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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Sun Jan 03, 2021 5:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

A really late one today because I slept in and then had to take the family out for a change of view.



The rest of the day was preparing royalty checks and mailing them off. Also I'm doing artwork for two albums right now. Fist was re-releasing Tabitha's album "Midnight Summer’s Dream" under her new stage name "Rudegal Tab" and the new album name "Lies". This is basically releasing a new album and the art work had to change and it would look like this:




Rudegal Tab



I'm still waiting on word from Syse on his album cover so that will wait.




Syse



Several times I thought "this is getting scary....." as the size of the label is starting to get up there. But that is just it - it is growing - but I can still handle it at this stage. When the pandemic lifts we should have a pool of people willing to help run the thing and then see if we can find a spot and keep this label viable. So far we have outlasted everyone else but it still is not a sure thing. But I don't rely on the record label to live and we are moving to a lower rent business location at the end of the month. It will survive but I want it to be self-sufficient, I don't do crises management.....




So that was most of Sunday and we keep working at it. But who - would have thought the record label would be this involved! That should be a good thing, and time will tell.....





Later.....





https://youtu.be/dz5BDkGKbAg
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Mon Jan 04, 2021 7:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

So today it’s back to the usual.



Realize that everyone on earth deals with many of the same problems no matter what their life situation is. Cars break down, power goes out, lose your phone - it’s the same for all. Or you can have your much different life change for the better or worse and still have to deal with “shit” or as the saying goes: “Shit Happens!”



You can be celebrated like chess Grandmaster Booby Fisher and end up living like a vagrant being harassed by the police. You could end up like Joanie from “Happy Days” living in a trailer park and making a bet that exposing her breasts in a restaurant would get noticed - it did not get noticed. Dawn Wells, recently deceased from Covid 19 got millions from co-star Natalie Schaffer and was the only one to continuously get royalties from the show; yet had to receive money via a go-fund-me campaign for an operation. It goes on forever, people you used to be jealous of meeting karma because - shit happens.


Ayn Rand of The Fountainhead fame couldn’t rely on followers like Allan Greenspan for help when her health failed, she of all people ended up relying on the charity of the government. You’ve read all the stories. Lottery winners like that guy in Holland who got killed after his party held just after winning the lottery. Or the others winning millions and ending up penniless in a few years - it goes both ways. Shit happens like what happened to Apple CEO Steve Jobs who made his fortune at Pixar and and fame at Apple while battling a losing battle with cancer.



The point of this? No point but that I realize the balance of good and bad luck is a law of nature. Success always has a measure of good luck and sure enough bad luck now will follow. I want a few moments of huge good luck paid for with lots and lots of small and petty bad luck. Like years of living with squirrels in the attic - better that than cancer! Nobody - I repeat nobody - has the perfect life. When I sold insurance I was constantly amazed at what looked like beautiful perfect people in every way, but when you ask them medical questions the horror show begins. Always amazed at that as if inbreeding pure bred dogs to have that perfect snout ends up with a sickly dog that doesn’t look the part - same for the humans.




JFK and Jackie - not perfect!



There is nothing more to be said though. Everyone has their burden to bear though some are hidden more than others. Kennedy and Camelot when he was President, Marilyn Monroe and all that - yet he has serious medical conditions. Then even with the medical conditions has his life shortened by the assassination. Nobody lives a perfect life.



Goodnight.....
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Tue Jan 05, 2021 12:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Non-stop folks - non-stop!



It looks like the re-release of Tabitha’s album may turn into a new album with her new stage name, artwork and at least one new song! We will now have two websites for her with one for books, as she seems to have two more in the pipeline. The other is for music:


https://tabithablair.com


https://rudegaltab.com



Her pen name for books remains Tabitha Blair and her stage name has changed from “Tabitha” to “Rudegal Tab”. This stuff with the website creation and changes occupied much of my time. We may actually change the album artwork from the brick wall motif to a photo of Tabitha wearing a mask:




Rudegal Tab: Lies!



It also looks like Syse may be close to finalizing his album artwork. I want them to live with the artwork for a few days before signing off on the material. So we will get back to Syse when that part of his album is finalized.



What else:



My loved leather strap is falling apart. The hardware and leather are perfect. But the screws that hold the hardware together to connect to the watch are unscrewing! I first noticed when one rail holding the leather strap dislodge from its base. I lost the screw or else I would just screw it back in tight. It was also unscrewing on the other side but that screw is still in there. What crap luck - but remember I wanted my luck this way. So we will see if it can be repaired or if I have to buy another one - they are cheap.....



Goodnight.....





https://youtu.be/q0EQBYMKhVY
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Wed Jan 06, 2021 10:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ok we have finalized the new Syse album artwork and it will look like this:





Syse - Black Fire Diaries



As for Tabitha/Rudegal Tab I have to match that font used in the “Lies” photo. Also I received the new song (“Wish List”) but the only copy is in mp3. I have been here before with wma files for Corey Johnson and scratched up one only CDs for Willis Hiscock (found underneath his car seat) and Shaun Kelly (found in his basement apt. along with his “de-strung” guitar that we re-stringed). This is just more of the same for those who inhabit the music world.


I’m also starting to isolate a bit more and that now means breaking the Starbucks addiction. In fact, I now urge all of you to be a bit more diligent about exposure and keep taking vitamin D3. Remember, getting Covid 19 is a lottery with no really positive upside. I may get it but I’m not welcoming it with open arms. In a few years the kids will not believe the madness that is going on now during the pandemic. Everyone wearing masks, but it probably helps the advocacy as these are uncertain times and uncertainty opens up opportunity. Advocacy in a sea of masked people - never saw that happening.....



Goodnight.....





https://youtu.be/Zk1DNzg0LWs
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Thu Jan 07, 2021 10:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Running like a chicken with its head cut off.....



That’s sort of how my life is like now. The music carries on as I’m now keenly looking at the individual tracks. Man, no time, we haven’t even posted about the new website for Tabitha! But we are also moving to new digs. No final decision yet on the location of the new head office but we have until the end of the month.



I don’t comment on divisive events but I will say the this business of algorithms used by Facebook, Instagram and others are doing more harm than good especially in the middle age and older crowd who implicitly accept that these news feeds are fair like the old time traditional media had to be to keep their licenses. This is aimed at the older crowd that still uses Facebook which is less and less what everyone is doing in their day and more and more just a platform for propaganda.


It’s the algorithms and traditional media is not doing any favours now putting up their stories behind paywalls. Perhaps they should give a little more than the salacious headlines and then the paywall going in-depth. They are leaving the people to the free news agencies and many of these have a more political agenda and not reporting of the other side of a story. This is how you get people to believe in anything - because they are cut off from diverse opinion due to the algorithms used in popular social media.




One minute your life is looks like this!



One minute you are on Facebook (code word for the kids to mean old farts) and the next you are jumping through a door on Capital Hill and getting shot in the head. Yes that was a 35 year old woman draped in the American Flag disregarding other anarchists saying “He’s got a gun!” Jumping through a broken window and immediately getting shot. The video is out there.




The next minute you get shot jumping through a window at Capital Hill draped with the American Flag!



Forget about international politics - the kids get their breaking news from places like TikTok. Why are Kanye West and Kim Kardashian separated. Well one unsubstantiated rumour was floated by the same woman I posted months ago licking a used public toilet seat during the coronavirus challenge in TikTok. I won’t repeat the allegation but it’s a doosey..... - and no, she is not a member of IAIJ.






Another journalist hard at work on a story!



If nobody brings this algorithm stuff up at the next WSIS meetings I will - if they will let me. There is always that problem of if they “let” me, but I’m in a different universe than most of you in terms of access and I intend to keep using it.....



Goodnight.....
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Fri Jan 08, 2021 12:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I rarely give endorsements but today is one of those days that I will:


Maurice Ali wrote:
Mihai Trusca of Orange Mic Music!




Maurice Ali - Fortress of Freedom Inc. / FOF Records Inc.





Mihasi Trusca of Orange Mic Music




As a music publishing corporation (Fortress of Freedom Inc.) and as a music distributing corporation (FOF Records Inc.), we have begun to rely on Mihai Trusca of Orange Mic Music for for mixing in the production stages and mastering for distribution of the material to all manner of music consumption.


The fact is that we at FOF consider Mihai Trusca of Orange Mic Music one of the best sound engineers and mastering engineers in the Toronto market! He has worked on many of our projects presently and in the past. Take this one testimonial from Pize Zumbovski of AAVRY KNAPP and now his new band called “The Brawlers”:



“We had just finished production of the band’s first EP and we knew we needed just a bit more energy out of the material. When we got back the songs after Mihai Trusca had worked on them, those songs just popped! I can wholeheartedly recommend Mihai Trusca of Orange Mic Music for all your production and post production needs! If I say it’s this good, you can take that to the bank!”



If you are starting a project or got yourself into a problem with the material and need someone with the talent to fix it, send Mihai Trusca of Orange Mic Music an email and take your music to a higher level!



For more information, please visit ORANGE MIC MUSIC at:

https://orangemicmusic.wixsite.com/orangemic





FORTRESS OF FREEDOM: BRINGING THE MASS MEDIA TO THE MASSES!



Long time regulars will know who Mihai is as he came to us as a new member of Twenty6Hundred producing (up to mastering) their second album “Electric for All”. Then he handled all production up to mastering on the third album “Until the End”. Recently he has produced the first Lucifari album up to mastering, the ZX/81 album including mastering. Then remixing and mastering “The Brawlers” EP as well as some work on the new single by Rudegal Tab.




Mihai performing with TWENTY6HUNDRED!



His use was by my decision to hire the best talent out there and he is! So congrats to Mihai on striking out in your own business and providing a much needed service to musicians at very competitive prices. Also his last three or four projects were done according to Covid 19 protocols via the internet and remote production. I don’t know what wizardry he used to do this but the finished projects are proof enough! Check out his website and see if he can help you make the most out of your musical creativity and vision.


https://orangemicmusic.wixsite.com/orangemic





What else?




More music production. Man, I sound like a broken record.....



Later.....





https://youtu.be/o6oXUhQVe1Q
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Sat Jan 09, 2021 11:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I’ll be off to pick up my new glasses within the hour.....



The funny thing is that for not much more money I could laser my eyes and be done with glasses - but not quite. Right now I’m soaking in my tub punching this thing out on my phone without my glasses. In fact when I spend real time on the phone the glasses are off. I can watch a full length movie, edit code or anything I want - hours on end - without eye strain with the phone from 6” to 18“ away from my eyes - sans glasses. Not on the phone for a long time then it’s the regular glasses. Laser my eyes and I probably would need reading glasses and living with a phone as I do would become a pain. As it stands I use the phone just like a twenty something. Most older people are not as devoted to their phones as it’s a hassle to use and read them without reading glasses and even then. So for me it’s: If it ain’t broken - don’t fix it!



After that is done is paying some bills and redirecting mail from our old business address that expires at the end of the month. I also should start to finalize the song lineup for Syse. It’s just goes on and on.



Also, all that worry about my car’s engine making noise in the cold was fixed by going to 0W20 oil! If only I had done that sooner! So that problem has disappeared and the only other issue I ever had with this car was the monthly “mensuration” of some rad fluid. Weeks and weeks passed this time so I’m due, but I have the feeling the car will now go all the way passed the warrantee period without any work. That already is the record and this has been the best car I ever owned in my life! For so many, Mustangs are nothing but problems it for me it’s all good.



More later.....
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Sun Jan 10, 2021 5:46 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

If you thought my diatribes about social media and algorithms was only my fictitious fantasy, well they are now coming onto mainstream media and getting more exposure given recent events I won't get into.



I see that only now that the issue of harmful algorithms are been seriously addressed and the draconian moves of late are Big Tech seeing their role in current events and finally takings steps to address the problem. You here have heard me discussing this for some time now as - for example - I have three Facebook accounts that have three different news feeds aimed at three different profiles and incredibly you could have one feed saying the exact opposite thing about an election than the other feeds! What you end up with is social media that can inadvertently aid in "cult making" for those with the particular profile their algorithms got to work on. All this is not so much political but commercial but ends up becoming political in certain circumstances. So while Big Tech are now under the microscope, things are happening at their head offices but expect them to quietly let things continue when the heat is off as it's very hard to change and reset how large social media operations run.



Anyway we shall see how all that pans out in the next few years - yes years, and if the change is not good enough, some people will have to press the issue internationally..... In other news - if you were wondering what I look like right now here you go:




This is me as I am without the hair coloring - that I use occasionally as I'm in the entertainment industry - getting old but not totally wrinkled up yet!



That is me in the car with the new specs and clip-on's. You can see the ravages of time on this guy in his 60s. Check out the wrinkles in the neck area but when I raise my chin to look completely straight they sort of disappear. When I talk about the "ravages of time" to people my age they just tell me to f**k off - probably because The Fates gave me a few extra years to get things done: but nobody (including me) beats the devil - err - father time.....




If you look around the mouth you see lines starting to appear! I'm getting old!



So - I got the glasses on Saturday and it was sort of as expected. The lady at the store basically handed me the glasses which I put on to make sure nothing weird was going on - and thankfully they fit and the prescription seemed spot on. Out the door I went, and when I got back to my car I checked the accuracy of the lenses. Thankfully everything was spot on and the guys at Zeiss did their thing and gave me lenses that give me better than 20/20 resolution. The frames - while still flexon technology - are more substantial now and when I clip on the sunglasses they feel as one sturdy set of glasses. If interested, here are some photos of me wearing the new specs. I have the sandglasses clipped on so they are not aviator frames but simple wire frames almost identical to the previous but the arms have this bow design that adds to rigidity while still being able to flex. The Zeiss lenses now have these holograms on the sides of each lens telling everyone who looks carefully at them that they are Ziess - so no reason to ask what I'm wearing at film buff get togethers.



But my eyesight is spot on again, finally an upgrade after seven years and now a second set of progressives if I break the main glasses. I always wanted to rid myself of glasses and now when I can I'm still embracing those appliances put on my face constantly - how wack is that?




Goodnight.....





https://youtu.be/lhSqrY_hCkk
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
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Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Mon Jan 11, 2021 10:10 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

We have finally made the announcement about Tabitha’s new website Rudegaltab.com:




Jessica King wrote:
Rudegaltab.com




By Jessica King





Rudegal Tab!





Tabitha Blair who is known at FOF as the singer Tabitha has changed her stage name to Rudegal Tab and now has a new website Rudegaltab.com! She intends to keep the other website Tabithablair.com for her work as an author and Rudegaltab.com for her music. You can access her new website here:


https://rudegaltab.com


And her other website here:


https://tabithablair.com





Tabitha Blair is a multi-faceted person and the two websites reflect this diversity of her talents. So from all of us at FOF and FOF Records, we wish Tabitha all the best with her new website!






FORTRESS OF FREEDOM: BRINGING THE MASS MEDIA TO THE MASSES!




Also, I’m about to send Syse’s new album “Black Fire Diaries” to the digital stores for sale and streaming. One of three last things I do is give the album a final listen with mastering headphones on as you can see in this impromptu unretouched photo:



Me today listening to Syse’s music!


You can tell it real by what is going on with my hair. I’m wearing a parka as we keep the heat down in the office early in the morning when nobody is there. Everything seems ok so another announcement in a day or two.



I also undid the highlights and saturation the iPhone does (in yesterday’s photos) as it’s set up mostly for white people being a Western World phone. If it highlights a dark photo in a car it saturates the skin tones which looks good on white folk but makes brown skin look like teak wood furniture colour! Anyway that is what I look like today.



I’m also paying bills and generally getting the house in order. The new glasses are great but squishing down the lenses for this dude who is nearsighted with astigmatism gives the lens border a glow around the frame when the glasses are new. Fear not, as they get older and dirtier that glow will disappear and look more natural. I’m really weighing the pros and cons to getting my eyes lasered for presbyopia - but it all works so well for me as is. I’m not some kid looking for dates and marriage and family - that ship has sailed - but I wondered what life is like without having glasses constantly on my head. However, I forget that for a few years I did wear contacts - I didn’t get more girls than with the glasses - so.....



Here is what a 2000 dollar pair of glasses look like!


Also, at my age you do wonder about your legacy. Having a family gets that box checked, yet like everyone else you always want more. Same here, no family and maybe no legacy if the ideas and philosophy do not take off. You do have something but whether anyone will remember you for it is another thing. Don’t go by web searches of your name. If you search under your name in other countries under a private VPN you will see you don‘t register or matter at all. Funnily, my personally website under .com does not pop up but my .org extension does and redirects to IAIJ. Me thinks I will change that to the positive mandate and worldwide vote links instead. For almost all of us, we don’t matter and if we die there will be a few posts about it online. At the funeral, people would say he was a good man. And I will be forgotten and erased from time with not even my DNA surviving. The world simply does not care. Even if you do make it into the history books, will that history be accurate or the truth? Only you care and by then you won’t be around. Life is a cheat - that is the only truth.....




Goodnight.....
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Tue Jan 12, 2021 9:36 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

And so goes the slow process of getting Syse’s material into the digital world.




Syse - Black Fire Diaries


Records labels don’t exist anymore - except for a few like us - and if you go to the usual aggregators they make it more difficult to send out your material as they literally just deal with the artists now. In fact they want to morph into record labels now - but where the artist pays them instead of vice versa - or they give their songs away for free. This was not how it was supposed to be in the past.



In fact the rather legendary “rip offs” of songs from artists in the past pale by comparison to what is happening now as music has little to no value in the business world today. Anyway I’ll get that album out there and Rudegal Tab’s. Then we as a collective at FOF will investigate becoming our own aggregator and deal with the digital stores and streaming services directly! We now have enough releases and don’t have to put up with this crap anymore.






Come to think about it - it has already begun with us offering CD sales directly through Amazon. The aggregators offer you this option but only in packages with limited pre-done artwork. We do it old school just like in the past so in this corner we have already replaced this digital store aggregator. More
to follow but it is funny how I forgot about that!



Apart from that I am looking at one new place for our head office here in Toronto and will contact them today.




Goodnight.....
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Wed Jan 13, 2021 11:53 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Time compression and time to do things as you get older.....



Yes, I was thinking about that today. As you get older your metabolism slows down and so time relative speeds up. Add to this the fact that as you get older there are less new things to occupy yourself with and you even start to embrace nostalgic things of the past - that years can go by and you do wonder - where did all the years go?





At my desk on the floor of the General Assembly Hall!



If I’m honest with all of you I must say that that hasn’t happened yet. If anything, the past seventeen years have been some of the slowest in my life. One is that I always had a fast metabolism and it’s still relatively fast - and the second is all the accomplishments and diversity in my life over those years. If you had told me 20 years ago what I have done today - I simply would not believe it: “Hey Maurice - in the next 20 years you will put on TV shows coast to coast on Canada’s largest networks. Feature length movies on the big screen in a stand alone theatre. Premiere a TV series. Become CEO of 6 international corporations. Write two books. Run a record label and host large outdoor concerts and indoor events with big name performers. Run an advertising company with billion dollar clients. Make speeches at UNESCO and the United Nations with one on the floor of the General Assembly (I even got to apply to speak at that famous green marble podium - how many even get that close?). Become a significant factor in having citizen journalists and bloggers identified as legitimate media workers as international policy as voters upon by majority vote at the United Nations. Disseminate a full turn key solution to allow a worldwide vote through smart phones at the United Nations. Disseminate the Positive Mandate for Humanity at the United Nations as the marching orders for all of humanity. Realize your dream as a “man of the world”. Nope would not have believed it but it all came through!




FOFSTOCK!


So all that slowed down time for me even at that age. Covid 19 really slows things down or sped time up for me last year, but some stuff still happened. Maybe the first half of this year is a wash too but things will pick up again. But I will have less time and I am not immortal so what time I have left will go faster and faster. There is a case to be said that I’m really at the twilight of my life - but The Fates seemed to have given me an extra seven years on the rest of you. Still, I get treated as a second class citizen, and I constantly get thrown in to unsafe situations just like the rest of the brown people like me. Your accomplishments mean nothing on the street. You are just another second or third class citizen. Spend those seven years wisely despite Covid 19. Make the plays as planned - nobody lives forever.....





The Fates!



In other news:



It’s not official but I should make an announcement about the new location of our head office in a day or two.



Goodnight.....
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Thu Jan 14, 2021 12:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Its official – we are moving our official office as of February 1, 2021:



Sam wrote:
FOF Moving to New Location February 1, 2021!




By Samantha Blackwell





7030 Woodbine




Please note that FOF headquarters will be moving to:



7030 Woodbine Avenue (Suite 500)
Markham, Ontario, Canada
L3R 6G2




We still call our location as Toronto as the boundary between Markham and Toronto is Steeles avenue and this building is immediately on the other side of that street - so close enough as everyone knows Toronto but most international people don’t know where Markham is. As of February 1 please send all mail to this address and probably from that last week of January on due to delivery delays.




FORTRESS OF FREEDOM: BRINGING THE MASS MEDIA TO THE MASSES!




I made the move as its cheaper and close to home. I will regret moving away from a place where everyone knew me by face because we were there for like 10 years, but conditions change. Our office is with Regus and Regus is one of the more expensive ways to go but it works for us. I can keep things as inexpensive as possible like just for mail or add telephone support and boardrooms for meetings and cubbyhole offices for more extended needs. On paper Regus is very expensive but for those companies who are agile it can work and be very affordable. It also gives you access to any Regus facility around the world. From my one Regus account I can book office space temporarily at any Regus location on earth or send packages for pickup to those locations. In New York we have designated the Regus office on Park Avenue as it’s close to the United Nations but I could just as easily use the one on Third Street I believe or close to Central Park or even in Times Square. London England – we would use the location at Canary Warf, same thing for India or Geneva. The rates are expensive but they are the only option if you need to do business. I can’t use the hotel in New York, for example as they have no board rooms – only Regus gives me that option through its worldwide account. So while I did toy with smaller outfits that are cheaper, Regus worked well for us!






New York Park Avenue Office!



Like any change of location, all files with the government and contact information on the websites will have to be changed. I’ll start next week as correspondence takes a while to get to the new location and I will say my goodbyes to our old location as late in January as possible.



Oh my God – listen to me talk; could it be we are finally starting up advocacy again? This was unexpected…..



Later…..
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Maurice Ali



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Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Fri Jan 15, 2021 9:31 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have three Facebook accounts, five YouTube accounts, seven Instagram accounts and nine Twitter accounts.


Guess what - I don’t do much of anything in them at all. I do note the record label Instagram and YouTube account now notifies about new music, but I don’t rely on them in anyway. What I do have are lots and lots of websites. You may ask why not go to big tech platforms and work it for notoriety and cash?



The reason why is that then big tech has you under their thumb! All the work you did in their platform can be taken away from you at a whim. And what kind of people make these decisions - here is the CEO of Twitter (I can understand the beard as he is worth 12 billion and has to listen to nobody - but a nose ring on a 44 year old CEO?):







You know who runs Facebook. Strangely I even came within a few feet of Eric Schmidt (at the UN) who at the time was the Chair of Google/Alphabet and worth 10 billion dollars - could have said “hello” and shook his hand - but I chickened out - won’t chicken out again. He was just another bespectacled middle aged guy who looked to be wearing the same brand of suit I had on. No offence,but I would not have him have control over my ability to to express myself to the world! They are just people like me. Look over there - what looks to be Vint Cerf - father of the internet - not exactly what you thought they would be like. They are people just like me and to be honest it does cross your mind that you may have something extra on these guys now that you met them in the flesh. I does empower you!






Big tech takes all that you have to give to the world, monetizes it for their profit and pays you back with “likes” and crap like that. Ultimately they want you to perceive that their handful of websites “are” the internet. Facebook floated this idea for third world citizens. It did not take due primarily to advocates in India pressing the point of net neutrality.



Social media has to be brought back to the idea that everyone has their own website and interacts with everyone else like a node in a huge peer-to-peer global community. It is still possible. I still post alone on this obscure website I own. I don’t use algorithms and I’m not beholden to algorithms - seriously, people need to disconnect from these “social feeds” which are not very “social” in the end. Nobody will own me - at least not in the net.....



Goodnight....





(NSFW)
https://youtu.be/LNRBt34gORU
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Sat Jan 16, 2021 10:44 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

It looks like any trips to the United Nations this spring won’t happen as seen from this email:


“Due to the prevailing circumstances imposed by the coronavirus pandemic, the UN is obliged to consider extraordinary precautions to ensure the safety of its staff and visitors alike. In lieu of in-person attendance, the UN will continue to primarily rely on alternative arrangements for civil society participation in events at the United Nations through virtual platforms for NGOs in consultative status with ECOSOC. Under these circumstances, requests for UN Grounds passes for 2021 will not be approved for New York until further notice.”



So I’m glad I went with the written statement about the worldwide vote for our participation at the is years Commission for Social Development. Now we see what things look like in the fall. However, I seem to have done the bare minimum for my advocacy even if we never go back there - but you know that won’t be true.....







What is next at the UN? That idea of the “Global Citizen” for one. That we are all citizens of the world and that nationalistic geopolitical stamps on us are just one of our identities. But we are also global citizens interested in global matters like climate change and the worldwide vote is an adjunct to that idea. Why embrace being a global citizen? One reason is that others are like us and thus we have empathy for other people around the world and their happiness. That is where the positive mandate comes in. So we have a blueprint of goals for humanity, the moral imperative as to why we all should embrace those ideals; a mechanism (worldwide vote) to use numbers to push for change. And the argument as to why we should look at ourselves as global citizens in a global social contract with each other.


IAIJ already gave me the ok to proceed with an investigative report about the global citizen social contract and possibly advocate on its behalf. That would be what’s next on the agenda; then back to journalism and the algorithm issue for the next WSIS meetings. I really have to update our global citizen website:


https://aglobalcitizen.net



So at least that is something to do this weekend. And I don’t care about views or likes here - only doing what is right - only right is right!



Goodnight.....
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Sun Jan 17, 2021 10:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Syse’s album is now on iTunes. We won’t make an announcement until it also shows up on Spotify so maybe another day or so. However, for those interested – you can have a taste of Syse on iTunes/Apple Music before the announcement!




Syse - Black Fire Diaries



I spent much of Saturday with the family and took a drive and walk around this place called Edwards’s Gardens, and then looked at some mansions most notably Prince’s house that I had been in before (also used his personal Grammy nominated music engineer back in the day), Drake’s house on Park Lane Avenue. I then was surprised to see Conrad Black’s house basically demolished and it seems to be purchased by the private school next door or behind the former Black property). There is a large crane and real building girders and supports being erected. Wow – I didn’t even think you could get that kind of zoning in such an exclusive community! So now all I have are memories of going to the Black’s residence. It was this low slung home really, not like the high monstrosities there now. In his day Black (and “Lady Black” Barbara Amiel – former editor of the Toronto Sun) had security roaming around that place (like in a Scarface movie) but the funny part was his gate never worked properly so you just came in whenever you felt like it.....Hehehehehehe..... In the end I don’t care about politics of the day - that makes me an easy guy to live with internationally and diplomatically, I only care about the big picture as I always see humanity from the outside in and not from within. Black had a lot of big newspapers – and strangely I ended up with one of my own – and I forgot to mention the real paper newspaper on my "resume” above (how could I forget that) and that I was editor of that paper for a few years. So that was Saturday with the family.




One of the first pictures on the server - this is how I saw myself 17 years ago!



Anyway I will cobble up an in-depth report about the social contract between everyone on earth to everyone on earth and start to get the word out to the world – or dissemination of the concept – to the places that mater and have a full cohesive philosophy of humanity’s way forward from geopolitical structures like countries and such. That will all change soon and I intend to give humanity some alternatives that work. This in the end was not a bad trade off for no family and kids and all the rest. I was capable enough to do it and so I really can’t complain. Now is just the mechanical things to further disseminate the ideas and concepts and philosophy. I guess that’s worth a life. We are all just mostly water, it is that fragile as to whom we all are, and in the end our existence matters so little, except possibly what we add to the human condition and in this case human culture. I did my part and if it is not adopted then a future artificial intelligence may find this signpost to self-fulfillment as good as any. Humans are overrated.....




One of The Fortress issues! - How could I forget I was editor and ran a real paper newspaper?




Goodnight.....





https://youtu.be/nHDEg-JOo18
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