Just not worth it

Being a contributor in the social media sphere just isn’t worth it.  As a matter of fact, it can be harmful to relationships as well as our livelihoods. You know me - I can be explosive, crude, loud and outspoken on any given topic. Now if something said is contrary to the agreed upon narrative your employment can be terminated for nothing related to job performance and that’s simply not worth it.

Vocalizing

Happy Anniversary!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

23 years and counting...

PERFECTION VERSUS PARTICIPATION

Article is here

Written by Lee Reynolds:

“ It seems that with the rise of the recorded music industry and home audio having driven live performance standards up over the last three-quarters of a century, the premium placed on immaculate performance quality means that audiences today are used to a higher standard of technical brilliance from their musicians than ever before. However, the unobtainable illusion of perfection can be harmful for performers and audiences alike: the stifling, inhibiting pressure — which I know many colleagues feel constantly — can lead to immaculate but safe and unadventurous performances, and more importantly, flawlessness also brings with it a hidden and largely unaddressed problem: almost all audience members who enjoy attending classical performances also feel personally overawed by the perfection that is expected of musicians, and therefore entirely intimidated about ever expressing themselves musically. This is not a problem which is shared by sport: those who love to watch the finest sportspeople at Wimbledon or Wembley rarely feel too intimidated to try it themselves because of the impressive achievements of elite sportspeople; indeed many feel positively inspired to pick up a racket or a ball themselves. If this lockdown period has taught us anything, it’s that the ubiquity of beautiful artisan sourdough loaves in our shops has not inhibited people one bit from trying their hand at making imperfect loaves themselves. Yet the amazing heights reached by musicians seem to have the opposite effect on audience members; there is a gulf between those who create and those who consume. Performers of classical music are afforded a kind of mythical, otherworldly genius by their audiences (and some, especially conductors, are all too happy play along with the idea), and participation drops away.

I am, naturally, not arguing for a drop in performance standards in our world class ensembles - simply that we must find new and better and more proliferate ways of interacting and including absolutely everyone in the making of music, in an environment where playfulness and imperfection and un-seriousness are prized. In floating this manifesto with colleagues, some have asked: in the service of accommodating as many people as possible, to what extent one can compromise the music a composer wrote? Once that line is crossed, how does one usefully navigate beyond it with integrity? My answer is: this model is not intended to replace high quality, faithful performances of Mahler symphonies by the world’s great orchestras, but to take up a much more prized role alongside them. There must be far more space and resources provided for — and much higher cultural value attached to — this model of sharing music with everybody.

Ricky Gervais

- I've never been shy about status my disdain for Hollywood and their stuck-up celebrities w their elitist views telling the rest of us how to live when all they do is preach to us from their gated mansion about social and racial justice, the environment and all the other bull shit in the world.

It would be one thing if they practiced what they preach but they don’t. These are the single biggest group of hypocrites in the world.  I don't need or want to hear their views on the environment, global relations, immigration, walls, -or their views on race relations.

If anything this group of people embodies white privilege. Living in multi-million dollar homes, behind gated walls with security guards.  They drive expensive gas guzzling cars, fly in private airplanes, vacation all over the world on large yachts and...protect their own little circle of hob. knobby white elitists. They pit out a new PSA about racism.. - Hello-what have they ever done to help anyone but themselves?

I wish they would just shut up and mind their own business.  Either that or start living with integrity instead of the hypocrisy, entitlement and disgust they have for the rest of us while they pretend to be outraged.

Ricky Gervais is the only one who gets away with calling them out. I don't know how, but he gets away with saying what the rest of us are thinking.

And yes, he's probably as bad as they are but at least he says what they need to hear I'll always remember the speech he gave at the golden globes when he said to them "No one cares about what you think Come up here, get your award, thank your agent and sit down and shut up..

Until they can lead by example I don't care what they have to say about anything.  

Facebook’s evil

According to this former Apple exec, Facebook is peddling an addictive drug called anger....  I agree.  

Facebooks addictive drug

Beaker’s Beethoven

And in other news.....  Montreal symphony is doing Beethoven!

Montreal does Beethoven

Race in America

For your consideration -  three musical selections depicting America’s complicated racial history and injustices. 

Privilege

Nothing quite says privilege like a few families in the neighborhood next to ours giving their kids golf carts to cruise the neighborhood. Grab 3 or 4 of your best friends and go for a ride to each other's houses, or the gas station.

When I was a kid we walked or rode our bike to go places.  But this?  WTH?

It would be one thing if there was a golf course within a 30 mile radius of the neighborhood. But, there's not.

This is a disgusting display of entitlement and affluence A bunch of snot nosed stuck up pre-pubescent brats, too lazy to get off their butts and walk. I find it disgusting.

On top of it all, they don't abide by the established rules of driving.  They are a hazard to those around them. Toting around acting like a bunch of stuck up spoiled brats. It’s really not the kid's fault. It is their parents with the problem.  Live and let live, right? Wrong-What we're seeing here is just flaunting of affluence and privilege. But hey, they’ve  got the money, so why not? These are the kids who will get out of college expecting to land a $100k a year job with their newly minted degrees.

Whatever.

Turbulence Ahead - fasten your seatbelt

I have been debating weather to write about this or keep it to myself.  As you can tell, I decided to write it out. 

Bumpy skies are ahead for the airline industry. Every carrier has said they want to cut staff by 30 percent or so due to plunging demand. However the cares act has made it impossible to cut staff until October 1. That hasn’t stopped carriers from instituting pay cuts, hours reductions and resulted in offers made for summer off without pay or not work and earn 50% pay for sitting at home doing nothing on a month by month basis. Pay cuts implemented for those who either have to work or want to work.  Pay cuts currently in place may become permanent. 

On October 1 all bets are off. Many Companies are offering voluntary opt out packages to entice people to leave the company before furloughs and other involuntary job losses occur.

My company is not immune to wanting to reduce their labor costs. The programs to opt out are put together to entice Senior employees to leave- get the expensive labor off the books. We have been told that the opt out packages are the most generous they will ever be and if one is forced to leave it won't be anywhere near as generous as it is now.  The offer on the table is as good as it’s gonna get. 

So what is one to do? Stay and see what happens, leave with something or be eliminated and end up with nothing... With a workforce reduction that means all the work wall be spread out over fewer people. Who wants to stay to do more work for less money?  None of the options are particularly appealing.

The question to me becomes getting paid to leave the company or stay with no certainly.   Leave and not be able to find a new job? Stay and get fired and leave with nothing? Bet on myself 100% to reinvent myself again or stay to place odds on the Company?

If I leave now, my family is eligible for lifetime flight benefits and I get a handful of cash. If get laid off they get nothing and I probably won’t either.  What a mess. 

How hard is it going to be to get a job in the post corona world? What do I want my future to look like? Do I want cash in hand to figure it out?

I have until June 30 to figure it out.

Faebook relationships

I ts been about a week since leaving Facebook.  Since then I’ve been reading a lot about the dynamics of Facebook. One interesting thought - Facebook has made friendship passive where information is broadcasted instead of investigated to invest in the relationship. 

Facebook has turned relationships into a consumptive activity as opposed to an investment in people.  Facebook decides which friends we hear from based on some algorithm and our historical engagement activities.  

For those with more than 100 friends, how much investment is being made into the relationships as opposed to stalking other people so you know what's going on or looking at pictures?  

One thing I found for myself is Facebook became a complete glottonous over- indulgence into the spontaneous eruption of emotion and impulsive posting of rants and shouts. Edited, Re-edite and posted to certain audiences or visible to only me - mostly to keep work colleagues from having an endless supply of fodder to potentially use against me, should they choose.  It became my version of trumps Twitter - a running stream of consciousness. Every impulse - bam. Posted. Unfiltered and unedited.   Which I think gives me a little understanding of how trumps mind works.  

I’m not saying all facebook relationships are one sided and lack authenticity by any stretch,  There are friends I miss ‘seeing’ throughout life’s landscape - and it’s only been a week....  they’re the ones with many miles between us, not making it easy to hang out and spend time. 

Interesting to note - I didn’t share the address to the crooked toad with anyone I work or have worked with. Either directly by sharing the same employer or indirectly through other entities in the same economic sector or present and former business partners.  Those with access to this space are my closest and dearest friends. 

People only show what they want you to see... Some people have a more authentic presence online than others.  My facebook activities showed a very distorted view of who I am and what I’m about as a person.  Anyone I’ve known more than a decade or sat along side me as a musician was probably taken aback seeing Facebook. At the same time - they’ve seen me at my best and worst.  I’ve laid my soul bare with struggles, trials and tribulations.  I’ve shared the good and the bad.  Facebook got me through some challenging times. I don’t know how I would have kept it together when my wife was terribly ill....  We got through that chapter of life together as a team.  Thank you. I left Facebook with a snapshot of my life’s journey combined with a lot of noise.  

Justice Prevails

I ts absolutely no secret where I fall on the political spectrum.  I believe in limited government, personal freedom and accountability, De-Regulation and America First.

Early on in the pandemic I mused that freedoms were being taken away from the citizenry and that the government was suddenly deciding who the economic winners and losers were going to be as a result of the pandemic. Small businesses destroyed with a mass transfer of wealth to Big business. Mom n Pops can't survive months on end without money coming in the door. Gone were the days of personal freedoms in exchange for the safety that only the government can provide.

One of my favorite quotes is "people willing to trade their freedom for the illusion of Security are deserving of neither."

Stay socially distanced. Wear a mask. No gatherings of more than 5 people unless you're from the same household. My Mask is for your safety, not mine. Really.

Ive often said that every job is essential because it's how we are able to provide food, shelter, clothes, etc for ourselves + for our families.

Michigan Supreme Court Backs Barber

There was a Michigan barber forced to close and 

 protested; deciding to open and as a result was again ordered by "the government" to close and had his license revoked.  Our barber friend was defiant and opened on May 4.

The barber sued the government and lost. Took it one step further to the Michigan Supreme Court and prevailed.

The court issued a statement stating, “It is incumbent on the courts to ensure decisions are made according to the rule of law, not hysteria.  One hopes that this great principle — essential to any free society, including ours — will not itself become yet another casualty of COVID-19.”

Can I hear a good Amen? What's sad about this is it took appealing to the Supreme Court to have the rule of law applied and not ignored to suit an agenda.

I posted a picture with a caption that said we are being conditioned to view Exercising our freedoms as being selfish instead of exercising the rights afforded to every American by the Declaration of Independence and Constitution. Free from government intervention.  What’s disturbing is how willingly Americans fell in line to having their freedoms trampled without even questioning the motivating..

The government should try to protect freedom as opposed to take it away. There is an inherent problem and conflict when the government finds themselves in a position to be taking away our rights instead of protecting them. 

Hence the purpose of the second amendment.

I guess this conversation isn't complete without discussion of the protesting for equality and against a system of institutionalized and system racism. That is a much more complicated topic as the president has floated the use of our military to stifle protests. At the same time, we can't have the fringe left-antifa- causing social chaos while advocating for anarchy and the defunding of law enforcement. We must be a society of law and order order- We must be able to protect our rights, our families, our property, our neighborhoods and our communities from lawlessness.

We must also be able to protect our risks from being imposed upon. Or, in the case of Floyd and many other black people, they say they haven’t had rights the same rights as we have been afforded.  I hope the prolonged peaceful protests will drive change without the loss of life or mayhem. 

It isn’t hate to speak the truth

It isn't hate to speak the truth - J. K. Rowling. So-. . how long do you think it will take the left to demand every Harry Potter book be burned?

Perhaps its an exageration. But when one of their own starts

de-constructing the agreed upon narrative, there is bound to be some push back from the establishment-

200, 000 people protesting and suddenly No one cares about social distancing- I guess everyone is wearing a mask? Maybe the corona virus didn't accomplish its intended objectives did you ever think of that?  Time to level up because what they’re doing isn’t working so now we gotta protest, riot and burn shit down.  

What’s the difference between an orange?

Oh...  and Betty Crocker makes better brownies than Duncan Hines.  

Technology and bonding time

So one of the things I started doing is taking my kids out for 30-60 minutes of exercise every other day, with me going every day. It forces them out of the house and gives us time to spend in either total  silence or talking. I’m pleasantly surprised with the conversations Zak and I have had. He's pretty introverted and spends a lot of the gaming.  The depth of our conversations is quite cool.  What I’m doing is creating a time for us to bond. 

The other day he really did not want to go on our walk but he went anyway. Actually, he didn't have a choice. As we were walking we were discussing the George Floyd killing, racism, the declaration of Independence, immigration and, the difference between the conversation he and I were having is probably very different than the conversation a Black family is having about the same events going on in our country. When we got back to the house the conversation continued. When we came to a natural breaking point He said, “Thank you for the walk and the talk.”

Times are different now and the only way I know to facilitate these interactions is to build them around another activity. I hope he looks back on these times with fondness as I know I do. I get emotional just thinking about it.

As a side note, I have an ipad and a keyboard to go with it. The keyboard went out yesterday and I really don't like on screen keyboards.  I’ve had an Apple Pencil for sometime and never really used it until now. So... this entry is being written in app and the app is converting my writing to text. Its quite amazing how well the machine is working to learn how I write. 

At any rate Im going to export the work done in the app and edit it prior to upload....

Surveillance in America

Apple disabled the looted cell phones and is tracking their location and  passing the information on to law enforcement.  An interesting development in trying to track and isolate looters.  Technically, Apple owns the device so what they are doing is “Find my Phone” to get it back.  And did an organized crime member take the phone?  A protestor?  Was the phone offered for sale and the new owner get’s a knock on their door from the FBI?  Interesting developments and hopefully a way to catch the perpetrators and domestic terrorists.....

If you think about the Edward Snowden revealing the government tracks data traveling through the internet, social media posts, emails, phone calls, etc...  You’d think if they were serious about “protecting” American’s they would already exercise their data to know what nefarious acts are being planned, when they are being planned and when they are being planned.  Yet they are allowed to continue.  Is their surveillance as sophisticated as claimed?

Since the PANdemIC started there have been interesting videos showing cameras being used for temperature read temperatures of travelers with the camera being able to read temperatures and isolate body to track the information to supposed keep ill people for boarding planes, entering countries, etc while they are ill.  So what if there were two cameras working together and you could overlay the images of temperature readings with a facial recognition camera and determine the identity of the person with the fever by cross referencing photo databases owned by the department of states, departments of public safety and employers badging records - and take it one step further run the facial data through facebook and all other social platforms?  By connecting the dots you can then figure out their address, phone number, who they associate with, where the go etc all using technology embraced by nearly everyone.  Then you can turn on their Alexa device or phone microphone and listen to and record all their conversations.  The amount of data that can be mined through technology is mind boggling.  Facebook knows who you associate with by the friends in your list as well as the pictures you’re in and who you’re with in the photos.  Depending on the device used to capture the image, GPS data is captured in the meta data of the image file.

Now that contract tracing is a thing to track the corona virus - various entities are able to track who we come in proximity with wether it be friend of foe.  Normal member of society or deviant.  Apple revealed social contact tracing information can be collected and you can opt out - just imagine how long this information has been used without the citizenry knowing.  One thing with technology - it trickles down from the military and government.  Now imagine being able to apply this technology socially....  I hope you’re saying ‘holy shit’ or WTF?

‘Do you see where all this is going?  We potentially live under one giant police state.  Yet there are riots and looting among the protestors of police brutality among black people.  So we either have a complete surveillance failure or those that have access to data and know what’s going on aren’t doing anything to stop or prevent it.  Almost as if they data slicers and dicers want the civil unrest and social chaos.

Once a legitimate identity is attache to a social media account a psychological profile and be put together.  Imagine what Trump’s twitter rants say about him?

A lot of people embrace technology, social media and the readiness of information at our finger tips no matter where we are just as long as there is a cell phone signal.  I think that the opposite is true - surveillance entities have access to our lives just as long is there is a cell phone signal.  The amount of information we get probably pails in comparison to the amount of information we give.  Information access if free but we are paying a steep price and most of us don’t even know or realize the cost.

I did decide to close deactivate my facebook account. I will be activating to be able to keep some of my writings during corona virus and find a way to put them here. I hope people start to consider the ramifications and cost we’re paying to have all these experiences, interactions and access to information for free......

History Repeats Itself

I found myself in an endless circle of wasting time on social media.  I decided to deactivate my facebook account for a while.  Way too much time was being consumed habitually going in an endless circle of time wasting.  What’s my solution?  Go back to writing blogs.

One component of social media for me is to get thoughts in my mind out of my body as a form of self-care.  Aspects of my personality can be blunt, opinionated, gruff, vulgar and outright mean.  For whatever reason facebook became the place for me to showcase those less desirable sides to my person.  It’s easy to fire off some quick rant on a status update.  Facebook is the perfect place for me to become a gluten in my in my own random thoughts and impulses.  That’s not exactly contributing to mental wellness or investing in healthy relationships.

What caused this change?  A big part was George Floyd being killed.  A friend of mine referenced Peggy Hubbard’s response.  Peggy is an insightful conservative black woman.  Peggy is one of the most level headed and compassionate public figures (for lack of better term) commenting on the perils of society.  She is insightful, well spoken and humane person deserving of a megaphone or soap box on which to speak.  She made a run for senator in Illinois as a republican.  She lost to a white guy.  Go figure.  I watched one of her videos about George Floyd and her response had an impact and prompted me to consider the intended and unintended role I play in social media.

Media in all forms is the biggest problem in this country and is actively contributing to the division and discourse raging from coast to coast.  Social media is media, the established traditional media, celebrities and news media are doing more to destroy this country than any one person in the White House.   When you get to be “that important” I think motivations and ideologies about how society “should be” become distorted and twisted into some kind of New World Order fantasy.  I believe the important people are doing everything they can to create social chaos so someone can swoop in and be a savior and at the same time alter America for what it is and it’s ideals and where it fits in a global construct.  Media is the super power used to divide and influence those susceptible to manipulation.  The best solution I have is to disengage and change my choices in media consumption as well as media creation.

I enjoy the exploration and elaboration of ideas through the writing process.  I also enjoy documenting and sharing parts of my experience on planet earth.  And here we are.  The unsocial media and solitude of a blog.  I’ll share the goings ons in my life and thoughts on current events in more than shared content  or shout on facebook.  Facebook knows way more about our lives than anyone of us comprehends.  We are their product.  The sell our lives in the form of algorithms and probably have us segmented into a hundred million different ways allowing that information to be used to accomplish an agenda. Conspiracy theory?  Maybe.  Truth?  Probably.

How did the name “the crooked toad” come about?  It was an idea I had for either a restaurant or a Harley Davidson store.  Why a Harley store?  Because the market is saturated with them, their brand is becoming disconnected from it’s at one time fanatical fan base.  Harley Davidson is the brand of rebellion, freedom and taking a journey across America on the open road.  I’m about rebellion and freedom but don’t want a Harley store.  But Harley stores typically have weird names and I wanted something memorable.  Welcome to the crooked toad!  Join me on the journey and see where we go.