More Money

$85 billion wasn't enough for AIG. They just got another $37.8 billion "loan" from the Federal Reserve. Meanwhile, the executives are away on a $400,000 corporate retreat.

It's all exasperating.

The Dow plummeted 678 points today to close at 8579. That's just stunning. The government keeps throwing money at all of these big name businesses but the stock market is hellbent on dropping like a rock. I'm sure it's an excellent time to buy, assuming you've got the money and the stomach to handle the ride.

Gold is $930/ounce!

All of this should be a clue to the people running the show, but it's not sinking in. I think I heard that Pelosi's talking about another stimulus package. Doesn't Congress realize that most people used the last one to pay off bills?

And the upcoming election is far from reassuring.

I'm going to see Testament at The Webster Theater in Hartford tomorrow night. With all that's going on in the world these days, apocalyptic thrash metal seems fitting. "The Formation of Damnation" indeed.

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Heavy Metal In Baghdad

This intrigues me.

FILM SYNOPSIS

Heavy Metal in Baghdad is a feature film documentary that follows the Iraqi heavy metal band Acrassicauda from the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003 to the present day. Playing heavy metal in a Muslim country has always been a difficult (if not impossible) proposition but after Saddam’s regime was toppled, there was a brief moment for the band in which real freedom seemed possible. That hope was quickly dashed as their country fell into a bloody insurgency. From 2003-2006, Iraq disintegrated around them while Acrassicauda struggled to stay together and stay alive, always refusing to let their heavy metal dreams die. Their story echoes the unspoken hopes of an entire generation of young Iraqis.

Here's the movie trailer.



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Panic In The Boardroom

Panic at the Disco? No, seriously. Panic at the Disco is what you guys at NBC came up with for your Midnight act on New Year's Eve? Who's sleeping with the band over there? I learned through their website that they've been on Carson Daly and Conan in '06 so someone over there must love them. Oh and let Carson Daly know that we "appreciate" him too. Not!

What bugs me the most is that I'd never heard of Panic at the Disco before they played New Year's Eve. I try to stay somewhat current even though I'm sandwiched in classic rock radio land. I mean, I even know the platinum selling rappers and I don't listen to hip hop. These guys are platinum sellers? How? They seemed like next gen 80's new wave. And was that a lyric about divorce? Oooooh now that's a happy topic to sing about on what's supposed to be the biggest party night of the year.

C'mon man! New Year's is supposed to be all about fun! I expect big name headliners, or at least well known ones. I never expect to like them, but I do expect to know them. This is the best you can do? ABC's got Christine Aguilera, which makes sense since she's a big pop princess. Even Fox has some pop chick I've heard of. CBS? Shit, they didn't even try! They're running the news and CSI reruns. Wait, something's going on here!

In my youth, the networks used to pull out all the stops for New Year's Eve spectaculars. You'd see big name pop stars singing their latest hits all night. You'd see some global highlights, but, starting with New York, you'd see the New Year rung in across the country. Apparently, that's not the case anymore. I guess that people are tuning them out making a big investment in celebration coverage a matter of diminishing returns. I mean, CBS didn't do anything! And the other networks were done by 1AM EST. I'm guessing that local affiliates handled their own countdowns. 24 hour cable news channels kept the old tradition going. CNN and Fox News had the other time zones (I stayed up for Chicago/New Orleans). MSNBC ran more prison documentaries.

Fox News showed Times Square either just before or just after 1AM EST and it was EMPTY. Everyone was gone? Does that happen every year? I thought people stayed up and partied all night. It was relatively warm (40's as opposed to 20's). Did everyone go inside the bars? If so, why didn't I see anyone out there? Maybe CBS had the right idea.

So I have to think that maybe The Long Tail is bigger than I thought. For those of you unfamiliar with that term, a short, imprecise definition is that more money can be made selling niche products than going for blockbusters. Having a thousand club bands on your roster is better than having one Mariah Carey. While I was convinced a year or two ago when I'd first heard about it, I didn't expect to see it have such a pronounced effect: i.e. no coverage on CBS, an "unknown" niche band playing on a major network.

If you read this excerpt, you'll see that there's been a line of diminishing returns on blockbuster movies, TV shows, radio station listeners, albums, books, etc. thanks to the Internet. We have access to so much more than we ever did. Sites like Google, Amazon, MySpace, coupled with iPods, Napster or any of its successors, make it possible for niche products (books, music, movies etc.) to find a home. Referral engines make suggestions: "If you like A, then you might like B, C, D, or E" increasing the sales potential of items that can't find their way onto store shelves. One no longer needs to have a major movie studio, music label, or book publisher to crack into retail. While the burden of marketing falls onto these small DIY stalwarts, they have access to the tools to make it happen. With perseverance, and maybe a little luck, it's possible for nobodies to become somebodies. Those somebodies might not become household names, but they might get a gig on New Year's Eve.

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A Christmas Gift (sort of)

I've been talking about my "rock star" days (that's a joke people) on a couple other blogs. I thought that I should share some of those memories with this little number. Anyone from back in the day will immediately recognize it. Love it or hate it. It is what it is. And Merry Christmas.

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Operation: Mindcrime

Queensrÿche's 1988 album, Operation: Mindcrime was the best concept album of the 80's. For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, this was the album that preceded Empire, from whence the song "Silent Lucidity" arose. You know, the song that marketing sold to AOR radio dubbing Queensrÿche as the next Pink Floyd. Being a fan of both bands, I can assure you that was a load of crap. But that's the music industry for you.

Operation: Mindcrime told the story of Nikki, a young man disillusioned by the crap being pawned off as the American dream. Remember the mid to late 80's? Corruption in government, corporations taking control, religious leaders getting caught in sex scandals, and a complicit news media (sound familiar?). He meets Dr. X who takes Nikki in and explains to him how he can make a difference. After a series of addictive psychotropic drugs and brainwashing, Dr. X turns Nikki into an assassin and revolutionary leader.

In between assassinations, Nikki is visited by Sister Mary, a runaway turned hooker who is "saved" from the streets by Father William, an associate of Dr. X. As part of Nikki's conversion, he's addicted to the drugs that Dr. X fed him. Sister Mary provides Nikki with his daily dosage while he waits for Dr. X to call with his next assignment.

One day, Dr. X decides that Mary and the priest are a risk and orders Nikki to kill them. Nikki attempts to carry out his orders, but he realizes that he has strong feelings for Mary. These feelings lock horns with Dr. X's conditioning and the ensuing struggle tears Nikki apart.

By the end of the album, Nikki is straitjacketed in a hospital, trapped in a catatonic state. Mary is dead but Nikki doesn't know if he's responsible. There are huge gaps in his memory. He can't remember yesterday. He just remembers doing what they told him.

Operation: Mindcrime 2 picks up 18 years later, just as OM2 follows OM1. Nikki has been released from prison and discovers that not much has changed in America. The revolution is dead. As he returns to a life of crime, other memories start coming back to him. He's haunted by Mary's death and Dr. X is to blame. Nikki tracks down Dr. X to exact his revenge.

But revenge doesn't turn out to be so sweet. Nikki looks upon his life and wonders if he's nothing more than a murderer. Whether killing in the name of revolution or revenge, it's still killing. He spirals into depression and reverts to heavy drug use to kill the pain. Mary's ghost comes to him and he longs to be with her once again.

OM1 is better than OM2. The story and music are vibrant. The songs are alive and the emotions of the characters smack right into you. Each song is a chapter in the story. OM2 starts off well but over the last few tracks, Nikki wallows around in so much misery that it drags. There's not as much to the story in OM2 and it comes across. The story would've come across as much tighter if the album had a few less tracks. It's growing on me thorugh.

The Operation: Mindcrime saga can be said to be all about finding purpose in one's life. One can choose from a myriad set of ways to rise to fame, fortune, and power, but none of them truly matter compared to love. This may sound trite, or overly simplistic, but the simplest answers are often the truth.

Queensrÿche are currently touring in support of OM2. In concert, they're playing both albums in their entirety, over 2 hours worth of music. And, if you're lucky, they'll even throw out a few songs for an encore. I went with several friends to see them at the old Oakdale Theater in Wallingford. We all seemed to be a bit skeptical as to how it would come across live, but, except for the opening number (which was a bit rough. Soundcheck anyone?), it was great! They've got video and on stage acting to flesh out the scenes in the songs. But at no point do the sights upstage the sounds. The music is what drives this show. No trends, gimmicks, or stereotypes. Just good music that just so happens to be metal.

Update: Thanks to Mike for pointing me in the direction of this more in-depth review of the show I was at. Definitely worth reading.

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Deep Purple Goes To War

It must've been a slow week over at the Grapevine for the Fairfield County Business Journal. They had two references to rock bands in the same column! Oh, if you guys are reading this, that's fine by me.

Deep Purple, the British rock band with managers at Thames Talent Ltd. in Westport, has announced that, no, it has no intention of canceling its performance scheduled for Thursday, July 28 just outside Beirut at the Baalbeck Music Festival. Whether there will be a Baalbeck Music Festival as of July 28 is another story.

According to the band's website, the show is actually Thursday, the 27th.

With all of the coverage the news networks are pouring into the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict in Lebanon (what happened to Iraq? Dare I even ask about Afghanistan?), I'm surprised we haven't heard anything about this. If the show goes on, Deep Purple might finally become a household name again (albeit for 15 minutes).

Deep Purple has been given the proverbial shaft by classic rock and AOR radio since 1987's The House of Blue Light. The band, which has made a couple lineup changes (Steve Morse took over for Blackmore and Jon Lord retired giving Don Airey a chance to fill his keyboard) has continued on anyway. I confess, I haven't heard any of their new material. Since classic rock stations are loathe to play new music by even classic rock artists, except for the most faithful of fans, who has?

Should the show go on, an appropriate song for Deep Purple to play would be "Under The Gun" from Perfect Strangers. That's a song that should resonate with the crowd.

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Strong Bad Does Death Metal

If you know who Strong Bad is, then you've probably already seen this one (I just go around to checking it out). For those of you who don't know him, Strong Bad is a costumed wrestler who wears boxing gloves and answers his email for all to see. Its his unique perspective on life that makes it so funny. There's often references to metal and geek stuff that makes it enjoyable for geeky metalheads (How's that for a target audience?). I can't really explain it beyond that so just watch the vid and you'll instantly know what I'm talking about.

Each little sketch is done in Flash so be sure to have the player installed (you probably already have it).

Thanks to Bob for bringing it to my attention! Now please excuse me while I go hunt down some creeping rusty meat.

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