Rock Stars: Sex, Drugs, Rock ‘n’ Roll … and Benefits?

I can recall from my teenage years being enamored with the idea of being a rock star.  I idolized these guys; partly because they seemed to live sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll.  I used to see them in magazines like Rip, Metal Edge, Circus, and Hit Parader.  I was jealous. These people got to play music every day, gain the attention of female fans, drive fast cars, reside in high places, and lived what seemed to be a nonstop party.

Now, close to 20 years later my perception has changed.  Don’t get me wrong, if I could drop everything today and be able to play music tomorrow I would certainly do it.  The difference now is that it’s for a general love of music.  The genre wouldn’t matter, but I would need to be able to make a decent living and have adequate health coverage.   What drew me into wanting to be a rock star decades ago is not what would draw me into being a musician today.

As I grew older; a sobering, harsh, and daydream shattering reality that bands are companies made itself more apparent. Like PepsiCo or Microsoft or Georgia Pacific, bands have a product to sell in a marketplace of consumers. While I have no work experience in this industry, I started to perceive that they’re worried about branding and image; are concerned about numbers (consumer products sales, record sales, ticket sales, etc.); or on the lookout for anything that could threaten demand for their sound.

Recently, I’ve broken out some of the old Dream Theater CD’s and have almost forgotten that the Glass Prison was one of twelve musical pieces about their drummer’s, Mike Portnoy, experience with alcoholism.  Over the past few weeks, I’ve noticed some rehab or drug use news. Bon Jovi noted that, Richie Sambora will be entering rehab and Steven Tyler announced that he and Joe Perry did drugs as recently as 2008 despite having been clean for years.

So I have to wonder …

When a big name band recruiting is someone, do they have a benefits package that they tout?  Do these guys get full medical and dental coverage?  Would the band’s medical plan then cover chemical addiction and/or counseling?  Maybe rockers’ are considered high risk because of their exposure to sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll.  If this is the case, perhaps coverage doesn’t extend to S.T.D treatments or chemical dependency; or at the very least, maybe rock stars pay higher premiums … I mean, don’t insurance rates increase if one’s a smoker?

What about other benefits?

Lately, I’ve been watching The Spirit Carries On; the reality TV webisodes of Dream Theater auditioning new drummers. After the audition, the band sat down and proceeded to interview the drummers.  When they were chatting, I didn’t hear any discussions about how many weeks of paid vacation the drummer would get or any mentioning of a generous 401(k)?   What about short and long term disability – why wasn’t that part of the discussion?

I would imagine that musical bands actually do have benefits; but a wide-eyed, awestruck, 15 year old drummer who idolizes these people, probably doesn’t care about full medical or dental.  After all, a 401(k) with generous employer contributions probably isn’t the reason for them wanting to become a rock star – it certainly wasn’t for me.

Then again, maybe the sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle is the only benefit really offered – it’s all I’ve ever really seen in those metal magazines as a kid.

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FINTY - Let's Give Social Media a Buzzword!

Social Media Badges - why can't it this be called a FinTY placement?

It’s no secret ‘social media’ is hot right now.

With Facebook’s skyrocketing popularity, it seems like traditional tech bellwethers scurried to try get some footing in this space. Yahoo! launched Pulse, Google had Buzz, and Apple debuted Ping. Even Wal-Mart is throwing their hat into the ring by buying Kosmix, demonstrating that brick and mortar retailers want in on the social media club.

I know the majority of the sites I go to tell me to visit or follow them on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Linkedin; usually in that order probably because they’re ranked left to right by popularity.  Facebook and Twitter seem to lead in the popularity race. Youtube probably isn’t that far behind, most likely because it has the resources of Google behind it, and LinkedIn is picking up steam especially in the wake of a high profile IPO.

Sometimes I'll see a Wordpress or Blogspot badge but, I have a tendency of not lumping them in with the social media outlets with stronger brand identities.  Myspace, Digg, and Tumblr icons sometimes make appearances but I rarely think of logging into them just to follow a company, brand, or personality. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Linkedin just have more mindshare and most companies/sites let the websphere know that they too are represented on these popular social media mediums.  Just check out the badges proudly adorned on their site.

I am surprised that there hasn’t been the term popularized regarding the placement of these icons.  I think there should be.  These badges should be rearranged on sites; listing it as Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, and YouTube and referring to as a “FinTY” placement.  I’ve seen passing references to it, but I’m surprised there hasn’t been an industry wide adoption of this term.  Personally, I could see this happening. I could even see site developers using this as a value-add on.

Developer: “Ok, here are the spec’s. The site will have breadcrumbs, dynamic menus and a customized login page. Did you also need a FinTY placement?”

 You: “Oh yea. Almost forgot about that.  Yes. FinTY it up.”

Social Media is in, it’s happening, and everyone wants a piece of it. I’m no different. I wouldn’t be blogging or on Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Digg, Tumblr, Google Buzz, Yahoo! Pulse, AOL Lifestream, About.me … (ok you get the idea) … if I didn’t want just a little social media attention.   The Internet Marketing industry on the whole already has terms like SEO, Bot, Geo targeting, Pay-Per-Click or PPC, Inbound Link, Retargeting, and CPC (to name a few) … FinTY is just another term that could complement it.

So … pass it along . Help popularize it.  Give “FinTY” a chance and make it come alive!

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A Rock Band Game (um ... before the Xbox)

When I was younger my friends and I would often play a rock band game.  This was in the 90s and the Xbox was a few years away.  It wasn't something that required an electronic console or even a pen and paper.  Just a little imagination.  Usually we'd play over a few drinks so it was a pretty good laugh ... at least we thought so.  All of us loved music and we all had very different musical tastes.  It made for good time trying to think about what bands should tour together.

We weren’t thinking about the good shows these bands or artists would put on. We were trying to think of band’s names that had the best synergies to create an attention getting marquee.  Personally, I think this is a pretty addicting game and still find myself thinking about this when mowing my lawn.  Here are a few that we came up with back then and a few that have resulted in this game played recently:

• Foreigner with Bad English


• Live and The Grateful Dead


• Kiss and Saliva


• Styx with The Stones


• Police and Warrant


• Prince, Queen, and King Crimson


• Europe and Asia


• U2 and The B52’s


• Def Leppard with Blind Melon


• Chicago and Boston


• Slaughter and The Killers


• Train, The Cars, and Jefferson Airplane


• Blue Man Group, Pink Floyd, Green Day, and The Red Hot Chili Peppers

This is all I could think of in one sitting … but if YOU think of any, feel free to comment ...

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The Logic of Superstition Part II – The Good Luck

In my last post, The Logic of Superstition Part I - The Bad Luck, there were some of the bad luck superstitions that didn't make sense (to me anyway).  In this part II of II post on superstitions, I have to wonder about the "good luck" superstitions. 

Rain on your wedding

I remember attending the wedding of a close family friend.  As soon as Pachelbel’s Canon in D starts playing and the bride and her father line up at the top of the aisle, it began to pour. It was a summer Saturday and the doors of the church were open and we could hear the rain rapidly hitting the pavement.  A friend had uttered an empathetic “aw” about the rain and said “well, they say ‘if it rains on your wedding day it is good luck.’”  I would imagine this is the case because ten years later they are still married and have two wonderful children.

But I have had to think about this one.  Is it limited to just rain or could it be any precipitous event?  If it’s a winter wedding is snow or sleet just as lucky?  If it’s not the precipitation but an unfortunate or unanticipated event, then would the limo getting into a fender bender on the way to the church be considered lucky?  Or, what if all the guests are delayed by an hour because of a burst water pipe on the highway … certainly those unanticipated events must be better luck than that of a common rain.

Knock On Wood

"We're right on schedule, knock on wood."  Admittedly, this one I have a hard time understanding.  From what I understand, the phrase was originally "stomp wood" because way back in the day people would stomp on wooden floors for luck.  When houses moved to tile, carpet, or even linoleum; why didn't the phrase evolve along with it rather than the "wood" part of the phrase staying and the motion being moved to the hands?  Personally, I think "stomp tile" has a timeless quality to it.

That aside, I have to wonder there are acceptable levels of  wood types.  For example, is knocking on a piece of solid finished oak more lucky than an a piece of particle board? Also, if it's painted then does that qualify as wood? Technically, that's knocking paint.

Getting Pooped on by a Seagull

I couldn’t believe this one when I heard it.  At first, I thought it was someone joking around with me. But others have come forth and have told me the same thing: “getting pooped on by a seagull is good luck.” I wonder if this is applicable to cars because my car seems to be very lucky when I go to the beach.

Why is this limited to just sea gulls?  It seems equally plausible that a blue jay pooping on you would be just as lucky – maybe even luckier.  I have seen more sea gulls at the beach than I do blue jays in my back yard, so the chances of a blue jay happening are rarer and the luck would seem much more valuable.  And why is this just limited to sea gull poo?  It would stand to reason, the bigger the poo, the luckier it is.  I’ve never seen anyone stepping in dog, deer, or moose droppings and sincerely say “Goddamn that’s lucky!”

Admittedly I throw salt over my shoulders, don’t step on any cracks, and even have a lucky horse shoe.   I suppose I don’t really have a hard time believing; I probably just have a hard time understanding.  There are so many superstitions and old wives tales that it makes just as much sense to believe them in at face value as well as its reciprocal.  I’m also inclined to believe in the compounding of them. But who knows if the day will ever come.  If you see me get pooped on by a sea gull on my wedding day and it rains you know I’ll be playing the lottery very soon because there’s a good chance I can win … knock on wood.

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