Weinberg’s First Law of Hairs
The fewer you have, the more time you spend on them.
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And the corollary is almost as true:
The more of them you have, the less time you spend on them.
It’s across genders, but in my experience, men seem to be more concerned about their hairs (or lack of them).
Here Comes the New/Old IMAGE UNION
We’re getting close to launching our streaming online platform, IMAGEUNION-TV, featuring the work of independent producers from all over the world. We’re expanding the variety of videos you can see on your screen: art, protest, sweet and sour people stories, sex, drugs and relevant archival video. It features videos from young (and old) people who couldn’t create or transmit video before the global proliferation of smart cellphones.
Image Union is an experiment in form: blending new ways to use 21st century digital technology, live and recorded, with our experience in broadcast television to attract large audiences.
We are breaking outdated rules. Our goal is to be fresh and unpredictable, profound and light. We are creating communities of young and old film/videomakers with viewers of all ages worldwide who want more than they’re getting now from mainstream corporate sources. It’s YouTube with an attitude…it’s not random or algorithm driven. It’s PEOPLE driven. We have our reasons to select the videos live segments you’ll want to watch.
Some of you might remember the original Image Union series I created and produced on TV from 1978 to 1989. Even if you don’t, you might remember Bob, the gentle animated cardboard host.
He’s back!…with some characters and family he’s picked up along the way.
It’s exhilarating, challenging and fun to develop an exciting new company, a new video platform, with my son Jesse, my respected producer/partner Eleanor, and a slew of digital natives.
Stay tuned. Keep your eyes on your screens. It’ll be coming at you soon.
You can catch a sneak preview on Instagram: @imageuniontv.
Bitcoins and Blockchain
A few of you might recall the pieces I wrote about cryptocurrency in the past two years.
- From PY-O-MY Lettter, March 1 2019
The Next Thing?
The Internet is the biggest disrupter of our time.
From WIRED, February, 2019:
For all the talk of disruption, today’s Internet “Is still young and hugely underinnovated. …We’re still letting old technology—credit cards, designed for in-person transactions with high fees and financial surveillance baked in—determine the shape of the new technological paradigm. It’s time we encounter ‘402 Payment Required’ for real.”
It raises the question of what will replace credit cards in the all digital world? Probably not bitcoin, but some form of digital blockchain will probably be the next thing. I can’t imagine Google and Amazon are not all over it. My guess: power will continue to consolidate and they’ll probably have to buy it from somebody who created a disruptive success so they can maintain their hold on how we make all our transactions. Remember YouTube?
Also in WIRED, [about a year before January 6, 2021] Jonathan Keats wrote about “stochastic terrorism,” the use of mass media to incite attacks by random nut jobs. He writes that we can predict with some certainty that they will happen, but we can’t predict who or when the next one will be. “A master demagogue can weaponize unstable individuals and aim them at political enemies.”
That’s the proven danger created by Trump’s most incendiary tweets.
2. From PY-O-MY Letter, December 1, 2020
High-Flying Bitcoin Doesn’t Look Back
Last week, the market in cryptocurrency Bitcoin hit an all-time high, $19,864. When it was launched in 2009, it was worth less than 1/10th of a cent! Even this year, at the start of Coronavirus in March, the price slipped to $5000. And going back to 2015, it traded as low as $250.
If you have a good explanation, please let me know. No commodity or investment in my life has been as volatile. It IS a new phenomenon made possible by 21st century blockchain data technology. I tried to explain what I knew about it [very little] in an item in PY-O-MY Letter last year.
I have been reading some fascinating reporting about it. A recent one is from the Stansberry Advisor, an investment recommendation publication. This is a 9-minute video from October 20, 2020, predicting a huge run-up in the price of cryptocurrencies.
I’m absolutely convinced that the blockchain technology is here to stay as a major force and that some people will make huge fortunes…maybe not in Bitcoin in particular, but over the years global, cryptocurrency is too powerful a breakthrough to fade away. Plus, it’s clear now that significant breakthrough applications of the principles of blockchain will appear in ways we can’t possibly see now.
Well, as of Tuesday August 31, 2021, the price of Bitcoin was $47,526!
It’s the coronavirus of the financial world as the huge Wall Street and global banks have bought in. Even some stodgy trust departments have gotten on the crypto bandwagon.
This short video spoof sheds some light on how the Bitcoin phenomenon has spread.
“She Had Good Innings”
That’s what my dear friend Herb Channick would say when a person died at an age that wasn’t too early.
It’s always too early for the people we love.
Nancy Cain was 81 and had wonderful innings (though I’d bet she had no idea what cricket was about.)
She DID know plenty about video, art, photography, people, life, love and friendship.
I met her in 1972 and have been connected with her, both in her wonderful video life as a collaborator/co-conspirator for decades and in her personal life with her brilliant husband Paul Krassner (1932-2019.)
Nancy was one of the gentlest souls I’ve ever known. I will miss her deeply, as will all who were lucky enough to know her.
This is the link to my tribute to her sent last weekend as a v-blog from Media Burn Video Archive.
All the More Reason to Cherish the Grandkids
(that’s her Uncle Jesse in background).
newly-arrived Chicago urban explorers
check out Lake Shore Drive and Oak Street Beach
Most kids went back to school in person last week. That’s a powder keg. It’s the craziest of times as more hundreds are dying from Covid every day now. Climate change is literally altering the face of the earth every day. And we live among millions who just don’t (or don’t want to) get the realities of science and survival.
On that gleeful note, enjoy Labor Day, the fall colors, and all of September.
As ever,
PY-O-MY 