Ticking Away

[peterbirks]

I had loads of ideas of thing to type in the past 12 hours, but they all frittered away. When time pressure is, like, shit, other things get thrust out of the memory bank. That's the problem with the "improve your memory" books (like the "how to get people to do what you want them to do" books). They tend to require either (a) dedication, (b) practice (c) time or (d) a natural inclination. When you aren't really in possession of any of these, it's tough.

Played the new Fionn Regan album. Only one listening and I wasn't in the best of moods (it was on the way to work). But, well, Dublin-based singer-songwriter who sounds like a large number of others who have emerged over the past couple of years, many of whom are better. Sufjan Stevens is the first that springs to mind, although Regan's publicity machine prefers to compare him to Woody Guthrie (dead), Nick Drake (dead) and Neil Young (over 60), which shows what kind of time-warp the Irish publicity machine is locked in. How about Damien Rice, Ballboy, and Destroyer?

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I'm running bad at Full Tilt (it's okay, I'm running well at Party). You know that you are running bad when, in your first 2000 hands, you get Kings 10 times, and two of those times you are up against pocket aces. (win percentage with KK, 50%)

And, with pocket aces, the win rate of 70% looks okay, except that two of the 10 times I've had Aces I have been in the big blind and it has been folded round to me. Three other times I raised with Aces and everyone passed, meaning that I just picked up the blinds. Once I won a decent pot, and the other I won a smallish pot. The other three times I got outdrawn.

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Comments

[jellymillion.livejournal.com]

How about Damien Rice, Ballboy, and Destroyer?

Um, because it helps to see an artist compared with someone you've heard of? Or are you suggesting they should be targeting him at a niche market? Ah, I think that's exactly what you're doing. Pardon me.

[peterbirks.livejournal.com]

Well, obviously, this occurred to me. Clearly the main market these days is forty-something or fifty-something old farts like you and me, to whom the name Neil Young is not resonant of "boring old git who sings about war".

I would have thought that you would have heard of Damien Rice, though.

And Sufjan Stevens, the most obvious "his sound is reminiscent of..." comparison, had one of the most acclaimed albums of last year (Illinois) which, as far as I recall, sold rather better than did Prairie Wind. Meanwhile, what bestsellers have Nick Drake and Woody Guthrie had lately?

Are we the niche market (the people who actually remember Nick Drake)?
Or are the 20-somethings who go to concerts the niche market (the people who would have heard of Destroyer and Ballboy)?

Probably, we both are. But you can see which niche the PR agency is in.

PJ

[andy-ward-uk.livejournal.com]

Apropos of nothing, I've played 6,865 hands short-handed $1-2 to $3-6 since returning to the limit fold, and I haven't had AA cracked once. 31/31. I hate when people say what are the odds of something that's already happened, but really, what are the odds ?

Kings are a certain death sentence mind you.

Andy.

[peterbirks.livejournal.com]

One other point here occurs to me. Although the comparison with Nick Drake is valid enough, the references to Neil Young and Woody Guthrie are plain wrong. So, not only are the references out of date, but they are also inaccurate and unhelpful.

I think that it's more a case of an artist being compared with someone they've heard of. Sufjan Stevens was such an obvious candidate (although I would have accepted David Gray or Badly Drawn Boy) that I really wonder at the age of the staff at Coda PR.

PJ

[peterbirks.livejournal.com]

Short-handed Aces probably average out at about 78%. So, that gives us 0.05%, or one in 2,000.

PJ