November 10, 2008

Blimps go 90 on with the show


Joy Feasley, You Made Me Very Happy, 2008

* Booman:

"I want to be clear that I do not expect, or even want, Barack Obama to govern as I would govern. However, if I were president-elect, I would be planning quite an operation on inauguration day. As soon as I was sworn in, I would demand that Robert Mueller submit his resignation. Then I would instruct the FBI to lock down FBI Headquarters, the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency offices, the executive suites at the CIA, the National Security Agency's offices, the National Intelligence Agency's offices, and management's offices at the Department of Justice. I would tell them to put yellow police tape around all of these buildings and offices, and I would treat each as a crime scene. I'd have them preserve evidence from every safe, every email cache, every hard-drive. And then I would prosecute every violation to the fullest extent of the law.

"My number one priority would be exposing the truth about the anthrax attacks, the White House Iraq Group, and the mass firings of U.S. attorneys in the lead-up to the 2006 midterm elections. But, I'm a hardass that has no interest in pretending continuity in government is preferable to justice and the rule of law. Obama has a more difficult road. Mueller is appointed to a term that doesn't end until 2010. I think Mueller should be in the docket. The last thing I think is acceptable is to have him continue on as head of the FBI, when I consider it the job of the FBI to investigate and imprison most of Washington's elite Establishment.

"But I didn't get elected, and Washington covers its own ass. Don't let it get you too down."

-- related: check out November5.org.

* Interesting back and forth beginning with this piece by Bob Lefsetz in which is denouces the decision on the part of The Doors' estate to market The Doors' name for a Converse commercial.

Here are the last few paragraphs from the thoughful, and lengthly response by Doors manager Jeff Jampol. excerpt:

"My task, then, my question, is: how am I going to expose these coming generations to The Doors if I don’t have terrestrial radio, new music coming from my artist(s), record stores OR touring? One of the (but not the only) answers is that I have to expose these generations to The Doors as an idea, as an institution, as a certain way of seeing the world, as well as a band, in a way that each different generation can relate to. As a NAME that’s cool to them and to their peers. There are SIX distinct generations, all of whom behave and respond differently, that we market and promote The Doors to: Baby Boomers, Post-Baby Boomers,Gen X, Gen Y, Millenials…and soon, Post-Millenials.

"And how do we get to them? Not to YOU, per se - you already HAVE a relationship with The Doors, and you expect that relationship to go a certain way and have The Doors treated in a certain manner. But to the NEW generation(s)? How do I reach THEM? They are used to different things than we are, and they accept certain things that WE (you and, to a certain extent, I) may find repugnant or undesirable. They are influenced by, and in turn want to influence, their peers, just like I did when I was a kid, and just like I am betting you did, too. But make no mistake - IF YOU ARE BEYOND YOUR TEENS, YOU ARE NOT THEIR PEER (nor am I). How YOU think is very different than how THEY think. I appreciate the differences. I abhor many of them. But in the end, I respect them, and I deal with them, because it IS reality. These differences are clearly not something I am making up - I’m merely reporting them, as you have yourself many times.

"We can continue to do things exactly as we would have a generation or so ago, keep The Doors all to ourselves, and go on about our lives. I think a certain number of new fans would never discover The Doors if that were to happen, though. Still, we can try to avoid the occasional missteps and overreaches that sometimes occur as we continue to try and insure that new kids will discover my heroes - whether that’s through a peer, a parent, a videogame, or a Doors sneaker. I am just trying to illustrate, again, HOW and WHY we decided to move forward with a Doors shoe in addition to our other Doors apparel. The only possible exception is that, in this case, there was not much of a money consideration here - it was purely an exercise in marketing.

"We all discussed this move, and we all approved it. The question that remains is, did we misstep? Did we cross some invisible line? Were we wrong in our ideas? Have we missed something? We KNOW that not everyone will agree. We’re not trying to get everyone’s approval. The Doors NEVER did that. But we ARE trying to look at HOW we do things, and why, and make sure, to the best of our limited human ability, that we stay as true as possible.

"I know that I will never convince anyone that is firmly to one side or the other of any particular ideology, or idea. And I am not even going to try to take on THAT 'fool’s task.' You have your opinions, you are entitled to them, and I respect them. All of them.

"You have made your feelings known. I have now exposed mine here. I have tried to explain how we came to this conclusion (and others). I hope we can both respect each other enough to take what each side has said and chew on it. I know I’M chewing on some of the things YOU brought up.

"In the end, I do truly feel it’s a Doors sneaker, just like we have Doors t-shirts or a Doors messenger bags (and NOT a Doors Christmas ornament). In the end, Bob, it’s only rock ‘n roll, as I’ve oft-quoted Mick ‘n Keith - but I LOVE it."

* "There are two motives for reading a book: one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it." -- Bertrand Russell

1 Comments:

Blogger ConnectingTheDots said...

Yes, there are currently six generations, but why are you calling Generation Jones the "Post-Boomers"? Google it, and you'll find that the generation between the Boomers and GenX has a name (GenJones) which has already become quite established.

1:15 PM  

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