As we ticked over from 2019 to 2020, one of the hottest topics in the drinks industry was what the years trends would be.

Now, as we reach mid-2020, its likely that predicted trends have faced unexpected challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic, perhaps not achieving results forecasted before the virus exploded across the world.

Knowing this, Wine Intelligence has reissued their Global Trends in Wine 2020 report, in an updated document with insights and commentary about how each trend is likely to be impacted by Coronavirus in the short and medium term.

In a new introduction to the report, Lulie Halstead, Wine Intelligence Co-founder and CEO, said: Back in January, we reported that the key themes in global trends in wine for 2020 revolved around The Four Rs: Relationship, Retail, Repertoire and Responsibility. In our new environment, we believe these mega trends are as valid as they were in the pre-coronavirus world. However, the way in which these trends present themselves in the current context, and the path of their evolution through the remainder of this year and beyond, has undoubtedly changed.

Some of the most notable trends for retailers are below, but the full report has also now been made free to access on the Wine Intelligence website (normally worth upwards of $2,000). You can download that in full here.

The first R is home to the trends of rising involvement with reducing knowledge, and increasing visual impact.

Before COVID-19, the first relationship trend points to consumers becoming more involved with wine, but reducing their technical wine knowledge. This was largely credited to how we increasingly rely on external measures, like smartphones, to retain and recall knowledge for us, rather than relying on our own cognitive measures. However, Wine Intelligence has predicted that both wine involvement and knowledge may increase now thanks to the pandemic and how it has shifted our daily lives and habits.

The report noted: We anticipate that as a result of the enforced shift in wine purchasing away from the on- premise, some to retail stores, but most to online, objective wine knowledge may in fact increase. Having to pre-populate search terms and having more time and opportunity to read online reviews and commentary will enrich knowledge levels. Overall, involvement may also rise because consumers will have time to explore.

Meanwhile, the second relationship trend relates to the visual impact of a wine bottle, and how consumers will increasingly use this to make purchasing decisions. This is set to be unaffected by the pandemic, and the report said: The attractiveness and appropriateness of the bottle and label design will carry on growing in importance in 2020 and beyond.

The second R has three trends: maturing consumers, growing on-premise opportunity and premiumisation.

The maturing consumer trend refers to the relevance that the over 55 demographic has on the world of wine. In a globally ageing population, the cohort is the largest consumer group of wine, albeit with less confidence than younger generations. the significance of the maturing consumer is predicted to continue through 2020 despite COVID-19 affecting older generations more than younger.

Wine Intelligence said: The wine drinking population will continue to mature, with these drinkers remaining more wine experienced and knowledgeable due to the number of years they have spent engaging with wine.

In terms of the on-premise trend, in January Wine Intelligence described how higher priced and special occasion wines are more likely to be consumed in venues to help boost experiences. Of course, with the shut down of so many on-premise markets across the world, this has been re-forecast on the medium and long term, to suggest at-home consumption of wine will be boosted instead.

The ongoing premiumisation trend was set to continue in wine this year, as more consumers looked for options to help them drink less but better. But with the extreme economic shock that the pandemic has caused, value for money options have overtaken this trend, at least in the short term, with the report noting: We may have seen the end of the premiumisation trend for now.

The third R discusses the trends of switching out of wine, shifting wine choices, and universal rose.

Consumers that are part of the switching out of wine trend are contributing to the growing number of drinkers that are no longer defined by the one category they frequent. Instead, Wine Intelligence predicted a drop in regular and frequent wine drinkers, as they switch out to other alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverage categories. This is unlikely to be impacted by COVID-19.

The millennial demographic is largely driving the shifting wine choices trend, with predictions centring around the growing number of consumers expanding their repertoire to a larger number of grape varietals from a smaller number of origin countries. The new report predicts this will continue, however with consumers now choosing more local products, or opting to support nations that have displayed actions that align with their personal values throughout the pandemic.

We anticipate a renewed focus on domestic and local wine in wine producing countries, reflecting national populations becoming more inwardly-focused and protective. This will also reflect consumers agendas to support their local businesses at a time of economic crisis. Potentially, there could be a consumer backlash against certain countries and regions, depending on how the pandemic is managed, the report said.

The ever-growing popularity of pink has seen rose predicted to trend again in 2020. Even with the pandemic, this is set to continue, especially as the Northern Hemisphere moves into summer, which is likely to boost demand.

The final R area of Wine Intelligences report contains the trends of moderation and rising ethical engagement.

Low and no products have experienced boosts in sales through the moderation trend and that was predicted to continue in 2020 before COVID-19 struck. However, as the updated report notes, Evidence indicates that abstinence does not typically occur during times of crisis and if anything, consumption of alcohol can increase.

However, early findings describe how consumers are also moderating but drinking more, choosing lower ABV products but perhaps consuming more of them. In any case, the moderation trend has been predicted to be on hold for the short term as more people are confined to their homes with changed lifestyles.

The final trend that was set to see big results in 2020 was rising ethical engagement from an increase in consumers looking for brands and products that align with their values. Areas of particular note were sustainability and health causing boosted popularity for organic and other alternative wine types, especially in younger demographics that are more willing to invest in conscious consumption practice.

This has already been a trend that has been impacted by Coronavirus in other markets, for example in many venues no longer accepting reusable coffee cups. Wine Intelligence says there is potential for wine to go either way in this trend.

During times of crisis, benefits which can be seen as desirable rather than fundamental are typically the first to be abandoned. This may be the case for sustainable wines, particularly as they are often more expensive than their regular counterparts. [When this is over] purse strings will tighten and may reduce the attraction of sustainable and alternative wines. Conversely, we can also expect a heightened focus on collective responsibility, leading to support for sustainable products, Wine Intelligence explained.

The full revised report goes into more detail about the data points of these trends on a country specific level and can be downloaded here.

Original post:
Global wine trends react to Coronavirus - The Shout

Posted on May 22, 2020 in Science

Bow, Humans: Trillions of Cicadas Are Going to Rule America, As humans remain stuck inside or socially distanced, trillions of buzzing cicadas will burst out of the ground across the U.S. between now and summer 2021. Its already starting, reports Motherboard Science.

The Secret History of the Supernova at the Bottom of the SeaHow a star explosion may have shaped life on Earth.reports Julia Rosen for Nautil.us.

Consciousness is Like Spacetime Before Einsteins Relativity The question that has intrigued several of the planets great physicists, including Stanfords Andre Linde and Princetons John Archibald Wheeler in the last decades of his life, was: are life and mind irrelevant to the structure of the universe, or are they central to it? Are we living in a participatory, conscious universe, a cosmos in which all of us are embedded as co-creators, replacing the a purely materialistic universe as out there separate from us.

The ground is softening. Something is shifting in Antarcticas McMurdo Dry Valleys, reports Massive Science,The first water measurements here were taken in 1903. Long-term monitoring since then tells the tale of an abrupt ecosystem shift.

COVID-19: What the Autopsies Reveal-Pathologists are starting to get a closer look at the damage that COVID-19 does to the body by carefully examining the internal organs of people who have died from the novel coronavirus, reports Scientific American.

The Carouser and the Great Astronomer -Its a fine line between oblivion and immortality, reports Nautil.us. What had brought Frederik and Johannes to Prague was the arrival there the year previously of Frederiks third cousin Tycho, a 54-year-old bear of a man with an artificial nose made of gold and silverhis fleshly one had been sliced off in a duel. At the age of 30, in 1576, Tycho Brahe had established the most advanced astronomical observatory in the world, Uraniborg, on the Danish island of Hveen, of which he was Lord.

The giant tectonic plate under the Indian Ocean is going through a rocky breakup with itself.In a short time (geologically speaking) this plate will split in two, a new study finds.

Graduate Student Solves Decades-Old Conway Knot Problem. It took Lisa Piccirillo less than a week to answer a long-standing question about a strange knot discovered over half a century ago by the legendary John Conway, reports Quanta. I didnt allow myself to work on it during the day, she said, because I didnt consider it to be real math. I thought it was, like, my homework.

Will Hot Weather Kill the Coronavirus Where You Live? Asks The New York Times.The forecast from researchers is grim: Warm weather alone will not control the virus in America or abroad. Here are the results for the United States, showing weather on its own cannot meaningfully reduce infections to the rate of 1 new case per every infected person, the point by which the number of infections falls continuously.

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish Water Worlds Like Earth May Not Be Best Bet for Life

The Last Place on Earth Wed Ever Expect to Find LifeMicrobes are turning up deep beneath the ocean floor, a sign that life might have fewer limits than scientists once thought, reports The Atlantic.

Egg Laying or Live Birth: How Evolution Chooses A lizard that both lays eggs and gives birth to live young is helping scientists understand how and why these forms of reproduction evolved, reports Quanta.

The Fed chief warned of a whole new level of uncertainty as financial pain deepens, reports The New York Times. Mr. Powell said the nations economy was in a downturn without modern precedent.

The U.S. Is Getting Shorter, as Mapmakers Race to Keep Up, reports The New York Times. Scientists are hard at work recalibrating where and how the nation physically sits on the planet. Its not shrinkage its height modernization.

Could science actually make Game of Thrones happen? Sometimes! reports Farah Qaiser for Massive Science,Fire, Ice and Physics breaks down the science behind Game Of Thrones, including beheadings, White Walkers and wildfire.

Read more:
Planet Earth Report The Supernova at the Bottom of the Sea to What Covid-19 Autopsies Reveal - The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel

DGAP-News: Gigaset AG / Key word(s): Quarterly / Interim Statement 28.05.2020 / 09:22 The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

Press release Munich, May 28, 2020

Gigaset AG publishes report on the first quarter of 2020 Europe-wide lockdown weighs on revenue and earnings

Gigaset AG (ISIN: DE0005156004), an internationally operating company in the area of communications technology, today published its report for the first quarter of 2020. Its key revenue and earnings figures were negatively impacted by the measures to combat the coronavirus pandemic that were initiated in March. The considerable restrictions on public life imposed by governments in Europe were felt in full force by brick-and-mortar retailing, causing a slump in sales and revenue.

The company posted total revenue of 32.4 million (Q1 2019: 45.8 million) and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of minus 7.4 million (Q1 2019: minus 1.9 million) in the first quarter of 2020.

"Like many other companies worldwide, we have also been hit by the coronavirus pandemic," says Klaus Weing, CEO of Gigaset AG. "In particular, the Smartphones and Phones business segments suffered in the first quarter. Nevertheless, we believe we are still well-positioned moving ahead once the crisis ends. The Smart Home segment is also performing positively in the current crisis thanks to our new technology partnership. We still see great potential in B2B business, and the assumption that the coronavirus pandemic will accelerate digitization in private and professional life bodes well for the company's future."

Performance by business segments From the operational perspective, the company is divided into the four business segments Phones, Smartphones, Smart Home and Professional.

Revenue in the Phones segment was still at the budgeted level up to mid-March of fiscal 2020, despite the fact that the market environment remained challenging. Since March it has been impacted negatively by the measures initiated to combat the coronavirus pandemic. Sales and revenue fell sharply as a result of the massive curtailments in public life and store closures. Phones generated total revenue of 25.3 million (Q1 2019: 33.0 million).

The Smartphones business segment was hit particularly hard by the measures to contain coronavirus in all sales markets. The measures resulted in distributors returning devices and so negative quarterly revenue of minus 3.7 million (Q1 2019: 1.8 million).

The coronavirus pandemic also affected the Professional business segment: Enterprises deferred projects and orders and so revenue declined by 7.7% to 9.6 million (Q1 2019: 10.4 million).

However, business with Smart Home products was very satisfactory, with revenue in that segment doubling to 1.2 million (Q1 2019: 0.6 million). This increase was attributable to the launch of a strategic partnership with a leading European telecommunications company.

"The coronavirus pandemic is hitting Gigaset, as well as hundreds of thousands of businesses and millions of people worldwide, hard," says Thomas Schuchardt, CFO of Gigaset AG. "However, because we have been extremely cost-conscious in running Gigaset for a long time, we took prompt measures to cut costs further and achieve additional savings and implemented them with the necessary resolve and focus. These measures are already reaping initial rewards and will help us withstand the crisis."

Outlook for 2020 In view of the direct effects of the coronavirus pandemic, as well as Gigaset's dependence on external factors outside its control, in other words, decisions by governments to impose lockdowns and close businesses and borders, as well as the duration and further evolution of the pandemic itself -, the company will not issue a detailed guidance for 2020, since a reliable forecast is not possible given the unique nature of the current situation. However, Gigaset expects its relevant key figures to fall year on year as a result of the crisis.

The complete report on the first quarter of 2020 can be downloaded here.

Gigaset AG is an internationally operating holding company in the field of telecommunications. The wholly-owned subsidiary Gigaset Communications GmbH is Europe's market leader in DECT cordless telephones and is also a leader in the international arena, with around 900 employees and sales activities in around 50 countries. Gigaset Communications GmbH's business activities also include the segments Smartphones, Smart Home and business telephony solutions for small, medium-sized and enterprise customers.

Follow us on: Corporate Blog | Xing | LinkedIn Visit our homepage: http://www.gigaset.ag

28.05.2020 Dissemination of a Corporate News, transmitted by DGAP - a service of EQS Group AG. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

The DGAP Distribution Services include Regulatory Announcements, Financial/Corporate News and Press Releases. Archive at http://www.dgap.de

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Gigaset AG publishes report on the first quarter of 2020 - Yahoo Sport UK

In todays NBA, the best offenses weaponize the threat of the 3-point shot to spread the floor; the best defenses scheme ways for long, smart ber-athletes to erase that space; and the best players tilt that spatial battle in their teams favor. But todays players arent the only ones with the right skills to tick those boxes; plenty of their predecessors could, too.

In fact, some of them might have translated even better to todays leagueand might have been even more enjoyable to watch in the 2020 NBA than they were in their heyday. I decided it might be cool to write about some of these players.

This is not intended to be a definitive, inarguable list, or a scientifically rigorous exercise. There will be some statistical cherry-picking, because cherries are delicious, and there will be some decisions made purely on aesthetics, because we hold it as true that things that look dope should be prioritized. Weve gone position by position over the past few weeks, aiming to pass some of our seemingly endless downtime by remembering some kick-ass players in a fun thought experiment.

Weve already covered point guard, shooting guard, small forward, and power forward. Last, but certainly not least, for the Time Machine All-Stars: the men in the middle.

Chances are, Chris Ballard wrote in his excellent book The Art of a Beautiful Game, the mobile big man and sweet-shooting 7-footer could have emerged at an earlier time in the games history if players had been given the opportunity. Well, friends: Let us, one last time, use our collective powers of imagination to grant that opportunity.

Career (1,045 games, 1959-73): 30.1 points, 22.9 rebounds, 4.4 assists per game, 54.0% FG, 51.1% FT

No player from the past feels harder to wrap your mind around than Chamberlain. The statistical record is just unfathomable: 37.6 points and 27 rebounds per game as a rookie; 50.4 points in 48.5 minutes per game in 1961-62, headlined by the 100-point performance that still stands as the highest-scoring game in history; the most 40- and 50-point games ever, as well as the longest streaks of 20-, 30-, 40-, and 50-point games; basically every major rebounding mark in existence; etc. Its like you went through MyCareer in NBA 2K and decided to never let any teammates rack up a single box score statisticonly it actually happened in real life, and it went on for about a decade and a half.

Chamberlains monstrous numbers would surely come down in a modern context, if for no other reason than he wouldnt have as many chances to pile them up. During his 14 seasons, according to Basketball-Reference.com, the leagues average pace never dipped below 110 possessions per 48 minutes of game time; thats a full 10 possessions per 48 faster than this past season. Fewer possessions means fewer shots, rebounds, assists, and block opportunities to go around. Combine that with what would assuredly be a significantly curtailed workload in the age of load managementWilt averaged an absurd 45.8 minutes per game for his careerand youll get fewer mythological stat lines.

Its not like adjusting for pace and contemporary minutes management would make Wilt just another dude, though. This would still play:

At 7-foot-1 with a reported 7-foot-8 wingspan and 9-foot-6 standing reach, having starred at both 250 pounds as a lithe rookie and a muscular 300-plus pounds during his latter years with the Lakers, Chamberlain had more than enough size, length, and strength to challenge even the burliest modern bigs. He wasnt just a lumbering giant, either: Chamberlain could sky to block shots and snare rebounds, and sprint the length of the court to fill the lane on the break. Like all massive 5s, hed have to prove capable of defending in space and handling jitterbug guards on switches in the pick-and-roll. But a modern Wilt would profile, at minimum, as a mammoth rim protector and interior deterrent; think a thicker Rudy Gobert (a close analogue in terms of measurables) with a collegiate high jumpers hops.

The other end would be even more interesting. Chamberlain essentially wrote the scoring record books of his era, using his physical dominance to overpower nearly every opponent he faced. (Nearly.) He was such a force down low that the NBA literally changed the rules, and the width of the lane, to mitigate his influence. In todays game, though, with post-up play largely marginalized as teams look to work from the perimeter and attack defenses in space, would Chamberlain still be a high-volume source of offense?

Its possible. Today, a prep prospect with Chamberlains physical attributes and skill would probably be given the green light to create at an early age, sanding off some of the rough edges in his ball handling and footwork. In addition to the brawn he used to bulldoze his way to the basket, Chamberlain also flashed a soft touch on non-flush finishes, and was an early adopter of the fadeaway jumper that would become part of the repertoire of so many great low-post scorers in future generations:

And while theres some dispute about just how valuable his passing was to his teams offensive performance, Chamberlain could facilitate with his back to the basket, finishing second in the league in assists in the 1967-68 season and turning in what remain the two highest assist-per-game averages of any center in league history:

Context matters in a players development. Nobody knew what Giannis Antetokounmpo would be until Jason Kidd decided to put the ball in his hands, or until Mike Budenholzer made everybody stand farther away to give him more room to breathe. Give a young Wilt a steady diet of reps as a creator in the half court and more space to work with, and who knows what alternate pathways to dominance might open?

Its also worth noting what led to the blossoming of Wilts playmaking in the late 60s: He reportedly wanted to dispel the notion that he was a selfish player. Chamberlain experienced fabulous success playing one way, fielded criticism from fans and pundits over it, and then just decided to play an entirely different way to prove a point. That reaction underlines another reason Id love to see him now: Hed be an unbelievably alluring subject for modern media coveragea larger-than-life character whose outsize public figure would be rivaled only by his raw-nerve sensitivity. As Lakers teammate and fellow Hall of Famer Jerry West put it in his autobiography, West by West: Wilt was very self-conscious about his size and strength and he was reluctant to be viewed as a villain. He wanted to be loved more than anything else, and yet he was convinced that nobody loves Goliath.

Even if we set aside his infamous bedroom claimswhich, of course, we most certainly would notWilt still would be an object of unbridled fascination today. Here was a man who once claimed to have bested a mountain lion in single combat. Decades before Shaquille ONeal ripped mics with Fu-Schnickens, the Dipper was out here crooning, dog. After years of trying and failing to conquer his free throw shooting demons, Chamberlain found success with underhand, granny-style shootinghe went 28-for-32 from the line that way in his 100-point gameonly to give it up because he felt like a sissy. He wanted to be cool, tall, vulnerable, and luscious, and he couldnt hide it. When youre that big, you cant hide much.

Given his love for the spotlight, his polarizing on- and off-court presence, and his sensitivity to blowback, how would a figure as towering as Wilt Chamberlain play in the social media era? The mind reels at all the possibilitiesand at all the vitriol his burner accounts might unleash.

Career (1,238 games, 1984-2002): 21.8 points, 11.1 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 1.7 steals, 3.1 blocks per game, 51.2% FG, 20.2% 3FG, 71.2% FT

In the book Basketball: A Love Story, Olajuwon describes the first time he saw an NBA game. He was already in America, having come over from Nigeria to enroll at the University of Houston, and he went to a Rockets game. He went home elatednot because of all the skill, pageantry, and aerial artistry he just witnessed, but because even as an undergraduate just barely getting his feet wet in the game, he wasnt too impressed with the future competition.

I see people, they drive to the basket, I say, I must be missing something. How come that shot isnt blocked? he recalled. I see opportunities that should be rejected, but it scores. The next day, the reporters ask me, You were at the Rockets game, what do you think? I told them, I think I could block four shots I saw.

He was right then; he blocked four or more shots four times in his first six NBA games, led the league in blocks three times, and still tops the all-time leaderboard in swats nearly 20 years after his retirement. Needless to say, Hakeem could hang. I think hed do just fine now, too.

Hakeem likely couldve become a passable 3-point shooter with enough commitment. Olajuwon had an excellent midrange game, with incredible touch on those turnarounds and fadeaways out of the block, and shot a crisp 50 percent between 16 feet and the arc during the 1998-99 season, his final healthy run before the wheels started to come off. Even if a contemporary Dream never stretched all the way out, though, we already know the best way to unleash him as a menace in a modern offense. You just do what Rudy Tomjanovich and Co. did in 1994 and 95: Surround him with shooters in a four-out set, and watch as he kicked the ball out of double-teams to open cutters and perimeter marksmen, or used that absolutely lethal face-up game to decimate overmatched defenders.

Like, for instance, David Robinson.

(For what its worth: Robinson would be a worthwhile choice for this exercise, too. Dude was a chiseled-from-granite gazelle with rocket boosters in his heels, a legit Defensive Player of the Year who could fit into any style or tempo. This does not change the fact that, shortly after he won MVP honors, Dream summarily digested him.)

Olajuwons fluidity, length, and quickness would flourish in an era when a big mans defensive value is predicated on being able to both protect the rim and guard in space. In his prime, Hakeem seemed capable of covering half the court by himself, assessing threats and snuffing them out with unnerving efficiency. He was disruptive as hell, registering a block on more than 5 percent of his opponents 2-point tries and logging a steal on more than 2 percent of their offensive possessions; only six other players who have played at least 5,000 career minutes have done both. One of them was fellow Time Machine All-Star Andrei Kirilenko, who was also one of just two players in NBA history with multiple 5x5 gamesat least five points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocksto his credit. The other? You guessed it: The one who turned the 1984 draft into prom night.

Something about Hakeems game always seemed to bridge eras; sure, he was a rim-rocking dunker and an aggressive shot-swatter, like centers of the past, but damn, since when did 7-foot, 250-pounders move and shake like that? He embodied the best of the positions present while hinting at an even brighter future. Drop him into todays league, and the bet here is that he wouldnt miss a stepand, in fact, he might have even picked up his pace of production.

And now, we move from Hakeem to the man he once nearly played one-on-one for $1 million put up by Taco Bell in an event promoted by Donald Trump, in what sounds like a stirring round of Some Bullshit Mad Libs but is actually a thing that almost happened:

Career (1,207 games, 1992-2011): 23.7 points, 10.9 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 0.6 steals, 2.3 blocks per game, 58.2% FG, 4.5% 3FG, 52.7% FT

If were going to wonder how Wilt Chamberlain would look in the 2020 NBA, we must also consider what the present might hold for Wilt Chamberneezy.

When I think of Shaqs playing days, I immediately flash to the version that dominated in Los Angeles in the late 90s and early aughts. You remember him: the irresistible force who tipped the scales after adding all that bulk to withstand the legions of Hack-a-Shaq implementers, the immovable object whom noted giant Yao Ming described in 2003 as like a meat wall, and the mountainous MVP who Juggernauted his way through the league to the tune of 27-and-12 on 57.5 percent shooting for a smooth eight years.

But when I think about the prospect of Shaq playing nowwith more long and skilled big men to line up against, and fewer fellow kaiju roaming the painted area to batter him every time he catches the ballI wonder whether a Shaq who came along in 2020 might have been better served staying down around the 290 pounds of his salad days for a little longer. That would be pretty rad, because Orlando Shaq could fuckin move, man:

Maintaining that staggering combination of power and quickness would be critical for a modern-day ONeal. He would need to stay trim and explosive enough to cover a ton of ground, because you can bet that every modern offense would make it Job No. 1 to play a stretch-5 against him to try to draw him out of the middle and keep him from walling off the paint, or run dozens of pick-and-rolls aimed at getting him switched onto guards and forcing him to defend in space. Whether he could stay nimble enough to meet that kind of challenge would go a long way toward determining how effective hed beand how much damage he could do on the other end. We got a brief glimpse at something like that about a decade agolest we forget, Shaq averaged 18-and-8 alongside Steve Nash for the Slightly Longer Than Seven Seconds Suns in 2008-09but by then, he was 36 and heavier, with more than 45,000 regular and postseason minutes on his body. How would the fresh-out-of-the-box version look?

It seems more likely that ONeal would still need to do the lions share of his damage within arms reach rather than suddenly developing a feathery touch from 23 feet. Hed need to be as adept as ever at bursting past defenders with one-dribble power moves, spinning away from them to elevate for alley-oops, and rim-running in transition. Inspired by rule changes that allowed for zone defenses, easier double-teams, and more effective swarms of players holding the ball in the post, the game has moved away from just dumping the ball down to your big man on the block and letting him cook.

Outside of a select few scorers who still get a bunch of low-block touches, like Joel Embiid or LaMarcus Aldridge, post-ups these days are more often a vehicle for creating catch-and-shoot 3s, or a way to attack mismatches when defenses switch themselves into a mouse in the house situation, than a main feature of an attack. While the Shaq we know bemoans the disappearance of dominant back-to-the-basket bigs, the 2020 model would need to be capable of getting his points in other ways in a league where post-ups have largely been excised from the playbook altogether.

In fairness, though, ONeal absolutely could be the sort of force worthy of a steady diet of post entries. In an ESPN feature published earlier this year about the evolution of NBA big men, Rockets general manager Daryl Morey said that if his notorious envelope-pushing team had ONeal on the roster, I would give him the ball 1,000 times, is my guess. Once he got it, keeping him from getting to the rimand from putting his man inside itwould be an awfully tall order, and would likely result in even more trips to the line for someone who averaged nearly 10 attempts per 36 minutes for his career. That could work against ONeal, who famously struggled from the stripe, shooting just 52.7 percent for his career; but a half-decade after the institution of new rules aimed at reducing intentional fouling to improve game flow, it might not be quite as big an issue as you might think.

If youre wondering what it might look like, the Big Baryshnikov has a comp handy. I would actually love to play in this NBA, he told Jackie MacMullan and Kirk Goldsberry. I would bring a little bit more physicality. I would bring my length, I would bring my athleticness. So, before you say, Shaq cant play in this era today, Im already playing. My name is Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Career (470 games, 1995-2003): 12.0 points, 7.3 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 0.8 steals, 1.1 blocks per game, 50.0% FG, 32.8% 3FG, 78.6% FT

By the time Sabonis finally came to the NBA in 1995, he was already 31 years old with a pair of ruptured Achilles tendons and a litany of leg and groin injuries rendering him a pale imitation of what he once was. That might seem like a bit of an exaggeration: After all, Sabonis still starred in the States, averaging a double-double in Year 3, posting a player efficiency rating over 20 in six of his seven NBA seasons, and playing an integral role on Trail Blazers teams that went to consecutive Western Conference finals, including one that came within a hellacious fourth-quarter comeback of beating Shaq, Kobe, and the Lakers in 2000. How much better could he have been before the injuries?

Wellat the risk of disrespecting a stand-up dude for the second time in the space of one columnlets ask David Robinson, against whom Sabonis held his own when the Soviet Union nearly knocked off Team USA in the gold-medal game of the 1986 FIBA World Championship, and when the USSR did defeat the Americans in the semifinals of the 1988 Summer Olympics (despite Sabonis playing shortly after recovering from his first Achilles rupture):

Legendary big-man coach and talent evaluator Pete Newell told Sam Toperoff of The Atlantic Monthly in 1986 that he thought Sabonis could conceivably become the greatest player in the game and he would have taken the Lithuanian over Patrick Ewing in the 1985 draft if he had played for an American team. At 7-foot-3, the pre-injury Sabonis had the springs to tip-dunk all over The Admiral and swat shots from the weak side with reckless abandon, plus the touch to step out on the floor and drain NBA 3-pointers.

And the passing. My God, the passing:

As Bill Waltonwho knew a thing or two about how big men could dominate while still playing a team-first game (and whom well get to in a second!)told Grantlands Jonathan Abrams back in 2011, [Sabonis] could do everything. He had the skills of Larry Bird and Pete Maravich. He had the athleticism of Kareem, and he could shoot the 3-point shot. He could pass and run the floor, dribble. We should have carried out a plan in the early 1980s to kidnap him and bring him back right then.

Or, even better: popped him into a tricked-out DeLorean, sent him to 2020, and found out what it might look like if Kristaps Porzingis passed like White Chocolate, or if you pressed fast-forward on Nikola Jokic. (Or, for that matter, pushed the sliders all the way up on his son Domantas Sabonis, an excellent modern player and All-Star in his own right.)

People dont understand that when he was younger, Sabonis was a perimeter player and he played facing the basket, longtime NBA coach George Karl, who had gotten an up-close look at him during two stints coaching in Europe, told Abrams. He was a very athletic player. ... He could score, too, but you could run your whole offense through him, and his basketball IQ was off the charts for a 7-footer.

Maybe the most exciting thing about the idea of bringing a young Sabonis to the present day is that wed get to see what he wouldve looked like playing against elite opposition every night. Newell told The Atlantic that the one knock on Sabonis was that, because the opposition Sabonis meets inside Russia is not challenging to him, he sometimes gets lazy. ... Id like to see him in the NBA, just to see how great hed be if he were pushed to the limit all the time.

Its possible that version of Sabonis wouldnt be a generational sensation in the modern game. His old national teammate Sarunas Marciulionis emphasized in Basketball: A Love Story that Sabonis hadnt yet fully developed his face-up game, his 3-point shot, or his court vision before playing in Spain following the 88 Olympics, so a younger model wouldnt necessarily have resembled a more explosive version of the finished product. Even so, the collection of skills at that size, with that flair, and with the athleticism to play like a point guard at 7-foot-3 would be intoxicating to watch nowa perfect fit for where the center position is, and where it could go from here.

Career (468 games, 1974-87): 13.3 points, 10.5 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 2.2 blocks per game, 52.1% FG, 66.0% FT

It feels kind of hard to divorce Walton from the era in which he playedfollowing the Grateful Dead to protesting the Vietnam War to rolling with radical activists associated with the Symbionese Liberation Army. (As Jackie MacMullan wrote in When the Game Was Ours, Waltons one regret was that he never made Nixons enemies list.) Some things about Big Red, though, would translate perfectly to the modern game. For one: Decades before Shut up and dribble became a sociopolitical flashpoint, Walton was telling The New York Times In this society, they dont expect an athlete to speak for himself or to be able to lead his own life. The only thing Im supposed to know is how to put the ball through the hoop. Everything else is said for me or explained to me, right? Seems like our man Bill wouldve made for an interesting podcast guest!

Years before the Kevin Garnetts and Kevin Durants of the world began lying about their heights to make themselves seem smaller, Walton was reported to be 7-foot-2 but listed as 6-foot-11 [because] he didnt like the stigma of being a 7-footer. Walton didnt want to be chained to the block and forced into the same old dump it down and drop step monotony; he wanted to be free to explore the outer limits of both his skills and those of his teammates. (OK, I agree: That was a very Bill Waltonass thing to say.) He acted as a half-court offensive hub from the elbows and out of the post; as the last line of defense on the other end, he was an ace shot-blocker and defensive rebounder who looked for every opportunity to trigger a fast break and an easy bucket within the flow of the game.

In The Breaks of the Gamean all-time great sports book not about the triumphs of the 1976-77 Trail Blazers team that Walton led to a championship, but rather about how things fell apart, for Walton and for the organizationthe great David Halberstam described a truly great basketball player as not necessarily someone who scored a lot of points; a truly great basketball player is someone of exceptional talent and self-discipline who could make his teammates better. Basketball was a sport where under optimal conditions a great player with considerable ego disciplined himself and became unselfish. (Walton had his share of ego too. In Loose Balls, Terry Plutos iconic oral history of the ABA, former ABA commissioner Mike Storen recalls that in negotiations over trying to get Walton to come to the counterculture league, Waltons representative made it clear that the two wanted Bill to be the highest-paid professional athlete in the history of mankind, and to be on a great team surrounded by a lot of talent so that the responsibility for winning and losing does not fall directly on Bill. Again: He might fit in just fine today.)

By Halberstams measure, and any other, Walton when healthy was a truly great basketball player. At issue, of course, is how rarely he was healthy. Walton had a bulging medical file before he even reached collegehe suffered multiple lower leg fractures and underwent knee surgery while still in high schooland struggled through broken bones in his spine and knee tendinitis at UCLA, resulting in another knee surgery before he joined the Blazers. Things didnt improve in Portland, as ankle and foot injuries (along with two separate broken wrists) cost him 78 games over his first two seasons.

The lower body injuries turned catastrophic late in the 1977-78 season, when Walton, already dealing with right foot pain, suffered a sprained left ankle that sidelined him for weeks. He returned for the Blazers postseason opener, but despite a pain-killing injection before Game 2, he couldnt continue past halftime; subsequent X-rays revealed a broken navicular bone. Walton, having lost all faith in Portlands medical team, demanded a trade, sat out the entire 1978-79 season when one wasnt granted, and left to sign with the San Diego Clippers. But the damage was done: Hed only play 169 games between 1979 and 1985. He played more than 70 games only once in 14 seasonsin the 1985-86 season, when he made 80 appearances as a reserve for the Celtics, winning Sixth Man of the Year on one of the greatest teams of all time.

The staggering array of injurieswhich would require some three-dozen surgical procedures over the yearscost Walton three full seasons in what should have been his prime and kept him from ever experiencing the sort of professional success for which he seemed destined while starring for John Wooden. But when he was right man, was he right:

At his peakthe 1976-77 season in which the Blazers won the title, and the 1977-78 campaign in which Portland was 50-10 when Walton broke his foot (he won MVP that year despite missing the final 22 games)Walton averaged 24.9 points, 18.3 rebounds, 5.8 assists, and 3.8 blocks per 100 possessions. A contemporary Walton would be free to act as the rising tide to lift all boats, to invert the offense and sling the ball around to the open man, and to hunt playmaking opportunities at least as often as he did his own shot. As the man himself put it in Basketball: A Love Story: Basketball is a symphony, and we could take that ball and become artists ourselves. Itd be cool to hear what kind of music hed make today.

Those are my five, but theres always room for more time travelers, so lets hit a few honorable mentions:

Vlade Divac (1989-2005): Bigs who can pass, forever and ever, amen.

Divac was pretty spry for a giant, ably running the floor to create for others or to finish plays as the trailer, and he used his length and instincts to be a disruptive defender, averaging about 3.5 stocks (steals plus blocks) per 36 minutes during his Lakers tenure. Weirdly, though, I can see the older Vlade nestling snugly into the ecosystems of good present-day teams that emphasize passing and defend smartlyoffering, say, a rough approximation of what Marc Gasol gave the Raptors last season?

I also think Steve Kerr wouldve done horrible, unspeakable things to get someone like Vlade operating in that Andrew Bogut/Anderson Varejao/David West playmaking pivot role as Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson run all those split actions, flinging passes all over the place:

I dont know. Maybe I just kind of miss perennial playoff performers who looked like theyd just smoked half a pack of Camel Wides before the start of the third.

Sam Perkins (1984-2001): Heres that protostretch-5 you ordered:

Big Smooth could shoot from deep in the first part of his careerjust ask the Bullsbut he rarely did, attempting only 352 triples during his first eight seasons and barely making a quarter of them. Once he hit the other side of 30, thoughand once he got with George Karl, Gary Payton, Shawn Kemp, and the gang in SeattlePerkins started more aggressively stretching his game out to the perimeter, becoming one of the first full-fledged floor-spacing bigs in the game. Between 1993 and 2001, he fired up 5.0 long balls per 36 minutes of floor time, and cashed them in at a cool 38.2 percent clip.

A steady vet who knows his role on defense, whos good in the locker room, and whose heart wont start racing in the postseason would make an awful lot of money sticking around these days. (Im thinking of Channing Frye, but by all means, insert your preferred end-of-the-rotation stretch big here.) But a version of Perkins who starts spreading his wings a bit earlier, when he still had the athleticism to be a problem on the offensive glass and explode for tip dunks, and even the quickness to be a threat running off of pindown screens for catch-and-shoot looks, might have been more than a role playerand maybe even quite a bit more.

Mehmet Okur (2002-12): At the risk of veering too close to the territory of scraping-the-barrel Twitter highlight videos about how this player in 2004 WAS A PROBLEM, there was absolutely a minute there where the Turkish shooter was somebody you didnt really want to see on the perimeter late in a tight game:

The 6-foot-11, 250-pound Okur was a perfect pick-and-pop partner for Deron Williams in Utaha legitimate 3-point threat who could pull opposing centers away from the paint to create more room for D-Will drives, Carlos Boozer and Paul Millsap post-ups, or whatever weird shit Andrei Kirilenko wanted to try. From 2005, when he became a full-time starter for Jerry Sloan, through 2010, when he suffered the ruptured left Achilles tendon that would effectively end his career, Okur shot 38.7 percent from 3-point range on 3.7 attempts per 36 minutes; put him alongside a pick-and-roll maestro point guard now, and hed likely double that.

In his best yearthe 2006-07 campaign, when he earned his first and only All-Star nodOkur averaged 18 points and 7.2 rebounds per game, shooting 38.4 percent from 3-point range on 4.2 attempts per game. Over the past 10 seasons, the only center to match those averages on that combination of 3-point volume and accuracy is Karl-Anthony Towns. Now, Im not saying that, if you plopped him into todays NBA, Memo would suddenly become the sort of 7-foot Steph you could build an offense around. I do think, though, that hed probably become an even more useful piece to deploy in a spread-it-out-and-bomb-away offense and that, on occasion, yes, he might even be construed as ... A Problem.

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Time Machine All-Stars: Five Centers Who Would Have Dominated 2020 - The Ringer

Joe Grushecky doesnt normally look back on his long career, preferring to focus on creating new material and performing dozens of live shows around the Northeast. But with the fortieth anniversary of Have A Good Time (But Get Out Alive), the sophomore record that paired his band, the Iron City Houserockers, with a rock royalty production team of guitar great Mick Ronson (David Bowie) Ian Hunter (Mott The Hoople) and Steven Van Zandt (Bruce Springsteen, Southside Johnny), the Pittsburgh native felt the time was right.

The noted critic Greil Marcus wrote about the Houserockers in Rolling Stone after their debut record Loves So Tough was released and said, this is hard rock with force I hope theyre around for a long time. In our conversation, Grushecky revisits the crucial follow up release Have A Good Time (But Get Out Alive), (out now as an expanded reissue on all digital platforms with a physical CD and vinyl release June 19) and discusses the bands formation, his songwriting evolution and a near disaster that almost ruined the albums completion. The reissue includes a full bonus CD of demos and rarities which flesh out the evolution of the songs from work tape to final release.

The title track is a tough, in your face declaration of words to live by. Pumping Iron chronicles the daily life of a hard-working steel-driving man ready for a weekend of good times, complete with a sing-along, fist-in-the-air chorus. Old Mans Bar and Juniors Bar work as a two-sides of the coin observation of life inside the watering hole, where some come to forget, and others look for action.

Steve Popovich, founder of Cleveland International, a small indie label, took notice of the Houserockers gritty, anthemic songs, solid work ethic and loyal fan base and scored the band a deal with MCA Records, leading to their debut Loves So Tough in 1979. Cleveland had recently hit it big with Meatloafs certified platinum album 1977 Bat Out of Hell, noted for its big musical arrangements and Springsteen-like novellas (the record even featured Springsteen members Max Weinberg and Roy Bittan). Popovich had also signed New Jerseys Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, who bought out several critically acclaimed records and were noted for the gritty, horn-driven soul-inspired music coupled with raucous and celebratory live shows.

Have A Good Time (But Get Out Alive) is a forgotten gem of a record, a time capsule of frenetic 80s energy and lyrics about home that hit home, performed by the toughest, tightest band from the work hard, play hard working-class streets of Pittsburgh.

How important were rock critics to a band when your debut was released in 1979?

I can remember going into the music store and someone said, hey have you seen Rolling Stone? Greil Marcus, the dean of rock critics, gave us a good review and that started the ball rolling. That was a couple months after the first record came out. We put it out with very little fanfare. It wasnt a highly anticipated debut! Greil was an important guy and it snowballed after that, especially when this Have A Good Time record was released.

Do you know how he found out about the band?

Im guessing it was the record company, Cleveland International and owner Steve Popovich. We had zero to do with it as far as I know. This was back in the heyday of the late 70s when there were big promo staffs in these big buildings at the labels in New York.

What made you pick each player for your band?

Art Nardini and I had known each other for years. We played together in high school and had a couple bands in college too. We played frat parties and bars. I was playing in an after-hours place in the South Side district of Pittsburgh, from 2 to 5 am after the bars closed. It was a steady once a month gig. Art came in one night and asked if I wanted to get a band together again. I told him not if were only going to do covers. He knew I was a writer and I said if he wanted to make a record, that would work.

In 1976 I moved downtown into the city. I had a blues-y type band with a guitar player, Gary Scalese, so we brought him in. Slowly, we added the rest of the band. We werent looking for the cream of the crop. We wanted people that were dedicated and wanted to do what we did. We rehearsed almost every night for the better part of a year and then started playing out. But we werent a very successful club band. We were a terrible cover band. You had to play four sets a night- 40 on, 20 off. We found a bar, the Gazebo, that wasnt doing too well and would let us play whatever we wanted. We would do one set of covers like the Stones, J. Geils and some blues, and then play originals. Pretty soon we were packing them up. But the club closed up! So, we found another place called the Decade in Oakland, the college district, and soon we were packing them in there twice a week. We were rehearsing, writing originals and doing demos during this time.

We had a good New Jersey connection because Steve Popovich from Cleveland International Records had signed Southside Johnny and had success with Ronnie Spectors cover of Say Goodbye To Hollywood, which featured the E Street Band. I used to buy Billboard every week to see what was going on in the music biz and saw their name. I sent Steve a demo tape and he invited me to Cleveland. There was a party there with Ronnie, Boz Scaggs. Steve gave us money to make a demo tape. I always tell people he sent us back to Pittsburgh with a pocket full of hope.

He signed us and it took about a year and a half to get everything going and put the debut record out through MCA. And, of course, it came out at the worst time. In 1979 the music industry was in flux because there was a massive gas shortage. It was hard to travel. The record came out in April and by October I ended up in the hospital for about a month. I had a tumor in my throat pressing up against my vocal cords, which ended up being benign. By the time I recovered, MCA and Popovich had gotten us all this great press and we were going to do another album very quickly. We had demos and went to New York in February and did a week of rehearsals and a week of basic tracking and then vocals.

Where were the demos on the reissues bonus disc recorded?

Those were recorded in Pittsburgh. We recorded in a studio. The tapes I had left in my possession were all cassettes and reel to reels. I had those for years which is what prompted me to include them on this reissue. They were sitting in boxes since I save everything, and we transferred to digital at Nada Recording.

How was the band received when you toured?

We were a smoking band. We played a lot. We played in New Jersey too. We toured with Ian Hunter. We played the Fastlane in Asbury Park and the Stanhope House, Bottom Line, Boston, DC, Chicago, Cleveland, Erie, PA

Youre looped into the heartland rock genre, which is primarily Midwest bands. But did you do well in that area?

No! (laughs) We never went to the heartland. Its weird. Ohio is so close to me and its classic Midwest, but we always considered ourselves a Northeastern band. Our music was a little more R&B, harder-edged, bluesy, a little angrier than the Midwest bands. I think of Cheap Trick, REO Speedwagon, which was more melodic and pop. That wasnt us. Lyrically, we werent in the same ballpark as them. We were writing a little more socially conscious, maybe to our detriment.

What makes Pittsburgh such a tough town?

Well, it was the steel mill and coal miner jobs. Theyre tough jobs. Very strong ethnic backgrounds with a strong work ethic. Its a rough and tumble town. They all went 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Its backbreaking work. They worked hard, drank hard and partied hard. Our crowd used to be so over the top wild. I can remember specifically one night getting off stage and saying have a good time but get out alive. You guys are going to kill somebody! That was the idea for the song. It came out of the culture we were in. It was the end of the Steel City era. People were starting to panic because we were in the middle of a recession and people were leaving Pittsburgh. We had 450,000 people in the city, and we lost 150,000. A lot of it was our crowd.

Thats why you see Steeler bars all over America. That was our crowd. Everybody scattered. The economy may have been good in other places, but Pittsburgh was dying.

Ian Hunter produced this record. Did that connection happen through your tours with him, or was it through Steve Popovich?

We went to record with Steve Popovich and Marty Mooney, who called themselves the Slimmer Twins. They were enthusiastic record company guys who had great ideas, but they werent musicians. They couldnt translate their ideas and take a song apart and have the vocabulary to guide somebody on how to construct a song. I think they realized that too. I think they had just put out Hunters Youre Never Alone With A Schizophrenic record and were in New York when we came in to rehearse. The first day Steve Popovich showed up at SIR Studios with Mick Ronson and said Mick was going to work with us. Then Mick showed up the next day with Steve Van Zandt. So, Steve would work with us for part of the day and go back to the Power Station and work on what became The River with Springsteen. Wed work on arrangements for about a week or so. Then we went into the studio. For the first couple days it was Steve Van Zandt with Mick Ronson. When Van Zandt left, Ian Hunter started coming more and picked a song or two where he wanted to get involved. Hypnotized is one that he produced.

Steven Van Zandt was pretty involved in shaping lyrics, wasnt he?

He was invaluable. It was like going to college. He asked me specifically about one song. He said it had really good lyrics but there with a couple of iffy lines. I said, ah theyre just a couple throwaway lines. He said, no, nothings a throwaway in a song. You gotta make every lyric count.

I understand there was an incident that almost ruined the record.

So we got together one morning and had a couple hour brunch working on lyrics. We went back to the hotel, in the middle of New York City, to finish the songs and the lyrics were gone! I was sure I had misplaced in the room or the lobby somewhere. Couldnt find them anywhere. I decided I had to go back to the restaurant a few blocks away. Im walking down one of the streets going toward Central Park. In those days, there were metal, hanging waste receptacle baskets attached to the parking meters which you could see through. I dont what made me look down, but all my lyrics were in one of the baskets! Someone must have picked them up and put them into the garbage basket! So I went back to the hotel and Steven couldnt believe it. I couldnt either! It was one thing to lose them, but then to find them. Steve said this record has to be something special because its a miracle to find the lyrics in the middle of a waste basket in New York City!

How influenced were you by New Wave and MTV, both of which were new and popular?

We were more influenced by the punk rock bands because they hated the same bands we hated! We were ten years older than the New Wave bands. We were more of the Stones and Beatles generation. Especially in Pittsburgh, where there is a great musical heritage. A lot of jazz guys came out of here. To play in our day you had to know your music. It was wide open. Everybody knew their Hank Williams, Muddy Waters, Stax, Motown. It was very rich, inviting and open to all kinds of music. At the same time, it was very hard edged. Pittsburgh had this thing with AM radio stations. About 6 pm every Friday night til midnight on Saturday all these crazy disc jockeys would come on and play the wildest most obscure, rip-roaring rock n roll and rhythm and blues music you could hear. They wouldnt touch the Beatles or Stones and even Stax was too mainstream.

You also had these teen nightclubs and they would play these obscure tracks. Spencer Davis had Gimme Some Lovin and Im a Man but the club played High Time Baby. And you could see Bo Diddley, Wilson Pickett, Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, Sam The Sham and the Pharoahs, all from five feet away. Junior Walker and the All-Stars up close and personal every weekend.

Tell us about Old Mans Bar which features your keyboard player singing lead, and the following track, Juniors Bar.

We had a goal to record a certain number of songs with basic tracks before we would start overdubs. At that time, we had about eight or ten but needed a few more. Our keyboard player Gil Snyder and our guitar player Eddie Britt and Bob Boyer our soundman concocted Old Mans Bar one evening and played it for Ronson. He loved it right away. They went for this ethnic, old guys down at the corner bar feel. That was their take on it.

Later that day, Steve Van Zandt heard it and said, lets rock it. He came up with basically the same song in a rock and roll tempo. We changed the chord sequence a little bit and Steve came up with that great opening guitar lick. He also worked up the chord change modulation from the five chord, going from B to C. It doesnt sound like it would work but it does. And its a brilliant musical move. When he left the project and I returned to NY to record final vocals and overdubs, I came up with a different set of lyrics and sang it differently than the original. I was singing about a different subject matter than Gils song so it worked as a pair. Its like a matched set, a couplet. We played it back to back like that in our live shows for many years.

Pumping Iron, from this record, is the one you still play out live.

Yeah thats the one that stuck with me through the years. Its a good song and its fun to play. Its become a signature song, an identifiable song for us Pittsburghers. Its one of my moms favorite songs too. We were playing four or five nights a week in these bars that were wild every night. We only had eight songs and we needed more rockers. And I always loved that Chuck Berry groove. That was my attempt to write one of those songs.

Your songwriting style started to refine itself and take shape with Have A Good Time.

I started writing about Pittsburgh. I found that if I tried writing about the beach in Malibu or living in a mansion with all these women, it wouldnt ring true. The songs werent even presentable. But when I started writing about what I knew about- the city I live in, my friends and the particular time period- I felt the songs were more true.

Revisiting this record has made you look back on your career hasnt it?

This is the first time in my career where Ive spent so much time looking back. Im always interested in the next record. We were recording a new record when we were shut down due to the Covid-19. Ive been reminiscing about this particular era. We have three recorded and about six or eight written.

When did Steves son, who now runs Cleveland International, decide to reissue this record?

He revived the record company last year. We became friends and started talking about reissuing the Iron City Houserockers catalog. The band was playing in New York last year and I was chatting with one of our old fans about the Loves So Tough 40th Anniversary record that had just been reissued by Cleveland. He took a look at it and said there was nothing new on it that he didnt already have. A bug went in my ear and I knew I had to be involved in any other reissue. I discussed with Steve and he was into it. I started getting the bonus tracks together and make it a much more interesting project.

Tell us about your work outside of music.

Im a special education teacher in Pittsburghs inner city and Ive been doing it on and off a long time. The community I work in has been designated one of the most violent communities in the US. I work with autistic, emotionally distressed and severely handicapped kids- the toughest population.

Were you doing that job while you worked on the Have A Good Time record?

No. At that point I was a full-time musician. I was doing it before the first record and then started doing it back again around the Swimming With The Sharks. I had about twelve years, from 1977 to 89 where I was footloose and fancy free before they put the dog collar back on!

It seems that music helps as a common bond with the types of kids you work with.

It is. Music is a universal language. I always tell people that to me its the most important and intimate art form. How many times can you watch a movie or read a book? A couple. How many times can you listen to your favorite song? Hundreds. Its different with a song. A song is immediate.

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Joe Grushecky Discusses The 40th Anniversary Deluxe Reissue Of Iron City Houserockers Critically Acclaimed Have A Good Time (But Get Out Alive) -...

The coronavirus pandemic has forced everyone to adjust.

Businesses ordered employees to work from home and legions of people have embraced online platforms to socialize, dine out and celebrate with family and friends.

Nimbleness is typically a good thing, but when it comes to Harrisburg, drastic changes in the way we do business could test the citys economic resilience.

If more businesses adopt teleworking, that could translate into fewer people in restaurants, bars and attractions. A less vibrant social scene would not just be a bummer for millennials - it would mean fewer jobs for people in the city and, ultimately, a shrinking tax base.

I literally believe that its up to us what we make out of the future, said Ron Kamionka, owner of several downtown businesses, including Sawyers, Bourbon Street and Susquehanna Ale House.

If we decide that we are just going to reopen the door and go back to the same-old, same-old, a lot of places probably wont survive. This is an opportunity to come up with new fresh ideas and create a new vibrancy for downtown that we didnt have impetus for before.

Like hundreds of other businesses in the city, Kamionkas restaurants and bars have been shuttered since Gov. Tom Wolf ordered a statewide shutdown in March amid the escalating public health crisis.

Kamionka has stepped aside as other eateries pivoted to delivery and curbside pickup trade, but he has used the lull in business to plot out a recovery strategy.

Coronavirus pandemic: full coverage

You can sit back and feel frustrated or you can figure out what you can do in the future to be able to come back, he said. I do believe we are going to get a collective push of restaurateurs to come back even better and make the downtown a better destination than it was two months ago.

The pandemic has certainly battered the Pennsylvania economy, but it could have a greater impact on the Capital City, which faced added vulnerabilities to its economic viability.

Harrisburg had only recently emerged out of a bleak financial crisis. A few years ago it teetered on the brink of bankruptcy and the crush of millions of dollars in debt.

After relinquishing its authority to the state, selling its incinerator and leasing out its parking for 40 years, the tide changed. Harrisburg began last year with a multi-million dollar surplus and even kicked off several capital improvement projects - signals that the city had turned a corner.

But its economic engine is arguably fueled by the sizable workforce that comes into the city daily - from legislators, lobbyists, state employees and private sector professionals. That 9-5 workforce, plus the after-hours and weekend tourist trade, have made the city a destination for dining, entertainment and sports.

The economic activity came to a standstill in March. Scores of businesses ordered employees to work from home and restaurants and bars shuttered doors. The impact is being felt everywhere, but perhaps nowhere as severely as among the hundreds of small businesses and restaurants that now teeter on the brink of ruin.

This is critical, said Nona Watson, director of Economic Development for Harrisburg, speaking recently during a weekly webinar with Mayor Eric Papenfuse.

The economic shutdown has hit small business owners in Harrisburg hard. Watson said many are desperate; hundreds of business owners have written to her. The narratives are near-identical: Some report sales and volume decreases of more than 65 percent. Many cant pay bills or make payroll. They have laid off or furloughed employees. Others have simply closed down.

That is something that we just don't want to see happen, Watson said. We want our businesses to know that we are working diligently. We are trying to do everything we can to stand with you. We are trying to find ways to bring in more funds, trying to connect with other potential partners to see if we can replenish funds. We already know we don't have enough money to do the things that we want to do.

Harrisburg is slated to have its partial reopening on Friday as Dauphin County and seven other counties enter the yellow phase May 29 under Gov. Tom Wolfs gradual reopening plan.

The extent to which the city clings to the adjustments made during the pandemic - the teleworking and online shopping, dining and socializing - will likely determine its ability to recover and rebound.

The coronavirus pandemic has prompted Chris Bravacos, owner of Harrisburg-based The Bravo Group, one of the state's largest public relations firms, to examine workplace issues - such as the use of space and teleworking. Mark Pynes | mpynes@pennlive.com

I still think theres a reason for a vital center that a city represents certainly with the magnet that is the Capitol and the courts, said Chris Bravacos, founder and head of Bravo Group, the largest public relations firm in the state. That will find its place. Cities that dont have some of those things certainly might face more challenges.

Bravacos shuttered his eight-story business operation on North Second Street in Harrisburg in March, and ordered employees to work from home.

Since then, Bravo Group representatives, who manage contracts with energy and utility companies, the health care sector and financial services, have pivoted to teleworking and negotiating face-to-face meetings on Slack, Zoom and Google Meet.

The adjustments have left Bravacos with much to ponder: The company has operated seamlessly outside the traditional time-space limitation. His employees will always have reasons to collaborate in person, but this period has given him an opportunity to rethink workplace models.

The answer may well be that you contemplate space differently from what you previously had arranged, Bravacos said. I don't think anybody is thinking, Gosh we never actually have to have everybody together, or that the relationship bonds that can form as part of a team could be done without at all.... I do think its epiphany for professional service organizations as to what can get done without physical space.

The strategic use of space will likely also factor in the citys social scene.

For much of central Pennsylvania, downtown Harrisburg, particularly Restaurant Row, and more recently Midtown too, are popular go-to destinations for dining, happy hour and meet-ups with friends and coworkers.

The pandemic shutdown has underscored a stark reality: We always knew people could stay home and eat and drink cheaper, Kamionka said. Now they have had an opportunity to prove it to themselves.

In the months to come, as the region emerges from social distancing guidelines, the entertainment and restaurant sectors will need to make adjustments to find a better fit in the new paradigm.

We have to compromise, Kamionka said. We are not going to flip a switch and demand that its going to be there the way it was before this pandemic. People are genuinely scared by this. We have to approach this in phases and create different opportunities for people.

Kamionka is waiting for the final approval from the City of Harrisburg and the Downtown Improvement District to his proposal: To create an outdoor dining area on Walnut Street between 2nd and 3rd streets that would be open to all restaurants. The premise being that patrons order and pay online and take set at a table where a server delivers the meal.

Kamionka said it is one way for restaurants to address post-coronavirus limitations, such as potentially being allowed only 25 percent occupancy.

There arent many large restaurants in downtown, he said. It would be tough to remain viable with that few customers. You still have rent, utilities, insurance, people to bring back. All the inherent costs. If you are limited to 25 percent occupancy, you cant make money.

Empty tables at Cork and Fork at 6:00 PM on Thursday, March 26th. Views of the Capital region during the coronavirus pandemic. March 26, 2020. Sean Simmers | ssimmers@pennlive.com

Sara Bozich, who manages a special events company and has been writing about the citys social scene for 20 years, is confident that the citys social scene will recover - although it might just look and feel different.

I think in general people are going to be more careful about why and how they gather, she said. I think they are going to be more strategic about it. Let's say we are allowed to proceed as normal, I think well see a huge spike where everyone wants to get out of the house and do something, but I think well level out and we wont see constant gatherings.

That may not be so much a function of fear of the coronavirus, but rather an evolution towards a different mode of doing things.

I think this time may encourage people to slow down a little and be more conscious about how they spend their dollars and time, Bozich said. You want to support local businesses but I want to make sure I am going to the ones that speak to me....the ones that are most valuable to me.

The calculus on Harrisburgs rebound could come down to the old adage of not appreciating what you have until its gone.

The idea of summer nights in Harrisburg without the iconic stadium lights of FNB Field lighting up City Island is poised to change the tenor of the season not only for the Harrisburg Senators but the hundreds of thousands of fans who over the years have made the games a family affair.

A blank sign for the next Harrisburg Senators baseball game on City Island hints that no one knowns when the next baseball game will be, or even if there will be a 2020 season during the coronavirus pandemic in Harrisburg, Pa. Mark Pynes | mpynes@pennlive.com

The Double-A affiliate of the MLBs Washington Nationals was set to start play April 9 before its FNB Park opener on April 16 but the season was suspended amid the pandemic.

Terry Byrom, the spokesman for the Harrisburg Senators suggested it might give the region food for thought.

With the Senators, when things go back to normal, maybe people wont take having it for granted, he said. We all take things for granted and maybe we wont take it for granted anymore.

Byrom remains upbeat that Harrisburg will embrace its baseball franchise once the city reopens.

I think once we are fairly certain that this is under control, maybe there will be a vaccine, I think people will eventually go back, Byrom said. We hear a lot about the new normal and while I dont think I can look into the future and say what that means and what we might do differently in terms of the Senators or the NBA or Hershey Bears. Its hard to say but I think people are pretty resilient and I also think people have short memories. I dont mean that in a bad way. I just think it might take a while but well get back to normal.

Ultimately, though Harrisburgs resilience will likely depend on a unified community. That doesnt just mean a concerted effort to support business, but an equal effort to support its denizens.

I believe that while the business aspect of things is most important, it is critical that we look at the human standpoint. Our citizens, Karl Singleton, president and CEO of PA Diversity Coalition, which supports minority women-owned businesses. We have to figure out a way to incorporate the needs of the community first. What are those businesses that meet the needs of the community?

He notes the ripple effect of the actions taken by large businesses in the city on smaller ones. For instance, he notes, small, minority-owned commercial custodial service companies will be impacted if larger companies reduce their physical office footprint in Harrisburg.

You are going to have a lot less buildings and a lot less contracts, Singleton said.

A man sweeps the sidewalk in front of Sawyers on an empty 2nd Street in Harrisburg on St. Patricks Day as bars and restaurants remained closed because of the coronavirus . March 17, 2020. Sean Simmers | ssimmers@pennlive.com

Hundreds of small businesses had applied for emergency relief through the Neighborhood Business Stabilization Program. The program is available to businesses that are based and licensed in the city, but the demand has been so extraordinary that Watson has encouraged all business owners in Harrisburg to apply.

Papenfuse estimates that roughly 20 percent of the citys businesses have applied for emergency relief.

Singleton noted that a substantial portion of working-class Harrisburg residents work in the health care sector. With schools and daycare shuttered, the ability of many of those people to continue to work has been compromised.

Before we start focusing too much on these quote, unquote national bailouts or focus on business only, we need to make sure there is equitable balance in assistance for businesses and assistance for consumers, Singleton said.

Read more pandemic coverage:

Making a go of it: Area restaurant owners staying open (carefully) during coronavirus

You wont have to smile for the camera to renew your Pa. drivers license. PennDOT to use old pics

Deer enjoy a walk on vacant Jersey Shore beach: watch

Will your property taxes increase? Pa. schools face potential $1 billion in lost revenue because of coronavirus

Pa. students expected to return to school in fall, ed chief says

Cumberland County barber is back at work, but says there is still a risk: You choose not to come, thats fine'

Whats allowed when child care centers reopen in Pa. counties? And when should kids wear masks?

Horses and service dogs visit residents of retirement community

See the article here:
What is the future of Harrisburg beyond the pandemic? - PennLive

The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutras community. The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.

Over their decade long run, mobile 4X strategy games, sometimes known as SLGs, have brought in billions of dollars in revenue with only more to come.

For those wanting to get in on it, the history of these games is littered with both progress and mistakes that any hopeful successor would be wise to learn from. Their history may even foretell where the next generation of these games will go, and what the secret sauce of the next big one will be. You just need to know where to look.

Where am I coming from? Over the past nine years, I've played an array of 4X strategy games at a very hardcore level. Even as a player who doesnt spend on IAPs, Ive been the #1 player, led top clans, and sold my accounts for a tidy four figures. Thats the outside perspective I bring.

The inside perspective? I was the founding developer that led a team of engineers to build one such game, and was hands on for its conception, through prototyping, launch, and beyond. I cant discuss internal numbers of course, but nothings stopping me from discussing external ones.

In the beginning, the strategy games in the appstores were quite light. Games such as Kingdoms at War succeeded in reaching the top grossing charts. These were forebearers to what I'd consider the first real 4X strategy games on mobile. They had buildings, and armies perhaps. You could fight and interact with other players, and there might've even been PvE. But there was no world map. No physical world the players resided in.

There were PC and web-games that had this to be sure, but those hadn't made the move to mobile, at least not yet.

There are far too many games in the genre for me to count let alone play to a deep enough degree. However, the seven Ill go over paint an overall picture of the genre's history over a large time span, and will give us a perspective into what's worked, what hasn't, and what's to come. Let's get to it.

[November 2010]

This was the first game I played in this space. A lesser-known title from Sega which saw some decent success for its time, making it high into the top grossing charts. It had the prerequisites. Upgradeable buildings, ten levels each. Armies, themed as trading cards. Eye candy for UA in the form of 3D PvE encounters, though players quickly found out it was just a facade for a loot box. But most importantly, it had a world map, and the emergent behaviours that it brought to the table. Already a staple in the web-based games of the genre, this was one of the early implementations of world maps on mobile. It was a great game. I played the hell out of it. Unfortunately it had a fatal flaw that limited its lifespan and doomed it. More on that to come.

City Building in Kingdom Conquest

Eye candy, which didn't do much for gameplay, but helped with user acquisition

From the very start, this genre of games had a tight, addictive NUX. Quests guide the players actions. Return notifications call players back again and again. New mechanics are introduced keeping things interesting, and giving players milestones to strive for.

Kingdom Conquest's fatal flaw however was that they structured the game based on a short, finite season structure. After battling it out for multiple months, with a winner declared, player progress was reset. Not only this, but content was naturally structured with this in mind.

As many in the industry will know, the majority of the potential revenue from users comes from the tiny proportion of spenders who decide to spend a lot: the whales. To capture this full potential however requires time. Players can play for years and years, but artificially capping their lifespan slashes the full potential of this LTV.

As can be imagined, after a season reset, only a fraction of players return with the same interest and intent to spend. Any player would temper their spending in the game once they found out that even if they "won", it'd all be gone within a few months. Maybe it was a worthwhile experiment to try at the time, but it was a severe handicap in the end.

A brief lull in the genre followed until early 2012.

[March 2012]

Here was the first mobile game in the genre that hit it big in this space. This was the mobile incarnation of what was already a Facebook success.

To the formula we had already seen in Kingdom Conquest, Kingdoms of Camelot added a few new things to the mobile mix. A distinct, though limited, research tree. Multiple player-owned cities. Simple heroes. Simple map PvE.

Building upgrades also included a minor twist, where players who wanted to fully upgrade the building to level 10 needed a premium item to do so. One which cost them premium currency, available through in app purchases.

However, despite the additional systems, the game proved to be less effective at monetization than future successors would be.

Their heroes, while a nice addition were simplistic and not fleshed out at all. Skipping the fine details about how they worked, players desired the benefits they provided, and would pay for them, but the shallow way they worked combined with the cost ceiling left a great deal of potential on the table. The limited research and useless PvE came with similar criticism. They were shallow and the game subsequently wasn't as effective at monetization as it could be.

The ability for players to own multiple cities was an interesting advent as a way to try to stretch out the content, something the web-based game also made use of. But really it wasn't necessary, as future takes on the genre would find: a single city with better-balanced building progression was cleaner, and better yet, was more conducive to monetization. Moreover, managing multiple cities was frankly tedious.

The emergent behaviours and PvP threats in the game world were also limited by a Kingdoms of Camelot-specific mechanic where players could opt to hide their troops, making them impervious to military losses. The resources in their city would be free for the taking in the meanwhile, but those were fairly easy to acquire. As a result, certain opportunities for conflict and the monetization that comes with it was lost altogether.

In an attempt to better monetize the game, part way through its lifespan the developers decided they'd allow troops to be directly purchased. Certain players loved this to be sure, and short-term revenues shot up as the ineffectively monetized players found an avenue to spend. But such an approach totally circumvented the rest of the game's content and balance. It was a tacked on lever that was completely disconnected from the rest of the game, with a high potential to break it, which it sure enough did. The game's leaderboards and community was subject to an inevitable p2w death spiral from which entire shards would never recover.

Imbalanced monetization resulting in unstable community and p2w death spiral (data from first shard)

As an aside, some of this data is available in part because of how easy it was to decompile Unity builds in the past, allowing enterprising individuals to bypass API security checks the game server had in place. One such individual used this information to build a site that periodically scraped game information, allowing players to do game-breaking things such as easily searching for player city locations on the map.

Despite its shortcomings Kingdoms of Camelot found success at the time as it stood above its rivals, and it would spin off skins such as The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle Earth.

The games that would follow it though made up for these shortcomings, with better fleshed out systems and deeper content to match. These successors would reap the benefits of far higher LTV ceilings as a result.

[July 2013]

Game of War offered a big step up. The simplistic systems of the previous generation were taken, and properly fleshed out, while weaknesses were shored up, and brand new competitive features added.

To start off, lets go over the added depth. A hero avatar was introduced, with a fleshed out skill tree and equipment to match. Both the city and research content was now much deeper, offering a deeper progression path to both strive and monetize for. And the world map was now livelier, with more to observe and engage in. Player marches were now visualized, something absent in past iterations, resources could be gathered, and PvE was actually useful and rewarding. A player seeking more strategy in their games would find it here.

On the whole, the balancing seemed to have kept a better eye on player goals, and as a result they did a better job monetizing the critical path players take in the game as they build out their city and research the top tier troops. While in previous games an engaged player could pretty reasonably complete their city and attain top troops, it now took either considerable time and effort, or more likely, money, to achieve the same. Every successful game to follow would take a similar route.

All of these advancements together made for a deeper and more engaging game, which reaped far better LTVs.

To top it off, significant end game features were added, creating sources of conflict and goals for the biggest spenders. This came in the form of Wonders, a sort of clan-pvp king of the hill, along with shard vs. shard events, commonly referred to KvK. Both made use of added rallying mechanics, enabling the joint attack and defense of clan members and structures.

Wonders and Marches as implemented in Game of War

The basic formula laid out by Game of War would be carried forward in some form in all of the genre's successors to come. A new baseline had been set.

Outside of the game, Game of War was able to fully exploit its LTV advantages with tremendous UA efforts, including its infamous Kate Upton TV spots. Many in the industry questioned how they could be acquiring users profitably with the amount of spend here, but in the end, it's undoubtable how much of the market they captured as they had a solid position on the top grossing charts for a considerable stretch of time.

As time marched on though, cracks emerged. This was marked most significantly by the way live ops constantly pushed the economy and the game's players to the breaking point. Expensive whale content was frequently refreshed, which made older content obsolete, while at the same time aggressively inflating the economy.

It's impossible to say if this might've been the right move from an LTV standpoint. Their strategy was to aggressively suck out as much money as possible from players while they were still engaged, perhaps as a way to try to recoup their UA costs as soon as possible. What is clear though is that as this became more drastic, this was the specific thing that started to drive more players away, even their most dedicated whales. An informal survey of whales placed this as a top concern. Attempts to improve LTV may have backfired in the end.

Machine Zone, the makers of Game of War, would later try to run the same playbook with games like Mobile Strike and Final Fantasy XV, but a combination of a dated engine, mismatched expectations, and perhaps a change in the market limited the success of these endeavors.

[June 2014 / August 2015]

The next major iteration on the genre came with the advent of clan-controlled territories on the map.

Games like Clash of Kings saw significant success here. Unfortunately this wasn't one of the games I chose to pick up during this period as I was deep in the game development grind. However, observing colleagues playing the game and reading up on the details it's clear it was a meaningful step forward and laid the ground for new sources of large scale organic conflict on the world map.

Here, clan members could work together to construct structures on the world map, which provided benefits and new capabilities to members within it.

Many games now have their own take on territory, and it's something that's still evolving. The game I did play during this time that tried to tackle territory in its own way was March of Empires, which saw only very limited success. Its take involved fixed territories and buildings on the map, as opposed to something more organic. Clans can take over these territories and buildings, which provide dwellers with advantages.

These different variations are perhaps a good example of some of the risks involved when exploring an untapped design space. While territory in Clash of Kings proved quite successful, the implementation in March of Empires felt lacking. It isn't sufficient to just try something new, you still have to get it right.

Regardless, territory mechanics were a meaningful advance forward, and something which various successors would continue to take up.

[February 2016]

Then came Lords Mobile.

The two most obvious steps forward were:

Casual friendly mechanic as seen in Lords Mobile..

.. with similarities to Heroes Charge and games of the like

This was built atop of what was now the standard fare of 4X features. The only major thing missing was clan territory functionality.

Beyond this, their hero system was further fleshed out to include a multitude of different heroes, each of whom could be leveled up. Some were premium heroes that could only be purchased, while others could only be attained from events. The game also benefited from a live ops team that ran a healthier economy than some of its predecessors, supporting player longevity.

From the outside I can only speculate, but considering players of these types of games can play and spend for years and years, this healthier player longevity could have resulted in a significant benefit to their LTV metrics in comparison to the short-sighted live ops mentality of the past.

Lords Mobile became a long-lived success, as evidenced by the hundreds of millions of downloads it racked up, more than any of its predecessors.

If there was any short-coming to point out, it might only be that it didn't push the fundamental gameplay forward that much. Someone who had played previous iterations wouldn't have had too much new to look forward to beyond the initial novelty from the grafted on casual mechanics. It achieved great success in spite of this however, perhaps a result of the expanded audience base it was able to reach.

[September 2018]

That leads to Rise of Kingdoms, which significantly pushed forward the real time strategy elements of the genre on mobile.

The strategy elements had grown stagnant on this front for many years, with developers just taking the old formula and adding some new bells and whistles. The addition of wonders and territory were notable, but were mostly just layered on elements atop of the same gameplay. Rise of Kingdoms would change this, carving out multiple new paths on this front.

For almost a decade now, the basic march functionality remained more or less the same. Players could send their armies from their city to a target, an attack would be resolved, and the army would return. That's it. Whether for technical reasons or lack of ambition, developers didn't invest in pushing this forward. The underlying world map mechanics remained the same across all of these previous games.

Rise of Kingdoms promotes their take as a combination of Real-Time Battles, and Unrestricted Troop Movement, but this doesn't do justice to spelling out all of the changes that were made to the underlying mechanics, and the strategy it enables.

Firstly, no longer are battles resolved instantly. Instead, when armies clash, combat plays out over a period of time, during which armies can withdraw, or reinforcements can arrive and change the outcome of the battle. This creates a more lively and dynamic environment, and a greater surface area for emergent behaviours to arise.

Amplifying this is what they market as unrestricted troop movement. Marches are no longer constrained to their simple: city-to-target, target-to-city routes. They can now be redirected mid-route, or halted altogether and ordered to camp out on the map. Moreover, marches can be intercepted mid-route. Combined, this enables whole swaths of new strategic behaviour. A single march for example can be sent out, hitting target after target across the map, causing mayhem. A band of invaders can coordinate their marches, invading and besieging enemy lands, locking inhabitants in. Conversely, since marches can now be attacked mid-route, no longer can an attack be launched deep into enemy territory with impunity. Geographic consequences come much more into play.

Speaking of that, there were advances on the map itself. In previous iterations, developers would take liberties as marches walked straight over water, mountains, and other cities unhindered. Here however, all of those create impediments that need to be navigated around. At its culmination, this creates natural choke points on the map which become focal points to be contested.

This enabling of time and space considerations allows for new dimensions of combat to be explored, and new ways to differentiate content. The time-factor for example enables heroes with a wide array of different abilities, damage over time effects, healing, buffs during certain health ranges, and more. Additionally the space-factor makes area of effect abilities possible, and makes troop speed a critical factor.

This is a far cry from the simple march mechanics of predecessors.

Significant gameplay advances in Rise of Kingdoms

Beyond this are other meaningful advances I won't dwell on. Massive zoom out capabilities, fog of war (though mostly cosmetic), an hour-long clan vs. clan battleground event with a heavy use of all of these new mechanics.

This sits atop of other tried and true pieces of the formula. Buildings, research, heroes, wonders, along with their particular take on territory systems and KvKs, where 8-shards compete over 2 months unlike most other games.

All told, if a new player were coming to the genre, or a hardened veteran was looking for the latest and greatest, Rise of Kingdoms would be the surefire game to point them to.

From the UA perspective, the game was originally titled Rise of Civilizations, later renamed due to trademark disputes. It's reasonable to speculate they may have been looking to benefit from organic searches for Sid Meier's seminal game. It also seems like it may have been a conscious choice to attempt to reap the worldwide UA benefits of the free "IP" available by centering the game around different nationalities and historical figures. The appeals of a Joan of Arc, Caesar, Cleopatra, or Sun Tzu.

Cleopatra and other historical figures potentially aiding UA

From the game design perspective, there are three specifics worth calling out that play a significant part in shaping the actual gameplay as well as the monetization. These are the sort of things that might be easily overlooked unless you were a longtime player of the game.

First, a combination of the design decisions and the emergent behaviours that play out results in an environment that can be significantly more survivable and forgiving for a larger number of players, keeping them in the game longer. For example, the hospital and troop death rules are laid out in a way where combat can be much more forgiving in lower stake scenarios, while also being more risky for would be aggressors. Combined with the ability to intercept marches mid-route, this reduces situations where large players will want to take the risk and pay the cost of picking on weaker players - a frequent complaint in games of this genre. "Zeroings", where players lose all their troops, can still happen but are much rarer. To top it off, the need for cooperation to succeed in KvKs creates a strong incentive for shards to coalesce, and as a result after an initial period of conflict, most successful shards find ways to organize and work together peacefully, with the only major conflict occurring in KvKs. With time, this practically eliminates such zeroings outside of KvKs, and with it the sort of harassment that makes a lot of players quit early on.

Second, monetization seems very healthy up front. With some meticulous data collection, and using information they happen to make available in the game, it's possible to get a detailed assessment of certain player spending habits. Without going into fine details, the rate of monetization during my assessment period was very strong, a multiple over a less successful competitor at the time. For whales, a large part of this seemed to go towards acquiring limited hero content, where certain heroes were structured in a way that they could only be acquired by competing over them in events. This is on top of the desire to spend on other forms of content, especially research and troops, with an added boost of revenue during seasonal events.

To provide a little peek into the data collected, here was the spending behaviour from the top clan in one of the top shards over a one month period.

Daily spend by bundle type, heavily driven by event competition and content

80% of revenue came from players who spent $1000+ in one month

At the same time, the monetization balancing is far more f2p friendly, in that monetizing players get less of an advantage for their money than they do in competing games. Eyeballing it at one point, I found that a $10 bundle gave about 4x more of an advantage in Lords Mobile than in Rise of Kingdoms. As a result, f2p players aren't as ridiculously outgunned, and monetizing players also need to pay more for the advantages they desire. Furthermore, as is the case in many of these games, when someone purchases certain bundles, their clan mates benefit by getting a gift of beneficial items or speedups. The final balancing is such that if you're able to make it into the top clan in your shard, you can benefit tremendously to the point where even as a f2p player it's possible to unlock all of the main pieces of content aside from the heroes. This is something that would cost players thousands of dollars to unlock in a reasonable timeframe otherwise.

To provide an anecdote to give you a sense of this, even though I play these games quite dedicatedly, I never buy IAPs. In less than a year, I was able to unlock the top tier of troops, and sell my account for a low 4-figures when I left the game. This amount isn't something that was feasible in the balancing of other games.

The other side of this though is the cost to the developers. If someone who doesn't buy IAPs is able to unlock top tier troops in that time frame, players who do monetize can do so even sooner, cutting off one of the primary drivers for monetization earlier on than in other games. Other reasons to continue monetizing remain, but these aren't as enticing as completing your research and unlocking the top tier troops. I could imagine this putting a meaningful dent in their non-whale LTVs. Inadvertently, it's possible this helps create a fiercer, more competitive environment for whales to continue spending against. Considering they make up 80%+ of the revenue, perhaps this is a worthwhile trade off.

The third thing worth calling out involves the consequences of the peaceful in-shard metagame, in contrast with the 2-month long KvKs. The KvKs can be intense, and prove a great incentive for players to monetize, at least the first time players participate in them. Due to their intensity however, the consequences and potential losses can be equally large. While it doesn't happen in every KvK, once players have a sense of the costs involved, if the leaders of a shard get the sense they won't have an easy time and be able to sweep the KvK, there will be strong incentives to reach a diplomatic end to the KvK, and divvy up the rewards. Similar to what happens in individual shards.

This has related knock-on effects. If KvKs typically reach a quick diplomatic end, entire shards will lose their last remaining source of conflict, not a great result. At the same time, if KvKs don't wind up this way, KvKs are just too intense to be run too often. The result being that after the heightened activity of a KvK, players return back to their home shards for months worth of peace. It's quite anti-climactic, and I can only imagine it hurting their daily revenue numbers. The coming and going of conflict for large periods of time also seems non-ideal when it comes to encouraging regular player spending habits. A long break from conflict-driven reasons to monetize seems to provide players a good excuse to break their IAP addictions, or even leave the game altogether.

Though these issues may limit its full potential, Rise of Kingdoms is undoubtedly a sizable step forward for this genre on mobile.

Mobile 4X strategy games have thrived for a decade now, and will continue to do so for years and years to come. They've undergone a constant evolution to get to where they are now, continuing to set higher and higher gameplay bars, and higher and higher metrics.

It'd only be fair to ask, "What's next?"

In my previous life as a game developer, I've predicted and pushed for some of the very elements that have come to see breakthrough success in this genre. Not all of them certainly, but if you know where to look a certain pattern emerges, much of it in plain sight.

On the gameplay side, players who crave strategy will want more and more strategy. In many ways in this genre, mobile is playing catch up with PC games. When you look at something like the original Warcraft, or even games that preceded it, the gameplay there already delivered what's only now at the cutting edge of the actual strategic gameplay on mobile. Specifically, unrestricted troop movement and real-time battles only came in 2018, over 20 years after Warcraft. On the technical front these are much more challenging to deliver in a massively multiplayer online game, so it's no wonder it's taken awhile to get here, but as developers continue to push on to try to deliver the next top grossing hit, these elements will continue to find ways to mobile.

So as a player, or a developer who's asking what'll capture player imaginations next, the answers are already out there.

Things like airborne troops common in RTSes open up swathes of strategy. Instead of just the surface-to-surface troops of today, we now have surface-to-air troops, air-to-surface, air-to-air, surface-to-all, or air-to-all attack types. Congratulations, you've just exploded the interesting combinations, content, and strategy you can deliver.

Or even changing some of the fundamentals, and moving towards more of a Civilization-like approach, where units on the map move slowly and gradually in more of a real-time fashion, and freedom of opposing troops on the map can be completely restricted and blockaded. This would open up problems to be solved to be sure, but it delivers on totally new strategy and gameplay.

There are numerous promising avenues here, both in and outside RTSes. Territory systems for example long existed in MMORPGs before RTSes.

Capital ships. WMD attacks. Shardless game servers. Troop transportation units. Espionage. And I'm sure plenty more come to your mind when you think about the possibilities.

To those wanting to deliver on strategy, the investment needed to develop these games will grow ever higher. It'll be harder and harder for smaller developers to fund a team that can build this out. And the teams that can be funded will require costly bets.

For those who love these games though, the years to come should only bring more of what you love. And to those with the foresight to deliver on it will come the spoils.

Read this article:
10+ Lessons from the History of Mobile 4X Strategy - Gamasutra

Never has the world been more united than in our fight against covid19.We keep seeing 'Flatten The Curve' messages all around us. But not many of us understand whats flattening the curve. Or even if we do, we tend to forget or forget its importance. To drive communication on flattening the curve, FCB Ulka came up with graph representations that drive this message.

The graphs by FCB Ulka show people staying at home, so that they contribute to Flatten The Curve.

According to the data, reducing human-to-human contact by 75% can take the predicted number of cases of COVID-19 needing hospital care below the line of available hospital beds at any given time. Measures like staying at home is the best possible way to flatten the curve.

Swati Bhattacharya, chief creative officer, FCB Ulka, said, I am really proud that UNAIDS took this piece of work and shared it all over Europe. Never has the world been more united than in our fight against covid19."

The agency added that FCB Ulka found support in UNAIDS Geneva, which released the campaign as static posts on the big Easter weekend when people had plans to step out of their homes. FCB made the static posts into a digital film with fuel content, that offered content creation solutions in an end-to-end format, it added.

Mahesh Mahalingam, director, communications and global advocacy, UNAIDS, said, Flatten the curve was an attempt to make an epidemiological concept understood in practical ways by the public. We wanted to make staying at home less stressful and more fun at a time when COVID-19 was spreading across the world. FCB Ulka helped us in bringing home the message of staying home in a witty yet factual fashion.

Read the original post:
Stay at home and help Flatten The Curve' - ETBrandEquity.com

It was May 8, 1991, and Id returned to my Hollywood office after lunch to find a pink phone message tacked to the board with an unlikely haiku: Mr. Dylan appreciates your magazine. He will be in touch.

At first I suspected it was a joke. Id been trying to land an interview with Dylan since 1987, when I was appointed editor of SongTalk, the journal of the National Academy of Songwriters. But it was no joke; the call came from the office of Elliot Mintz, who was then Dylans press rep.

The arrangements surrounding the interview were cryptic and incremental. Elliots assistant called me periodically, each time divulging a little more information. At first I was given no time or location, told only that it would take place in the middle of the week at a hotel somewhere in the middle of Los Angeles. Also that I should come alone. It felt like arranging a meeting with Batman.

On the designated day I was summoned to the Beverly Hills Hotel, the big pink lady where stars have stayed and played since the birth of Hollywood. In a bungalow far in the back, Bob Dylan was in a giddy mood. He sang a few lines from the song People. Yes, that People, the Jule Styne-Bob Merrill standard from Funny Girl made famous by Barbra Streisand. People who need people, he sang a capella in that most famous nasality ever, are the luckiest people in the world Then he paused to ask, with much seriousness: Do you think people who need people are really the luckiest people in the world?

That he would even know this song, let alone question its premise, says a lot about this man. He thinks deeply about songs, even unlikely ones like this one. Unlike the prevalent perception of him as someone far removed from life as we know it, Dylan pays attention. Searching for some clue as to why he agreed to do this interview with me, he muttered, somewhat in passing, Man, you and Paul Simon sure talked a lot, referring to my recent extensive interview with Simon.

The People exchange, however, was ultimately omitted from the final interview at the insistence of Mintz, who also demanded the deletion of a few other sections, including one in which Dylan questioned if kids who watched Hendrix burn the flag would do so themselves. Mintz also ended the interview himself by physically turning off both of my tape recorders while Bob was in the middle of discussing his song Joey, about the mobster Joey Gallo. Im still not sure why he was impelled to stop our talk then, but I knew Bob could have kept talking for an hour easy. But it wasnt to be.

What was to be was Bob having a lot of fun talking about this elusive art form so profoundly impacted by his own hand. His love for songs and songwriters was palpable as was his curiosity. When I told him I loved playing his songs, he asked, On guitar or on piano? He wanted to know. Never before or since has he spoken so directly and extensively about songwriting itself, about walking that fine line between unconscious and conscious creation, and ultimately achieving what he defines here himself as gallantry.

When you read this, keep in mind that he was smiling.

Ive made shoes for everyone, even you, while I still go barefoot

From I and I

Songwriting? What do I know about songwriting? Bob Dylan asked, and then broke into laughter. He was wearing blue jeans and a white tank-top T-shirt, and drinking coffee out of a glass. It tastes better out of a glass, he said grinning. His blonde acoustic guitar was leaning on a couch near where we sat. Bob Dylans guitar. His influence is so vast that everything that surrounds takes on enlarged significance: Bob Dylans moccasins. Bob Dylans coat.

And the ghost of lectricity howls in the bones of her face Where these visions of Johanna have now taken my place. The harmonicas play the skeleton keys and the rain And these visions of Johanna are now all that remain

from Visions of Johanna

Pete Seeger said, All songwriters are links in a chain, yet there are few artists in this evolutionary arc whose influence is as profound as that of Bob Dylan. Its hard to imagine the art of songwriting as we know it without him. Though he insists in this interview that somebody else would have done it, he was the instigator, the one who knew that songs could do more , that they could take on more. He knew that songs could contain a lyrical richness and meaning far beyond the scope of all previous pop songs, and they could possess as much beauty and power as the greatest poetry, and that by being written in rhythm and rhyme and merged with music, they could speak to our souls.

Starting with the models made by his predecessors, such as the talking blues, Dylan quickly discarded old forms and began to fashion new ones. He broke all the rules of songwriting without abandoning the craft and care that holds songs together. He brought the linguistic beauty of Shakespeare, Byron, and Dylan Thomas, and the expansiveness and beat experimentation of Ginsberg, Kerouac and Ferlinghetti, to the folk poetry of Woody Guthrie and Hank Williams. And when the world was still in the midst of accepting this new form, he brought music to a new place again, fusing it with the electricity of rock and roll.

Basically, he showed that anything goes, Robbie Robertson said. John Lennon said that it was hearing Dylan that allowed him to make the leap from writing empty pop songs to expressing the actuality of his life and the depths of his own soul. Help was a real call for help, he said, and prior to hearing Dylan it didnt occur to him that songs could contain such direct meaning. When I asked Paul Simon how he made the leap in his writing from fifties rock and roll songs like Hey Schoolgirl to writing Sound Of Silence he said, I really cant imagine it could have been anyone else besides Bob Dylan.

Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky With one hand waving free, Silhouetted by the sea, Circled by the circus sands, With all memory and fate Driven deep beneath the waves, Let me forget about today until tomorrow.

from Mr. Tambourine Man

Theres an unmistakable elegance in Dylans words, an almost biblical beauty that he has sustained in his songs throughout the years. He refers to it as a gallantry in the following, and pointed to it as the single thing that sets his songs apart from others. Though hes maybe more famous for the freedom and expansiveness of his lyrics, all of his songs possess this exquisite care and love for the language. As Shakespeare and Byron did in their times, Dylan has taken English, perhaps the worlds plainest language, and instilled it with a timeless, mythic grace.

Ring them bells, sweet Martha, for the poor mans son Ring them bells so the world will know that God is one Oh, the shepherd is asleep Where the willows weep And the mountains are filled with lost sheep

from Ring Them Bells

As much as he has stretched, expanded and redefined the rules of songwriting, Dylan is a tremendously meticulous craftsman. A brutal critic of his own work, he works and reworks the words of his songs in the studio and even continues to rewrite certain ones even after theyve been recorded and released.

Theyre not written in stone, he said. With such a wondrous wealth of language at his fingertips, he discards imagery and lines other songwriters would sell their souls to discover. The Bootleg Series, a recently released collection of previously unissued recordings, offers a rare opportunity to see the revisions and regrouping his songs go through. Idiot Wind is one of his angriest songs (You dont hear a song like that every day, he said), which he recorded on Blood On The Tracks in a way that reflects this anger, emphasizing lines of condemnation like one day youll be in the ditch, flies buzzin around your eyes, blood on your saddle.

On The Bootleg Series , we get an alternate approach to the song, a quiet, tender reading of the same lines that makes the inherent disquiet of the song even more disturbing, the tenderness of Dylans delivery adding a new level of genuine sadness to lines like people see me all the time and they just cant remember how to act. The peak moment of the song is the penultimate chorus when Dylan addresses America: Idiot wind, blowing like a circle around my skull, from the Grand Coulee Dam to the Capitol.

On the Bootleg version, this famous line is still in formation: Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your jaw, from the Grand Coulee Dam to the Mardi Gras. His song Jokerman also went through a similar evolution, as a still unreleased bootleg of the song reveals. Like Idiot Wind, the depth and intensity of the lyric is sustained over an extraordinary amount of verses, yet even more scenes were shot that wound up on the cutting room floor, evidence of an artist overflowing with the abundance of creation:

Its a shadowy world Skies are slippery gray A woman just gave birth to a prince today And dressed him in scarlet Hell put the priest in his pocket, Put the blade to the heat Take the motherless children off the street And place them at the feet of a harlot

from Jokerman on Infidels

Its a shadowy world Skies are slippery gray A woman just gave birth to a prince today And shes dressed in scarlet Hell turn priests into pimps And make all men bark Take a woman who could have been Joan of Arc And turn her into a harlot

from Jokerman on Outfidels, a bootleg

Often Dylan lays abstraction aside and writes songs as clear and telling as any of Woody Guthries narrative ballads, finding heroes and antiheroes in our modern times as Woody found in his. Some of these subjects might be thought of as questionable choices for heroic treatment, such as underworld boss Joey Gallo, about whom he wrote the astounding song, Joey. Its a song that is remarkable for its cinematic clarity; Dylan paints a picture of a life and death so explicit and exact that we can see every frame of it, and even experience Gallos death as if we were sitting there watching it. And he does it with a rhyme scheme and a meter that makes the immediacy of the imagery even more striking:

One day they blew him down In a clam bar in New York He could see it coming through the door As he lifted up his fork. He pushed the table over to protect his family Then he staggered out into the streets Of Little Italy

from Joey

Yes, well, what can you know about anybody? Dylan asked, and its a good question. Hes been a mystery for years, kind of impenetrable, really, Paul Simon said, and that mystery is not penetrated by this interview or any interview. Dylans answers are often more enigmatic than the questions themselves, and like his songs, they give you a lot to think about while not necessarily, revealing much about the man.

In person, as others have noted, he is Chaplinesque. He possesses one of the worlds most striking faces; while certain stars might seem surprisingly normal and unimpressive in the flesh, Dylan is perhaps even more startling to confront than one might expect. Seeing those eyes , and that nose , its clear it could be no one else than he, and to sit at a table with him and face those iconic features is no less impressive than suddenly finding yourself sitting face to face with William Shakespeare. Its a face we associate with an enormous, amazing body of work, work that has changed the world. But its not really the kind of face one expects to encounter in everyday life.

Though Van Morrison and others have called him the worlds greatest poet, he doesnt think of himself as a poet. Poets drown in lakes, he said to us. Yet hes written some of the most beautiful poetry the world has known, poetry of love and outrage, of abstraction and clarity, of timelessness and relativity. Though he is faced with the evidence of a catalogue of songs that would contain the whole careers of a dozen fine songwriters, Dylan told us he doesnt consider himself to be a professional songwriter. For me its always been more con -fessional than pro -fessional, he said in distinctive Dylan cadence. My songs arent written on a schedule.

Well, how are they written, we asked? This is the question at the heart of this interview, the main one that comes to mind when looking over all the albums, or witnessing the amazing array of moods, masks, styles and forms all represented on the recently released Bootleg Series. How has he done it? It was the first question asked, and though he deflected it at first with his customary humor, its a question we returned to a few times. Start me off somewhere, he said smiling, as if he might be left alone to divulge the secrets of his songwriting, and our talk began.

Arlo Guthrie recently said, Songwriting is like fishing in a stream; you put in your line and hope you catch something. And I dont think anyone downstream from Bob Dylan ever caught anything.

Dylan: [Much laughter]

Any idea how youve been able to catch so many?

[Laughs] Its probably the bait.

What kind of bait do you use?

Uh bait Youve got to use some bait. Otherwise you sit around and expect songs to come to you. Forcing it is using bait.

Does that work for you?

Well, no. Throwing yourself into a situation that would demand a response is like using bait. People who write about stuff that hasnt really happened to them are inclined to do that.

When you write songs, do you try to consciously guide the meaning or do you try to follow subconscious directions?

Well, you know, motivation is something you never know behind any song, really. Anybodys song, you never know what the motivation was. Its nice to be able to put yourself in an environment where you can completely accept all the unconscious stuff that comes to you from your inner workings of your mind. And block yourself off to where you can control it all, take it down. Edgar Allan Poe must have done that. People who are dedicated writers, of which there are some, but mostly people get their information today over a television set or some kind of a way thats hitting them on all their senses. Its not just a great novel anymore. You have to be able to get the thoughts out of your mind.

How do you do that?

Well, first of all, theres two kinds of thoughts in your mind: theres good thoughts and evil thoughts. Both come through your mind. Some people are more loaded down with one than another. Nevertheless, they come through. And you have to be able to sort them out, if you want to be a songwriter, if you want to be a good song singer. You must get rid of all that baggage.

You ought to be able to sort out those thoughts, because they dont mean anything, theyre just pulling you around, too. Its important to get rid of all them thoughts. Then you can do something from some kind of surveillance of the situation. You have some kind of place where you can see but it cant affect you. Where you can bring something to the matter, besides just take, take, take, take, take. As so many situations in life are today. Take, take, take, thats all that it is. Whats in it for me? That syndrome which started in the Me Decade, whenever that was. Were still in that. Its still happening.

Is songwriting for you more a sense of taking something from some place else?

Well, someplace else is always a heartbeat away. Theres no rhyme or reason to it. Theres no rule. Thats what makes it so attractive. There isnt any rule. You can still have your wits about you and do something that gets you off in a multitude of ways. As you very well know, or else you yourself wouldnt be doing it.

Your songs often bring us back to other times, and are filled with mythic, magical images. A song like Changing Of The Guard seems to take place centuries ago, with lines like, They shaved her head/she was torn between Jupiter and Apollo/A messenger arrived with a black nightingale. How do you connect with a song like that?

[Pause] A song like that, theres no way of knowing, after the fact, unless somebodys there to take it down in chronological order, what the motivation was behind it. [Pause] But on one level, of course, its no different from anything else of mine. Its the same amount of metric verses like a poem. To me, its like a poem.

The melodies in my mind are very simple, theyre just based on music weve all heard growing up. And that and music which went beyond that, which went back further, Elizabethan ballads and whatnot To me, its old. [Laughs] Its old. Its not something, with my minimal amount of talent, if you could call it that, minimum amount

To me, somebody coming along now would definitely read whats out there if theyre seriously concerned with being an artist whos going to still be an artist when they get to be Picassos age. Youre better off learning some music theory. Youre just better off, yeah, if you want to write songs. Rather than just take a hillbilly twang, you know, and try to base it all on that. Even country music is more orchestrated than it used to be. Youre better off having some feel for music that you dont have to carry in your head, that you can write down. To me those are the people who are serious about this craft. People who go about it that way. Not people who just want to pour out their insides and they got to get a big idea out and they want to tell the world about this, sure, you can do it through a song, you always could. You can use a song for anything, you know. The world dont need any more songs.

You dont think so?

No. Theyve got enough. Theyve got way too many. As a matter of fact, if nobody wrote any songs from this day on, the world aint gonna suffer for it. Nobody cares. Theres enough songs for people to listen to, if they want to listen to songs. For every man, woman and child on earth, they could be sent, probably, each of them, a hundred records, and never be repeated. Theres enough songs. Unless someones gonna come along with a pure heart and has something to say. Thats a different story.

But as far as songwriting, any idiot could do it. If you see me do it, any idiot could do it. [Laughs] Its just not that difficult of a thing. Everybody writes a song just like everybodys got that one great novel in them. There arent a lot of people like me. You just had your interview with Neil [Young], John Mellencamp Of course, most of my ilk that came along write their own songs and play them. It wouldnt matter if anybody ever made another record. Theyve got enough songs.

To me, someone who writes really good songs is Randy Newman. Theres a lot of people who write good songs. As songs. Now Randy might not go out on stage and knock you out, or knock your socks off. And hes not going to get people thrilled in the front row. He aint gonna do that. But hes gonna write a better song than most people who can do it. You know, hes got that down to an art. Now Randy knows music. But it doesnt get any better than Louisiana or Cross Charleston Bay [Sail Away]. It doesnt get any better than that. Its like a classically heroic anthem theme. He did it.

Theres quite a few people who did it. Not that many people in Randys class. Brian Wilson. He can write melodies that will beat the band. Three people could combine on a song and make it a great song. If one person would have written the same song, maybe you would have never heard it. It might get buried on some rap record. [Laughs]

Still, when youve come out with some of your new albums of songs, those songs fit that specific time better than any songs that had already been written. Your new songs have always shown us new possibilities.

Its not a good idea and its bad luck to look for lifes guidance to popular entertainers. Its bad luck to do that. No one should do that. Popular entertainers are fine, theres nothing the matter with that but as long as you know where youre standing and what ground youre on, many of them, they dont know what theyre doing either.

But your songs are more than pop entertainment

Some people say so. Not to me.

No?

Pop entertainment means nothing to me. Nothing. You know, Madonnas good. Madonnas good, shes talented, she puts all kind of stuff together, shes learned her thing But its the kind of thing which takes years and years out of your life to be able to do. Youve got to sacrifice a whole lot to do that. Sacrifice. If you want to make it big, youve got to sacrifice a whole lot. Its all the same, its all the same. [Laughs]

Van Morrison said that you are our greatest living poet. Do you think of yourself in those terms?

[Pause] Sometimes. Its within me. Its within me to put myself up and be a poet. But its a dedication. [Softly] Its a big dedication. [Pause] Poets dont drive cars. [Laughs] Poets dont go to the supermarket. Poets dont empty the garbage. Poets arent on the PTA. Poets, you know, they dont go picket the Better Housing Bureau, or whatever. Poets dont Poets dont even speak on the telephone. Poets dont even talk to anybody. Poets do a lot of listening and and usually they know why theyre poets!

[Laughs] Yeah, there are what can you say? The world dont need any more poems, its got Shakespeare. Theres enough of everything. You name it, theres enough of it. There was too much of it with electricity, maybe, some people said that. Some people said the lightbulb was going too far. Poets live on the land. They behave in a gentlemanly way. And live by their own gentlemanly code. [Pause] And die broke. Or drown in lakes. Poets usually have very unhappy endings. Look at Keats life. Look at Jim Morrison , if you want to call him a poet. Look at him. Although some people say that he is really in the Andes.

Do you think so?

Well, it never crossed my mind to think one way or the other about it, but you do hear that talk. Piggyback in the Andes. Riding a donkey.

People have a hard time believing that Shakespeare really wrote all of his work because there is so much of it. Do you have a hard time accepting that?

People have a hard time accepting anything that overwhelms them.

Might they think that of you, years from now, that no one man could have produced so much incredible work?

They could. They could look back and think nobody produced it. [Softly] Its not to anybodys best interest to think about how they will be perceived tomorrow. It hurts you in the long run.

But arent there songs of your own that you know will always be around?

Whos gonna sing them? My songs really arent meant to be covered. No, not really. Can you think of Well, they do get covered, but its covered. Theyre not intentionally written to be covered, but okay, they do.

Your songs are much more enjoyable to sing and play than most songs.

Do you play them on piano or guitar?

Both.

Acoustic guitar?

Mostly.

Do you play jazz? It never hurts to learn as many chords as you can. All kinds. Sometime it will change the inflection of a whole song, a straight chord, or, say, an augmented seventh chord.

Do you have favorite keys to work in?

On the piano, my favorite keys are the black keys. And they sound better on guitar, too. Sometimes when a songs in a flat key, say B flat, bring it to the guitar, you might want to put it in A. But thats an interesting thing you just said. It changes the inflection. Mainly in mine the songs sound different. They sound when you take a black key song and put it on the guitar, which means youre playing in A flat, not too many people like to play in those keys. To me it doesnt matter. [Laughs] It doesnt matter because my fingering is the same anyway.

So there are songs that, even without the piano, which is the dominant sound if youre playing in the black keys why else would you play in that key except to have that dominant piano sound? the songs that go into those keys right from the piano, they sound different. They sound deeper. Yeah. They sound deeper. Everything sounds deeper in those black keys. Theyre not guitar keys, though. Guitar bands dont usually like to play in those keys, which kind of gives me an idea, actually, of a couple of songs that could actually sound better in black keys.

Do keys have different colors for you?

Sure. Sure. [Softly] Sure.

Youve written some great A minor songs. I think of One More Cup Of Coffee.

Right. B minor might sound even better.

How come?

Well, it might sound better because youre playing a lot of open chords if youre playing in A minor. If you play in B minor, it will force you to play higher. And the chords youre bound, someplace along the line, because there are so many chords in that song, or seem to be anyway, youre bound someplace along the line to come down to an open chord on the bottom. From B. You would hit E someplace along the line. Try it in B minor. [Laughs] Maybe it will be a hit for you. A hit is a number one song, isnt it? Yeah.

When you sit down to write a song, do you pick a key first that will fit a song? Or do you change keys while youre writing?

Yeah. Yeah. Maybe like in the middle of the thing. There are ways you can get out of whatever youve gotten into. You want to get out of it. Its bad enough getting into it. But the thing to do as soon as you get into it is realize you must get out of it. And unless you get out of it quickly and effortlessly, theres no use staying in it. It will just drag you down. You could be spending years writing the same song, telling the same story, doing the same thing.

So once you involve yourself in it, once you accidentally have slipped into it, the thing is to get out. So your primary impulse is going to take you so far. But then you might think, well, you know, is this one of these things where its all just going to come? And then all of the sudden you start thinking. And when my mind starts thinking, Whats happening now? Oh, theres a story here, and my mind starts to get into it, thats trouble right away. Thats usually big trouble. And as far as never seeing this thing again. Theres a bunch of ways you can get out of that. You can make yourself get out of it by changing key. Thats one way. Just take the whole thing and change key, keeping the same melody. And see if that brings you any place. More times than not, that will take you down the road. You dont want to be on a collision course. But that will take you down the road. Somewhere.

And then if that fails, and that will run out, too, then you can always go back to where you were to start. It wont work twice, it only works once. Then you go back to where you started. Yeah, because anything you do in A, its going to be a different song in G. While youre writing it, anyway. Theres too many wide passing notes in G [on the guitar] not to influence your writing, unless youre playing barre chords.

Do you ever switch instruments, like from guitar to piano, while writing?

Not so much that way. Although when its time to record something, for me, sometimes a song that has been written on piano with just lyrics here in my hand, itll be time to play it now on guitar. So it will come out differently. But it wouldnt have influenced the writing of the song at all. Changing keys influences the writing of the song. Changing keys on the same instrument. For me, that works. I think for somebody else, the other thing works. Everything is different.

I interviewed Pete Seeger recently.

Hes a great man, Pete Seeger.

Go here to read the rest:
Bob Dylan: The Interview, Part 1 - American Songwriter

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Dhara brings back memories from the yesteryears - ETBrandEquity.com