Well, dear readers, September is flying by, like a gazelle singing Armenian folk songs in Greek. Otherwise, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to the always interesting symphonies of that bad boy of music, George Antheil. I really enjoy his music and, of course, it was a treat to be able to issue two of his film scores – The Pride and the Passion and Dementia. I haven’t heard these symphonies since I bought them, so it’s fun to revisit them as I write these here notes. I am, however, still tired from too little sleep, but what else is new? What else IS new? Well, I didn’t watch a motion picture on Blu and Ray, even though I put a movie in the player. The movie was Powell and Pressburger’s A Matter of Life and Death. I ended up watching the special features, which I hadn’t watched before – I was just too tired to watch the movie itself, which always deserves full attention. The extras were interesting, and I got through all of them, although I did fall asleep for about forty-five minutes after finishing one of the longer pieces. I always enjoy watching the film, so I’ll do that this very evening. I spent most of the evening writing the Kritzerland anniversary show commentary and got that finished and that’s one less thing to worry about as well as one less bell to answer and one less egg to fry. Not that I have any eggs in the house. In fact, at this point, I don’t think there’s actually anything edible in the house, unless I wanted to eat some butter. So, a shorter opening paragraph, rather like the old days. Of course, I could talk about the fall of Facebook, oh, yes, I could talk about the fall of Facebook, but to do so perhaps a new paragraph is in order.
First it was MySpace – everyone and their mother had to have a MySpace page. I came to that very late and it was kind of not very friendly in terms of ease of use and I didn’t use it very much. I’d heard about this new-fangled Facebook thing, but at that point it was only for young people in school. When they finally opened it up to the general public, the fall of MySpace was so fast that I simply couldn’t believe it. So, we all migrated to Facebook because MySpace was dead within six months. If you go back and read the first two Hofstetter books, you’ll see she begins on MySpace and by book two, just a year later, she’s on Facebook, thanks to BFF Billy. And Facebook seemed friendlier and worked better. I enjoyed it. And then everything changed. Suddenly, most of the users were older, the kids were already bolting to Instagram. But we weren’t, at that point, bombarded with endless advertising and promoting stuff was easy as pie and everyone saw what you were promoting – that all worked beautifully until Facebook became a crass, disgusting, cesspool, where everything was about the almighty dollar. Relentless ads, stupid re-designs, making promotion almost impossible because of their newly added and dreaded algorithms. One’s feed, which was so clean and easy originally, became mostly ads, mostly “suggested for you” pages that you’d never want to go to – I mean, every other thing in my feed is a “suggested for you” thing, and I click on the three dots and click on “hide post and show me less of these” at which point the number of “suggested for you” posts double – thank you, idiots and algorithms. Idiots and Algorithms – that’s the title of my next novel. If you have a business page and don’t pay to “boost” posts, the algorithms make sure that nothing you post is ever seen. And if you’re trying to promote on your personal page, it can be days and sometimes weeks before most people see it. I have learned a few ways around these things but it’s just completely annoying.
And we haven’t even gotten to the political crap and the trolls and the fake BS constantly showing up, and, well, cesspool describes it perfectly. And people get sucked into it over and over again. And when you take these “people” on, you realize you’re talking to a troll or bot or, worse, someone who’s simply insane. These bots and trolls show up on pages of people they are not friends with – how? Facebook apparently makes it easy. And unfortunately, the person who owns it is a real piece of work, clearly has issues, agendas, and more money than you can shake a stick at. It’s not about people reconnecting anymore – it’s about clicks and shares and ads and revenue and algorithms that make no sense and Facebook jail and I mean the stench of it is truly onerous. I’ve said for some time now, the first person who comes up with an alternate (and they’ve tried, but they’re worse, not better), a place that’s fun for people and friendly and with NO algorithms, will close down Facebook, because I think people have truly had it. But change is hard for people. If I had the wherewithal, I’d do it. Instagram isn’t the answer because it wasn’t designed for that purpose, and neither is Tik Tok. As to Twitter, I’ve never understood its point and never EVER use it unless it’s to announce our new CD releases. I gotta tell you. End of The Fall of Facebook.
Yesterday was a day in which I got too little sleep. I was up at seven-thirty after about four hours of sleep. I was back in bed around nine, but had to be up by ten, so I got no additional actual sleep. At ten-fifteen, I headed over to the bank where I cash my pension check. As always, it was easy and quick – less than five minutes, in and out. I walked over to the Bank of America to make the deposit and there were about twenty people in line – absolutely insane and absolutely ridiculous. Luckily, the business line was open and there were only three people ahead of me. So, it took about fifteen minutes to get to the window, at which point I asked why it was so damn crowded. Well, three other local branches are closed, so of course everyone comes to the Studio City branch. The BofA branches close more frequently than any other bank – it’s nonsensical. My branch in the Oaks of Sherman has been closed on ten separate occasions in the last year. TEN. And it’s closed again now. I mean, enough is enough already. Anyway, I made my deposit and came home. I wrote some commentary for a while, and then I shaved and showered, and it was time to mosey on over to Uncle Bernie’s deli to meet a dad and mom and kid, to see if said kid would be a good fit for our shows. Certainly, she’s super cute and certainly she seems to have passion for it. We had fun chatting, the mom and dad seem nice, and we were there for about ninety minutes. Mom and dad didn’t have anything, but the kid had some chicken tenders and fries, and I had a turkey sandwich and fries. I only ate half the sandwich and a few of the fries, boxing up the remaining half of the sandwich to take home.
I got home surprisingly fast, had a quick visit with Grant Geissman, caught up with e-mails and stuff on the computer, watched the special features, ate the other half of the sandwich, and then I buckled down, Winsocki and finished the commentary, which took up most of the evening. And then I decided on the Antheil symphonies and began writing these here notes.
Today, I’ll be up by ten-thirty, I’ll do whatever needs doing, and then I have a noon o’clock lunch with Kay Cole, who I haven’t seen in quite a while, so it will be fun to catch up. After that, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, and then I have no plans whatsoever, so will watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow, I have to be up by nine-thirty, as we have a work session for the Kritzerland show at eleven. That shouldn’t really take all that long, and then we begin the long Labor Day weekend, which I’m looking forward to. The only stuff on Saturday is an early breakfast at the home of the Pearls, and on Sunday a rehearsal with a singer who’s act I’m directing, just basically playing through everything, and doing any arrangement stuff that needs doing. And no plans on Monday, so that will be nice. Then we begin our Kritzerland rehearsal week and then we do the show.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by ten-thirty, have a lunch, hopefully pick up packages, then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your thoughts on Facebook, from the time you joined until now? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have gotten The Fall of Facebook off my chest and onto the page.