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musicoccurred · 4 years ago

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Mixtapes

The mixtape, a word that is dependent on who's using it and when. I'm middle-aged and came up in the 80s and 90s so it means something different to me than a kid today or a band camp rapper. Having said that, let's take a look at the different usages of mixtape and see if we can crown a winner of the top type of mixtape.

For those of us with achy knees and patches of gray in our hair, a mixtape was, first and foremost, actually on a tape. Now there were themes involved just as there are now with some of the others I'll mention in a bit. For instance, every Sunday there was Rick Dees Weekly Top 40 radio show. I would often drop a blank cassette in my boom box and hit record. I would then go watch TV in the living room and keep an ear out for the telltale 'click' of the tape running out. I'd run back to my room, flip the tape, and hit record again. You have to understand, before the internet, geez that never not sounds old, the radio ruled. Even with albums, cassettes, and later CDs you still listened to the radio all the time. That's why I love XM so much, there's something about having someone curate music for you. And even today with every song available at the tap of a finger there's something awesome when your jam comes on the radio. It just hits different. I digress. So now at the end of the countdown you have the top 40 songs of the week, or however many you had enough tapes for... You can now make a mixtape of your favorite tracks. Radio also had "Request and Dedication" shows where you could call in and request a song and give a little dedication to your amore. You could record that and toss it at the beginning of the mixtape and good things happen. Another type would be artist specific. Say you were a Michael Jackson fan, you could take Off the Wall, Thriller and Bad and make a tape of your favorite songs from each. Another would be genre, when I was first getting into blues and jazz, I'd borrow tapes from my Mom and friends to make mix tapes. And last but not least, the mixtape for your love interest. These were the ultimate, you'd diligently record songs from the radio and mix in a song or two from either an artist she didn't know or an obscure song from a known artist to show you were a deep brother. You weren't done yet! You'd then work hard on the label and of course the note to go along with those 10 songs that perfectly sum up your feelings for that person. On a side note, I'd like to take this opportunity to say if you were the object of my unrequited affection and received one of these, I apologize. Unless you liked it, then, hey girl.

Next up we have the burned CD mixtape. It is the evolutionary cousin to the cassette mixtape. While it took a while for CD burners to become ubiquitous, they eventually showed up, primarily in PCs. What was lost in recording from the radio was picked up by being able to download from Napster and pass along. Additionally, you could write or draw on the CD itself and the labels, if you went that route, were larger for track listing and any other info you wanted to toss in there.

Now we're moving on to the streaming portion of the discussion:

Note: I'm using playlist and mixtape interchangeably here.

One step removed from the burned CD and what seems lightyears beyond the cassette technologically is the custom, personally curated playlist. This can be a playlist you do for yourself; I have several in Spotify. I will sometimes dump an entire artist's collection in there to shuffle, or perhaps include only the tracks I like best. I also have one for jazz and one for funk called 'greasy.' But in the spirit of this piece, I'm thinking of a playlist that you create for someone else and share the link with them. I actually like this, not only can you send them a custom mix of songs that can express how you feel about them, but you can update the playlist anytime. It can be romantic or simply sharing new tunes with a homie.

Next, we have the algorithmically created playlist. When you sign in Spotify (I'm assuming other services offer similar features) and you get the daily list or the multiple "just for you" selections, this is what I'm referring to. Spotify uses the data from your listening habits to create playlists with songs from artists they think you'll like. It's pretty accurate with a few swings and misses. I have to say I'm a fan of including these playlists as well as listing other artists similar to the one you're listening to. I've discovered so many new bands this way. Alternatively, there are playlists that are created based on other factors. I work out with playlists on Spotify and XM such as Hip hop workout or Lithium Workout. These are likely created based on a beats per minute count. Some don't really fit the workout but have a faster beat. Overall, I like this style of mixtape/playlist.

Finally, we have the artist mixtape. This is generally hip hop but isn't necessarily limited to any specific genre. I relate it to an EP being released prior to an LP back in the day. Some of these have very rapid turnarounds, like a day or two so sometimes the quality of the mix isn't that great but topically it's right on time.

So how do these rank in terms of which mixtape format is best? Let's find out!

5. Artist Mixtape - This may be one of those "not for you" cases but I'm not a fan of most of these I've heard. Some are pretty good, but most feel rushed or worse, don't have a cohesive feel to the tracks. The ability for artists to drop tracks near instantly is pretty amazing and I do like the idea of it. We'll see how that continues to develop.

4. Algorithmically created playlist - While I use these pretty much every single day, they lack the human touch - hello, algorithm - which is what makes the mixtape great.

3. Burned CD - I probably surprised you here with this at number 3. I do think it has a lot of strengths and is still a physical object that gives the human touch. But there were some issues. If you're old enough to have gone through the burned CD era, you'll know the pain of burning a CD for it to simply not work. Sometimes the person you gave it to had a CD player that wouldn't play those or you needed a CD -R or +R or RW, it was awful.

2. Personally curated playlist - While fully digital and not that personal this does have the ability to add and remove songs as you go. Plus, when you email the link to the person you can toss in a nice note about how you thought about them when making it.

1. Cassette - I mean come on, it's called a mixTAPE right? Clear winner here. Yeah, I'm old but there was something about it.

Epilogue:

I listen to either streaming music or records. I'm resisting the urge to get back into cassettes even though I have a couple decks and tapes. My cassette collection didn't survive growing up. Honestly, I have no idea where they went. I still have my CDs but before I would play a CD, I would stream it. There's something human about playing a record or a cassette. We are a touching, feeling creature and it means something to flip that tape over or to hold the liner notes on a record. I think that's lost on the younger folks. As everything is digitized and available on a screen it loses some of its meaning. I like buying concert tickets online but man, there's something about lining up at Macy's or JC Penney's or wherever your ticket office was and buying a physical ticket they handed you. When I have the option, even if it's a couple bucks more I still try to get physical tickets. In 20 years, I can look at that stub and remember the show, I can't do that with a barcode on an app.

What's your favorite format or mixtape/playlist?

-js

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twdmusicboxmystery · 7 years ago

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No Spoilers from the Spoiler Site - Good Thing for TD

Good morning lovely followers! I apologize for not being very active these past few days. It’s just been a rather busy week. But there’s been an absolute flurry of activity in my FB group about the spoilers (or lack thereof) for the MSF. This is REALLY good for TD, guys.

***I will be mentioning Carl spoilers here. I think most people are familiar with them now, but here’s fair warning that I’ll be discussing them.*** So let me start at the beginning. Back after the S7 finale (when we were all super-disappointed that Beth didn’t show up) @thegloriouscollectorlady and I were talking about screeners. Let’s start there, in case anyone doesn’t know how screeners work. (I didn’t either until it was explained to me a while back.)

Screeners are a pre-screening of the episode that is sent out to various news outlets. So sites like Geek.com, TVGuide.com, ComicBook.com, to name a few. They aren’t supposed to leak what’s in the episode (I’m sure they sign a contract to that effect) but they’re allowed to see the episode roughly a week before it airs so they can get their articles together and have them ready to post as soon as the episode airs. AMC gives these media outlet this advantage because it’s good publicity for the show and generates buzz and discussion when the articles get posted. As soon as the episode is over, people are instantly online looking for articles.

We’re reasonably certain that the big spoiler site that shall remain nameless (;D) gets their information from someone who receives a screener. That’s why, for the past few seasons especially, a few days before the episode airs, they get a play-by-play of what happens in the episode. Their source watches the screener, and then sends them information. I personally don’t think the spoiler site sees the actual script or the actual episode. I think their source just sends them a detailed summary. That’s why they often get details wrong. Small things can get misconstrued if the summary is vague.

Okay, hope that’s all clear. Let me know if it isn’t. So back when S7 ended, remember that in the TTD afterward, Gimple said the thing about the first four episodes being “brain melting,” which they kind of weren’t. So when we heard that, and coupled with the sunset at the end of Sasha’s arc, we thought/hoped Beth would show up after episode 4. So I made the comment to @thegloriouscollectorlady “Wouldn’t it be great if they didn’t send out screeners for those first four episodes?”

See, we’ve often discussed tptb trying to hide Beth’s return and that maybe they simply wouldn’t send out the screeners so no one would know.

Now, obviously we were wrong about that. They DID send out screeners (the spoiler site had spoilers) for episodes 1-4 and Beth didn’t return.

But during the S8 preview show, Gimple said after the first four episodes, things would get “acoustic.” We didn’t know what that meant, but I’m gonna argue that things DID get acoustic. There’s been a TON of music in these past episodes.

So between that, where we are in the narrative (especially with Daryl), and this “shocking moment” they teased so much last week, most of us were very hopeful that we’d see Beth in the MSF.

So here’s a little convo about screeners we had in the group last Sunday:

Once again, we wondered if tptb would try to hide it. And guess what?

Low and behold, on Tuesday, we got confirmation that screeners were NOT sent out for this episode. Geek.com, at least, did not get a screener, which means no one did. And that means the spoiler site won’t have spoilers. That set off a flurry of discussion in our group. Check out this thread, which is just one of several on which we’re discussing this issue.

Yeah, 81 comments, lol. I guess you can say we’re all pretty excited. And again, this is not by far the only thread we’re discussing this on.

I knew I wanted to post about this two days ago (on Tuesday), but I also wanted to wait because there was some speculation that, even if the spoiler site didn’t know what the “shocking moment” was, they might post some of the spoilers they had. And just because tptb are trying to hide it, doesn’t mean things won’t get leaked. It’s happened before.

So I wanted to wait and see what happened. Yesterday, the spoiler site posted something saying that after careful consideration, they’d decided not to post any spoilers at all for the MSF. They also say it’s not a legal thing and they’ll explain more after the MSF airs.

Guys, this is HUGE! And very good for TD. Mostly because it’s never happened before. We’ve also discussed (and I know I recently answered an Ask about it) whether or not the spoiler site would post spoilers about Beth’s return, even if they had them. The reason we wonder about that is because the site has been so horrible and petty to TD and Beth’s fans. They didn’t like her at all and have always been nasty to us. So we wondered if they would post her return if they knew or try to hide it. We still don’t have an answer to that because we don’t know if they know.

See, them being so secretive boils down to one of two things: 1) either they really have no clue because the screeners didn’t go out. 2) they got the information somehow and know she’s returning, but don’t want to post it because they know they were wrong and they’re gonna get backlash over it.

Those are really the only two scenarios that make sense. If you’ve been on the spoiler site forum or paid attention to what others are saying, they’re trying hard to push the idea that the “shocking moment” will be Carl’s death, which everyone’s been discussing for weeks. I’m here to tell you that it makes no sense for that to be the case.

As I said in my last, TTD post, they’ve never hyped a death this way. They always stay entirely away from deaths so the audience (those that don’t follow spoilers anyway) are surprised. But the other thing is that they usually send out screeners for deaths as well. We had spoilers for Sasha’s death, Denise, Glenn/Abraham, BETH. Just because someone is dying, they usually don’t cover to the point of not sending out screeners. This has to be something else, and bigger than that, for them to withhold the screener.

Plus, even the spoiler site themselves said they don’t think the big death is happening until episode 9. If that’s the case, it can’t have anything to do with the “shocking moment” in episode 8.

Now they’re saying they think that character will be injured in ep 8 but not die until ep 9.

Again, based on precedent, that makes no sense at all. They’ve never had a major character get injured in one episode and die in another. This is where half our survival evidence about Beth comes from. If the character is badly injured, but doesn’t die right away (think Carl’s various GSWs, Hershel’s leg, Tara’s head injury in 5b) they always survive. When we have a major character death it always happens all at once in the same episode.

The only possible exception is being bitten. Two characters, Jim in S1 and Bob in S5, were bitten in one episode but didn’t die in that episode. To be fair, neither of them were top-billed characters, and neither was as big a deal as Carl is. But could Carl be bitten? Sure. I know there’s been some speculation about him having been bitten when he was with Siddiq. For the record, I don’t think he was. It’s night time in the promo for episode 8, which means it’s been hours since he fought walkers with Siddiq, and I think he would at least be showing signs of a fever by then. So I personally doubt he’s been bitten.

But let’s say for argument’s sake that he was. So what would be the shocking moment in episode 8 then? To tell us he was bitten? Sure everyone would be surprised and sad, but it’s really not shocking enough to withhold the screener. Especially if he doesn’t actually die in this episode. And even if we do see him be bitten or seriously injured in episode 8…again, why withhold the screener? If Sasha’s death wasn’t shocking enough to keep it out of spoiler sites’ hands, why would an injury WITHOUT a death, be shocking enough? See what I mean?

Guys, I could go on and on and on. I won’t, but this is what my group’s been doing for the past few days: running through every possible argument and scenario to try and figure out what else it could be (besides Beth) and if we shouldn’t be getting our hopes up. Nothing else makes sense. We’re 99% sure the shocking moment isn’t a death, and honestly, what else would be so shocking to the audience? What else would tptb try so hard to hide? We really think we’re going to see her.

So one more thing about the spoiler site and then I’ll shut up. There was one comment made by one of the admins that make us think they know SOMEthing. We don’t have confirmation that they do. Maybe they really know nothing. Either way is good for us.

The comment was that, after the MSF, a lot of people were going to be “eating crow.” For those who don’t know, that’s an English expression that means “humiliation by admitting having been proven wrong after taking a strong position.” Eating “humble pie” is a similar expression.

So again, they’ve been so nasty to TD, we’re thinking maybe, somehow, they do know that Beth is returning, and this “eating crow” refers to them having been so wrong and us being right about her return. Nothing else makes much sense. Even if the Carl spoilers are wrong, no one’s known about them long, and even the spoiler site has always said their unconfirmed, and to take it with a grain of salt. So there’s no reason to shame anyone because no one’s had a super-strong opinion about it. Just conjecture. So why would anyone need to eat crow over that?

So we’ve discussed what they may post after the episode, per their comment that they’ll explain later. I seriously doubt TD will get much of an apology, but you gotta understand how weird it is for them not to post ANYTHING. And that also makes me think they know something.

Even if they didn’t get the screener and don’t have confirmation of what happens, their usual MO is to post what they THINK will happen and just put a disclaimer on it saying it hasn’t been confirmed and so to understand they might be wrong. Why not just do that if they don’t know? Sounds like maybe they DO know, and just don’t want to say.

And the ONLY thing we can’t think of that would make them do that is Beth’s return. People (non-TDers) have suggested all kinds of things, such as Chandler contacting them and asking them not to confirm certain things. (Again, these people are assuming Carl is dying, which I’m no longer totally convinced of.) But the spoiler site has always said that if they have spoilers, they’re posting them. End of story. Like most ruthless reporters, they don’t have much respect or sensitivity for the human element. They just want to be the first ones to report the big story. When John Bernecker died (he was the stunt guy who took a fall during the filming season and tragically passed away) they reported that with as much callousness as anything else. They wouldn’t not report something just to “be nice.”

On the other hand, we know they have an ego and they might not report something if it was going to threaten their reputation. And let me just say my intention here isn’t to slam or insult the spoiler site. I’m just saying that based on past behavior, this is a VERY odd decision on their part.

And of course I’ve gotten questions about whether it could be something else: the return of Heath or Sherry, something with FG or Eugene. Again, I just don’t think so. I know they’ve hyped things before and we’ve been disappointed, but they’ve never withheld the screener before. While any of those things would be big deals, would they be bigger than a major character death? Bigger than Morales’ return? Bigger than a new romance? (We totally got spoilers for Richonne, Ressie, and Carnid’s first kiss.)

Do we have confirmation that Beth will return? No, we don’t, but we have more hope than we’ve had in the past three years. I would also like to take this moment to point one thing out. One of the first theories TD-ers pinpointed about Beth is that the rule of 3s is used around her. Everything happens in 3s. 8x08 will be exactly 3 seasons from when she was shot. 3 seasons from when we last saw her for real. (We saw her in 5x09 as Ty’s hallucination, but I’m discounting that for now because it wasn’t her in the flesh.) So 8x08 just makes a lot of sense.

So I’ll shut up now, but I encourage you to read what’s being said and just always ask, would that merit not sending out screeners? Because we can really only think of one thing that would.

Everyone have a great Friday! Can’t wait for Sunday. ;D

#beth greene #beth greene lives #beth is alive #beth is coming #td theory #td theories #team delusional #team defiance #beth is almost here

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heatherc1212 · 7 years ago

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Random Thoughts

Hi everyone!

So I haven’t written a blog for quite a long time but I had some random things on my mind recently and wanted to put them into writing so here you go. My random thoughts lately have revolved around Chicago Fire although, to be honest, my overall thoughts have actually been on all over the place and have included the gymnastics scandal, work woes, life decisions, and planning for my next travel adventures, but as far as TV shows go....it’s been CF on my mind quite a bit. Instead of dragging things out too much (though this will be long), I’m going to just start a bullet list of all the things running through my head regarding the show and hopefully this blog makes some sort of sense, LOL ;)

Disclaimer: I absolutely understand that not everyone feels the way I feel or sees things the same way that I do regarding the show. This is simply a blog allowing me to share some of the thoughts that have been rolling around in my head for the last few weeks. Please know that I’m not telling any of you how to feel and I won’t be offended if you disagree with me about anything. Thanks! =)

Before I bullet point the heck out of this blog, here’s the reason I’ve had Chicago Fire on my mind recently: there seems to be a TON of negativity out there, more than I have ever seen, about the show. On the one hand, I guess it’s good that people care because when you stop caring about a show, that’s the first sign that you should probably stop watching, but on the other hand, why are people so angry?! It’s really startling to me how angry and frustrated some folks have been lately because seriously guys, it’s only a TV show. As frustrated as I know I can get about my shows (I’m pretty passionate about my TV choices), it takes a lot to get me to spend too much of my time complaining about them online or even to stop watching them all together. Lately I feel like some folks have endless amounts of time to complain and honestly it’s ruining my fun of reading all the social media stuff from the show’s accounts. Who wants to read a bunch of whining when you’re just trying to look at the social media activity?! It made me curious about some things and after some research and sleuthing online, I’ve come to some conclusions about how things seem to be right now. Here come the bullet points! =)

#1. FYI - Not Everyone Hates the Show

So I did a poll on Twitter last week just because I was curious about this and here are the results:

Apparently on Twitter, at least with people who follow me there, they’re not as angry about things as fans seem to be on other websites. I don’t see as much negativity or anger on Twitter (at least from the many people who I follow or who follow me) and this poll tells me that folks are mostly enjoying S6. It should be noted that I choose not to follow certain people on Twitter because I don’t need all that negativity in my life but I am followed by others who are always quick to share with me when they like or hate things (especially during a live tweet of the show). Twitter seems to be mostly positive but in my research, I did notice that most of the negativity seems to be on Facebook (where people seem angry in general about a lot of things but that’s a whole other blog, LOL). Why are people so unhappy on Facebook? I have no idea. Its disturbing and honestly, that anger and hatred doesn’t seem limited to CF (I see it on other accounts as well which is why I stopped reading most of the story comments on FB the last few months). It also seems like the FB community is filled with one group of people right now....the Gabby haters. Seriously, so many of the same people are griping about her in ALL of their replies to any CF posts and I don’t know that I will ever understand their anger over her. She’s definitely strong willed and doesn’t always think before she acts but the woman has a heart of gold, adores her husband more than she can even say, and would do anything for her friends and family. She is also NOT receiving the majority of screen time this year (I really want to do an experiement and figure out how much screen time each character has had in S6 because I don’t think it would be that extreme for any of the characters this year....I think it’s been pretty balanced overall) and contrary to their belief, she’s also not involved in every story. I feel like one, their anger comes from things they hated in previous seasons and they’re not really watching what’s happening now or two, they just can’t get over how they’ve always felt about her and see things completely wrong. Strong women are almost NEVER liked on a TV show so it doesn’t shock me that some folks can’t stand her but OMG, with all the stuff going on lately about women needing to stand up for themselves more and not be run over by controlling men, aren’t Gabby, Sylvie, and Stella a breath of fresh air?! They are the epitome of strong women and I respect the heck out of how they are shown on CF. I don’t think I’ll ever understand the mentality of people on FB lately but this brings me to another thing that I’ve noticed about the fandom lately...

#2. Cliques are Running Rampant

Yup, we have officially gone back to high school and cliques have taken over the internet. I’ve all ready mentioned the “I Hate Gabby” clique that seems to have formed over on FB (which has run off all the other fans IMO) but a few other websites have some cliques too. Any time that TV Line posts a CF story or preview, there’s almost always people who show up to slam the show for some reason. It’s like they’re waiting for something to be shared so they can post something negative. It makes me wonder if some of these folks get paid per negative comment....they must be millionaires by now, LOL ;) SpoilerTV also has a very negative clique of people who seem to be disgruntled with the writing in general lately and spam the comment sections with all sorts of things. I don’t know that they’ve had anything nice to say about this entire season (to be fair...I got annoyed reading all the negativity so I only stay there long enough to read the PRs, check out the promo pics, and watch the sneak peeks, and then I get out of there so maybe things are better) but that seems like a small clique of people too. EW also has a few people who’s blatant negativity has run other fans off and IMO, a few of these people are actually the same people who apparently want to spread negativity onto every CF article. There are also some cliques on Twitter but those seem to be split into several factions, none of which seem to be to be angry or negative about the show. There’s the Dawsey lovers (my favorites!), the Sevasey lovers, the show in general lovers, the young groupies who are all about shipping, the foreign folks who watch at random hours, and quite a few others but IMO, Twitter folks seem to be much more chill than on any of the other websites. I will absolutely admit that I mainly stick to Twitter now because FB, SpoilerTV, et. al drive me absolutely bonkers. It’s a TV show, not life or death, so the anger and hostility is just way too much for me. The things that people get angry over can make me shake my head as well which brings me to point #3....

#3. The Show Does NOT Produce the Promos or the Press Releases

I have seen people get so salty over a press release or a promo for the show this year and they all seem to forget one big thing.....those are NOT produced by the people who work on the show. Those all come from NBC. The network’s job is to get you to watch so they have this whole marketing department coming up with the press releases and figuring out the promos that they’re going to use for the show and probably 90% of the time, the actual show is completely different from what they show in those publicity spots. I learned very early on to not take the press releases too seriously....they’re literally just to give you a tease of the stories you’re gonna see on each episode and they rarely give you the whole picture. If anything the actual ep is way more fleshed out and barely relatable to whatever they’ve released in the PR. The promos are the same way. Half the time the promo is only focused on one story from the ep and that story may or may not be the actual big story; it’s just the big thing that NBC thinks will get people to watch. They’re simply trying to get your attention and if the promo pisses you off that much, then maybe they did their job because hey, it did get an emotional response from you, LOL ;) I find it a waste of time to get too emotional one way or the other about the stuff that comes from NBC and I really wish others felt the same way. How about we wait until we actually see the episodes before you start getting all riled up?! Talking about the network brings me to my next bullet point....

#4: The Ratings Whining - CF is Actually Doing Just Fine

Another thing I’ve seen lately is the whining about the ratings. “CF is gonna get cancelled!” “I can’t believe they’ve fallen so far!” “OMG, things are so horrible.” These are all variations of comments I’ve seen over this season and I feel like screaming at everyone, CHILL OUT. Chicago Fire moved to a new night for the first time in five years. Obviously when you move a show that had a comfortable stranglehold on one night to a completely different night, there’s going to be some rating fluctuations but IMO, and I’m one who stalks the ratings every week, CF is actually holding its own right now. They moved it to one of the toughest nights on TV (and they not only lost their cushy lead in, they were off the air for half the fall too due to football) but their overall household ratings are still right around where they’ve always been (6+ million viewers). The demo has been a little lower but IMO, they’re not too far off from where they used to be on Tuesday nights when you look at how the other shows have also fluctuated in the demo (remember when NCIS ruled Tuesday nights?! They’ve also fallen way lower this year and they didn’t move nights either). Demos overall are not as high as they used to be (This Is Us, Good Doctor, and football aside...) so I think CF is hanging in there pretty well and has actually won the 10 PM on Thursday slot quite a few times (don’t forget the DVR +3 and +7 ratings which are actually up for CF this season). I don’t know that NBC will keep CF on Thursday nights next season, and I think when Scandal moves to 10 PM in March (I think that’s when it moves....), that it may cut into the CF ratings a bit since Scandal is ending this year, but I really don’t think was NBC trying to kill the show by moving it. They had to put something on Thursdays at 10 PM knowing that football and the Olympics were going to cut into their overall schedule, and as annoying as the football break was for us, IMO knowing early on that they were going to have specific breaks in their schedule has allowed CF to create stories to fit those time frames and not drag stories out for too many weeks. That part of it has worked for me. I honestly think NBC might try a short term show in that Thursday at 10 PM slot that they can run up to the football break, end it completely, and then bring another show back midseason when football is over (please don’t let it be CF so that we don’t have to wait until January for our show to come back....). BTW-This schedule is also going to allow us to have a TON of weeks in the spring of uninterrupted new episodes which I think will make up for the fact that the show was off the air for so long in the fall. Long story short....ratings are all right for CF and I think NBC is probably happy that CF has held it’s own on a new night. OK, last bullet point coming up...

#5: Shipping Arguments - WTH is This Coming From?!

Is it just me or have wars about the shipping of the various couples on the show gotten out of hand this season?! I love Dawsey with everything I have (they’re literally my only ship left after a bunch of other ones literally died on me) but I also enjoy Brettonio, Stellaride, the Herrmanns, and Otis and Lily, as well as other ships in the One Chicago universe such as Burzek. When did people start getting salty over shipping with these shows? Even back in the days of Millson vs. Dawsey or when Hallie was still around and bothering Dawsey fans, I don’t remember things being so hostile between some of the fans. It probably doesn’t help that NBC ran that stupid “Best One Chicago Ship” poll that was clearly set up to be a promotional thing for Brettonio (you will never convince me that Dawsey didn’t win that poll...) but overall, it seems like fans are letting their passions get the best of them and its making things way more tense in the fandom as a whole. Good gracious, ship whoever you want (I am very well aware of the fact that Dawsey isn’t liked by everyone) but you don’t need to tear other fans down because they don’t agree with your own views. When did this become such a big thing? It makes me sad because I’ve seen shipping stuff ruin fandoms of other shows (Once Upon a Time and most of the super hero shows come to mind...) and I don’t want to see that happen to the One Chicago fandom too. Can’t we all just get along?! =)

OK, now that I’ve ranted about a few things that have bugged me, here’s some thoughts on how I’ve been feeling about the show in general this season, just in case you were wondering about that. I used to do the ChiFiRoundTables every week but I stopped doing them this season and I realize now that I miss being able to share my thoughts on the show. I don’t regret not doing the round tables (OMG, I am SO busy that I have no idea when I would have fit that in, LOL) but I’m excited to share some of my thoughts about S6. Bear with me because this won’t be bullet pointed so it may be the world’s longest paragraph, LOL ;)

First up, the biggest thing I ask myself when I watch any TV show is this question: Am I still being entertained by this show? The other thing I ask myself is if I’m still invested in the characters. I’ll admit that I’ve mostly stopped watching TGIT because the characters have become so unbearable to me (its mostly Murder and Scandal....I’ve heard Grey’s has been better this year but I’m never home on Thursdays at that time so maybe I’ll binge it this summer to catch up if it stays good. BTW-I actually have kept up with Scandal but only because I know it’s ending this year and I need to know how it all wraps up) so I will not hesitate to drop a show if its not entertaining me anymore. So that being said, I am still highly invested in the CF stories and the characters are still people that I love spending an hour of my time with every week. Yeah, sometimes a story feels like a retread of a previous story and sometimes a character does something that makes me roll my eyes but overall, I’m still being entertained by CF so I’ve really enjoyed S6. I actually love how Dawsey has been written this season and I feel like they’ve been building things up to possibly allow them to have their own family at some point soon. They’ve gone through some ups and downs but they’ve also handled things pretty well and worked through their issues just like real married people do and that’s refreshing to me. I love how much they love each other and they’ve shown that they would do anything to support the other. I also like that we’ve gotten some good Sevasey moments (I even liked the tension after Casey got his promotion...it makes sense to me that Sev would need time to adjust to his new situation at the house), I love that the Truck guys are still hilarious, I love that Casey got promoted to Captain, I love that Gabby got her own episode to shine and that it showed how much Dawsey loves and supports each other, I actually love the slow burn of Stellaride, I’m not sure how much I liked the Brettonio teases (I did like them last season) but I am rooting for them to figure things out, I also love that we’ve seen how far Sylvie has come since she first came to Chicago (the one good thing we learned from the Hope story...Sylvie is freaking awesome!), I’ve enjoyed most of the rescues although a few of them have grossed me out, I love all the Chief and Casey scenes we’ve gotten and that Casey is learning from his Chief how to be a better leader and how to not let it ruin his relationships with everyone, and I love that each character has had some family stuff come up at certain points so we’ve had a chance to see them interact with their non firehouse family members (hi Leon and Donna). I know some folks have been angry that there’s not enough ‘fire’ in Chicago Fire but I hope people remember that firefighters respond to more than just fire rescues and I think the show has done a good job of showing that this season. We just had a big fire in the last episode and there have been a few others than I can think of from the previous episodes. People seem to want a huge ass fire in every single episode and that’s just not reasonable to do every week. Overall I have really enjoyed CF this season and yes, I have had some issues with a few things but its minor stuff and the overall feel of the show is still enjoyable for me. I know I’m not the only one who feels this way so I felt like I needed to put this out there so other folks know that it’s okay to be happy with the show right now. Its okay to love Chicago Fire this season....I promise! =)

Thanks for reading my ramblings tonight (I hope they made sense) and please feel free to contact me if you have any comments, questions, or just something to share with me because I love hearing from you guys. Have a great week!

Love you all, Heather =)

P.S. Some moments from S6 that make my heart happy (GIFs not mine):

#Chicago Fire #dawsey #ramblings #s6 #cf blog

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juliuskchq303-blog · 5 years ago

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9 Reasons Why Having An Excellent Stock Broker Is Not Enough

Unless you're capable of develop a considerable trading edge in the other traders, you can be losing your cash, even if you are disciplined and organized. In this article, I talk over some elements that I use within my trading edge.

Fundamental Analysis

Fundamental analysis is the method of evaluating the financial condition of the company using financial statements, price/earning ratios, revenues, share of the market, sales and growth, etc. This type of analysis may be time consuming so as opposed to experiencing pages of financial statements, I simply have a look at IBD ratings.

I like to use Investor?s Business Daily (IBD available at ) to acquire a quick overview of the stock. The IBD rating covers:

1 - Earnings Per Share (EPS) rating: tells me a standard?s average short-term (recent quarters) and lasting (last several years) earning growth rate. The number I see is when the company compares to all other companies. The scale runs from 1 to 99, 99 being the best.

2 - Relative Price Strength (RS) Rating: Measures a share?s relative price alteration of the final 1 year when compared with all other equities. The scale runs from 1 to 99, 99 being the most effective.

3 - Industry Relative Price Rating: Compares a standard?s industry price action in the past half a year for the other 196 industries in IBD?s industry list. The scale is from A to E, A being the most effective.

4 - Sales + Profit Margins + ROE (Return on Equity) Rating: Crunches a firm?s sales growth rate during the final 3 quarters, pre and post income and return on equity into one letter. The scale comes from A to E, A being the very best.

5 - Accumulation/Distribution rating: Applies mathematics of price and volume alterations in the last 13 weeks to determine whether it is being accumulated or distributed. A = heavy buying, C = Neutral, E = heavy selling.

If that suits you the thought of including fundamental analysis into your trading plan, consider trading only stocks that meet some minimum requirements - by way of example A or B, > 70, etc.

I prefer to use fundamental ratings longer term trades such as the ones I anticipate weekly charts. It is not really useful should you trade intraday.

Technical Analysis

Fundamental analysis is fantastic to develop a summary of strong stocks, or in an effort to filter out weak stocks, but that?s about this. It won't provide you with a goal strategy to enter and exit trades. All my trading decisions (entry, exit, and stops) are based on technical analysis.

Technical analysis may be the study of prices. The price action draws patterns on charts and because human behavior may be repetitive, the cost patterns may also be repetitive.

You consider many different chart types. The Japanese candlestick charts are certainly the very best and it will be the only form you may need. There are entire books dedicated for the study of candlestick patterns - should you are serious about studying candlestick charts, take a look at books written by Steve Nison and and Gregory L. Morris.

- Support and Resistance: The most important concept in technical analysis is Support and Resistance. It forms the muse for each trading decision and could cover many pages but I will limit myself to simplified definitions along with a couple examples:

Support level: A price level which a declining market or stock failed to penetrate

Example: the low from the previous day forms a place of support and is often used as a stop loss.

Resistance level: A price level that the rising market or stock still did not break through

Example: an earlier high in an uptrend forms a location of resistance and could be used as being a minimum objective to take a few profits.

Some technical indicators may also provide some support and resistance, as an example moving averages, partly maybe as a general rule traders expect it.

- Oscillators

An oscillator can be a technical indicator that lets you know immediately whether a niche or a standard currently trades in the "overbought" or "oversold" condition. Some traders use oscillators to forecast a big change of direction. Some examples add the RSI, Stochastic Oscillator, and MACD.

There are countless oscillators and technical indicators. I personally have a look at these phones filter out some stocks if I have too many honest ones to select from. I never rely on them as a signal to spread out or close a trade.

- Public Sentiment

I seek out support and resistance on the VIX (Volatility Index) daily chart that is expected reversals.

I look at the Put/Call Ratio (5 MA and 10 MA) about the daily chart to see if traders are so bearish (MAs > 0.8) or too bullish (MAs

(MA = Moving Average)

youtube

- Market internals to ascertain if industry is overbought or oversold

I take a look at the TRIN (5 MA and 10 MA) around the daily chart - overbought (MAs 1.2).

I examine the McClellan Oscillator ? industry is overbought if it rises above +70 and oversold if drops below -70. A buy signal is generated whether it grouped into the oversold area (-70 to -100) after which appears - a sell signal is generated if it rises into the overbought area (+70 to +100) after which turns down. If it goes past the -100/+100 levels this may be a manifestation of continuation in the current trend.

- Market and Industries

I want to buy stocks from industries in the strong uptrend and short stocks from industries in the downtrend. I also think about the direction of the industry for the day (negative or positive).

Putting it all together

This article isn't about instructing you on the way to develop a good edge but hopefully it shows you that there are many different tools that could be used to improve your odds. It takes time for you to find a combination that fits your personality. It takes time and energy to find what works to suit your needs.

#stock market #stock broker

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marie-dufresne · 7 years ago

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Marie-mun, you've mentioned your husband is a musician and from what I gathered (correct me if I'm wrong), he supports you and your son? I really want to pursue my music for a career but I'm scared to take that leap. You make me feel like I could do it. Any advice?

Yes, Mr. Frenchie is a musician and he is by far the breadwinner. The bacon bringer homer.

I can, and will, give you a full lowdown on how it works for us but let me just tell you right off the bat that there are some ah, extra, things that really helped drive his career along.

1. He’s a musical prodigy. It helps. A lot lol.

2. He’s a people person. Again, this helps a l o t.

3. He went from living the bachelor life to having a new girlfriend and a babu on the way in a span of 3 months so. There was a very strong fire under his butt that motivated him. That helped a lot.

4. He plays multiple instruments {piano, guitar, bass, vocals, and organ professionally, mandolin and uke he can teach but doesn’t play out}

I also want to say before I begin that everything I’m about to say isn’t a requirement to have a career as a musician, it’s just what he does to support his family and also to give us the lifestyle we want. (we like nice things and we aren’t ashamed to admit it.) You may not have a family to support. You might not live in an area where buying a house is sensible. You might be a minimalist. Who knows, I don’t, but I’ll still do my best to help maybe clear your brains up a bit.

One thing (and most career musicians will tell you the same thing) that you need to know is there is no one-and-done as far as music goes. Unless you’re a sound engineer or schoolteacher or something, very few “music” jobs pay a livable salary. Performance jobs especially as I imagine this is what you’re referring to.

Because there is no one-and-done, prepare to work odd hours, drive or commute otherwise a lot, and also be asked “what’s your real job”. a l o t. So. How to pay your bills on your music career? Here are some options for you, built out of literally everything Mr. Frenchie does. {read more for obscene length lmao}

Gigs:

The first and most obvious answer. For this, you will have to pay your dues. 4 hour gigs @ $50-75 a pop, bringing all of your own sound equipment and possibly playing to 4 drunks passed out on the tables. DO IT. Make friends with the bartenders. Make friends with management. Make friends even with those guys at the tables. You never know who has connections to better paying jobs. You never know. {Mr. Frenchie has gotten jobs playing private birthday parties @ $700+ for two hours from making friends with people at shitty bars. GET IN WITH THE PEOPLE.}

This will suck at first. It will suck so hard and you will be tired, and you will probably hate the music you’re playing and if you have a s/o at home they will be annoyed and frustrated at times. It’s okay. It’s part of the job.

But here’s the thing. Don’t get stuck in these gigs. Regardless of the music you like, learn everything. Learn one hit wonders for the has-been hotties at the bar. Learn classic rock, learn country, learn the songs everyone is so fucking sick of hearing. Learn top 40 pop tunes, learn jazz standards, learn 40’s and 50’s ballads. Learn holiday music. Learn traditional music (traditional Irish tunes are what’s popular here) LEARN IT ALL.

The more songs you have in your repertoire, the more versatile you’ll be. You don’t want to get offered a gig at an elderly community brunch (sounds snoozy but trust me, those people are some of the most fun and tip well ;) ) and have to turn it down because all you know is Glam Rock and a couple U2 tunes. Trust me.

If you work at it, you will reach a point where you can turn down those $50 gigs. You’ll get to a point where you can say no to anything that doesn’t pay your minimum + bar tab & food. Though gigging is not Mr. Frenchie’s main income, he does love to do it. He rarely plays out at bars and is now doing upscale restaurants and local bay cruises instead. :)

Meeting people at gigs is a good way to get Cocktail Hour jobs at weddings as well. This is something Mr. Frenchie only does here and there as it often interferes with his salary job, but the pay is good. :)

Teaching:

One of the main parts of our household income. Private lessons aren’t exactly “performance” but they pay. Lessons privately (on your own, outside of a studio) will obviously pay more, but if you don’t have a name in the music industry of your area yet, I highly recommend poking around at music schools/studios looking for instructors.

Teaching is a much steadier source of income than gigs (as most bars and restaurants either rotate or “call when they need you”), but unlike gigs, it’s not for everyone. You can be a great musician and a poor teacher. This is the area where “being a people person” helps the most lol. Having a strong grasp of music theory also greatly helps in this area.

Teaching also opens windows to networking. People who put their kids in music lessons tend to be on the upper end of the pay grade (generally, not always), as it is an expensive activity. As you build a relationship with your students and thus their parents, you might find yourself hired for live music at their restaurants, cocktail hours for older children’s weddings, or of course, referrals to you as a music teacher for children of their friends. (currently Mr. Frenchie has a waiting list of parents who will not put their child with any instructor except him, but his teaching schedule is full up right now)

Musically Directing:

This one is probably one of the more difficult things to do, depending on your skill level. Musically directing local musicals is not easy or quick, but the pay is usually pretty good, and if you’re into musicals it’s a lot of fun. Of course, as you’re required to work with the full cast, you’d have to have knowledge of:

a. how musicals work

b. the show you’re musically directing

c. vocals (you’re essentially a voice coach for a large part of it)

d. conducting a pit band.

This though is the area I know the least about in regards to what he does, to be honest. All I know is that during a show I basically never see him because he’s at rehearsal 4x a week on top of everything else on this list lmao. That and his struggles with cast members who simply will not practice.

If directing doesn’t seem like your bag, musicals are always looking for pit musicians! Check in with colleges and universities for these opportunities first, as most community theaters tends to have “their people” and likely won’t hire without prior experience or “knowing a guy”.

Music Ministry:

This is our biggest loaf of bread.

This particular loaf of bread though, is definitely not for everyone. One thing to know though is that you don’t actually need to be a person of faith to acquire a music ministry job, though it um, obviously helps. It not only helps get you hired, but you’ll have a better grasp on what you’re doing as well as the reverence the Mass (or other service depending on which direction you take) deserves.

The thing about music ministry though, is if you can find a place of worship in need of a music director in the right place, you can get…

…

BENEFITS.

B E N E F I T S.

That’s right, my friend. Healthcare, vacation time, 401k, life insurance, the whollleeee kit and caboodle. I, of course, can only speak for the Catholic churches (as this is where Mr. Frenchie works), and even then, as he’s worked for several, only some have the financial stability to offer benefits. (though if the church has a school attached, your children can attend at reduced or 0 tuition! :D Our parish… does not have a school lmao, but he’s been offered jobs at some that do.)

Now this of course is also for the position of a music director. If you don’t qualify for this but wish to contribute in other ways (guitarist, violinist, cantor etc etc), you’ll most likely still receive a stipend, but you probably won’t be considered a “full time” employee as your responsibilities are literally just showing up and playing or singing lol.

One thing that music ministry does open the door for (especially on the off chance you’re an organist! You aren’t? Get yourself some lessons, stat), is funerals. Funerals are a really really good source of income, depending on the location, typically $125-200 per. (Again, speaking solely for Catholic funeral Masses) So if you’ve got a grasp on how a Mass works and can learn yourself some hymns, put your name in.

Music directors, of course, will get first refusal for funerals and weddings but there are a ton of times they either can’t or they’re on vacation or any other number of reasons and churches really like to keep lists of people who can fill in. If you do well, and you make connections in the ministry world, friends will refer you and your network will grow and grow. It’s also a good way to be in people’s ear in the event music director jobs open up (if you’re waiting on one) and to get offered one. :)

There was one point Mr. Frenchie was playing weekly across 3 parishes, plus College Campus Ministry on Sunday nights but we’ve finally managed to get it down to just our home parish where he is the music director, though he will take funerals from any parish that comes calling so long as there’s room in his schedule for it.

—

Okay I think that’s everything. Through all this he works easily 60-90hrs/week, commuting roughly 3 hours a day on average.

Hopefully I didn’t discourage you hahahaha but I didn’t want to just say “oh yes if you work hard enough you can totally do it!!

If you’re ride or die set on having a career solely on music you’ve written, you’re definitely in for a bad time, but if you open yourself up to literally everything on your journey to promote yourself, you might find some things you really enjoy doing all while supporting yourself and kicking the starving artist trope to the curb. :)

#bless you if you read all that #I hope it helps?????#ooc #Anonymous #answered yo

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doodlewash · 7 years ago

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My name is Eunice Miller of Folsom Mill Studio and I’m from Epping, New Hampshire. As a young girl, I loved Girl Scouts and creating all kinds of art. It was about the age of 11 or 12 my parents sent me to private art lessons with a local artist, Tony Estrella, who had had an accident as a teen and spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair.

He was a sought after painter in our area and he did amazing pieces. He had me work with Charcoal and Oil and in art class in school we formed copper into bowls and did a lot of drawing.

By the time I got into high school, I knew I was not interested in college, the 12 years in what I called prison was enough for me. I hated being trapped in a building so I went to the brand new trade school where I tried Culinary Arts, Electronics, Technical Illustrating, Drafting and Secretarial Sciences. It was the last one I chose to follow for my path in 1974.

That is me in the back row on the right second one in with the other ladies I attended this class with.

I was not cut out for sitting in an office and my first job sadly ended after just two weeks when I asked for my check.

Fast forward 4 years and I signed up for a tractor trailer driving school where I was the only woman in 1978. I ran coast to coast with my ex-husband and then ran loads all over New England in my own trucks. I have a total of three million miles in a rig as well as them being accident free.

There were no women doing what I did back then and if there was, I never ran into them. Driving America’s long lonesome highways with just a CB and music always playing was enough for me.

You name it, I hauled it, except for fuel and livestock. I found something I loved and was so good at it. These were just 2 of the 5 trucks I owned. In the tanker I hauled spring water and in the covered trailer I hauled rubbish and demolition debris. I was a heavy hauler always weighing out over 100,000 lbs.

I was in my van one morning the day after Thanksgiving in 2000 when I was rear-ended by a tour bus hauling gamblers from New York City to Connecticut. Left with bad injuries and just about 44 or 45 years old, I had to find something else to do with my 18 hours a day. It was very hard and not once did art ever cross my mind. Artists are poor, or so I always thought, so I picked up beads, fused glass and took photos to fill my time and to make some cash on the side.

I do OK selling items with my photography but I miss my rig.

Then I saw a ad in a local paper saying there was a $25 intro to Watercolor just 10 miles away and I said why not. It would be just 2 hours one evening and I needed some fun.

The teacher was from Russia and she was a hoot! She was so jazzed about art she ignited something deep inside that I had long forgotten about.

I went home and art just poured out onto my wet paper, no photos involved no looking out the windows either. It seemed like a type of meditation. I wet the paper, made puddles of pigment usually working with a very limited palette and began to let the magic happen, colors mixing on the paper adding a bit of seasoning to the wet image or scraping or splashing even more water. It felt good to just let go.

No longer in charge and no need to be a control freak as you had to be out on the road full of crazy drivers.

Even though I had never walked through a gallery before I walked into a local one joined and entered my first piece. It sold in 2 days, I miss it. I had titled it simply Maine.

I then set out to try to enter at least one per month for their Theme Shows.

I did not know what I was doing but I didn’t care. I just kept painting mostly wet into wet and never as things appear in life. Who knew that was called abstract!

The following painting I titled Birds of a Feather and during my first solo show this past May, someone fell in love with this and then it was also gone.

I still have this next one. It is one of my favorites.

Just two colors and always leaving my whites. Can you tell I love watercolor?

My furry companion through this new journey, JT, did not care that I was busy making a masterpiece as long as I had a free hand while painting. I tossed her toy and we would play.

Landscapes, one after another, come from nowhere or maybe the miles and miles I viewed from the driver’s seat. I cannot explain it really, except to say I have given God the wheel this time, and what a trip it has been.

You can find more of my work at my website (link below) as well as links to all the places I sell my art. And there’s also a link to my blog as I will also write my memoir.

Thank you Charlie for asking me to join you here at Doodlewash and share a bit of my story. Thanks for stopping by.

Eunice Miller Website Blog Doodlewash

GUEST ARTIST: "Finding A New Love Is Not Easy" by Eunice Miller #WorldWatercolorGroup #doodlewash #watercolor My name is Eunice Miller of Folsom Mill Studio and I'm from Epping, New Hampshire. As a young girl, I loved Girl Scouts and creating all kinds of art.

#WorldWatercolorGroup #artist #featured #inspiration #painting #trucking #watercolor #watercolor painting #watercolour

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avaliveradio · 5 years ago

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How to get publicity for your New Music Release

When it comes to getting publicity for your new release, it’s all who you know.

You always want to work with someone who has an awesome track record but it’s also really important to have reasonable expectations.

Just because a publicist has achieved BIG PR placement for their clients, it’s something every artist must work up to.

As far as the National Media is concerned, larger acts with big followings and a solid history (not to mention sales and tours), always get placed over smaller, up-and-coming artists.

One reason is that they are the draw. Huge acts attract readers to publications. People want to know what's happening with these exploding artists. They are being searched at a rate of millions on google.

GIVE IT A TRY:

Go to google and search "What is ... (your favorite artists' name) ..

You will see a list of popular questions popping up from previous searches.

Now do the same for your name.

Nothing pops up because no one is searching for you yet. When that changes, so will the attention of the National Press.

If you are an emerging artist, you need to build-up to the larger publications. There is no jumping to the front of the line, no matter who else your publicist represents!

I’ve worked with some of the top music curators and blogs in the country in placing artists where they can gain traction but larger placement never happens right away.

Publicity has a road map and that path must be filled with searchable interviews, press releases, music reviews and fan engagement before large national publications will feature a rising artist and even then you MUST be NEWSWORTHY.

Simply having a new EP, album, video or shows at popular venues is not grounds for national coverage. Many larger publications may pass you up the first, second and even fifteenth time. That’s okay; this should be considered a building block and not a rejection.

If your publicist has a great reputation and nurtured relationships just working with them will help put you on the radar so when your career does take off, the people you need to know will have already seen your name along the way.

I keep in touch with my contacts both on my newsletter and also through social media so when I share a story I’ve created about an artist, it’s being seen by all the right people. That’s how artists who work with me benefit from my credibility and consistency.

It’s very similar to a brand that hires an influencer to talk about their product with their audience. Today’s music business is still all who you know. It’s just changed from cocktail parties to the internet and you don’t have to be with a record label to get your foot in the door.

HOW DO YOU GET THERE?

1) Control Search results.. First, you have to control your own search results. What do people find when they search your name?

Do your social media pages come up? Are there interviews, blog articles, press releases coming up all in your Artist name? (one name)

**Submit your Best New Release so my team can review your work and consider you for our New Music Release Radar Program.

It’s a strong start for every indie artist to gain exposure, listeners, new music fans and get on the publicity radar. https://www.avaliveradio.info/spin-submit

My team will get back to you with a recommendation even if you are not yet ready for PR.

We get excellent results: Read the FEEDBACK : https://www.avaliveradio.info/feedback

2) Update your social media:

There's nothing worse than sending out an amazing story about an up incoming artist only to have those people who trust you land on social media pages that look unprofessional, inactive or offensive. Do a deep check on all your social media pages for pictures, video or posts that are not on brand.

You need to have a Facebook Artist Page (not a personal page), Twitter profile, Instagram Artist page, and Youtube page. I also recommend having your own website and email list. Then make sure your music is streaming across all platforms.

Everything should be listed under the same name as your Spotify Profile.

SOCIAL POSTS: - Live Stream to your audience -Band Photos from the last gig, practice or studio session -You wearing your latest merchandise -Music Video or performance video -Last Press Release -A question for your audience -A short story + image post -Streaming link to your entire Album on Spotify

**Rule: 80/20 = 80 no linked posts / 20 linked posts A linked post means that you are adding a link that tries to push people off of any social media page. These get less than 1% reach on average.

3) Prepare to be consistent:

You can't just release one song, you've got to make a promise to yourself to be consistant and believe in yourself enough to invest the time and money needed for your PR.

If you love making music and you are passionate about building a career in this industry, then get on board with yourself first.

Consistency keeps you at top of people’s minds and allows people to discover you online through social media, and music websites.

Choose a simple goal and get it achieved within the next two weeks. This will start your momentum and get you feeling like you are in full forward motion.

Make daily lists of what you need to do to get your goals met – the night before! Do the hardest thing first in the morning – don’t be a procrastinator. By getting the most daunting task done first, everything else will seem like a breeze.

I like to start the day off by posting something new to social media and answering all my comments from the night before. I pay special attention to my TOP FANS and most active artists.

Don’t overload yourself – studies show that 6 tasks is the maximum you can achieve in one day! Of course, this depends on how much time and energy each task involves so break up the larger ones across different days.

4) Prepare your game plan.

I recommend launching at least 1 press article per week to start building your digital footprint.

These articles and press releases must have active SEO optimization on a reputable music website like : AVA Live Radio : Indie Music Spin : American Pride Magazine : Pitchfork: Brooklyn Vegan : Hypebot: Your EDM : Pigeons & Planes : Music Reddit : My Old Kentucky Blog : Run The Trap: Consequence of Sound: EDM.com : Dancing Astronaut: Birp! : NPR : FACT Magazine : Hype Machine :

Examples of content with these releases:

-Music review

-Radio or Podcast Interview

-New Music Release

-New Video Release

-Blog article

-Photoshoot or behind the scenes article

-Behind the Music Article

-Videos Reviews

-Video Vlog

Benefits of an Online Publicist:

1) SAVE TIME: A good publicist will save you a ton of work by leveraging her contacts and relationships. Success in the music industry is based on knowing (and impressing!) the right people. Forming genuine relationships takes time, and a good publicist will be able to use her hard-won contacts to get you the exposure that would otherwise take you months (or years) to get by yourself.

2) BUILD YOUR BRAND: A good music publicist will help you establish your brand, and create a ‘signature story’ that bloggers and journalists won’t be able to resist or forget. She will craft a compelling pitch for you, so you can effectively sell your story on social media, over email, in an elevator… anywhere!

3) AWARENESS: She will increase your name awareness for industry and music fans to discover you. Industry = music bloggers, podcasters, editors, music journalists, tastemakers… These people are more likely to pay attention to your music if someone they know and trust is talking about you.

SUBMIT YOUR MUSIC HERE: https://www.avaliveradio.info/spin-submit

#music career tips #music marketing'

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dorothydelgadillo · 6 years ago

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Why We Changed How We Develop Keyword Strategies (& You Should Too)

Have you ever gone on a trip and forgotten your running shoes?

If you’re like me, this is a top-five packing sin and can be a devastating realization as you sit on the plane or in your hotel knowing it is too late to fix.

At that point, I typically go through the five stages of grief quickly:

Denial: “My shoes must be in the suitcase, I just need to dig through, empty the whole thing out and look again.” Repeat process 5x before acknowledging that the shoes are, in fact, not in the suitcase.

Anger: “How could I be so stupid? Now the whole trip is ruined!”

Bargaining: “Well maybe I could just do yoga in my room instead?”

Depression: “I guess I’ll just be stuck not doing any exercise for the next week…”

Acceptance: “Oh wait, my hotel has a pool. I should probably stop whining about my shoes and just use that instead.”

It is a pretty intense emotional roller coaster if I do say so myself.

Well, this emotional roller coaster is pretty similar to what plenty of people went through when HubSpot chose to remove its keyword tool. There was a lot of confusion, plenty of anger, and then finally, acceptance.

While it was a small example, the removal of the tool from HubSpot was just one of many indications that the tides were changing.

The Google Gods had clearly shifted the way they were working and past strategies for organic SEO efforts around keyword targeting were bearing less and less fruit. It was time for a change.

And thus, the new era of keyword strategies were ushered in, with keyword clusters being the wave of the future.

Why the Old Approach to Keyword Strategies No Longer Works

The old methods of building keyword strategies really touted the “long tail” approach.

Basically, you went and created a big list of individual keywords you wanted to target and got super specific with the topics you discussed.

However, this led to individual blog articles targeting individual keywords that often lived in a vacuum from the rest of your content or website pages.

This means you may have had a ton of great content spread across your website that was never connected, despite being highly related, or, on the flip side, you may have created a single piece of content about a keyword but never really expanded to show true through leadership on it by building more content around it.

All of the changes to Google’s algorithms have now made this approach somewhat obsolete.

Google now gives significant credit to websites that show knowledge or evidence of thought leadership on a more general topic area based on the amount of content they have produced related to that topic.

Thus, the birth of keyword clusters!

The Origin of IMPACT’s Keyword Strategy Change

If you are a follower of our content, then you know we’ve been talking about pillar content for quite some time.

Our resident expert, Liz Murphy has discussed it on more occasions than I can count and led the charge in helping bring IMPACT to where it is today on the topic.

And this is really where our keyword strategy transformation journey began.

Note: If you’re interested in watching this movie from the beginning, you can go through all of her fantastic resources on pillar content listed below.

Strategy Tool: pillar content Workbook

Podcast: "Demystifying pillar content" with Justin Champion of HubSpot (Content Lab, Ep. 1)

Blog: pillar content Best Practices

Blog: pillar content Tips

As Liz taught our team more and more about pillar content, we realized our approach to keywords had to change, but the true inspiration for our revamped approach began as most ideas do: completely by accident.

We have a fantastic client, Very, that was ready to start taking the plunge into pillar content with us. Our primary point of contact, Emily Maxie, Very’s Director of Marketing, works hard to stay on the cutting edge while still focusing on very solid foundational strategies that will drive real, measurable results.

Thus, pillar content was a perfect fit for us to collaborate on in an effort to drive increased traffic to the website.

Given that Very has three main service areas in which they wanted to show thought leadership, we built three separate pillar content strategies to target each area.

We knew this would result in plenty of long-term efforts as each pillar content strategy involves far more than just a pillar page, but also a series of sub-topic blogs that will live as part of the cluster.

We decided to start tackling the creation of all of the content from different angles simultaneously.

We used all of the sub-topic blogs identified for the pillar strategies to fill our entire editorial calendar for the next quarter, so we could be working together to build the whole foundation for the eventual launch of the pillar pages. Plus, we’d be publishing great blog content, and in turn, killing two birds with one stone.

Because Emily and her awesome team of subject matter experts at Very are incredibly dedicated, and bought-in to the inbound methodology, they dove head-first into creating great blog content at a solid pace over the quarter.

I can’t stress enough that without this level of dedication, none of the results they’ve achieved would be possible.

The Results

What happened was nothing short of astonishing.

We saw a huge jump in organic traffic in the quarter that we tackled the blog editorial content for the three pillar strategies. In fact, Very’s website saw an 88% Quarter over Quarter increase in organic traffic from 8,886 organic visits in Q2 to 16,667 organic visits in Q3.

Blog views alone increased by 61% from 16,593 views in Q2 to 26,706 views in Q3.

In addition to looking at the raw traffic, we dove in and looked at how our rank changed on the keywords that drove most of Very’s organic website traffic.

Of the top 100 keywords driving traffic to the website:

73 keywords improved their ranking position.

23 keywords gained rankings where they had never had a ranking before.

Keywords included in the clusters improved by an average of 8 rank positions.

“Our strategy has always been to create high-quality content on the topics our customers care about. By focusing our content strategy around our target verticals in an organized and comprehensive way with keyword clusters, we've been able to drive revenue from organic sources like never before. It's incredible to see the results.”

Emily Maxie, Director of Marketing, Very

And do you want to know the kicker?

We hadn’t even launched any of the pillar pages yet.

A Cluster Mentality

All of this growth was simply from starting to create the supporting clusters of sub-topics!

All of our additional testing of pillar content indicates that these increases will only be magnified and multiplied by the launch of the actual pillar page.

Seeing these results even without that unifying pillar made it crystal clear that this strategy worked and perhaps we needed to change the way we approached all of our keyword strategies.

As a result of this, we dug in and did some serious research into content strategy and keyword strategy development and looked at results from similar strategies across our own website and other client websites.

Based on what we learned, we’ve completely rethought the way we approach keyword strategies for both editorial content and on-page website SEO.

We approach everything from the cluster mentality now, not just pillar content.

All of our keyword strategies are now designed in cluster form, resulting in content that supports our cluster ownership.

Our New Keyword Strategy Process

We’ve recently unveiled our new process for developing keyword strategies for our clients and we can’t wait to continue to watch client results grow and improve.

Our approach now follows the steps outlined below to provide the most traffic growth.

Step 1: Review Current Performance

The first step in any good keyword strategy is reviewing your current domain performance as well as that of your top competitors.

This allows you to determine which keywords you’re already ranking well for or those that drive significant traffic that you want to keep (or improve).

You want to identify low effort opportunities to get more of an impact from the keywords you already have done well at targeting.

For instance, we might notice that we rank somewhere in the top 15 for a high search volume topic.

This would be a great indicator of a keyword we could target with a topic cluster to very quickly increase our ranking position.

Step 2: Identify New Keyword Opportunities

Up next, you’ll utilize keyword tools like SEMRush or Keywords Everywhere to identify short-tail keywords (yes, short-tail!) that would be valuable to target.

You should grab a whole bunch of ideas for keywords, find related terms, and pull a bunch of data.

Then, analyze your data to find the keywords that have the best crossover of search volume and competition level.

These are the ideal targets because they’ll drive the most traffic while having the least competition for improved rankings.

Step 3: Select Appropriate Content Strategy for Each Keyword

Once you have your list of keyword opportunities, it is time to marry those with the right content strategy to properly target them.

Our research found the search volume of the keyword is the most important metric in deciding what content strategy will get the best results.

When we looked through the performance of past strategies, the greatest successes happened when used a specific content strategy at a specific keyword search volume range (e.g. between 150 and 300 searches per month showed better results with a blog series rather than a single blog).

Today, we break our strategies into four buckets: major keyword clusters, pillar content clusters, blog series, and long-form blogs.

Major Keyword Cluster: This strategy includes building a resources page that displays (and links to) content on a particular topic and includes at least one piece of pillar content in the listing. It is basically the step above a pillar content cluster.

Pillar Content Cluster: A pillar page is a piece of premium content that lives all on-page that is typically between 3,500-4,500 words long. It is aimed at a large search-volume keyword topic and a linking strategy between that main topic and at least 8-22 subtopic pages is required.

Blog Series: A blog series is a collection of at least two blog articles that target the same short-tail keyword. The structure of the post titles is typically "[Keyword]: [Blog Topic]".

Long-form Blog: A long-form blog is a blog post that is at least 1,000, more commonly 1,500, words long.

Step 4: Build Topic Clusters

Once you’ve identified the right strategies to target the individual keywords in your list, it is time to group related keywords into clusters.

You’ll build multiple clusters around each of the keywords identified as “major keyword clusters” and individual topic clusters under each pillar content cluster.

These clusters will be filled with the identified blog series and long-form blogs that are related to the major topic clusters.

Step 5: Prioritize and Build Content Calendar

Finally, you’ll take this great keyword strategy and the clusters you’ve grouped together and create an editorial calendar that breaks down any premium content that should be created, blogs that should be written, and past content that should be optimized.

We’d recommend prioritizing the clusters you tackle based on which clusters you have the most existing content to utilize.

This will allow you to launch the full cluster sooner and speed up the results you see.

Final Thoughts

All this information is great, but I’m guessing you’d like a more actionable series of steps that can really teach you how to implement this approach yourself. Am I right?

Well, because we love to eat our own dog food, we are currently in the process of building a piece of pillar content for you on exactly how you can execute this process, so stay tuned!

from Web Developers World https://www.impactbnd.com/blog/why-we-changed-how-we-develop-keyword-strategies-and-you-should-too

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thebigcitynightsband · 8 years ago

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no news

Hello and Greetings.

Nothing has changed. Everything has changed. It is the best of times, it is the worst of times. There is a rich white guy running the country below us, there is a rich guy running the country we live in. The Toronto Maple Leafs are struggling to clinch a playoff spot, while the Blue Jays are playing in the Grapefruit League, getting ready for their season down in Florida. Okay, so maybe some things have changed.

We are sitting on anywhere from 25-50 songs, some of them already recorded except for vocals, as with Better Days Are A Toenail Away and Heck ‘Em All. There are others that haven’t been recorded or even fleshed out. I wrote a new song last night that sounds like a mix between “Guy I Know” and Led Zeppelin’s “No Quarter.” I demoed it so I wouldn’t forget it.

What Are We Doing?

Nothing. Nothing at all. I haven’t seen James since last May and I haven’t seen Ryan since November, when he dropped off my mixer downtown Brampton while I was visiting a friend.

I have no idea how to fix this situation at the moment. I work most Fridays and Saturdays. I have at least two Sundays off a week, but I can’t always get to Brampton and the guys don’t always want to come down here to jam at the Rehearsal Factory.

I have been enrolled in a drug rehabilitation program for the past long while, a program that involves group meetings and individual counselling with an addictions counsellor. The type of treatment involved would likely cost its participants thousands of dollars per year, given the expertise and intensity of the doctors involved, but for me and for others, it costs considerably less than that, about a hundred dollars a month. That’s the financial cost. The social cost is a bit heavier: I have to submit a urine test every single day.

What this means is I have to be at Bloor and Lansdowne once a day, every day, to submit a sample or I will be kicked out of the program. There are no second chances, there are no doctor’s notes for illness. You simply cannot miss a single day. Period. The fact that I have been doing this for months now should demonstrate my devotion to the program and how seriously I’m taking it, but just in case it doesn’t, I’ll say it here: I am taking this program very very seriously. It has given me back my life. On weekdays this requirement isn’t too onerous, seeing as the clinic is open from 8am to 5pm. Since I work in the service industry and my work day usually begins between 2 and 4 pm, it’s not too difficult for me to get up a half hour earlier than I normally would and head over to pee in a cup. It’s a small price to pay for a program that has helped me so much. On weekends, though, it’s a lot harder, because the window of time I have to be at the clinic is seriously shortened. On Saturdays I have a four hour window, from 8am-noon. Not bad. On Sundays, I have a 90-minute window. If I am not there between 10am and 11:30am, I lose my spot in the program. Which I don’t want to do given that this program has essentially given me my fucking life back. I cannot understate the extent to which this program has helped me. It literally saves peoples lives.

But if I were to go to Brampton on a Saturday evening to play music, and then stay over there, I would be completely dependent on transit to get me back to Toronto before the clinic closes at 11:30am. This would likely entail getting up at 8am in Brampton, since transit takes so goddamnn long and I’d be taking three different types: Brampton Transit, GO Transit, and TTC. Things can get a little shifty there.

Best case scenario would be to go to Brampton on a Sunday morning after hitting the clinic, since I could crash there and then take my time getting back to Toronto the next day, since the clinic doesn’t close on Mondays until 5pm. But both James and Ryan work on Mondays, and Ryan has family obligations, and James usually doesn’t like to do stuff on Sunday afternoons cuz he has to get up so early the next day, so I’m not sure we’d be able to get too much done on a Sunday afternoon, especially since the earliest I could be in Brampton is around 12:30 or 1pm, depending on when the GO bus leaves Union station.

So it would make the most logistical sense for me to go to Brampton on a Sunday when both Ryan and James have a Monday off, like on May 24 weekend, unless Ryan’s going camping that weekend, which he usually does, so…

I dunno. Hopefully I can get a Saturday off soon and we can jam at Bathurst and Richmond for a few hours and work on some new material. We’ll worry about recording whenever the hell I can get to Brampton, which depends on my work schedule.

What Am I Doing?

I’ve been working a shitload of hours lately as a server/bartender for an events company, meaning I work a lot of weddings and corporate gatherings. With wedding season just around the corner and my home venue opening the outdoor terrace midway through April, I’ll be working even more soon; six days a week from mid-April to mid-December, without a break. Finding a way to shoehorn some recording into my schedule during that time will be a challenge, but I’ll try my best. I will.

A few days before last Christmas I joined my friends Mark Hornich and Michael Schooley in Hamilton to play some music. I’d been hanging out with Mark every other week or so last summer, writing songs on acoustic guitars, for a project that we’ve been trying to put together since at least 2011.

Since that first jam in Hamilton, me, Mark and Michael have met up every other week, sometimes once a month but usually more often, at various spaces across the city, sometimes Paul’s Boutique, sometimes the Richmond-Bathurst rehearsal spaces, to play our songs, of which we now have six, complete with vocal melodies and lyrics and everything.

We’ve challenged ourselves to be show-ready by May, and we’ve hit our target early. As far as I’m concerned we could play a show next weekend without making fools of ourselves, though another two jams wouldn’t hurt either. Mark played in one of my favourite local bands of all-time, Crop Failure, and Michael played in an excellent instrumental band from Kitchener-Waterloo called New Wings, that my old band Sleep for the Nightlife played with once in Waterloo in a café next door to a movie theatre downtown. I actually taped some of that set and uploaded it to YouTube a few years ago, and I’ve played a lot of shows with Crop Failure with old bands like GIANTS and Sleep for the Nightlife, and The Big City Nights Band have played with C.F. a couple times too, so there’s a lot of overlap here in terms of the scene and shows played together. We all come from the same scene, and we’re all old enough to know that we don’t need to try to conquer the world or “make it big” or anything like that. We’ll be content with playing a few decent shows here and there, and making a good EP or LP that might catch a few people’s ears. That’s about the extent of our ambitions right now. The tentative band name for this project right now is Traffic Yeller, though none of us are sure if the name is permanent. While is does connote a certain energy and anger, none of us are totally sure if it describes us properly. So we’ll see. Either way, we’ll continue to make music together this year and will hopefully play a show sometime soon. If we get one booked, I’ll letcha all know.

In the meantime, I’m obviously going to try to finish some Big City Nights recordings this year and put out some records. As I’ve said before, we have enough material to release at least two albums, maybe even three or four. No, we don’t see each other as much as we used to, and we don’t play anywhere near as many shows as we used to, but we’ll try our best to match the output we somehow tallied in both 2010 and 2012, years that saw us release four full-length recordings, all of which I still stand behind, from records I did mostly myself like Gimme Gardens and Dancing Days, to albums we all contributed equally to like Yawns Beyond, Oscillation Drills, Popular Favourites, Might Minutes, and Under the Overpass.

I’d like to document the recording of our upcoming records, if possible, as it’s always fun to go back and watch videos like the making of Oscillation Drills or Yawns Beyond or West Bestern. So I’ll try to make sure someone has their camera phone running at all times whenever we get together next. And it’s also about time we update our default photo on the bandcamp, which was taken by Jessica Fisher in summer 2010. So I’ll try to organize a photo shoot asap, but it’s not at the forefront of my worries. The music comes first, naturally. So if a new photo should appear, rest assured that we’ve taken care of the audio aspect and have some new recordings on the way.

No shows booked at the moment but we’ll be trying to get something going soon, some shows with the Flying Museum Band to celebrate the tenth anniversaries of our respective first albums. Our tenth anniversary is actually around this time…as I recall the album coming out in either March or April 2007 and playing our goodbye show @ All Stars in Bramalea that May. So I’ll have to go back and get some exact dates. Born to Bar Band is a solid effort, even though it’s a little difficult for me to listen to now, since my vocals were so rough on that record. Our live staple, “Catch You,” for example, has been played at almost every show we’ve ever done, so that when I hear the version on B2BB I barely recognize it.

No shows, no new music. Overall, taking the last ten years into account, this is uncharacteristic of the Big City Nights Band. But I know all too well that, in the past few years, this has become the norm. Not a whole lot of shakin’ goin’ on. I’m working hard on my problems and have been staying on top of things in the past long while So it’s about time I focused some energy on this long-neglected band, my favourite band that I’ve ever played in. I’m tired of old memories, I want to make some new ones.

And when we do finally get around to making those new ones, you’ll be the first to know.

That’s the news, or lack thereof, lose yer blues.

#brampton #thebigcitynightsband

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jamieclawhorn · 8 years ago

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Are these the most scarily overvalued stocks of the FTSE 250?

The price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple for the FTSE 250 is around 20, so would you pay a multiple of over 100 for a stock from the index? That’s what buyers of Metro Bank (LSE: MTRO) and Ocado (LSE: OCDO) are paying today.

Are their P/Es simply bonkers or could there be value hiding behind the stratospheric earnings multiples?

New kid on the block

Retail and business bank Metro opened its doors in the summer of 2010, the first high street bank to open in the UK in over 100 years. The company listed on the stock market in March last year, raising £400m at 2,000p a share. Its market cap was £1.6bn and it qualified for admission to the FTSE 250.

Investors haven’t been able to get enough of Metro and the shares have climbed to 3,550p, valuing the business at £2.85bn today.

Swing to profit

Metro released its maiden annual results as a listed company last week. These showed asset growth of 64% year-on-year to over £10bn and revenue increasing 62% to £195m.

The bank made a pre-tax loss of £11.7m (excluding listing and related costs and impairment of some assets) compared with a loss of £46.6m in 2015. The reduced losses in 2016 came as the company swung to profitability in the second half of the year, posting a Q3 profit of £0.6bn, rising to £1.5bn in Q4.

The City consensus is for pre-tax profit to be pushing £30m in 2017, with earnings per share (EPS) around 30p. Therefore, at the current share price of 3,550p, the forward P/E is an eye-watering 118.

Success already in the price?

Metro’s business model is proving popular and the company has a clear road map to growth. Management is confident it can more than double its number of stores from a current 48 to 110 by 2020, as it in-fills and expands its network from its London base.

Analysts are forecasting rapid earnings growth, bringing the P/E down to below 50 for 2018 and to 27.5 by 2019. It looks to me like the market is pricing the business for guaranteed success, so I’m not surprised that more than half the analysts covering the stock reckon investors have got ahead of themselves and that the shares are currently too highly valued.

Expensive grocer

Online grocer Ocado released its annual results last month. These showed a rise in revenue to £1.27bn from £1.11bn, with pre-tax profit (excluding exceptional items of £2.4m) increasing 21.8% to £14.5m from £11.9m.

The company is paying little in the way of tax at the moment, due to past losses but on the basis of a standard tax rate, I calculate EPS as 1.95p. At a share price of 249p, this gives a P/E of 128. Even if we look ahead to analysts’ forecasts for 2019, the P/E is still over 50.

Something has to happen

I put Ocado’s high rating down to the company’s “continued discussions with multiple international retailers regarding adoption of Ocado Smart Platform solution”. However, these discussions have been going on for years — literally — without a single deal being reached, despite management’s perennial “confidence”.

Based on Ocado’s existing business, I can only see its P/E as bonkers. For the company’s shares to make any significant headway, something surely needs to happen in the way of deals with international retailers. And any such deals would need to be pretty tasty to justify the current rating.

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