Chuck E Cheese, Going Crackers over a Barrel, Bubbles, Change, Music and, yes, more.

AI, Nvidia, Y2K and other wildly overhyped bubble rap.

A pope popping bubblewrap. Holy commotion, batkids…

Got this from Forbes: “Bubbles burst not because the story is completely wrong, but because around the margins the story is wrong,” says Rob Arnott, founder and chairman of California-based investment advisor Research Affiliates. “The story of the rate of growth, the time horizon of growth, is unrealistically optimistic, and the risk of competition eroding market share is underestimated.”

Pop! Then the market nosedives wildly and “corrects.”

In time. Theoretically. The theory that stock bubbles bursting can resolve themselves gradually is a bit of that whole pipedream. What about the “hard landing?” Did you know Nvidia counts for over 8% of the entire S&P 500? Whoa doggies. Didn’t they used to call it crashing when corporate jets “landed hard?” On that note, guess I won’t invest the family fortune in Nvidia. Or Crypto. Or any of those pretty bubbles in the air, floating around. Even if there was a family fortune. But you can do some pretty funny stuff with AI, BTW (Link)

  Anyone want to do a fashion shoot at Wise Acres?

That red clawfoot tub in the jungle, and a wash basin. Weedeater (or chainsaw) provided…

Performing Aussies…

It’s about 40 acres of pastures with stuff. Outbuildings, trees, wilderness, openness, sculptures, ramshackle structures in adjoining pastures, weathered wood, a junkyard, couple of photogenic dogs, and a red clawfoot tub in a jungle. Come on, Prada, it’s time you got outdoors. You, too, Louis V. And you, Rag and Bone, get outa the city for awhile.

Barns, loafing sheds, corrals, ponds, priced attractively. Craft services. Drones. Hey, we shot a music video out here and some of it was shown on GMA. Not bad for country.

Maybe we’ll go public and do a sculpture garden, photo-opp IPO. You reading this, Warren?

 

What’s up with Chuck E. Cheese?

Nate Bargatze has a funny routine on it; check it out first. (It’s only a minute or two. Link)

Then there’s this article on it if you’re game. (Link)  In the scheme of things, Chuck E. doesn’t mean much to me, but it sure has its cult and collectors. They’re called Chuckheads. Really.

Can you imagine private stashes of Chuck E. mummified band members in storage facilities all over the U.S.? Seems we Americans will collect just about anything.

Hey, Sally—they really really like me too…

Forget Chuck E.  The weird world went nuts when Cracker Barrel changed the logo! Now it’s back…

Jeezo capeezo, it’s not like it was a time-honored old-timey brand. Its major shareholder is BlackRock!  I cannot, just can NOT get worked up about this one, but here’s a take on it (Link)

Trump even chimed in on it. Apparently the whole spectrum of right/left woke and maga found something they can agree on. It’s a start even if it’s crackers, in my opinion.

You want great southern food, go to a great (read real) southern restaurant, one whose staff thinks BlackRock is a mountain in a national park. You can find these restaurants in Wildsam’s trip guides. (Link) And the cracker barrels are full of fresh crackers.

 The ASE “pocket book” that catapulted The Great Gatsby off the bubble to its rightful position as The Great American Novel.

Great got greater when the troops got hold of it…

This plain jane precursor to the famous postwar 25 cent “pocket books” is one of hundreds of ASE (Armed Services Editions Link) that were sent overseas in WWII to bored troops awaiting assigments. And that audience read; everything from Huckleberry Finn to The Postman Always Rings Twice. Over 1,300 ASE books included all the great authors of the time and even textbooks on subjects like electronics and mathematics.

The Great Gatsby was originally made available to troops as an action-packed crime story and possibly resulted in over a million readings.

This kicked off a postwar mission by untold numbers of English teachers in classrooms around the world to this very day to include it in high school and college courses. The Gatsby bubble is here to stay for awhile.

 

Change comes, stuff happens

 Where’s the opportunity? When automobiles replaced carriages what did carriage-makers do? Maybe some went into the auto parts business. Gas stations.

Me with my first model T and pith helmet…

Remember desktop publishing? In the eighties I knew highly skilled typesetters well because I freelanced for Uppercase Type, wrote their newsletter (which they set and distributed). It was like a blog in type. “Journalism” from my journal. People liked it.

Uppercase thought about dropping it to save money and asked if anyone minded; they did mind in large numbers, so it was continued. Right up to going out of business. Skilled typesetters were no longer needed. Change comes. The sun always rises.

I continued writing for a living. Maybe I will continue even if AI “takes over.” As it has in a lot of instances. Other writers and I should be asking “Where’s the opportunity here?” Am I a carriage-maker in a Model-T era? Change comes with opportunities. One just has to figure them out.

Don’t blame change—it’s inexorable.

Here’s a short interesting Seth’s Blog on that subject. Job Churn. (Link) Change always comes, always has. As has opportunity. And another short one titled Brittle Systems on the same subject: Change. (Link) 

 

 

Casual, cool bubbles, Dino sings.

The visual is static, so click this Link for a restful retro two minutes. My favorite Dino story is when his wife would get fed up with one of the Martin kids’ antics, she’d send him/her (one of eight children) into Dean’s study for punishment. They’d drag their feet, head down (“No, not that, anything but that!”) and enter the sacrosanct study after knocking.

Martin would tell them to sit down while he finished some calls.

The kid would get a Coke out of the office fridge and relax with a magazine. After awhile, dad Martin would look up, say “You can go.” The kid would leave, drag back past mom Martin, wiping fake tears. “Well?” mom would say. Kid would say, “It was awful. I learned my lesson.” (This bubble was burst on nationwide TV)

  That’s it.

What’s yellow and comes in bunches? School buses. Happy September! XXOOX G-man.

(If you know anyone who might like to cruise this free thing, recommend it to them; www.wisesculpture.com/blog and thanks!)

Going long is for Mahomes. Sorry I got carried away again. Stop me before I write more…