CURATORS/FILTERS

They’re everything in the modern world. Unless you attach yourself to someone/something that already has an audience, your chance of succeeding is incredibly low, because there’s just too much noise.

So, despite the bitching about challenging economics, that’s the power of the newspaper. It’s filtered news. And ads. And listings.

Most competing with traditional news outlets are amateurs. They’re bad writers in an era where no one has time for that. So people gravitate to those who already have the power.

That’s the magic of the “Huffington Post.” It’s link-bait on steroids, but it’s got an audience. Same deal with “BuzzFeed.” The rich get richer and the poor are irrelevant.

NEWS

Is the entertainment of today. In an alienated world, we all have a desire to belong. Pre-internet, when we lived in a monoculture, going your own way, going deep into your own niche, was a badge of honor. Today, you’re just irrelevant. And this judgment hurts. If you’re rebelling and those you’re rebelling against don’t care, don’t react, then you feel alone. Which is why we all desire to be part of the scene. That’s why we post on social networks, we want to belong. And the glue is news. It’s what we talk about. Whether it be Charlie Hebdo or the shenanigans of some celebrity.

Children believe that school is the world. Their ignorance is bliss. But this hotbed of sharing helps parents be clued in. But if you’ve got no children, or you’re out of school, you’re hungry for information, so you can have discourse. Sure, you could discuss the obscure record or TV show…IF YOU COULD FIND SOMEONE WHO’S HEARD IT OR SEEN IT!

NUMBER ONE AIN’T WHAT IT USED TO BE

Whether it be the weekly winner of the movie grosses or Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space,” you can read that something tops the chart and never encounter it. This never happened before. The hits were ubiquitous. But television ratings are a fraction of what they once were. And you never have to listen to a radio station you don’t want to, never mind the commercials. In other words, Kanye West is more famous for his inane outbursts of superiority and being married to Kim Kardashian than he is for his music. Most people know Kanye is a boasting boor, but they don’t know his music.

INSULARITY IS KING

When life becomes incomprehensible, when you feel powerless with no hope of upward mobility, you trumpet that which you are into, believing that others should feel the same way, completely ignorant that they too are flummoxed by modern life and cannot separate the cultural wheat from the chaff. Everybody is overwhelmed, nobody is ever bored. And to think that which you find to be important is truly such is oftentimes to be delusional.

TRIBES RULE

You collect your colors and they establish your identity. Sure, you could favor the obscure, but the American story is glomming on to the mainstream. That’s the essence of sports. They give you something to believe in and someone to be against. Competition is cut and dried with a limited number of teams, there’s a defined winner when the normal game of life…you’re not even sure who the players are.

CURATORS/FILTERS 2

That’s why the festival is more important than the act. And the hang is more important than the music. The festival is a party. The goal of a party is to have a good time. Eat some fun food and have some laughs. Other than dance/EDM acts, which are party central, the soundtrack to the revel, the rest of the bill is irrelevant. And the big money goes to the promoter. Just check AEG’s Coachella grosses.

FEWER CAN WIN

When we’re overwhelmed, we gravitate to the blockbuster. So, despite the ability to play, it’s even harder to get any traction, never mind succeed.

TIME CHALLENGES

Everybody complains that no one marinates in their art, meanwhile the creators are jumping from item to item just as frequently. It’s not about a short attention span, it’s about a fear of missing out, and even more powerfully, a fear that something better is just a click away.

NEWS IS RARELY FUNNY

TV is selling entertainment. Which is why it’s lost purchase on the news business. People want the facts. And no one’s got time to waste watching a program with commercials. If you leave the TV on all day to be informed you know nearly nothing.

BEWARE OF FADS

Used to be musical acts were one hit wonders. Now MySpace disappears and youngsters move from Facebook to Snapchat. As hard as it is to make it, it’s even harder to sustain.

STORY

Story is everything. That’s what too many publications and websites don’t realize. In a puzzling world we’re attracted to humanity, something that reflects our condition. The most important tech story this week? Nick Bilton’s “New York Times” piece

“Be the Star of Your Own Snapchat Story” 

This is not a fad. Narrative is forever. Immediacy is key. Which is why Netflix and Amazon release all episodes of their series at once. Oldsters think they’re missing out on marketing, and buzz. But the truth is today buzz comes after the fact, long after the release. The buzz empire driven by purveyors and news outlets does not square with modern society. Every week we’re sold new stuff, but we only find out months later if it’s got any traction, when we hear about it from our friends…or not. This week it’s Sleater-Kinney and “Broad City.” They’re featured in every news outlet known to man. But over the last year we’ve seen not only movies disappear in a weekend, but complete albums. Furthermore, albums that start off as stiff suddenly gain traction, like “Kansas City” from the New Basement Tapes. You know you have a hit if people are still talking about it six months later. If not, you wasted your time.

MISUNDERSTANDING RULES

In a world where we rarely speak to one another, where we broadcast our thoughts, often ineptly, to the masses, miscommunication is rampant. Readers want encyclopedias behind every pronouncement, needing to nail the writer for mistakes in order to feel good about themselves, and feuds are caused by statements that would evaporate into thin air prior to the internet. The end result? Fear of communication. That’s the story of today, not how everybody is busy building their brand online, but how they’ve become gun-shy, fearful of participating, because of the backlash.

DATA, NOT STATISTICS

Everybody’s number one at something. To advertise this is to make us laugh and ignore you. But if someone parses the numbers, tells a story with data, then we’re interested.

AUTHORITIES, NOT NOBODIES

At least entertainment knows it’s about stars. The “New York Times” let Nate Silver and David Pogue go, and now their data stories are written by nobodies without authority and they’ve ceded tech to other outlets. Cherish your stars. Compensate them well. Meanwhile, David Pogue has faltered at Yahoo because Marissa Mayer knows nothing about news and entertainment. Only go where people understand your core business. Nate Silver is doubling-down on fivethirtyeight.com, but he’s almost starting all over. Once again, the team is everything, and the team needs its stars.

1. “Eve Of Destruction”
Barry McGuire

The Eastern world it is exploding

One can argue strongly that music took hold, evidenced its potency, with this 1965 “protest” single. The Vietnam war was amping, the baby boomers were aging, everybody looked around and said…WE HAVE THE POWER!

There’s not a boomer alive who doesn’t know this track, from the acoustic intro to the above first lyric. It emanated from transistors all over the beach, when it first made inroads during the summer, and then it went all the way to number one.

The way Barry McGuire emoted…it sounded like he believed it. And if he did, couldn’t you?

Barry never had another hit. He went on to star in “Hair.” But the song’s writer, P.F. Sloan, had numerous successes, when records were not about the beat, but the melody, when they had something to say.

Could this happen again today?

That would require listeners to question authority, acts to challenge the baby boomer rulers only interested in cash.

But one thing’s for sure, when something like this comes out of the speaker, you never forget it.

2. “Hang On Sloopy” The McCoys

Was that the REAL McCOYS? Like the TV show with Walter Brennan?

Meanwhile, no one in the band was named “McCoy.” And the Derringers in the band were really named “Zehringer.” And they didn’t write it. But it was on Bert Berns’s Bang Records.

This was a staple of basement and bar mitzvah parties, if you didn’t slow dance to this one, if you didn’t make out to this one, you missed a rite of passage.

The band was all over TV, we couldn’t believe how young they were. And we were stunned when Rick Derringer went on to his own success, years later, with “Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo,” which he wrote and Johnny Winter covered, but I still prefer Rick’s solo take.

3. “You Were On My Mind” We Five

Yes, the original was written by Sylvia Tyson, of Ian and Sylvia, but this cover had magic their initial iteration did not, proving that arrangement makes a difference.

This cover by We Five is so magical, it will put a smile on your face and have you believing life is an endless series of upbeat moments, after all, with stuff like this pouring into your ears, how could life go wrong?

This hits the same note as Herman’s Hermits’ “I’m Into Something Good,” but from a slightly older perspective.

Hearing this on the radio just made you feel good.

It still does today.

And no one who wasn’t there knows it.

Come on, the breathy, intimate vocal…you just wanted to know these people, you just wanted to sing along yourself!

4. “Catch Us If You Can” The Dave Clark Five

From the movie, the echo of “A Hard Day’s Night,” and I still haven’t seen it, but I want to.

Really the band’s last big hit. After this, they faded. But this delivered.

Not on Spotify, Dave Clark licenses last.

From the film:

Dave Clark Five Catch Us If You Can

5. “Help” The Beatles

Come on, when they enter through four different doors and it’s the same apartment?

Originally entitled “Eight Arms To Hold You,” that’s what it said on the “Ticket To Ride” single, “Help” was not quite as good or as big as “A Hard Day’s Night,” but that did not mean it was not monstrous. This was an obvious hit single, but really the album tracks were the essence, from “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away” to “The Night Before” to “I Need You”…

The Beatles – Help

6. “The In Crowd” The Ramsey Lewis Trio

A live instrumental that SWINGS!

Back when this was still possible, to hit the top ten without words.

Meanwhile, Dobie Gray’s original, with lyrics, made it to number 13 in the same year!

7. “Like A Rolling Stone” Bob Dylan

The victory lap, when Dylan went from underground folkie, writer of classics, to a star in his own right.

It didn’t sound so different musically from the rest of what was on the airwaves, but the words and the nasal vocal…they were unique! Many people hated this record, they imitated Bob’s voice, but through sheer repetition we knew every lyric, and the words pop up in our brains on a regular basis.

I mean once upon a time…

8. “It Ain’t Me Babe” The Turtles

The name seemed a cheap shot rip-off of the Beatles, but Howard Kaylan’s heartfelt vocal was so endearing… We ultimately learned it was a Bob Dylan song, but the Turtles definitely made it their own. And when they hit, we had no idea they’d continue to have success, when so many non-writers were one hit wonders, and we certainly were not prepared for their “original” nearly two years later, “Happy Together,” which is seen as lightweight fluff all these years later, almost a joke, but in 1967 it was seen as touchingly sincere…the soundtrack to one of my very first romances.

9. “Heart Full Of Soul” The Yardbirds

Yes, that’s Jeff Beck’s stinging guitar, but really it’s Keith Relf’s vocal delivery that pushes this Graham Gouldman song over the top.

Meanwhile, as great as the song is, this is definitely a record. Something otherworldly you heard on the radio which made you want to immediately fly to England to get closer, at least go to the show.

10. “Laugh At Me” Sonny Bono

Where Sonny tries to prove he doesn’t need Cher, and does an admirable job of it!

Sure, he was too old, he didn’t have the look, but he definitely had the sneer, check out this video!

Sonny Bono – Laugh At Me

 

Rhinofy-Top Ten-Week Ending September 25, 1965

It’d be like restricting Taylor Swift to vinyl.

Or having Jason Isbell play the Grammys instead of Luke Bryan.

How in hell did the movie business lose touch with America?

The Oscars used to be an international rite. A veritable holiday. Movies drove the culture, especially after classic rock decimated credibility in music and disco took over… Hell, isn’t that the exact same thing? Pandering to the lowest common denominator and as a result losing your core audience? The music business imploded in 1979, if it weren’t for MTV’s appearance in 1981 it would have been a dark, cold, lonely winter for much of the eighties. And then rap killed the lowest common denominator hairbands. Don’t the movie studios realize they’re killing their own business?

Happened in music too. We called it Napster. Whereupon it was proven everybody wanted everything and they wanted it now.

But now, there’s an endless hype cycle for mostly unworthy movies, and those that are good require a trip to the theatre. Who wants to go to the theatre? Certainly not me. I love the experience, of a big screen and good sound, but the problem is movies don’t start when I want them to. We live in an on demand culture, and movies are not on demand.

So I don’t go.

I don’t know anybody who goes, except for my octogenarian mother, who grew up believing in the religion of attendance.

I too used to go, every night in the midseventies. But that was back when movies were part of the national discussion. Does anybody discuss “The Lego Movie” or “Guardians Of The Galaxy” other than the grosses?

Meanwhile, Amazon steals the Academy’s thunder by making a deal with Woody Allen, that’s the big story this week, not these nominations for films most people have not seen.

At least the Grammys now get it right. They nominate what the labels push, at least in the big categories. If you’re not successful, you can’t play. But the holier-than-thou film folk sell candy every Friday but once a year want to turn on those who keep them alive and focus on foie gras. Huh?

Meanwhile, the bankrupt media trumpets the nominations as if they matter. They don’t matter. They’re as interesting as lacrosse statistics to those who never played the game.

People want story. Isn’t that the essence of the television renaissance?

And big time movies are all whiz-bang, with cartoon characters made for adolescents who have now stopped going to the theatre too. That’s the latest bad statistic for the film business, the cratering of teen attendance.

But ain’t how that always is in modern society. You rule until you die, suddenly.

Everybody thought digital photography was a joke, it was on the horizon for years. And then in the space of twenty four months, film cratered.

Same deal with CDs. They may still be a strong revenue source, but they’re miniscule compared to streams and stolen files. Thank god the labels authorized Spotify, otherwise they’d be like the movie companies, protecting dying retail, in this case movie theatres, and sacrificing their audience in the process.

At least you could see “The Interview” when demand was hot, when the publicity peaked. I was invited to a viewing party. Who wants to go to a viewing party months after the marketing? When the buzz is done. Quick, name the winner of last year’s NBA championship, even the World Series! There’s so much going on today that we can’t even remember what went on yesterday.

I used to record the films when they hit HBO. But then I stopped even that, because I wasn’t watching them.

Meanwhile, now you’ve got to subscribe to HBO, Netflix and Amazon Prime. That’d be like shopping for groceries at multiple stores. Who’s got the time, never mind the money?

But no one wants to bite the bullet. No one in the film industry wants to rock the boat. They don’t realize they’re balkanizing the market.

But the truth is few care. Hell, even the ratings for the Golden Globes went down.

Do you even recognize the Oscar nominees?

You can tell me how many iPhones there are, and what their storage configurations are. But who cares about this dreck?

You’ve got to make it easy today. Talk to music people. The hardest thing is getting people to listen. And continue to listen. If you’re about windowing and restrictions, you’re ignorant.

And if Amy Pascal wasn’t caught up in the hacking scandal, you wouldn’t even know her name. Hell, I bet more teens and twentysomethings know who Chris Sacca is, he’s got a better track record and he’s on the bleeding edge, changing society.

That’s right, our films used to reflect society and change it.

And for all the endless hype about “Boyhood,” where was I supposed to see it?

How successful do you think “1989” would be if you couldn’t stream the hits on YouTube? Imagine that, a record release that you couldn’t hear. That’s the movie business, you can’t SEE the flicks!

I’m sure Woody Allen likes the money. And he’s so damn old, it’s like when Fred Silverman made that deal with Lucille Ball… But one thing he knows is you can reach many more eyeballs online, and that Amazon doesn’t mess with your creativity, something the movie studios cannot help but doing.

So there you have it.

All the talent, and there’s not much of it, not top-draw, dependable icons, is migrating to TV and the new banks/distributors… Who make the entire series viewable on a single date. And the movie business’s answer?

HOLD AN AWARDS SHOW HONORING FILMS PEOPLE HAVEN’T SEEN AND DON’T CARE ABOUT!

Why is everybody so DELUSIONAL?

Needless to say entrepreneurs are the new singer/songwriters, albeit with a bigger upside. It’s the American Dream, create something and get someone else to blow it up. For every Ian MacKaye, there’s someone polishing a turd, just hoping that Lucian Grainge will make a seven figure deal with them. Everything’s about the deal, everything’s about cashing out and using the proceeds to enjoy a large lifestyle.

But you know who’s getting really rich? MARK BURNETT!

It’s kind of like prospecting, better to sell the tools than to pan for gold.

As for being a shark… The money ain’t so great, did you see that Mark Cuban was offered 30k an episode?

But what they get is publicity.

Mark Burnett has created a hit show. And the main beneficiary for those who appear is the eyeballs, it can blow up your product, if you’ve got a real one.

But what I keep seeing is the equivalent of the blooper reel on “American Idol,” people who have no chance of making it, who have nothing but blind faith in themselves.

Yes, the greats had no guarantees. They broke through from nowhere. But that does not mean you will!

But you can’t say this. That’s what I love most on “Shark Tank,” when everybody says no. The contestants are truly dumbfounded. And then they walk off saying they’re gonna show the sharks.

Give me a break.

All they’ve got is this appearance. The publicity. If their business was so good, investors would be clamoring to give them money.

So we’ve got three Korean women with incredible pedigrees hawking a dating site. Don’t they seem to know IAC has this territory locked up? That Barry Diller is going to protect his cash cow? And sure, there are competitors, but the internet is laden with fads. The best example being turntable.fm…on everybody’s lips for a month, and then history.

Want to break through, want to make it? DO SOMETHING UNIQUE!

But the problem is these highly-educated people, with MBAs from Stanford and Harvard, can’t do this. That’s what separates the creative people from the grinds. Mark Cuban didn’t go to Harvard, he went to Indiana. Because success is about personality, not your C.V.

Your C.V. will do you well if you want to play it safe, if you want to go work for the bank. But if you want to go off on your own, you’ve got to have pluck. Not only ingenuity and perseverance, but a unique idea that you can see to fruition. If Microsoft couldn’t compete with Google, losing billions on Bing, what makes these women think they can reinvent online dating, where the barrier to entry is zilch!

But doggone it, they believe in themselves.

You sit at home and convince yourself you’re gonna make it and then you get to the gatekeepers and you give your spiel and the investors’ eyes roll into the back of their heads. If you’ve got a smash hit record, the plan is secondary, if not irrelevant. If you’ve got a great plan and no hit, no one is interested in.

And the hardest thing is finding a hit. You can find someone who can analyze the charts all day long, someone who lives for music, but what do they bring to the table?

So “Shark Tank” is a sorry commentary on America. The truth is while the rich are raping and pillaging in traditional ways, although you’ve got to give the banks credit for coming up with credit default swaps, and getting the government to insure them, the great unwashed underclass is reading self-help books, listening to testimonials by one-dimensional celebrities, deciding if they just believe in themselves, they’ll be successful.

But it don’t really happen that way at all!

Furthermore, just because you can write a business plan that does not make your business successful. Once again, the idea, the germ, the creative spark is the key. It’s nothing without execution, but once again you can’t polish a turd.

But you can’t tell people this.

“Mark Cuban Threatened To Leave Shark Tank Over Sony’s ‘Insulting’ Offer Of $30,000 Per Episode”