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Good Morning/Nite Dazees,
Let me tell you what absolutely fuckin sucks about being a creative trying to work with other creatives. You have to put the baby you’re trying to nurture into the hands of somebody nurturing their own. Once that deposit leaves, you just hope they give enough of a fuck to do right by you.
I HATE IT!!!!
Three weeks ago I paid a videographer for content that never got produced and had the same thought I’ve had too many times: I keep mistaking talent for professionalism.
A portfolio proves what somebody can do. It doesn’t prove what they’ll do for you. I don’t need somebody to care about my business as much as I do. I need them to care about the promise they made me.
But if this keeps happening, eventually I have to admit: I’m the common denominator.
Is it my communication?
Am I doing enough homework before I hand somebody my money?
I clearly need to change something. I just haven’t figured out what yet.
Lucky number this week: 425
$425 is the deposit I paid the videographer who has handed me 1,000 excuses and ZERO content.
Just add it to my tuition at The University of Getting Fucked Over.
Proceed with caution to the most important 792 words of your week.
-Joey
Late Night Bytes
Wawa has FINALLY brought back its Pancake Sausage, Egg & Cheese Sizzli and they’re now back kicking the McGriddle’s ass in the breakfast sandwich cold war. Tell Mickey D’s all it took was sausage, egg and white American cheese between maple pancakes for us to act like we don’t know them anymore.
Still Hungry?
Oreo said "Fuck My Diet" this week by dropping the Banana Pudding, Deep Fried and Chicken & Waffles at the same time. I guess the big back in me will be collecting Oreos like Pokémon.
People are stuffing Magnum Ice Cream Bars inside Warm Croissants and it sounded dumb as shit. Then I got high. Now it’s intriguing. The creativity is low, but my access to the ingredients is high. That’s enough for me.
Time Destroyers
TNA Lockdown is returning for the first time in 10 years and I’ll be DAMNED if I’m not there August 23 in Chicago screaming for blood. Every match is inside a steel cage, so I should get my wish. I don’t know if I’m more excited about Elayna Black vs. Xia Brookside for the Knockouts World Championship or Leon Slater trying to get his X-Division Title back from Cedric Alexander. Respectfully, it’s probably seeing Elayna in person for reasons that have nothing to do with wrestling.
Still Bored?
Bulls Fest is a 3-on-3 basketball tournament at the United Center that I’m excited to check out. It’s all ages, from the kiddos to the old farts, with men’s, women’s, youth and wheelchair divisions. Oh yeah, Fuck the Bulls.
It’s time I finally watched The Spook Who Sat by the Door. I heard Nipsey Hussle talk about it years ago and never followed through. After the disappointment of PROLIFIC, I need something Nip approved of before he passed.
Call The Plug
I don’t need another Peak Pro. Puffco knows damn well I don’t need another Peak Pro.
But what did they do? They painted one candy purple, called it the Plasma Peak Pro and want to charge me $450 for the same 3DXL platform I just paid $420 for.
Puffco is selling smoking hardware like sneakers. Limited colorways. Matching accessories. Scarcity. Just enough changes to make the perfectly good one sitting in your house start looking mid.
They got me. Don’t let them get you.
It’s Getting Weird
As I was trying to keep up with this Roc Nation vs. New Media proxy war that is dominating my algorithm, I stumbled into this side quest about Larry Jackson, the former Apple executive who founded and runs gamma, a $1 billion-backed challenger to the major-label system. Jackson has preached artist ownership since 2023. Now somebody is allegedly using anonymous websites and hundreds of bot accounts to convince the internet that gamma is a scam. That sounds a little familiar after everything Akademiks has been accusing Roc Nation of lately... Nevermind.
Nobody has proven who’s behind it, but gamma has taken the fight to court, so now I want to see what comes out.
All of this has me wondering how much of what we call “the culture” is actually corporate warfare between millionaires and billionaires posing as our allies?
As fans, we just want good music. We don’t usually care who controls distribution, owns the masters or benefits when somebody gets destroyed.
Maybe that’s the problem.
Maybe we should care.
Maybe it’s time we all started paying more attention.