Jump to content

News of the World


Rain

Recommended Posts

A long time ago it seems, I decided to no longer follow the news, as the only thing it accomplished was to make me miserable.

What I do enjoy however is to dive into old 70’s magazines that I purchase on eBay and to read articles about then-current issues.

I have just finished a fascinating little piece form July 1974 about the impact of the 1973-74 oil crisis on the record industry, and how it is affecting vinyl production, which in turn makes record companies cautious of releasing double albums, and how they are dropping artists who aren’t as commercially successful as their most mainstream acts, and hesitate to sign up new acts and give them adequate promotion. Unbelievable, right? Who would have thought?

It also seems that the quality of the records is affected as manufacturers try to extend their supplies with all kinds of products - which has an audible effect of the end product. Meanwhile, even though the cost of production has only increased by 8 cents per record, the retail price has increased by ONE dollar! I'm thinking of sending them a heartfelt letter! 

Also - it would seem that a young fellow named Billy Joel may have quite the bright future ahead of him thanks to his latest record simply titled Piano Man. I have my doubts, but we'll see.

At any rate, THAT is my kind of news.

And how about that sweet, musty smell, uh?

Edited by Rain
  • Haha 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

lol

Gene wouldn't think highly of me. I really don't own much in terms of memorabilia and never did. Besides that mug, I have an Alive tin plate, a few t-shirts, a set of bobble heads, a few books and a few posters rolled up in a closet somewhere. The albums and a few DVDs, of course.

Every time I see serious collectors showing their stuff, I feel kind of overwhelmed. Even guitars - 4 or 5 is more than enough for me. At some point, it seems I would feel like an employee in a museum, as if my stuff owned the place and I was only a guest, carefully tip toeing around.

Maybe a defence mechanism, since we were kind of poor when I was a kid, so I couldn't have afforded it, anyway. 

I've yet to make it to his museum here in Vegas, but I saw videos showing only parts of the collection, and even that felt overwhelming.

I did collect girlfriends named Melanie at some point, but that's a different story... :P

 

 

Edited by Rain
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't watch the news. Actually I don't watch TV at all, and haven't for decades.

I read news online, and I get to pick and choose what interests me, and avoid what is going to make me angry.

Old news?

A friend gave us a book, "Killing Lincoln" by Bill O'Reilly. It's not something I would have picked off the shelf, but he said it was a good read. Wow! A page turner, and I learned a lot about the events that I didn't know.

 

Notes ♫

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yep.  The only TV I watch is when I join my roommate when he wants someone to watch a football or college basketball game with.  Left to myself, the only videos I watch are on my computer (but I have a 40" 4k monitor, so they look good!).  I never go out to the TV room by myself.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't remember the last time I watched the news - but whenever I got pulled in and went through a phase of keeping up with the world, it was via written, online sources.

I bought my last tv in 1997 when I moved in with my first wife, and left it to her we broke up in 2001. I didn't get another one until my second wife bought one in 2013. Although, we're essentially talking about a big display to stream Netflix, Prime and such.

These days, I usually stream something like an episode of Seinfeld during my lunch break because I hate hearing myself chewing. Most of the time I won't even finish it. Then I'll sit in front of an episode of something or a bit of a hockey game for half an hour with my guitar before I go to bed. It takes me days to watch a full game. I honestly don't know how people manage to keep up.

The only occasion on which I spend serious time in front of the tv is on my day off, when I usually try not to spend a minute in front of the computer. But I mostly watch Japanese movies movies - since I'm studying the language, it's like soft homework. Or then documentaries and historical movies. 

Edited by Rain
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I gigged on Cruise ships from 1986-1989. Back then, there was no TV on the ships, except for pre-recorded advertisements and a taped movie that played again and again and again and again.

When I jumped ship, I hooked the cable back up, but after a few months I realized I wasn't watching. The few times I did sit down to watch, I was doing more fidgeting than watching. So I disconnected the cable. The house is wired for an antenna, and I'm capable of doing that, but I never bothered. When I had the house painted, I took the antenna mast down.

I guess I got used to doing things instead of watching.

Instead of watching TV:

  • I learned to make user styles for Band-in-a-Box, started a mail-order business selling them.
  • I learned how to run a mail order business
  • That turned into an Internet order business, so I learned to make my own web pages, made a website ... ...
  • ... and learned how to run an Internet order business. (I've sold my wares to musicians in over 100 countries so far.)
  • I learned to sequence backing tracks from scratch, so I don't have to depend on karaoke tracks, or the tracks sold on the net that are never in my key, never in my arrangement, usually with the wrong groove, and so on. I spent more time fixing the few I purchased than building my own, so I do my own
  • I've sequenced more than 600 backing tracks for my duo, which helps us stay booked https://www.nortonmusic.com/cats/songlist.html it takes time, but it's not really work. It's making music. And it makes our product (music) sound better than the competitors. We've got to the point where we charge more money than our competition, and still have more gigs per month than our competition.
  • I learned to play wind synthesizer
  • I learned to play lead guitar (still learning on that instrument, it's my 7th and newest)

Full disclosure: Mrs. Notes and I have a one-at-a-time DVD subscription from Netflix. A couple of times per month, we'll slip in a DVD and watch a movie. It's the absolute only time the TV is on.

I've never seen Taxi, Cheers, Friends, Seinfeld, Geme of Thrones, Downtown Abbey, Cheers, Glee and hundreds of others that I don't even know the names of.

I guess I'm missing some pretty cool things, and no-TV isn't best for everyone, but right now it's working for me. I might change my mind and start again some time in the future, who knows?

 

Notes ♫

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...