"Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing." Benjamin Franklin
It was 6 years ago today that the world lost Prince.
Recently, thanks to a teacher’s strike in Minneapolis (that seems like a strange thing to be thankful for), a local journalist for the CBS affiliate uncovered video of an eleven-year old Prince giving his opinion of a similar strike from the 70’s.
He comes out of the gate hot, with a resounding “yep!” served with a glare and some attitude.
He got into one little fight and his mom got scared…
Viktor Frankl famously said “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
Nine seconds from the end of Rock’s joke, Will Smith had already laughed, interpreted his wife’s non-verbal cues, stopped laughing, rose from his seat, climbed stairs, and was almost halfway down the Oscar stage. Nine seconds is plenty of time to contemplate a proper action. Eight seconds is an entire bull riding session.
A Stoic Prepares.
Many stoics prepare vigorously for various scenarios. Whether it was wearing pauper robes to the Senate or making do with less, less food, less shelter, and less clothing, there’s a long history of testing “hardships” in order to remove this “hardship’s” power over the person. We also prepare, or at least I do, so I can be my best self in any given situation.
After Chris Rock’s Oscar monologue from 2018 wouldn’t Will Smith have at least thought about what he would do if he and/or Jada were once again the target of Rock’s jokes? And if so, was last night’s performance a premeditated plan? And if so, was this his best plan? A slap? Yelling?
And if Will Smith hadn’t contemplated this scenario, why the hell not? Has he never seen the Oscars? It’s hosted by comedians, who tell jokes for three looooong hours, and the target of most of the jokes are the people in Hollywood.
Has he not seen any of his online confessions over the past few years? How much material do you think a working professional comedian like Chris Rock has stored about you after watching just one episode of Red Table Talk?
Which gets me to… Chris Rock is a stoic and a professional.
There’s a point after the slap when Chris’s hand is balled into a fist. After all, we’re all human and instincts can take over very easily and quickly. Then Chris stops, composes himself, and makes a joke, “Will Smith just slapped the shit out of me.”
After Will Smith yelled/cursed, twice, there’s a quick moment where Chris Rock says “Man, I could…” Then he stops. This is the Viktor Frankl moment when Chris Rock could have chosen the Red-Table road or the professional road. He made the stoic choice. He chose well.
Chris Rock turned his attention to announcing the winner for Best Documentary, (Congrats to Questlove and the other producers!) and then calmly stood there on the stage while the audience and the world panicked.
And, he never touched his face. Not once! Stoic AF.
Lastly, the ego.
Ryan Holiday’s modern-stoic classic, Ego is the Enemy is about as fitting a title as one can place on Will Smith’s actions last night.
Unfortunately, temporary outbursts of anger often have long-term repercussions. If early reports from the internets is any indication (Oscar night was one of the BEST Twitter nights of all time!), both amateur and professional comedians are currently writing as many Will and Jada jokes as they can.
What would have been a two second unfortunate/hurtful punchline is now going to become a punchline for years to come. And those jokes will go viral, and they will be seen and relived by Will, Jada, and their entire family. Over and over again.
Ego is the enemy for us all, even if you are the Emperor of Rome or the biggest star in Hollywood.
Gasoline prices are currently above $6 per gallon in LA County. So this must be a good time to take some advice from my younger self on the price elasticity of oil.
The first quarter of my freshman year in college, I didn’t do well academically. Apparently, fraternity parties and not going to class wasn’t a recipe for straight A’s. Shocking.
That quarter, like every freshman, I took introduction to Macro Economics and even though I was probably drunk, I actually learned something called supply and demand.
I also learned (in a different class) that the human memory should really last 23 months, which is where our supply and demand story begins.
April 20, 2020, Something truly magical happened on that day. The price of a barrel of oil went negative. Was this due to some secret plot that retired Vice President Biden hatched to destroy America? No. Was this only happening in America? No. Then why was the price crashing? Intro to Macro Economics would tell us that the price crashed because demand crashed.
June 21, 2020, Geologist Art Berman came on one of my favorite podcasts, “Macrovoices”. If you pop on this podcast or Youtube clip that is literally entitled “Expect oil prices to move down, then up, then WAY up“, in a very clear way, Art will walk everyone through how long it takes to close an oil well, but more importantly, how long it takes to reopen an oil and gas well once demand returns. (hint: it takes a looooong time)
On June 21, 2020, this expert in oil production told everyone who would listen EXACTLY what was going to happen to oil/gas supply/demand and price over the next year to 18 months. And it happened exactly as predicted. (He was not alone in this prediction, BTW)
Lastly, as a reminder, in America, we don’t have state-run oil companies, we have “capitalism”. Well, technically “capitalism with massive tax breaks and subsidies”. So given all of that, it’s now pop-quiz time.
Which people in Spring/summer of 2020 closed the oil/gas wells all over the world? Thus massively reducing supply for the foreseeable future.
Was it…
Private citizen Joe Biden?
The current President of America at the time, Donald Trump?
Or was it the CEOS and COOs of Exxon, Chevron, BP, Total, R.D Shell, Oxy, Phillips 66, etc, etc?
Hint: you can actually go back and listen to conference calls of these companies and listen to their CEOs/COOs tell you how many wells they were going to shutter due to falling demand.
Take all of the time you need to figure out this “mystery”. But the answer to the above question will tell you exactly who is responsible for higher oil prices and shockingly, it happens to be the exact same people who benefit the most financially from higher oil prices.
As a shareholder of these companies, I commend their CEOs and COOs for doing exactly what they were supposed to do, respond appropriately to supply and demand. Now that demand and prices are way up, these same people will respond, but, again, unfortunately, wells take a looooong time (6 months ish, often longer) to get back to capacity.
But eventually, market forces will correct and probably over-correct, as markets usually do.
One of the things I miss most about Pre-Trump American conservatives was that for almost all arguments, y’all could be counted on proclaiming that market forces would solve the problem. No problem was too big for the “free market” to solve or too small for the government to screw up.
Where are my free market advocates these days? Where did y’all go? I miss y’all. Can you come back now please? We need y’all in the public discourse.
Because, after watching almost every person in America, from both sides of the aisle, scream for a government solution to this problem, I couldn’t disagree more. Can we have “smart” government incentives that propel innovation? Sure. But, I don’t want this President, or ANY POTUS/Govt Official making supply decisions about oil/gas wells. These decisions are best handled by geologists, engineers, production managers, and data scientists who spend all day thinking about nothing but oil.
Sometimes capitalism is gonna capitalism.
Stop calling for a government solution to a free-market supply/demand issue. If you are constantly screaming about how capitalism is the greatest thing since sliced bread (a product of capitalism) you can’t keep running back to Sugar Daddy-Socialism every time capitalism goes capitalism all over you and your money. (yes, I’m looking at you Banking Crisis of 2008- I haven’t forgotten what you did)
Yesterday, Russia invaded Ukraine. Thus declaring war on Ukraine and its people.
You may be searching for a negative review of last night’s Super Bowl halftime show. If that’s your intention with this article, you’re going to be extremely disappointed.
First, I have to mention the game.
As a Georgia Bulldawg/Matthew Stafford fan who has attended every Rams training camp, and dresses his children in Rams gear, and who leaned into Cooper Kupp exposure this season, it was a special night that was the culmination of a special season.
But as much as I loved the game, I’ve played the halftime show 5 times already and haven’t replayed one part of the game.
First, the Chronic 2000 has been in my cd changer/playlist since it was released. Which officially qualifies me as an old-head, but I’m an old-head who looked forward to hearing Kendrick Lamar’s set as much as I wanted to hear Snoop.
Let’s go set-by-set.
First, Snoop reminded everyone of his roots. The Doggystyle album cover picture was a nice touch. Apparently, his wardrobe was a bit too “gang-related” for the NFL folks. It’s notable the league and the haters’ minds went to the Crips instead of the Rams considering how much gold was on his wardrobe. So, for the NFL, and the media, I made a guide to help you
Rams = Gold and blue.
Crips = Blue.
Dre got his first chance on the mic with California Love, which everyone knew was coming. (It’s a Super Bowl in LA-duh!) Dre’s performance led us to an upside-down 50 Cent.
Fifty killed it. Period. The internets have jokes today considering his weight. While I normally appreciate the constant joke machine that is the world wide web, in this case, they are wrong.
First, you never criticize an actor’s weight because chances are good they are either coming off a role or prepping for a role.
Second, I thought he looked swole and trim. He’s not 22 anymore. This is what mid-life looks like.
Next, this is the Super Bowl. Most of America is 48 nachos, 4 slices of pizza, and 12 chicken wings into their meal by halftime.
Lastly, as a die-hard Beat Street fan, the man who wrote “I tagged ‘Spit’ over Ramo’s shit, I’m a vandal.” gets a lifetime pass from me.
Fifty took us to Mary and the Queen didn’t disappoint. Her first number one single, produced by Dre, “Family Affair” was first and she gave the audience a spirited dance to her classic. In 2001 when Family Affair dropped, if you went to a club, you were going to hear that song. Period.
Then she left it out on the vocal field with “No More Drama”.
Kendrick took over where the Queen left off.
His set ad libbed more than the rest and everything about his delivery was on point. The dancers were sharp and some of the overhead shots of their patterns around the city grid was visually stunning.
As soon as it was clear he was performing “Alright” I was simultaneously excited and intrigued on how he would handle some of the lyrics. Notably, the word “po-po” was omitted from his lyrics, “and we hate po-po”.
From the camera angle it was impossible to see if the omission was Kendrick leaving out the word or the censor muting it. I’m certain this was by design.
This omission makes it obvious that this lyric was contested. By the league? By the network? By the FCC? By some of them? By all of them? Who knows?
But the omission was only noticeable to those folks who dig the song. His cadence was so tight around that line that the rest of America had no idea that something was missing.
It was music to the ears to hear the N.W.A. shout out.
And almost immediately Dre cut to a splice of “forgot About Dre” as a way to introduce the biggest selling artist of the 2000’s. Since time is crunched, he went with the biggest solo hit of that time.
I quickly noticed Eminem went with the Jordan 3s for his retro footwear, which is also my retro footwear of choice for “big” occasions as well.
Eminem’s set ended with him kneeling. I’m certain, many folks across the country started cussing as soon as they saw him take that pose. If you think for one second that the curses don’t make Eminem grin from ear to ear, you haven’t listened to any of his music. Ever.
I was focused on Dre playing Tupac’s “I Ain’t Mad At Cha” on the piano.
Maybe Em was kneeling out of reverence for Tupac, maybe it was for Kaepernick, maybe it was for a completely different reason. But whatever the reason, he had Karens all across the country clutching their pearls.
The wealthy have a saying, “what good is having fuck-you money, if you don’t occasionally say ‘fuck you!’” In other words, there’s no reason to be the biggest rap star in the world if you can’t say “fuck you” from time to time.
Dre’s Tupac shout-out morphed into the famous piano riff throughout “Still D.R.E.” and Snoop and hundreds of dancers emerged for the finale.
It is notable that between Snoop’s appearances, he did manage to smoke some cannabis. Which, I have to say, smoking cannabis in the middle of your Super Bowl halftime show is one of the most Snoop things I could’ve imagined. Kudos to Snoop!
The finale reminded everyone that it is still Dre’s Day.
It is notable that Dre’s lyric “still not loving police” was kept in the song.
Which leads to my favorite part of the show—when all of the performers are on the stage at the end. The Queen is grooving, Snoop is dancing, Kendrick and Fifty are hugging, and they are all there, just to emphasize that it’s still all about the D.R.E.
Fifty’s joyful smile at the end of the show said everything. I was smiling just as wide.
This would be a Gen X dream card. But I think the actual fight would fall flat.
Everyone knows I have mad love for Daniel LaRusso, I even bought my last Audi at LaRusso Audi. But Bruce Leroy would wipe the floor with Daniel and the entire Miyago-Do Dojo.
p.s. the “Special appearance by DeBarge” is a nice touch on the poster.
This is a current look inside my head on Christmas Eve.
We’ve all bitten our lip, or the inside of our cheek, or our tongue while eating.
When you do this, there is immediate pain. But, the “best” part of biting your own mouth/lips/tongue is that afterwards, the body part swells, causing you to bite the part again, and again, and again.
Life is like this. We sometimes make mistakes and those mistakes cause circumstances that cause us to make additional mistakes, and on, and on the situation spirals.
How do you stop this behavior in life?
Not sure.
But I know how you stop it inside of your own mouth. You start by paying attention.
A person with a swollen cheek (like mine is now), after chewing on it enough times, will eventually change their eating behavior to be mindful of the swollen body part.
I don’t think this is the top-secret answer for stopping repeatable mistakes in a person’s life, but I think mindfulness of the problem is a good first step.
“The first step in solving a problem is to recognize that it does exist.”- Zig Zigler