Month: January 2022

Posted on

Here’s an Interesting Stat

I just cancelled Amazon Prime.

I was paying 12.99 per month since about mid 2019.

In that time I’ve had four packages delivered and watched 25 movies.

For ballpark comparison, let’s just call it 380.00 over the time I’ve had the service. None of the packages arrived via anything except the free UPS delivery. Apparently the stuff that I wanted from Amazon was not available to ship via Prime.

As to the movies…

Well 380.00 / 25 = 15.58 Per Movie. I know that more than a few of those movies were 3.99 rentals.

As a point of comparison, I won’t pay 14.99 for movies on Apple TV. I’ll wait till a movie I want is on sale for some price below 10.00. And I have the rights to view that movie as many times as I want.

Yes, there were some movies that were available on Amazon Prime and nowhere else. But those movies have become fewer and some of them are no longer available in the Amazon catalog.

I’m not saying that Prime is a bad deal for everyone. But it was a bad deal for me. It duplicated what I already had as far as music went. I use Apple Music. The video quality of some of the movies was poor and I, as a rule hate commercials before actually getting to the movie. I hate commercials on paid services in general. Amazon wasn’t as bad as Hulu has become it was just more expensive. Hulu is next on the agenda, I’m not watching much on their service either.

I had maintained Amazon Prime for the series, The Expanse. Funny thing about it was that with the character Alex being killed off at the end of last season, I couldn’t muster enough interest in watching this season to actually sit down and watch it. The actor that played Alex was accused of sexual harassment and was therefore immediately removed.

Having been sexually harassed by women, I take claims of harassment seriously. I also believe in due process, and let’s face it men don’t get due process ever. Even if the charges are completely dismissed, the accusation lingers, forever coloring everything they do and profoundly affecting their careers. Accusations of sexual harassment leveled against women on the other hand, are largely ignored. They are just as damaging to male victims but nobody cares.

I don’t know if Cas Anvar was actually guilty. The accusation alone is enough to destroy a male actor these days. In the series of books, Alex wasn’t killed off.

The whole cast is great, I’ve enjoyed their performances. But for some reason, I just completely lost interest in the story. Perhaps it was end of series malaise, perhaps it was something more. I own the first four seasons, I don’t know if I’ll spend the bucks to add season 5 and 6 to the collection or not.

I find that my interest in movies, TV, and even music is declining. I suppose it’s just that I’m not in any mood to sit down for two or three hours of haranguing about social justice, the end of the world, or whatever the cause de jour may be. Give me a good book instead and I’ll be happy.

In any case, I just cut 155.88 per year out of my budget. I guess I can apply that toward my gas or grocery bills.

I’d say, for everyone to take a look at parasitic monthly billing. It’s really easy for that stuff to accumulate and be forgotten about. It’s probably not going to put a lot of money back in your monthly budget, but these days every little bit helps.

Posted on

Wow, Neil Young thought he was still a star…

I find it really amusing that Neil Young blew it so badly.

Let’s see, he’s been in the entertainment industry for decades. You’d think that in all that time he’d have learned something about that business model.

You know, a little thing like, “Cash talks, Bullshit walks”.

Anyone with half a brain would have seen which way Spotify was going to go.

Option A, fold to Young’s childish demands and loose a ton of money by cancelling a current star like Rogan.

Option B, cancel a has been rocker that a lot of younger folks have no clue about.

Clearly Young missed the lesson of “Follow the Money”.

Now, Neil Young is asking for other ancient has been rockers to join his little snit. Apparently some are, Peter Frampton and Joni Mitchell have sided with Young.

It took Spotify less than 24 hours to come to a decision and delete Neil Young’s catalog. I imagine that if it comes to it, Frampton and Mitchell’s, music will be gone in less time. Other “Artists” may find their catalogs removed in seconds, not hours.

That’s the funny part of computers. The first iteration of something is always the slowest, the second, third, or fourth iterations of a function go much quicker.

I’d have to check the history of rock but wasn’t there a reason that Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young, just became Crosby, Stills & Nash?

I could see Spotify getting to the point that they just present a message to the Artist;

“You are about to delete your entire music catalog from Spotify. This represents XXXX Dollars per week of income to you. This action cannot be undone.

Continue? Y / N”

Then we’d see who really had conviction and valued the “Moral High Ground”. I might even respect those who pressed “Y”.

Apple has chosen to take this opportunity to “Make Hay while the sun shines,” by featuring Neil Young on Apple Music.

If Neil Young thinks this is anything but Apple blatantly attempting to woo new subscribers to their service, he better think again. Once again, this is only about the Benjamins. Apple will move on as soon as the media hype drops off. It’s not personal, it’s simply business.

I find myself questioning Apple more and more these days, but that is another story.

Thankfully I have no need of new Apple products and therefore don’t find myself with the dilemma of choosing to confront my growing concern that Apple has become “Evil” like Google did, versus wanting something Apple makes. I know it’s a cheap way out, but I really don’t want to deal with mixed platforms again, this way I can delay feeling like I have to decide.

It’s bad enough that I’m cancelling Amazon Prime, and Hulu. While neither of them are watched or listened to in this household enough to justify their costs. I’ll miss those odd moments when I want to watch something mindless like, Ancient Aliens, for the hell of it but don’t want to actually “Buy” it.

Kinda like how Spotify fed the aging boomers Neil Young’s music, allowing them to relive their glory days without having to pay for the shitty “B” sides.

(That’s a reference a lot of younger folks won’t get. You used to be able to tell which side of a vinyl LP had the best songs when you pulled it out of the sleeve. One side was worn and slightly gray while the other was pristine and shiny black. )

Honestly, I wish the entertainers would just stick to entertaining. I’m tired of having my political awareness triggered when I hear some favorite song. I hate hearing something and then getting sucked down the rabbit hole of, “That’s a song by X, they’ve been demanding Y be cancelled and saying if you disagree you’re part of the problem.” It’s at this point that I hit skip on the music player.

I just want to enjoy the music or the movie without having that internal political discussion.

A couple of examples;

Hocus Pocus – Bette Midler completely destroyed that old favorite movie for me. Why? Because now when I see her being an overbearing nasty witch on screen, I kinda think she wan’t acting. If that’s the case, she’s not a very nice person.

Cher – I grew up on her music. She had a special place in my heart. The Sonny & Cher show wasn’t missed often when I was growing up. But now… Every time she opens her mouth I’m appalled.

Jane Fonda – I was too young to understand why my Father and Step Father would change the channel if she was on TV. It didn’t matter to them if she was being an actress or an activist. Neither of them would allow her to be on the TV in their homes. It wasn’t until I was an adult with my own home and TV that I got to see her films.

Now, as an older adult, I get it, because I’ve begun to feel the same way about a lot of my icons.

Posted on

Huh! Life imitating conspiracy websites now?

Several month ago I was reading an outlandish theory on one of the “Conspiracy” websites.

You know, those sites that are identified as places where Qanon, or Proud Boys, or white supremacy nuts, or COVID conspiracy nuts, hang out and post all sorts of mis-information.

You know, one of those sites that big tech like Google, Facebook, Twitter, and all the rest bans, blocks, or outright censors.

I forget what led me to the site, or even what the site was. I think it was some report on a “True Approved and Certified” news feed talking about the outlandish misinformation being published. I recall that the site was full of a lot of crazy shit. I read a few articles and dismissed the site from my memory. It wasn’t worth my time.

Anyway, on that site was a really weird article discussing how Hillary Clinton could end up as President. From what I recall, the article presented the theory that Biden would probably not be able to finish his term due to declining mental abilities. The article went on to say that America would never accept Kamala Harris as president.

(Photo by William Thomas Cain/Getty Images)

The author of the piece said this wasn’t about her gender or color, it was about her complete and utter unlikability and how poorly she’d performed as VP and prior to that, as a presidential candidate.

The author suggested that this left the Democratic Party in a real bind because they’d have to retire Joe, then deal with Kamala, and perhaps impeach her. The author suggested that she’d not go quietly, and that the Democratic Party wouldn’t have control over her vice presidential pick.

The author said this left a bad option that would require impeachment of both Kamala and Biden which the republicans wouldn’t support because removal of both would put Nancy Pelosi in the office of The President. Americans would really cry foul and definitely cripple her presidency with a Republican majority in the House and Senate.

.

The author suggested that the only path would be to get Kamala out of the way with a juicy Supreme Court position. The author wrote something like Kamala’s ego wouldn’t be able to resist the allure of being the first “black” woman on the Supreme Court. Kamala would also choose security of a lifetime appointment over obscurity at the end of her VP stint.

The person writing the article posited that it would go something like this;

An older liberal justice is cajoled into retirement. Kamala is nominated to fill the slot and is a shoe in as a liberal replacement for a liberal retiring justice. The Republicans wouldn’t be able to block the appointment and Kamala takes the slot.

Biden, then of his own volition or through manipulation, nominates or chooses Hillary Clinton as his new VP.

Once Hillary is sworn in and has some time to marshal her forces, Biden then is removed via the 25th Amendment or impeachment.

And the Democrats get what they’ve been after since 2016.

Hillary Clinton becomes the rightful “Queen” as she was supposed to in 2016. Righting the egregious wrong of Donald Trump’s election by the ignorant, uninformed, unwashed, deplorable, masses.

The author said that all of these machinations had to happen in 2021 prior to the midterms or the Democrats would lose their opportunity to establish the dynasty they wanted.

I saw yesterday that Pelosi announced she’d be seeking re-election. She knows there’s likely to be a red wave in Congress and that she’s unlikely to retain her speakers role if that happens. Why would she after months of rumors of her retiring suddenly make that reversal?

At the time reading the article I thought, “What a load of horse shit!” No one in the Democratic Party would or could be that Machiavellian.

But today?

I wish I could find that article…

It makes me wonder if sometimes something that is called an insane conspiracy theory is actually truth written anonymously by someone with a guilty conscience?