18 minutes ago, Toddguy said:

Well I am nearby in Jefferson Township and they are everywhere and I have officially reached peak Cicada.

 

Now that I know the females just love to lay their eggs in fruit tree branches, thus devastating the branches, I want them all dead. They are all over my fruit trees. I was going to have some peaches and apples-not anymore. The squirrels have been so crazed trying to get at the Cicadas they have knocked nearly every one off. I am sure the pear tree will be damaged as well-and it had a huge fruit set this year. 

 

I was out and sprayed my dwarf columnar apple tree(maybe 15 feet high and 4 feet around)and hundreds of them flew out.  There are many of them dead and crushed in the road-I don't know if they died and fell out of the trees or, given their apparent mass stupidity, decided the road was a nice warm place to lay down. Every tree, shrub, bush, flower pot, every surface, has at least one of them sitting on or clinging to it. 

 

I am just hating them knowing what they will do to my fruit trees. I smiled when I saw how full the spider webs were of their carcasses.  f*ck these f*cking f*ckers. They are even louder today. 

 

*The only saving grace is that I have been registering them to vote-Democrat of course. 

 

Quote

 

That's so weird. I haven't seen 1.

Edited June 11, 20214 yr by David

1 hour ago, David said:

 

That's so weird. I haven't seen 1.

Take a drive over to one of the Darby Creeks. There are woods that lead from one of the creeks right up to where I am. You will certainly see plenty. Come see them-and kill them. That is my view of them now. 

They have some good bike trails over there, don't they? I'm bummed out because my electric bike isn't charging; I'm REALLY hoping I just need a new charger but won't know until I test the tip and ring with my friend's multimeter. I was hoping to take it on a bunch of trails this summer but if I have to buy new battery cells or if it's a problem with the BMS/controller and I have to rebuild it myself (ProdecoTech who makes the bike, just went out of business) it'll be a while. Urrgh.

50 minutes ago, David said:

They have some good bike trails over there, don't they? I'm bummed out because my electric bike isn't charging; I'm REALLY hoping I just need a new charger but won't know until I test the tip and ring with my friend's multimeter. I was hoping to take it on a bunch of trails this summer but if I have to buy new battery cells or if it's a problem with the BMS/controller and I have to rebuild it myself (ProdecoTech who makes the bike, just went out of business) it'll be a while. Urrgh.

They do. And if you want to see the damn Cicadas, they are already out in force this morning. Every surface has at least one on it. They have two different sounds...a roar and then a more close up squeaky noise. I can hear the roar in the distance already so this afternoon will probably be intolerable-which is why I am spending the day away from home! lol. 

 

I am not going to wish any more harm on them(like enjoying seeing them in spider webs)because when I came into the house last time yesterday evening I happened to brush my head and a damn spider fell off on my desk!  Karma I guess so I have made peace with the invaders, my Cicada Overlords.

I think they feed on tree sap and there's quite a few Walnut and Maple trees in my yard and around here but I literally have seen one and I'm not too far from you. Maybe the city of London sprays for them? Lol. I don't even get mosquitos. The big problem here is ants. They drive me and all my neighbors nuts. I feed them Boric Acid mixed with honey and they die off and a new army emerges after a couple days from a different colony. It never ends. It doesn't matter how clean you keep your house. Also have a lot of snakes in the yard that like to nest underneath stones. I've chopped up probably 5 of them with a shovel because they look like venomous Copperheads but when I went to Tractor Supply to see if there's something I could get to kill them, they told me that they're probably non-venomous Northern Water Snakes - people get them confused because they look so similar in shape and color. There's no f-king water around here though, so I don't know. If they're non venomous I don't care but if they're Copperhead snakes, I'm about to disrupt the hell out of the ecosystem, I don't care.

Edited June 17, 20213 yr by David

55 minutes ago, David said:

I think they feed on tree sap and there's quite a few Walnut and Maple trees in my yard and around here but I literally have seen one and I'm not too far from you. Maybe the city of London sprays for them? Lol. I don't even get mosquitos. The big problem here is ants. They drive me and all my neighbors nuts. I feed them Boric Acid mixed with honey and they die off and a new army emerges after a couple days from a different colony. It never ends. It doesn't matter how clean you keep your house. Also have a lot of snakes in the yard that like to nest underneath stones. I've chopped up probably 5 of them with a shovel because they look like venomous Copperheads but when I went to Tractor Supply to see if there's something I could get to kill them, they told me that they're probably non-venomous Northern Water Snakes - people get them confused because they look so similar in shape and color. There's no f-king water around here though, so I don't know. If they're non venomous I don't care but if they're Copperhead snakes, I'm about to disrupt the hell out of the ecosystem, I don't care.

Cicadas: I feel like I have seen them swarm the Cleveland pear cultivars. I wonder if there is some sort of preference for them? Ants: The Terro bait traps work wonders. Snakes and spiders that aren't in your house? Leave them alone!

 

1 hour ago, David said:

I think they feed on tree sap and there's quite a few Walnut and Maple trees in my yard and around here but I literally have seen one and I'm not too far from you. Maybe the city of London sprays for them? Lol. I don't even get mosquitos. The big problem here is ants. They drive me and all my neighbors nuts. I feed them Boric Acid mixed with honey and they die off and a new army emerges after a couple days from a different colony. It never ends. It doesn't matter how clean you keep your house. Also have a lot of snakes in the yard that like to nest underneath stones. I've chopped up probably 5 of them with a shovel because they look like venomous Copperheads but when I went to Tractor Supply to see if there's something I could get to kill them, they told me that they're probably non-venomous Northern Water Snakes - people get them confused because they look so similar in shape and color. There's no f-king water around here though, so I don't know. If they're non venomous I don't care but if they're Copperhead snakes, I'm about to disrupt the hell out of the ecosystem, I don't care.

 

Non-Appalachian Ohio has no copperheads.

I made a decision to change my phone number... I was wondering why I kept getting woken up by all these phone calls from guys at 2am asking for "Pamela." Even though they heard my voice when I answered, for some reason it didn't phase them. One night I got woken up by a call, said, "Hello?" He said, "Pamela?" I said...uhh.. "Do I SOUND like a Pamela?!" He said, "You never know, these days." Then I started getting non-stop texts from random guys shooting dollar figures at me. Then I knew...okay, I THINK I might know what's going on. I googled my phone number and it's listed publicly on numerous escort websites in Pamela's profiles! I don't want to change my phone number AGAIN after I've already given it out to so many important people. Maybe I can contact the owners of the website and have her profile taken down or at least the phone number erased off of there. 

^the best thing I ever did was change my phone settings to SILENCE UNKNOWN CALLERS.  It is so great. 

The Cicadas are fading away. Finally. Good riddance.

 

^^ Lol I don't get Pamela, I get "Gwen".  "Hi Gwen."  "Gwen is that you?"....

 

*Deep voice* "No there is no Gwen at this number please don't call again."

 

Fifteen minutes later, different incoming number... "Hi is Gwen there?"

Edited June 19, 20213 yr by Toddguy

I want to get a T-shirt made that says..

 

ADAM AND YVES

 

          AND

 

ADAM AND EVE!

Edited June 19, 20213 yr by Toddguy
corrected for heterophobia!

36 minutes ago, Toddguy said:

I want to get a T-shirt made that says..

 

ADAM AND YVES

 

          NOT

 

ADAM AND EVE!

'Tis the month lol

Someone posted a really funny meme on Facebook that said, "All these straight people complaining that there isn't a hetero pride celebration when you know damn well Old Navy's 4th of July Sale is right around the corner!" I almost fell out of my chair laughing, and I'm straight!

It's a good thing Adam and Eve were hetero.

12 minutes ago, skiwest said:

It's a good thing Adam and Eve were hetero.

Well they both could have been homo and all they would have needed would be*trying not to be too graphic*but have Adam get himself off and stick the "stuff" inside Eve(with her consent of course)...no turkey basters back then and all.  They would not even need to have sex together. Gays have been having kids(in all kinds of different ways)since...well...maybe not Adam and Eve but probably pretty close.

 

How about...

 

ADAM AND EVE

 

       AND

 

ADAM AND YVES

 

 

?

 

*and you were right to sort of call this out. It was kind of wrong to fight homophobia with something that was kind of heterophobic-not a good look on my part. My bad. 

Edited June 19, 20213 yr by Toddguy

On 6/19/2021 at 1:31 PM, David said:

'Tis the month lol

Someone posted a really funny meme on Facebook that said, "All these straight people complaining that there isn't a hetero pride celebration when you know damn well Old Navy's 4th of July Sale is right around the corner!" I almost fell out of my chair laughing, and I'm straight!

 

That's when they sell the shirts with the old blue pickup truck on them

20 minutes ago, GCrites80s said:

 

That's when they sell the shirts with the old blue pickup truck on them

LOL. I know which one you're talking about; I worked there when I was a teenager. I think they're like $5.

Edited June 23, 20213 yr by David

I'm just curious, does anyone here own an e-Bike (Electric Bike?) Lately I've been getting totally immersed in the e-bike culture, especially DIY electric bikes as I'm currently building a 1KW dual-suspension mountain bike in addition to my cruiser. If you haven't bought or built one, I strongly urge you to. It's a f---ing blast! I love it because you don't have to go out of your way to get a license to operate a motorcycle or go through the registration process. The bikes make no noise at all since the motor is electric. Unless your bike is configured for higher than a 750Watt motor/controller, it's totally legal and only subjected to regular bicycle laws. My cruiser has a 16AH (amp hour) capacity and goes 12-16 miles on a charge full throttle without any peddling at all. You essentially double your range by peddling at the same time. If you have a short commute to work, it's a great way to get exercise and save money on gas. I suppose you also help the environment as much as an individual can but I don't really look at it like that. I think more in terms of the fact that peddling, I've been losing weight and getting cardio in but I'm also not sweating profusely when I arrive at work. There's a great e-bike shop in Columbus called Orbit City (named after where the Jetsons are from) who maintain and order parts for the bikes they sell if you're interested in that sort of life style change!

I also have a special project wherein I'm developing an e-bike that generates 1.21 Gigawatts. I have all the parts I need, including the flux capacitor (shout out to the folks at O'Reilly) except for the motor. I asked for help in the DIY e-bike group on Facebook and they're suggesting I take a generator unit out of a nuclear power station...well, those are a little hard to come by and I have monetary constraints so I'd still like to make sure that I explore all of my options. 

A guy posted this... 

I had no words, except, 'Dude...This is heavy.'

Edited July 2, 20213 yr by David

On the surface, 'Lower Price Hill' sounds like a neighborhood whose name was coined by realtors.

Edited July 7, 20213 yr by David

1 hour ago, David said:

I'm not sure that the size of Texas or it's wealth has much to do with it. F#$@ing Albany is the capitol of NY, lol. 

 

Austin, for whatever reason, has a remarkable nightlife and restaurant scene for a city of it's size. Tons of venues for live music and stand-up comedy. 

I always thought it was that Austin had very young population there and continue to migrate there and then add U. of Texas to the mix. Just my presumption,

1 hour ago, Mildtraumatic said:

I always thought it was that Austin had very young population there and continue to migrate there and then add U. of Texas to the mix. Just my presumption,

Beautiful, young and educated people are unknowingly walking advertisements, whether on High St. in Columbus or 6th St. in Austin.

Edited July 7, 20213 yr by David

as proof that Painesville is (er, was) not the sleepy backwater I know everyone here thinks of it as, back in the day when the former Lake Theater (now demolished) became part of the Agora chain (there were several locations once), none other than such luminaries as The Police, Meatloaf and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers made appearances there. Ha! 

 

1979

Edited July 15, 20213 yr by eastvillagedon

@eastvillagedon
They look really young...was that before they got really big? I've seen some pretty big names play small rooms... most bands prefer them over amphitheaters stadiums or massive theaters. Aside from that, Painseville really isn't that far from Cleveland. Man, I'd kill to be able to see some of those classic bands from the 70s in small rooms. Small venues are by far the best place to see any performance. I've always heard that but got to really experience it first hand during Covid when small venues were the only thing allowed to be open. It's much more intimate, there's no bad seats and there's more interaction with the audience. Not to mention lately, tickets would tend to be cheaper and easier to get due to covid and the places I went to during the pandemic, 100% of the ticket money went to the artists as the venue made money off of food and drink sales. That's the way I think it should be. Did any other big names play there? If the place is still around, they should paint murals of the artists inside; giving a sense of history to the place would make for a great decor I think.

Dave Chappelle did a ton of shows about 25 miles SE from where I live, in Yellow Springs at his friend's wedding pavilion up until some weeks ago. I never got a chance to make any of them because they would be sold out on ticket master just hours after they were put on sale. Considering they're $200, I'm assuming people were willing to fly into Dayton as well, just to see it. It was sort of a Woodstock for stand-up. I heard from a comedian that performed there, that there's footage of everything so hopefully Chappelle puts together something soon and sells it to Netflix or Amazon, etc. before everyone's covid joke material becomes dated. I digress lol. 
 

Edited July 16, 20213 yr by David

^I think the Police had their first album in 1977 and they became big pretty fast, didn't they? I believe by 1979 they were past the "up and coming" stage already. According to what I could find, Meatloaf and Tom Petty appeared there in 1977. Obviously they were all young then but I'm not sure at what level of fame they were at. I couldn't find any info on other bands except the ad below. Poco--they're still living, right? lol I guess I should know this since I was young then too, but back in the 70's I was still living in the 60's, but no longer living in Painesville by 1979. I also noticed from the info I saw that some of these big acts played both Painesville and the main Cleveland Agora on back-to-back days. I suppose an old movie theater is kind of a middle ground in terms of size, not huge but not too intimate. The Lake Theater seated about 1500 (pic below) and opened in 1939. It was Art Deco (or Art Moderne, whatever). According to one report I read the grand opening was the same day Hitler invaded Poland (Sept. 1), but the sign on the marquee shows Oct. 5...hmmm...the picture showing it as the Agora makes it look like crap. Maybe that was when it had closed and was on its way to becoming a third-run cinema before its demolition. I was always fascinated by those tiered circular glass brick "layer cakes" flanking the marquee. They were illuminated from within at night, but still, who came up with that?!  It's a shame it was torn down, along with half of downtown 😠

 

 

 

 

 

^oops, sorry to have made light of whether Poco was "still living"

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/17/arts/music/rusty-young-dead.html

6 hours ago, eastvillagedon said:

 I also noticed from the info I saw that some of these big acts played both Painesville and the main Cleveland Agora on back-to-back days.

Agora founder and owner, the late Hank LoConti Sr was groundbreaking in the concert industry deals.   At it's peak, there were something like 12 Agoras located around the region (and as far as Tampa and Houston, IIRC).   LoConti pioneered buying acts to play all 12 clubs for a fee, rather than show by show.   Current concert heavyweight Live Nation operates in much the same way, offering 30, 40, or even 100 show deals to artists who don't have to go to each promoter or venue to negotiate separately.   

@CleburgerIt seems Live Nation has close to a monopoly on live events. I'm sure it makes things more simple but there's a reason why artists/entertainers have agents and managers who work for them. 

When Dane Cook's brother (and manager) stole tens of millions of dollars from him at the height of his career (and landed in prison for many years,) Dane was broke but got creative and rented arenas himself, did his own promoting and made a killing. More artists/entertainers need to do that. The whole entertainment industry is designed to exploit the people with actual talent.

 

Edited July 17, 20213 yr by David

7 hours ago, eastvillagedon said:

^I think the Police had their first album in 1977 and they became big pretty fast, didn't they? I believe by 1979 they were past the "up and coming" stage already. According to what I could find, Meatloaf and Tom Petty appeared there in 1977. Obviously they were all young then but I'm not sure at what level of fame they were at. I couldn't find any info on other bands except the ad below. Poco--they're still living, right? lol I guess I should know this since I was young then too, but back in the 70's I was still living in the 60's, but no longer living in Painesville by 1979. I also noticed from the info I saw that some of these big acts played both Painesville and the main Cleveland Agora on back-to-back days. I suppose an old movie theater is kind of a middle ground in terms of size, not huge but not too intimate. The Lake Theater seated about 1500 (pic below) and opened in 1939. It was Art Deco (or Art Moderne, whatever). According to one report I read the grand opening was the same day Hitler invaded Poland (Sept. 1), but the sign on the marquee shows Oct. 5...hmmm...the picture showing it as the Agora makes it look like crap. Maybe that was when it had closed and was on its way to becoming a third-run cinema before its demolition. I was always fascinated by those tiered circular glass brick "layer cakes" flanking the marquee. They were illuminated from within at night, but still, who came up with that?!  It's a shame it was torn down, along with half of downtown 😠

 

 

 

 

 

 

1500 is a little low compared to most theaters which are usually 2500 or 2700. I doubt they put much thought in it, 'back in the day' but what is optimal is a setup in which seats span wider across the stage and instead of having that many rows going back, cutting it short and having a balcony close to the stage, with many row. Regardless, I love old theaters to death. I think they're awesome. It's always been my dream to restore and operate an old theater. 

Edited July 17, 20213 yr by David

26 minutes ago, David said:

@CleburgerIt seems Live Nation has close to a monopoly on live events. I'm sure it makes things more simple but there's a reason why artists/entertainers have agents and managers who work for them. 

When Dane Cook's brother (and manager) stole tens of millions of dollars from him at the height of his career (and landed in prison for many years,) Dane was broke but got creative and rented arenas himself, did his own promoting and made a killing. More artists/entertainers need to do that. The whole entertainment industry is designed to exploit the people with actual talent.

 

 

Did you just say Dane Cook has...talent?

I was just using him as an example, lol. Personally I don't. 

9 hours ago, David said:

@CleburgerIt seems Live Nation has close to a monopoly on live events. I'm sure it makes things more simple but there's a reason why artists/entertainers have agents and managers who work for them. 

When Dane Cook's brother (and manager) stole tens of millions of dollars from him at the height of his career (and landed in prison for many years,) Dane was broke but got creative and rented arenas himself, did his own promoting and made a killing. More artists/entertainers need to do that. The whole entertainment industry is designed to exploit the people with actual talent.

 

 

Most artists just want to focus on making art, and leave the business to the people they entrust with it.  The easiest (and most profitable) thing for them to do is to take a big check from a promoter, rather than try to be a promoter themselves.   Comedians would probably be in the best position to self-promote, because they really have no overhead or production issues.   A microphone and a bar stool is all they need to ply their craft.  

For musicians it seems that until they are about 27 it's their chops that make the most difference. After that age, it's their ability as businesspeople that will keep them going and get them further.

13 hours ago, David said:

 

1500 is a little low compared to most theaters which are usually 2500 or 2700. I doubt they put much thought in it, 'back in the day' but what is optimal is a setup in which seats span wider across the stage and instead of having that many rows going back, cutting it short and having a balcony close to the stage, with many row. Regardless, I love old theaters to death. I think they're awesome. It's always been my dream to restore and operate an old theater. 

I don't know that most theaters are that large. Are you talking about the old movie palaces from the 1920's? I guess many of them--those in big cities--are that size, like on Playhouse Square. But a 1500 seat theater is huge for a small town. I don't know how common that was for a city the size of Painesville. And I guess by the late 30's movie theater design became more "modern," doing away with the ornate design of the past. In fact, there's a specific term--streamlining--that's characteristic of later Art Moderne, which seems to be what was applied to Lake Theater's open design (okay, I'm hardly an authority in this field, but I'm guessing this was the case based on what I've read). The the lobby was also really spacious and elegant. I remember seeing some pages of a theater trade publication posted online from 1940 gushing over the design, how the Lake was the latest thing in movie theater design, but I can't seem to find it now. For live entertainment though, I don't know well the acoustics worked for these concerts, and maybe having all the seating on one level going so far back wasn't the best. Although, the tradition of tearing down theaters in Painesville goes back further. Before the Lake Theater there was the Utopia (below), which seated one thousand, built in 1914 and demolished the same year as the Lake opened (1939), which was both a cinema and a vaudeville theater; and a smaller movie house, the Park Theater (only 400 seats), built in the 1920's and closed in the 50's sometime. It's disgraceful that they're all gone. It's always nice to see how some towns have preserved their old movie theaters. 

 

What a nightmare. My brother-in-law just found out he has Tuberculosis. He's been insanely lethargic and coughing hard-core for like 5 months and it now makes sense. Sad that they didn't even test him for TB until after he had a biopsy after a long ass time ago, a spot was found on his lungs. It's really not that hard to administer a TB test... We've all been so wrapped up in this Covid hype, we forget that there's all of these other life threatening strains of viruses and bacteria still out there. My sister is now having major symptoms of it and was admitted in the hospital 2 days ago while they drew tons of blood from her, running various tests. She has to isolate until the TB test results come back, which will take a couple days. They have four kids who have been staying with me for now until the contagion is controlled or a better situation is figured out.  He can't work for a while and she's going to miss work from isolation. If you test positive, I think you have to isolate for a month. She set up a fundraiser on Facebook, something she would usually have too much pride to do but at this point it's either that or losing their house among other things. I donated what I could to it and was really p!ssed when I found out my donating came up publicly on all my friend's news feeds as well as my wall; I don't help people for recognition and glory and I don't think anyone should. It's just the right thing to do and knowing you helped someone in a rough spot should be enough, as you'd surely appreciate the help yourself if it happened to you.

However, I found out that because Facebook makes a lot of my activity public, she also received a couple donations from my friends. She called me up, crying last night. My initial reaction was fear and worry because God knows what kind of news I was about to get but it was just to tell me that a few of my friends donated $200 and $100 to the fund and she couldn't believe their generosity when they didn't even know her. I was almost as shocked as she was because they're not even my closest friends lol.

I always think of social media as like a cesspool of toxic disinformation, hate and bathroom stall comments but obviously a lot of good can come out of it too. Pretty cool.

Edited July 18, 20213 yr by David

Taking a shot in the dark here but I'm trying to find a metal fabricator/ 3D printing guy who can help me. Wanting to add a secondary, mid-drive motor and secondary LifePo4 battery (downtube where the water bottle usually gets mounted) to my electric bike. I can figure out the electrical and mechanical challenges but I want the frame enclosed and with either aluminum or fiberglass to cut down weight and wanting to hide what would inevitably be an ugly battery, controller and wiring setup in that area. A second, mid-drive engine at the bottom center of the e-bike as part of the drive chain near the crank shaft might also effect the design of the housing I need fabricated but ai can provide renderings of what I need. Would like to get an estimate and talk to someone about my project but no clue what fabricators are around Columbus. This is the bike currently.

Edited July 19, 20213 yr by David

To give you an idea, here's an electric bike with a battery and controller enclosure (essentially where an internal combustion engine and gas tank would be but instead it's housing for the battery pack and controller inside for protective and aesthetic reasons. Obviously my bike is more of a road cruiser so it would look a little different. 

Edited July 19, 20213 yr by David

On 7/17/2021 at 7:59 AM, Cleburger said:

 

Most artists just want to focus on making art, and leave the business to the people they entrust with it.  The easiest (and most profitable) thing for them to do is to take a big check from a promoter, rather than try to be a promoter themselves.   Comedians would probably be in the best position to self-promote, because they really have no overhead or production issues.   A microphone and a bar stool is all they need to ply their craft.  

Most comedians have substantial overhead as well, when publishing material. It's hard for them to care only of the 'art' when even famous ones are struggling, living in one bedroom apartments and wondering how they're going to pay for their flights to another city to do a gig. Comedy Central is notoriously bad when it comes to pay. You're lucky to get 5 grand from a 30 minute stand-up special on Comedy Central which is at least half a year's worth of material condensed into a half hour segment. If big networks don't produce their specials for them and make good offers up front for a full hour of new, refined material in the form of say, a Netflix special (I say Netflix because they're known for paying by far the most), they have to invest in the special themselves and hope a big network picks it up. It's amazing how many mediocre comedians (Anthony Jeselnik and Nikki Glaser come to mind but I could name countless others) get contracts for high-paying Netflix specials while their peers who are MUCH better than them aren't even considered by Netflix, let alone getting to the point of negotiation. I'm not a fan of Hollywood and their politics. Far too many top-tier comedians have to invest $200k + of the own money to have their special produced, directed, edited, etc. They'll shop around trying to sell it to HBO, Showtime, Amazon, Netflix (who already has particular comedians in mind.) Far too often, to no avail but big names will manage to go a little beyond breaking even. When that doesn't work out, they often have to resort to platforms like Youtube. What saves them is the fact that the big money comes from going on the road. Comedy specials require a LOT of capital if any degree of production value is involved. You'd be surprised.

It's sad, Johnny Carson put a lot of comedians on. Late night hosts these days don't care about giving comedians exposure except for Conan. Kimmel, Colbert, Trever Noah, Fallon, they very rarely give comedians exposure. I can't even watch that sh!t anymore. The shows are too weird, they seem to have an agenda and are too orchestrated with too many people behind the scenes, over-producing it. I doubt any of those shows are actually doing well in terms of ratings.

Edited July 19, 20213 yr by David

Also, Cleburger, it may have been the case that in the past artists entrusted others with handling money and were perfectly content with that but I'd argue that entertainers are increasingly aware of how much more money they can make by promoting themselves or going independent and hiring their own folks, putting much more money into their own pockets. The difference between accepting mediocre royalties as an entertainer vs the amount of money you can make now in the age of social media is a world of difference. Interscope/UMG, Columbia/Sony, I would even argue that Live Nation (although it isn't irrelevant yet) should be and will see a demise soon enough. Suits exploiting talent will eventually be a thing of the past.

Edited July 19, 20213 yr by David

5 hours ago, David said:

Most comedians have substantial overhead as well, when publishing material.

I cannot speak to this, only to their live performances, where a massive production is not required.  

Of course one could argue that a massive production is not required for a band either, but that's what fans have come to expect.    In addition, just the nature of musical touring increases overhead as the band each needs specialized techs for instruments, lighting and sound to travel with them.   A comedian need only hire everything locally and show up by his/herself.   

5 hours ago, David said:

Also, Cleburger, it may have been the case that in the past artists entrusted others with handling money and were perfectly content with that but I'd argue that entertainers are increasingly aware of how much more money they can make by promoting themselves or going independent and hiring their own folks, putting much more money into their own pockets. The difference between accepting mediocre royalties as an entertainer vs the amount of money you can make now in the age of social media is a world of difference. Interscope/UMG, Columbia/Sony, I would even argue that Live Nation (although it isn't irrelevant yet) should be and will see a demise soon enough. Suits exploiting talent will eventually be a thing of the past.

 

Irving Azoff famously says that the telephone is the instrument that he has mastered.   And the artists who have benefitted from his deals have reaped the rewards more than any of them could have done by just being The Eagles for example.   Henley and Frey were genius song writers, but when it came time to pay for divorces and jump start their careers, Azoff got them paid.  

 

I don't disagree with your prediction on social media, however I think a future music business based on this would have very few huge mega stars, and more niche small individual performers making their way with a good living, but not necessarily cutting their own $1 billion 360 deals for touring, recording and publishing.  

I forget which comedian said it, but the other pressure on them is that they constantly need to come up with new material, while a band can write a few hits then play them over and over for the next 20 years. 
 

There are exceptions, Bob Newhart springs to mind, but they are few and far between. 

On 6/11/2021 at 3:12 PM, Toddguy said:

 

 

*The only saving grace is that I have been registering them to vote-Democrat of course. 

 

 

 

Well they will be deceased by election day so they fit right in there.   :)

13 hours ago, David said:

Also, Cleburger, it may have been the case that in the past artists entrusted others with handling money and were perfectly content with that but I'd argue that entertainers are increasingly aware of how much more money they can make by promoting themselves or going independent and hiring their own folks, putting much more money into their own pockets. The difference between accepting mediocre royalties as an entertainer vs the amount of money you can make now in the age of social media is a world of difference. Interscope/UMG, Columbia/Sony, I would even argue that Live Nation (although it isn't irrelevant yet) should be and will see a demise soon enough. Suits exploiting talent will eventually be a thing of the past.

 

Steve Albini has pointed out how the 'net has been good for consumers and producers of music.  For non value added middlemen, not so much.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/nov/17/steve-albini-at-face-the-music-how-the-internet-solved-problem-with-music

20 minutes ago, E Rocc said:

 

Steve Albini has pointed out how the 'net has been good for consumers and producers of music.  For non value added middlemen, not so much.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/nov/17/steve-albini-at-face-the-music-how-the-internet-solved-problem-with-music

 

The middlemen have actually figured it out, as witnessed in RIAA data.   There is some debate as to what constitutes "non value added,"  but the major labels and heavy hitter managers and agents are still very much in the game (especially when touring income and merchandise are factored in).  

https://www.riaa.com/u-s-sales-database/

Yeah and record labels now are like a lot of microbrews craft beers -- you think a label is small and independent but it's actually owned by the big guys.

its the anniversary of the moon landing and if you think that was a long time ago that’s nothing, the freakin onion’s nsfw comedy take on the moon landing is now 17yrs old!!!

 

 

 

https://www.theonion.com/july-21-1969-1819587599

Pretty much every single travel site is down. Expedia, Travelocity, hotels.com, Orbitz, Delta Airlines, Airbnb, Southwest Airlines, etc.

 

Most still load the page, or a splash page about the site being down. Some let you search for hotels or flights, but then no results come up. This is super weird. It's almost industry-wide

Another ransomware attack?

22 hours ago, skiwest said:

Another ransomware attack?

 

There was a big DNS outage.  Over 30,000 websites were down at one point.

Seen on Twitter:

 

"UFOs are just billionaires visiting from other planets."

I told my Doc I've been thinking about suicide. She told me I need to start paying in advance..