All posts by PopCultureGangster

Music

A Quick Shot For You

Saturday night I went to see a few bands play at T.T. The Bear’s in Cambridge and I just wanted to give a quick reccomendation that people check out two bands:

First up is Muck and the Mires, who sport a great retro-style garage rock sound.  They are probably more of an acquired taste as they are definitely retro sounding.

Second, but definitely not least, is The Mooney Suzuki.  They’ve been around since 1999 from the looks of things, but still practically no one has heard of them, and that’s a crime.  They are fanastic.  They too have a great garage-rock sound, but not as "retro" and with a bit more of a funky sound.  If you like Lenny Kravitz’s more rockin’ tunes (think "Are You Gonna Go My Way", which, let’s face it, is a song that could be played 20 times in row and it would still sound awesome) then you’ll probably love The Mooney Suzuki.  Their stuff is on iTunes, so please check them out.  They get my highest level of approval and reccomendation.

Marketing, Music

So its TicketMASTER, is it???

I’m thinking that TicketMaster has lost their collective minds.  I got an email yesterday from them promoting Clifford The Red Dog live at the Opera House in Boston.   Let’s take a look at the sheer brilliance of this utterly useless email effort, shall we?

First of all, Clifford The Big Red Dog is a 40-year old children’s book character from Scholastic (though I swear I don’t remember him when I was a kid and that was sure as hell less than 40 years ago).

Secondly, I am a single, never-married guy with no children that I am aware of.

And most disturbing, the last five sets of tickets I bought from TicketMaster were: 

  1. Trans-Siberian Orchestra
  2. Aerosmith and Lenny Kravitz
  3. Judas Priest and Anthrax
  4. Iron Maiden
  5. Scorpions and Whitesnake

Uhhh… yeah. Maybe TicketMaster wants a few of us head-bangin’ Satan-worshipers there to balance out the saccharinity of Clifford, but mommy and daddy probably won’t be too happy if I show up wearing my "Keep Music Evil" or Baphomet and pentagram t-shirt at their friggin’ kid’s birthday party. 

Or maybe Ticketmaster has taken on a vast right-wing neo-conservative effort and will bombard me with wholesome entertainment until I renounce the devil’s music?

Maybe I’ll just show up wearing a pair of shorts worn under a trench coat with a low-wearing hat and sunglasses.  You know, just to freak ’em out.  Maybe Sesame Street Live will be in town too. 

If you’re going to get arrested, you might as well make a spectacle of yourself…

On a totally semi-related note, I originally was going to write this with the following list:

  1. Trans-Siberian Orchestra
  2. Aerosmith and Lenny Kravitz
  3. Judas Priest and Anthrax
  4. Ozzfest
  5. WASP with La Guns and Stephen Pearcy
  6. Motorhead and Corrsion of Confiromity
  7. Dio and Anthrax

All of which were in the last year.  That would have made my point a bit stronger, don’t you think?  However, #4, 5, 6, and 7 were all bought through either Tickets.com or NextTicketing.  I didn’t even notice how the places my tickets are coming from has changed in the last two years.  Glad to see that Ticketmaster doesn’t have the deathgrip it had (and still has for the most part) a few years ago.

Marketing

What am I supposed to do with 3,000 freezer gloves in an office?

So I have been having a bad streak with customer service and shipping lately and would like to IMPLORE all companies out there to LISTEN to your CUSTOMERS.  Arrrgh!!!

I’m not asking for complicated stuff.  I ask for some samples to be sent to me here at my office in Franklin, Massachusetts and the rest of the shipment to a plant in NJ or PA.  What happens?  For the third time I get the samples and then two days later I get the rest of the order, which then eats up my time spinning my wheels arguing with the supplier, waiting for UPS/FedEx to pick them up again, get sent back, re-labeled, sent out again….

It is just so ridiculous and frustrating.  This should be the EASY part of the whole process, and consistently, companies mess it up BIG time.  LISTEN PEOPLE, LISTEN!!!

If this keeps up, this blog could turn into a black list of companies that can’t follow simple instructions.

Music

Music Shouldn’t Be a Commodity

2 Comments

I thought that this article was kind of sad to read.  The main gist is found in the first paragraph: "internet downloading and MP3 players are creating a generation of people who do not seriously appreciate songs or musical performances."

I had hoped that the arrival of MP3 players and satellite radio would mean a new-found appreciation for music, but the easy availbility of it may mean the opposite.  http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/01/10/060110164416.p4z0rnx6.html

I hadn’t thought about this potential outcome back in February of 2005 when I made this post about "Music Overload."

So how do we go about making sure people appreciate the work behind the art that is music?

Sports

A Little Empathy Please?

1 Comment

Let me explain why I am both befuddled and sometimes jealous of those who don’t pay any attention to sports.

Tonight, the New England Patriots lost their bid to do what no football team has ever done: win three Superbowls in a row.  It is a disheartening blow and one that made me want to throw the remote through the TV several times.  I was picturing it going through the glass and the sparks and smoke coming out of the TV when that stupid pass interference play was called on Asante Samuel.

It is frustrating, disheartening, disappointing and heart-breaking.

It is also a bit of a relief…

Of course I wanted the Patriots to be the first team in history to win three Superbowls in a row.  All New England fans did.  But the Patriots – like the Red Sox – never make the victories easy.  They are dramatic nail biters (which makes for great football) and while it would have been great to see another Lombardi trophy in the hands of Brady and watch another Championship banner go up at Gillette Stadium, it is also weird sort of  relief that all of New England doesn’t need to start working on yet another ulcer for the next three weeks.  That’s two more weekends where we can do what we want, when we want, where we want.

This is why I try to keep my sports fandom at a reasonable level.  I can get too caught up in it – become too competitive and do stupid things like make fans of opposing teams break down in tears with insults and trash talk.  I get nervous, disgusted, excited, and overjoyed.  I enjoy watching sports, but I can’t watch/listen to every single game, or else I’d be locked up by now.

However, I am enough of a fan that when I meet people who just don’t care at all about sports, I am dumbfounded.  But then at times like this, I’m jealous of them.  They may have done something more memorable than I did tonight, but I think that watching the game was exactly where I wanted to be.

I do want to say one more thing about the Patriots and their loss tonight: the dissection of this game will go on for days, if not weeks here in New England.  Blame will be shifted around as it is placed on the shoulders of the players, the referees, the coaches, the humidity, the altitude, the wind direction, the phase of the moon… whatever it is.  But I hope that what all the fans don’t forget in the middle of that discussion is that the Patriots have given us what very few teams in Football history have: a "dynasty" of three wins in four years and an AMAZING run of record-breaking games throughout those playoffs. 

We have everything to be proud of and I hope that whichever team wins the Superbowl this year, the team and their fans will enjoy it as much as we have the last few years with the Patriots.

THANK YOU Patriots for making the last few years the time we’ll look back on and say "those were the good ‘ol days!"

Let’s enjoy the peace and quiet while we can: 32 days until pitchers and catchers report!

*sigh*

Marketing

In Marketing Lingo, We Call This “Targeting”

Funny observation of the day: earlier I was sending an e-card to a friend of mine who’s birthday is Monday and while browsing through the various selections, I wandered into the "off-color" cards and came across one called "oral gratification." 

Being a guy, I couldn’t resist checking out what it was and while the card was only marginally funny, I was struck by the fact that alongside it was an ad for Religious t-shirts.

Nothin’ like a little oral gratification to help you find religion! 

Funny_screen_1

"Oh god… oh god… oh god…  Oh, I’ll go get you a towel."

Weblogs

A friend of a friend of a friend…

2 Comments

This intro will take a little bit, so if you want, you can just skip to the obvious link below….

So around two years ago (told you it would take a while) my friend Allen sends me a message saying that I should talk with his friend Karen.  We start chatting online and quickly realize that we had similar weird senses of humor.  A lot of stuff about pirates, if I remember correctly.   That, and we both have excellent taste in music.

ANYWAY – Karen and I have chatted regularly and become friends, though we’ve never met.  She is my first online-only friend (well, except for "Natasha" from Russia, but she charges $2.99 a minute to watch her be my friend through a web cam), though that will change in the coming months.  Karen is getting married and I’ve been invited to the wedding! (She and her fiancé have a blog chronicling the planning of their wedding.  Don’t worry, its not nearly as boring as it sounds.)

Anyway – while looking at it this morning after Karen sent out a disgustingly blatantly self-promotional email, I followed the link to the blog of her maid of honor, and ended up spending much more time than I meant to reading it.   Not unlike this string of useless commentary that I cobble together from time to time, it is a rambling assortment of random observations, but it made me laugh, especially this post.  I had to share it with all of you (god, I hope it doesn’t crash the servers. *cough*).

THE POINT OF THE POST:

Here’s that link for you bastards who cheated and didn’t read the above: http://www.livejournal.com/users/jenza/

Web/Tech

Help in setting your barometer

2 Comments

For christmas I got one of those neat atomic clock weather station thingies that not only uses the atomic clock to keep accurate time (not that it can get a signal at my house…) but also has a seperate display to show the humidity, weather predicitions and the barometric pressure.

However, in order to set the barometer correctly, you have to tell it how high above sea level you are.  Maybe I’m alone in this, but I had NO CLUE what the answer was to that!  I mean, really – I live far enough inland that I don’t worry about flooding (yes, Rhode Island is big enough) and never had to worry about it.

I discovered this neat site: http://www.earthtools.org/ that will help you figure it out.  Go there, choose "Heigh ASL" (Above Sea Level) and use the map to find where you live.  One tip: you have to double click to move where the view is.  Took me a try to two figure it out.

Hopefully this helps anyone wondering how to set THEIR barometer.

(Oh, btw, my house is 242 feet above sea level.  So if you ever read in this blog that my house is underwater, you probably should be moving to higher ground, quickly)

Marketing

The Wal-Mart Hole Gets a Little Deeper

Since it was bloggers who brought the problem to light, we might as well make fun of it as well…

BENTONVILLE, Ark. (January 9, 2006) – A feature on Wal-Mart.com that offered movie recommendations based on current purchases was shut down last week when it was discovered that “offensive” racial connections were being made by the software, according to media reports. For example, the purchaser of a “Planet of the Apes” DVD was given the recommendation of a movie about Martin Luther King Jr. as a “similar item.” “It’s just simply not working correctly,” Mona Williams, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman, was quoted as saying. The problem was initially brought to light by Internet bloggers, the reports said.