Derek Jeter & Respect

Derek Jeter:        career .310/.377/.440     post-season: .308/.374/.465
Alex Rodriguez:  career .299/.384/.558     post-season: .263/.369/.464

Alex Rodriguez was a much better SS, so the Captain should have moved to CF when A-Rod arrived.
This created friction, and egos clashed in NY.
In their time as teammates, they would only win one World Series– and that was on the shoulders of Alex Rodriguez in 2009.

These two great players have nearly identical career post-season batting value in the stats that matter most, which are OBP & SLG.
Jeter had the good fortune of being part of the nucleus of a Yankee dynasty, which accounts for their difference in championships.

All non-Yankee, true baseball fans respect Derek Jeter.
He respects the game, and apparently never used PEDs.
This is why he is loved by the fans, and A-Rod is not.
Let that be a lesson.

Music & the Medium

The phonograph was invented by Thomas Edison in 1877.

The earliest commercial medium for recording and reproducing sound were phonograph cylinders, made of wax and later– hard plastic.
They were replaced by disc records during the 1910’s.

A vinyl record is an analog sound storage medium, inscribed with a modulated spiral groove.
The groove starts near the periphery and ends near the center of the disc.
Phonograph records are generally described by:

1) Their diameter in inches: 12″, 10″, and 7″
2) Their rotational speed in Revolutions Per Minute (RPM): 33 1⁄3, 45, 78

The earliest rotational speeds varied widely.
Most records made from 1900–1925 were recorded at 74–82 RPM.

In 1925, 78.26 RPM was chosen as the industry standard.
After the 33 1/3’s & 45’s were introduced, these records became retroactively known as 78’s.

The 33 1⁄3 RPM LP (Long Play) format was developed and released by Columbia Records in 1948.
It was 12″ in diameter, and could hold 20-25 minutes of music on each side.

In response, RCA Victor introduced the 45 RPM format in 1949.
The 45 was 7″ in diameter, and could hold 5 minutes of music on each side, making it ideal as a singles format.

Post-war innovations in science & technology, along with industry cooperation on projects like RIAA equalization, cleared the way for major improvements in the quality of recorded music.

When rock & roll arrived in 1955, the 45 was the dominant medium.
This lasted until the mid-1960’s, when Album Oriented Rock (AOR) radio started to emerge.
All singles in the golden era of early rock & roll, were 2-3 minutes in length.
This was prescribed by commercial radio, which was (and still is) ruled by payola.

Elvis Presley had the most hit singles, making him the King of Rock & Roll.
A 45 had a ‘hit side’ and a ‘flip side’, offering an economical cross-section of the artist.
Any performer that could consistently rip up both sides, was considered a star.
Upstart independent record labels like Sun & Motown, built their empires on the 45 single.

The 33 1/3 LP of this age was used as a round-up of current singles, with the rest of the record usually padded with filler.
The modern LP album began in the early 1960’s, when artists such as Bob Dylan & the Beatles made records without filler.
The LP medium defined rock & popular music from the mid 1960’s until 1990, when it was replaced by the compact disc.

The 8-track tape was widely marketed in the US in the 1970’s, as a portable format, usable in an automobile tape deck.
8-Tracks had 4 programs/tape, and often would cut off songs to change programs.
Other major problems with the 8-track format included: severe wow & flutter, tape hiss, and the ribbon getting eaten by the deck; and was eliminated by the early 1980’s.

8-Track Cassette

8-Track Cartridge

The cassette tape was brought to market in the early 1970s, and quickly became one of the dominant formats for prerecorded music, alongside the LP.
Additionally, when blank cassettes became widely available, fans finally had convenient means to record and share music with others.
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), from the early 1970’s onward, consistently fought against the availability of high-quality blank cassette tapes; claiming piracy & lost artist revenues.

Automobile tape decks, boomboxes, and the Sony Walkman (1979) were all huge booms for cassette tape popularity.
From an audiophile perspective, limitations of the cassette tape format were similar to the 8-track; but their portability, along with the ability to home record, outweighed the inferior sound quality in comparison to LP records.
From a popularity standpoint, cassette tapes ruled the 1980’s.
Smart consumers with a good stereo system would buy the LP, which had superior fidelity and artwork; and then record it onto a blank cassette tape for portability.

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On August 1, 1981, incipient cable-television giant Viacom launched MTV.
It was part of a massive cultural revolution, in which cable would conquer television audiences with 24-hour-a-day programming in news (CNN), sports (ESPN), movies (HBO), and popular music (MTV), etc…

MTV was initially AOR-based, featuring only major-label artists.
During MTV’s early years, very few black artists outside of Michael Jackson & Prince were in their rotation.
When hip-hop & rap conquered white kids in the suburbs, black artists started appearing on MTV.

MTV was at its best when it played videos regularly, and had a formatted series for different music genres such as:

Yo! MTV Raps (rap/hip-hop: 1988-95)
Headbangers Ball (metal: 1987-95)
120 Minutes (alternative/college/indie: 1986-2000)

Teen-targeted series, The Real World debuted in 1992; and is commonly credited with launching the reality-TV genre.
Real World became a seismic cultural hit with kids, and began MTV’s evolution away from playing music videos.
From 1995 to 2000, MTV played 36.5% fewer music videos; and basically eliminated its video rotation by the mid-2000s.

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Advances in optical technology, and cooperation between industry leaders Phillips (Germany) & Sony (Japan); led to the introduction of the compact disc (CD) in 1982.
CD’s, for the first time, provided the consumer with a copy that was equivalent to the master recording.
Its 44khz sampling rate, 90db signal/noise ratio, and complete channels separation was a revolutionary improvement in sound quality for newly recorded music.
Unfortunately back catalogue CD re-issues tended to be of poor quality, as often master tapes weren’t located, in the industry rush to cash in on the CD boom.
Consumers were hyped into replacing their entire music collections on CD, and many did.
Hardcore vinyl supporters fought a losing battle against the record industry in the 1980’s, protesting poor-sounding CD’s with skimpy/shoddy packaging.
In the mid-to-late 1980’s, a record that cost $6, retailed for $12 on CD.

By 1990, vinyl was pulled from the shelves, and new releases had to be purchased in CD format.
Mega-chains then drove most of the neighborhood record shops out of business.
The mega-stores would follow them into bankruptcy in the 2000’s, when Amazon.com became the world’s largest Internet retailer.

By the end of the 1990’s, the record labels had merged into 4 major giants (Sony-BMG, Universal, EMI, & Warner), all of whom stuck it to the consumer for $20+ a CD for a new release.
CD singles were priced around $5.
Many, many back catalogue artists still hadn’t been revived on CD, meaning they were publicly inaccessible– since vinyl & cassettes had been deleted.

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Napster (1999-2002) was a pioneering peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing program, created by 19-year old Shawn Fanning & his young colleagues; they released it as freeware in 1999.
Running Napster on a computer allowed mp3-formatted music to be freely shared on the Internet.
Everything in music was suddenly available!
Napster was a lightning-fast program, and since music is emotionally-charged, it quickly revolutionized the Internet.

The RIAA acted as puppet masters, in recruiting superstar artists around Metallica & Dr. Dre to kill Napster over copyright infringement.
Napster was finally shut down by the courts in 2002.
This can be seen historically as the RIAA’s attempt to stop the Internet.
Today 95+% of copyrighted music online is shared & downloaded ‘illegally’, by Napster-like sites.

By 2010, industry revenues were half of their 2000 level.

Dominant industry models for the 5% of paid-for downloaded music, since the destruction of Napster have been:
YouTube— video streaming paid for by advertising
iTunes— pay per download
Internet Radio (Pandora, Last.fm, etc.)— advertising/fee-based subscription service, for automated-recommendation streaming
Spotify— advertising/fee-based subscription for catalogue streaming

YouTube is one of the most useful distribution channels for emerging artists, as videos are a powerful medium.  YouTube & Google are useful resources for fans, as much of the history of recorded music can be found through their search engines.

Some superstar artists still choose to ban free content on these engines– and the kids just go to Pirate Bay, etc.  It’s time these old-school dinosaurs & their labels realize: they’ve been paid.  Classic rock has become so ubiquitous, it’s now devalued.  Kids rightfully refuse to pay for it.

iTunes, Pandora, and Spotify are notorious for stiffing non-superstar artists.  These services are strictly superstar promotional channels, and the latest format for re-selling old music to new consumers.

American Idol  (AI) on FOX, largely defines mainstream popular music since 9/11.
Piloting on June 11, 2002, this live talent audition quickly became the most successful show in American television.
From 2003–11, AI was the #1 TV show in the US.

The model of AI was to create the illusion that fans actually had a say in the selection of superstar performers.
In 13 seasons, with billions of dollars in hype, this show has launched the idol careers of Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Daughtry, etc.; all of whom sing beautifully, but have little to say.

American Idol fits in well with the propaganda model of the post-9/11 world; by homogenizing culture, encouraging conformity, and de-valuing art.

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The upshot of all this is the record industry always opposes creative control for artists, as well as public freedom for fans to access and share music.
The CD is dead, so the future of music is FREE– therefore artists must change their relationship with fans.
For emerging artists, this means connecting with new fans directly; through a website with killer content, social media for fan interaction, and YouTube for video promotion, etc…

DIY artists seeking mainstream breakthrough should read Donald Passman’s classic All You Need to Know about the Music Business, in which this top entertainment lawyer describes the maze of pitfalls aspiring musicians are facing.  Major labels now demand 360 deals, which make every aspect of an artist’s life industry property.  In dealing with people in & around the music industry, lie spotting is an essential skill.

All of this means that musical artists, beyond creating new music, will have to become their own managers, publishers, webmasters, videographers, bloggers, and whatever else is necessary to connect with the world.

The technology is in place, ready to connect revolutionary artists with music lovers around the world– just plug yourself in.

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9/11: Connecting the Dots

      1. 9-11 - Ric Size

 

[download label="Download 9-11"]https://ricsize.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/RicSize_911.mp3[/download]

Preface: The current US military re-entry into the second Iraq War (2003-11), should give us all pause to re-examine the events of 9/11 which have led to this crisis. The official US enemy is now the Islamic State in Iraq & Syria (ISIS).  Just months earlier, ISIS was a US proxy in its joint effort to overthrow Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, and before that Muammar Gaddafi in Libya.  Such is the Orwellian logic of US imperialism, in which there are no permanent allies or enemiesonly permanent interests.

9-11 Twin Towers

The best available evidence overwhelmingly supports the 9-11 Truth position, which is: the events of 9/11 were a massive conspiracy against the American people by US deep state figures.
The list begins with Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush, Richard Perle, Richard Armitage, Paul Wolfowitz, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, John Ashcroft, etc
It was a joint financial-elite/military operation, and its cover-up a bi-partisan political affair, from the top ranks down; with complete compliance from a corporatized media.

Dust samples from ground zero reveal traces of nanothermite, a military-grade pyrotechnic composition, which was likely used to facilitate a controlled demolition of the twin towers.
WTC Building 7 also collapsed later in the day, in the same manner, at near free-fall speed; even though it wasn’t struck by a plane.
Eyewitness testimonies from firefighters & survivors consistently refute the US government’s official conspiracy theory, which is:

Nineteen fanatical Arabs hijacked four US commercial flights, none of which ever emitted a distress signal, then disappeared from radar and flew unchallenged into the WTC twin towers and the Pentagon.  
The most sophisticated and well-funded intelligence & security apparatus in human history had no inkling that any of this was about to happen, due to a failure to connect the dots.
Therefore, no US official is accountable for the events of 9/11.

Bush administration officials immediately blamed Al Qaeda & Saddam Hussein for the September 11th attacks, calling for an invasion.
Phony Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) claims were floated to the American public & the UN, as a pretext for war.
On March 19, 2003, despite the largest global anti-war protest in history a month earlier; shock & awe was unleashed on the people of Iraq.

By 2004, the Bush administration admitted there were never WMDs in Iraq, but the wars still continued…
Fallujah
Abu Ghraib
1,000,000 Iraqi’s dead
4,500+ US soldiers dead & forgotten.
Millions maimed and psychologically scarred in this dirty imperialist adventure.

Iraqi Violence

Oil is the most important commodity in the modern world.
It surpassed cotton in the late 19th century, when the internal combustion engine became widespread throughout the industrialized world.
The US ruling-class interest in Iraq (and more generally, the Middle East) is simple: monopolize the most important resource in the world.

The true targets of the Middle East wars are China & Russia, who are considered strategic competitors.
The ruling class ‘thinking’ is to keep these competitors from getting the oil they need to help their economies grow.
The US has lost its position as the undisputed world’s economic superpower, and thus uses its military supremacy to maintain global dominance.

The same methods are now used to maintain rule at home.

Of course, the world can not be conquered militarily, so this ‘plan’ is complete madness.
It ends with either a permanent international workers’ revolution or mutually assured destruction, via nuclear weapons.

The events of 9/11 must be understood in this context for there to be any progress towards truth and ending the destructive capitalist policies of the ruling elite.
The deep state figures who led us into these conflicts, must be held accountable for their war crimes.
This is not merely an empty gesture, but rather a necessary step towards ensuring humanity’s survival.

Brothers [Official Video]

Another Chance: Hope and Health for the Alcoholic Family (1989) written by Sharon Wegscheider-Cruse, is a classic text on recovery for alcoholic families
Alcoholism is a family disease, in which everyone plays a role
Educate & recover yourself

      1. Brothers - Ric Size

TomP: percussion & production
Craig Roy: bass
RS: guitars & vocals
Video production by TomP; photo by RS
Copyright/Publishing– No Cliche Songs/Infinitelink Records  2014

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Modelling as Art

      1. Anna Rex - Ric Size

Anna Rex mp3
RS: gtr & vocal
TomP: percussion & production
Craig Roy: bass
Jessica Lynn Martens: violin

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What is art?  A conscious creation of beauty.

What is modelling?  A display of human beauty.

Modelling is never about perfection; it is about how flaws & imperfections are tastefully concealed and/or overcome.

The qualities of character & beauty are inseparable.

Men & women are beautiful when their appearances, words, and actions consciously point towards: intelligence, health, character, poise, strength, flexibility, youthfulness, happiness & love.
This requires the application of intellect & hard work.

Shortcuts that Don’t Work

Diets & pills: rebound & side effects
Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs): serious side effects
Cosmetic Surgery: morbidity
Throwing money at it:  symptom of laziness & mental disorders

Beauty is Not

Airbrushed
Anorexic/bulimic
PED enhanced
Weaved hair
Heavy makeup
Loud fashion

Fashion

Create your own style and be 100% confident in it, otherwise people will know.
It should compliment your age, sex, body-type, skin color, and any other orientation…

A model represents their own personal version of human beauty– approaching, but never reaching perfection.
The human face & body have inspired the artist in all of us, throughout the millenia.  Its interpretation is always subjective.

Golden Proportion Symmetry is a modern mathematical science of beauty, which has fundamental proportions in nature.
For instance in the human smile, the upper front teeth are ideally displayed in a width ratio of 1:1.618–called ‘phi’ in the language of math.
Leaves & petals exhibit these same mathematical ratios.

Leaves in Nature are in Golden Proportion

Leaves in Nature are in Golden Proportion

Human attractiveness is measured in overall proportion & symmetry, mostly importantly in the eyes & smile.
The teeth are the more controllable variable through preventive care, orthodontic/orthognathic correction, and cosmetic restorations.
A natural, healthy smile is always the most attractive– natural teeth (size, shape & color) compliment body type.
Gingival (gum) & osseous (bone) surgery can also improve health & appearance.
Home bleaching is safe & effective, when done correctly.
Patient compliance is always critical in any health–seek a competent & caring professional, and heal thyself!

RS Corporate Photo #1

Physical beauty is sustained by core strength & inner health.
We all have it in us to be beautiful.
If we don’t take care of ourselves, our health erodes quickly.
Beautiful people age well when they understand it as a process, working from the inside out.

Sleep is essential.
Not getting enough REM sleep, is a common problem in this modern industrialized world.

Diet is crucial– an epidemic U.S. health crisis.
Rate your Plate, means filling half your plate with fresh vegetables, with one quarter each, for lean proteins and carbohydrates.
Adjust your need for fats according to your body, any variance for indulgence (okay in moderation) is recognized as poor diet, requiring compensation.

Your choice of protein is a thoughtful personal decision, with its privacy respected by all.

Whole Food Diet

Avoid “dead food”, which is anything packaged in a can or box.
You can’t “stock up” on fresh fruits & vegetables for more than a few days.
Switch to organic dairy & local free-range from a real butcher, if meat is your preference.
Buy local: truck farming yields unripe GMO fruits & vegetables, lacking the natural sugars needed for energy boost & nutrients for health.

If you aren’t eating 5-7 servings of vegetables/day, then you must juice the difference to make it up.

Nutrient-dense food costs more, but its nutritional value is priceless; Americans on a budget, bombarded by mass-media hype are still struggling with that concept.
Knowing how to prepare & cook food, is always an essential skill for health & good living.
The unnaturalness of GMO corn subsidies for agri-business, along with the owning of copyrights to nature’s seeds, is fundamentally anti-democratic & nefarious.
The agri-business policy of ‘GMO-improved’ food, floods our grocery stores with a surplus of cheap, unhealthy food.
Seek alternatives for your benefit.

Health & Fitness Summary

1.) Diet: local, organic, fresh, whole foods
2.) Exercise: enough to meet your body-type needs, without over-training
3.) Sleep: get the REMs you need
4.) Recreational drugs & alcohol: okay in moderation–for adults only
5.) Sex: be active & safe

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