Category Archives: MISC

Anvil – Getting Another Chance to Rock!

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“It’s a struggle to make it. It’s a struggle once you do make it, to stay there and it’s a struggle to survive even if things go down. It ever ends. And all I want to do is just keep doing it. I’ve been living the dream and I’m so grateful and every moment is being appreciated ten times to the level it might have been if I had made it when I was young.” – Steve “Lips” Kudlow, guitarist/lead singer of Anvil (quote from the interview)

AnvilYou have probably never heard of Anvil. But, if you take the time, the story is amazing.

See a few years ago, a former roadie of the band decided to tell the tale in a documentary, a film that is an inspiration to never give up on your dreams and to always keep your best friend nearby.

That film is “Anvil: The Story of Anvil”.

Anvil is a Toronto-based heavy metal act that goes back to the 1970s. For a time in the early 80s, Anvil was expected to be the next big thing. Their shows and records were popular with fans and even other hard rock bands such as Slayer, Guns n Roses and Metallica.

But by 2005 the band was hitting a rough patch. Gigs were hard to come by and the day jobs for the band’s two original members, Steve “Lips” Kudlow and Robb Reiner, were a serious drag on their creativity.

Then an old roadie who went on to have success as a Hollywood screenwriter decided to make a documentary about his old friends, Anvil.

“Anvil: The Story of Anvil” was released a few years ago to receive glowing reviews. With a 98% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes review site, here’s what some of the critics have to say:

“Now THIS is Spinal Tap.” – Washington Post

“I don’t know if their music is any good. Their fans think so. The doc doesn’t show one song all the way through. But they swore a pledge when they were 14, and they’re still honoring it, and at 51, Lips knows he still has it and that Anvil will be back on the charts. Maybe there is hope for Susan Boyle.” – Roger Ebert

In September 2011, I had a chance to talk to Steve “Lips” Kudlow about the band, the film, life and previous gigs in Detroit (we haven’t been the best or biggest fans).

Listen to the Anvil interview here.

Anvil returns to Detroit this weekend with a show on Friday, February 24th at the Token Lounge in Westland. Doors are at 8pm – tickets are $10 in advance/$15 at the door.

Here’s one of Anvil’s best known tracks “Metal on Metal”.

“How to Shoot Quail” with Detroit’s Doc Waffles

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Doc Waffles and his team of "lawyers"

What is it in the water here in Detroit? For some reason we seem to create the most critically loved (Eminem) and hated (ICP) white rappers in the world.

Detroit seems to be the place where a predominately black art form can mix with the over-culture and create something completely new & innovative.

Meet Doc Waffles – a man creating new ideas and attitude out of the mix.

Over the past six months, I’ve fallen in love with the sonic stretching and innovative word play of Ben Ness AKA Doc Waffles. I saw him earlier this month at the Magic Stick in Detroit. That’s where I made this bootleg of his show.

Doc Waffles throwing down at the Old Miami (Detroit) in September 2011

Waffles is a rapper who paints in colors not often used in the hip-hop palate. He goes into areas most other rappers would rarely, if ever, venture. As a genre, hip-hop seems limited. Those limits are usually self-imposed. Countless MCs maintain the conventions of braggadocio and maintaining a hard edged, cool persona. For Ness’s alter-ego, he brings a willingness to be funny, absurd and surreal all filtered through his experience of growing up in his “hood” – the exurbs of Oakland County – one of the richest counties in America.

Doc Waffles "Seizure Suit Farms"

 

 

The former high school golf team captain, and collector of antique books, released his latest EP in the fall of 2011. “Seizure Suit Farms” is a short, solid example of Waffles’s obsessions and observations. The record features odes to the sorrow that socks are “never quite the same” once you wear & wash them, the story of Billy Joel’s attempted suicide in the early 1970s & how “We Didn’t Start the Fire” was a milestone that “re-invented rap” as well as a story of a privileged & young “princess” who is totally irresponsible, not only with love but with her cat and her life.

But for me, Ness’s filtering of the suburban experience finds its height on “Golf View Drive”. Waffles’s 2006 album shows an almost autobiographical sense of the despair many have felt growing up in the suburbs. Couple the narrator’s despair with a parent who has given up and wallows in his own self-destruction and the record takes on qualities akin to David Lynch’s “Blue Velvet” or Sam Mendes & Alan Ball’s “American Beauty”. “Golf View Drive” introduces the listener to the great and horrible things lurking in the world of big houses and manicured lawns. Doc Waffles songs feature topics that can be as soul crushing and jarring as anything coming from a rapper who has lived in the streets of urban American decay. Waffles walks listeners through a world of alcoholic fathers & the concern of growing up to be just like the old man, working to strip away the fronts we all seem to live with and even having to put your mother in a nursing home & all the emotions that go along with it. These are not the typical fields rappers till. But for Doc Waffles, it is fertile ground – sonically and lyrically speaking.

Waffles’s latest effort is a follow up to the “Seizure Suit Farms” EP called “How to Shoot Quail” and, like his last record, it is offered free of charge.

 

So, this Valentine’s Day down load the latest from Doc Waffles “How to Shoot Quail”, and maybe “Seizure Suit Farms”, and fall in love with the sounds this Detroiter is putting down.

We Visit The Pencil Sharpener Museum… Seriously

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I seriously went to thee Pencil Sharpener Museum in Logan, Ohio over the weekend.  It’s pretty much a glorified shed with an assortment of sharpeners throughout the ages behind plexiglass, because you know, they don’t want you sharpening your own pencil.  Make sure you have other things planned throughout your day though if you make the trip to the “museum” because you’ll be done with the tour in less than 5 minutes.  But what do you want for free anyways, cheapskate!?  After that, I suggest Old Man’s Cave… no pun intended.

Pencil Sharpener Museum Panorama

 

Sites Force People To Join Facebook To Comment

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As a designer, I’ve noticed a growing trend on sites’ discussion systems that force users to join Facebook to be able to leave a comment on articles and posts.  I realize this isn’t news since it was introduced months ago but I find this not only scary but a little like putting all your comment eggs in one threaded basket.

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Drive Movie Scorpion Jacket Halloween Costume

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I went as Ryan Gosling’s character Driver from the movie Drive this year for Halloween.  I made the jacket, stitched the quilting and embroidered the scorpion on the back.  I’ll be selling it on eBay along with the props probably tomorrow. Other small props needed:

  • Leather Banded Watch
  • White Henley shirt
  • Lucky Rabbit’s Foot Keychain
  • Wood Handled Hammer
  • Taupe Boots
  • Toothpicks
  • Tortoise Shell Sunglasses

+Bonus points for having a muscle car.

Drive Costume Scorpion Jacket

Are New eBay Store Fees Made For Imbeciles?

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I just may have to close my eBay store for good after this moronic change to their fees.
I have a basic store subscription with 700+ auctions running every month.

If I sell no items that month, with the current fees it costs me roughly $15.95 + $21.00 = $36.95. (based on average .03 cent listings)

With the new fees it will cost me roughly $15.95 + $140 = $155.95 per month!

And that’s not even including the closing fees or my regular auction fees!

Tell me how this will benefit sellers again?

Here’s my live chat I just had with them:

6:56:56 PM AgentChristine Br.
Hello!

6:57:00 PM Customercommodorecrush
Hello!

6:57:06 PM AgentChristine Br.
My name is Christine. How may I help you tonight?

6:57:14 PM Customercommodorecrush
I have a question about the new fees.

6:57:24 PM AgentChristine Br.
Absolutely!

6:57:32 PM Customercommodorecrush
Everything I read is really vague about already having a store.

6:57:49 PM Customercommodorecrush
Right now, I pay 3 cents per listing

6:58:04 PM Customercommodorecrush
I have a basic store btw.

6:58:34 PM Customercommodorecrush
So on March 30th, are all of my store items that will be listed in the future cost 10 cents each?

6:59:26 PM AgentChristine Br.
It is a little complicated…

6:59:39 PM Customercommodorecrush
yes.

6:59:40 PM Customercommodorecrush
i know

6:59:42 PM Customercommodorecrush
hahahah

6:59:50 PM Customercommodorecrush
it always is with ebay




7:00:11 PM AgentChristine Br.
Most sellers are happy with the changes, but let me break it down. 


7:00:26 PM AgentChristine Br.
We are no longer going to have store inventory.

7:00:57 PM AgentChristine Br.
Store inventory was wasting a lot of money for our sellers…even though it is cheap.. it doesn’t have the same visibility.

7:01:12 PM AgentChristine Br.
We are only going to have auction and fixed price.

7:01:27 PM AgentChristine Br.
Store inventory only had a 9% turn around.

7:01:47 PM AgentChristine Br.
That means that most sellers were wasting their money — items only sold about 9%of the time.

7:02:07 PM AgentChristine Br.
Whereas with Fixed Price and auction…it is closer to a 50% turn around.

7:02:22 PM AgentChristine Br.
Am I going too quickly?

7:02:32 PM AgentChristine Br.
Let me know if you have questions.

7:02:37 PM Customercommodorecrush
not yet

7:03:02 PM AgentChristine Br.
Perfect.

7:03:20 PM Customercommodorecrush
Is there more?

7:03:32 PM AgentChristine Br.
There is.

7:03:47 PM AgentChristine Br.
So all store inventory will automatically go to Fixed Price on April 1st.

7:04:02 PM AgentChristine Br.
You get the reduced price fee for having a store.

7:04:17 PM AgentChristine Br.
Fixed price is going to $.50 if you are not a store owner.

7:04:32 PM AgentChristine Br.
So with a basic store, you get it for $.20.

7:04:43 PM Customercommodorecrush
!!!!

7:04:46 PM AgentChristine Br.
$.30 less than a non-store holder.

7:04:53 PM AgentChristine Br.
Yes!

7:05:00 PM Customercommodorecrush
and .17 cents more than before!

7:05:16 PM AgentChristine Br.
But no one sees your store items.

7:05:17 PM Customercommodorecrush
=(

7:05:28 PM Customercommodorecrush
i sell items every day from my store!

7:05:50 PM AgentChristine Br.
That is good — but with all of them at Fixed Price you may get tons more sales.

7:05:59 PM Customercommodorecrush
so if everyone has fixed price, it’s not really going to make a difference is it?

7:06:18 PM Customercommodorecrush
the ebay market will just be over saturated

7:06:26 PM Customercommodorecrush
this is a real bummer.

7:06:50 PM AgentChristine Br.
It will be a shopping frenzy that day.

7:06:59 PM Customercommodorecrush
i was paying $15.95 a month for my store… now I’ll have to pay $15.95

7:07:03 PM AgentChristine Br.
I am really sorry that you feel that way!

7:07:05 PM Customercommodorecrush
+ .20 per listing!

7:07:25 PM Customercommodorecrush
well, you’re HOPING it will be a shopping frenzy

7:07:33 PM AgentChristine Br.
How many items do you keep in your store a month?

7:07:39 PM Customercommodorecrush
700+

7:07:54 PM AgentChristine Br.
You will probably benefit more with Premium.

7:08:09 PM AgentChristine Br.
No bear with me. I never want people to pay more than they need to…

7:08:16 PM Customercommodorecrush
well… yeah, now it will…. but i wasn’t paying $50 a month

7:08:21 PM AgentChristine Br.
But with a premium store, you only pay $.05 a listing.

7:08:23 PM Customercommodorecrush
i was paying 15.95!

7:08:47 PM Customercommodorecrush
and that’s still .2 cents more per listing than before!

7:08:58 PM Customercommodorecrush
this is totally bogus.

7:09:15 PM AgentChristine Br.
Remember the visibility though.

7:09:30 PM AgentChristine Br.
Also you get free Selling Manager Pro — which can save you hours.

7:09:49 PM Customercommodorecrush
most of my items were visible before because they’re specialty and one of a kind items

7:09:56 PM AgentChristine Br.
What kind of turnover do you get — how many sales do you get every month from your store?

7:10:02 PM Customercommodorecrush
this is really going to make me close my store and move to etsy

7:10:39 PM Customercommodorecrush
it’s slowed lately because i have a job and am not listing full time, but before it was like $2500 a month

7:10:54 PM AgentChristine Br.
I am sorry to hear that! I hope not!

7:11:01 PM AgentChristine Br.
How many items is that roughly?

7:11:18 PM Customercommodorecrush
but not listing auctions and just letting my store run lately by itself i was selling several items per day

7:12:26 PM AgentChristine Br.
So let’s say that you sell five items a day. That is 150 items a month.

7:12:48 PM Customercommodorecrush
okay

7:12:52 PM AgentChristine Br.
You have a 21% turn over.

7:13:02 PM AgentChristine Br.
That is better than most store holders.

7:13:33 PM Customercommodorecrush
they should just make it an option whether or not we want it in fixed or store

7:13:40 PM AgentChristine Br.
However, you could potentially sell 50%.

7:13:46 PM Customercommodorecrush
that’d be the easiest way to do it.

7:13:52 PM Customercommodorecrush
a check box:

7:13:56 PM Customercommodorecrush
store

7:13:58 PM Customercommodorecrush
fixed

7:14:01 PM AgentChristine Br.
Believe it or not, we did it because store owners are wasting so much money.

7:14:01 PM Customercommodorecrush
end of story

7:14:07 PM Customercommodorecrush
hahahahah…

7:14:09 PM Customercommodorecrush
i doubt it

7:14:19 PM Customercommodorecrush
no offense

7:14:27 PM AgentChristine Br.
I spoke to a lady who had a 2% turnover just last week.

7:14:28 PM Customercommodorecrush
i know you don’t come up with the rules

7:14:42 PM Customercommodorecrush
yes

7:14:53 PM AgentChristine Br.
We did this on eBay Australia two years ago.

7:14:58 PM AgentChristine Br.
It has been a big success.

7:16:17 PM Customercommodorecrush
well, i hope you’re right, but right now I’m not buying it. so… you’re telling me right now, that if I keep my current store…I’ll have to pay $15.95 + roughly $140 per month in listing these fixed price items right? Not to mention, the cost of the regular auctions that I run + closing fees?!

7:16:59 PM AgentChristine Br.
Yes.

7:17:45 PM Customercommodorecrush
bummer

7:18:00 PM Customercommodorecrush
That’s a lot more than I pay right now.

7:19:04 PM AgentChristine Br.
Remember the visibility though.

7:19:24 PM AgentChristine Br.
So if it means more sales, then isn’t it worth it — wouldn’t you be willing to pay more?

7:19:46 PM Customercommodorecrush
You can not guarantee it will mean more sales.

7:19:59 PM AgentChristine Br.
No I can’t.

7:20:13 PM AgentChristine Br.
But I see sellers that have items in their stores for years.

7:20:14 PM Customercommodorecrush
Unless you’re talking about more sales for eBay?

7:20:17 PM Customercommodorecrush
;)

7:21:03 PM AgentChristine Br.
Isn’t every company out to make money? They wouldn’t be around if they weren’t.

7:21:04 PM Customercommodorecrush
I’ve had items in my store for years too, but that probably means that people don’t really want to buy that item.

7:21:17 PM AgentChristine Br.
But we are successful when you are successful.

7:21:47 PM Customercommodorecrush
Whether it’s a crappy item running in an auction or a store, if it’s a terrible item, it’s a terrible item.

7:21:47 PM AgentChristine Br.
But why would you spend the money to have it then? Isn’t it sitting around your house taking up space?

7:22:38 PM Customercommodorecrush
I don’t mind that. And you know how much money it cost me to run that store item for a year? .36 cents.

7:23:16 PM AgentChristine Br.
But people see that stuff and they may question the quality of your other items.

7:23:22 PM Customercommodorecrush
Now, the item that didn’t sell for a year before, will cost me $2.40

7:23:36 PM AgentChristine Br.
I know that this is a huge change.

7:23:46 PM AgentChristine Br.
I would not list that — I would donate it!

7:24:46 PM Customercommodorecrush
You’d be surprised. It will sit there for awhile and then someone buys it though. It was cheaper for me to let it sit in the store for year and then sell it for $20 than it would
cost me for gas to go the Goodwill.

7:25:10 PM AgentChristine Br.
Don’t you have curbside pick-up for charity in your area?

7:25:18 PM Customercommodorecrush
UGGGGGHHHH!

7:25:18 PM AgentChristine Br.
I must be lucky.

7:25:25 PM Customercommodorecrush
This is not the point.

7:25:30 PM AgentChristine Br.
We have someone come around every month.

7:25:35 PM Customercommodorecrush
You’re getting off on tangent

7:25:38 PM AgentChristine Br.
Sorry — did I hit a nerve?

7:25:51 PM Customercommodorecrush
Are you serious?

7:26:06 PM AgentChristine Br.
I honestly don’t get why people list things that don’t sell — that is all.

7:26:16 PM AgentChristine Br.
I don’t meant to go off on a tangent.

7:26:25 PM AgentChristine Br.
Some things sell. Most store inventory doesn’t.

7:26:41 PM AgentChristine Br.
I am sorry if you don’t like these changes.

7:27:28 PM Customercommodorecrush
Thanks for your help

7:27:44 PM Customercommodorecrush
but you seem to be getting ruder as this conversation goes on

7:27:48 PM AgentChristine Br.
I think you will be surprised.

Reading My Employee Handbook

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880 Lactation Accommodation
Effective Date: 12/1/2009

(enter office name here) will provide a reasonable amount of break time to accommodate an employee desiring to express breast milk for the employee’s infant child.  The break time, if possible, must run concurrently with rest and meal periods already provided to the employee.  If the break time cannot run concurrently with rest and meal periods already provided to the employee, the break time will be unpaid.

(enter office name here) will make reasonable efforts to provide employees with the use of a room or location other than a toilet stall for the employee to express milk in private.  This location may be the employee’s private office, if applicable.  (enter office name here) may not be able to provide additional break time if doing so would seriously disrupt (enter office name here)’s operations.

Please speak to Mr. (enter founder’s name here) if you have questions regarding this policy.