BreakBeatDJ

Yep, there are actually some things I want this year!! Last few years have been thin. And with the higher pressing numbers, you can get online the day after without waiting in line. This year, have to grab the Craft Recordings mono release of Bill Evans, Everybody Digs Bill Evans and the Jazz Dispensary title. Will be at my local at 8 AM for a hang with other vinyl nerds until they open at 9. What you getting Nate? Anything specific?

Oh YEAH!!! I didn't look closely enough and thought there was a box like the large versions. Thanks Eli. That is def better.

Interesting, thanks for the report. When I heard this title the first time I thought it was a comedy about a basketball player, a la Semi-Pro.

I'm okay with the PET slips, but the ratings logos . . . ugh. I'm sure they were never going to do a re-design from the original releases, but I wish they would have, and put the titles on the spine instead of the slips (so you could at least have them on the shelf with no ratings logos). I'd like them more (I've complained about this before, I know, and prob will again. ). EDIT: As @R1s1ngs0n points out below, the above is wrong, the steels do have the title on the spine.

The uvula cam POV.

Instead of new titles in this series we are getting a repackage of old titles. Hmmmm

Yeah, would be fun to see them win it all. Half my cousins (and there are loads of them) are Purdue, the other half IU. Makes for interesting holidays.

Add a guitar and a pretty girl and this is a John Cougar Mellencamp lyric.

@Boilersteel @Veum Looking good . . . hope they don't choke. NC State looks like they're in over their heads.

Thanks so much for all your work on this @raylight. And, I love all this data crunching you did!!!! Amazing amount of work you put in to this. Much appreciated. So, I was top 5 in two games, and Tragic Player in two games.

Same . . . there's one I can not believe I missed.

Great pics. Beautiful family @nathan_s82!! Although @Psycho Bunny seems to have photo bombed your pic. 😂

Interesting final four this year with Purdue, Alabama, NC State: nice to have some dif teams. My nostalgia is pulling for NC State. But my money is on Purdue.

What are we doing bro . . . ? We both know I'm gunna lose!!!!!!!!!! @hal56 after he wins his participation trophy from @Psycho Bunny.

When I beat you all by 3 points . . .

Did I get the fifth one or the sixth?

That’s nothing, all I need are 7 numbers and I’ll have 8 Bingos!!

@LeadFarmer I think we'll just throw gummy bears and not rocks for not seeing this one. I was about to write the exact same thing as @hal56 above and completely agree. In 1969 it was not well received, even in its original release. It's become a cult film, really, based on its silliness, imo. And also, with the early 2000s Mini Cooper revival, it has gained some traction simply because, well, the Mini is really the star of the movie. Knowing your music prefs @LeadFarmer, the score by Q is great, prob best thing about the film. I enjoy the original for the late sixties swagger, but the remake is a much better film imo.

Thanks for this . . . the algorithm has been throwing this movie in front of us daily, I sorta said no, just because, but we'll take a watch now. Thanks Cam.

@Hollywood E Rock hey bud, I corrected one typo and it got unapproved again. sorry.

@Gary K can you approve the above. Thanks bud.

Well, you asked me, so I'll pontificate a bit . . . Imo, it was much easier back then for those with real talent and the drive to be professional creatives than it is now. Now, it is much easier for mediocre talent to find an audience and crowd out real talent. Most of the gatekeepers back then were pretty good at evaluating talent and putting them on a path to succeed (not perfect). A close friend who had a very successful agency and taught me a lot (he was too big to sign me, but we were still good friends) used to say, undeniable talent will not be denied. The system found the talent, the system promoted them, sometimes abused them, gave them the tools, and pushed them out to the public (again, not perfect and there are examples of this not happening). (Was it a racist, sexist system, absolutely, but I'd argue that the discrimination lay more in talent development than talent promotion, but that's another topic). In those days mediocrity was quickly dismissed. Now, every truly talented person is competing with every mediocre talent who can manage, through alternate means (kickstarter, YouTube, Reels, etc), to get something created. But, they, through traditional and non-traditional, promotional channels, find an audience. When the barriers to entry are removed, it dilutes the audience, and it becomes harder for the truly talented to find an audience, and harder to make money. Everything moves to the margins : large studios want safe guaranteed, independents get more and more stretched in what they can offer. The middle, which is what most of us want to see, goes away). But, the whole system has become more egalitarian, and one can argue, and I'd agree, that it has resulted in a landscape where anyone can have a chance (but a 1 in a million one), and that has been great for marginalized communities and I fully support that. But, we are not done yet . . . I have been following AI for a few years, and it is the beginning of the end of the creative class. From the Quadra 840AV (the first real multi-media production computer) in 1993 to now, that 30 years saw the rise of a wealthy, influential, class of people serving all creative sectors, and it has only grown. And that's about to go away in a significant way. No one is sure what will rise from it, but more fragmentation seems to be the consensus. I have not hired a VO person in a year, which means no studio time, no recording engineers, no assistance, no microphone sales, no VO talent. The AI VO generators are indistinguishable in most cases. And, that's only a small part. AI tools for coloring, for script cleaning, etc are ramping up so fast it's amazing. A friend who is a novelist is now writing 100k words a month, using NovelCreator and NovelAI. Most have their heads in the sands about this, or, are in that, meh, we've seen this before, "I read an article" and it said it's no big deal, etc. But we are at a moment of creative evolutionary change, and it's tough to know what will happen. A lot is riding on the NYTimes vs OpenAI lawsuit, that will probably set the precedent for the copyright viability of AI generated content and could be the game changer we creatives need. But it is far from settled law. The WGA contract was a huge win. But, musicians, artists, designers, etc. do not have nearly the strength of unionization that the WGA provides, and there currently are not those types of protections for most creatives. Yeah, so to answer your question, imo, the filters are gone, and that has created a landscape of content that is almost all, virtually all, forgettable, with very little space for true creatives to breakthrough.

Interesting story. Too bad he didn't get it green lit. When I started my career 25 years ago, there was a pretty clear path to get where you wanted to go. It wasn't rocket science. Join IFC, go to conferences, get a lawyer/agent, and then sort of go forward. Now, it's the Wild West. There are so many random stories of how things get made, green lit, options for production, etc. During the pandemic some friends of mine from Tampa built Vu Studios, they now have four virtual production facilities, and are doing amazingly well. I find it boring shooting on those LED sets. But it works, and is convincing. And, anyone can buy one now, the tech (they use a lot of game tech, sensors in the floors and ceiling to adjust POV as the camera moves) is getting to the point anyone can make a movie who can get on one of these sets. I think they will continue to grow, until . . . text to video AI gets better, then, you can make a movie on your laptop with prompts. It's coming.