Last week Stacy McCain noted a young lady named Alison Young doing a Buddy Holly Song on youtube and marveled how the technology allows her follow her dream (and build a large following of 50k youtube followers (aprox 49.3 k more than mine without the following hassle and expense:
Back in 1957, Buddy Holly had to travel to Clovis, New Mexico, to record in Norman Petty‘s studio, where “Everyday” was recorded as the B-side of “Peggy Sue.” You couldn’t just program a synthesizer (or use an Omnichord) for your backup track, either. You had to have an actual band to accompany you, or else pay studio musicians at union scale. Because the equipment needed for recording — what Marx would call “the means of production” — was so expensive, getting access to studio time usually required the support of a manager or a record company. Young musicians would generally spend years playing bar gigs and such before they could hope to get a shot at a recording contract. By the time the Beatles signed with EMI in 1962, they had been together five years, played every dance hall in northern England and done four stints as a house band in bars in Hamburg, Germany.
What the advent of cheap high-quality recording technology has done is to topple the barriers between musical talent and the audience. You don’t need a manager or an agent, you don’t need a record company, a studio, a producer, a contract — no lawyers, no paperwork, nothing — to be able to record a song, produce a video and upload it to YouTube where, potentially, you could become an instant superstar.
This is cause for celebration as it allows the audience access to potential articles that they might never hear. There is however one other aspect of this technological revolution that Stacy is missing and it’s a significant one. This young lady has gained a modicum of fame (and hopefully a small living) without having to subject herself to what would have been called in Hollywood the “casting couch”
Imagine if Miss Young was coming up in the 50-90’s. Imagine the groups of executives, agents, studio folks who were all empowered by their ability to give access , equipment or introductions necessary to give you a shot at the audience she now commands. How many might have demanded a less than honorable price for said access?
Think of how many names, big names, paid Harvey Weinstein’s price, or Bill Cosby’s price or Matt Lauer’s price or the prices of the hundreds if not thousands of other Weinstein, Cosby or Lauer wannabees of a lower level that if they couldn’t get you to the top of the ladder demanded their fee to get to the next rung?
Because of this technology Alison and many like her is able to bypass everyone one of those Weinstein wannabees and just make her music. In fact if she proves popular enough they might have to come to HER rather than vice versa.
This is an actual victory for the right of a woman to make the most of her life based on her talents outside of the bed and the real joy of it is thanks to the ability to produce this on her own she will not only avoid being their prey but might be able to happily produce her music without every knowing such people even exist.
Baldrick: My mother told me to stand up to homicidal maniacs
Black Adder the 3rd Duel and Duality 1987
One of the most pleasant surprises of this TV season has been the DC series Stargirl a well written comic book series about a character I had never heard of as she was introduced a full 10 years after I closed my comic store.
Over the past 10 weeks or so it’s become a Sunday ritual in the house that my wife gets home from work just before midnight, I get home 30 minutes later and we watch the newest episode which goes live at 11 PM EST each Sunday on the DC network together. It is well acted, well plotted and very well written, likely due to the fact the actual creator of the characters involved is the writer. Furthermore because of the DC multiverse concept (introduced way back in 1961 ) there is complete flexibility as to if a character lives or dies as was amply demonstrated in last week’s show the penultimate episode of this 1st season. (a spoiler from said episode 12 follows)
To set the stage, Injustice Society of America members Sportsmaster (Neil Hopkins) & his wife Tigress (Joy Osmanski) have just failed to killed Stargirl & her family as assigned. So the leader of the ISA Icicle (Neil Jackson) sends the Fiddler (Hinda Kahn) to assist them in a 2nd murder attempt with this result:
Now this scene struck me in several ways. First of all even in normal everyday circumstances it’s rather impolite to go into a couple’s home, insult their daughter and declare them unfit parents, but it’s downright suicidal to do so when:
You know said people are psychopathic killers
You, as the principal of the high school their daughter attends, know that said psychopathic killers have already killed three of your school’s football coaches for disciplining said daughter on the field.
You know they kill for sheer pleasure.
That a highly intelligent professional cold blooded calculating murderer would not see the danger in this and instead presume that because they were all working toward the same master plan about to come to fruition they’d just take being scolded and insulted on a personal family level without complaint, surprised me completely.
I mean, it’s a comic show so you have to suspend disbelief to a degree but C’mon!
And THAT brings us to Antifa and the Democrats.
There seems to be some surprise online that the Democrats who turned up for Senator Cruz’s hearing on ANTIFA were unwilling to criticize them
@SenTedCruz has a hearing on Antifa, and gets killer witnesses. Of all the GOP in the Senate, only Lee and Graham bothered to show up—and just for half of it.
But SEVEN DEMOCRATS rushed to the hearing room to be counted as supporting Antifa.
"I have worked undercover for months and I’ve seen with my own eyes how hundreds of so-called protesters work together to carry out acts of organized criminality against government and civilians."
.@HomelandKen says that out of 277 injuries to law enforcement officers from rioters, 113 have been eye injuries from lasers. pic.twitter.com/ez2MC0YmTr
Some are surprised, even shocked that Senators are defending people who are either burning down or attempting to burn down federal courthouses and attacking federal officers and police.
I’m not, this is a perfectly rational reaction on their part.
Public stances not withstanding they know they are dealing with homicidal maniacs, who have enlisted useful idiots to commit violence, they also know that said homicidal maniacs & their useful idiots have gone after political allies including the Mayors of Seattle, Portland and Oakland, even to their own homes in order to intimidate them and keep them in line in they deviate even one bit from their desired memes.
Given those facts it’s completely rational that Senators and Governors and Mayors would make it a point to not to say a bad word about the homicidal maniacs and useful idiots of ANTIFA. It makes even more sense when said Senators, Governors and Mayors have been using the same police and law enforcement whose job it would be to protect them from said homicidal maniacs and useful idiots, as punching bags for the last three months or more.
In fact it’s even more rational for MSM reporters to kowtow to the homicidal maniacs and useful idiots of antifa because unlike the Senators Governors and Mayors trying to defund and handcuff law enforcement, they do not have said police protection at their beck and call.
So while their actions might be despicable and dishonorable, they are entirely rational when dealing with such folks. You could ask Principal Bowen’s character from Stargirl about that but, alas she is no longer available for comment.
Note: The final episode of season 1 of Stargirl will be unlocked Sunday at 11 PM EST on the DC Universe livestream site and will be broadcast on air on the CW the following day. If you have an interest in the show this would be an excellent time to binge watch the 1st 12 episodes before the season finale. I suspect you’ll enjoy it.
When I compare the authorities of Minneapolis who put out this notice
Minneapolis City Government tells residents to be ready to give up their phones and wallets and to always cooperate with criminals: pic.twitter.com/qQhw4YLRSY
One must conclude that the later (albeit for political reasons) is more interested in the safety of the citizens then the former .
If you told me six months ago that the city of Minneapolis would be better off & safer under a parody pol created by Mel Brooks vs their current government I wouldn’t have believed you.
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