{"id":476,"date":"2006-07-10T16:58:45","date_gmt":"2006-07-11T00:58:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/archives\/2006\/07\/10\/perception\/"},"modified":"2006-07-10T16:58:45","modified_gmt":"2006-07-11T00:58:45","slug":"perception","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2006\/07\/10\/perception\/","title":{"rendered":"Perception"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

"Keeps up you have to get your own channel on Sirius."
Turtle to Saigon on "Entourage".<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Okay, I’ve switched sides.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m now with all you "Entourage" haters.\u00c2\u00a0 Except for the marvelous Ari, played by Jeremy Piven, this show makes me PUKE!<\/p>\n

Looks like it was made by Mark Wahlberg.\u00c2\u00a0 The self-anointed genius who has never apologized for the mayhem that put him behind bars, never mind paid off the families of those he hurt.<\/p>\n

But I guess it’s kind of like that old Dave Edmunds record, "crawling from the wreckage into a brand new car."<\/p>\n

Actually, despite his execrable singing career, and the not interesting to me Calvin Klein ads, I used to think Marky Mark was a good actor.\u00c2\u00a0 At least until he stopped working in indies and switched over to mainstream crap.\u00c2\u00a0 But now he’s gone on to blow it by revealing what an incredible twit he is by exposing his lifestyle on television.<\/p>\n

Call me an old fart.\u00c2\u00a0 I say that education and bettering yourself is more important than hanging with the guys from the hood.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s human nature to bond, but that doesn’t have to be the primary focus 24\/7, can’t people do a little hard work in isolation, rather than drinking and drugging, playing video games and going to bars all the time?<\/p>\n

THAT’S the culture our kids are being exposed to today.\u00c2\u00a0 If you don’t know this, you just haven’t turned on MTV.\u00c2\u00a0 Even that era wherein the nerds were gods, that’s passe.\u00c2\u00a0 Gone with the dot com years.\u00c2\u00a0 Now everybody just wants to live in a 24\/7 rap video.<\/p>\n

This inane, uneducated group of hangers-on to the almost no talent Vince, played by the almost no talent Adrian Grenier, are not to be looked up to, but to be seen as despicable losers.<\/p>\n

God, Eric’s supposed to be the bright one?<\/p>\n

And the purchase of Aston Martins for everyone?\u00c2\u00a0 Shit, is this some kind of weird Disney movie or what?<\/p>\n

There’s SO much that’s unbelievable in this show.\u00c2\u00a0 Like handing the keys to a Maserati to some teenager in the Valley, telling him to return it at the end of the summer.\u00c2\u00a0 NOBODY’S that cavalier and irresponsible.\u00c2\u00a0 Like today’s music and movies, "Entourage" has now lost sight of reality, to its detriment.\u00c2\u00a0 I mean the show used to be broad, but now it’s a cartoon.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, there are some moments, like with the aforementioned Ari (then again, what’s up with all that drivel re his daughter and child star Max), and the references to moviemaking hardball, but even the guest shots are starting to have the feeling of sitcoms in the seventies.\u00c2\u00a0 Did we really need Bruno Kirby, Jr. in that role last week?\u00c2\u00a0 And Paul Haggis was too much of a loser this week.\u00c2\u00a0 I know, I know, Hollywood insiders are supposedly addicted to this show, but that just illustrates how out of touch they are.\u00c2\u00a0 And maybe this is evidenced by the relatively poor ratings.<\/p>\n

But someone is watching.\u00c2\u00a0 Certainly tastemakers.\u00c2\u00a0 So what happens on "Entourage" has impact.<\/p>\n

Hell, that’s how it works.\u00c2\u00a0 Key blogs talk about exploding Dell laptops, and then finally the "New York Times" does a story <\/p>\n

\n

Dell’s Exploding Computer and Other Image Problems<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

If the people who count are watching, then a placement, a reference, has impact.<\/p>\n

And Sirius got what it paid for last night.<\/p>\n

Did they really pay?<\/p>\n

Oh, we know not in cash.\u00c2\u00a0 But maybe free radios for all?<\/p>\n

But who gives a shit.\u00c2\u00a0 God, the reference wouldn’t have worked if it were XM anyway.\u00c2\u00a0 Because XM isn’t about stars.<\/p>\n

XM is so far from the mainstream it’s laughable.\u00c2\u00a0 The operation is in D.C., it’s run by an executive with no experience in flash and there’s no one there who knows how to create any sizzle, any buzz.<\/p>\n

Yes, Eminem, Slim Shady, has his own channel on Sirius.<\/p>\n

Sure, Snoop is on XM.\u00c2\u00a0 But he doesn’t have his own channel.\u00c2\u00a0 And EVERYBODY knows Snoop will take money from ANYBODY!\u00c2\u00a0 Which Marshall won’t do.<\/p>\n

God, how has XM screwed up so badly?\u00c2\u00a0 Squandered its lead?<\/p>\n

This is serious, make no mistake.\u00c2\u00a0 This is akin to Friendster and MySpace.\u00c2\u00a0 Once the new site\/service is deemed cool, everybody else ABANDONS the old one.\u00c2\u00a0 Kind of like Beta and VHS.<\/p>\n

I’m not saying XM is in a death spiral already…\u00c2\u00a0 Then again, their major partner, GM, is.<\/p>\n

XM should be FREAKING OUT!\u00c2\u00a0 They need to throw the long ball IMMEDIATELY!\u00c2\u00a0 They need to forget about Wall Street, showing profitability by the end of the year, and start wooing CUSTOMERS!\u00c2\u00a0 Because the tide has now turned, as evidenced by Sirius defeating them in the sign-up race last quarter.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s DESPERATION TIME!<\/p>\n

And why am I defending XM?\u00c2\u00a0 Why do I care?<\/p>\n

Because XM plays more music, it’s got broader playlists, it’s just that simple.\u00c2\u00a0 And, it doesn’t play by the old music radio rules, there’s no phony "Entourage" element, with stars doing I.D.’s and phoners.<\/p>\n

AND, two services are better than one, they keep each other honest.<\/p>\n

But XM is in trouble.\u00c2\u00a0 Sirius has got the mindshare.\u00c2\u00a0 Sirius is perceived to BE satellite radio.<\/p>\n

And what completely flummoxes me is that no one in XM HQ seems to know this.<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

"Keeps up you have to get your own channel on Sirius."Turtle to Saigon on "Entourage". Okay, I’ve switched sides.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m now with all you "Entourage" haters.\u00c2\u00a0 Except for the marvelous Ari, played by Jeremy Piven, this show makes me PUKE! Looks like it was made by Mark Wahlberg.\u00c2\u00a0 The self-anointed genius who has never apologized […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-7G","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}