Fortress Of Freedom Board

[Maurice Ali]

The photo above is the south west corner of the Corus building. Check out the people taking in the sun on that man-made beach with umbrellas and beach chairs. Wow!


On Sunday we have our conference call and this one was more energetic than most. In short the kids took over and made some subtle demands:


1. More separation between the journalist org and FOF.

2. Incorporation of FOF RECORDS.

3. Phone numbers connected to business names (association and FOF).

4. Office downtown.

I have no problem with more separation between association and FOF. Remember that both were here at this message board in the beginning. Incorporation with the record label is just a matter of time. BTW I think we are probably the only one incorporating a record label these days.....hehehe..... The phone numbers with company names on call display is a vanity but I am not adverse to changing from my name on them. We kept it that way as everyone up till now knew who had the cash box and pulled the strings. I guess we just grew a bit more and so that change is no problem for me. As for the office downtown, well we already occupy a half-million dollar house right now, but the downtown office makes sense next year, maybe a four month rental. We might try that. That is it for now everyone.

[Maurice Ali]

I find myself, more and more, editing what I say here. Less and less my place and more and more the member's. Yesterday I talked about decisions, love and this place - all edited out. What I can say now is that I really would love more years to my life to really see what happens to everything. I am making plans that don't include me at the helm, but you have all heard that before. Life is cruel as I could not do this as a young man and now that I can I am an old man, at least with all these 19 and 20 year olds around I just see the fun that is capable here and I guess I just want it all. The philosopher in me says this place is the creation of ideas and concerns debated when I was myself in my early twenties and now I am doing something about it. I, and others like me, are babysitting humanity as the media and digital revolution transform everyone into the totally wired in society and ensure that free speech and freedom of expression - of all forms - remains intact through access to this totally wired in mass media. No messages, just a demonstration of access - simple as that. Fortress Of Freedom, what a great name.

[Maurice Ali]

Just spinning wheels right now but you can check out this article on PETA at our sister site at IAIJ:





http://iaij.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=448

[Maurice Ali]

I will finally put something up here. I had some long-winded personal stuff I typed up yesterday but did not post it. I figured I needed to put some personal stuff up for friends but the Internet connection went funny and I took this as a sign so..... I do save that stuff anyway so don't think I am not trying. The kids want more separation of websites and more business stuff on here, but I will digress occasionally.

We are still mulling over when to incorporate FOF Records and that should tell you much about where we stand today with things. Just work backwards from that decision and many things become uncovered. It is amazing how much music made much of what this organization is all about. The television stuff especially. Music has worked for us. The bigger decisions are about trying our wares in the States. There is a push to go to the States, everything would be easier to do down there, even in the economic state right now. In Canada the markets are tinier, less audience, less money, less venture capital..... It goes on. By venture capital you can see we are knocking on the door of the next organizational level after spending a whole six months at the present.

Yes, to really get things going we eventually have to partner with some media company. I thought we would have a bit of time but there we are. I slept through last weekend, a rarity for me, that usually means things are on my mind. The usual personal stuff but the decisions about this place for sure. All the while the organization gets slagged with me as its cornerstone. But we are getting slagged by a higher standard of people and organizations than ever before. They certainly don't find us boring.....

[Maurice Ali]

The first Blackberry phone - 7100ti - and then the Curve.


Too much going on to elaborate but we have switched from Blackberry Curve to iPhone 4 yesterday. Some quick notes:

1. I was pushing from Yahoo and for the iPhone 4 you need a paid account with Yahoo so I am pushing from our paid Hotmail account with is also our aggregate collection email account for all companies. Yes a paid Hotmail account - no lossed email and customer service and no ads.....

2. The Blackberry Torch is a contender. Sure the iPhone screen is better but you need to see it three inches away from your eyes to use it and most middle-age guys would never know the difference - Not a deal breaker - I actually said that aloud when comparing (and yes my myopic eyes can focus that close still).

3. The iPhone wins against the Android Samsung Galaxy with much better build construction. You can't see it with that bumper on it but the iPhone is tempered glass and stainless steel, no plastic to scratch or chrome plastic to wear out.

The bad thing about the iPhone is that it is always out of stock everywhere. I got lucky and found one - one - with a 16 gig capacity (would have preferred 32) and that was it so I took the dive. I an still getting used to it but it is just another phone in the end. We may yet go back to Blackberry and keep this one in the phone pool for what will probably be a busy year next year. I hate to say it but I sill prefer the real keyboard and track pad - yup I said it. And Blackberry knows it, and they skillfully made a phone that does most of what the iPhone does (including changing orientation as you rotate the phone) so the businessman can play with the "toys" and go back to using the tried and true tools they are used to and not feel left out. That is really what it is about with Blackberry and I think they will still keep their clientele for at least another round.



The new iPhone 4 with black bumper attached!

[Maurice Ali]

This is one busy place. Too much going on - but you knew that - but I am getting the nuts and bolts of the iPhone 4 review as I learn the phone. The biggest drawback to this phone is no LED light to show emails or missed calls. That is practicaly a "deal breaker" as it is a royal pain to unlock the screen to check. Multi-media is great but that LED. The resolution of the screen is so good it gives me eye strain looking at it for long periods. I can take full resolution of the thing with my glasses off and it is just like watching TV at about eight inches from your face - cool, but hard on the eyes. The screen has most appeal for the young people with eyes that can focus close enough to take full advantage of the resolution.

So I am keeping it for awhile and see how things go. It is popular with the artisitc set and so it helps my image a bit there, the Torch is more businessman and the Android just labels me as a full Geek. The glass and stainless steel design is a winner for me and that metal headphone jack sealed the deal for all that I wanted from a phone, but I never figured on the LED.....

Some more later.

[Maurice Ali]

To finish off the cell phone saga I should tell you that I did not want to just mothball the Blackberry so I looked for the cheapest plan to keep the phone available for occasional use, like when Sue visits from England or one of our guys needs a phone on offical company business. I had to drive out of my way to do it but there it was at the local 7-11! The provider is called Speakout and is sold through the 7-11 convenience stores. Odd right but there it is. The provider braggs about it being the ony one with the 365 day expiry. That means that if you top up the plan with 25 dolllars you can keep the phone active for one year with 100 minutes befoe topping it off again. That is the cheapest for a third phone at FOF. I had to initially buy one of their phones and set it up then transfer the SIM card to the Blackberry but it now works. I put 100 dollars on the plan and got the phone for free. That phone is an old design Nokia which is a truly cheap peice of junk but i will keep it just incase - who would buy it.....

[Maurice Ali]

Big announcement in a few days!


Fortress Of Freedom Corporation/FOF RECORDS

[Maurice Ali]

[Maurice Ali]

I finally have a chance to catch my breath..... I am catching up on paperwork and setting things up at FOFSTOCK. To our newbies at these projects, remember that not everyone will be as enthusiast about the venue - for a variety of reasons - but keep pushing the venue to those "silent ears" that is called promotion. You will find the true satisfaction in a rock'in concert, in other words, from within and those moments can be the greatest moments in our lives.


Goodnight.....

[Maurice Ali]

Well we are certainly a blip on the radar scope again. We are in that vast infindibulm between the mausoleum of defunct record labels and large media giants that still survive in the music industry. As small as were are, we are effectively considered medium sized business in the music industry. That is because the music industry has been utterly decimated by the devaluing of intellectual property of illegal downloads/sharing. You really see most people turning a blind eye to all the collapse, but it is there in all the footnotes of those labels of just a few years back.

We entered the industry in the middle of total collapse and will survive as we had no significant infrastructure investment in an archaic business model headed for collapse. So we are still around and kicking with our new type of business model of all-in-in entertainment. I almost called all of this FOF Entertainment but the classic record label is even cooler when they are mostly extinct. So we are a blip on the radar scope, enough of a blip for people to really look at us and "rag" on the organization - but they really look at us and check phone numbers and such - I will take that as a compliment. What happens in the future is an open horizon. Right now business people and banks still look at us as a dog their not sure of, but they now don't write us off immediately like the other small businesses in the music industry, they will take the time to hear me out - sort of like a "wait and see" opinion of the organization.

Put it another way, if we had entered this say 12 years back we would have stood no chance with all the competition at that time. Now we can still enter the market and do things because most of the competition is gone. That is the reality as it exists today. I will post some photos of the square in a day or so for those who live outside of the Toronto area. We have so many things on the go here.....

[Ainsley]

Royalty cheques and Christmas bonuses will be sent out within a week.


Merry Christmas!




Ainsley

[Maurice Ali]

Well well, it looks like we really have a media company going on here. People are actually doing stuff and working to a common goal. While they are wrapped up in that I am already planning for the new year with renewed lobbing for the journalist association, if we don't get what we want in Canada I am now in the mind set to travel to New York and especially Paris to lobby internationally. This was always in the cards but now I am mentally ready to do this. What a long way we have traveled that I can actually speak for a group of people and do this..... Anyway that is in the new year. People continue to ask whether I should be seeking security instead of the rather more dynamic or even hawkish behavior in the media companies and association. My answer is that if I had failure after failure then maybe I would scale back, but we seem to keep hitting home runs so I would be a fool to pull back and spend the rest of my life regretting it. So we push on with the media companies dedicated to providing the atmosphere and access to disseminate creativity to the world and the association to ensure freedom of opinion and ultimately self-determination. If I forward these goals to any appreciable degree in my life, then they can drop me into the hole and throw dirt on me and I will be fine with it all.....


Goodnight (and YDS pcis tommorrow).

[Maurice Ali]

Remember this guy's car:






I'm not sure all our gang realize just how small the gap is between us and them....

Anyway we are sending out royalty cheques and bonuses today.


More later.....

(BTW: It is actually more fun this way - piss poor and dreaming - than established with a large organization to support. But that is just me, and that could change in time (just being honest - but right now is not a bad place to be, and I admit I am a little bit nervous about things as more possibilities have opened up).....



After a week we finally added Willis's picture to the FOFSTOCK website. Willis Hiscock is a veteran musician/performer and event organizer and we are proud to have him on our team!

Love the conversation of "mobile marketing" which uses GPS to target an audience to as narrow of field as bars as in the case of Smirnoff. Just one of the new tools for advertisers on social networks. I still don't know how effective advertising really is here, but time will tell. As things become more specialized and complicated the little man is gradually being pushed out of almost every market out there. It is very hard to be a small businessman these days. Having said that we will probably pick up some more people tonight, it never ends over here.....

And finally.....

One last note before I go. Some will say: Why not start out with small bars and the like, you could even do that forever as an on-going business? The answer is that we are only interested in reaching that mass audience over here. With 15 - 40 million broadcast population with our TV shows to 550,000 actual listeners to our radio segments, we operate in another universe compared to the local bar scene. Similarly with YDS, I saw largest crowds of 150 at the Now Lounge with Shane and Gritz and upwards of 500 for Willis Hiscock, but apart from those two events I would say 30 to 45 per event is the norm. if even that. However, Yonge Dundas Square can regularly pack 8,000 to 10,000 with a popular headliner act. That is not too far off from 30,000 to 60,000 at the Air Canada Center; those are serious numbers and YDS is one of those entry points to the "real concerts." It takes a long time to plan and are expensive, and are really the domain of corporate conglomerates - BTW.....Our legal description "is" a "Corporate Conglomerate" and finally people are not laughing when I tell them that. Having said that, we are " bottom feeders" in this arena; but we are there. And that is the "why" to all the "Buzz" of the last week.


Goodnight.....

[Maurice Ali]

The royalty cheques have been sent and most of the bonuses are being given out. This year more than last. Yah, many new faces which is warming until you have to shell out the money at Christmas.....hehehehehe..... I guess I should not kid around about this as there are many companies - especially in the music industry - that are no more..... Over at the big ship FOF however we are just getting over the euphoria of getting our first big concert date. That euphoria came from the kids but it is infectious and I got caught up in it and actually felt a bit of a "bonk" yesterday - a refreshing feeling for an old fart like myself. Lately I have started to throw the gang the next "curve ball" which is with a decent venue comes the chance of a really big name headline act! We are looking at two of those now and the implications by choosing one over the other, but the real story is the effect on the young people at FOF. Yes, all of a sudden everyone is acting a bit more professionally and making sure things are getting done. I thought it would have been the TV shows that sparked everyone into the knowledge that we had a real media company here, but no it was the concert.

I really need some sleep. BTW: I have increased the floats on the corporate accounts - another sign of growth. With all this good news came a spat of bad luck for me, which is welcome as I don't like a long run of good luck because then something truly bad happens to even things out. This bad luck is just small stuff of little consequence, the way I like it.....