The President of Mexico?

This press conference proves the point.

I’ve stopped commenting on politics, everyone is baked into their position, all political speech does is alienate people. But this memory event begun today with the report of the Special Counsel… How do you defend yourself against that?

By having a press conference. Wherein Biden came across as a doddering old man with experience who you indulge, but don’t let drive.

This is what I was worried about. This is what happens when you play it safe.

I know, all my fellow baby boomers will be telling me to STFU, just get in line and vote for Biden. I’ll tell them I will, vote for Biden, that is, but I’ll also say that my vote in California is irrelevant. But in a handful of states, like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Arizona and Georgia, every vote counts. And this revelation about Biden’s memory, that he couldn’t remember when his son died, when he was Vice President, is enough to persuade people not to vote for him in those states, to the detriment of his presidential hopes.

This guy has got to go. He’s not only putting the Democratic Party at risk, but the entire nation.

How did this happen?

Trump has been aggressive, fighting every legal battle, putting up fictitious roadblocks all the while. The Democrats? Have been somnambulant. Asleep at the wheel. Passive. How can you win if you don’t put points on the board?

Blame the boomers, and the Gen-X’ers, completely out of touch with the youth, many of whom can now vote. The “New York Times” recently featured an article in its Business section with instructions how to give up your smartphone. I’m sure there were Luddites saying the same thing about the automobile. Am I going to defend Internet hate? Of course the smartphone comes with downsides, but the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages.

Is anybody in charge?

I guess the billionaires. Did you see that Musk is going to fund an anti-Disney suit? Musk battles all the time, and it’s working for him.

That’s the modern mantra. Be aggressive. It’s like everybody in America is a rapper, not suffering any slight without retaliation. That’s our culture.

Except when it comes to Biden and the Democrats.

Every excuse Biden’s team has made abut his memory losses seem ridiculous. No one is buying it.

And with this press conference we’re supposed to deny our own eyes? Biden looked old and untogether. And life is all about perception, and the perception of too many, many of whom count, is that Biden has jumped the shark.

If this were business, Biden would be gone within days. Even Johnson knew when to punt. And I can’t find a single person who wants Kamala.

Don’t say it’s too late, it’s never too late.

This is why you live life, for the unexpected twists. Unfortunately, this was foreseeable.

So Comey kills Clinton and Hur kills Biden. You can argue with the refs all you want, but it never works.

Biden needs to take his name off the ballot within the next week.

Or else…

P.S. Biden meant to say Egypt.

Mr. King Crimson

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/robert-fripp/id1316200737?i=1000644620826

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/59c0b5f0-ac25-4abf-8a8d-fc8715f99a32/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-robert-fripp

THE BOOK

“Eastbound”: https://shorturl.at/vBZ03

I loved this book. I’m still thinking about it. I’d like to return to the headspace I was in when I read it. But I’m not sure I can recommend it.

You see it’s a translation from the French, and I’ve got to believe it could have been done better. It reads like a literal translation, with all the adjectives, the descriptions, and this makes it hard to read. Well, not really, if you skip over that which does not resonate.

You see it’s about the story.

Let’s just say it takes place on a Russian train. Well, it does take place on a train in Russia, and there’s a conscript traveling on the Trans-Siberian Express and…if you’re overwhelmed with politics, society, want an escape, this is it.

“Eastbound” is very brief. Only 135 pages. And you know I read for plot. And I found it very difficult to put down, there was so much TENSION! And thoughts. And choices.

Maybe get it from the library. Don’t jump out and buy the paperback or Kindle version. Then again, when Kindle books used to be less than ten bucks, I would have told you to dive in. But a lawsuit ended that, returning power to the publishers, and killing e-books. Yes, the market stalled. Take that! Bezos wanted to grow the market, but the publishers were so afraid of losing control…

Not that I’m the only one on this book. Reviews are stellar, from the likes of the NYT and WSJ, not unknowns. And the Amazon rating is nearly unheard of, 4.3, and on Goodreads it’s got a 4.0. And I think I got it because it was one of the “New Yorker”‘s best books of 2023.

Let’s see… The NYT book podcast said it was “a miniature masterpiece of narrative tension and compression.”

And Amazon calls “Eastbound” “gripping.”

It’s kind of like “Anna Karenina.” You should really read it in Russian. And the translations are so different, if you get a bad one you’ll put the book down soon, if you get a good one you’ll think it’s the best book ever written.

I wish there was another translation. But still, the essence of “Eastbound” shines through.

THE SERIES

Netflix: “Sleeping Dog” trailer: https://twtr.to/Uy9ir

It wasn’t until the credits after the final episode that I learned “Sleeping Dog” was based on the Israeli series “The Exchange Principle.”

Now the Israelis and the Danes make the best streaming TV, and I wish I’d seen the Israeli version first, but it’s not on any of the major services (although research tells me it can be viewed if you’re a member of Cascade PBS KCTS 9). Israeli shows are more about the aforementioned tension and drama than the trappings, the look, the cinematography, and that’s what makes them great.

But “Sleeping Dog” is pretty good.

You won’t know what is happening at first, and you won’t know what is happening at various points in this six episode series, but that does not detract from your enjoyment. And the main plot point is the lead character, Atlas, doesn’t know what is going on, what happened.

So it’s a crime drama. You know, police and attorneys, supposed justice. And there’s personal drama, as in Atlas has a family but he’s living on the streets.

This is a German show.

Now a German show is very different from an American show. People say they love what’s on HBO, but most of those shows are immediate, starring people you know, you can eat popcorn, they’re not gripping, they’re entertainments. German shows are more cerebral, less about action than motivation and emotion.

And during the show you’ll wince once or twice when the plot points are obvious, but then they aren’t.

If you’re the type of person who’s watched no foreign television, don’t start here, I could tell you about many better shows. But if you’ve seen all those, like me, “Sleeping Dog” is a good watch.

From: Mr. M. Shadows

Subject: Update: Avenged Sevenfold VR / Blockchain

Bob-

Hope you are well. I still get people in the industry bringing up our talk we did a while ago so thought I’d hit you with an update.

I have been working hard on the full vision of our fan ecosystem. On the day our VR concert launches (Feb. 28th) we will launch our all encompassing loyalty / reward system. A couple points below:

-As an artist, no one shares our fan data with us. We are expected to create a mailing list, which no one opens, while “streaming services” and many others use our data to their own benefit. If we are lucky they let us sell a shirt to our fans at the end of the year. For instance, we had 14m new listeners last year, we sold a few thousand shirts via their “top fans” program…. Who are the other 13.99m people?

-Merch companies, Record Labels, Social Media sites, all streaming services (Tidal, Amazon, Spotify, Apple), Ticketmaster etc…. none of them tell us who our fans are. (Though, David Marcus and his team have been massively helpful building web3 services for us including trackable Digital Ticket Stubs.)

– Solution – we are now tracking every stream, ticket sale, piece of merchandise (web and tour), event ( online and IRL ) and funneling them into a reward system. Think American Arline AAAdvantage or a Fortnite Battle Pass.

– By using nfc tags, Ticketmaster Digital Tickets, streaming tokens and other tools we are able to give points based off of participation. We are also able to reward our biggest fans in the way they actually want to be rewarded. Examples would be: Early Access to tickets (token gated) merchandise discounts (token gated through shopify), early music, collectibles, free tickets and meet n greets.  This program will be the ONLY way to get any of those rewards. (side note: our Deathbats Club members get a 1.5x accelerator on rewards points)

– We already have over 435k Ticketmaster digital ticket stubs distributed and ready to be counted.

-Also, 700k items have been sold through web and tour, all tagged and in the hands of the fans. That gives people “points” already and all they have to do now is opt-in for free and start collecting rewards.

– This is all completely free… all you must do is download a digital wallet and opt in.

We are going fully independent and I want to fully own our fan experience. As new technology comes out we can either have tech and labels own it… or an artist can lead the way and create the future THEY want to see.

Thanks for reading, hope you are surviving the rain!

Matt