Everyone is more than meets the eye.

This past weekend I was back in Chicago to check out TFCON which is the largest fan run Transformers conference. Normally it is housed in Toronto but this was the first year it had landed in the Windy City. While I am not the biggest Transformers fan I have a friend name Ryan who runs Sibertron.com which is a website dedicated to the toys and culture around the Transformers. He worked with me at Clear Channel a number of years ago and now does this for a living, which I think is awesome. The Internet does a number of amazing things, this is one of them. The ability to create a living doing what you love for a tribe of people who love what you do.

While there I stumbled into a room where some of the voice actors from the cartoons were signing autographs and at the time, Alan Oppenheimer was hosting his own table. Alan is a legend in that part of the universe doing voices for He-Man, Duck Tales, The Smurfs, as well as, many of the Transformers you loved as a kid. In the voice acting world his work as Skeletor from He-Man is the one that seems to get him the most adoration and for as much fun as it was to see my friend doing this amazing thing he loves and making a go at it - as someone who worked in radio seeing this was just as cool:

While we are talking about a DYI universe the other thing that came in the mail this week was the Mike Doughty record "Stellar Motel"

The album was created on Pledge Music which is the musical version of Kickstarter, again where you collect a tribe and crowdsource your ability to, as Seth Godin would say, do your ART. Both Mike and Ryan are doing something profound, they are going against everything culture and your brain are designed to tell you to do. Get a regular job, work from 8-5, take an hour lunch, have a 401K, 2.5 kids. etc. Mind you, there is nothing wrong with this if that is all you want to contribute to the universe.

But for most people they want more, but don't how - or are too afraid to start, but here is the trick...don't eat the moon whole, take it on one piece at a time. Ryan had a "real" job and did his site on the side until his tribe told him they wanted more and that he could do it and provide for his family. Mike was on a record label when he was in Soul Coughing and even when he first went out on his own, until he was ready to trust the tribe of fans to go along with him and create an ecosystem where we contribute to the process of making his art.

Everyone has something that is considered their art, this weekend showed me that. Not that I needed much convincing but when you see a friend so happy in the place they are doing what they love you know that this is a thing EVERYONE should do, not all at once, and not to a destructive level but at some point we must take a chance and do what we were designed to do. Is that sell and curate information on cars + trucks that become robots? Making movies about making a record and then releasing that record, getting into voiceover work, buying a food truck, becoming a photographer? Everyone has something. The trick is to let it out for the world to enjoy.

Taylor Swift ruins everything...

WHaT IS THE TRACK 3 PREVIEW??? It SOUNDS LIKE AN OCEAN BUT IT COULD ALSO BE STATIC?¿??! @taylornation13 @taylorswift13 #1989

— Scott Thiessen (@scottthiessen) October 21, 2014

Yesterday Taylor Swift released a new song off her album that drops next week called "Welcome to New York" and later that afternoon released a song called "Track 3." The problem? "Track 3" was 8 seconds of static (or the ocean as the inventive Canadian fan above noted) and this "glitch," as it has been called, was unique to Canada and quickly shot to #1 on the iTunes (beating two other Taylor Swift songs) charts in Canada where it sits til it resets after 24 hours. 

While you could poke fun at the Canadian disposition of being too nice, or having terrible taste in music (Brian Adams, Nickelback, etc) that seems to exonerate American fans as if the exact same thing would not have happen here. Taylor Swift fans are very excited about the album, the songs are catchy - very catchy, she is playing with some new sounds, and Shake It Off has been out for a while.

That formula builds excitement that is primed to boil over. However, nothing attracts a crowd, like a crowd and when "Welcome to New York" didn't blow up the Internet the viral way "Shake It Off" did (as of writing the YouTube video had not cracked 1 million views, while "Shake It Off" did that in an hour) - "Track 3" came along to rescue the marketing machine. 

In the music business everything is intentional (even the unintentional) and a week before an album drop to have a "clean controversy" on every news channel, website, or blog that deals in the zeitgeist is not a bad thing for selling records. In fact, if you are not cautious of any story where the two main characters (in this case T Swizzle and iTunes) have not commented, you should be because that response leans into intent. 

It is nearing the end of October and not ONE record released this year has gone platinum, but moves like this make the goal seem attainable as most fans won't ask for a refund (see Canadian politeness) and who doesn't want to be a part of an Internet meme?

Taylor, even if you HATE her music, is brilliant at marketing in the Top 40 universe and has only gotten better with time. 1989 is ready to go and yesterday proves the web is ready to consume whatever Miss Swift has up her sleeve for Tuesday.

My guess, is that they will bust the date and drop the record on Friday, FYI.

The Bite

I wrote a spec piece for a client that they ended up not using, so I thought I would share. I may or may not write another chapter but, enjoy.

The Bite.

Chapter One: 

There was a din in the city, usually was at this time of year because Artprize had quickly become the most interesting art exhibit in the world. It had done this by taking out all of the barriers to becoming an artist and placing that uninhibited art throughout an entire city with very little in the way of what some might call quality control. But that was what made Artprize, cool. Anyone could have a go at the nearly 1 million dollars in prize money. The prize money, which had started at $250,000, slowly climbed up to what was now a lottery-esque number of 1 million dollars spread out over 10 winners.

Everyone is an artist. Anyone can make art.

The city glowed, honked, and shouted into the late hours of the night as most of the nocturnal art goers gathering into the center of the city at what was known as The B.O.B which was a 100 year old building that had been converted a decade earlier into a series of restaurants and named “the big old building” but tonight artesian sausage and craft beers where not of much interest, what was of interest was a gaunt 20-something with sanguine colored skin and bags under his eyes who was holding court in the center of the parking lot. 

The parking lot of the B.O.B has become the place for performance pieces. In earlier years there were men who painted themselves as amber statues, a replica of Saddam Hussein hung in effigy, the next year a man tried to hang himself in effigy not truly understanding the meaning of the word but hey, it was art. The following year there was a life-size dragon that was able to breath fire and doubled as a DJ booth, and more recently a man who cut himself and used his blood to paint portraits of patrons who passed by.

If you were a performance artist, you got your art installed in the parking lot of the B.O.B if you wanted to win, and this kid wanted to win. What he had done to himself was both shocking and far beyond the “emo-kid” who wore all black and pretended he was sad because his iPhone 6 was the wrong color. The piece was a giant black obelisk that seemed to reach for the sky the surface of which shimmered with its own internal alien energy. On all four sides of the structure there were holes similar to those one might find in the cribs in a neonatal hospital ward sealed with the same sort of suffocating rubber flaps that keep infection from the infants. On this night, that was certainly not his intention.

He called his piece “the bite” and the performance was more cerebral than an overt performance. On the black surface of the structure would be digital photos of the artist looking as if he was suffering from ebola or some other terrible disease and each photo would be more visceral than the next and onlookers would be encouraged to place their hands into any of the 16 holes around the obelisk and hold them there for as long as they could as the man inside, unseen and raging, would growl and thrust himself at the hand holes keeping the terror at a high level and filling the B.O.B parking lot will shrills of glee from the fear of being a victim of the bite. 

Did you know the average person touches their face 5 times a minute? Take a second to take that all in, every 24 hours you expose your face to everything you have touched that day nearly 3000 times a day. It is a wonder we have been on this planet as long as we have, it is like we are just daring pathogens to test our immunity, our resolve as the human race. Well that resolve was about to be tested in a profound way and it started that first night of Artprize.  

Kick Out the Pearl Jams!

Photo Karen Loria

In 1991 Jim Olson and I had developed an interesting strategy about buying music; we would go to Tower Records and they had a spinning rack of new music and we would just randomly pick two of them, take them home listen to them and switch. At 17 years old, neither of us would understand what a POP (point of purchase) stand was but that is exactly what it was.

As I remember the story I picked up Shogun Messiah "Second Coming" which oddly enough wasn't the worst musical buying decision I had made in my life up until that point because I owned this too:

But I digress...

I also purchased the album that would change my music life going forward, that album? Pearl Jam's Ten. Jim picked up Ned's Atomic Dustbin because we both dug Grey Cell Green and while the album was really good at the time, it hardly stands up today.

For me, the instant I put that record on, I knew they were different and I knew I had changed. I liked Nirvana but it wasn't until much later that I grew to understand how amazing those records were...but Pearl Jam was right away. From the beginning of Once to the final note of Release, I have listened to that album more than any other album I have ever laid ears on.

So Thursday night I had the opportunity to see them again and despite being a Ten Club member on and off every year since about 1993, I had never used the fan club ticket system. So I entered the lottery, (which works as brilliantly as most of their fans systems) scored tickets, and invited someone who had NEVER seen them before. Which, is something I had never had the pleasure of doing.

Turning people on to music has always been something I enjoyed because music is, for me, one of most powerful connections the brain can make and the art allows you to experience olfactory delights and create your own meanings in a way that other art mediums do not.

We used to say at the radio station that we were creating "soundtracks for people's lives" and that strategy was born out of the research and interest I have in how music affects the brain. Which leads us back to Thursday night, the 6th time I have seen them:

1992 - Lollapalooza 

1995 - Soldier Field, Chicago

2004 - Deltaplex for the America Coming Together tour, Grand Rapids

2005- Van Andel Arena, Grand Rapids

2013 - Wrigley Field, Chicago

2014 - Joe Louis Arena, Detroit

You can see that while I have not seen them often, I have been very fortunate to see them in some very cool places. Thursday was no different. Despite having been to Detroit 12 times the band had never played "the Joe" and right away that set the tone for the night. The crowd was amazing and after opening with "Release" and "Oceans" you just knew it was going to be a special night. 

I took my friend Julian and I would say about 3 songs in I could see that switch that happens to people who just fall in love with these shows. That isn't to say I have not seen a lot of great shows, I have. But the community surrounding this band is so special and so fun to be around it makes these experiences ones that you want to remember forever.

Last year I was at the Wrigley show with one of my dearest friends Brian. The two of us had been to the debacle that was the Soldier Field show where Pearl Jam attempted to fight off Ticketmaster and they made it so impossible for PJ to create the experience for their fans they wanted, the protest barely lasted a year - so perhaps Brian and I are cursed.

This time around a thunderstorm sat over the top of Wrigley Field and delayed the show (after it had started) by nearly three hours. In those hours at nearly 90 degrees under the ballpark everyone was so well behaved, we shared beers with people we just met, passed the time and prepared for the insanity that was Pearl Jam past midnight in the Windy City. My guess is that if that were Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, or Katy Perry - they would have just cancelled it.

My point is that it is rare to see magic in real life and I feel this band is magical in the community that surrounds it. 

That magic comes from the music, it comes from the band, it comes from the energy, and perhaps is comes from things like putting "Stranglehold," "Detroit Rock City," and "Kick Out the Jams" in your setlist when you are in Detroit. They don't need to do those things, but they do because it adds to the experience of the night. 

Or the next night in Moline where they play "No Code" from front to back, those are things that seem to be missing from most "modern" artists which is a shame. Because for a band in which all its members are at or near 50, there is no logical reason that they need to invest that much into the fan base. The show would sell out without all of the extras, but the extra is what makes it magical, the magic is how you get a fan base for over 23 years, the magic is why you remember. 

What is the most magical thing you have experienced?

The UFC has a Mike Goldberg problem

I just want to apologize to everyone at FOX and elsewhere for my momentary lapse of reason Sunday night

— Mike Goldberg (@MFG16) October 14, 2014

Sunday veteran UFC broadcaster Mike Golberg made his debut with the NFL arm of the FOX broadcasting family, to say he fumbled would be far too easy of an analogy. Instead, I would say that Mike took the opportunity to show why the UFC as a product is still a long way from being a product that can scale to the same level as the NFL.

There are obvious reasons that the UFC will never match the NFL in terms of dollars, scale, or a fanatically following that teams enjoy. But Dana White hasn't really kept it a secret that this is indeed what he has wanted to do, enjoy this quote from June of 2008:

"Remember that I told you this: in the next five to eight years, this thing's going to be the biggest sport in the world -- bigger than the [deleted expletive] NFL, bigger than Major League Soccer, bigger than World Cup soccer or whatever the hell they call it. Bigger than anything. So remember I told you that."

Six years later and the UFC is not even bigger than World Cup soccer, which isn't a problem for their business plan. As was previously discussed the FOX Sports 1 deal changes the way in which money comes into the organization that allows them to have events that we would not call "blockbuster." That said, if you want to be "bigger than the NFL" you cannot have one of two broadcasters come unglued on Sunday afternoon:

Fox's Mike Goldberg just said of a pass Teddy Bridgewater threw, "The intended receiver was Golden Tate." They're not on the same team, Mike

— Michael David Smith (@MichaelDavSmith) October 12, 2014

While this is one of the kinder tweets about his "ham-handed" debut in the National Football League, none of the tweets deserved this response from a professional broadcaster:

The tweets have since been deleted from Mike's account and ironically in response FOX has removed Mike from the Vikings broadcast this weekend against the Bills. In 2014 there are three things everyone needs to understand, the Internet is forever, YOU are your brand, and most importantly never, ever, feed the trolls.

Was Mike's play-by-play great? No, it wasn't even good - it was terrible. That could be for a number of reasons I don't need to get into. What needs to be said is that Mike Goldberg is not Dana White whose foul-mouthed tweets have become as much his brand than his lack of hair. Mike Goldberg is the straight-laced face of the organization, that is his brand. So, when he gets on a MUCH bigger platform than a UFC broadcast and fails, people notice. That isn't to say you cannot fail, because failure is the best teacher. What you can't do is damage your brand for the sake of your ego, own your mistakes and move on. It was your first game and while there are expectations of what an NFL broadcast should look and sound like (starting with understanding who is on what team) there is certainly some room to learn and grow.

But Mike won't and shouldn't get that opportunity. FOX doesn't need him to do those broadcasts, the UFC would have liked the platform but there are many qualified broadcasters out there that could handle the calling of a game like that. Mike couldn't handle the spotlight, which is interesting since calling sports is what he has done for his entire career so my hope is that he can learn because melting down like he did on the platform he used, makes it really hard to pitch the UFC on the same level of the NFL, which is exactly why the made the deal with FOX in the first place.