Saturday, July 13, 2024

Overheard at Booth 1: Cancelled Canciones vs Stevie Nicks

Cancelled Canciones: Sorry, Stevie, but you're cancelled!

Stevie Nicks: Why?

CC: "Gypsy" is a slur!

SN: You can't cancel me.

CC: Why not?

SN: I'm an actual witch with an enigmatic sexuality except for one famous relationship with a bandmate in the 70s.

CC: Fair enough.  You're not cancelled.  But just stick to singing "Landslide" and "Gold Dust Woman"



#CancelCulture

#CancelledCanciones



Friday, July 12, 2024

Overheard at Table 4: Cancelled Canciones vs April Wine

Cancelled Canciones: April Wine, you're cancelled?

April Wine: Why?

CC: For "Sign of the Gypsy Queen" - "Gypsy" is a slur!

AW: You can't cancel us!  We're Canadian.

CC: What does that have to do with anything?

AW: It's harder for Canadians to break into US markets, plus we have a reputation for being SUPER-polite.  It would hurt our feelings deeply.

CC: Well, you're still WHITE Canadians, so it applies.

AW: Aw take off, eh!



#CancelledCanciones

#CancelCulture



Thursday, July 11, 2024

Overheard at Table 2: I Have Something to Say to a Slate Writer

I have something to say as well, Slate writer: "Stuff it"

The world is already far too busy, too much noise, light, chaos, battering our senses all time, incessantly, without stop.  

Putting down the window shade over a space the size of a sheet of paper when you're at 30,000 feet and there is nothing to see but grey clouds anyway is a RARE, BRIEF moment of serenity, of calm, of a tiny cocoon in which we can shut out all the screaming NOISE.

Sure, open the shade for takeoff and landing, because topography can be cool.  You can say goodbye and then hello, but in the air?  C'mon, Slate writer, stuff your bad take here

 

https://slate.com/life/2024/07/flying-is-better-with-an-open-window-shade.html?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us

 

Wednesday, July 10, 2024

Overheard at Table 1: Cancelled Canciones vs Santana

Cancelled Canciones: Santana, you are cancelled?

Santana: Why?

CC: Because of your song "Gypsy Queen"

Santana: It's actually called "Black Magic Woman"

CC: They're the same song, separated by a slash mark.

Santana: You can't cancel us anyway, we're Latino and African slash Afro-descent.

CC: Not that white guy, Gregg Rolie. We'll at least cancel him.

Santana: OK by me.  No me cae bien ese cabrĂ³n anyways.



#CancelledCanciones

#CancelCulture


Saturday, June 29, 2024

Overheard at Table 3: The Decline of Starbucks

https://hbr.org/2024/06/how-starbucks-devalued-its-own-brand?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us

 

Very interesting article.  Perhaps the most interesting aspect is that it doesn't mention coffee, but further supports what I had noticed decades ago, which is that Starbucks does not really sell coffee, it sells an image - the image of "cool" & "hip" 

Starbucks was a Millennial place... and GenXers went there to feel like they were Millennials.  But now the Millennials have aged out and spend more time at home or at work (not in this "third place" as Schultz called Starbucks), and perhaps if Starbucks had originally focused more on good coffee at a good price, there might be something for it to cling to - a core commodity.

But instead, it focused on image (the article calls it "experience") and as the company made more money and strove for more profits, the experience suffered.


 

 

Saturday, June 22, 2024

Overheard at Table 3: Why People Are Not Having Babies

So many scientists trying to figure out why birth rates are declining these days.  They keep thinking that it's lack of finding a suitable mate. I kinda disagree with that, because people throughout history have popped out kids with people they think are complete losers.

Then, they think maybe it's economics.  There might be some truth to that, I mean, babies are hella'expensive, and who wants to be spending one full paycheck on diapers when you could still be dropping it on concert tickets or weekends out nightclubbing, amirite?

What no one is saying is that it might be confusion.  I mean, seriously, who wants to create a human being who, in five six seven eight years, you're gonna have to go through trying to figure out if they're a boy or a girl and whether you should dump your entire life savings and paycheck into genderblockers or reassignment surgery?   'Cuz in this culture, if you DO then some Republican will report you to CPS for child abuse, but if you DON'T then the Liberals will shame you as an intolerant scumbag.

Or it might just be simple Existential Dread.  Everyone sees everything going to shit right now in the world and nothing's getting better.  In America this year the only choices for President is a dottering old fool and a rapist old xenophobic grifter.   Oh yeah ...and we had a third guy with a dead worm in his brain, don't forget that!

So yeah, if I were still of the age to be makin' babies, I'd sure be like, "No effin' WAY!"




Monday, May 27, 2024

Overheard at Table 1: The Greatest Army

The Greatest Army


The greatest army we ever faced?  Strangely enough, it was the army that never came at us with guns or tanks or planes or bombs.  They came at us, babbling about their Savior, and how we needed to stop our killing and learn to love and live in peace.

We killed 'em.  Sure, we killed 'em.  By the dozens.  By the hundreds, but they kept coming.

That was the weird thing.  They kept coming.  Never stopped going on and on about their Savior.

Eventually, though, we did kill them all.  At least, we thought we did.  You see, they stopped coming, so we thought that was the end of it.  But of all the armies we'd ever gone up against, this was the one we couldn't forget.  Couldn't get it out of our minds - these crazy soldiers, always going on about their Savior.

Some of us even starting proclaiming this Savior.  Just a few at first, and then a handful more, and then more.

So, you see, it's almost as though, in the end, they won.  They were the greatest army we ever faced.