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Random Thoughts or Whatever

Mystic said:
View attachment 3189549

Three years after Covid-19 temporarily muted live music around the world, the industry shattered its previous record in 2023. According to Pollstar, a company that has tracked the live entertainment industry for decades, the 100 largest tours of 2023 grossed more than $9 billion, exceeding the previous record, set in 2022, by almost 50 percent. The historic result was achieved thanks to a combination of factors, as ticket sales were up 18 percent despite a 23 percent increase in average ticket prices. The main driver behind the live music boom were a couple of blockbuster tours, however, most notably Taylor Swift’s record-breaking “Era’s Tour” and Beyoncé’s “Renaissance Tour”, which together with Bruce Springsteen’s latest world tour accounted for more than 20 percent of the global top 100 gross.

Back in 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic had dealt a devastating blow to the concert industry, bringing live music to a screeching halt. Venues shuttered, tours were canceled and artists found themselves facing an uncertain future. For an industry that thrives on the energy of bringing people together – be it in packed arenas or intimate music clubs – the sudden silence was deafening. As the world adapted to new realities, so did the concert industry. Virtual concerts and livestream performances became a stopgap solution, offering a lifeline for both artists and fans craving connection. But while people soon found out that meetings could easily be held digitally, livestreamed concerts just couldn’t recreate the magic of the real thing, which at least partly explains how the industry surged back from the brink once restrictions were lifted and people felt safe enough to immerse themselves in large crowds again. “A clear part of the wind beneath the live industry’s wings in the last two years was deprivation,” Pollstar writes in its annual industry recap, “oh how absence makes the live music fans’ hearts grow fonder.”

While the headline numbers are nothing short of impressive, it needs to be noted that the recovery has been far from smooth for parts of the live music industry. Smaller acts in particular have faced significant hurdles as many independent venues, crucial incubators for emerging talent, struggled to stay afloat, further exacerbated by chronic staff shortages after many industry workers had been forced to find other gigs during the pandemic. As live music continues to evolve in the post-pandemic world, it's crucial to ensure that all artists, regardless of size or stature have the support they need to thrive.
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With media easily copied record sales do not represent big money. It's all about live performances, that's where the money is, the real money.
 
COVIDMH.jpg

Aside from killing 1.2 million Americans, putting millions in the hospital and wreaking havoc on the country’s economy, the Covid-19 pandemic also took a heavy toll on mental health. Data compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Center for Health Statistics clearly showed a spike in the prevalence of symptoms associated with anxiety and/or depressive disorder following the onset of the pandemic. These psychologial effects of Covid-19 even outlived the pandemic itself, as in March/April 2024, symptoms of anxiety or depression were still roughly twice as common as they were in April 2019. However, the latest results published by the National Center for Health Statistics indicate a positive trend, as the mental toll of the pandemic finally appears to be fading. In April 2024, 21 percent of respondents reported symptoms of anxiety or depression, down from 34 percent in October 2023 and from a peak of 43 percent in November 2020.

The latest findings are derived from the Household Pulse Survey, which has been launched to produce data on the social and economic impacts of Covid-19 on American households. Since April 2020, tens of thousands of Americans have been asked to complete the web survey in order to "gauge the impact of the pandemic on employment status, consumer spending, food security, housing, education disruptions, and dimensions of physical and mental wellness." Among other things, respondents were asked to report how often they have felt down, depressed, hopeless or anxious in the last week, how often they have been unable to stop worrying or shown little interest or pleasure in doing things – all symptoms that have been shown to be associated with diagnoses of generalized anxiety disorder or major depressive disorder.

:smoke:
 
Factor by which low-income Americans are more likely than others to identify as vegetarian: 2

Percentage decrease in the number of Americans who identify as vegetarian since 2018: 20

(Harper's Index, May 2024)
 
The CORNROW Hair Style

The term cornrows originated somewhere between the 16th and 19 centuries in colonial America and was named after the agricultural fields that many enslaved people worked. In the Caribbean they are sometimes referred to as ‘Canerows

The hairstyle can be linked back to the times where slaves were forced to work in the sugar cane fields. But before that this style was likely called ‘kolese’ meaning “a creature without legs’ in Yoruba (Nigerian). The general term for cane/cornrows in Nigeria is ‘Irun Didi’. Irun translating to hair in Yoruba and Didi being the name of the hairstyle

Cornrows during slavery: used as a way to escape

Slavery began when millions of Africans were brutally ripped from their homes and shipped to the new world, where they had their heads shaved to take away their cultural identity. Cornrows helped enslaved Africans put up small acts of rebellion and resistance by not only allowing them to keep their heritage close, but also providing a discreet way to transfer information.

Cornrows soon became used as a way for slaves to secretly communicate with one another. Slaves would style their Cornrows, in different patterns as a means of communicating in code written messages.

The best documentation of this is in Colombia where Benkos Biohò, a royal captured from the Bissagos Islands by the Portuguese, escaped slavery and built a Palengue village in Northern Colombia, where he then created an intelligence network. Coming up with the idea of having women make ‘maps’ and deliver messages through their cornrows.

Slaves did this to avoid messages getting into the wrong hands and risk being caught escaping. A particular number of braids could indicate possible escape routes or even be used to signal a meet up time, without drawing scrutiny. Slaves would also hide bold fragments of seeds and rice to give the wearer some nourishment while escaping.

CR 1.jpg
 
Mystic said:
The CORNROW Hair Style

The term cornrows originated somewhere between the 16th and 19 centuries in colonial America and was named after the agricultural fields that many enslaved people worked. In the Caribbean they are sometimes referred to as ‘Canerows

The hairstyle can be linked back to the times where slaves were forced to work in the sugar cane fields. But before that this style was likely called ‘kolese’ meaning “a creature without legs’ in Yoruba (Nigerian). The general term for cane/cornrows in Nigeria is ‘Irun Didi’. Irun translating to hair in Yoruba and Didi being the name of the hairstyle

Cornrows during slavery: used as a way to escape

Slavery began when millions of Africans were brutally ripped from their homes and shipped to the new world, where they had their heads shaved to take away their cultural identity. Cornrows helped enslaved Africans put up small acts of rebellion and resistance by not only allowing them to keep their heritage close, but also providing a discreet way to transfer information.

Cornrows soon became used as a way for slaves to secretly communicate with one another. Slaves would style their Cornrows, in different patterns as a means of communicating in code written messages.

The best documentation of this is in Colombia where Benkos Biohò, a royal captured from the Bissagos Islands by the Portuguese, escaped slavery and built a Palengue village in Northern Colombia, where he then created an intelligence network. Coming up with the idea of having women make ‘maps’ and deliver messages through their cornrows.

Slaves did this to avoid messages getting into the wrong hands and risk being caught escaping. A particular number of braids could indicate possible escape routes or even be used to signal a meet up time, without drawing scrutiny. Slaves would also hide bold fragments of seeds and rice to give the wearer some nourishment while escaping.

View attachment 3191076
Click to expand...
Crop circles.
 
AMZ GPH.jpeg

Amazon announced its first quarter earnings this week, beating analyst expectations across the board and delivering a record first quarter profit of $10.4 billion. The record profit was largely driven by the company's rigorous cost cutting efforts of the past two years, which enabled it to grow its operating margin into double digits for the first time ever last quarter.

Since taking over from founder Jeff Bezos in 2021, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has made cost control one of his priorities and the latest results are a testament to those efforts. The company, still one of the largest employers in the world, has cut 27,000 jobs since late 2022, with the latest round of layoffs announced as recently as early April 2024, when hundreds of jobs at its cloud arm AWS were cut. Moreover, Amazon has worked on further regionalizing its logistics network to reduce delivery times and shipping costs, resulting in higher margins in its core e-commerce business.

Another driver of Amazon's improved operating margin is the fact that its higher-margin businesses, i.e. AWS, digital subscriptions and advertising, are growing faster than the traditionally lower-margin online and offline retail segments.
 
Mystic said:
View attachment 3191864

Amazon announced its first quarter earnings this week, beating analyst expectations across the board and delivering a record first quarter profit of $10.4 billion. The record profit was largely driven by the company's rigorous cost cutting efforts of the past two years, which enabled it to grow its operating margin into double digits for the first time ever last quarter.

Since taking over from founder Jeff Bezos in 2021, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has made cost control one of his priorities and the latest results are a testament to those efforts. The company, still one of the largest employers in the world, has cut 27,000 jobs since late 2022, with the latest round of layoffs announced as recently as early April 2024, when hundreds of jobs at its cloud arm AWS were cut. Moreover, Amazon has worked on further regionalizing its logistics network to reduce delivery times and shipping costs, resulting in higher margins in its core e-commerce business.

Another driver of Amazon's improved operating margin is the fact that its higher-margin businesses, i.e. AWS, digital subscriptions and advertising, are growing faster than the traditionally lower-margin online and offline retail segments.
Click to expand...
Just goes to show there's still a buck to be made out there.

What's left of my 40+ year old business is still thriving.
 
EU HOURS.JPG

In 2023, 7.1% of employed people in member states of the European Union worked long hours in their main job.

Long working hours refer to those workers who usually spend 49 hours or more per week at work.

Across the European Union countries, Iceland had the highest share of workers with long hours (13.8%), followed by Greece (11.6%), Cyprus (10.4%) and France (10.1%).

The lowest share of workers with long hours were recorded in Bulgaria (0.4%), Lithuania and Latvia (1.1% each).

(Source: Eurostat, 2024)
 
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