#particularity at this juncture. at some point i want to get ALL jobs to 50+ anyway so.

[foxgirltail]

Just have lancer (20), thaumaturge (25), and blue mage (24) to get to level 30 in ffxiv and then I'll have every job at level 30 or above!

[prorevenge]

Don't screw with the crew!

Back in the early 90s, I got a gig working as a front-of-house sound engineer on a major 10-day music and arts festival in London’s Docklands with some fifteen stages dotted all around the waterfront. All of the crew working the stages were either experienced theatre techs, and/or had loads of experience working major outside events, which is the reason we were hired. As an aside, this festival was to celebrate the culmination of a massive investment in the redevelopment of this area of East London, itself the former site of one of the largest dock complexes in the world.

I was tasked with running FOH sound on one of the largest stages. Normally, events like this are loads of fun to work but within two days it became apparent that the organisers had 1), no idea of how to run major outside events and 2), had not the faintest idea of how to book acts and schedule same. In particular, we also had to contend with some woman from Docklands' middle management team who had been given the job of "overseeing" our particular stage, a person who not only had rapidly proved to be totally ignorant of any aspect of managing outside events, but also someone for whom the word "entitled" had been invented.

Our stage was licensed to run events from midday until 10:00pm but we rarely had a full day’s-worth of events for punters to enjoy, due to the aforementioned incompetence with booking. Still, not our problem—we'll just work with what’s given us.

On the Thursday, we had scheduled an evening of old-time Victorian music hall which featured, as a special guest, a very famous film and TV actress. Her performance rider required a grand piano. For some unfathomable reason (and again due to the incompetence of the organisers), the piano—a full-size Yamaha concert grand—arrived from the hire company on the Tuesday. This was a remarkably stupid idea for any number of reasons: due to operational considerations, we had to store the piano in the backstage area where it spent two days suffering in the heat of the day despite our best efforts to shield it.

As any piano technician/tuner will tell you, this is An Extremely Bad Idea, especially with an instrument worth close to £100,000. Almost as bad was the fact that our area was little more than a roughly-graded building site: the ground was covered in hard-core rubble fragments around the size of hen’s eggs (very uncomfortable to walk around on, even with proper work boots), which also kicked up loads of dust and other detritus—not the sort of crap you want floating about gumming up the works of a very expensive concert grand!

Now let me properly set the scene: it’s mid-summer, very hot, and our venue is a large circus-style tent with around 800-seat capacity. The cast of the show, along with our august star, were due to turn up at around 1:00pm to conduct a production rehearsal so we could sort out sound and lighting cues for the show.

The main cast duly turn up on time, and we start sorting out their technical requirements (pretty simple and nothing that we’re not used to). At about 1:30pm, our star turns up sporting dark glasses and an immaculate couture. As anyone who’s worked in this industry knows, the initial interaction with a major A-list star vis-à-vis their technical requirements can go one of two ways: full-monty diva, or let’s go with what we have.

Her first demand was that the piano be dropped off the front of the stage so that she could maintain an eye-line whilst standing right downstage, both with her pianist and with the audience. The stage was about 4.5 feet above ground level and would have required at least eight burly lads to safely shift a full-size concert grand off the deck. Also not a good idea since it had been tuned that morning and moving it would have almost certainly caused the tuning to go out of whack.

I delicately pointed out that doing so would be in direct violation of both health and safety, and fire regulations—as per our written policy—as it would have put the piano in both the fire lane and close to one of the primary emergency exits from the venue. Thinking rapidly, I then suggested that we place the piano as far downstage as physically possible, and that she page herself three or four feet upstage so that she could still glance over and take cues from her MD whilst still “taking in” the audience.

The tension was palpable: after a few seconds consideration she replied, “No problem, I can work with that.” Phew!! No sooner than this crisis had been averted than the Docklands rep rocked up. I remind you, gentle reader, that this person had absolutely zero knowledge about how to run an outside event.

She had also been a major thorn in our side for the previous week, trying to micro-manage proceedings in the venue in order to big herself up in front of her bosses: we, of course, completely ignored her “suggestions” but in such a way as made her think she was in charge—trust me, she wasn’t! She had also been inexcusably rude to virtually every single member of the crew from Day One, and had over the days previous reduced several of them to tears. Production crews don’t take kindly to our own being treated in such a cavalier fashion, and while we’re generally fairly thick-skinned, there comes point where we want to get our own back. Believe me, after a week of constant abuse, we were coming up with creative ways of disposing of the body.

Although we didn’t realise I at the time, our saviour was at hand…but I digress…

Obviously star-struck, she announced in gushing tones that she would be taking personal charge of our star’s every need and that we were not to concern ourselves with that aspect: indeed, we were to “keep our place” as we were only the hired help. Our stage manager, who was at that time sweeping the stage, bridled at the suggestion and made as if to use his broom to beat the brains out of this woman. I had to step in front of him as unobtrusively as possible and stop him from burying the woman right there and then—“she ain’t worth it, mate.”

She then swanned off, leaving our star slack-jawed in amazement. She then turned to me and said, “Is that fucking woman for real?” I replied: “Darling, you have NO idea!”, at which point she laughed uproariously. I gave our star a brief summary of the previous few days' farrago and instantly, she became one of us and from then on we were all on first-name terms.

We then ran a full tech rehearsal from 3:00pm to 5:00pm, sorted out all our cues and then repaired to the beer tent with the cast for a spot of late lunch and a drink or two.

The show was scheduled to kick off at 7:30pm. At around 6:00pm, The Harridan reappeared to overlook the situation. She noticed that we had all the sides of the tent raised in order to get some air flowing through—remember it’s mid-summer and it’s currently low to mid 80s. She then demanded that all of the tent flaps be lowered because she wanted a more “theatre” atmosphere and the light spilling through the side walls would spoil the effect. Despite pointing out that dropping the tent sides would significantly raise the temperature in the venue, she demanded the sides be dropped, so despite our earnest advice to the contrary, we reluctantly complied.

At around 7:00pm, we saw eight 50-seat coaches arrive. To our amazement, out from the coaches came an entire flotilla of old-age pensioners, many on Zimmer frames, who proceeded to shuffle their way into the tent across the hard-core rubble underfoot. We discovered later that the organisers had forgotten to advertise the event anywhere (seriously??) and in desperation, had gone around to all the local Darby & Joan clubs a couple of days before handing out free tickets and laying on transport in order to have an audience.

So now we have 400-odd OAPs frantically fanning themselves with anything to hand as the temperature climbs ever higher. We start the show: everything’s going fine but the mercury in the thermometer I have strapped to the FOH rack is slowly going up and up: it’s so hot up at the sound desk that I’m down to my shorts!

By the end of Act 1, the temperature has gotten up to around 94°F and one could clearly see the old dears are in a bit of distress. Naturally, the organisers had neglected to provide water for the public, and judging by the horrified expressions of the two St John’s Ambulance first-aiders stationed either side of the stage, things were about to get a lot worse. I climbed off the tower, found the rigging crew and ordered the sides of the tent raised. No sooner had I done so than “our friend” standing nearby demanded that the sides stay down because "she was in charge" and "...her instructions were to be followed absolutely, no questions!"

It was at this juncture that diplomacy went completely out of the window. I informed her in no uncertain terms (and employing a fair amount of Anglo-Saxon vernacular) that it was in fact the crew who had the responsibility of ensuring the health and safety of all the people in the venue, not her, and that we have the legal authority to enact ANY procedure that we see fit at ANY time to ensure the safety and well-being of everyone present. I then informed her that I was now exercising my authority under The Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 to remediate the situation, and that if she made one single attempt to circumvent that authority, I would have her ejected from the venue without hesitation. She then got in my face and screamed, “I’M IN CHARGE!”. No strike one, no strike two, instant strike three!

I glanced over at two of our security crew who had been hovering in the background with huge shit-eating grins on their faces, who then stepped up either side of her. Defeated, but complaining like a banshee with a terminal case of haemorrhoids, she was escorted off the premises in short order.

By the time Act 2 kicked off, we’d gotten the temperature down to a more manageable low 70ºF, much to the appreciation of our audience, and the rest of the show went off without a hitch.

After the show, cast and crew—including our august star—repaired to the bar for a well-earned drink. Moments later, you-know-who appeared and in imperious tones informed us that our star was to be the guest of honour at a VIP reception for the various Docklands' bigwigs. With a tinge of regret for having our fun curtailed prematurely, we said our goodbyes to our star.

Now it gets interesting!

Not ten minutes later, she storms back into the beer tent with a face like absolute thunder. Taken somewhat aback by her reappearance, we enquired as to why she had returned.

“That fucking woman! She drags me off to this so-called ��VIP party’: I get there and all that’s there are two fucking plates of curled-up ham sandwiches and two fucking boxes of cheap wine from Sainsburys! How the holy fuck did she get this job?

“I gave her a right bloody earful and came back here because I’d much rather drink with you guys!”

At which point she calls the barman over and orders a round for the entire crew. We spend the rest of the evening chatting away like old friends: she regaled us with stories of her life, and she was gracious enough to listen to some of ours. Despite us trying to buy her a drink, she refused point-blank and picked up the entire bar tab for the rest of the evening on the basis that “…you’ve had to put up with that fucking evil bitch all week: the least I can do get you folks a drink!”

All good things must come to an end and at the end of the evening, her chauffeur turns up to take her home. She embraces all of us as old friends: she hugs me, plants a big kiss on my lips and thanks me, whereupon I comment, “you have just fulfilled a boyhood dream!” Again, that uproarious laugh! She looks at me and says, “Don’t let that fucking bitch get you down! Leave it to me…”

I later discovered through the back-channels some weeks later that our bête-noir had been fired from her five-figure job for her monstrous screw-up, primarily because our star’s agent had ripped the organisers a new one in very short order; you do NOT fuck with someone of our star’s track record without there being consequences. So, although we were not directly responsible for The Harridan’s demise, we were gratified to have someone of our star’s calibre standing up for us.

Revenge is a dish best served cold!

Edit: corrected °C for °F.

(source) story by (/u/GhostOfSorabji)

[mymiscfandomimagines]

Why the Biggest "Myths" About best piano keyboard for beginners

La — Until now, it has been feasible to discuss “the Andrew Norman design and style” as though that were some settled issue. Many of the younger composer’s big pieces — bearing Energetic titles like “Participate in,” “Check out” and “Swap” — have hurtled, from their opening minutes, with volleys of intensity that rival the kinetic climaxes of other artists. After which you can, with that founded, he can definitely check out city.

Presented this Artistic profile, the title of Mr. Norman’s most up-to-date orchestral get the job done, “Maintain,” hinted at an intriguing about-facial area. Steadiness and stasis haven't been his contacting cards. As well as in a new interview with Joshua Barone on the Ny Periods, Mr. Norman described a want to “relearn my language” when satisfying this Los Angeles Philharmonic co-commission.

Which was not idle chat. Saturday night time’s general performance via the Philharmonic and its audio director, Gustavo Dudamel, right here at their Walt Disney Concert Corridor house underlined just how willingly Mr. Norman has inverted his proven procedures. As opposed to quickly fostering a riot of competing rhythms and motifs, this composition specials in repetitive content for lengthy stretches more than its about forty five-moment duration. Percussive interjections and unpredictable collisions of melody would be the exception, rather than the rule.

Throughout the opening minutes, the composer asks individual strings to Perform decide on tones from attractively mystic modes — after which you can keep each one for any spell. (This “sustain” is one particular aspect of the title.) The staggered solution built the continuous ascents and descents in the pitches appear considerably less like composer-directed themes and even more like seesawing laws of mother nature, perfectly in balance. In the beginning, the result was sublime, Together with becoming a compelling realization on the ecological fears the composer specific in his plan Take note. (Suggestions pertaining to environmental sustainability — and its all-way too-possible opposite — provide the title extra pounds.)

Nonetheless, during the first 3rd of “Maintain,” The dearth of Substantially rhythmic thrust from time to time threatened to produce the perform seem aimless. At a single position, I discovered myself breathing a sigh of relief when an exciting new dance for flute and vibraphone rose up with the well-trod floor. (It absolutely was The very first time I’d ever been nervous for the following modify when Hearing Mr. Norman’s music.)

However step by step, I arrived to like the consequences of this pacing. While most of his past works are already all about specializing in Every single new unbelievable element since it stomps on the fore, in this article, Mr. Norman’s complexity features a lighter footprint. As being the strings are portray with Individuals very long tones, a more compact team of wind devices may divebomb from the body, with out leading to a commotion. Minimalist motors can possess the trumpets, for a number of moments, with no scrambling the overall narrative.

More than the final 3rd of “Maintain,” this uncommon merger concerning restraint and hyperactivity could hypnotize. When examining that the score calls for two pianos, tuned a quarter-tone apart, you may perhaps reasonably assume some microtonal fireworks. But the dissonances concerning the pianos are only ever highlighted Carefully, at hinge points when equally are clearly audible. At other junctures, the pianos appeared written content to Enable their collective resonance slip mysteriously into the history. Even though the dynamic level boosts to an simple roar, There exists a smoothness on the piece.

Bringing all this across calls for an orchestra of appreciable dexterity (and tolerance). The la gamers looked as if it would savor the material, even if it did not seem certainly virtuosic in mother nature. Mr. Dudamel succeeded in channeling the slyness of Mr. Norman’s writing, much too. Using the transitions in as well showy a manner may demonstrate fatal to its In general models; correctly, Mr. Dudamel built to the passages of pandemonium which has a gratifying steeliness of objective.

Perhaps the musicians felt safe in these selections, because of the inclusion of A further piece on This system (which was to repeat on Sunday) that authorized them to strut extra ecstatically. The 1996 composition “LA Versions,” by the previous L. a. Philharmonic songs director Esa-Pekka Salonen, was developed as being a showcase for this orchestra, and it proceeds to sound great in its fingers. The perform’s various instrumental hues remain Technicolor within their projected brilliance. The harmony — even in thickly orchestrated passages — nonetheless has a punchy vibrancy worthy of a encompass-seem theater blend. And its last minutes could possibly have obtained some rhythmic buoyancy below Mr. Dudamel’s enjoy.

Somewhat considerably less stunning was the orchestra’s trip via Beethoven’s Op. fifty six (often called the “Triple Concerto”). The piano, violin and cello soloists — all drawn in the Philharmonic’s normal cast — carried a brisk energy all over the demanding function. Nevertheless they may also seem taxed for the duration of some of its toughest slaloms. Mr. Dudamel pushed out some effervescent, courtly pulses, although this occasionally necessitated rushing past the get the job done’s most fascinating harmonic turns.

Although as it takes place, this orchestra has not prepared or promoted its centennial time around the standard repertory. With more than 50 commissions prepared for this yr — and mini-festivals devoted equally into the Harlem Renaissance also to the composers associated with the Fluxus movement — the Los Angeles Philharmonic goes massive on contemporary and modern items. All through this primary weekend of its year, the orchestra’s talent in works composed over the past three many years amounted into a thrilling omen for the coming calendar year.

[junker-town]

Women were playing football in the 1930s — then came the backlash

Photo by Ivan Dmitri/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

How the growing popularity of women’s football in the 1930s was met with widespread efforts to keep girls off the gridiron

“A fortnight ago in Los Angeles, those romantics who still believe in nursery rhymes and the dignity of womanhood got a rude shock,” LIFE Magazine brayed in a November 1939 issue. The shock in question came from a new Southern Californian league of what papers around the country had taken to calling “girl gridders”: women playing tackle football, apparently without sugar, spice and everything nice. In the case of the Stars, the Amazons and the Rinky Dinks (really), they were playing in front of thousands.

Take halfback Shirley Payne of the Stars, who had made her name outrunning Mickey Rooney (yes, that Mickey Rooney) during a 1938 halftime exhibition game against his team, the MGM Wildcats; that co-ed matchup was billed as groundbreaking. Or the Amazons’ Lois Roberts, who punted 50 yards barefoot.

“Strangely enough, they played good football,” wrote a man (probably) in the same spread, still concluding that “it would be better for girls to stick to swimming, tennis and softball.”

Photo by Peter Stackpole/Life Magazine/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images

From a 1939 spread in LIFE magazine on women playing football in Southern California

Members of that league, which also became the topic of a widely distributed newsreel, were just the most visible members of a rapidly growing class of girl and women football players.

Alabama’s Luverne Wise got an honorable mention for the all-state team for her performance at kicker and quarterback; her senior year, she said her dream was to “get a job coaching a girls’ football team.” Esther Burnham, a 14-year-old, played center for her Connecticut high school team — when a local paper asked why, she explained that she did it “for excitement.” Seventeen-year-old Texan Juanita McCrury was kicking extra points for her high school. Sacramento’s junior college organized a women’s team. 1938 John Barrymore vehicle Hold That Coed even featured a “girl gridder” played by comedian Joan Davis. Her punchline? “Let me take the ball — no Southern gentleman would think of tackling a lady!”

Photo by Ivan Dmitri/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

A pair of defenders tackle the ballcarrier during a game of women’s football circa 1940.

Judging by the breathless coverage around these examples (examples that almost certainly represent only a fraction of the total number of girls and women playing), girls’ enthusiasm for football was still clearly deemed unusual. But it was also having enough of an impact that institutions around the country were taking measures to keep girls off the gridiron — or at least from playing the same game the boys were.

Spalding tried to divert the interest of potential women football players (and open up a new revenue stream) by distributing a pamphlet of rules for “American Football For Women” in late 1939, “a safe game for all classes of women to play because there is no tackling or blocking or any other feature permitted that would be injurious to them.”

It was essentially two-hand touch, the kind had already been adapted for “powderpuff” games around the country (like one 1940 matchup at the University of South Carolina for which each participating co-ed’s phone number was listed in the program). If you made intentional contact, there was a 25 yard penalty; there were no kick-offs, and you weren’t allowed to catch punts. Each drive automatically started on the 40 yard line — a bigger handicap than was included in the touch rules Spalding released simultaneously as a safer alternative for young boys. Be sure to buy those “official women’s football breast protectors,” though!

Photo by Ivan Dmitri/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Players gather on the sidelines for a game of women’s football circa 1940.

Despite the fact that this version of football was about as innocuous as a game of badminton, the editors of Youth Leaders Digest — an industry publication that counted executives from parks departments, Boys and Girls Clubs, the YMCA, Boy Scouts and more among its contributing editors — were concerned. (Perhaps they hadn’t read the rules themselves.) “Do you think ‘a kick in the stomach’ or a ‘blow on the breasts’ or maybe a short journey into the unconscious carries with it any type of character building our high school or college girls need?” they asked, quoting the LIFE feature.

It seemed like a rhetorical question, but apparently the editorial garnered an immediate and unusual response — mostly in staunch agreement with its disbelief that any girl or woman would ever even imagine playing football.

“Girls’ football is here — whether as a passing fad or permanent exploitation, no one yet knows,” wrote University of Michigan professor Elmer D. Mitchell in the Journal of Health and Physical Education. “But even if girls’ football is a passing fad, this editorial will have served some usefulness if it can hurry the idea along to a quick end...stop women’s football in every way you can! Do not give it a chance to grow!” His reasoning: if football is hard for men, it will be impossible for women; women don’t actually want to play; oh, and — they’re ugly when they do.

From the director of health education for the YWCA: “We urge each one of you to protest in your communities the spread of such an insidious thing as this.” From the supervisor of P.E. in New Jersey public schools: “‘Ridiculous’ is the word for it.” A New York doctor compared the LIFE spread to the fall of the Roman Empire. OSU coach Francis Schmidt: “No one in his right mind would propose such a thing.” The superintendent of the Los Angeles parks and recreation department — so, in the same city where women playing football were attracting massive publicity and thousands of fans — announced that they would no longer permit the use of their facilities for girls’ football: “It is quite obvious that football (regardless of rules) is wholly unsuited to the physiological and anatomical limitations of girls.”

The head of the Bethlehem, Pennsylvania parks & recreation department might have come the closest to getting the point, while also missing it completely: “I think the typical American girl today is a girl who is quite feminine, who has charm and poise and is really a woman. A mannish tomboy type of girl should not be set up as an example of American womanhood; and I do think that if our girls started playing football, there would probably be created a new type of women for our girls to emulate.”

Naturally, Spalding responded with what might have been the equivalent of “...did you click the link?” “Under no circumstances would A.G. Spalding & Bros lower themselves in allowing...rules that even verged on the type of football that has had so much publicity,” replied a Spalding staffer. “We most heartily agree with your attitude in connection with a football game where women would have the clothes torn off of them [Ed. Note: ???], or would be subjected to various forms of injury; even the viewing of such a game would be unsightly.”

But it was too late: Spalding’s rules, as combined with the images presented in the LIFE spread, provoked vehement rejection of the mere idea of women playing football, and subsequent bans for girls in football across the country — many by statewide school athletic associations. Pennsylvania and Texas were among the first to legislate girls’ participation; as girls kept trying to play — despite the renewed resistance they faced as a result of gaining the tiniest foothold in the sport — new mandates kept being put in place to stop them.

Photo by Peter Stackpole/Life Magazine/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images

From a 1939 LIFE magazine spread about women playing football in Southern California

A Massachusetts girl named Myrtle Chick kept showing up to her high school football team’s practice, only to get turned away despite universal acknowledgement that she was one of the school’s best athletes, according to a 1941 Boston Globe feature. “The girls among Myrtle’s senior classmates are her staunchest supporters,” wrote the Globe. “‘She’ll show them if they’ll only give her a chance,’ say the young women.”

There had been women football players prior to those who rose to minor acclaim in the late 1930s, and there would be more after them. But the institutional rejection of women’s participation in football at this particular juncture illustrates an important point: women have only ever gotten banned from sports after first playing them. The idea that women are incapable of equal participation is only ever made explicit after they have….equally participated.

Even more stark is the fundamental contradiction of conventional narratives around women’s participation in sports, particularly the idea that as women play, they “open doors” for those who might come next — that all it takes is one brave soul to go “first,” and then the systemic sexism is cured. The relatively insignificant amount of success and visibility the women football players of the 1930s had earned actually provoked a stifling reaction and explicit mandates banning them from the sport — just about the furthest thing from a clear path for the next generation.

Obviously, not a great deal has changed for women in football since: players are still covered as local novelties in the exact same ways, and all-women teams are mostly ignored. Despite that, many women still channel the audacious spirit of early players like Chick. She told the Globe that since they wouldn’t let her play, she was going to try to form a girls’ team — and if she succeeded, had no qualms about “trying to book a game against those stuck-up boys.”

[creativesage]

By Greg Satell

In early 2004, Viacom announced it would spin off Blockbuster Video, leaving CEO John Antioco master of his own fate. He moved quickly to meet the threat posed by Netflix head on, launching Blockbuster Online in 2004 and, after successfully testing the concept in a few markets, ending late fees in early 2005.

Still, not satisfied with playing catch-up, Antioco searched for model that would return his company to dominance. He found it in 2006 with the Total Access program. Within a few weeks of announcing the promotion, Blockbuster was winning the majority of new subscribers, outstripping Netflix for the first time.

It was a textbook case of sound strategy and execution meeting a disruptive threat, but it would not end well. In 2010 Blockbuster would declare bankruptcy and become a cautionary tale. We tend to think that driving change is merely a matter of coming up with a clever plan and executing well. Yet that isn’t enough. You also need learn how to survive victory.

Defying Critics And Beating The Odds

John Antioco was the quintessential American success story. Starting from humble origins as a management trainee at 7-Eleven, he rose to become a senior vice president at the company. He then moved on to run the struggling Circle K convenience store chain, which he turned around in just three years before moving on to Taco Bell and working the same magic there.

So when he joined Blockbuster as CEO in 1997, he was ideally suited to the job. Early in his tenure, he came up with a program to share rental revenues with the movie studios rather than buying the videos directly.The strategy improved the firm’s cash position and its access of high demand movies, while also allowing it to increase its marketing budget. It was a stroke of genius.

“The experienced video executives were skeptical,” Antioco would later tell me. “In fact, they thought that the revenue-sharing agreement would kill the company. But throughout my career, I had learned that whenever you set out to do anything big, some people aren’t going to like it. I’d been successful by defying the status quo at important junctures and that’s what I thought had to be done in this case.”

So Antioco approached the Netflix problem in the same way. He assembled a team of talented executives, came up with a strategy and worked to execute it flawlessly. Yet although his efforts were initially successful, there was a flaw in his plan that he didn’t see at the time and it would lead to Blockbuster’s downfall.

Failing To Align Stakeholders

Not everybody was thrilled with the moves Antioco made. Franchisees, many of whom had their life savings invested in their business, were suspicious of Blockbuster Online. They only owned 20% of the stores, but could make their displeasure known. The moves were also expensive, costing roughly $400 million to implement, and investors balked.

So while Blockbuster was making progress against the Netflix threat, as earnings turned to losses, its stock took a beating. The low price attracted corporate raider Carl Icahn, whose heavy-handed style made managing the company difficult. Things came to a head in late 2006 when Icahn demanded that Antioco accept only half of the bonus he was owed.

“I was at a point, both personally and financially, that I had little desire to fight it out anymore,” Antioco told me. He negotiated his exit early the next year and left the company in July of 2007. His successor, JIm Keyes, was determined to reverse Antioco’s strategy, cut investment in the subscription model, reinstated late fees and shifted the focus back to the retail stores.

When Blockbuster declared bankruptcy in 2010, the event was portrayed as corporate America’s inability to navigate digital disruption. Yet, as we have seen, nothing could be further from the truth. The management team came up with a viable strategy, executed it well and proved they could compete, yet still were unable to survive that victory.

Building Shared Purpose And Shared Consciousness

When General Stanley McChrystal took over command of special forces in Iraq, the situation he encountered was surprisingly similar to that of Antioco and Blockbuster. A well-led, well-resourced and highly efficient organization was faced with a disruptive challenge by a smaller, less powerful, but incredibly disruptive adversary.

Yet while Antico saw the problem as one of strategy and tactics, McChrystal saw it as one of one of organizational coherence. So he embarked on a program to improve the links both within his command and also to outside stakeholders, such as partner agencies, law enforcement and embassy personnel, to build “shared purpose and shared consciousness.”

“We began to make progress when we started looking at these relationships as just that: relationships — parts of a network, not cogs in a machine or outputs and inputs,” McChrystal would later write in his book, Team of Teams. Within a few years, the terrorists were on the run.

The difference in outcomes is striking. Antioco, who had built his career on defying the critics, largely ignored their concerns and pressed on with his strategy. McChrystal, on the other hand, understood that if he couldn’t get key stakeholders on board, the strategy wouldn’t matter. He worked on building relationships not to overpower, but to attract others to his cause. There were still critics, but they were vastly outnumbered.

You Need A Plan To Survive Victory From The Start

In my book, Cascades, I cover a wide range of transformational efforts, from revolutionary political movements to corporate turnarounds. In every case, the movement for change inspired others to move against it. As Saul Alinsky pointed out decades ago, every revolution provokes a counterrevolution.

I saw this first hand in Ukraine’s Orange Revolution, which I personally took part in. Five years after we protested in the bitter cold to overturn a falsified election, we saw the target of our ire, Viktor Yanukovych, win the presidency in an election that outside observers judged to be legitimate. Later, similar events played out in the aftermath of Egypt’s Arab Spring.

What makes the difference is not a particular strategy or persona, but whether an organization can align based on shared values and purpose. It wasn’t that Blockbuster franchisees were worried that Antioco’s plan wouldn’t succeed, they were terrified that it would and they would be left behind. Investors, for their part, were more focused on earnings than Antioco’s vision.

Yet shared values are what enables a transformation to succeed beyond a few initial victories. As Irving Wladawsky-Berger, a key player in IBM’s historic turnaround in the 90s told me, “Because the transformation was about values first and technology second, we were able to continue to embrace those values as the technology and marketplace continued to evolve.”

And that’s what so often makes the difference between ultimate success and failure. Those that see driving change as merely a series of benchmarks often find their efforts thwarted. Those that build a plan to survive victory based on the forging of shared values, are much more likely to prevail. Transformation is always a journey, never a destination.

An earlier version of this article first appeared on Inc.com.

[Entire post, click on the title link to read it at Digital Tonto.]

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Speaking of Innovation and Innovators...

We are proud and honored to have had our @CreativeSage company Twitter account chosen for the seventh year in a row now (2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018), for the Top 50 Innovation Twitter Sharers List! We want to thank Innovation Excellence and everyone in our community who voted for our account again this past year.

Additionally, Founder/CEO/Chief Imagination Officer Cathryn Hrudicka maintains a multidisciplinary artist account at @CathrynHrudicka that some of you may want to follow, too.  She has served as an Artist-in-Residence, and can recommend other Artists-in-Residence in all artistic disciplines, for companies and organizations.

At Creative Sage™, we love to work with clients on social innovation, educational innovation, healthcare innovation, civic and government innovation projects, as well as corporate innovation projects. Our core capabilities include creativity training and coaching, and the design and facilitation of innovation programs, including in the areas of design thinking, arts-based processes, applications of science and neuroscience tools when appropriate, change management, and business model innovation.

We have been very effective in helping organizational leaders and employees move through transitions and cultural changes. We work with for-profit, nonprofit, B-corps, trade associations, and other types of organizations.

In addition to offering our services in creativity and innovation program design, consulting, leadership coaching, and training, we may be able to help your organization define and choose a Chief Innovation Officer (or another innovation management role) — or our founder, Cathryn Hrudicka, may be able to serve in an innovation project management role for your organization, on a contract, part-time or limited full-time basis.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you would like to discuss your situation and how we can help your organization move forward to a more innovative and profitable future. You can also call us at 1-510-845-5510 in San Francisco / Silicon Valley.

We look forward to helping you find the path to luminous creativity and continuous innovation!

***

[andytfish]

FREELANCE GUiDANCE: A 10 Part Series- Part 8 Meeting Deadlines

Nothing is going to sink you faster than earning a reputation of being difficult to work with or missing deadlines.

Deadlines are the best and worst thing about being a freelancer.  Without a deadline we wander aimlessly through clouds of creativity endlessly tweaking, endlessly revising.  The Mulligan is the enemy of the freelancer.   Perfect stands in the way of the Good.

Deadlines are tricky because you have to do a sort of juggling act like a circus acrobat leaping from trapeze to trapeze all without a net.

Here are the things that work for me:

1. Set a realistic deadline.   When the work comes in calculate how long its going to take and make sure it meets with the clients expectations.  If it doesn't-- turn it down.  Better to pass than be late.

2. Once you have that deadline get yourself a good calendar and write down the due date, then count backwards to see how many days you have.  Now divide that number times the number of pages or illustrations in the project and you have your daily goal.  Simply put if accept a job requiring 10 illustrations in 5 days you know with certainty that you must finish 2 pieces a day to meet that deadline.

Simple, but it gets more complex with bigger projects and longer deadlines.  Because it's human nature to fall into the "oh I have plenty of time for that"-- but do you?  Make sure you take into account days off, sickness, family and friends both good events and bad.  Excuses don't earn you points in freelance, delivering quality work does.

If in school you were someone who waited until the last minute to do that project you have a learned behavior that needs to change if you're going to be a successful freelancer.

Let's expand the equation-- you accept a 50 illustration assignment and you have two months to get it done-- that's 50 illustrations in 60 days-- seems simple right?

It depends on if you're planning on working weekends, because if you don't work weekends then a month is 21 days long not 31 so that now means if you're a M-F worker that you have to accomplish 1.5 illustrations each and every workday to make your deadline.  And that is the drop dead number.  To be safe, I would shoot for 2-3 per day which will build in a little bit of a buffer for you.

Realistically working in this method you should re-evaluate your deadline about 20 days in-- so on your calendar write down a big ol' '30' which is the absolute number you need to make this particular deadline-- and again that's the no breathing room drop dead number.  Were I to re-evaluate at this juncture and I found I had hit 30 rather than celebrate I would increase the output by working one of the two designated days off I have-- so now I am working six days a week to meet this deadline.  If you exceed expectations at the end you can always take some time off to make up for missed days off-- better that than missing the deadline.

If on the other hand you check your number at day 20 and instead of the must have '30' it's 20 you need to jump start panic mode and now work seven days a week and increase your workflow by 50%.

Many freelancers have the misconception that time is their enemy-- it is not if used correctly.  Time is on your side if you use it correctly and by doing the 1/3 of the way check-in you control time, because it's better to know sooner rather than later that you aren't going to make a certain date.

You can go back through the other parts for additional advice, but you have to make sure your circle of friends and family understand when you're on deadline.  Nothing worse than that friend that keeps tempting you to go places when you know you should be working.

A healthy balance of work and play keeps down stress, but you need to be realistic in your work schedule and just because you're the boss doesn't mean you can slack off.

Part Nine Next Week

Andy Fish is a freelance artist and writer who has been living the lifestyle longer than there has been an iPhone on this planet.  The advice given has worked for him, it might work for you, he hopes it does.  But like all advice, take it with your own situation in mind.  If you want to contact him shoot him an email andy@andytfish.com

[gndmwngdly]

All right everyone a lot of the much Trump sold out on the wall chills have gone completely silent in the last 24 hours I wonder why I could be Oh Trump came out and said hey if Congress tries to circumvent my national emergency declaration to allocate while funding I'll veto it. So essentially what he's doing is throwing down the gauntlet and challenging all the nevertrump errs to actually attempt to stop as look it is going to be such a bloodbath for Republicans in Congress if they tried to stop him from building as wall because a lot of these people come from districts where the wall is popular you gotta realize this isn't an entirely partisan issue but there are definitely places in the country where it is considerably more popular than not and then there are places in the country where it's an unpopular. If you go to San Francisco and you pull people should we build a wall on the southern border it'll probably be like you know 70% will say no now let's say you go to small-town America pretty much anywhere but especially along the border yeah you're gonna get overwhelming support for it lot of Republicans come from small town in rural America. Yes I am sure that some rural congressmen from a district in Texas that doesn't have a city of more than 15,000 people is gonna try to stand in Trump way. I'm not sure that there are enough Republicans in the House and Senate to override such a veto and what if they fail ,what if they fail that in a legislative sense they're gonna Foothill force negotiations here's what I think he's trying to do the national emergency declaration is it has an injunction by him to the Ninth Circuit of course issued against him he has to take it before SCOTUS that could take years he's already requested that they take it up if they probably will I think they'll hand Trump a victory but he'll need a second term for that to kick in but there's another possibility; force the legislature to try to circumvent it hope that they fail once they fail say look come and negotiate I don't want to have to be doing this but we got to secure the border give me the wall and we'll see what I can do for you because I'm a reasonable person I'm the negotiator and chief which is exactly what Trump gave them with his prior deal. He did secure  one quarter of the wall funding that he wanted it's only for a very short piece of border in one particular critical but one particular location it falls far short of what he ultimately needed and then again a few thousand extra Border Patrol agents in in the like the the legal crossing areas, like border agents to staff those I mean it's an improvement over what we have it does give him some wall. There was a video of it and the left's tried to claim that that was just a revamping of an existing walls like yes they're replacing a fence with a wall that's the whole point of this entire thing most of the barrier that Trump wants is to replace subpar existing barriers either steel or regular fencing and embankment something like that with something that is considerably larger and more formidable that's essentially what is what is being done it's adding some new border although he can't do that yet because of the bill he signed the thing is though that bill didn't prevent him from passing the emergency declaration. He's saying I want billions more to complete the rest of this project the Supreme Court I believe will side with him because they will say it is absolutely within the purview of the executive branch to understand that when millions of people are pouring into your country illegally that rises to the level of the national emergency. If it were happeningto a nation with less population italready would have been it would have resulted in the militarization of the entire border Trump's not even talking about that Trump is saying that at certain critical junctures the National Guard is gonna have to step in because there are caravans of tens of thousands of people entering they are entering alongside further there are people that are entering as economic migrants all they want is a job which by the way still is is not proper they're not an asylum seeker the people tend to have more mercy towards them but what about the cartel member that filtered in what about the human trafficker what about the drug meal you know you know some 10 year old kid is is bloated with cocaine going across the border illegally well you know you're incentivizing that to happen you're incentivizing the worst acts of depravity possible when you leave the border porous because people in those vulnerable situations more than half of the women are getting sexually assaulted in a large proportion raped on the way here. A lot of them are getting enslaved. A lot of them are getting addicted they're getting used by cartels this is not acceptable. The nation of Mexico with with a socialist populist vaguely leader is doing more to stop this right now than our own congresses including some Republicans shame on them, absolute travesty. so Trump I support strongly in declaring a national emergency. The bill that he signed is there like whoa it looks like it's a.m. to Steve no it's not it's the how the is a TM Nestico K so you're Spencer saying that you're going to detain fewer people at these holding facilities then build the wall no problem you won't have anyone to detain why would you need so many beds in these facilities? oh my god it frees up money for refugees look that's fine yeah mebbe uh give them money so they're not at the border while it's still porous so that you can build your wall. Then they gave money to Israel but that  gets worked into basically every defense bill so that's a normal part of the budget one that I happen to oppose at this point it's like it's laughable today we got huge amounts of debt can't secure our border can't pay our pensions, we can't pay for infrastructure, we can't pay for our military, we can't pay veterans, we can't pay for anything here we give tens of billions of dollars a year to this one other state let alone all the other countries we give foreign aid to we should there should be a constitutional amendment against a penny being given any foreign nation until at least our own budget is balanced in some proper order slash the size of government and pay other nations if you want to get rid of the EPA they don't do anything anyway at this point yeah you might as well get rid of DHS because Congress won't let them do their job they won't they won't hire enough agents they won't build a barrier they won't lay they won't let them response it's a catch-and-release on steroids because of a bunch of idiot Democrats in the House of Representatives a bunch of fools the Democratic Party at this point is fundamentally taken up the position that it is wrong it is it is bad for us to actually even have a border if there's no coherent border defense it doesn't matter about the rest of the barriers you built Trump is trying to plug the gaps in the border I support it I think it's a good idea people have made little little mini docks and stuff like that like journals they go to parts of the border it's like yeah here's the border what is it's like a five foot like the little riveted steel thing with some barbed wire on it otherwise there's nothing there you could step over it you don't need to scale a fence you don't need to a jog through the desert at night with camouflage on you don't need to fight off coyotes now you just walk across it it's basically just a vehicle barrier there's no pedestrian barrier at most of the critical parts the work these are crossable areas and the only thing that's there is one layer of barbed wire that you'd snip athrough in ten seconds and maybe a camera on a cigar or cactus once in a while that's all that's there yeah I think that we should probably improve that I think it would probably help Border Patrol a little bit you know the Democrats have lost their minds so he's good at so yeah he's not selling out he's standing his ground he's like no I'm gonna veto any legislative attempt he's daring them by the way if they if they actually do attempt to circumvent it and they say well he's not allowed to have a national emergency and that all the Democrats will vote for it they're gonna look bad I'll hurt them in the elections I don't think that they realize how unpopular their stance really is they know you know all of the Democrats before said we needed a wall but then they stopped they shut up about it the second that they're elected Clinton did this, Obama did this, Carter did this, it's been going on since the 70s. Well you know there's a problem people are coming across the board we need to do something about it they get elected they don't do anything about it the only one that did was Ronald Reagan and it was a half-assed attempt that was again led by the legislature co-sponsored by Democrats was supposed to result in a proper physical barrier but that part fell through it never actually got made. Bush was all about all in border defense so gonna stop them terrorists from coming across Osama Bin Laden's gonna wander out of the desert and attack us it was like and then and he builds a little bit of fence and embankment that's basically all I did I think how much barrier did he complete like 50 miles or something Trump's already do I think exceeded thatnow he did that remember they gave him the first disbursement to plug a few gaps in the San Diego area by the way nobody apparently there has a problem with it they a cost and these others had to squash out their own reporting from on the ground now there will be some built in Texas and he's trying to gain that what is it 7 or 8 billion for everything else that he needs to do or feels he needs to do along the border. The Democrats now are leading the charge to stop the border from being secured. Do you realize how surreal this is? "Oh it's a waste of money" no it's not, you never said that before, you don't have any problem giving that amount of money to a foreign state while we don't even have it without printing money you know have a problem with that that's perfectly fine I think that that's a just shy of treason actually myself.

[itsworn]

How to Rewire a 1965 Plymouth Barracuda the Painless Way

I have been toiling on my Barracuda project for the last seven years and have sworn to finish this ride before the height of the summer cruise season. Wish me luck.

During the build it became obvious that my mix of old-school and new parts just wasn’t going to cut it in every instance. Sure, adding a modern supercharger on top of a built 1974 360 is not a bad idea, but throwing a 50-year-old wiring harness into the mix and hoping for dependability just wasn’t wise.

We called in Painless Performance, a leader in aftermarket hot rod and muscle car wiring, for help. The company sent us its corresponding Mopar harness kit to help end our wiring woes. For the installation, we hooked up with the muscle car pros at the Early Vette Shop in Shohola, Pennsylvania. Co-proprietor and chief tech Joe Erven was more than happy to take out the old and make room for the new—harness, that is.

1 I have done lots of upgrades to my 1965 Barracuda, including a Paxton supercharger and modern technology like electric fans and fuel pumps. Once we get the wiring up to snuff, there won’t be much holding us back from getting this Fish out on the street.

2 We ordered a complete new wiring harness for the Plymouth from Painless Performance. After we answered a few questions about our particular ’Cuda, Painless sent us its corresponding kit, complete with appropriate tie-ins for our outboard gear.

3 Don’t let the name fool you. The Early Vette Shop proprietors, Mike Walsh and Joe Erven, are well versed in all brands of muscle cars from the glory days of horsepower. Here Erven removes the old wiring harness from the engine bay and interior.

4 We were careful to keep everything that was removed from the Barracuda in case we needed parts from the old wiring harnesses to finish the installation (and we would). Once we pulled all the old wiring from the front half of the car, we got down to brass tacks.

5 After the Barracuda’s firewall junction box was removed, we installed this firewall access plate to clean up the area and give ourselves a nice routing spot to bring the front end of the harness through. We will feed all the key elements in the front end and engine bay through this port.

6 Here we see the new Painless Performance harness on the left and the original Barracuda dash harness on the right. The Painless product is a complete system, containing everything we will need under the hood, in the dash, and throughout the body. A plus in our book is the fact that this system eliminates the original bulkhead connector, which has been the point of problems for many a Mopar restorer.

7 We definitely got an upgrade at the fuse box. In place of the old-style glass fuses is a complete 21-circuit 12-fuse box, which will be installed out of sight under the dash. Not only is it a step above the original, but it’s also a third of the size.

8 When it comes down to the wires, this harness does not disappoint. Each wire is custom printed with the circuit identification and uses the original Mopar wire color coding for easy identification.

9 Here we have installed the fuse box above the left-hand kick panel, far out of the way. This will give us a short run to both the engine bay and to the points out back.

10 The wires are sorted according to their final destination. Even though Painless did a good job of bundling, we need to go through each wire, making sure it is sent to the correct destination.

11 Once Erven finds the wires heading to the back of the car, he tapes them together in preparation of threading them through the side channel along the inside rocker and then out through the inner quarter-panel and to the trunk area.

12 Conversely, we thread the engine and front-end harness through the service hole to supply the engine bay with its circuits. Once again, Erven tapes all the necessary wires together to easily thread them through the space provided.

13 From here the wires are separated into groups, sending each set to their corresponding destination. Once ready, Erven will start installing them at their respective junctures.

14 I was concerned about getting the needed wires back into the trunk area to continue the process. We really didn’t want to start pulling out door panels and finished back panels. Erven attached the end of the Painless Performance wires to the original rear harness. I pulled as he guided it over the wheelwells and into the trunk area.

15 While we are out back, we dig into the rear lights. Painless Performance supplies the gold tip contacts for the light sockets. You will have to reuse your original sockets with this Mopar kit, so don’t throw away your old harness. With his cut/crimp tool, Erven installs the tips after we thread the wires through the sockets. We get the back lights done and then install our stock bulbs.

16 At the headlight buckets, we use the new pigtails supplied by Painless and crimp them onto the respective feed.

17 Erven also picks a good spot for the ground, which will be reused at a later time for other grounds and possibly a relay.

18 Also included with the kit is a master 60-amp fuse, which will protect us against a total meltdown. This will be installed near the fuse box, over the kick panel.

19 Erven cross-references the wiring schematic. Painless Performance supplies a clear and detailed rundown of the basic wiring for our Mopar. Here Erven checks on the original Barracuda schematic he pulled up on his phone to make sure it is all kosher.

20 Erven installs the corresponding wiring to the light switch. We bought a new switch, as our original one had some issues. We did reuse the chrome knob and installation nut.

21 The gauge cluster plug hooks onto the back of the original gauge pack. Erven is now splicing the corresponding harness wires to the original wires and pins.

22 Painless included this relay for the Barracuda’s electric fuel pump. It is wired to make sure we always have a consistent 12 volts of power to the pump out back.

23 Even though Painless supplied a new electric fan harness and relay, we kept our original one because the car is running a single fan now, not a dual setup (we changed fans). The fan relay is wired to the temperature sensor on the front of the intake manifold. When the engine gets up to temperature, it will ground and engage the fan for cooling.

24 Erven starts adding loom to our wiring scheme. Painless supplies two styles of loom in all thicknesses so you can cover most any grouping of wires. Here the temperature sensor feeds into a larger loom on its way back to the fuse box.

25 The finished engine bay. As we were wiring the Barracuda, we realized that an alternator upgrade was needed. We purchased a new Powermaster 75-amp unit so this Barracuda will never be without a good charge. Once we installed it, Erven continued on, and finished looming the engine bay. As you see here, all wires are loomed and the overall look is clean and in control.

26 Erven recommended using extra gauges to keep track of our supercharged engine. We bought a nice threesome of meters from Classic Instruments (temperature, volt meter, oil pressure). Not only are these products topnotch, but the white faces and old-school design blend in well with my interior and original cluster. Here Erven wires up the trio.

27 After wiring the back of the cluster, we are ready to reinstall it.

28 Just about there. The headlight bright switch is all wired up, and you can see the pack of wires headed to the back. We will loom these as well, and then place the wires in the channel along the inside rocker panel.

29 We had previously sourced this three-gauge panel (and painted it argent silver to match), knowing we were going to have to add to the original dash setup to keep track of my supercharged motor. Once wired up, these new gauges fit snugly underneath the radio delete panel.

30 The finished interior. Everything looks the way it should. We are ready to get this baby fired up for testing. Painless Performance’s name says it all. This procedure turned out to be as painless as we had hoped.

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