
Mac @ MindSay 
| This week has seen Brandy gain some level of legal closure over compensation for a 2006 car accident that left a woman dead (see Grind Mode Connect 'News' section). However, she has still to finally settle with the woman's husband who refused $1.2 million in compensation for the accident. This instance may point to the man not having really dealt with the tragic loss of his wife. Then again it may point to a feeling that he can gain more financially. While we can speculate, we cannot know the true reasons behind the husband's refusal of compensation. However there does seem to be a spate of celebrity suing - often for far more trivial matters. Whether it is Justin Timberlake's restaurant, Kanye West losing his temper at LAX or Michael Jackson's concerts - a lawsuit never seems too far behind - regardless of whether the celebrity are themselves at fault or not.
While real grievances should be taken through the courts and awarded relevant compensation, could it be that we are going slightly overboard with the whole thing?
I can just imagine it now; there I am walking down the street, looking down to check my phone, when I notice a shadow fall across me. Before I have a chance to fully look up or react I have encountered Puffy (or 'Diddy' - call him what you will), who accidentally steps upon my new trainers (that's "sneakers" in America). Stopping to assess the damage I notice that he has creased the leather on one toe and scuffed the outer layer slightly. What's worse is that he seems to have also crushed my foot very slightly. Hobbling to a low wall I sit down and gingerly remove my shoe and sock. Yes! There it is! A slight graze on my foot. I quickly take a picture before shouting, "I'll see you in court" at the rapidly retreating mogul, my $80 shoe quickly turning to potential millions before my eyes.
OK - I'm joking and of course such a case would never stand up (would it?). Plus I would actually be too ashamed to carry it out. But there are certainly those out there who see celebrities as paydays; whether it is the victims themselves or, perhaps more frequently, at the behest of 'concerned' friends and relatives. It is a shame that sometimes regular mistakes are followed up by victorious legal action. We put our celebrities on a pedestal and then act hurt when they fall from grace, forgetting that for all their talents they are people like us. Their egos may be a little expanded at times (that's the fame) but ultimately they share the same basic hopes and dreams as everyone else. In our 100-mile-an-hour culture of instant celebrity and instant money (without the effort?) it is all too easy to see the dollar signs, but integrity can't be bought. Like respect, it needs to be earned.
I hope that Awatef Aboudihaj's husband, Marouane Hdidou, can find peace over the loss of his wife due to Brandy's car crash - but I also hope that such a real tragedy can help put the frivolous claims of others into perspective...
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| With the global downturn in the economy it seems that almost every industry has been hit, including music. While many will be gleefully cheering the demise of the traditional major record labels as the economic downturn speeds up the process begun by a changing of the way we buy and listen to our music to an increasingly online format it is worth taking a minute to ask if it’s really that good.
Of course independent labels have always existed alongside the major labels, offering a niche market alternative to the commercial heavyweights in the game. However even these lower overhead outfits are feeling the pinch, with last week’s fall of independent distribution company Pinnacle leaving many independent labels without the means to get their product out to the marketplace. As independent labels find themselves struggling too we have to wonder how safe it is at the majors?
With major labels like EMI suffering losses recorded last year at £757 million, Warner seeing it’s share-price plummet to 28% of it’s value three years ago and BMG cutting ties with Sony, it seems that the major labels are not in a healthy state either. But this doesn’t affect the artists surely?
Unfortunately, it does – and not just those who are no longer relevant and may find themselves squeezed out by budget cuts. Those looking to get signed will find it more difficult as labels seek to justify the expense of launching a new act to the public while elsewhere labels will be less willing to take a chance on edgier, less formulaic sounds from those acts who they do maintain on their roster. Many executives will feel more comfortable dropping sure-fire hits over anything that may not sit neatly into an easily marketable box.
The result could be a terrifying new world where the boundary-pushing acts of the past will be left out in the cold in favour of a saccharine sounding pop onslaught that will no doubt move numbers and please fans – but only those who demand little artistic merit from their music. Reality music television programming may become the staple of the pop charts as Simon Cowell’s no-risk brand of assembly-line pop takes hold amid fears of taking a chance with something that may not offer the necessary returns financially. This will be exacerbated by the public’s feeling that they should be able to get their music for nothing via downloads and media give-aways (Prince recently gave a new album of material away to readers of a British newspaper) further hurting the coffers (and therefore the risk-taking) of the labels. And, as consumers seek to get their music for less expense (if any), those genuine artists that write and record the songs will find that they have an ever-decreasing incentive to remain in the game until, perhaps one day, they are priced out of the business altogether leaving a conveyor-belt line of Cowell’s personality-less pop automatons in their place.
In the end it will be all of us who lose as the labels become increasingly conservative and the latest releases become inter-changeable pulp. Brave new world where the consumer is king and the labels are sidelined? Not if it means an end to those who produced innovative product for a not-so mass market….
Tom Clover- WWW.GRINDMODECONNECT.COM & WWW.GRINDMODEPRESS.COM |
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Dixie currently feels:
Neutral
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Blog #75
Funniest comment from a chav EVER...
My original plan for my HOUR OF NOTHING before college started was to go to the LRC.
I'd either do some sketchbook work, or I'd update unfinished blogs in the ground floor computer suite.
But as per usual, the college is a cunt - there was a big fuck off notice on the door: "LRC OPEN FRIDAYS: 9:30."
Fucking NICE ONE, so I had to sit around for an hour for HALF AN HOUR in the LRC?
Fuck that mate.
So I retreated to the tables and sulked for a while - until Ashleigh and Danny came in.
I sat with them for a while, then we went up to 4th floor when it was the time.
I printed out some more contact sheets of the photos I'd taken on Wednesday.
We only have a week to finish our sketchbooks. Panicking a bit like.
Not as much as I'm panicking about English coursework though...
At least I'm almost finished my Media Studies. Damn, it fucking paid to be ahead of myself earlier in the year. :D
Saying that, I proper wasted today's lesson.
I spent the entire time unplugging Ash's mouse every time she went to the printer.
And when I wasn't doing that, I was plugging my mouse into the back of the Mac and moving the cursor every time she went to click on something. :)
Ash was not amused - but it was quite fun. Tee hee.
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We ventured into town afterwards - ate our lunch infront of PRICLESS SHOES.
The sign makes me piss.
Just the word SHOES written in white letters on a red background is hilarious. :)
It was really cold outside today - my arse went numb from the metal bench.
We returned to college, only to find that both B and D block Media Studies was cancelled.
On top of that - I'd gotten a voicemail message from Mary just after my phone had died saying B block English was cancelled too.
I could have went straight home, but we went into the alcove near the vending depot - on the tables you can NEVER get at. I waited with Ash for her taxi. Shelly nicked off her B block lesson and waited with us.
ROFL, there was some chavs from construction sat on the tables opposite us.
It was proper silent, then all we heard was one of them yell:
"OW, DROP YOUR SNICKERS AND I'LL GIVE YOU A BOOST."
Not only was it funny - it was even more funny seeing Ash's face at the mention of Snickers. :D
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