#fix the tix

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Live Nation/Ticketmaster is buying Congress

I'm touring my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me THURSDAY (May 2) in WINNIPEG, then Calgary (May 3), Vancouver (May 4), Tartu, Estonia, and beyond!

Anything that can't go on forever eventually stops. Monopolies are intrinsically destabilizing and inevitably implode…eventually. Guessing which of the loathesome monopolies that make us all miserable will be the first domino is a hard call, but Ticketmaster is definitely high on my list.

It's not that event tickets are the most consequential aspect of our lives. The monopolies over pharma, fuel, finance, tech, and even beer are all more important to our day-to-day. But while Ticketmaster – and its many ramified tentacles, like Live Nation – may not be the most destructive monopoly in our world, but it pisses off people with giant megaphones and armies of rabid fans.

It's been a minute since Ticketmaster was last in the news, so let's recap. Ticketmaster bought out most of its ticketing rivals, then merged with Live Nation, the country's largest concert promoter, and bought out many of the country's largest music, stage and sports venues. They used this iron grip on the entire supply chain for performances and events to pile innumerable junk fees on every ticket sold, while drastically eroding the wages of the creative workers they nominally represented. They created a secret secondary market for tickets and worked with ticket-touts to help them run bots that bought every ticket within an instant of the opening of ticket sales, then ran an auction marketplace that made them gigantic fees on every re-sold ticket – fees the performers were not entitled to share in.

The Ticketmaster/Live Nation/venue octopus is nearly impossible to escape. Independent venues can't book Live Nation acts unless they use Ticketmaster for their tickets. Acts can't get into the large venues owned by Ticketmaster unless they sign up to have Live Nation book their tour. And when Ticketmaster buys a venue, it creams off the most successful acts, starving competing venues of blockbuster shows. They also illegally colluded with their vendors to jack up the price of concerts across the board:

https://pascrell.house.gov/uploadedfiles/ful.pdf

When Rebecca Giblin and I were writing Chokepoint Capitalism, our book about how tech and entertainment monopolies impoverish all kinds of creative workers, we were able to get insiders to go on record about every kind of monopoly, from the labels to Spotify, Kindle to the Big Five publishers and the Google-Meta ad-tech duopoly. The only exception was Ticketmaster/Live Nation: everyone involved in live performance – performers, bookers, club owners – was palpably terrified about speaking out on the record about the conglomerate:

https://chokepointcapitalism.com/

No wonder. The company has a long and notorious history of using its market power to ruin anyone who challenges it. Remember Pearl Jam?

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/pearl-jam-taking-on-ticketmaster-67440/

But anything that can't go on forever eventually stops. Not only is Ticketmaster a rapacious, vindictive monopolist – it's also an incompetent monopolist, whose IT systems are optimized for rent-extraction first, with ticket sales as a distant afterthought. This is bad no matter which artist it effects, but when Ticketmaster totally, utterly fucked up Taylor Swift's first post-lockdown tour, they incurred the wrath of the Swifties:

https://www.vox.com/culture/2022/11/21/23471763/taylor-swift-ticketmaster-monopoly

All of which explains why I've always given good odds that Ticketmaster would be first up against the wall come the antitrust revolution. It may not be the most destructive monopolist, but it is absurdly evil, and the people who hate it most are the most famous and beloved artists in the country.

For a while, it looked like I was right. Ticketmaster's colossal Taylor Swift fuckup prompted Senator Amy Klobuchar – a leading antitrust crusader – to hold hearings on the company's conduct, and led to the introduction of a raft of bills to rein in predatory ticketing practices. But as David Dayen writes for The American Prospect, Ticketmaster/Live Nation is spreading a fortune around on the Hill, hiring a deep bench of ex-Congressmen and ex-senior staffers (including Klobuchar's former chief of staff) and they've found a way to create the appearance of justice without having to suffer any consequences for their decades-long campaign of fraud and abuse:

https://prospect.org/power/2024-04-30-live-nation-strikes-up-band-washington/

Dayen opens his article with the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, which is always bracketed by a week's worth of lavish parties for Congress and hill staffers. One of the fanciest of these parties was thrown by Axios – and sponsored by Live Nation, with a performance by Jelly Roll (whose touring contract is owned by Live Nation). Attendees at the Axios/Live Nation event were bombarded with messages about the essential goodness of Live Nation (they were even printed on the cocktail napkins) and exhortations to support the Fans First Act, co-sponsored by Klobuchar and Sen John Cornyn (R-TX):

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/08/arts/music/fans-first-act-ticket-bill.html

Ticketmaster/Live Nation loves the Fans First Act, because – unlike other bills – it focuses primarily on the secondary market for tickets, and its main measure is a requirement for ticketing companies to disclose their junk fees upfront. Neither of these represents a major challenge to Ticketmaster/Live Nation's control over the market, which gives it the ability to slash performers' wages while jacking up prices for fans.

Fans First represents the triumph of Ticketmaster/Live Nation's media strategy, which is to blame the entire problem on bottom-feeding ticket-touts (who are mostly scum!) instead of on the single monopoly that controls the entire industry and can't stop committing financial crimes.

Axios isn't Live Nation's only partner in selling this distraction tactic. Over the past five years, the company has flushed gigantic sums of money through Washington. Its lobbying spend rose from $240k in 2018 to $1.1m in 2022, and $2.38m in 2023:

https://thehill.com/business/4431886-live-nation-doubled-lobbying-spending-to-2-4m-in-2023-amid-antitrust-threat/

The company has 37 paid lobbyists selling Congress on its behalf. 25 of them are former congressional staffers. Two are former Congressmen: Ed Whitfield (R-KY), a 21 year veteran of the House, and Mark Pryor (D-AR), a two-term senator:

https://www.bhfs.com/people/attorneys/p-s/mark-pryor

But perhaps the most galling celebrant in this lavish hymn to Citizen United is Jonathan Becker, Amy Klobuchar's former chief of staff, who jumped ship to lobby Congress on behalf of monopolists like Live Nation, who paid him $120k last year to sell their story to the Hill:

https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/clients/lobbyists?cycle=2023&id=D000053134

Not everyone hates Fans First: it's been endorsed by the Nix the Tix coalition, largely on the strength of its regulation of secondary ticket sales. But the largest secondary seller in America by far is Live Nation itself, with a $4.5b market in reselling the tickets it sold in the first place. Fans First shifts focus from this sleazy self-dealing to competitors like Stubhub.

Fans First can be seen as an opening salvo in the long war against Ticketmaster/Live Nation. But compared to more muscular bills – like Klobuchar's stalled-out Unlock Ticketing Markets Act, it's pretty weaksauce. The Unlocking act will "prevent exclusive contracts between ticketing services and venues" – hitting Ticketmaster/Live Nation where it hurts, right in the bank-account:

https://www.klobuchar.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2023/4/following-senate-judiciary-committee-hearing-klobuchar-blumenthal-introduce-legislation-to-increase-competition-in-live-event-ticketing-markets

It's not all gloom. Dayen reports that Ticketmaster's active lobbying in favor of Fans First has made many in Congress more skeptical of the bill, not less. And Congress isn't the only – or even the best – way to smash Ticketmaster's criminal empire. That's something the DoJ's antitrust division could power through with a lot less exposure to the legalized bribery that dominates Congress.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/30/nix-fix-the-tix/#something-must-be-done-there-we-did-something

Image: Matt Biddulph (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/mbiddulph/13904063945/

CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

--

Flying Logos (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Over_$1,000,000_dollars_in_USD_$100_bill_stacks.png

CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

[vampiregerard]

fuck it dawg, life's a risk

[mildmayfoxe]

i've been so utterly miserable lately and its really been driving me crazy. something needs to change

[iwatcheditbegin]

“ Spotify fan first” as if this isn’t her Spotify numbers

[fantabulisticity]

I SEE KESHA IN LESS THAN 48 HOURS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[dawnleaf37]

wheeee yayyaya

[ayohockeycheck]

Every year I work these 2 weeks of chaos and stress and I always question if it’s worth it😭

[reasonsforhope]

Yesterday [April 30, 2024], a bipartisan collection of US Senators introduced the Fans First Act, which would help address flaws in the current live event ticketing system by increasing transparency in ticket sales, and protecting consumers from fake or dramatically overpriced tickets.

Today, the artists and Congressmen allege, buying a ticket to a concert or sporting event requires negotiating a minefield of predatory practices, such as speculative ticket buying and the use of automated programs to buy large numbers of tickets for resale at inflated prices.

The legislation would ban such practices, and include provisions for guaranteed refunds in the event of a cancellation.

The political campaign organizers, calling themselves “Fix the Tix” write that included among the supporters of the legislation is a coalition of live event industry organizations and professionals, who have formed to advocate on behalf of concertgoers.

This includes a steering committee led by Eventbrite [Note: lol, I'm assuming Eventbrite just signed on to undermine Ticketmaster and for PR purposes] and the National Independent Value Association that’s supported by dozens of artistic unions, independent ticket sellers, and of course, over 250 artists and bands, including Billie Eilish, Dave Matthews, Cyndi Lauper, Lorde, Sia, Train, Fall Out Boy, Green Day, and hundreds more which you can read here.

“Buying a ticket to see your favorite artist or team is out of reach for too many Americans,” said Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN).

“Bots, hidden fees, and predatory practices are hurting consumers whether they want to catch a home game, an up-and-coming artist, or a major headliner like Taylor Swift or Bad Bunny. From ensuring fans get refunds for canceled shows to banning speculative ticket sales, this bipartisan legislation will improve the ticketing experience.”

Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Roger Wicker (R-MS), John Cornyn (R-TX) and Peter Welch (D-VT) also signed on to the Fan First Act.

In the House, parallel legislation was just passed through committee 45-0.

[Note: That's a really good sign. That kind of bipartisan support is basically unheard of these days, and rare even before that. This is strong enough that it's half the reason I'm posting this article - normally I wait until bills are passed, but this plus parallel legislation with such bipartisan cosponsors in the senate makes me think there's a very real chance this will pass and become law by the end of 2024.]

“We would like to thank our colleagues, both on and off committee, for their collaboration. This bipartisan achievement is the result of months and years of hard work by Members on both sides of the aisle,” said the chairs and subchairs of the Committee on Energy and Commerce.

“Our committee will continue to lead the way on this effort as we further our work to bring this solution to the House floor.”

“The relationship between artist and fan, which forms the backbone of the entire music industry, is severed,” the artists write. “When predatory resellers scoop up face value tickets in order to resell them at inflated prices on secondary markets, artists lose the ability to connect with their fans who can’t afford to attend.”

-via Good News Network, May 1, 2024

[sayoneee]

☆ THE GIRL FROM IPANEMA

“tall and tan and young and lovely / the girl from Ipanema goes walking” - frank sinatra version (smau)

contains: clarisse la rue x daughter of dionysus! reader. alt universe - everyones happy. woc friendly as always

kashaf’s note: requested! (sorry for how long this took!) update: changed the fc for clarisse bc i do not support zionists.

liked by selinabeauregard, lukecastellan, and 193 others

yn what if i permanently moved to brazil...

view all comments.

silenabeauregard i think your gf would be too upset

yn who? silenabeauregard you know who i'm talking about yn silena wtf r u talking about silenabeauregard 🤫 mewing time

lukecastellan bro if u do u better take me w u i cannot handle another day w my siblings.

yn i gotchu im booking our tix rn travistole dude wtf. connorstole hello??????????????? chrisrodriguez bro im telling chiron on ur ass rn

clarisse u look good

silenabeauregard girl. yn thanks! 💓💓

liked by clarisse, annabethhh, and 197 others

yn lit crazy movie (gf is so gorg)

tagged silenabeauregard, lukecastellan

view all comments.

silenabeauregard AWW I LOVE YOU

yn I LOVE U MORE PRETTY GIRL

thaliiia @ lukecastellan u look dumb asf

lukecastellan dude ur lucky yn didnt post that pic of u. thaliiia what pic... lukecastellan 🏃

clarisse we should go out again

yn YEAH text me details!! silenabeauregard young love yn silena stfu rn. im telling charlie silenabeauregard NO IM SORRY.

travistole who tf says lit crazy movie anymore

yn wow! let me look through the pics of connor throwing up on u! travistole NO IM SORRY. connorstole L

liked by yn, shermansarmy, and 284 others

clarisse eating everyone up like its my business

view all comments.

yn UR SO HOT HELLO.

yn CLARISSE IS THAT MY BRACELET clarisse YES PRETTY GIRL

travistole woah who knew u could clean up this well

connorstole im in agreement actually annabethhh this is why clarisse hates you guys connorstole aww annie ur too kind annabethhh connor i'm outside your cabin. 🔪 connorstole WTF

silenabeauregard 🙌🙌

liked by thaliiia, travistole, and 303 others

yn well i am my father's daughter so maybe i can fix her!

view all comments.

clarisse my girl

lukecastellan so this is a thing now! silenabeauregard YAY. thaliiia finally losers.

[yuqsdug]

In the one (1) Block Tales comic i've made so far, I drew the player as this R15 model Noob with modern day Roblox chat. Since blocktales can have four (4) players in a battle, I decided to draw the rest of the sqaud.

OBLIGATORY SEBASTIAN SOLICE

Drew him from memory

READ MORE ABOUT THESE BLOCK TALES CHARACTERS? down below

So you want to know more about these goobers hm?

[Player] (yes that's his name)

- Despite his very cheerful demeanor, he can make grudges extremely easy.

- He's the only one of the squad who talks in modern chat bubbles. Something must've went wrong when he time traveled.

- He still uses R15 because he didn't want to lose his elbows. He needs those to throw balls, Okay?!

- He may, possibly, be abusing the ghost Walker for meaningless- and legally dubious- means. He's not paying for a 777 tix card!

- Was the only who got to experience the later half demo 3. He was quite surprised to be in a hospital after defeating IT. His friends were hovering woriedly over his bed.

- Hatred was particularly strong in this one.

BaconBoy

- Brother of BaconGirl

- Quite a skitish boy, Easily scared. He did not like Telamon's manor ONE BIT!

- the time when his model type was added to Roblox left quite an impact on him. Why were people so mean?

- he forgot to change his scale before time traveling, so now he towers over most people they encounter. Now he's noticed even more and bumps his head on doors... Yay...

- He doesn't know a lot about Roblox before 2016. So the meaning of the swords their collecting is a bit lost on him. He can't help but be a bit fearful of them. The previous holders of the Icedagger and Venomshank seemed to be going insane. And his friends seen awfully attached to the swords they have collected. He hopes everything will end fine.

- FEAR is strong in this one

BaconGirl

- Sister of baconboy

- She can't handle being alone well. Being alone for a short time causes great feeling of solitude. She's always with atleast one of her friends.

- She's in charge of snack duty, she got the biggest bag after all. Someone low on HP? A burger is ready. Low on SP? the Bloxycola is already in your hand. Low on Tix? That's something she can't fix.

- She the only one of the group who realised they should be in the R6 model when they time traveled. She thought the rest also knew this, apparently not.

- The Icedagger is her FAVORITE weapon. Just focus a bit and heal EVERYONE? yes please! ####, She'd let this thing freeze her for less.

- She's a bit cold to the touch

- Solitude is strong in this one

Ann

- short for androgynous default (who is naming these children?)

- Very chaotic person

- They kill every enemy in their wake, be it bird, Mosquito, or zombie. Getting 0 xp does not bring them joy.

- Always has hard mode enable to get more Xp. This has absolutely backfired multiple times.

- They will come up for their friends, every good friend does that! Including when BaconBoy burgers contain pickles.

- Their a fan of the Venomshank. An AOE attack also afflicting poison is. the. best! The pretty flowers coming out of the enemies is a plus too.

- Greed is very strong in this one.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Thanks for reading that btw.

The drawings were made on my phone.

(trying to post thing broke my Tumblr, lol)

[alabyte]

«Promise me»

They knew what the chips were made for. And they knew something was wrong with Crosshair. AU, where Bad Batch were able to escape Kamino in full after Order 66, but the chip issue remained unresolved.

Word count: 1 683 Warnings: angst, implied character death, implied fratricide, severe emotional distress, Tix was trying to cope with S2 finale Together with @heksahela

The ruins of the old, abandoned base rattled with metal, creaked and howled with the damp whistle of the wind, bringing snow into the crevices of the corroded walls. The two sat in the darkness of the flimsy shelter.

— According to my preliminary calculations, we'll be in a more stable condition by the end of this rotation, which means we'll be able to get to the main facility. — Tech's voice sounded almost mundane, echoing off the metal walls and interrupting the crackling of the small fire. — We have to prepare, take the necessary resources and tools, but we'll have to go light. Until then, your helmet needs repairing.

The collapse in the sector they were exploring took them by surprise and forced them to change their mission plan on the fly. Hunter, Wrecker, Omega, and Echo, as those who had managed to get out without major injuries, went on a reconnaissance mission. In the snow, they were to find the entrance to the complex they had been unable to reach. And the two of them, injured and frozen, were left here to nurse their wounds. Dislocated joints, broken bones, bruises — at a time when the twins should have been more of a burden and a hindrance to the group, they had nothing to do but wait and replay thoughts that made them anxious, bitter, and almost nauseous. The cold and howling of the blizzard reminded them too much of Kaller.

To Tech's usual monotonous monologue about their plan for the future, the sniper just nodded a few times and stared blankly somewhere in front of him. He looked lost, not even thoughtful — as if he was lost in his own head, aimlessly twisting his helmet in his healthy, unstrapped hand and feeling its surface. There was an impact dent here, a few scratches and chipped paint there, and the visor dangled almost lifelessly somewhere in the mount. Crosshair doesn't immediately notice that his brother has offered (or insisted) on helping to fix it, but then, with some delay, he nods again and passes the helmet into the other man's hands. For a few seconds there is silence in their empty base. It was either embarrassing or oppressive.

— Tech.

One of them almost jerks when the silence is broken by Crosshair's voice. For all his taciturnity, it wasn't hard to notice when his silence became strained, almost tortured — especially considering there had been reasons for it in the last few rotations.

— I need you to promise me something.

Tech looked at his brother expectantly, studying and somewhat concerned, without lifting his head. So much so that he even stopped his repairs.

— I can't promise you anything, — the intelligent clone objected in his usual tone, though it was noticeable how the intonation had changed to a more ingratiating and cautious one, — Not until I know exactly what the request is.

Crosshair's choice of words was painful, difficult, unfamiliar to him. Normally he didn't have to search his own mind to find a clear and often witty answer, but now he needed every fiber of his being that wasn't occupied by the aching pain of the fracture and the swirling pack of thoughts that kept him busy. It was proving more difficult than he would have liked. It was noticeably alarming.

— If something goes wrong, — Sniper's voice was slightly hoarse, as if the words were sticking to the walls of his throat and getting stuck halfway down it. And so it happened — he stopped speaking halfway through, pressed his lips together and frowned, looking down at his feet. He had one last chance to turn this into a joke, to brush it off and pretend he was just worried about their new mission. But he wasn't even worried about going to the surface if they risked not coming back. From the first day he'd learned about the chips, he hadn't been able to escape the idea that he was a wild animal with a faulty shock collar — that he was a danger not so much to himself as to everyone around him.

In general, he didn't care about almost anyone around him. But the thought of any incident affecting his brothers — his family — was devastating. It made him want to bury himself in the snow and never come out.

— Do what needs to be done. — Sniper finally finished his sentence and lifted his gaze to his brother — hard, serious, almost pleading. There was not a shadow of the usual sneer, not a hint of sarcasm or joke to be seen. — Everything that must be done to protect the others.

He rubbed one temple with his fingers, pensive and tense, as if trying to feel the damn chip through his skin, skull and brain membranes. His head hurt more than ever after the crash. He wanted to believe it was a concussion.

— Please.

Tech didn't answer right away. He stared silently into Crosshair's eyes, trying to see a shadow of sarcasm there, or at least his usual sneer. Nothing, just the realization that there was a time bomb in his head and every second could be the last time he would make his own decisions. They had reason to believe that something was wrong. They both realized that.

— I… — He started to speak, but stumbled over his own words, leaving them unspoken. Clone closed his eyes and bowed his head, adjusting his glasses. — I understand why you ask, but I don't agree. We'll take care of the chips. I promise. But I… — It took him a moment to find the right words.

A long time ago, when they were still cadets, Tech had suggested that the squad develop internal protocols for various situations. At first these were situations they had encountered as cadets, then these protocols, which they eventually called plans, evolved into their missions, which they had successfully completed time and time again. They used many plans and solutions that only they understood, but there were also those, just a few, that they hoped never to have to use.

And now, without speaking directly, Crosshair was asking him, in case he lost control, to turn to something that none of the squad ever wanted to think about. And to be honest, they didn't have a plan for situations like this, because none of them had even considered the possibility of such events.

— I'll do my best, Crosshair.

The sniper could only wipe his face with his fingers, shaking his head slightly. As much as he wanted to deny it, there was no one else Crosshair could ask. He trusted them all. But he trusted Tech more than anyone, knowing that he wouldn't put fear of loss before saving his brothers.

— Tech, — The words about how they were sure to handle everything made him want to chuckle ironically. It was a necessary self-deception, but so irrational that he couldn't even believe it was Tech who had uttered that line of reasoning, — We're not going to be able to figure it out. We're stuck here.

The truth was bitter but factual. They were stuck on a snowy planet in the ruins of an abandoned base, on the run from the Empire, with almost no supplies and no place to go in this galaxy, and in the mind of at least one of them was a ticking time bomb counting down the rotations, hours, or even minutes until a switch flipped. The switch that would determine whether Crosshair or CT-9904 was with them. Tech fixes his gaze on the osprey mechanism of his brother's helmet, trying to hide in repair from the brutal truth.

— I know you can find a way out of almost any trap, — Sniper shakes his head slightly, nervously fingering the cloth that held his broken forearm around his neck with the fingers of his healthy hand, — but there may be no way out of this one. It's a dead end. We don't know if we have time.

He could trust Tech. He knew he would put the team ahead of emotions or sentimental attachments - even if it had to be done the hard way. Even if it cost someone's life.

— It won't be me anymore anyway, — Cross exhaled, lowering his gaze to the frozen metal floor, — There's no point in feeling sorry for him.

Every second of silence echoed in Tech's mind. They were both silent for as long as it took each of them to find the words to tell the other more in thought than they could say out loud.

Tech couldn't maintain eye contact for long and eventually turned back to Cross' helmet. He disassembled the visor, perhaps held in place only by the Force, repaired it, adjusted it, and put it back on, replacing the mount with a suitable part he had found earlier. He checked the settings once more with the datapad, and only when he was sure that everything was working properly did he hand the helmet back to the sniper with a brief nod. In that nod, a perfectly tiny and imperceptible gesture, was the gravity of acceptance. He had been trusted, and the price of that trust was that he would kill someone who had been at his side all his life, since his earliest days, if circumstances demanded it.

If it's best for everyone. If it suddenly turns out that death for his brother would be a more humane release than being locked in his own head while the blood of his own family is spilled by his own hands.

Crosshair picks up his helmet in silence. Until the others return, the whistling of the blizzard is the only sound that breaks the silence of the shelter, and the sniper utters only one thing:

— Thank you.

It echoes like a blaster shot in the snowy desert at the forgotten compound. It leaves bloody streaks in the snow, scarlet furrows and a scattering of droplets. It remains the last thing Tech ever hears from someone who was once his brother.

The barely audible «thank you» became the unbearable cost of a promise he had to keep.

______________________________________________________________

I thought it was going to be a couple line note BUT WHATEVER. @clownery-and-fuckery you thought I was bluffing? I wasn't. That's our ultimate Fuck-up AU.

[sorrymomband]

WHY DIDNT ANYONE TELL ME WE HAD THE WRONG LINK IN OUR BIO FOR THE OMAHA, NE SHOW 😭😭😭 i just fixed it now you can get tix for omaha im so sorry omaha (tix here)

[siphersaysstuff]

MAY MECH MARATHON

So for May's Patreon-backed @tfwiki toy picture batch, I got a wild hair. After last month's Exdimensions update, I realized that the wiki was missing Legend of the Microns (Armada) Exdimensions Twist (Makeshift), the only XD Emergency Team toy I hadn't done. So I did him up. Hooray!

Then the next day I was staring at the raw photos I took of Retro Hot Rod, which were in my Patreon "working" folder because I didn't have a "Retro" repository folder because I am almost certainly not going to get any others in this line, so I did his pic up... besides, it's the "flagship" toy of the line, it should get unique imagery. God he's gorgeous.

At that point I went " to hell with it" and decided that for each weekday in May, I'd do one toy pic from a random, whatever-I-felt-like selection. No overarching theme, and trying to hit a pretty broad swath of toylines and timeframes. Thus...

Not sure why I picked Universe Magna Stampede next. I actually had to dig him up to take these pics. I think I'd just chanced upon his stock imagery, which was craptastic and also showed the axe split in two, which I'm certain the toy is not supposed to do, and went "no, I'm'a fix this.

And this last week's updates...

I picked up Decoy Smokescreen for cheap at TFCon, and really, the wiki's Decoy coverage has been... lacking. Mostly in that they were sold in so many colors and different ways in Japan that the wiki barely touches on. Smokescreen's page is now the template for how Decoys should be, so I'll get to those in time.

There's not much story here with Animated Lugnut. Most of the wiki's Animated toy imagery is stock, and while stock quality had improved since 2003 (it'd almost have to), it's still not great. Taking pics of the real, final-release toy will almost always be preferable for a number of reasons.

Takara's Mega Super Collection Figure Starscream was part of the big early-2000s burst of G1 merch in Japan. A 5-inch fairly-posable soft-plastic figure with swappable parts, he and a handful of other big-name characters were made, plus several Legends of the Microns headliners.

Power Up VT6 is from the "Real Gear Robots" subline of the 2007 Transformers movie series, one of a large range of 1:1-scale toys that transform from personal electronic devices into robots. He's also one of the few whose altmode is not almost totally outdated. The Cybertron-based stickers on the early Real Gears led to the belief that these were canceled /re-assigned Cybertron toys, but nope! They were made specifically for the movie line, it's just that in order to get them into production, they had to get those decals out fast.

Remember Attacktix? No? Not shocking. Hasbro had an admittedly cool idea for an action tabletop game, started the line with Star Wars, and moved on to Transformers. Yes, officially, you could have Optimus Prime fight Darth Vader. Battle Ravage was one of the booster-pack common pieces (laughably officially "Rare"). You rolled his base forward a set number of "tix" (a clicky-thing in the base counted them off), then could use his spring-loaded waist to swing the mace-ball in the hopes of knocking over your opponent's pieces. There's other rules but that's the jist of it. Each booster-pack piece commonly came with a black base, but there was a roughly 1-in-8 chance of getting a silver-chrome base one, which had no gameplay differences but it was shiny. Sadly, the whole Attacktix line was cancelled after only one series of Transformers pieces were released, with several more based on Generation 1 shown off but doomed to never see release.

Next Saturday, I'll update with the pics done over the course of this coming week!

And remember, if you like these big pic jaunts, you can help make this bigger and better by tossing a tip via Patreon. Just look up "gregstfwikipics" at that site! You can even help pick a monthly theme!

[timefadesaway]

MY MACBETH REVIEW. except that makes it sound so formal this is just me saying things. and it’s long too so no one will read im sure except like three of you 🙏

spoilers for the production if ur seeing it i suppose but not really. and spoilers for macbeth but i mean it’s 400 years old so that’s your problem

okay so it was crazy good. really sort of…bare but in a sort of gothic and chilling way. it felt modern without being too full of itself. the sound design was great and i also really loved the celtic folk music they had going on. i ADORED the witches at the start as voices in vapours and also how they had the whole company play them in their later scene. i think it’s possibly the most successful demonstration of macbeth being tormented/haunted that i’ve seen. the choreography was wonderful both here and in the final battle. plus i adored the donmar it’s my first time going there and man. it being so small is wonderful! it really is the most intimate theatre in london

context wise i especially thought how they focused on the loss of a child was engaging. it’s something that i personally haven’t seen focused on much in a lot of productions and it was really interesting that they only had one child cast member to play the children. i know that’s common in productions like this with limited casts but it was really made to be read into. like it wasn’t subtext it was text. that they set him up as THEIR child at the start, and throughout macbeth would interact with tenderness before violence was so so interesting and well-done. that they were haunted by their lost child who they saw in everything and yet still murdered. and the fact that fleance and young siward were both CHILDREN was like. crazy. sickening even. when macbeth kills young siward it was mad too like i gasped as did half the theatre.

another thing is the fact that even though it was a ‘shorter’ production it didn’t feel idk. frantic or rushed. i think coming off the back of seeing lear with kenneth branagh i was unsure about it bc that DID feel rushed and lost a lot of emotion bc of it. this wasn’t the case at allll with macbeth it felt perfectly paced and remained thrilling and tense throughout.

i think some people think the headphone thing was gimmicky but personally i really enjoyed it. it leant itself to parts of the performance (eg. whispers, clinking daggers, the sort of things u wouldn’t typically hear) and i enjoyed how it built atmosphere and tension but my favourite bit of it is that it sort of added a level of separation between say, the ghost of banquo and the witches and the ��reality’ of the scene. without the headphones they do not exist. it’s involving but also plays with what is real and what isn’t. i did actually remove them a couple of times and tbh i did enjoy some parts of the performances more without them but overall it was utilised well and was more than a gimmick to me.

performances ummm. they were brilliant. cush jumbo was awesome and has such a stage presence which is so important for lady macbeth. very understated charisma that rlly lends itself to all of her character…i LOVED the porter they were soooo fun and funny and did great audience work AND gave me my pantomime fix for the year. and of course david tennant was brilliant. the hype was real he is very good isn’t he. and i’m saying this as a frequent killjoy. and i did like to see him get thrown around and picked up by women

okay ummm yes. i hope they film it so u can all see it alternatively i wish you all well in getting no-shows/daily tix/standing

[doomandgloomfromthetomb]

Robyn Hitchcock Sings Syd Barrett - The Chapel, San Francisco, January 6, 2024

As the outrageously grim month of January crawls by, I've kept my eye fixed on one shining night to get me through — the night when Robyn Hitchcock returns to Colorado. I've mentioned it previously, but back in March 2020, right when the whole Covid thing kicked off, I had tix to see Robyn ... and I did not go ... and the lockdown began. That was Hitchcock's last show until the pandemic cooled down. And his run out here this weekend will be his first shows in the Centennial State since that fateful time.

A lotta context to just say: I am really looking forward to seeing Robyn Hitchcock! If all my facts are right, 2024 marks 30 years of seeing him play live for me — and I love the experience as much as a grizzled, gray-haired 40-something as I did as a fresh-faced teenager. To prep, I'm checking out this very good tape of Robyn and friends in San Francisco a few weeks back, celebrating Syd Barrett's birthday with a psych-tastic Syd set. These songs are second nature to Hitchcock; he's been covering Barrett for a half-century now (or longer now). But he still manages to locate the wild, inventive spirit of this music – and seems to relish doing so. The tape is killer, but you might want to check out the various videos of the show, too, which might take you back to the UFO Club circa 1966.

Robyn Says: Syd Barrett was an English art student who named and launched Pink Floyd. He wrote, sang and played guitar on their first hit records, released in 1967, but soon suffered an irreversible breakdown from taking LSD. Within a year he was out of the band, and by 1970 his career was over. He made two solo records of outstanding beauty and then gave up music. To some ears they’re sketchy and chaotic, but once you become attuned to Barrett these two albums are a seam of dark yet vivid intensity unmatched in modern rock. It’s like looking through a window in somebody’s head directly into all their wayward feelings. It’s unfiltered thought, set to meandering tunes and guitar-playing so edible you can taste it; it’s pure, undiluted — it’s real. And to those of us who speak Syd, exquisite. 

Further reading — my 2022 interview with Robyn is still hot off the presses ...

[wakraya]

My Experience With Roblox

Hey! Hi! Hello! I have just gone through some pretty frustrating stuff and I wanted to share some experiences I've had with the Scam Formerly Known As Roblox.

So let me tell you a little bit of a story.

Back in the day I used to be a small Roblox Creator. And when I say 'back in the day', I mean like a decade ago, before a lot of the current extremely shady monetization and exploitation practices weren't implemented yet. And mind you, there WAS the 'Builder's Club' and there was Buying Robux, but it wasn't as blatant, and you still had Tix as the Free Currency.

Roblox was a place where I found quite the community. I was still not all that good at English, and it was through interacting with others that I pretty much taught myself to speak English. I met some of my longest-lasting friendships, I had my first Hyperfixation... Hell- It even introduced me to Homestuck!

But then everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked.

And by the Fire Nation, I mean that Roblox updated something that broke several of the scripts inside of my game. It dropped without warning, without a Legacy option, and forced Creators to simply adapt and update. Now, it wasn't even anything too big- I believe all I had to do was add 2 lines of code to my scripts, and they'd be fixed.

But, you see. I was inspired to make my own place, because of the work of other Creators. A major inspiration, in fact, was a pretty legendary Bleach Fighting Game, whose... Maker hadn't been on in years.

That was the day I learned the words 'Backwards Compatibility' and realized that Roblox had unceremoniously broken a lot of classic things that now had no repair. Alongside security concerns and the increasing monetization of the place, I decided to simply leave and never look back.

... A few years back, I got an email, telling me that there'd been a successful login to my account.

I quickly got in, changed my password to complete nonsense, reiterated my distaste for the state of the site, and left.

I didn't think much of this event for half a decade, but today. Today I was trying to see if I'd gotten a verification email from a different thing, and I ended up rummaging my Spam Folder, only to find someone writing an email... Asking, politely, for trading of some of the limited items left on my archaic account.

Unsure if this was a scam or not, and wondering what 'cool' items I even could've had in my inventory (Apparently I've got some unique octopus that sells for 22K Robux or something? Shrug-) I decided to log into the site, and... Just on a whim, I checked my messages.

Every single message for the last several years going back were just scams, which truly speaks volumes to how the site had developed. But, more importantly. Going further back, I found people asking me to please come back, and fix the game... Or. 'Make it free'.

...

Apparently. Apparently. In the time I got hacked years ago. Before whoever did it changed my email or password. They had, effectively. Updated my old game, with a message that 'it was back', and monetized it.

Apparently for the past few years I've gotten an insignificant but existent stream of Robux from some poor kids or nostalgic people trying to get back into my game.

I immediately went to try and fix things, only to realize there were no Options to remove the 'pass', and I couldn't find a way to remove the monetization, either.

Now. Mind you. I was doing this on the Browser. Maybe from the client it would've been better, easier, and clearer, but let me tell you- I have not. Seen. SUCH a Hostile UI in my entire life trying to just. FIND what to do to stop this from happening, and eventually I just. Opted for privating and taking down the game entirely. It's broken anyway, after all.

Following that I tried to make a statement on the description of my account, only to see, in horror, that my 1000 word message turned entirely into ####### because apparently I'd written one too many banned terms, because I was, in fact, talking about my account getting hacked, and monetization.

I tried writing a few other messages, and I swear, that was one of the most aggressive content filters I've seen in my ENTIRE life. 'Consent', 'Whole', and several other completely innocent terms just constantly eaten by the censorship algorithm, making writing a new description one of the genuinely most frustrating experiences I've ever had with any website online.

So. I guess. There's not much I want to say here. I am mostly venting about what an awful, awful experience this whole thing is, but like... Seriously. The hacking and security was rampant back then, and I doubt it's any better now. Even if it was, the sheer scope of the scams and exploitation that this... Service is even allowed, is genuinely a Late-Capitalism Nightmare.

Anyway, that was a wretched experience, and as nostalgic as I am for Those Days, and as sure as I am that there's people who still love Roblox and who have made incredible friends through it...

That... Thing... Is a monument to Humanity's Hubris, and shouldn't exist-