Friendly reminder that comments are welcome, but please don't link to other sites in your text unless it's to your personal (social network) page or relevant to the post. Thank you!
Well... I got an interesting piece of sales propaganda yesterday in the mail.
I got an advertisement for a local Kia dealership. Which is nothing out of the ordinary by any stretch. However, someone in the creative marketing department took some serious liberties in making this mailer.
Why?
Because if you're not paying attention to the car sale flyer, you're going to think it's a promotion for Amazon Prime.
Legit: it looks like (what becomes a folded) 8 by 11 piece of shiny promotional information from Amazon to get you to know what's up in their membership services. If you unfold the paper, you see it's for Galeana Kia and they're doing a three day car sale. Which is bogus because I got the flyer on June 22, and the flyer is for June 14-16. That's a fail. Guess I can't get a free ten dollar bill?
Here's what I'm talking about: (I cut out my address)
First and fourth image look like an Amazon envelope. Second and third image are for the dealership.
Again, who thought this up? When my mom got the mail, she didn't think twice - she thought it was for me because it looks like a Prime mailer (and Prime is under my name). Same font, same styling.... what a rip off. If my mom thought it was for something different, imagine what the rest of the city thinks? I wouldn't want to be a part of that team meeting when someone at Kia gets the phone call from a lawyer, looking for payback.
Chalk this up to "things that make you go 'hmmmm'"!
I learned something new yesterday with my Echo Dot.
Because it was the first day of summer (and the longest day of the year), places were having various "deal of the day" promotions.
So what did I find, that I tried?
Dunkin' Donuts was giving away a free Shot In The Dark 8oz coffee for the first 15,000 people that spoke to their smart device (Alexa and Google Play. Doesn't work with Siri. I tried) with the following phrase: "ASK Send me a Sample for Dunkin Shot in the Dark".
One of the catches is that you had to go to sendmeasample.net (first) and create a free account. It looks sketchy AF because if you're reading the fine print, they're located in London, England. How am I going to get a free can of coffee from a company in the UK? Further inspection said that there are promotions both the US and UK are doing, and this site apparently is the middle man for the promotional collaborations.
Ok; I'll give it a try. What do I have to lose? More junk mail on my doorstep?
I signed up with the sample site.
The second thing I had to go into my Alexa account and enable the Sample skill set for her to be able to understand what I'm asking and get me free swag. From that point, the third thing was linking the accounts.
THEN I could request my sample. Alexa asked me if I would prefer she send me her favorite flavor ("ok") and she put the request in. The second question was wondering if I wanted to get promotions from Coca-Cola for other products, as well as rating Send Me A Sample. No, I'm not interested in getting other Coke promos (my mom subscribes to the "make sure you scan your Coke code!!!" lifestyle) and I want to see if this is legit before I rate the skill.
I didn't know Dunkies was part of the Coke family... At least that's how a lot of places are promoting the coffee chain. According to their 'About Us', they're still listed as a free standing coffee joint, so I don't know how the partnership is really formed - does Coca-Cola own some form of contractual rights with the Dunk's group, or do they just say "hey, let's get something going and see what happens"?
On a tiny side of research after the last paragraph was typed, I found that in 2017 Dunkin' and Coca-Cola teamed up and Coke is the group bringing the ready to drink version on to store shelves. So that's the pre-made drinks that you can buy in the grocery store or convenience store, not worry about stopping into a free standing coffee shop and order an iced coffee - you can go to a 7-11 and pick up a glass bottle of it instead. I think this part spawned from whatever contract the two companies had originally, for Dunkin' to sell Coke products in their stores. I vaguely remember a time when there wasn't a Coca-Cola cooler at a Dunkin' counter, but I wasn't paying much attention - I was usually going in for my #3: (plain) bagel and cream cheese with a medium hot coffee. Or just a regular iced coffee. In and out in a few minutes.
But anyway, back to the original concept of this post. I gather that once you install Send Me A Sample, you can look for their logo on other places and you can request a freebie for something. You just have to ask for it. Which is nice, I guess, but it also creates more laziness. Although, it's creative because a lot of people now have smart assistants / streaming devices, and where society is starting to become more tech forward, it makes sense that there are companies cashing in on this. It's smart promoting - one website connected to a smart device, sending a consumer a free sample of something when the product launches. You are limited to first come, first serve, and if you miss that window, you can't have it. It gets the name out to people, even if you're well familiar with it. Odds are, there will be a money saving coupon with this coffee sample when I get it. Which is good because that'll get me in a store to find it. Depending on price and taste, I very well could buy it again. Theory goes with everything else you can think of.
I guess I'll post an update when I get the drink - it said it could take a few weeks from start to finish; which is fine. Considering the company is in England, yea, they have to go through the proper channels to get products imported / exported / out correctly.
I had another adventure this week. Last night I went to see Live On Mars: A Tribute to David Bowie at the local performance hall. Same place I saw Dio earlier this month.
The email I got for the show was supposed to be an 8pm start with the possibility of out time at 10:45pm. The concert didn't start until 8:10 and finished by 10:30. With the band signing posters at the very end of the show, I was home by 11.
So... what is this concert you ask?
It's really a tribute band called Live on Mars, and not "Life On Mars?" like the song, or another martian being of similar fancy. This is a 6 piece British band including a drummer, keyboardist, two guitarists, a bassist and a singer. They are quite young (I wouldn't say more than 50 years old, at best) and full of energy. I had to do a randomly weird, jump through hoops, search to find all the names of the members. According to a review somewhere else, they are: Alex Thomas (main singer), James Cole and Michael Gay on guitar and backing vocals, Edgar Jones on bass and backing vocals, Rob Stringer keyboards and backing vocals and finally Phil Murphy on drums and backing vocals. It quite possibly rook me 25 minutes to find their names because the only person I could recall was Alex and I then had to google "Live on Mars band members". First hits on the research led me no where, so I had to rethink how I needed to find it. I went through other various keywords to get to the review. Then I cross referenced it with the guys' social media accounts. Yerp. I done my research. And I was close with their ages - Edgar Jones is 48, according to Wikipedia ("Since when do you trust Wikipedia?????" my brain says), but you know what? When I wrote the line "they are quite young", I was going to say that they may not be 50, but the bassist looks like he's close to it. And I would have been accurate in that description. But this also proves that if you do your diligence, you will find the answers you need. Just like the fun fact of these guys are famous in their own rights... which I didn't even know, since I hadn't heard of any of them before. For example: James Cole, not only plays guitar, but he's a British race car driver! Seriously?? How cool is that - something as simple as having "a different day job" then what you're thinking the person does... is not what you'd imagine!
When I got their autographs, they were super chunky nice. Truly down to Earth guys from the Liverpool area. They were so appreciative of the fans, and I said that I liked the show, and was grateful they came out to play because they were really good. I think they liked hearing that. I shook their hands too. It was neat to have the opportunity to thank them personally and hear their story afterwards - like Alex mentioned he's not been to Florida before, and it could have been August when they were here. I told him it's better they are here now because the weather may be hot, but we'd be deep in rain every day by August. I smiled and joked with him about it, and he laughed back. I think he liked that. I like to make it personal if I get the opportunity for a meet and greet - I like to thank the person and tell them I appreciated the show or whatever it is. It makes everyone feel like they're on the same level, I think, because they're not here to be big shots. If they're doing a meet and greet with autographs at the end of the show, they're here to show they care. It's all good in the end because they took the time to come out and play, and then stay for a hello and a signature. Ok... I'm going in circles and not explaining anything else.
What things transpired through the 2 hour show, you're asking? Well... you got more time to spare?
With the start of Space Oddity, the lads used the big screen behind them to help elevate the songs they were singing. Whether it was a specially curated montage of Dame Bowie images or found concert footage, there was no shortage of db in sight. For the moon song, the background image had pieces of the original short video cut with space graphics - nebulae, moons, images you can find through certain space programs' websites. Other songs the group played (Fame, for example), had Bowie's face morphing through the years - starting with frontal images from when he was younger, all the way to 2013. I'm sure if someone were to keyword search "David Bowie face morph" they'd find various 3D movies of Mr. Jones' face through the years. I just did that and found something highly similar to what Live On Mars played last night. There's also the animated gif of his hairstyles through the years, that played as a background image at one point too. I've seen that animation a lot, but the 3D face morph was new. So again, "found footage". I do have to say, for every song they played, the album it appeared on, along with the year, was thrown on the screen, so you'd know Moonage Daydream came off of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust in 1972. Some of the songs the group played, they had an "introduction" by Bowie - a 60 second video of him explaining a song or a quip about a lyric and then the group went right into the song. When they did Under Pressure, they said they're going to need help from Freddie Mercury. On comes the Live Aid video. That's when you'll see my uploaded video have images from. Other songs were the actual music video (Ashes to Ashes, Let's Dance). It was interesting to see how they incorporated everything together, as a "celebration of David Bowie" rather than a tribute concert, because anyone can do one? Look how many "tribute concert"s are out there for people - George Harrison comes to mind real quick, and that was put together by his celebrity friends plus his family. I think there has been one for Prince recently, but I could be wrong.
The challenge with the whole concert was that I found Alex's vocals to be more on par with later ("modern") Bowie stuff than earlier stuff. Anything pre 1974/5 has a different vocal pitch / range than anything after 1979, really. Bowie starts getting a deeper voice come the late 70s, and it's those songs where Alex can really shine. He did hit the notes he needed for earlier works, but he can get too low in spots and although it has a possibility of working, it's not all there. The other members of the band hit all the right notes, but where can you go wrong with a bass line or a drum pattern? It's hard to mess those up only if you're not musically inclined.
To each his own, I reckon, but it was worth the experience none the less because the guys did know what they were doing and kept the audience on their feet. The only swag at the merch table was a $5 promo CD (by way of a London concert) and the $5 promotional US tour poster. Both of which I got signed. No other things were sold but the $10 I spent on stuff was far less than the Dio concert, even though I had a more understandably hearing time on this one. Would I see them again if they came back this way? Sure; my seat was 7 rows from the stage and I could see perfectly. I knew all the songs and although the moving pictures on the big TV were annoying at times (because you didn't know whether to watch the band or the static image), but I had fun. There were plenty of drunken dancers 5 rows in front of me, so I got to watch 40 year old women make fools of themselves, to the point security had to split up a man and a woman for getting to comfortable while dancing together. Other than that, there was the sole drunken fool who sat in his chair as everyone was leaving, yelling "Encore!!!!" "DO MORE!!!!!!!!!" and I think it was skeeving people out. This guy was way over served on his liquor and someone should have escorted him out, but it was the end of the night already; why bother? (and note: you'll hear him in the video - he goes "YEEEEEEAAAAAA!!!!" during Under Pressure).
So without further ado, here is the video:
And last but not least: The songs played. (not in order because I had to try to remember them so I could write them in my phone for this post. I'm sure I'm missing one or two. If anyone is reading this post and was there last night, hit me up and let me know... I'll add it to the list and credit you)
Space Oddity
The Man Who Sold The Wold
Hang On To Yourself
Five Years
Ziggy Stardust
Starman
Queen Bitch
Fame
Young Americans
Life on Mars
Sound and Vision
Let's Spend the Night Together
Under Pressure
All the Young Dudes
Rebel Rebel
Stay
Moonage Daydream
Ashes to Ashes
Changes
Fashion
Jean Genie
'Heroes'
Suffragette City
Modern Love
Let’s Dance
Have fun and be groovy!
Cheers;
See also (aka title reference): David Bowie Ashes to Ashes See also (aka the David Bowie Amazon page): The albums page because most of the songs played were from the same places. It's easier to list everything so people can pick and choose
Last night I went to see "Dio Returns" at the local event hall. Definitely not the right venue for a metal concert. But it was an adventure and my ears hate me right now.
I have to start off by saying I am not a metal head. I know very little about the genre and the bands that serve it. I know names, but only the "popular" ones (like Black Sabbath... are they are metal?). Is Motorhead considered metal, or is it categorized under rock? I ask about this, because there were people in the audience last night that were dressed in black leather - vests and pants, hats, just like Lemmy. At least I know Lemmy? I think I saw a few Slayer shirts as well. There are so many sub genres to music, I don't know who is what and what is what. Metallica - are they metal? I know their more famous songs ("Enter Sandman" for example) because my friend used to wear the hell out of the Master of Puppets shirt. I know Enter Sandman is not on the Master of Puppets album, I don't know what it's on. I only know because I have a picture of my friend from a time when we were on a school trip, wearing that album shirt, long chains around her neck, baggyish jeans, and a back pack. Thems were the days, my friends. Thems were the days.
I can't tell you what songs Dio is known for, except I just know his name. I had to research how he died (stomach cancer) and that he had his own band as well as being part of Black Sabbath. I don't know anything else except the guy wasn't that pretty but his vocals seem to pack a punch (based on the concert last night). He's known for the horns hand symbol (which I think I knew) and he's got a lot of "religious" imagery - angels, the devil, cemeteries in his work. I think this is part of the metal grouping - the symbolism? Again, I don't know much about the genre.
So last night was a pretty chill night at the venue, considering it was a "big name" concert. The place wasn't packed at all. I mean, the center of the auditorium was maybe 75% full, and the wings were 15%, put together. There was no one on the top of the venue (balcony areas). It was all lower level. I would gather that the average age of attendees were 45-60, mostly males, but a few women. And I hate to say it, but I don't recall seeing anyone not white in the crowd.
This is another thing I don't know about metal - is it strictly a white- male - heavy genre? I know so little about metal, I can't begin to have the proper words to wonder anything about it. This concert was an interesting experience for me, to say the least.
But I don't know how to describe what the women looked like, especially the older women that were there. Some were in flowery black dresses - ones where the sleeves on the top of the outfit, bell out as they come closer to the wrists. Kind of like what I've seen Stevie Nicks wear in some of her concerts. I'm sure I'm not describing the outfit properly. But the women were ready to rock, however they seemed slightly poshed up for it. While the men were in their black t shirts, black jeans. Ready for moshing. Which didn't even happen.
Like I said, it was kind of chill because everyone stayed in their seats for the most part. They got up to dance at their seat when they wanted, but some rushed towards the stage during certain songs. A good lot of the group had their phones out and were recording the entire time. Some guy didn't shut his phone off, from beginning to end!
I did laugh internally when some drunk metal head requested a song from the opening act (and got it), and he stood up the whole time, head banging, while everyone else in the auditorium was seated. this happy fool kinda made me feel like something was going to pop off because people started to leave at that point, and it was only 8:30. I think the people leaving ended up going to get alcohol. Which fueled most of the crowd the whole night. Big drinkers, it seems, these fans.
I'm so going around in circles right now. Let me back track to the opening act. It was a band called "Jizzy Pearl's Love / Hate". I think his name is Jimmy because I think people called him that. I've never heard of him, but he said in a little monologue he's been around for ever. One of the albums he had with another band, is 30 years old this year. He said "we survived!!!!" because it's been so long. I didn't understand a word he was singing. It was more growling screeching singing than singing singing. He had a bassist, a guitarist and a drummer. None of which I know or remember names of. I don't think they are his typical band. But the bassist was in his own world . Very Green Day vibe from him. Jizzy looked like the typical 80s hair band rocker, shaking around a corner of the stage. The guitarist was also in his own world. Very solo feeling. Drummers are drummers. But as a whole, there was way too much feedback coming from someone. Maybe the guitarist. It felt very small, dim, dirty, basement because of the sound between songs. I don't know if I'd see them again... the songs were so hard for me to understand, it wasn't memorable in that aspect.
30 minutes of them playing, Jizzy making a few jokes, people yelling for Dio (because they were getting restless), the band ended. Intermission was 20 minutes so people could pee, get more beer, buy some swag, do their things.
Then comes the show.
It was billed as:
"Dio
Returns
US Tour 2019
Special guest:
Jizzy Pearl's Love/Hate
Introducing
A new live music experience
Ronnie James Dio hologram
Performing live with the Dio Band
Also featuring Tim "Ripper" Owens
And Oni Logan as guest vocalists!"
Promo picture found online
Due to not knowing any of the songs, I can't tell you a song list. I'm sure there will be videos coming out in the next few weeks of people having been at any one of the concerts. Like I said, no one was stopped from videoing the music. There were plenty of people with their phones out, which is so surprising because usually this type of event would be under trademark or copyright - based on the fact it's supposed to be a "hologram". I'll be putting two songs together and uploading them here, to show what it looked like. I guess it's all under fair game?
But... my honest truth.. I think the use of "hologram" is subjective because it didn't feel like a hologram, or what we are used to as defined as one. There was no projected image anywhere on stage. In fact, when it came down to Dio's "performance", it was a CGI of him on a jumbotron. Like I said, no one was stopped from filming, which leads me to believe this isn't one of those "we have a secret method of projecting that no one can use... it's all proprietary. Don't copy!". Well... when everyone has their phones out and security only asks you to turn your flash off, share and share alike. I guess this version is the new bootleg cassette tape?
Anyway, there was no projected image on the stage like there was for the Orbison show I went to. Which, if you had your phone out for any reason, you were escorted out of the building immediately (I remember getting walked to the lobby during a Bowie concert because I had a found a way to get a camera in, took pictures, and a bulky bodyguard confiscated my roll of film. Yes, 35mm film. In 2002). There was a screen the size of the stage, in the back of the musicians, which was constantly playing visuals. The visuals depended on the mood and the song - it ranged from cemetery depictions (again, computer generated) to cat's eyes and fire. And everything in between. It felt like it was all 1990's effects trying to go on a 2019 Hollywood budget. I really think that it could have been better, but then again, this is a man who had a heyday from 1970 something to 1980 something. So the graphics on the screen were low budget enough to get by, but seemed high definition all the same.
I'm sorry to say that even Dio himself looked a little ragged. His image was crisp to a point but they did a lot of edging of him, with the screens. So he stayed near an edge, as if he were near a wall, then he'd be in the center as if he moved around. Which he did - move... to a point, but it wasn't a fluid motion. They used a lot of fire graphics to move him. My iPhone caught everything clear as day, but when I reviewed it all, the singer's image is distorted in some places. Because I was trying to record something from a TV. We've all tried it - taken a video camera or our cell phones, faced the television, hit record, and the next thing we know, it's not as clear as we wanted. It's the nature of how technology can make us pay for what we want.
That's why I'm not uploading everything I took to my blog or online. I put a video together to show what the concert looked like, but that's it. You want to see more, go find where it's playing near you. Even if you're like me, and not deeply into this kind of music, I think it's the experience you need, to see it. I know it depends on the area, but like I said in the beginning, the group that was in the audience, was pretty chill. There was no rough housing, no fighting. Just a couple of drunkards getting a little weird in spots, but they didn't make scenes out of nothing. Everyone just wanted to have a good time. I think the band appreciated that too - no bullshit from the fans. The band got to perform, make a couple announcements (like how Ronnie would have loved this... he was a people person and made friends everywhere), and have a generally good time. There was a 15 minute encore, in the end, because no one wanted to leave. All the old fogies in the center section wanted more. So 3 more songs were played, including 2 with the CGI.
It really put everything in a neat perspective because I really wasn't expecting this to go off the way it did - how calm and collected everyone was. Okay, sure, the music was super chunky loud, but I know I wasn't going to understand it all. And my ears were going to hurt the rest of the weekend. I was going to see the show that got put on. Where I sat, normally is $50+, depending on the show. I paid $34 after taxes because I waited til the last minute and got a special rate. I bought 2 shirts that were the price of an original ticket, so I guess my entry was free. I enjoyed myself to a point because I wanted to see what this was - how they're calling Ronnie James Dio a hologram for this tour, and what his music sounded like. I call the image computer generated, but que sera, sera. Whatever will be, will be. People have different views on things and I guess whatever the next tour is, for high tech viewing, I'll see what it looks like and come back to talk about it.
Until then, I've got the Live On Mars tribute tour ticket for two weeks time, and I am interested to see how this band pays homage to Dame Bowie.
Oh, and I don't know where to add this bit:
I felt that the people performing (beginning with Jizzy and ending with the Dio band), were really showboating / making spectacles in some places. Meaning, they were using theatrics like Kiss but showing off like rockers. It was more showing off than what I've seen at other concerts though. Like they were putting on a show and they know they're putting on a show, so "go big or go home and make a fool of yourself in the process". It was odd to me, considering the fans were just hanging out and not causing a raucous. Like, the musicians had to prove they're there for a party and we're just some strange voyeur making sure people behave. It's weird to explain. I just felt that the artists showed off a lot in spots, and didn't in others. Odd; that's all.
Thanks for reading and go listen to something new!
Cheers;
Video or my reference is for naught.
Shot on an iPhone 6S and edited with Pinnacle Studio 18.
