Guest Contributor – Chemist – 11MAY2023 – Tone Deaf

photog Chemist, Current Events, Guest Contributors , , ,

Mark Twain once said that history doesn’t always repeat itself, but it often rhymes.

I think we may be seeing that rhyming with AB InBev and Budweiser.

I believe it was in the late 1980s that Tomkins PLC, a British conglomerate, bought Smith & Wesson.

They did not understand the US market, or the firearms market or firearms for that matter.

They proceeded to make a number of missteps, not the least of which was to be the only major gun maker to sign on with Clinton’s AWB, HUD restrictions and other anti-second amendment policies.

This led to reduced market share and loss of revenue and negative profits. Things got so bad that the US company Saf-T-Hammer bought the company for $45 million – a fraction of what Tomkins paid.

Now we have the spectacle of InBev, a Belgium company, who purchased Anheuser-Busch a few years ago. InBev clearly does not understand the US market as demonstrated by their partnering with a transsexual to try to sell beer to American blue collar workers.

Bud light sales are down over 25% and a country star recently couldn’t even give it away at a concert.

Now the disease appears to be spreading to other AB brands including Michelob and Budweiser.

 

I wonder if things will get so bad that, like Tomkins, InBev ends up dumping AB at a massive loss.

Truth be told, it would not hurt my feelings.

An Oasis of Comedy in a Desert of Woke Offense

photog Current Events, Humor ,

Joe Rogan has opened a comedy club in Austin TX that encourages comics to be funny.  What a concept!  Actual comics have abandoned LA and New York City for a place where they can dare to mix comedy with reality.  It’s nice to find little shoots of hope in a hellish landscape.

The Means of Production – Part 1

photog Book Reviews, Current Events, Movie Reviews, Reclaiming the Family, Reviews, TV Reviews , , ,

So, what to write about tonight?  Tucker?  Elon?  The Biden Crime Family’s Congressional investigation?  Trump and his various legal problems.  The Republican presidential contenders?  Dementia Joe’s sinking ratings?  The crime-drenched cities?  The invasion at the southern border?  The collapsing banks?  Stagflation?  The Ukraine War?  Bud Light’s ongoing sales freefall?

Meh.  Just not in the mood.  Maybe it’s the crazy local things I’m involved in.  Maybe it’s too much same old, same old.

Well for whatever reason, let’s talk about something different.

I was reading recently about a studio that has been producing family friendly movies.  Mostly Christian movies but not exclusively.  Let’s call them Christian friendly.  They recently had a hit with a movie called the Jesus Revolution, “a feel-good movie about hippies who returned to Christ during the 1970s, starring former “Cheers” and “Frasier” star Kelsey Grammer – has grossed more than $52 million since its debut just a few weeks ago, making it the most successful film released by studio heavyweight Lionsgate since 2019.”

Many years ago, I remember watching a few of the movies produced by Christian churches and other organizations.  And although it was refreshing to see entertainment that stressed religious values and themes, they were notable for very simplistic plots and amateurish acting.  I guess the cast was more living the moments of the plot rather than acting them.

““The biggest critique on Christian art of the last thirty plus years, is that it’s not good, or it hasn’t been good,” said Terence Berry, COO of Wedgwood Circle, a nonprofit that connects investors and creators to develop projects that are informed by their Christian faith. “And I do think there have been huge strides made in people creating content for the faith market.””

Move forward twenty years and the producers now out there like Wedgwood and Angel Studios are producing movies that can be viewed by mainstream audiences without eye-rolling.  Berry calls it “a third way.”

““Can you offer stuff that is not perceived as faith market, and that is really well done, and it’s good, true, and beautiful, and it’s speaking to larger questions and it is aligned with your faith,” he asked, “but it is done so in a way that allows other people from outside the faith to engage and like that content?””

In the article the writer mentions that these producers are producing movies and arranging theater distribution using both investor and crowd-funded capital.  And the products include movies, music, books, television, and radio shows.  In fact, there are even animated movies in the works.

So why is this interesting?

I think because Hollywood is melting down.  Other than super hero movies Hollywood has only had a very few actual blockbuster hits in the last ten years.  Tom Cruise in Top Gun is that exception that proves the rule.  And it’s especially relevant because it’s one of the few movies that bucks all the stupid trends that have cost Hollywood its audience.  It’s patriotic.  It doesn’t pound away at woke tropes.  It doesn’t replace entertainment with an agenda.  It doesn’t denigrate its audience.

So, with Hollywood marching into the ocean and at the same time starving audiences for wholesome content.  And with streaming and the lower price of computer-generated imaging making fantasy and other genera movies orders of magnitude cheaper than just a few years ago, this is the perfect time for small production companies to provide people with entertainment choices they sorely lack.

And I think it’s finally, finally beginning to happen.  I’ve watched some short sci-fi movies on YouTube that come close to Hollywood level special effects.  And because of how Hollywood is using “diversity, inclusion and equity” there are many unemployed straight, white, male actors, writers, directors and other creatives that could use work.  In such an environment I think we’ll start seeing more and more breakout productions that owe their success to giving people the entertainment that Hollywood refuses to produce.

But here’s the point.  All of these people trying to produce this content didn’t get into it because they always wanted to build their own movie studios.  They’re doing it because the movie studios told them that the content they wanted was wrong and shouldn’t exist.  So, they had to become movie makers.  Same thing with book authors.  The books we like are so evil that the publishers are retroactively changing the text of old classics like Roald Dahl’s children’s books.  Same for music, same for art.  Same for education.  If we want what we think is right we’re going to have to make it ourselves.  Internalize that and employ it as needed in your life and you’ll start changing things for the better.

If you don’t like the crap on display in woke world then search out something better at the fringes.  And if that doesn’t exist, then do it yourself.  That’s the lesson.

I intend to start looking for some of these movie projects and try them out.  I’ll report back on what I find.

10MAY2023 – OCF Update – Just a Note After a Long Day

photog Current Events, OCF , ,

Long, long day.  Much too tired to write anything coherent.  And an early morning on top of that.  But I always like to have something up on the site.  I was surrounded by the folks of Dunwich in all their various manifestations.  It was literally the good, the bad and the ugly.  But it was fun and energizing.  Mothers with young children, families, very old folks and everything in between.  And lots of working men too.  All of it full of local color and mostly good humor.  There were a few discordant notes.  Some confused or angry faces.  Folks lashing out or clueless about what is going on around them.  But they’re part of the mosaic.  They’re an aspect of the story.  They represent what the fragmentation of our local society leads to.

I also saw something that explains why the Democrats control New England.  It’s because the Republicans are leaderless.  They don’t organize or even communicate effectively what’s going on or what their goals are.  They’re too busy with their own lives to build anything.  They don’t have the bandwidth to compete with an entrenched Democrat organization.  So, they lose ground steadily.  Leaving is the smart thing to do for the young.  There are more opportunities to improve your own life and the community in a red state.

But all in all, it was an interesting day.  Later on, today I’ll catch up on the news and try to write something substantial.  But as discouraging and frustrating as most of the events going on around me are, I still see that getting involved is the correct strategy.

Well, gotta get some rest.