The first ever episode of The Zach Bussey Show! Some technical glitches, and sound irregularities… but we’ll get those worked out! @MegButton and @ZachBussey discuss everything from the launch, to 50 Shades of Grey, to Madonna and Lindsey Lohan!
Follow on Twitter: @zachbussey @megbutton @ZachBusseyShow
Find the show on iTunes by searching ‘Zach Bussey’
Or just play the show from here!
Podcast: Play in new window
So this is one of those posts where you might read and go… ‘Oh tough life you lead there,’ while muttering under your breath ‘dick’. Quite frankly, I won’t blame you either. I do my best to limit the number of these kinds of posts though because I know that the rest of the bloggers cover these kind of things ad nauseam. It’s actually not common for me to go a ton of events like I have in the last week – believe it or not, I’m a total introvert and the thought of going out is often a huge debate in my mind. Most of the time I’d love to just sit at home and stare at the wall.
But, considering I’ve been making a concerted effort to try and be more social I decided to pack everything into a week and see how I responded. Obviously, for an introvert, this was like an Iron Man run – without the health benefits. Yes yes, again ‘tough life’ to go out and celebrate daily. I get it. But if you’re in my mind, you’d understand the actual difficulty in this. I won’t get into any more detail on it, but I promise you the trepidation I felt is staggering.
Starting last Thursday with the Chivas 1801 party – an event packed with a crowd as eclectic as the guest hosts: Wendel Clark, Kevin Brauch (the Thirsty Traveler), CBC Dragon’s Den’s Bruce Croxon, Jamal Magloire and others. Learned that I really like Scotch Collins’, maybe it even becomes my signature drink! Maybe. It was a fun night though, and they really treated guests very well!
I also was happy to launch The Zach Bussey Show on Tuesday, at 6PM. Broadcasting live from Shoeless Joes Spadina. The show was a little nerve wracking as I’m not used to doing a show from a live location like that, but we got some good feedback all around and ways to improve… and then the after show party was intense. Too much vodka! Thank you to the fine folks at @SjSpadina for that hookup!
Then Wednesday, I took a few friends to the Samsung Galaxy S3 launch party… hoping for a great event (maybe I was trying to impress my company a little bit) and instead got a sparsely populated event with no benefits/fun in sight. Having been to past Samsung events, I was hoping for the same great time that they had previously put on… especially considering the marketing going into promoting the phone… but was not at all satisfied. There was no bar (not even a cash bar), there was no food (except for a handful of candy), there was no great experience which connected me with the phone. I don’t need anything to be free I’m not that much of an asshole, but god damn make sure I can buy a drink or a sandwich while I’m there! Disappointing. And extra disappointing because I clearly could not show my company a good time there.
So then we get to Thursday, ARD’s Stay Foolish event is on (which I opted not to go to) and instead went to the Stoli VIP event at Airship 37. Which proved to be a lot of fun… great people were there (which if you didn’t already figure out, great people make great events) and the Stoli vodka was flowing… and boy did it flow. Buried the hatchet with a long time rival, met beautiful women, listened to great music and had excellent conversation… But I clearly did not monitor my alcohol consumption… There’s a 1 hour window where I actually don’t know what exactly happened. All I know is I woke up, feeling like murder, reading the drunk FB messages I sent to girls and friends (oops…) and wondering where the hell my phone was. Then I found it with some new modifications…
Joy.
It still works fortunately… and then I found the drunk texts (uhh and sexts) I sent… to sometimes the wrong people and sometimes not the wrong of people. Faaacccckk. But I guess, maybe, that’s the sign of a good night? That or the random phone number I found written on a piece of paper… or the text (and sext) messages I received back.
PS. Blackout drunk sexting is about as hot as blackout drunk sex… it just doesn’t work. Case in point, one of my sexier messages read “rizz tochuahh youru blic heherhe”. Can’t fault me for trying can you?
That said, the Stoli party was probably one of the better parties I’ve been to lately and that’s the only reason I went, as the kids say HAM. (And for the old people who read my blog, errr… probably only my dad and maybe mom, though I’ve advised her not to, HAM is Hard As A Mother Fucker.)
In summary, yes I’m an asshole who just told you about the events I went to. But maybe there’s some vicarious living to be done? Oh and a lesson we all know, and all break from time to time… but after 1AM, put your phone away for the night!
UPDATED BELOW
There’s only about a half dozen shows on TV that I like. Which means when I want a visual media fix, I usually turn to movies. However, movies are a real investment in time… 90 minutes while wanting to unwind before falling asleep is impossible. Which left me with a decision, watch crappy shows or find something else to watch… thus I turned to YouTube. YouTube for a while now has been the place I go to to watch great content that I really don’t have to worry too much about if it’s going to be good or not. Anything under 10 minutes is going to have at least something decent, and if not, it’s not a huge loss. And then I got into web series, and needless to say I got hooked. In the last year or so there’s been about 20 or 30 great web series that I watched consistently and every time I show people, they instantly are hooked. If you haven’t watched any before, you’re in for a treat because I’ve picked out the best CURRENT web series in a variety of genres! From comedy, to horror, to sci-fi, action and political… here is what you need to be watching!
Video Game High School
VGHS caters to the gamer nerd in all of us! It’s an action comedy (albeit hokey comedy), with a great line up of characters including a current crush, Johanna Braddy and Zachary Levi (From Chuck). It also features Epic Meal Time’s Harley Morenstein as the school principal and some other cameos. Created by Freddie Wong and Brandon Laatsch, it’s really creative and the special effects are fantastic! 9 Episodes total.
The Silent City
When an unexplained event wipes out the majority of the human race, the survivors are thrown into a chaotic world where survival is the name of the game. This series is just about to start, and I think it looks fairly good. It’s been generating a lot of buzz online, so I’m hoping it delivers. Entirely funded via Kickstarter, the web series is sure to show what people are capable of with an idea, passion, and just a little bit of money. I’m hoping this will be great.
Husbands
Husbands actually started late last year but is going into it’s second season soon. It’s the world’s first marriage equality comedy centering around two gay men, Cheeks and his no-longer-closeted boyfriend Brady as they wake up hungover and married in Vegas. The episodes are very short (under 3 minutes), but the writing and directing team is fantastic, with members having credits on Will and Grace, Friends, Buffy, Game of Thrones, Torchwood and more! It’s actually really funny and they pack in a lot in that short time.
Sync
Sync is an science fiction-action web series set in 2025. With the hero being the first computerized human with incredible intelligence, the threat of self awareness will always play a role. Its very gritty, and very good at keeping you entertained. My only complaint is the posting timeline – they post one episode a month, but they are a good 10 minutes each. With 4 episodes now posted, you can get a nice long fix of Sync while you wait for the next episode to be delivered!
Burning Love
Burning Love is for the reality TV/Bachelor fans. It’s a comedy/parody of shows like The Bachelor, but is clearly done with some love, and a ton of laughs. It’s actually produced by Ben Stiller and stars Ken Marino as the bachelor, a firefighter looking for his soulmate who isn’t afraid of robots. Also tons of cameos include Ken Jeong (Mr Chow from The Hangover), Kristen Bell and tons more! The series is 5 episodes in and is really good. I’m a little surprised that with the names attached to the project it’s not getting more attention. But it’s fantastic!
Event Zero
Event Zero has now been fully released, but only just recently (has under 1000 views!). It’s a drama-horror web series which connects the lives of seven different people caught in an event bigger than their lives. A train derailment sets off an event – Event Zero, which is about to change the world… and it ain’t gonna be pretty! It’s a really cool series and I definitely think most people will enjoy it. Visual effects are lacking, but the story does not.
The Council
The Council is a political web series… well sort of. It follows three different 8th graders as they go through the process of getting on to student council. The editing is incredible, the interviews are flawless and the production is perfect. The unfortunate part is the entire series is only 3 episodes, (3 minutes each). But the entire project was release in April, so you can view it in it’s entirety now!
UPDATE: Canadian Series: Suburbia!
A 4 episode dramedy filmed here in the GTA is about to launch. It looks to be a very well done web series that from the teaser could be pretty enjoyable! The series by independent filmmaker Miguel Barbosa is PG rated, and follows a group of teenagers in the days after prom. The summer before university/college is all about change. Oh, and he managed to make Oakville look like total paradise!
I have some news to share… back in November 2011, @ValTorontoGal and I decided to start up a weekly live web radio show and podcast – Talk Back Show with Zach & Val was formed. Over the course of several months, we regularly did a live show for our audience covering everything from blogging, sex, porn, politics, music, news, pop culture, social media, fashion and everything else in between. The show was a major hit and we saw audience numbers grow significantly to a point where we partnered with Dentyne to act as spokespeople. Unfortunately, by March our schedules had changed and we weren’t able to keep up with the workload (believe it or not, there’s a lot of work that goes into these things!). So we decided to hang up the mics and call it a brief success, learning experience and something that was a lot of fun.
However, while the show had ended, I had full intention of one day bringing it back and really building it into something big. But for that to happen, I needed to change how I ran the show. After talking with several people who were fans of the show, I learned the demand was there to bring it back – and with some help, it was going to be much bigger than it was.
So without further ado… I’m thrilled to announce that the show is coming back to your eardrums on Tuesday, June 19th! Both the live show and the podcast will be available for your listening pleasure. Now with that being said, there is a slew of changes I’m excited to announce!
1. Well, Talk Back Show isn’t accurate anymore… so the show is being renamed. In a move that’s entirely self serving, The Zach Bussey Show is the new name of the show. Oh, and we’re already on iTunes. Just search Zach Bussey and subscribe now!
2. I think everyone is going to be happy to hear this… the one and only, Canada-wide trending tweeter and party host pro, Meg Button is going to be joining me each week live! After she guest hosted on Talk Back Show, the audience response was “MORE!”, and so you shall have it! I’m really excited to have her on the show and know that having her there is a huge win already!
3. Here’s a new and exciting element to the show… we’re going to be broadcasting LIVE each and every Tuesday from Shoeless Joe’s at Spadina and Bloor! Yes, the great people at Shoeless Joe’s have invited us to take over some of their real estate to broadcast the show from. What’s that mean to the listener? Well, rather than sitting at home listening, why not come in and interact with the show live on location! We’ll be connected up to a few TVs, so any clips we show, you’ll see… as well as in studio guests (and boy do we have some exciting live guests.)
4. We’re changing the time! When we used to broadcast 8-9PM, we often conflicted with Leafs and Raptors games. I don’t want to do that because I know the importance of sports in this city, and quite frankly, Meg Button doesn’t want to miss any games. So, the live show will be from 6-7PM.
5. The ‘after show’ is an idea Meg Button had, and we’re going to run with it! For people who come down to see the show live or come after the show, we’re going to be recording an after show which will be all about you and your feedback. We might also have some hookups, free food, drinks etc for those who come down. You never know what might go on!
There’s a bunch of other things that are changing/going to happen… but I’ll leave some of it without details for now but tease you with the promise of other cool shit!
Next Tuesday at 6PM tune in LIVE right here on my site. The link will be ZachBussey.com/show or if that’s too hard to remember, TheZachBusseyShow.com.
For the last month or so, it’s all been about Euro 2012 for me. The quadrennial event is second only to the World Cup in terms of Football amazingness. In a time where nations all over Europe are dealing with economic disasters, the Euro provides some much needed relief from all the bad news that’s plagued the European Union over the last few years. Well, at least in the hype leading up to it. National pride is built up leading to the Euro, and can be crushed in only 90 minutes. It’s what makes it one of the most exciting events in the world.
With the opening match being played tomorrow at noon between Poland, one of the host countries, against Greece, the unlikeliest of winners in Euro history, are unlikely to repeat any of their former success in this years competition. There are simply too many good teams in the fray to make it possible.
Germany, are clearly the team to beat. With an offensive capability paired with the strongest defense in the Euro, the smart money is being placed on them to take home Euro glory. Can anyone stop them? If so, is it the Netherlands, or someone else?
England, a perrenial favourite among many Canadians who don’t really follow the sport, are unlikely to finally come together, despite the talent, to go anywhere significant in the competition. Wayne Rooney on a two game suspension for games against France and Sweden, makes the possibility of them going out early a true reality.
Italy, the team I back, is surrounded in controversy right now over match fixing. However, in years past (82 and 2006) when similar controversy was around the club, they went on to win it all. So perhaps it springs the under-performing 2010 World Cup team to greatness? Barzagli may be injured, and Balotelli may have a slight issue as well, which complicates things. Then when you think about it, who on the young squad is going to score for this team?!
Spain, World Cup winners in 2010, have lost David Villa to injury and that may be enough to derail their chances in 2012. The role of Villa on that team has been so crucial, timely goals, leadership and great play with and without the ball will leave the Rioja at a major disadvantage for playmakers.
France could make a deep run this year. Unlike in recent years where team unity has always been an issue, this team is different. It seems to have far more desire to win. With Ribery coming off an impressive Champions League game, and a lot of bad influences removed from the team, they could silence the critics.
The Netherlands have too much talent not to make it out of the group stage. Van Persie is insanely dangerous and the entire team is working like a well oiled machine. Perhaps their only problem could be egos…
Then there’s Portugal, the team everyone wish would perform better. Mostly to watch Ronaldo play with the ball. The team struggles with overall talent and instead relies on offence to make up for the serious holes in their defence. In a group with the Netherlands and Germany, unfortunately we won’t see them play any more than 3 games.
Two Line Team Expectations for the Group Stage
Croatia: Won’t move out of the group stage in a group with Italy and Spain. Will win one game against Ireland, but just barely.
Czech Republic: In a softer group, but won’t make it out of the group stages on goal differential. Greece and Russia will be stronger, however they may be able to create some drama with a tie.
Denmark: Denmark is a strong team, but I feel got put into the group of death with the Netherlands, Germany and Portugal. Should play tough, but fall short and not win a game.
England: Without Rooney for the first two games, may not be able to score the goals to get through comfortably. France will win the group and they should get the second position beating out Sweden and surely a Ukrainian side.
France: With a united team and the benefit of a suspended Rooney for their England match, they should be able to comfortably make it through the group stage. Hopefully, past infighting doesn’t rear it’s head again though.
Germany: Will get through on top of their group with wins over all three of their opponents. Expect a firefight between them and Portugal.
Greece: In a softer group, I have expectations that they will make it past the group stage. Come to the Danforth for the best Greek game experience in the city!
Italy: The Italians have proven they work best when controversy surrounds the team. With 2010 fresh in people’s memories, expect them to come out swinging and at the very least make it through the group stage in 2nd.
Netherlands: They are in a very tough group, but have the success of 2010 to build upon. Winning two of their three games, they should easily make it through.
Poland: The only thing Poland has going for them is they are the host. Let’s just hope Polish police and officials can keep the racism out of the stadiums – there’s no place for that.
Portugal: Ronaldo needs to be a magician if they want to get out of this group. I’m not even sure if they can win a game – maybe against Denmark.
Ireland: Oh, Ireland. Ranked bottom of the barrel, let’s just hope for a respectable showing.
Russia: When the hell did Russia become part of Europe? A fairly strong team should see them through the group stage.
Spain: Without David Villa, questions surround the teams ability to perform at peak level. However, with their defence and goalkeeping, they’ll have no problem making it thorugh the Group Stage.
Sweden: Is this Sweden’s year? It could be if things go right, however I still think they come in third in the group.
Ukraine: What I said about Poland goes doubly for the second cohosts regarding racism. I hope for a decent performance from the team though.
Has anyone else noticed how ridiculously sensitive we’re all getting these days? It seems anything somewhat controversial sets off the social media community into fits of rage usually reserved for people ditching babies in stairwells and eating peoples faces in clear acts of zombieism. Perhaps this lack of any kind of sense of humour is proof positive that the zombie apocalypse is upon us… people are overriding their humour function with madness.
The latest culprit/company to receive the zombie socialites smash down their door and eat at the brains behind a twitter account is @ASUS, who at Computex 2012 in Taiwan, tweeted out a picture of their latest transformer computer thing from behind, while a (clearly attractive) model stood beside the new product. The tweet (which has since been deleted):
The social media zombies attacked it for being sexist. The company apologized. They issued a statement. They backtracked. And the zombies raged on, their thirst for social media brain unquenched. GRAWAWRRRRR.
The reality is the tweet is MAYBE in poor taste for a computer company. That’s it though. It’s not sexist. It’s not setting women back. It’s not doing anything beyond trying to be funny. We have a woman who is posing beside a piece of technology, not because she has anything to do with the development of the product, but because SHE IS HOT. She’s a model and she is nice to look at – from all angles. And we have a dude behind the camera who is commenting on the scene.
But the rage is insane! Okay, look if the guy had tweeted “I’d love to put the new Asus blahthing on this woman’s ass and use her as my desk.” THAT would be a great example of a sexist tweet. But instead, we continue to perpetuate and build a society where everything offends someone for no good reason. One where we get riled up at a moments notice and want brains/blood of a victim to quench the thirst/hate for corporations(mostly). It’s gotten to a point where everyone is being brutally monitored in this new social world that no one is allowed to be anything but a PR controlled zombie of a person – with tweets and status’ being carefully crafted to not offend anyone. It’s no wonder that most people think companies on social media are boring – they can’t take a risk because you keyboard groaners don’t let them.
Everyone needs to take a breath and lighten up. That’s the cure to the zombie infection – not getting worked up over nothing. But hey, lets look at some great zombies raging out of control… out of control because their tweets are ridiculous.
Matthew, you weren’t going to buy one anyway you bandwagon zombie. Based on looking at your feed for 1 minute, you own a Mac and we all know the cult of Mac don’t lose customers. You just hate Windows and wanted to bash them. (New ASUS come with Windows 8 I’ve read.)
Right Leigh, that’s what they said in the tweet. “Hey, you women don’t buy our computers. Here’s a woman’s ass.” No, they failed at trying to be edgy funny. Your day wasn’t ruined by the tweet. It didn’t get you fired, or attacked. Don’t be so rage-y.
I love this one because you can tell from the profile picture alone she just wants to be an angry person in life and get mad at people. My favourite part is where she talks about her disposable income going elsewhere… Corinne, prove this tweet – otherwise you’re a liar. I want to see on paper/tweet/email/text message where you were considering buying an ASUS. Because I guarantee it didn’t happen. ANGGERRR ZOMBIE RAGE HATE!
Fact is, we’re all overly sensitive these days to any kind of comment that strays from the center. Quite frankly, ASUS just became a more well known brand, and in two weeks when someone goes into Best Buy to get a new laptop, the recall memory of the word ASUS is going to do more to sell their computer compared to two weeks ago. Our memory is short and being a social media zombie only helps the company/person/thing you seek to punish. Mark Zuckerberg was right when he said we’re all “Dumb fucks“, (yet we all still have Facebook accounts.)
But for the sake of a fucking argument… still feeling the outrage if this was the photo?
Welcome to Zombieland.
Hey what are you doing this weekend? Oh you’re doing something lame huh? Yeah that’s what I thought.
WELL HAVE A BETTER LIFE AND DO SOME FUN SHIT (for a good cause)!
The summer’s largest outdoor patio party FOAM (Festival of Art and Music) is going down on Saturday at the Evergreen Brick Works! Beer, S’mores, Taxi Guy vouchers and all kinds of other stuff. Yeah, s’mores, alcohol and beer! Molson is sponsoring the event along with Red Bull, Bacardi, Barefoot, and some other companies to make it the event of the summer! Musicians, artists, DJs and more. It’s going to be like a live mixtape. Oh and there’s also going be tons of food too. Fran’s Restaurant crafting the menu.
Charity? You got it! FOAM is held in support of motionball, which is a not-for-profit that introduces the next generation of supporters to the Special Olympics Canada movement. They’ve already donated over $2.7M to the Special Olympics Canada Foundation!
19+ because teenagers at a party is totally lame. Yeah I said it. It needed to be said. Those fakakta all ages events are always the worst.
Get your tickets now though, word from insiders say they are going quickly and at $35 a pop, it’s a great deal. Oh, and did I mention they have a shuttle service provided from Broadview Station AND from Yonge+College?
Twitter: @FOAM_TO
Facebook: FoamToronto
I was fortunate enough to have received an invite from Cavalia to their show that just opened in Toronto this week, Odysseo. I’m very glad that they extended the invitation to me, because quite frankly, I’m a guy and the thought of going to a show with a bunch of horses doing things doesn’t exactly appeal to me on the premise alone. But when I received the invite, I figured why the hell not. I’ll check it out… I’ll bring some cute girl with me and have a great time. (Thanks Jen for being cute girl du jour. She’s a relationship expert, so I’d recommend going and reading her stuff. It’s just as good as the advice in person!)
Well, let me say this right off the bat… this isn’t some lame horse and pony show. It was actually one of the most impressive shows I’ve seen in Toronto in recent memory… second only to Cirque de Soleil perhaps. See before I walked in, my thought was that this was just going to be a bunch of people on horseback doing tricks… boy was I wrong.
The entire show was crafted to tell an odyssey spanning forests, deserts, winter, floods, and more. The visuals were truly fantastic. The horses, were even more impressive. Many of the horses moved around the stage unassisted and in a very choreographed way. In packs of 5-10 they would know where to go, then know when to split up, when to come back together… it was wild. I can’t even imagine the training that has to go in to making a show like this possible.
Then the performers, they are actively involved in stunts that made me weep. Honestly, I don’t think I’ll ever be in the kind of shape that these people were… As I sat there at intermission eating desserts provided to us with access to the Rendez Vous lounge, I couldn’t help but be mad at myself for eating the treats. Just amazing… especially the twins which I developed a crush on quickly. Go see the show and try not to, guys. Then there was a group of black guys who were flipping, jumping and really creating a fun atmosphere. They added a lot to the fun of the show and often provided great stage comedy for the crowd as well as crowd participation.
Overall, the show was not at all what I was expecting… which was great. I highly recommend checking it out because it really was a great show.
The show runs all through May and into June, if possible, I recommend going for the VIP Rendez Vous experience. Open bar, great food (shrimp, smoked salmon, pasta, chicken) and a dessert and fruit selection at intermission alone will make the added expense well worth it. You can purchase tickets and see show times on the Cavalia website. A great show for all ages. You won’t be disappointed.
I heard a track the other day playing behind a William Hill ad… and I don’t know what it was about the song, but it roped me in instantly. I went on the search for the track and was nearly at the end of the rope, when I finally found it!
It’s apparently pretty highly sought after based on my searches… so I figured, why not share it here in hopes that it helps someone else find the music quicker! I think that’s the great thing about ads using real music, when you pick the right track for your ad, people are going to remember it for a long time. Never discount the power of music!
The track to the William Hill ad is called Rival Consoles by Kid Velo.
William Hill are pretty good at choosing the right music for their ads, another one of theirs that I was looking for about a year ago and found was this:
The first time this every happened to me was for a Toyota car back in Summer of 2005… the ad was original aired in theaters, which I remember because I saw about a dozen movies that summer and that ad was always one of my favourite parts of seeing a movie. I spent months trying to find the track with a little recording I had made on my cellphone at the time…
Here’s that ad…
What about you? Any ads in your memory where the music really connected you to the brand/ad?
Last night, compliments of the great social media team at @FordCanada, I had the opportunity to go watch the Rise Against concert at the ACC. When they made the offer, I jumped on the tickets because Rise Against are actually a band I saw live nearly a decade ago.
Back then I was a teenager, heavily into punk rock (Anti-Flag, Casualties, Protest The Hero, to name a few, but also lighter stuff like the Bouncing Souls, Thursday and Taking Back Sunday. Ehh, punk is a complicated genre, I guess some of that is metal, ska, emo and punk. Whatever.) and saw Rise Against play live at I believe it was the Phoenix. So to have an opportunity to remind myself where I was at a decade ago with a familiar band, seemed like a cool experience.
Sitting in my seat, lower bowl adjacent to the Chairman’s Platinum Club, was a wild experience for this kind of concert. But, I enjoyed it. Rise Against are a really great band, and their music is real music that you can actually get into. It’s not this bullshit Disney music we’re all being fed (with exception of Call Me Maybe, that’s just awesome.) But there I was sitting and enjoying the sounds of live music. Should have been no problem right?
Well, it would have been no problem if I wasn’t sitting behind the naggiest of naggy women. This woman was insistent that I wasn’t properly enjoying the concert. She, on several occasions, felt the need to lean over her chair to make sure that I heard that I was supposed to be doing something different. Then as the concert was coming to it’s end, I went to the washroom and found her approach me directly in the quiet of the Platinum Club hallway where she laid out all the things I did wrong.
Without further ado, allow me to give you her 7 Simple Rules for Going to a Concert…
1. You’re not allowed to sit down. It’s music you need to be on your feet to listen properly and see the music.
2. Clap to the beat. That’s what a concert is for.
3. You should be smiling the entire time. A live concert should be making you smile non-stop.
4. Wearing a band tshirt is a requirement. If the singer sees you at some point and you’re not wearing a band tshirt, that’s not cool.
5. Wearing a jacket at a concert is silly.
6. Concerts aren’t about the music, it’s about the experience.
7. If you don’t buy any merchandise from the bands, you’re an ass.
So there you have it! If you’re planning on ever going to a concert, these are the 7 rules you must follow according to a naggy ninny of a woman.
PS. Rise Against was awesome!
I’ve been sitting on the sidelines of social media for a while now. You haven’t seen me post a very damning blog post in a while. You haven’t seen me tweet as aggressively as I once did. Nor have you seen me blog about all the wonderful stuff that companies want to provide me because I am a social media influencer. No, for the past while I’ve just hung out on the fringe of the scene observing what is a vastly changing landscape, made ever more gross and diluted day after day.
Oh it’s true, the social media scene in Toronto (and naturally I assume in other markets as well) is broken. (PS. Bands, please don’t call yourselves Broken Social Media Scene). Why is it broken you ask? Well, it’s actually quite simple… some human beings are inherently evil, greedy, have an overinflated ego and have careless disregard for anything other than to prop up their sinking social media dictatorship regimes. (Ironically, by being honest and calling out bullshit – that’s usually the title I’m associated with.) In the real world, if these people were given any power, they would be corrupt, abusive and lack any kind of moral compass. Maybe we should start calling some of these social media stars “Social Bankers”, because they seem to stop at no end to try and fix the system to their benefit.
So what am I talking about exactly? I’m saying a lot of words, but have yet to really point out the issue and why social media influencer marketing is becoming a scam… Here’s an image of a popular social media character’s twitter following.
What does this chart say? Well, it shows that for 2 months a persons following on Twitter was organic… it grew at a steady pace. Gaining 2-3 followers per day on average. Then on one day, a single day… that following doubled overnight. Now, in the wise words of my grandfather “If something smells fishy, it means there’s a dead fish around.”
The scene has reached a point where even the most ‘influential’ are so corrupted by their own greed and inflated egos that they have decided it’s the right time to pay for followers. Make no mistake, the only way to gain that kind of following overnight is to have content that went viral (but even then it’s a steady slope over days/weeks, not all at once), or they paid for them. Yes, we are now at a point where the reigning social media influencers, who try to sell their services to companies pointing out how many people they reach with a tweet, how many impressions they can get… aren’t satisfied with how much they are getting. An investment of buying followers doubles their following overnight, which means they can ask for twice as much from dumb companies and PR people who don’t do enough research.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, social media influencer is not a job and the ‘end game’ to being a social media influencer is working at Starbucks until you’re 67 and retire. There’s no major payout. You’re never going to live on the income of being an influencer. It’s a dead end road, and we’re approaching the cliff.
Want another example? This one is a little more cleverly done, but it’s using a ‘follow train’ system. You follow one person and 10 people follow you.
We’re now at a point where social media influencers can’t be trusted. Hell, I’m not sure they ever could be… but especially now. The reality is, social media influencers understand that the social media influence market is getting more and more cluttered. People who would normally get ALL the invites and products are probably starting to get less… Something has to be done, and paying for followers seems like a good step. A Hail Mary to try and reclaim the glory of a crumbling career. Hoping maybe to help build that Klout score up a little more.
Unfortunately the writing is on the wall and everyone is waking up a little faster. For a while now I’ve been pointing out the ridiculousness of working with some of us social media influencers, and very quickly more and more people are coming to terms with the truth and being vocal about it (something I wouldn’t have thought would happen a year ago). Trying to recapture some glory by paying for followers is the final nail in the coffin. Integrity is clearly only as valuable as whatever product a company is willing to provide.
Be careful of the scam, Influencer marketing is no longer honest.
Last night thanks for @AcuraSherway, I had the opportunity to attend a 3D screening of The Avengers. And here’s my review… See this movie! The movie was an absolute thrill from beginning to end.
Now, I could drone on about all the different elements of the movie and talk about plot and Loki (the bad guy, who is certainly a very underdeveloped character – perhaps I should have seen Thor to understand him more.) But I won’t… because I really enjoyed the movie! The action was fantastic, the script was good and very funny too! Every character had a chance to shine and really show their stuff. I was actually surprised how well they managed to ‘share’ screen time. I was actually concerned that the movie would become Iron Man 3 with the strength of Iron Man’s personality, but they even managed to tame that beast a little bit.
One thing I won’t recommend though, is 3D. I absolutely HATE 3D. I swear it’s turning our eyes into pudding. It’s the worst thing ever. In high action movies it’s especially bad because it’s difficult to focus and see what’s going on. So if you do see it, avoid the 3D at all costs. For the times where it was cool, there was far more times where it was just annoying.
Oh and piece of advice… stay past the credits. ;)
