I had an (ironic) dream...

I had a dream last night.
I finally got my dream Mustang GTO.
It was a beauty,
But I couldn’t sleep anymore.
What if is was stolen while I slept?
What if it got scratched while I slept?
Eventually, I traded it for a sandy colored mosaic styled GTO.
No one would want to steal it.
And you couldn't scratch it if you tried!

Some Advice for Musicians...

A Friend of mine recently sent me an Email with this question:

Yo what would be some good macro-economic trends surrounding the music industry or becoming a musician? I just can’t grasp any of this.

Here's what I would suggest, and I m not a guru (...yet)
Let me start by saying that the macro trends aren’t as important as the micro side of the industry. The best, specifically in your genre of music (not the cookie cutter pop), need to be original, do things no one else has done before. If you want people to believe that you are worth a listen, you need to look like it. That said, you have the music, the look and creativity/originality to be something. Here come the macro trends. I wrote for a lame musician, who had a crappy product but the fundamentals are the same. I used 3 broad strategies that can guide you towards devising tactics.

Be Seen, Be Heard, Be Involved.

When you set your goal, be honest but don’t be afraid to think big. Goals shouldn’t (all) be too easy to reach. While certain tactics might be small steps, you should have a range of small to huge goals. For example; playing the Green Room is a small step (considering where you are now), creating web material (blog, Myspace, Facebook, Last.fm, even Twitter) could be a small-medium goal, quantifying it, say that you want 500 FB fans, 1000 Myspace fans etc. might be a medium goal, forming a band might be a large goal and ultimately signing to a record label might be a large goal. It is really up to you to decide what you’d ultimately like to accomplish and how you want to get there. There are many ways to get to wherever you want to go, but they all require lots of work and patience. You can’t expect to become rich overnight (although it has happened to one or two people) and you definitely can’t plan for it.

1. Figure out what you’d like to accomplish through your music; your goal, vision. What is your dream, where would you want to take it? Do you want to get played on the radio? Your music video on MTV? Play at the Green Room? DJ a loft party? Get rich or just make a living from music?
2. Set tactics to reach your vision. What steps can you take to reach your goal? These tactics should refer back to a strategy (or strategies) which was designed to help you reach a goal. Try to predict the desired outcome of each tactic, so that it can be measured, and therefore controlled. Sorry for this marketing lingo, but what I’m saying is you need to know when something is working or not. If it is, do it again, make it better. If it doesn’t meet your expected results, see if you can make it work, otherwise scrap it. This can also help you allocate your time better. If you see you get a good response on Facebook but not on Myspace, figure out why Myspace isn’t working, change it, or concentrate more on Facebook. (I believe its better to have only a few well maintained web presences, than many crappy ones.)

You have the talent and there is definitely a demand for your music. It is a question of exposing the people to the music. Start with this assumption and work at creating exposure, exposure that you feel will attract the right people to your music. You just have to do your thing, and throw in some work that you won’t enjoy, but that’s the price.

Shopping for Groceries in Munich, Germany

Don’t forget to take a shopping bag.
Or change for that matter.
Otherwise you will end up in a sticky situation.
That’s what I learnt the hard way.

Shopping in Germany is not completely unfamiliar, you do buy food, pay with cash or plastic.
Some of the products are similar if not the same, a kiwi is a kiwi, a banana a banana…but in the subtleties it becomes interesting.

My education is in marketing, inevitably I have such a perspective,
On walking into the store, the first thing I noticed, is the heavy silence.
No radio, no background music to muffle the sound of crinkling plastic and products falling into rolling shopping carts. Surprisingly, I missed it.
Reality check: music probably keeps me in the store longer. Without it, I just want to get in and out as soon as possible. I tend to be a slow shopper, comparing products, prices and meditate before making the final decision. Not here. Here I am scared of thinking, I need to get out asap.
That said, the fact I had no change meant I didn’t have the 1 euro deposit necessary to get myself a cart (you slide the coin into handle bar, which releases the cart, when you return the cart, your euro coin pops back out).
Being a trained waiter, I have the ability to balance all kinds of things on my hands. I would be ok, and I would learn a lesson.

The first thing I noticed was the lack of focus on presentation. Fruit and vegetables are displayed in the boxes they are shipped in. No careful stacking in pyramid displays. There is none of the sparkle and shine. It is simpler. There are empty shelves (never happens in Montreal), where product has sold out and not yet been restocked.

Cheese, wine, sausage (of course!) and bread are much cheaper, between 50%-75% less.
Frozen foods are on average ½ the price, including pizzas and chicken nuggets.

What is most interesting, is the uniformity of product. Every single meat/chicken/cheese package weighs exactly the same. The European Commission have been working to ease restrictions on over 26 fruits and vegetables, including the curvature of bananas, peppers and cucumbers, the skin on onions and the greenness of asparagus. It’s fascinating, especially because I recently noticed that peppers in Montreal were looking really messed up. That might be a coincidence, but is it possible that the ugly peppers that were illegal in the EU were going to North America?




So with two armfuls of groceries, I get in line behind 3 other full shopping carts, thinking “oh no, my arms!” Luckily, the line goes really fast (and a topless girl on a newspaper cover helps) . The checkout counter is 3 times longer then any I’ve ever seen, which means that all groceries can easily be unloaded before I reach the cashier. The cashier, which is male (not common in Montreal), is on speed. He uses both hands, racing to punch the total button. He sits on a stool to focus his energy on scanning as quickly as possible. He seems to be on an incentive based system; getting paid by items scanned per millisecond. I’ve always believed that cashiers were unfriendly, this guy wants to kill me. As he scans a shopping cart full grocery, without enough time to blink, he is already scanning the next batch by the time you put your change into your pocket. This is a problem because there is no one bagging your groceries, hell there are no bags. Groceries must go directly back into your cart, to make place for the next batch. I watch the woman in front of me with a panicked look in her eyes as she raced to keep up with the cashier. She seemed to sigh with relief, sort of like “yes, I did it!”, when he said the total and she was putting the last items back into her cart. I almost expected to see a high-5. Oh no, I’m next; on your mark, get set, go! I jam my 20 euro worth of groceries into the one little bag I brought ( I didn’t have a shopping cart). I pay him, grab the remaining sack of potatoes and pizza box in my hand, and give myself a pat on the bag for surviving.

I learnt a few things:

1. It is very easy to bring shopping bags with you to the grocery store. Yet back in Montreal I could never do it. Why? it is very easy to not bring bags. There is no penalty if you don’t bring a bag. Shopping bags are free, but even the 5 cents charged by the alcohol store is not enough. It needs to have a significant cost. At the grocery store I go to in Munich, there is no plastic bag option, only a 1 euro heavy plastic reusable bag. I have developed the habit of taking a bag with me in a short week, I had no choice, I believe that is key. No more pantry full of plastic bags. (this is a Wikipedia list of what different countries are doing to stop excessive use of plastic bags)
2. Does the grocery shopping experience need to be enjoyable? There is a trade-off; on the one hand I will get only what I need when the experience is not enjoyable and spend less money and time. For the store owner, cost savings can translate into better prices to the consumer. But with less time spent in the store, less money goes into the store’s coffers, as well as less brand loyalty. And ultimately, the process of buying food turns back into a chore instead of an exploration; without the desire to discover new ingredients. It’s a dilemma, but I believe that they are not necessarily exclusive.
3. Friendliness vs. efficiency: when and where? I don’t think I mind if the cashier doesn’t smile. I might have more loyalty to a place where I know the cashier, or get a smile, but he was fast! I used to dread the line up at grocery stores, and I would choose faster lines (due to talented cashiers) over friendly cashiers. Final answer.
4. It is amazing how subtleties in cultural differences can make a huge difference in integration. Knowing very simple things, like bringing bags and change with you to a grocery store, can make an experience more pleasant. There is a very sharp learning curve, but it must be accepted, adopted and its lessons taken to heart.