#I mean Ken would be a great CEO and I’ve always said it

[loveandthings11]

Jeremy Strong for The Hollywood Reporter 3/27/23

Soooo- Kendall CEO? Maybe, maybe not. Or perhaps Logan is the one who gets what he wants but isn’t satisfied. We’re seeing that already.

[twinge-of-cosmicangst]

what are your hopes for the final episode?

Gonna go by character I guess

Kendall- Kendall has always been a favourite of mine, I have liked him less this season, that’s not me saying he’s been OC or anything, I just think it’s his natural progression now he hasn’t got the moral of high ground over his father. He is becoming his father, he is the epitome of “the cycle” some people think Shiv is most like Logan, some even think Roman is, but to me it’s Kendall, and always has been, and it’s even more evident this season. When Ewan said that he and Logan had a meagreness about them, but the the difference between them is that Ewan tries to be moral, whereas at some point Logan stopped trying. Meaning that once upon a time Logan was a better man, which I think can be somewhat backed up by Connor the eldest being somewhat softer then the rest, perhaps Logan was not as brutal with him, if somewhat absent because of his obsession with his career (remind you of anyone) and then 15-25 odd years later his youngest son is physically beaten by him. I think when Ewan made that “he stopped trying” statement about Logan, the audience was supposed to think about Kendall. Despite his faults Kendall has shown genuine empathy multiple times throughout first 3 seasons and yet in season 4 he grows more and more cold as he literally tries to become his father. So the natural conclusion to this is that he becomes CEO but he is deeply unhappy and his soul is basically ruined and his whole family inevitably hating him. That would be a sad ending for Kendall fans, but it’s honestly hard to imagine another one for him, other then perhaps suicide, which I think is a possibility. So out of those to options I’d guess I’ll say CEO? I don’t know, the other potential CEO that I think could happen is maybe Tom, which would not great for him in the long run either but ultimately not as thematically tragic.

Roman- I honestly have no idea what Roman’s end game could be, I’m not even sure what I would want for him, that probably has something to do with the fact that he has never been one of my favourites, yet I do feel empathy for his character, Logan abused all his children, yet Roman was the only one he physically abused, to be singled out like that must be traumatising. I think he is slightly more likely to get a somewhat happier ending then Kendall (idk why I just feel it in my waters) and yeah he’s not my favourite but I don’t hate him, so I’ll be fine with him getting a neutral ending, perhaps working at Waystar (not CEO) and befriending Gerri once again?

Shiv: I am 99% sure that Shiv will not be CEO “American” or otherwise, I think pretty much all the other mains (aside from Connor) have more of a chance becoming CEO. This is not because I’m secretly a internal misogynist, neither do I think she will not become CEO because of her “Lack of experience” No the reason I think she has no chance is because of how the last episode ended Lucas telling her he can make the “American CEO work” was basically a neon sign saying “Matsson may be able to get an American CEO to work but it sure as fuck won’t be Shiv” that’s just how narrative convention works. Matsson is shady as fuck and it’s been kind of obvious that he’s been playing Shiv the whole time, she is aware of this and she has been playing him too, but she is only aware to an extent because when her mind is so close to the prize, I think she gets a little carried away. It fluctuates but at the moment Shiv is my second favourite character, and what I want for her professionally is what I’ve wanted for her since I watched season 2 and that’s to go back into politics. Connor has always been a bit of a scrounger (I love him though) and Ken and Roman of course have always been in the family business. Shiv was the only one to make a career for herself (yes she had a huge amount of privilege to help her build that career) but still she had a career that was hers not her fathers, not only that but she was a democrat, while her father has a hugely intimidating and influential presence in the conservative landscape, I never see anyone talk about how brave that was (even if it was somewhat to spite him lol) and yet after years of apparent resistance Logan managed to reel her back in, and we saw she was as desperate for his approval as her brothers were. The scene where Logan persuaded her to take her picture with Menken is one of the most devastating in the show imo, she was so reluctant but she did so for a promise of Waystar and Logan’s approval. She clearly had some passion for working in politics and she appeared to enjoy her job. This hope for her is fruitless though because it is the last episode of the last season so in terms of profession, my hope for Shiv would be that she ends up at Pierce, or perhaps goes into business with Roman (could they maybe work better together without Kendall, maybe it would be a disaster idk) I think there is more of a chance that Shiv gets out then there is for her brothers (she actually knows there is life outside of Waystar from 10+ years of a different career) also as she is my favourite of the siblings she is the one I want to escape the most, as I think working at Waystar (living in the haunted house) will end in misery for any of the siblings and I do want Shiv to be somewhat happy. In terms of personal I want Tom and Shiv to officially end it (although I think that’s unlikely this point) I’m not even talking from a Tomgreg perspective, Tom and Shiv clearly make each other miserable (I do believe they do love each other though) and I know them being miserable together is part of the appeal for a lot of people (hand in unloveable hand and all) but I would personally like them to put themselves out of their misery for good (honestly it would be better for their child as well) Speaking of the baby, I do not want to speak of it much because it is basically pointless as a plotline as we’ll never actually get to see the thing (unless they flash forward Harry Potter style “Logan Roman Nate Wambsgans you were named after the biggest sicko I’ve ever known”) I am not someone who was dead set against Shiv getting pregnant (in fact I thought it was a real possibility with some of the hints we got in season 3) but upon finding out that Jesse added it in last minute, it only makes me think the whole plotline is rushed and pointless and if the whole point of it is to bring Tom and Shiv back together, then dear god 🙄

Connor and Willa- These two’s married life seems to be going well (Yay I love Conwilla) and I think it is highly unlikely that they will randomly implode in the last episode, if they do, Jesse, I will Annie Wilkes your ass (For legal reasons this is a joke) but as the last episode is going to be very Waystar centric, Conwilla will probably be minimal, my main hope for them in the final is they get more screen time then I expect and that I am presently surprised, and that they are happy. Career wise it would be nice to hear how Willa’s playwriting is going, and I honestly don’t have a preference whether Connor is going to remain in politics or go back to “ranching” whatever tickles his pickle. What I would like for Connor though is a little, just smidge of affection from the sibs. GIVE US A SIBLING HUG WITH ALL 4 SIBLINGS YOU COWARDS! I know that the sibs care for Connor in their own way, but he doesn’t (he literally said no one loves him and none of them bothered correct him) Not to bring up the Tomshiv babby again but I can’t believe Matsson heard about it before brodad 🤮 the injustice. Please let at least one of the sibs have sweet moment with him. Please 🙏

Tom and Greg- Saving the best till last baby! I do genuinely want the gay art gallery date (real ones know) it is possible if somewhat unlikely. Other then that I do not expect Tomgreg to go canon but I would like them to have a decent amount of screen time (like proportionally the same as episode 8 which would be more screen time then episode 8 because episode 10 is 1/3 longer then episode 8, if I’m making sense) dream would be to have proportionally the same amount of screen time as episode 1 but that is unrealistic (episode 1 felt about 40% lmao). I would obviously like them to end on good terms, and I want them to be working together! I think Tom is a genuine possibility for “American CEO” he has experience, and Lukas may just do it to fuck with the Roy siblings. Matsson seems to genuinely like Greg but even he wouldn’t make someone like Greg CEO, under qualified is an understatement, the markets would freak, but maybe he would settle for Tom instead, maybe Greg persuades Matsson to name Tom (that would be the dream) I do think being CEO of Waystar inevitably leads to misery for anyone who becomes it (to quote Gerri “the job that makes your brain explode”) but like I said it’s not as tragic with Tom, because he won’t have the corpse of his abusive dead father breathing down his neck. Ultimately I would like Tom and Greg to be somewhat ok and working together and remain besties, wouldn’t mind Tom becoming CEO but idrc. If I’m being realistic I think Tom could end things in a really bad place unemployed? Publicly shamed? Getting arrested for cruises?? Lmao the last one is unlikely but not impossible, but I don’t want any of those things to happen, because he’s my favourite character and I don’t want him to be completely miserable, but I can deal with somewhat miserable, he kind of deserves it. With Greg I think he is the most likely out of the main characters to end up in a good place career wise (although again not CEO lmao) but it means nothing to me if he is in a good place career wise but estranged from Tom, so yeah Tomgreg to remain besties is really what I want for them the most (cheesy I know) a little bit of homoeroticism wouldn’t hurt either but I refuse to get my hopes up.

It just occurred to me while writing this that I said I wouldn’t mind if Tom became CEO but that I also said if Kendall doesn’t become CEO he’ll die! That is perhaps a bit extreme. But what I’m saying is that I think that out of all the characters Kendall is the most doomed by the narrative and will have a tragic ending no matter what, and hoping that he doesn’t his somewhat pointless, the only good thing that I can bring myself to hope for Kendall, is that his relationship with his siblings isn’t completely destroyed by the end of the series and that they are still on speaking terms.

[coffeebeannate]

Nate Watches Things: A Saga

Or in this case, one thing. One thing that was far too long of a thing, but such a bizarre venture that I felt rather compelled to put an actual review of said thing together.

Why? Because I can and because others HAVE to experience this..this journey. A nice lil journey called Die Pfeiler der Macht/ A Dangerous Fortune. And I watched it solely because Luca looks cute in Victorian clothes, and I was intrigued by the gifs.

Curiosity has always been such a great human motivator, eh?

And..guys. I just. I don’t know what the 3-4 hours (it’s two movies, and I took a couple days to watch it) WERE, exactly, but they were..a thing? I know that it’s based on a book by Ken Follett and that this production is German. Despite being based in England. 

Oh, and Luca’s character Mickey Miranda, is uh, Spanish. Make of that what you will.

So the summary is this:

A shocking secret behind a young boys death leads to three generations of treachery in this breathtaking saga of love, power and revenge, set amid the wealth and decadence of Victorian England.

And no it does not do this thing justice whatsoever.

Review under the cut. It’s too long *again, two movies here*, and I took far too many screencaps of this absolute wtfery, and uh, it’s probably better suited for a real-time live blog but nah. You can have this instead.

Some images under the cut are NSFW because nefarious boning is a key point in this..thing.

SPOILERS. So many spoilers. This thing is a spoiler fest. The caps have a very obvious Luca bias, I know why we’re here everyone. Hehe. There’s also some triggering stuff in this thing, so be warned there too.

BEHOLD:

So, a point I want to make is that the costuming in this movie is LEGIT. If absolutely nothing else works? Note that the costuming absolutely does.

The opening credits are very nice, Luca’s very pretty, this cap serves purely to showcase that because I’m a very serious man doing a very serious review.

Pretty.

So the beginning is..confusing. We have a girl, Maisie Robinson. (Around 10-13 here?) Her father is very poor and it’s her and her two siblings. He works for a man who is part of our main characters, the Pilasters?  and they run this bank. The head of the bank commits suicide, since they’re having financial troubles and he cannot repay his workers. He pens a note to his young son *under 12 at this point*, Hugh. 

Hugh never finds out about this letter, but anyway. At the moment, it’s 1866. Maisie’s father was one of those employees. Destitute, he leaves Maisie to..raise her siblings, and goes to America.

We never hear from this man again.

Hugh goes to live with his aunt (Augusta/Augustina?), uncle Joseph, and cousins, Edward and Clara.

THEN IT’S 1877 (we jump ten years)

Maisie’s two siblings have died, and she has a daughter, Rachel now. Who is also dying. This movie is very keen on people dying. I’d also like to point out that there is like, endless plots all happening alongside one another, and it took me until mid-way into part two to even really grasp what the main plot is.

The movie has a LOT of bank talk as well. I cannot express this earnestly enough, there is SO MUCH bank chatter. SO MUCH. This thing does not have to be as long as it is but again, bank stuff.

Anyway, the one plot is that Maisie is from the poor area, she’s had a horrible life and has struggled from day one. She’s in a constant battle with Hugh, and they argue a lot. A lot. (They like each other, they met as kids, but they’re from very different worlds. Hugh has money, she doesn’t, but Hugh has suffered as well and basically it’s your normal class struggle social commentary thing).

Maisie and Hugh in 1866, as kids, after Maisie’s father left for America. This is the funeral for Hugh’s father. So that’s the theme I mean.

Anywho.

Back in 1877, this is Samuel *left*, Joseph *middle* and Edward. The Pilaster’s get marched into work like they’re freaking army Captain’s and not just rich ass bankers. Imagine saluting your CEO. At work. Outside of the military. WHERE IS THIS A THING? Maybe this was a thing in Victorian England I have no clue I’ve certainly never come across it in my studies. Ffs.

Anyway.

So while all this is going on, there’s this man that wants to marry Maisie. 

And his name is,

(That’s Rachel, Maisie’s daughter). Anyway, Solly here loves Maisie and wants to marry her. But Maisie loves Hugh, and neither of them realize this yet. Solly is a himbo and we mostly like him, but stay tuned because that doesn’t stick. Sorta. Depends on how-

Nevermind I’ll just keep going.

ANYWAY, more plot.

Here’s Edward again, doing drugs, being gay, and overall..useless. Edward is..Edward is kind of like a person who would make an interesting wall decoration. Fun enough to look at, but utterly freaking hopeless, and useless, and so dumb. Just so dumb. This character is given the substance of ash fault. Kinda like, only vaguely solid enough to be entertaining. Kinda.

I don’t know guys, BUT LOOK!

It’s his good old pal Mickey! And he’s slapped Edward awake out of his drug coma (okay he grabs his face and shakes him rather than slapping but given how much slapping happens in the rest of this movie I think I can be forgiven) and he has PLOTS.

Mostly it’s his dads plot, but it’s a plot. A very devious scheme and he needs our favourite wallpapers assistance!

(Sorry Edward, but it’s true)

So keeping in mind that the ‘theme’ of this movie is bone-and-soul crushing sadness paired with periods of intense chaos and insanity that  you never see coming, our plots continue to thicken.

What Mickey means here, is that Edward’s family denied Mickey’s father what he wanted *weapons deal*, and beat the crap out of Mickey in a carriage. But that’s fine that’s fine Mickey is not deterred! BECAUSE.

*sigh*

So.

OK.

This scene.

Remember what I said about how this movie goes from being incredibly boring to so off the walls bonkers without actually WARNING YOU that it is going to do this? Yeah.

Edward, you see, really does not ‘do’ women. He’s gay. He’s extremely gay. Edward’s mother wants him to marry Florence Stalworthy for idk rich people reasons.

So..Mickey. Uh. Mickey’s solution is..this.

What is this, you ask??

Fuck if I know.

Anyway, no, uhm. This is a brothel. So (not) pictured here (I can’t post the scene on tumblr guys we have a ban) is Edward on a couch across from mask-and-feathers MIckey and this tied down woman, with another woman who is not tied down. And this is Mickey..showing Edward..how to.have sex with women. Apparently. Sort of. His lesson falls very flat. It is not a good scene, Mickey’s ‘instructions’ get increasingly louder, and he at one point makes this noise that sounds like a Joker laugh.

It is...it’s something.

(Also note there’s some extremely uncomfortable, misogynistic name-calling on Mickey’s part here..so yeah).

Oh, and it doesn’t convince Edward. At all. IMAGINE.

Around all this time, the Hugh/Maisie/Solly plot is also ongoing. And that also encompasses bar fighting (bare knuckles boxing and wrestling I think? And gambling)

Hugh has gambling debt we’ll get back to this. (He’s also obsessed with getting Russian bonds into the bank, again, the banking plot losses me a LOT)

So meanwhile, Mickey meets up with Edward’s mother.

But why Edward’s mother, you ask??

Well. *sigh*. Something I didn’t mention earlier is that Mickey likes Ed’s mum. A lot. A lot a lot. Mickey wants to take that woman to town and then some, is a very basic way of me putting it and-

Fuck it. Mickey wants to bang Ed’s mum. BADLY.

(She’s not opposed either, at all)

So their little scheme here is that Ed’s mum wants Ed to take control of the bank, but with the father-in-law alive, that’s not going to happen. So they’re plotting to take down the next person in charge who would succeed said father in law, (Samuel) who is in a relationship with the secretary mentioned above, Michael.

Yes, another GODDAMNED PLOT.

(Samuel is fairly unpleasant like all of these people, so I don’t feel that bad for him. He also kinda treats Michael like garbage, and is called out for this by Joseph later in the movie)

So the scheme here is to get rid of the father-in-law, and get Ed married. Cake walk!

(Also, while ALL THIS is going on, Mickey’s got his own mini-plot about doing these things for his father, the weapons and stuff but we don’t actually find out about the main goal of that whole thing till the end, you’ll see)

Oh, and since we’ve not had a good dose of ‘WHAT THE FUCK’ lately, Solly proposes to Maisie with an honest-to-god Alice in Wonderland party.

Yeah.

Meet the Mad Hatter! He’s a guide, he says nothing. Other people are in costume too, but you know-I have enough caps as it is.

So anyway, Maisie and Solly get engaged, Maisie and Hugh meet up at some point and bang instead. 

And while that’s happening, Edward is convinced by Mickey to marry Florence.

So he does.

Lookit this shit faced smug ass grin.

(Also ahead is Samuel again, and Hugh)

BUT THEN the bank finds out about Hugh’s gambling debts. So he leaves. Taking his cousin Clara (Edward’s teenage sister-at her insistence) to the USA. And just like Maisie’s dad, another man abandons her for the States.

So the father in law is still alive, so! 

It’s murder time.

Perfect wedding time event yeah?

So Mickey murders the father-in-law. (He jumps on him, suffocates him with a pillow, gets caught by Augusta and then they do this..weird ‘tensely make the bed thing’)

Murdered.

And then, exactly five seconds or so later..

Nothing like some murder pre-boning with the dead guy two feet away amiright?

Anyway at this point I was just:

And yelling at my ceiling. Not pictured.

I was a Hannibal fan and I STILL went !?!?!?

END PART ONE.

Part two starts out in 1912, and then cuts back to 1882. So in this messy timeline, note it has been six years since part one. And Hugh is married now to Nora, an American singer, and Clara is older and pregnant. (Father is never determined, but he’s a married man and that’s why Clara didn’t stay)

SO the three of them are returning home. Maisie and Solly have a son, David, and Maisie is depressed and distant, so Solly is the one who spends all the time with David. He’s shown as a legit good dad and it’s quite cute watching them.

(The kids Hugh’s, btw, he and Maisie both know this, Hugh does not, it’s revealed dramatically later but we still have so many plots)

Edward and Florence are childless. Edward doesn’t sleep with her. Everyone knows this.

(At this point I kept asking myself when this would end, I cannot stress how LONG this thing feels at times)

So Hugh and Nora meet up with Maisie and Solly, and they chat and there’s more love plots, more bank plots and a masquerade party where at some point Maisie thinks a little girl at the party is Rachel (who died in the end of part one, sorry!) and there’s a fire and Maisie and Hugh make out and Nora and Solly are both upset and it’s a whole thing.

Samuel now does something of a side business that’s unspecified with Michael, and pregnant Clara is being persued by the only man who might be a good match for her (she’s not keen on getting married. But he’s also..really old.) PLOTS.

And Mickey and Augusta are..still a thing. And Edward being chlidless is becoming an issue. So what is the solution dear friends??

*BANGS HEAD INTO A WALL*

Why the fuck not.

Absolutely flawless! Eddie will NEVER notice.

SO with this plan in motion, Mickey sets out to seduce Florence, Eddie’s neglected wife. He starts in a church, and I have to admit, this one line he gives is quite funny.

“I don’t go to church.”

Cannot begin to imagine why.

Also, around this time is when we get the infamous scene about how he fcked the wives of the three men and then made the guys suck his dick one by one. I didn’t cap that since it’s in gif form, but yeah.

Hugh and Solly and Nora and Maisie are still having their love issues. And there is still bank stuff as all this is going down.

But while on his Florence quest, we see Mickey beat up a guy who was abusing a small boy, and Florence see’s him do this as well and:

He looks so baffled. 

‘Me? GOOD? I really don’t think so.”

She’s also holding a baby, and he gives the infant this face:

“Eugh, what is that?”

He also finds her in church again at some point and comes alongside her like this:

”Sup? Whatcha prayin’ about?”

Anyway, while doing all this, he’s still having some issues. He needs Eddie’s signature for a bank transfer (for his father, his father’s plot is STILL a THING) and so it is time to seduce someone ELSE. This time it’s Edward. This won’t be hard. Edward wants him so bad you could probably see it from fucking space.

Mickey is well aware of this.(I don’t think it’s one sided either, he looks at Edward all wide eyed half the time, but he’s so manipulative it’s hard to judge).

Actually me right now tbh.

So that’s this followed by the infamous gif set.

Edward takes him up on it.

‘Come along my dear there’s nefarious boning to be done’.

Absolutely vital screencap below (which is the most we get anyway and I didn’t cap the line about the freaking signature because fuck plots over nice images okay)

Vital

Anyway Edward gives him the bloody signature. And then Mickey goes along to talk to Augusta. But at this point Mickey is very much beginning to unravel. His goal seems to be more centralized to finishing whatever long ass convoluted job his father has been making him do for the last six years (possibly more tbh) and he’s sort of done with everything.

And Edward see’s this exchange. Le. Oof.

SO! IN BETWEEN ALL THIS. There’s some party where there’s drama and then basically Nora..willing gives up Hugh so he can be with Maisie and Solly just..I don’t even know, single dad for life and all. Edward knows that his family has basically been doing shit all around him, and Mickey STILL seduces Florence. He has her meet him outside that night at two am and they get together, but when he’s with her he kinda has these doubts but she wants him anyway so they bang.

Yeesh.

AFTER that there’s Edward again, because Edward knows shit is up, Mickey goes to a room to grab a bag and see’s Edward there. He tells Edward goodbye, but Edward pulls a gun. Mickey just...drops the bag, tells him to shoot. Edward doesn’t, instead he turns the gun on himself and then Mickey shoots himself in a chair.

Yeah.

DEATH! SADNESS! REMEMBER-THIS MOVIE LOVES DEAD PEOPLE~!

At some point in all this, Augusta goes to her daughter, Clara, apologies for being an absolutely evil mother for her entire life and then the movie sort of begins to wrap up.

Maisie and David were going to leave for the States together, but David wants to stay with Solly, who well DID raise him despite him being Hugh’s kid. So Maisie and Hugh are alone and David lives with Solly and the Pilaster bank has discovered the ACTUAL FREAKING PLOT OF MICKEY’S DAD AND THE ENTIRE BACKGROUND THING. Which was this:

THIS DIDN’T NEED TO BE ALMOST FOUR HOURS, GERMANY.

SO Hugh lets the mob inside. We don’t see what happens after that, but Augusta comes in to tell Joseph Edward shot himself.

Lots of sadness.

So the movie ends in 1912, with David and Hugh meeting up. David never saw Maisie again *she’s deceased now, as is Solly.* they talk, there is some moral lesson or something about love. The goddamned end.

OOF.

SO overall?

I don’t know.

It’s a movie. It has a script and plot and..it was put on screen? The costumes are legitimately amazing. They might be the best thing about this thing. But it REALLY feels like Ken really wanted to make a movie about banking, noticed that’d be boring and tried to make it spicy.

It’s so bizarre. So depressing. So many people are horrible. So many bad things happen. So much slapping, so much weirdness. There’s nothing happy in this thing. Not one. The so called ‘good’-ish ending falls flat amongst a sea of depression and I re-iterate, IT DOES NOT HAVE TO BE SO LONG.

I distinctly recall lots of clock watching at times, wondering how I could POSSIBLY have more to go. It then goes so completely off the rails that you just don’t know what is happening and it’s just WEIRD.

At times that weirdness makes it fun, but overall it’s really not great. I probably would never rewatch it, and I can say that it’s an uh, experience in movie-watching.

A good one? I don’t know. But an experience, none the less.

[attract-mode-collective]

Ready To Wear, Ready To Play

As previously noted, there’s been yet another change in direction for the Attract Mode blog… which I have dubbed Version 2.8 Final CE EX Λ Core Plus Alpha. BTW/FYI. But yeah, been posting on Twitter, a lot. So much so that you may have missed something, so here’s a recap!

Note: was originally going to cover everything tweeted throughout the month, but because there’s so much to cover (and February’s short)… am guessing bi-weekly might be the way to go. Am also going to present things mostly in order.

K, enough chatter: at the very top is another fine example of a Famicom being the ultimate in fashion accessory (via nintendu). And here we have, not designer threads but designer plastic (via gamefreaksnz)...

Speaking of plastic, Sega (or someone who got Sega’s blessing, or maybe not even) made Super Monkey Ball figures? Guess so (via magimacaque)...

I was under the belief that, if I truly wanted to make an impact with the relaunch of the Attract Mode Twitter, I couldn’t just post one single piece of Klonoa fan art, but two... 

And I only have one example of Cuphead fan art, but it’s the one that counts (via jothelion)...

It was Kyle who helped kick the Attract Mode Twitter’s rebirth into high gear, with the reveal of his Nintendo Power covers. So to help replay the favor, I must insistent that everyone purchase the hard copy of RPG_Friends (which I first mentioned here)...

Nothing makes me happier than seeing such a dense assortment of Japanese game stuffs (via peazy86)...

... Yet that being said, I also believe less can be more, plus a nice breeze while playing Secret of Mana is... well... nice (via sixteen-bit.tumblr)

These gamer chairs perfectly embody Japanese sensibilities when it comes to furniture, plus are a total 180 to the junk they peddle in the US (via shmups)...

Time for another excellent toco toco vid, this one features your fave old school Capcom illustrator, and mine, Akiman…

There's so much I love about this interview with the creator of Hong Kong 1997, whose goal was "to make the worst game possible”. Though this picture of the guy is near the top of my list... 

I love these kooky kids, thinking they could possibly get away with  stealing an entire Final Fight arcade cab (via videogamead)...

Yeah, I feel the same way kid (via tvgame)...

"This is Jesus. He lives inside my Neo Geo MVS cabinet. He was there when I got it. He is glorious." (via arcadephile)...

The pathos that is Sub Zero at the bat, in four modded screenshots(via lanceboyles)...

The pathos that is the Kachō interacting with kids, in just three YouTube screengrabs (via gaijira)...

And the pathos that is Splatoon 2, via two screengrabs and the piece of fan art that resulted (via lunaticobscurity)...

Though in addition to pathos, Splatoon is also filled to the brim with intensity (via thewaragainstgiygas)...

Welcome to VIOLENT CITY (via shmups)...

Also, STAY CHILL (via paperbeatsscissors)...

Not that any band in which music is performed via guitars hooked up to Famicoms is all that typical to being with, but this one is most definitely not typical (via miki800.com)...

This "what the hell is going on exactly" illustration has motivated me to finally Wario Land a spin at long last (via it8bit)...

Remember Absolutely Rose Street, the Beverly Hills 90210 meets Degrassi meets Wayne’s World-esque show that was actually an infomercial for the Sega 32X in disguise that I wrote about a little whiles ago? Well here's ad for it (via oldgamemags)...

I'm a total sucker for old Japanese video game mags, primarily ones featuring models/statues on the cover (via miki800)...

Another cover to an old Japanese game rag, this one featuring the very first Metal Gear; I wonder if this slightly cutesy take helped to inspire the Metal Gear we meet in Snatcher (via mendelpalace)...

Here we have a page from an 11 page comic, done in a single sitting, for an event that celebrates various pairings of Solid Snake/Otacon, one that's called Snot Week for whatever reason (via millionfish)...

I want this woman to be my mom (via cyberfights)...

Am obsessed with this image of a man playing Xevious in the middle of a desert that's clearly fabricated and clearly from the 80s (via shmups)...

mendelpalace sez: "This picture gives me anxiety" and I feel exactly the same...

This is comparable to my own morning commute, except for the lack of floating cherry blossom petals and various other differences (via tightenupthe)...

Spring is almost here, which means it's time for a new wardrobe, which really means it's time to get new PaRappa attire (via miki800.com)...

If a glitched Nintendo logo when booting up a Game Boy looks fashionable to you, you're in luck (via gameandgraphics)...

Tho if a glitched Game Boy Advance start up is more your style (via corruptionasart)...

Has anyone received this Mega Drive/Genesis chiptune album on a cart (described as a "16-bit VMU") yet? (via catskullelectronics)

Ever wonder what a 3 part symphony, one performed via 5 different Nintendo DSs and 5 different copies of Electroplankton, sounds like? Well wonder no more (via mendelpalace)...

And ever wonder what an Italian-based, US-born R&B, blues and disco singer (which is how Wikipedia describes Ronnie Jones) thought of video games in the year 1980? Again, wonder no more (via aestheticoftheday)...

The new DDR, which will record your performance and also add snazzy video effects, is my early contender for GOTY 2018 (via @Sega_AM2)...

I will never grow tired or bored of watching this run cycle, ever (via shmups)...

What appears to be a Nier motion study (via sixteen-bit)...

Sakura-ha (via rosscountertv)..

To commemorate the discontinuation of the Kinect sensor (via prostheticknowledge)...

Google Translate took the original Korean & translated it as: "Ittsumi! Maria", which @NotLikeFreddy re-translated as: "It's-a me, Mary-o"...

The medium of video games most certainly has many mountains to overcome yet, but there's little denying that we've made some progress nonetheless (via videofame)...

"I have to go now. My planet needs me.” (via sixteen-bit)...

Cuz it's been a while since I shared a gif from Sin & Punishment (via n64thstreet)...

The SNES & Genesis had cool accessories and all, yet I often wonder what it would have been like if 3D printers & Etsy were around back then...

Pretty much the cutest lil thing you'll see all day is this Genesis CDX hooked up to a 5″ Sony PVM (via decideweapons)...

“'Club Sega during the Snow' is a top-tier aesthetic, I think." (via pr0jectneedlemouse)

I love old VG sound team photos, especially when they double as old band photos, like Capcom's Alph Lyra here (via videogamesdensetsu)...

You all have no idea how happy I am to finally see a decent sized version of the flyer for Deadly Sport... again, no idea (via melvanainchains)...

Here's an illustration of Terry Bogard eating a hot dog (with the rest of his Fatal Fury posse chowing down as well)...

... Turns out, Terry's affinity for hot dogs is somewhat of a thing (via busterwolf)....

... Or, perhaps SNK as a whole are simply huge fans of hot dogs? (via meldowiseau)

I absolutely love this familiar, yet thoroughly refreshing take on Samus (via lady--peaches)...

And nothing new to report, as it pertains to @deimosremus's Metroid redesign, so am just going to continue staring at this some more...

Love Hultén is mostly known for their handheld creations, like the Pixel Vision, though I mostly dig their full-sized cabinet, the Kabin 1...

"Damn Tecmo never let Microsoft live that design down" (via sixteen-bit)...

Cuz I recently began replaying Breath of the Wild...got the Switch version for the gf on her birthday... some fan art (via it8bit)...

I've seen my fair share of comics with Sonic & Tails, but never one that addresses the debug mode from the original Genesis games (via vg-libary)...

Here we have two cats, from the game Jingle Cats, occupied with the fridge (via obscurevideogames)...

And here we have just one cat, from the Sailor Moon anime, occupied with an arcade game that I am unable to identify (via sailormoonreblogs)...

Can you believe the music video for @MissyElliott's Sock It 2 Me is over 20 years old? Crazy, I know...

Speaking of Mega Man, I guess I need to finally check out Mega Man Zero, cuz apparently X goes through some kind of religious conversion or something (via omnilunary)...

And here we have Cut Man, the one we all know (and love) from Mega Man meeting his Captain N doppelganger (via mewymarsher)...

I absolutely need this on a shirt or jacket (via @buzz_clik)...

It's always a thrill, seeing a fighting stick made out of tupperware in the wild for the very first time, isn't it? (via @silva_hime)

Yes. Fighting Layer is that game in which you jump off a folding chair to smash another one on the head of a gigantic falcon (via lordmo)...

Tonight’s episode: PINBALL ALCHEMIST (via tonights-episode)...

Here we have a Tumblr thread giving suggestions on how to access a seemingly inaccessible area of a hotel lobby; my fave, for perhaps obvious reasons, is the ring path/light speed dash combo from Sonic Adventure...

Am kinda hungry atm and feel like slicing & dicing some celery & onions, plus making some Julienne Fries; anyone got a copy of Sonic 2 handy? (via sonicthehedgeblog)

A. thanks to this fan art, I now know you can also play OutRun in Hokuto no Ken PS4! & B. great piece & all, but...still a shame that Alex Kidd is missing (via inspiredfatty)...

I've legit been staring at these rotating NES and SNES gifs all day long (via 3d-bear)...

These photos from the Dreamcast Mobile Assault Tour, circa the late 90s, right before the system's launch are very... and I mean VERY... 90s (via posthumanwanderings)...

"What will your next dream be?" (via 081594)

You know that UK/US reality show Undercover Boss, in which a billionaire CEO disguises himself as the new mailroom guy? Well there's apparently a version in Japan, with an episode starring the president of Taito (via @MMCafe_Prof)...

On Valentine's Day I came across a horror movies blog that presented various horror movie Valentines, including one for Jason Voorhees that references Friday The 13th for NES (via cameraviscera.com)...

Also, for Valentine's, my girlfriend made me pixelated chocolate; the pic does the blue hearts in particular zero justice, which look like plastic toys, but most assuredly are made of milk chocolate...

... And that’s it for now! The rest of February coming up in a few!

[davewakeman]

Talking Tickets 10 April 2020: StubHub! Viagogo! National Rugby League! And, More!

Hey There!

Thanks for being here again this week.

Is everyone good? Let me know!

I know the weeks are likely dragging and the news can be a bit depressing, but I just want y’all to know I’m here if you need me.

If you are enjoying this newsletter, tell your friends and colleagues to sign up by visiting this link.

If you are interested, I’ve set up a Slack Channel and I’m finally starting to figure out how to be engaging in there. We’ve got folks in all kinds of areas like venues, tickets, secondary, and more.

As this week is Passover and Easter, if you are celebrating, my thoughts are with you and your families!

To the tickets!

———————————————————————————————— 1. Can the business of sports survive the coronavirus? 

I have to say that I actually took a walk to get this story in a physical copy because I didn’t want to miss it.

Where my thinking has been the last week or two isn’t so much how things will be different, but how will they remain the same.

I think there are a few things you really have to think about:

Historically, things rebound to something that resembles normal more times than not.

This virus and the financial crisis created by it is highlighting some areas of weakness.

The biggest challenge that folks are likely to encounter going forward will be due to trends that were already evident but folks were not taking action on or were not looking at like declining attendance, the purchasing power of fans, and the need for better marketing and branding.

I’ve been working on a longer piece collecting all of my thoughts, but it is taking me a little longer to get it all together.

We’ve definitely seen that seemingly invincible teams, leagues, and organizations are on weaker footing than we might have imagined…and I think the big opportunity is going to be in solving that problem.

Do I think sports business will survive? Yes.

Do I think everything will be different? No.

Do I think trends that should have been getting attention all along will be the ones that cause the greatest pain over the next year or two? Absolutely!

What’s your take?

2. Viagogo lays off a lot of staff and it is probably just the start of a tough period for a lot of folks:

170 people being put on protective notice for 30 days is, unfortunately, likely the start of a longer more painful challenge for Viagogo. Because if you follow the trends in the Asian countries that were dealing with the coronavirus earlier on, you’ll see that they had shutdowns starting in January and their events haven’t started coming back online yet and my friend, Greg Turner, from China says that it is likely going to be May before things really start to get fully back to normal.

That just means that in Europe and the States, we have had much less aggressive mitigation tactics in a lot of places…so to expect that magically our events are going to come back on a faster timeline is likely unrealistic.

This is one of those things for my US readers should be especially painful as we still don’t have a complete stay-at-home order for the entire country and no clear unified plan for dealing with the coronavirus.

A 50 different state plan likely just means we are going to be struggling through this shutdown.

Why?

Because as long as a significant number of folks in the States are getting sick, likely in any part of the country, people will be afraid and if they are afraid, they are not going to events, concerts, and sports. I think you see this in the examples that Andrew Cuomo uses when he talks about the return of Broadway on June 7.

So despite rosy proclamations from Donald Trump, I think we August or September is likely a more realistic timeline to plan for based on available information and using other countries’ experiences.

Though the National Rugby League is going to try and start back up on 28 May. The AFL is looking at putting teams in zones that could start as early as June…at which point, I could be entirely wrong.

And, the Bundesliga is thinking of doing fan free games even earlier.

Let’s hope I am.

Who should my Bundesliga team be?

3. We still are going to have to grapple with how quickly fans and guests will return:

When we are dealing with something without precedent, we don’t really have anything to judge likely outcomes against.

Lo and behold, we are facing something that we’ve never had to deal with before and so we have no way of knowing what to really expect.

I know that folks are likely to push to get events up and running as quickly as possible…I mean, I’m totally ready for some Premier League action.

But we also have to consider the damage that might be done by coming back too soon with fans in the stands.

I do like the consideration that the Oak View Group is giving to cleanliness as a safety issue and the idea that you are going to have to have some sort of seal of approval in the near term to give folks peace of mind. But I’d also add that while OVG’s CEO, Tim Leiweke, talks about partnering with organizations that ensure hospitals are clean, that hospitals are notorious for being havens for viruses and there are many cases annually of folks getting sick from contamination during hospital visits. This just means I would challenge folks to think bigger and badder…because the opportunities are likely huge.

And, the downside of someone getting sick at a show or game in the near term is likely to be huge!

4. StubHub and refunds stay in the news this week:

How to approach the story of refunds, postponements, cancellations, and doing right by the customer has been one of the things I’ve been scratching my head about for the last week or two.

I know the economics of the ticket business. I was always iffy about the amount of debt that Live Nation was carrying as they touted “greatest quarter ever” or whatever they said each quarter. And, I recognize that the envelope on on-sale dates, restrictions on tickets, and refunds for a while.

Tim Chambers has called it “postponement as a strategy” and I think the backlash on this could be severe.

StubHub is now facing a lawsuit, bad press, and the suspicion that they’ll have to declare bankruptcy…which could really wipe out fans.

5. A few random observations to close out this week: 

I wanted to highlight a few fun things at the end of this one because so many of the stories this week have been far too heavy.

First, one of the greatest PR dunks I’ve ever seen came from the NHL as their coronavirus response is covered comparing to the NBA. The PR person at the NHL that pitched this idea and got it through deserves a huge raise!

Second, the WWE did a crowd less, two-night Wrestlemania spectacular. People watched it. Gronk seemed to be a hit and I was amused because I think the last time I watched wrestling, people still acted like it was real. WWE and wrestling is the most amazing thing!

Third, Amy Kline and her Corona Choir have T-shirts! Amy has gotten a lot of press for bringing her neighborhood together to sing during the coronavirus and now they have created T-shirts with proceeds going to support another member of the ticketing community who has lost income due to the shutdown.

Finally, I’m a resource for your coronavirus break! Besides the shameless plug for me, Activity Stream has put together a great resource with a bunch of different ways you can learn and improve during this downtime.

—————————————————————————————————————-

What am I up to this week?

Check out my blog at DaveWakeman.com and my website. I’ll probably have a couple of new pieces up this week.

Check out the back episodes of my podcast. I’m going to share the audio files of my webinar series there starting over the next few days.

I did a great live podcast with Andy Romero-Birkbeck yesterday on mental health, mindfulness, and sleep. You can get the replay of it here. It was my first live podcast where the audio was shared in real time, but I think it turned out very well.

I’m also doing a new webinar this week on Tuesday about rethinking your ticket business’s strategy after the coronavirus. Folks want more strategy! I’m here for y’all!

Finally, join me and my buddy, Ken Troupe, and a bunch of folks from around the world for a cocktail this afternoon at 5 PM EDT. We are hosting a virtual happy hour. You can make fun of me and Ken, have a drink, make some friends, it will be great! Ken promises me the link works this week.

Please follow and like us:

Talking Tickets 10 April 2020: StubHub! Viagogo! National Rugby League! And, More! was originally published on Wakeman Consulting Group

[mikemortgage]

Sundance: Documentary dives deep into the fraud of Theranos

PARK CITY, Utah — Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney has always been interested in the psychology of fraud and self-deception. So when HBO CEO Richard Plepler and Graydon Carter proposed that he look into the blood-testing startup Theranos and its charismatic young leader Elizabeth Holmes, saying yes was a “no-brainer.”

The film, “The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley,” premiered Thursday on opening night of the Sundance Film Festival.

Theranos had promised that it would revolutionize health care with cost transparency and blood-testing technology that would require less blood. Sporting black turtlenecks, and Stanford-dropout bragging rights, Holmes was touted as the “next Steve Jobs” and Theranos was at one point valued at over $9 billion. Just two years later, amid investigations by the Wall Street Journal into the inaccuracies of the technology, and then by the Securities and Exchange Commission, that valuation went to $0.

It’s an idea that has captivated many in the entertainment industry. In addition to “The Inventor,” which will air on HBO later this year, a scripted version of the saga is in development based on John Carreyrou’s book that would star Jennifer Lawrence as Holmes with “Vice’s” Adam McKay at the helm.

Gibney, who has taken on Scientology and the Lance Armstrong scandal, knew it was right up his alley. The only problem? No one would talk to them. David Boies, the famed litigator, “had terrified everyone,” Gibney said.

“Everyone was convinced that if they talked to us and said critical things about the company, that David Boies would sue them,” Gibney said. “It’s evidence to how the legal system too often works. David Boies likes to say that the law defends the poor, the infirmed, the underdog. No. Most often the law is there to buttress the powerful. And that’s how he was used in this case, to silence the whistleblowers. Nobody wanted to come forward. It was very hard.”

They even tried to get Holmes and had a five-hour off the record conversation with her, but she ultimately declined to participate. So they took a more roundabout way at first, talking to journalists like Ken Auletta who had once written so reverentially about Holmes.

But then, late in the process, they had a breakthrough. Someone inside Theranos gave Gibney and his team a “motherlode of footage from inside the company.”

Footage from company parties and internal interviews, for Gibney, “made the whole thing come alive” and helps paint a fuller picture of what was happening inside this now infamously secretive shop. It’s a riveting portrait of a leader, and of a society that values big ideas and visionaries above all reason.

“I think one of Elizabeth’s greatest skills at least in terms of Theranos’ initiative is her abilities as a storyteller,” Gibney said. “She was able to be so convincing because she convinced herself. She convinced herself that the righteousness of her cause was so great that if they cut a few corners here and there or did a few bad tests that they’d get it right ultimately and save lives. That idea that the ends justify the means? Over time I’ve learned just how dangerous an idea that is.”

——

Follow AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ldbahr

from Financial Post http://bit.ly/2TfbsIo via IFTTT Blogger Mortgage Tumblr Mortgage Evernote Mortgage Wordpress Mortgage href="https://www.diigo.com/user/gelsi11">Diigo Mortgage

[duaneodavila]

My Time In Twitter Jail

It was only a brief stay, and the time of it couldn’t have been better. You see, I go to sleep at exactly the right time for me, but probably somewhat earlier than a lot of other people. I also tend to shut down the computer after dinner and not turn it back on until the following morning, when I awake at around 5 a.m.

That means that there is a period of time during which others are busy defending their feelings idiocy honor on twitter while I’m dreaming of world peace and other happy things. When I finally checked my email, I learned that I had been in twitter jail.

What twits did the twitter gods demand I delete?

The twit was from July 1st, and included a quoted twit of another person gleefully proud of putting two young girls into “fuck Trump” t-shirts. It was sufficiently controversial that Snopes tried to investigate whether it was a real pic. It was of concern to me as it reflected the extreme of anger on the part of certain parents so as to compromise their children by putting them in such a needlessly vulgar shirt.

Twitter demanded I delete the twit, which didn’t concern me. It was already about 6 weeks old, and the lifespan of a twit is a few days at best. I didn’t care, and deleting it raised no problems for me. But what I learned was that I had already served my sentence for being twitter-bad for this TOS violation for reasons that completely elude me. Upon deletion, I was free to twit, having paid my dues to society twitter.

I let my friend Ken know about my brief imprisonment, so brief that I never got to break rocks into stones or even plan to dig a tunnel under the wall. He twitted in support of my freedom.

So Twitter has locked @ScottGreenfield for a rather mild critique of someone putting their kids in “fuck Trump” t-shirts. Remember: this isn’t a public space. You’re in a disturbed person’s house, and they may throw you out for erratic reasons. Good work, @TwitterSafety @Jack

It wasn’t that Ken was a fan of my twit, which he thought was me being my curmudgeonly self, but he similarly found my lock out to be arbitrary and capricious. Not that twitter CEO Jack Dorsey isn’t entitled to be arbitrary on his private platform, but it’s frowned upon by many people.

Ken’s twit was, as his usually are, retwitted by many. He’s got a great many followers on twitter, as he well deserves. He’s informative, illuminating, and far more funny and hip than someone like me. There were also some replies to his twit, which appeared in my timeline.

Scott is a little get-off-my-lawn for my tastes, but if old people are allowed on twitter, some allowance ought to be made for them being old people.

— Filthy Wish Dragon (@wqsaves) August 17, 2018

I’m not entirely clear on what “get-off-my-lawn” means, other than old person sensibilities that aren’t shared by the young set. Maybe someone can explain this to me using words that an old man can understand. I looked it up at Urban Dictionary, but didn’t find the definition helpful.

Then there were the empathetic twits of support.

I follow Scott. Scott’s not always charming. He can be an ass, but who’s perfect? I don’t like his politics. I do like his take on the law, most of the time. I don’t want to live in an echo chamber.

I’ve seen a lot of bad shit on Twitter. Scott hasn’t been part of the problem.

— jozian (@jozian) August 17, 2018

This struck me as more curious. I asked Ken about it, and he explained it to me as nothing more than someone expressing their honest view of another person.

Do you shrink at all from stating forthrightly your view of people?  No.

Well, that’s largely true, and I don’t doubt that Ken has a far better grasp of the sensibilities of digital natives than I do. But it didn’t quite sate my curiosity. While I had no clue who this person is, I didn’t doubt the sincerity of his twit or that he was entitled to his feelings as to my charm, ass-ness, politics* or take on the law, and to express them in a twit. There is no question as to his right to feel as he does and to utter his feelings.

What was curious was the need to Gertrude.** It struck me that as much as people agreed that my being put in twitter jail for a “mild critique,” was wrong, they couldn’t say so without prefacing their condemnation against twitter without first expressing their disapproval, perhaps disavowal, of me?

Perhaps I’m so despised that no support can be expressed without first clarifying their disapproval, lest their following conflate condemnation of the lock out with support for me? Perhaps this was sending me a message that some random person on the twitters feels I’m an ass so I change my entire worldview to seek their approval? Perhaps this is virtue signaling their disapproval?

There has always been a compulsion on the part of some to preface agreement on an assertion with “I don’t always agree with you,” which always struck me as silly, since there’s no reason why anyone should and there’s even less reason why it would matter to me. But this was far a more explicit, if incomprehensible,*** Gertrude.

My curiosity isn’t that someone finds me insufficiently charming, or an ass. That’s bound to happen, as I neither can please everyone nor have any interest in trying. Rather, my curiosity is why young people feel the need to Gertrude. Or, to be more precise, why they fear the absence of their disavowal will bring them disrepute or worse.

As for me, I slept through my twitter jailing, so it ended up not mattering beyond the fact that it happened for such an inexplicable reason. And as most people of my generation will tell you, dear young people, we neither strive to achieve your approval nor give a damn. We hope to pay forward whatever wisdom we’ve managed to accumulate, and leave it to you to decide whether to accept or reject it.

My generation doesn’t need our self-esteem bolstered by other peoples’ “likes.” Your grandpa doesn’t run his thoughts past you for your approval. This curmudgeon sees it disturbing that yours does, and that you feel it necessary to make your generational allegiances clear to your fans at every opportunity, lest they believe you to be of the wrong tribe.

*It’s unclear to me what anybody means when they refer to my politics. As I see it, my politics are wherever facts and logic take me without regard to political party or ideology. I suspect my refusal to be tribal means that I’m in the “other” tribe to young people, who can’t conceive of anyone guided by principles rather than ideology. I think that’s unfortunate. They may not.

**In classical Gertruding, it’s unnecessary to preface an assertion with caveats because they’re obvious and should not need to be said. It may not be obvious that I’m uncharming and an ass, so this may not fit within the classical Gertruding paradigm.

***Expressions such as “you’re an ass” or “you’re a dick” are prevalent among young people, but have no actual meaning to someone of my generation. Calling a name provides no information. Then again, when they try to explain, they usually fail miserably due to their incapacity to express themselves in rational terms. I’m probably being a dick saying so, but who knows?

My Time In Twitter Jail republished via Simple Justice

[ramialkarmi]

Fortune 500 CEOs and top execs reveal what to do in your 20s to set yourself up for an awesome career

If you want to run the business world someday, you need to start building an awesome career for yourself early.

Current and former Fortune 500 executives have given some great career advice on Business Insider's podcast, "Success! How I Did It."

From Sheryl Sandberg to Steve Ballmer, we pulled the best advice they gave for 20-somethings who have big business ambitions.

And if you're hunting for more career advice, be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Acast or iTunes so you don't miss the next interview.

(If you're already a subscriber, thanks! And please leave a review, it helps.) 

Here's the master class episode from top executives on what to do in your 20s to set yourself up for career success. Or read on for a transcript of your advice if you'd rather skim than listen.

 Oath CEO Tim Armstrong tells his kids to be true to themselves, and to be honest with others

Tim Armstrong: To thine own self be true. What you see is what you get. If you interact with me, this is who I am, love me or hate me. And I think being authentic is important.

The second thing is, the mentor crew I have. I have a bunch of advice I always give to younger people, but one of them is to build your personal entourage or board of directors.

I have five or eight people outside the company I rely on. I have one person, David Bell, who used to be the CEO of IPG. He's in our office almost every day. I meet with him every Friday. And every Friday he starts by telling me everything I'm doing wrong overall. For me, it's the most helpful meeting of the week because it always resets me back to, "OK, what am I supposed to be doing as a leader? What's my job? What are those things?” If you're yourself, and you're authentic, and you're honest and direct.

The other thing I've learned from David and people like [former Starbucks CEO] Howard Schultz and [American Express CEO] Ken Chenault and other people like that who have mentored me over time is, just be direct with people.

I did an all-company meeting with AOL and Yahoo yesterday. I got asked if there are going to be impacts from doing the deal. I said, "Yes, there are. That's what happens when two companies come together."

I'm not going to beat around the bush. We're going to try to do the least amount we possibly can, but the bottom line is, that's part of what's happening with the deal and I want to be direct about it. So that directness, I think, helps a lot, and being honest with yourself.

Subscribe on Acast or iTunes to catch the next interview. And please leave a review!

Former Apple CEO and Pepsi president John Sculley says it helps to think like an entrepreneur, and to always look for a better way to do things.

John Sculley: I was always insatiably curious. I still am. I kept observing — when I was working in bottling plants, resetting shelves in supermarkets, out on the trade, talking to other Pepsi bottlers, observing, thinking, asking questions, you know. Why is it done this way?

I think that, while I didn't know what the word "entrepreneur" was at that time, it's exactly the characteristics that I look for when I'm looking for really good entrepreneurs to lead companies because you have to have an inquiring mind, you have to say there must be a better way to do things, and now with technology at a point where everything is possible, how do we turn the possible into the probable?

And it all starts with a passion to do something really well, to solve a problem in a way that's never been solved before, and to have just an incredible work ethic, to be persistent.

Subscribe on Acast or iTunes to catch the next interview. And please leave a review!

Dropbox CEO Drew Houston, who built a $10 billion company in his 20s, says it's never too early to get started and to figure out what you want to be doing five years from now.

Drew Houston: It really helps to start the clock early, and it really helps to think about — again be systematic about learning. So what that means in practice is, I've always found it valuable to ask myself, "One year from now, two years from now, five years from now, what will I wish I had been learning today?" And what would have been a relief to my 24-year-old self is a couple things.

First, no one is born a CEO. This is an acquired skill set, and, furthermore, it's one that you learn on the job. So everybody is a first-time CEO by definition at some point.

Second, just about everything is learnable. I started out just on the engineering side. I had no real business experience. I literally went to Amazon and typed in "sales" or "marketing" or "strategy" and would just buy the couple top-rated books, and that's what I would do on the roof of the fraternity. I would just read.

But whether it's just the fundamentals of business or things like public speaking or being more inspiring or being a better leader, these are all things you can get better at with practice. You should set your sights high in terms of what you aspire to do, but you also have to be patient. It's like playing an instrument. You're not going to be great as a public speaker, or you're not going to improve a lot in five days, but in five years, you might be really surprised at how much you can improve.

...I think the recipe to get into school is, check all these boxes and get ready, get ready, get ready. But real life doesn't work like that.

So instead of getting ready, what you really want to do is get started.

Subscribe on Acast or iTunes to catch the next interview. And please leave a review!

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

[rakenislifejustbc-blog]

Music and Lyrics

VIXX fic || Ken/Lee Jaehwan x OC x Ravi/Kim Wonsik || PG 

Kim Wonsik. People knew him better as the renowned composer and songwriter, Ravi. One of the so many artists that possessed talents in music making. In all honesty, Wonsik was still in need of improvement despite most of his works were always ranked first on different music charts, be it dosmetic or international. He was always thankful for it and had kept himself level-minded; one reason why people look forward to the song he will produce next.

But nowadays, Wonsik hasn’t produced any songs. His agent had requested for a short vacation for Wonsik since he had been working nonstop. One song after another. He was constant in creating new songs for artists and it was becoming unhealthy for him; well on Hongbin, his friend and agent’s view. That was why Hongbin had asked the company’s CEO if Wonsik could take at least a week or month vacation. He believed that if Wonsik continued working, he’ll worn out and lose inspiration in creating hit songs. Wonsik was against it; given that he’s a workaholic person. But Hongbin had a point and the CEO was persuaded by his words.

“You. Forget work and enjoy your vacation. I’ll call you when you can get back, just enjoy.” Hongbin reminded him on the first day of his vacation. Wonsik complained about not doing anything but Hongbin just laughed at his friend, “Exactly. Do nothing.”

What do you expect me to do? Wonsik sighed. It was already a week since then and he was totally bored. The first half of the week, he only stayed in his place playing video games, watching TV, working out and eating. But by the latter part of the week, Wonsik found himself extremely bored. UGH! I WANT TO WRITE! And so he pulled out his notebook, his lyrics notebook, and flipped it open to where he left last time. He grabbed a pencil from his desk and stared at the blank page.

Damn. What should I write? Wonsik cursed himself. This vacation gave me the writer’s block. How ironic. And here it was supposed to help me clear my mind…thanks Hongbin. He closed his notebook and threw his pencil back on the desk. I better get out for some fresh air.

Wonsik freshened up and put on a casual attire for him. A grey printed hoodie topped with a vintage army green polyester bomber jacket, black ripped skinny jeans, and a Core Ox Red Chuck Taylor shoes. There that should do it. He grabbed his keys, phone and wallet and walked out and went to the one place he knew where he would definitely get some inspiration. Hongdae. The way to Hongdae wasn’t problematic since he had a car; the only problem was not to be recognized by the people. He was in no mood to be mobbed by people right now and so the only solution he could he think of was to wear a mask. Before he got off his car, Wonsik made sure that his black mask was put in place. He got off his car and strolled the loud and fun streets of Hongdae in a cold afternoon.

Nari carefully prepared her guitar and mic at her usual spot in the busiest part of Hongdae. She was a regular here and those who come often to Hongdae know her. She has quite a reputation; the petite cutesy looking girl who sings pretty but is actually a ‘thug’. Nari loved the way she was described. It fits her perfectly.

People busily passed by her as she quietly sets up her instrument and mic. Some, the usual listeners, greeted her and waited for her. By the time she was done, she sat on her foldable stool and started strumming. “Good day everyone, it’s me again Nari. Hope you enjoy this original piece of mine. I call it ‘Talkin Bout Love’.” Track 01.

It’s such a strange thing, how did you come to me?

My shrunken heart dreams of a new love once again

It’s such a funny thing, how can my heart rush like this?

I don’t know why but old love songs linger around me without knowing

With your warm touch

A whole different world has come to me

Yes you’re my love, love, love

I think I’m in love

How I give you love just for you

Talkin’ bout love, love, love

I carefully look at you

I smile and walk on this street

Can’t you feel my love, it’s for you

Talkin’ bout love love

Without anyone knowing, my heart trembles

Finally, love has come to me too

It’s such an amazing thing, it’s the moment I’ve been waiting for

With my remaining courage, I’ll go to you step by step

With your warm touch

A whole different world has come to me

Yes you’re my love, love, love

I think I’m in love

How I give you love, just for you

Talkin’ bout love love love

I carefully look at you

I smile and walk on this street

Can’t you feel my love, it’s for you

Talkin’ bout love love

Without anyone knowing, my heart trembles

Finally, love has come to me too

Finally, love has come to me too

As expected, Hongdae has such a lively atmosphere, Wonsik grinned underneath his mask. The soulful beats on every corner of the street, vibrant colors painted on various walls and buildings, people dancing freestyle, and the aromatic and delicious food everywhere. Such a great place, he thought. Even with the lively and inspirational surrounding, Wonsik was still loss for inspiration plus his feet were hurting. He had been walking for two hours. Wonsik took a close look at where he was, he was in the quieter parts of Hongdae. He then decided to enter in one of the bar, maybe he would catch some live band and there he could gather inspiration.

Wonsik chose the one nearest him. LeShinSet, what an odd name for a place. The exterior of the establishment had a modern feel to it, the neutral colors of black and white; but once Wonsik entered, he was welcomed with a more cool and rustic interior. Wooden handmade furniture, a long industrial bar on its right side and a stage platform on the front decorated with hanging bubble lights. The bar wasn’t full nor empty, just the way Wonsik had wanted. He took a seat on one of the tables on the far end of the bar but near the stage where someone was playing guitar.

“Hi, I guess you’re new to this place.” Wonsik glanced up and saw a man with piercing eyes looking at him. Whoa. That was his voice? Such a soft voice for a guy who looked tough. Wonsik nodded. The guy smiled and introduced himself as Jung Taekwoon, the owner of the bar. Wonsik bowed courteously and shook hands.

“You have a nice place here,” Wonsik complimented, gesturing the bar with his forefinger. Taekwoon thanked the masked composer and asked what he would like to order. Wonsik then took off his mask and asked for Taekwoon to just give him the bestseller food in his place.

“Sure thing.” Taekwoon said leaving Wonsik all by himself in the company of music; once the masked composer completely took off the mask, Taekwoon recognized him. He didn’t make a big deal out of it since he wasn’t into celebrities and all but it was nice to have someone popular come into his bar.

Wonsik crossed his legs and comfortably let himself be inside the bar. It had a cozy feel to it and it was nice that no one was disturbing his ‘vacation’. He focused on the live. On the stage was a band playing and in the middle was a tall and distinct guy sitting in front of a mic, probably the same age as Wonsik, singing a famous western song, Lost Stars. His voice was rich and it clearly fit the song. Wonsik closed his eyes and listened intently on the singer. Track 02.

Please don’t see just a boy caught up in dreams and fantasies

Please see me reaching out for someone I can’t see

Take my hand let’s see where we wake up tomorrow

Best laid plans sometimes are just a one night stand

I’d be damned Cupid’s demanding back his arrow

So let’s get drunk on our tears and

God, tell us the reason youth is wasted on the young

It’s hunting season and the lambs are on the run

Searching for meaning

But are we all lost stars, trying to light up the dark?

Wonsik pulled out his phone and opened its notes app; he typed down ideas that his mind produced. He listened, jutting down lyrics that deemed fit with his idea.

Who are we? Just a speck of dust within the galaxy?

Woe is me, if we’re not careful turns into reality

Don’t you dare let our best memories bring you sorrow

Yesterday I saw a lion kiss a deer

Turn the page maybe we’ll find a brand new ending

Where we’re dancing in our tears and

God, tells us the reason youth is wasted on the young

It’s hunting season and the lambs are on the run

Searching for meaning

But are well lost stars, trying to light up the dark?

I thought I saw you out there crying

I thought I heard you call my name

I thought I heard you out there crying

Just the same

Wonsik pressed the backspace. No, not good. Not good. The owner, Taekwoon, arrived with his drink and meal; a mug of beer accompanied with a freshly cooked steak. Wonsik thanked him. He didn’t touch his food yet since he was quite preoccupied with the male singer’s voice who was helping him in writing somehow.Come on brain, work. He took hold of his beer and sipped.

God, give us the reason you is wasted on the young

It’s hunting season and this lamb is on the run

Searching for meaning

But are we all lost stars, trying to light up the dark?

I thought I saw you out there crying

I thought I heard you call my name

I thought I heard you out there crying

But are we all lost stars, trying to light up the dark?

But are we all lost stars, trying to light up the dark?

Wonsik sighed. I give up. He couldn’t do it. His idea was again lost. He took the fork and started eating his steak. At least the food here is good.

CHAPTER 1 || CHAPTER 2 || CHAPTER 3 || CHAPTER 4

[mrmedia]

427 Ken Blanchard, author, "Helping People Win at Work," "The One-Minute Manager"

Today's Guest: Ken Blanchard, author, Helping People Win at Work, The One-Minute Manager

Order from Amazon.com by clicking the book cover above

I figure I’ve got 60 seconds to interest you in today’s interview with Ken Blanchard. If you have to ask why 60 seconds, you obviously don’t know my guest’s work. He’s best known as the management expert and author of The One-Minute Manager, but his latest book, Helping People Win at Work, actually screams that Blanchard is “The New York Times Best-Selling Author of Over 18 Million Books!” I hope that’s just hyperbole. I’ve written or co-authored 10 books, many about business, and I know it’s hard work. How he found time to author 18 million books, I’ll never know. But I digress, and valuable seconds are ticking away.

KEN BLANCHARD audio excerpt:"When I was a college professor, I would always give out the final exam on the first day of class... When they get to the final exam, they should get an A. Garry Ridge said, 'Wow, that ought to be an organization!' We hope to change the way people are evaluated in organizations." 

Helping People Win at Work is a unique concept: it’s a case study written with Garry Ridge, who—as CEO of the WD-40 Company—happens to be the subject of the case study. And this book is a follow-up to another Blanchard book, Leading at a Higher Level. Hey—good news: I introduced my guest in under a minute.

Ken Blanchard Website • Twitter • Facebook • YouTube • Order Lead with LUV from Amazon.com • Order Helping People Win at Work from Amazon.com

Mean Business: How I Save Bad Companies and Make Good Companies Great by Albert J. Dunlap with Bob Andelman. Order your copy now by clicking on the book cover above!

    The Party Authority in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland!

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