With all the trans talk and issues I wanted to put some thoughts down. This is prompted by the Prime series I am watching with Cara Delevingne – I first saw her on the “Murders in the Building.” I liked it! Is she Meryl Streep? No, but I was entertained … her series is called “Planet Sex” And I like it … not done watching, but will happily finish it.

One thing I have always been amused at, and sometimes pissed at is people judging “the book by the cover.” A lot of folks categorize me as some right-wing, conservative, knuckle-dragging misogynistic toxic male, And ya know what? I don’t care. I know what I am and looks can be deceiving. I am anything but that.

I am first and foremost a drummer/musician (professional) so I have not spent the entirety of my adult life in a cubicle. Quoting Al PAcino in Scent of a Woman .. “Ive been around!” And compared to a lot of folks I know I am far more open, accepting, progreessing (In the purest sense)  and free-spirited than most. Although the free-spirit thing sometime comes out as “raving lunatic” and that is fine with me cause I am at the core an anarchist and punk and well … yep, a raving lunatic!

Trans:

I know a great many people – good friends that are pretty much every shade on that gender spectrum. And have had the pleasure of their friendships for years! I love this Planet Sex program and again if you didn’t know me you would be waiting for me to put on a MAGA hat and start screaming about … well, in truth I was screaming. Mostly, at the loudest … “Yeah! You tell em!” and softly, cause –  I am old.. “Well, duh?”

Nothing I have seen in this program has upset me nor made me blush. A drummer… remember? And most of the tales of pro drummers on tour? Yep, true. Been there done that!

My position, in case you asked?

People are born and assigned Male or Female. It makes shit simple. And as I have witnessed some folks do not feel the way society wants then to feel? Not simple. But none of my damn business. And if I may be so bold, non of yours either.

So, everything on that spectrum from Gals I know that are way more masculine than I am and guys I know … well, who are “Gayer than 18 balloons!” and very feminine … they are what they are.

I know folks that have all sorts of feelings and all sorts of different views of who they are. Don’t we all!

First, I think it does sort of revolve around who you are attracted to. Or at least points them in a certain direction. And ya know what? It is NONE of my damn business. And I think … well an old joke “A same sex marriage is way better than a no sex marriage!”

Have I ever been shocked? Honestly? In the sense of this post no, but have been a lot in other areas. For example, someone I know went off on me a while back about these “damn queers!” This is NOT a stupid person in the sense they are educated and read a lot but, yeah … they are something. I hate labels. But that thinking is so foreign to me. And it is wrong. Full stop.

Now I understand the commotion happening and some folks need to get their ya yas out! Hell, today I read about a politician talking about fat-shamming as the same as wearing black face. A stretch, but I cut politician’s slack, cause they are politicians.

Anyway, this was about the movie The Whale (Haven’t seen it?) but the guy who won an Oscar (I believe) wore a costume. A costume. A fat costume. So if we are going to think this way, Johnny Depp wearing a pirate costume is what? Pirate shaming? No, it is acting. It was a movie. Suspend disbelief. Not everything is there for you to be offended. But folks are offended by a lot of stuff – my thinking is they want attention. Everyone wants attention. And Social Media instead of being the wonderful conversations they are supposed to be as outlined in the Cluetrain, they are “Look at me!”  I could write a thesis on the nature of SM – one aspect – look at the comments on say Facebook.

A post about a celebrity passing away .. the comments inevitably are “Oh I saw him in this or that movie!” “I met him in an airport!” and on and on and so on and so forth. Sure it is human nature BUT instead of … “So sorry to hear this. Peace and love.” It is “LOOK AT ME LOOK AT ME!!! ME! ME! ME!”

People live lives of quiet desperation ( Paraphrasing: Henry David Thoreau. “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation,”) And SM is perhaps their only outlet.

In the few episodes of Planet Sex, Cara says she had troubles as a kid, “No one understood me.” And “I had no one to talk to.”

I have heard that a lot from friends who are gay, or queer, or lesbian, trans or, or, or … well everything under the sun! A common issue. Why do people NOT listen? And, noodling here … calculating I have a huge number of lesbian friends. Great friends and some I lived with. I have always had a connection with them. No idea why? But I do and I cherish every single one of them and I count as close, trusted and loving friends.

Is this a societal pendulum swing? History repeating itself? Maybe and remembering the 60s (I was there!) all the BS that happened, resulted in some amazing change. Oh, change!!!  I love change! Bring it on! I love the excitement of not knowing what comes next. I have lived my life like a jazz performance, not a symphony! Surprise me!

Folks, people should be able to do whatever they want to do, be whomever they want to be love who they want to love and dress however that desire. And we really shouldn’t get our shorts in a knot over stuff that isn’t our business.

And the header picture? I don’t care. Good on anyone who can make a buck. What has any of that got to do with me? And I could go on and on about the kids on Tik Tok (I love TikTok BTW!) and the drag queen shows and … and … and.but I won’t cause it isn’t any of my business.

So … relax. There is nothing coming over you and do me a favour? If there is a youngster in your family that wants to talk? Talk to them, No sorry … LISTEN to them.

It’s all good. Life is wonderful.

Recently I went and played with a few AI apps. Early days, sure. But it did cause some reflection.

Two fronts: One marketing communications and second, drumming – two things I know a bit about. Maybe just enough to make me dangerous … or wrong!

I remember when the “desk top publishing” craze hit, and a lot of folks started doing their own designs. They were mostly horrible, bad fonts and lots of “shading!” I am NOT picking on these guys, but …

Lots has improved since those early days and you might be able tell the difference between professional and amateur marcom – maybe? (I am talking about you Regina Tourism!*) And certainly the proliferation of “templates” made it somewhat better, but let me get into that later.

A fella I met said at the time… “Yes, desktop publishing is horrible, but it will raise the bar for professional typesetting!”

Maybe? I may have missed that trend. It certainly was not blatantly clear to me. And we entered what I call the “Era of the Amateur.” As in, “Hey, how hard can it be?” “It” meaning advertising or copy or marcom … you pick.

In fact, I started to write a book years ago because of that but it stalled because I could not find an industry where the ‘era of the amateur’ had not diluted it. If it is everywhere … well, big whoop on my book idea!

And drumming. More specifically drum machines. They were invented way, way back (1931) and became more popular when the prices were within reach starting in the 70s.

AI is similar to drum machines. AI spits out pablum, similar to a drum machine. And the AI word-pablum is hard to separate from amateur writing, or content or storytelling. And all the graphic templates available, Adobe, Spark, Canva, Pixlr et al. Pablum. Much like stock photos. In certain industries the “globe” and the “hand shake” well, that says it all. If you are anywhere near the insurance business you know what I mean. Progressive ones use the images of “crossing the finish line!”

Amateur is the operative word here. Will it get better? Sure. Drum machines and recording software are now pretty amazing like VSTs* in music software lile Logic or Pro Tools and no doubt AI will become more sophisticated but is it writing? Are drum machine tracks really drumming? That is a topic for a dozen musicologist papers and theses! No matter how good you can program drums it still does not have the “real feel” of a drummer. A musician. Lke AI does not have the style, emotion of a writer. Yet. Yes, I added yet! Who knows?

In marketing everyone goes on and on about content marketing and the importance of storytelling. And the writers allegedly are the Gods of words! Like great drummers were. but we as a society, music lovers in this case, are not rebelling nor protesting music made by machines. It is first and foremost cheaper to produce. Full stop. In marcom I have heard it said … “I’ll do the copy, how hard can it be?” In AI it will become far more prevalent. In music the producers and other musicians do not have to hire drummers anymore in many cases. Yes, some of the top groups may still use them but … “Hey how hard can it be?” Obvioulsy not that hard based on the umpteen million selling records with drum tracks made by machines. Some genres were created through the adoption and use of drum machines!

As we saw in the music biz the drummer is now completely devalued. No one cares. Well, we drummers do and some of us (Like me!) adopted that technology early but it did not replace the income we used to get going to a studio and playing real drums on tracks. Technology and progress. Yay. (I did not jump up and shout that BTW!) And, I am not saying we should go back in time. Technology progresses and we must realize change is inevitable.

Will AI replace writers? No. But it will replace a lot of writing “gigs” and the “How hard can it be?” crowd will flock to it like moths to a flame. (Yeah, once again I am talking about you Regina Tourism!**)

The Era of the Amateur.

One more time with no feeling!

* VST plugins generally run within a digital audio workstation (DAW), to provide additional functionality, though a few standalone plugin hosts exist that support VST. Most VST plugins are either instruments (VSTi) or effects (VSTfx), although other categories exist—for example spectrum analyzers and various meters.

** “Show us your Regina!”

Not often food creates such a visceral memory. I just devoured a Scottish meat pie. It almost brought tears to my eyes. No, it didn’t but that sounded dramatic and was for your enjoyment.

Brought back great memories of my Dad and pipe band. Cue up “Scotland the Brave!”

Scotch meat pies were, and I hope they still are, as much a part of the pipe bands as the kilt! 

After every highland game and/or competition we had peas and Scotch meat pies and beer served in the parking lot heated with Coleman stoves. (The pies, not the beer.)

Possibly the only reason folks play in a pipe band. Free beer and Scotch meat pies. 

That lil pie (From a small local butcher here!) tasted exactly, and I do not mean reminded me of … tasted exactly how Scottish meat pies should taste!

Tasted so good … that I grabbed the old Alex Duthart sticks and …

It’s possible that I’ve lived too long, seen too much and have too much common sense. Three things prompted this post.

First, years ago Premier Harper was accused of silencing scientists. He was, in fact, silencing government employees who were scientists, he was not silencing scientists all across Canada.  It was probably a stupid thing to do but he was trying to stop the government rank and file from coming out with proclamations that were personal statements/findings and not the official government position.

Second, I read about a few police officers reprimanded for either supporting the anti-vax movement and/or the trucker convoy. Not good. Stay in your lane folks!

Today Colin Kaepernick is in the news Well, “news-ish” he is trending on Twitter.

Racism is a huge issue. Yes, conditions are better than 50 years ago but still, it is evil. Was Colin right to protest racism and treatment of POC by cops? Absolutely! Was he right in doing it wearing a team uniform? Absolutely NOT! Just like the examples above. 

I applaud Colin in his protest. But he has to do it on his own dime. Same with the cops and the government scientists.

Should Colin be allowed back in the league? If course … but see the cautionary tale of the image I posted here.

I’m vaccinated and, no, I don’t know what’s in it – neither this vaccine, the ones I had as a child, nor in the hot dogs I love or gluten-free bread I eat, or in other treatments…whether it’s for cancer, AIDS, or vaccines for children. I trust my doctor when she says it’s needed.

I also don’t know what’s in Advil, Tylenol, or other meds, it just cures my headaches and my pains …

I don’t know what’s in the ink they used for my maple leaf tattoo or every ingredient in my soap, toothpaste, shampoo or deodorant.

I don’t know the long term effect of cell phone use or whether or not that restaurant I ate at this week really used clean foods and washed their hands.

In short…there’s a lot of things I don’t know and never will…

I just know one thing: life is short, very short, and I still want to do something other than just go to work every day all day or stay quarantined at home.

I still want to travel and hug people without fear and find a little feeling of life like it was before.

As a child I was vaccinated for mumps, measles, rubella, polio, chicken pox, and others; my parents trusted the science and I never had to suffer through or transmit any of those diseases.

I’m #vaccinated, not to please the government but:
* To not die from Covid
* To not clutter a hospital bed if I get sick
* To hug my loved ones and friends
* To not have to do tests to go to a restaurant or go on holidays
* To live my life
* To have my kids and grandkids go back to living their best lives
* For #Covid19 to be an old memory
* To protect us, locally and globally

My own views…

Text copied, you can too!

#vaccineswork #flattenthecurve

I woke up late this morning and received a call from a very close friend.

He informed me that a person that I knew quite well in a past life had posted a picture on Facebook and they had suffered what seemed to be a serious injury.

The picture he spoke of was of someone in a hospital bed, bandaged up with broken ribs, a broken nose and a broken leg.

So, social media.

The person in this photo I have not spoken to in 1over 10 years. Not that there was the rift but they had moved far away and subsequently I moved even farther away.

My friend and I on the phone started to chat about this person and I immediately started to get feelings of how much I missed them and I needed to reach out.

I found their Facebook page and there was nothing about an accident nor pictures.

My friend on the phone did the same thing and announced maybe it wasn’t the right person … so hang on.

He did a quick search of his history and said, “Oh no it wasn’t so and so it was someone else.”

That is the power of the Internet but you have to see it through you are your own gatekeeper.

When my friend phoned he found a good friend of mine that was hurt, but that was misinformation as it turns out.

It caused me care and concern ’cause I then felt bad that I haven’t spoken to them in a while, felt guilty and also worried about their wellbeing.

But if you see it through as your own gatekeeper asking the tough questions … “Is that true? Did that happen? We need to confirm it.”

And confirm it we did!

This is a small, oh call it a case study, showing the power of the Internet two clicks and all is back and right with the world. I called the person in question immediately and had a terrific call!

But as your own gatekeeper you cannot let things go open-ended you have to close them off with the truth!

So PLEASE stop tweeting the nonsense you hear!

The pandemic …

So the New World Order, eh? I thought they ran everything?

If they do then it seems they want millions and millions of us dead. On the other hand, I think it is a kooky conspiracy theory.

What have individual countries spent since the start of the pandemic – in relief and medical support and unemployment benefits, grants, and lost opportunity costs? What about the millions now deceased? Trillions? Multiple trillions?

If there was a smart person – more than likely an adult vs say a Greta at 15 yelling at us, or a leader who wasn’t corrupt or inept when all this started would we have had a chance to avoid this plague?

That smart adult (Similar to a sharp CEO of a very successful company.)  might have said … “OK CONFERENCE Call with all the leaders, NOW! Here is an immediate plan. All travel is hereby canceled. I have had the Chief  Accountant run some numbers – it would be cheaper to pay the airlines and any folks wanting or needing to travel all expenses, put em up in 5-Star-Hotels and feed em vs letting them travel and spreading this shit all over the world. And do it now! Right now!!!!”

“Now, if any cases that got through and in our countries, immediately do a serious ‘get em isolated and treat them like Ebola’ (Cause it is actually!) and then compensate em after they are well — “Mr or Ms so and so … here is a million dollars thanks for your patience and service to humanity! Hell, make it 10 million whether they survive or not (Pay the families!)  It is well worth it and cheaper.”

We paid a terrorist $10 mil just to avoid a court trial!

Could all of this have been averted if we had adults running things? I bet, yes we could. But we have governments with hundreds of layers of decision-making and layer upon layer of bureaucrats and lawyers trying to cover their collective asses? and net/net incompetence. Full stop.

There should be a lesson learned here! And if you do NOT believe me watch the coverage and the bickering and the experts going back and forth on everything,

We need some serious people now. Some adults. I know why folks do not run for office – they more than likely have an indiscretion in their teens or at university that will not stand the scrutiny of out petty minds and woke cancel culture. Or as I have witnessed the really bright serious people who run and get elected are so beaten down by the bureaucratic system they resign and head back to private business.

Yes, we need change. And we need it now.