stick? Hard to say… I am not sure that your tribe and my tribe are all that different, but then again I'm not sure who your tribe is. And that's where your writing speaks to me. You talk about musicians finding listeners and giving them what they want. We think about expanding our investment information junkie tribe and making them feel included, feeding their information needs. We actually hired a person this year whose entire job description is to make new readers, who sign up for my free letter, feel appreciated and wanted. Hopefully they will buy something. Eventually. Like a musician, I appeal to a certain audience/tribe. It's an interesting business model and not unlike the music business. Really, the investment publishing business has a dozen different genres as different as country music and hip-hop.
If we should ever find ourselves in the same ZIP Code, I think you might be fascinated to sit down and compare the experiences that I go through in Internet marketing investments and newsletters and the music business. I make my marketing team read your letter religiously.
It's lines like this from today's letter that inspire me: We don't need much, but we do need great. Every week when I sit down as I have for soon to be 18 years, I look at a blank screen and say, "dear gods, don't let the magic stop now." I started with a few thousand names back in 2000 and the letter just took off. I did a few things right, got lucky on more things.
I read you because you remind me that my focus has to be on the quality of my writing material that I give to my readers in the experience they have. And everyone on my team has to have that same focus. Seven books and five bestsellers and a million readers later I haven't made a dent in your world, and likely never would or will accept that I do drive traffic when I mention a name. No reason for you to read me or know me.
But mostly, your letter was the reason you got 700 new readers. People far outside the music business intuitively understand that attention is everything. And you seemingly effortlessly just let the words of wisdom roll off your fingers on the screen helping us focus on what we should be focused on which is making sure that we deserve the attention of our readers. And so they searched for your name on Google and subscribed. From my experience, readers who have to work to get to you or your best subscribers. And they become the most loyal. I will likely read that letter on attention once a month for many years.
Frankly, from reading you it sounds like those in the music business are a bunch of whiners. Their business changes over a few decades. They should be in a business where Google changes the search parameters every three years and you go from being the number one to somewhere on page 37. Overnight. And then the same damn thing happens again three years after you claw yourself back up to where you are on page 1 again, meeting their new parameters which are again just changed and so every penny you spent on SEO is down the drain. And bitching to Google does absolutely no good so you just deal with it. Because they're in the business of trying to improve their customer experience.
And then you find yourself putting in a six-figure budget just for the ability to be able to send out millions of email addresses a week without being flagged as spam. Wasn't even in the budget line 4 years ago. Now we are spending mid-six figures just growing our list. Five years ago we grew organically. Then Boom, the world changed. One of my main competitors is down 80% on their deliverability and income. And these guys are pros, having been around 30 years. Early Internet pioneers and then everything just changed. And then changed again. My executive team fully expects to have to reinvent the entire business delivery model every 3 to 4 years now.
Getting attention and follow through is much harder today than 15-10-5 or even two years ago. We seem to run harder just to stay in the same place, let alone grow the business.
I know I've only got 25,000 followers on Twitter. I find Twitter to be mostly noise as far as revenue production. But you're right, I will get somebody on my team starting to focus on getting more twitter followers. There's no reason I shouldn't have a hundred thousand with some effort. It's probably good for the branding and all, but still not sure how you make money out of it. We keep trying to figure out how to monetize Facebook. We know we have to do it to stay relevant but damn it's not easy. It's like being on CNBC or FOXBusiness or Bloomberg. Its validation but as far as I can tell it does almost nothing for increasing my readership. Honestly? I get more viewers from putting a link in my letter to the segment I was on than they probably have watching it to begin with. Business news aggregators? They are changing even faster.
My cell phone is ___-___-____ and you are welcome to call. I am writing a book on how the world will change over the next 20 years I would love to pick your brain.
All the best and good luck on the health front!
With warm regards,
John Mauldin
President
Mauldin Companies
2900 McKinnon, 1708
Dallas, TX 75201
www.mauldineconomics.com
------------------
P.S.: ALL 700 NEW SUBSCRIBERS STUCK!
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13 Reasons Why
The buzz comes AFTER!
We were searching the Netflix/Amazon files for something to watch. Primarily new, one of their series, something we could sink our teeth into while we await "House of Cards" and "Bloodline."
Not that I used to employ Netflix this way. I used to assume everything was on there, now that's not the case, now it's HBO with a whole hell of a lot more product all available instantly, but we'll get to that feature later.
And after dissecting the offerings, I take my watching time seriously, we delved into "Dear White People," which was a mistake, not because of the subject matter, that intrigued me, but because it instantly became soap opera sophomoric with modern details thrown in. I mean I'm better off watching "Atlanta," which I've never seen, but is now unavailable. What's with these filmed entertainment people, haven't they learned any lessons from music? I'm paying for all these services already, I'm certainly not gonna buy it.
So we dug into "13 Reasons Why."
Now I pulled up "Dear White People" because of the reviews, which were all positive. But the even more favorable reviews scared me away from "13 Reasons Why," since they all pegged it as "Young Adult," but at this point I was just looking for something good, I could see Felice's mind wander during "Dear White People."
And "13 Reasons Why" IS good. Good enough to watch, which is more than I can say about "Orange Is The New Black," but it's certainly no "Transparent," no HOC, no "Narcos"...but we got hooked.
And what bugs me about the show is it's supposed to be about high school and everybody looks like they're in college, and I know high school was supposedly done better in "Freaks and Geeks," which I'll get around to some day, but the darkness in "13 Reasons Why" appealed to me.
We're not finished, we're seven in with five left.
But now I feel part of a tribe, part of the juggernaut, you see "13 Reasons Why" is building a head of steam.
Now the movie business still functions on the old paradigm. Teasers a year in advance, trailers a few months in advance and then bombardment with spots and billboards the week before, all imploring you to go on Friday night. But the truth is, if something's good you'll find out about it, and if it's bad, you might find out about it even sooner. So all that money is spent to what effect?
Whereas on Netflix... There's almost no advance buzz. They announce shows, but they're not in the superhero genre that dominates movies and they're voluminous in number so they can't be promoted as Tiffany-quality as they do on HBO, they've just got to come out.
And make it or fail.
And most do fail. Because they're just not good enough.
But the winners...
Gain viewers over time, become water cooler conversation even months later, when you've forgotten whether you've seen the big summer release or not, the one about as nutritious as a Coke.
Now this is not TV. It's not even HBO, where they dribble out the episodes over a period of time, where if you don't get in early you give up, you don't even bother to participate. I saw an episode of "Big Little Lies," I liked it, wanted to watch more, but was on the road and didn't have the time. Then everybody's talking about the finale, the reveal, and not only am I not gonna watch that, I'm never gonna watch the rest of the series, I feel left out.
But finding a Netflix series is like stepping on a land mine. To mix metaphors, you go down the rabbit hole, in darkness, alone, it's a private journey but you link up with like-minded viewers on the other side.
It's not too late for you to check out "13 Reasons Why." You can begin tonight and still feel a member of the club. No one watches all 13 episodes in a day, it's not a race, just a matter of making the commitment.
And once you do...
You notice the continuing press.
Put out a movie or a record and you don't hear another thing about it after the week of release. Have a hit Netflix show and it permeates the culture for months. I know, I know, Netflix is loving the backlash, the inane parents saying "13 Reasons Why" CAUSES teen suicide. But when you're in the marketplace you can get lucky, others can give your story to you, promote your product.
Yes, "13 Reasons Why" is about the suicide of a high school girl, but I'm giving away nothing, ruining the show not at all, because that's the set-up, that comes right up front. I don't need any spoiler alerts. Watching this show is like living life. It's less about the facts than the experience.
So, how can Netflix get it so right and everybody else get it so wrong?
Maybe, because the rest of the media outlets were born before the internet era. Cable has still not figured out the future. I mean the cable systems have, they're all about the internet, but the channels? Did you see Charter just kicked MTV up to a pricier tier, one a lot of people don't want to buy? That's a death knell.
But who needs MTV anyway?
We don't need much, but we do need great.
And when something is great it takes a while to percolate in the marketplace. You hope to get traction MONTHS down the line. Don't tell me about the new releases, tell me about the records everybody's talking about six months from now, the wisdom of the crowd, abhorred by purveyors but loved by consumers. After all, we check the reviews on Amazon, we don't want to waste either our money or are time.
So maybe you've already finished "13 Reasons Why," you're gonna e-mail me your take.
Or maybe you've been thinking about watching it.
Or maybe you've never even heard of it.
But one thing's for sure, you're gonna check it out now.
Because that's the life we lead. Where we want a peek at what is creating the buzz, we want to get inside, marinate and then render an opinion, whether it's thumbs up or thumbs down, we want to belong.
This is the culture you want to tap into. You want to create a haven, a hive, that draws honeybees to it. And it all comes down to the work, hype doesn't matter. The only hype that counts is that which comes AFTER you're on the road to success, that trumpets the bandwagon, that features in-depth stories about these people who were previously nobodies. You trickle out the info and fans eat it up.
I'm eating everything up about "13 Reasons Why."
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We were searching the Netflix/Amazon files for something to watch. Primarily new, one of their series, something we could sink our teeth into while we await "House of Cards" and "Bloodline."
Not that I used to employ Netflix this way. I used to assume everything was on there, now that's not the case, now it's HBO with a whole hell of a lot more product all available instantly, but we'll get to that feature later.
And after dissecting the offerings, I take my watching time seriously, we delved into "Dear White People," which was a mistake, not because of the subject matter, that intrigued me, but because it instantly became soap opera sophomoric with modern details thrown in. I mean I'm better off watching "Atlanta," which I've never seen, but is now unavailable. What's with these filmed entertainment people, haven't they learned any lessons from music? I'm paying for all these services already, I'm certainly not gonna buy it.
So we dug into "13 Reasons Why."
Now I pulled up "Dear White People" because of the reviews, which were all positive. But the even more favorable reviews scared me away from "13 Reasons Why," since they all pegged it as "Young Adult," but at this point I was just looking for something good, I could see Felice's mind wander during "Dear White People."
And "13 Reasons Why" IS good. Good enough to watch, which is more than I can say about "Orange Is The New Black," but it's certainly no "Transparent," no HOC, no "Narcos"...but we got hooked.
And what bugs me about the show is it's supposed to be about high school and everybody looks like they're in college, and I know high school was supposedly done better in "Freaks and Geeks," which I'll get around to some day, but the darkness in "13 Reasons Why" appealed to me.
We're not finished, we're seven in with five left.
But now I feel part of a tribe, part of the juggernaut, you see "13 Reasons Why" is building a head of steam.
Now the movie business still functions on the old paradigm. Teasers a year in advance, trailers a few months in advance and then bombardment with spots and billboards the week before, all imploring you to go on Friday night. But the truth is, if something's good you'll find out about it, and if it's bad, you might find out about it even sooner. So all that money is spent to what effect?
Whereas on Netflix... There's almost no advance buzz. They announce shows, but they're not in the superhero genre that dominates movies and they're voluminous in number so they can't be promoted as Tiffany-quality as they do on HBO, they've just got to come out.
And make it or fail.
And most do fail. Because they're just not good enough.
But the winners...
Gain viewers over time, become water cooler conversation even months later, when you've forgotten whether you've seen the big summer release or not, the one about as nutritious as a Coke.
Now this is not TV. It's not even HBO, where they dribble out the episodes over a period of time, where if you don't get in early you give up, you don't even bother to participate. I saw an episode of "Big Little Lies," I liked it, wanted to watch more, but was on the road and didn't have the time. Then everybody's talking about the finale, the reveal, and not only am I not gonna watch that, I'm never gonna watch the rest of the series, I feel left out.
But finding a Netflix series is like stepping on a land mine. To mix metaphors, you go down the rabbit hole, in darkness, alone, it's a private journey but you link up with like-minded viewers on the other side.
It's not too late for you to check out "13 Reasons Why." You can begin tonight and still feel a member of the club. No one watches all 13 episodes in a day, it's not a race, just a matter of making the commitment.
And once you do...
You notice the continuing press.
Put out a movie or a record and you don't hear another thing about it after the week of release. Have a hit Netflix show and it permeates the culture for months. I know, I know, Netflix is loving the backlash, the inane parents saying "13 Reasons Why" CAUSES teen suicide. But when you're in the marketplace you can get lucky, others can give your story to you, promote your product.
Yes, "13 Reasons Why" is about the suicide of a high school girl, but I'm giving away nothing, ruining the show not at all, because that's the set-up, that comes right up front. I don't need any spoiler alerts. Watching this show is like living life. It's less about the facts than the experience.
So, how can Netflix get it so right and everybody else get it so wrong?
Maybe, because the rest of the media outlets were born before the internet era. Cable has still not figured out the future. I mean the cable systems have, they're all about the internet, but the channels? Did you see Charter just kicked MTV up to a pricier tier, one a lot of people don't want to buy? That's a death knell.
But who needs MTV anyway?
We don't need much, but we do need great.
And when something is great it takes a while to percolate in the marketplace. You hope to get traction MONTHS down the line. Don't tell me about the new releases, tell me about the records everybody's talking about six months from now, the wisdom of the crowd, abhorred by purveyors but loved by consumers. After all, we check the reviews on Amazon, we don't want to waste either our money or are time.
So maybe you've already finished "13 Reasons Why," you're gonna e-mail me your take.
Or maybe you've been thinking about watching it.
Or maybe you've never even heard of it.
But one thing's for sure, you're gonna check it out now.
Because that's the life we lead. Where we want a peek at what is creating the buzz, we want to get inside, marinate and then render an opinion, whether it's thumbs up or thumbs down, we want to belong.
This is the culture you want to tap into. You want to create a haven, a hive, that draws honeybees to it. And it all comes down to the work, hype doesn't matter. The only hype that counts is that which comes AFTER you're on the road to success, that trumpets the bandwagon, that features in-depth stories about these people who were previously nobodies. You trickle out the info and fans eat it up.
I'm eating everything up about "13 Reasons Why."
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