Name:Lazar Country:United States State:Florida Metro:Sarasota Gender:Male
Interests:Philosophy; psychology; sociology; just about anything from Jello Biafra or Mike Patton, Dresden Dolls, Ministry, Down, Tool, A Perfect Circle, Nine Inch Nails, and whatever music will wake up the "happy consumers;" George Carlin, Bill Hicks, Eddie Izzard, Bill Maher, the Marx Brothers, Ron White, and various other sources of humor; anime (Hellsing!); martial arts (especially ninpou); and spreading the love. Expertise:Being a procrastinating student, a Gothic Hippie, and being boring in a general kind of way.
This video has been getting around rather quickly, but I felt like sharing it anyway. I always tell people that Lady GaGa is successful because she is a good business woman. This video not only demonstrates that, but also demonstrates that Stefani Germanotta is good at more than marketing.
Basically, she changed everything. She kept getting compared to Norah Jones, but you know what? Norah Jones doesn't sell anymore. So she changed absolutely everything. She changed the way she looks. She changed the way she sounds. She changed the way she markets herself. As far as everyone else is concerned, she changed who she is. And that is why she is so successful. Lady GaGa knows how to run a business.
This is what it takes to make it in the music industry as a pop artist. It used to be that labels would dispatch A&R agents to discover talent and the label would mold them into something more easily marketable. Now, with labels becoming increasingly redundant, they just can't make that kind of investment anymore. It is up to the artist to prove that they can do their own A&R. They have to develop themselves, market themselves, invest in themselves, and create --out of nothing-- their own fan-base. Only then will a label even take a glance at them.
Stefani Germanotta did that.
And that is why we have to hear half of her album on the radio day in and day out.
You thought the anti-Obama crowd (ie: the tea baggers, the birthers, the deathers, and on and on) was crazy before? Well, they are well on their way to going hostile. Already, there are a myriad of reports of assaults by anti-Obama protesters at demonstrations. But now, they are getting Biblical. The anti-Obama crowd have taken on a new slogan, Psalm 109:8, which reads: "Let his days be few; and let another take his office" (KJV). This has been reported on by the Christian Science Monitor, as well as Rachel Maddow. She talks about it later on in the clip, starting around three-and-a-half minutes, and follows it up by talking with Frank Schaeffer.
As far as I can tell, this is all because Republicans hate Senor Al Franken. Republicans always slammed Franken, constantly labeling him as a "far-left loon". They did everything they could to smear him, including Photoshopping his head onto age regression porn. They tried their best to keep him from being sworn into office by encouraging his predecessor, Former Senator Norm Coleman. to refuse to step down. Now, they won't even take Franken's side against rape.
Why are Republicans taken seriously? As far as I can tell, good marketing. Because what the hell have they actually been doing other than taking every conceivable position -- and apparently, inconceivable position -- against the Democratic majority?
So now I am a full-time student with a full-time job who is also trying to help start a band. Apparently, I don't have free time anymore.
I am attending the International Academy of Design & Technology at Tampa in their Bachelor's program for Recording Arts (ie: sound, in general). The school works in ten-week terms with each class meeting once per week in five-hour blocks. This term, I have four classes, but one is in a ten-hour block, yet is not worth twice as many credits. So I have class Wednesday from 6pm-11pm, Thursday from 1pm-11pm, and Friday from 8am-6pm.
This last Tuesday, I started work at Spirit Halloween, working from about 9am-4:30pm. I get two days off per week. Guess what days those are? Yeah, the two days I spent at school for ten hours, with an hour's drive each way.
Then there is the band, which is just a guitarist, Ryan, and I at this point. We have been meeting once per week in a three-hour block, renting the time and space at a production studio built into three storage units. May have to meet more often.
And really, if I do well in recording arts as a career, it will basically be like this. Especially as a producer, engineer, etc. for music, because as one of my instructors can testify, they don't get sleep. So yeah, no spare time, really. Heh. And I thought I was tired all the time before.
So, did you think Al Franken would be such a great model for senators?
"I got to witness something really special. About a dozen tea party activists had staked out Sen. Al Franken's booth, and confronted him loudly when he arrived. But within minutes, he'd turned an unruly crowd into a productive conversation on health care. The discussion went from insurance reform, to the public option, to veterans benefits, to cap and trade. He made a few laugh and even told a touching story that moved a few to tears. A whole lot of common ground was found." -- Dusty Rice
