A Social Club of One

[Maurice Ali]

Posted March 2, 2024


I’m looking into the details of purchasing FOF Records Inc. from Maurice Ali by FOFSTOCK. It seems we can do this:



“A not-for-profit corporation is an independent legal entity whose goals do not include gain or profit for its members, although in some cases members can benefit (for example, a golf club). A not-for-profit corporation is also known as a “corporation without share capital”. A not-for-profit corporation can do anything, as long as:


the activity helps achieve the goals in its articles, and


the activity is not prohibited in any law or in your articles or bylaws.”




I’ll probably sell the record label for five cents or something like that. I believe there has to be “consideration” (money) to make the deal legally binding. However, this is not typical business. This time I will have to consult a business lawyer or better yet, the government before I proceed. This is will take some time but in the mean time I will try to make the label as efficient as possible so it’s in the best position to exist in the hands of a not for profit.



That doesn’t mean I’m entirely gone for the label. Maybe I just need to keep minority interest to ensure financial stability. Or perhaps I retain majority interest but have the association buy into a minority interest. This will look rather dodgy to the CRA and IRS. So in the end it’s probably an all out purchase for five cents.



I can actually relax this weekend. I just have to printout the IRS taxes for IAIJ and FOF Records and send them off to Ogden (Utah) for processing.



In summary this idea to start this large North American music advocacy organization is still up in the air. I first need to know if I can do it. Then how. But the music industry is almost dead in many ways from the musician’s stand point. The actual musicians have to assemble and react to the high tech industry and say “enough!” With Spotify now requiring 1000 streams before you can even get any money means the vast majority will never see a penny of cash for their music. They need an organizational structure to “go to bat” on their behalf. Was I the only one sending a letter to Tim Cook to keep
artists being able to change the stage name for their songs? It sure seems like it - the effective associations to do this don’t really seem to exist anymore. I can do this - so I’m doing it…..




The actual letter sent to CEO of Apple Inc. Tim Cook!



Musicians have to show their game face to the corporate world! They are too laid back and “nice” to get what they are owed. So we now have an association called FOFSTOCK with “fangs” to try and change things and hopefully some regular corporations in tow to help out in the business world.




Goodnight…..





https://youtu.be/8Cf8901xZb4?si=lnqt0bGdM8JLlDFx

[Maurice Ali]

Posted March 3, 2024


The weekend started up with promise and then went to shit!



Got up early and then went to my dad’s place to take the family out then my other sister arrived for a visit. Then when she left we all got in the car and I pulled over and parked to check something out and - boom - some guy backing out of his driveway bashed into the back of our car.


So there went Saturday. The folks left the car and walked home and I had to sort things out with the other guy and go to the collision reporting center. I tried to get a quick quote on repairs as it wasn’t major, but everything was closed till Monday.


When all that was done it was Saturday night - Saturday was a complete waste! I did watch some parts of the movie Tenet while eating supper. That movie has to be a cult movie by now. The part I love is when the protagonist (literally goes by the name “Protagonist”) wants to enter this inverted alternate reality and is told to remember that “You are inverted - the world is not” This always clicked with me and how I live in this world.







In the movie Tenet they really do move between worlds that are inverted. Actually a really well done sci-fi movie; but the real thing sort of happens in real life. It happens here but instead of creating an entire universe that is inverted - you can get the same thing in an individual that thinks completely differently - by default - than the rest of the world. That exists today and I may be one them.



No, I don’t see the world as inverted. But my interest in philosophy showed me just how plastic my mind is to alternative ways of thinking. Sort of like when you think about a concept like my being a shop-a-holic, we would think about the fun of shopping, while another would see it as an object in space you could point to. You only know your single reality and because of this you deal with concepts as if it was only for you. If you could think in several ways the concept would have to be a “package” that you could open in different mental realities as the concept would affect you in different ways as opposed to the one way for the rest of the world. A package that has a location in space and time that you can find and unpack through different ways of thinking…..



It can be sort of like that. So you are not totally committed to togetherness as the world thinks by default - but you learn to live within it and function in it like the others. You will meet others like you like maybe in University that have cultivated this ability to think in different ways - but it is very rare.



So you can function in this world of the masses but because it is not your one and only reality, you are never as comfy and relaxed as the others in it. You are the odd man, who sometimes utters an odd take on things that puts people “off” sometimes. So things that others fall into without thinking like meeting and marrying a woman and having kids, for most is like just the natural state of things. But for you it is hard work, you have to work at it to get there and you never are really comfortable with it. Race and such come to to this with me but there is also that other stuff.



The good news is that you can look at problems in many ways and can solve things others can’t because they only know one way of looking at a problem. That can get you places in this world but it takes time and you have only one shot at it. Sort of what I’m doing now.


In the movie Tenet, the villain is set on destroying the world with this ability to invert his reality. The Protaginist is able to do the same and it’s hilarious to see the bug-eyed look on the villain when he discovers his abilities are not only his! But I digress.


I hope you don’t see me as this weirdo - as I’m sure children can cultivate this ability before they lose that plasticity of mind. Imagine trying to sell those mental exercises to activate that ability as a kindergarten program. Nope - not going there! That is where I was going years ago talking to you about solving and living life through your visceral self. I’m probably going too fast for you folk now, so I’ll just end this diatribe here…..




Goodnight…..





https://youtu.be/8NrJXvTDd2U?si=14CqdmEPOHTxyjSr


https://youtu.be/eLbWyCN6Kgc?si=GCZ_FXhF9O916ivl

[Maurice Ali]

Posted March 4, 2024



Monday is dealing with the collision repairs on the Buick Enclave. This sucks and just goes to show you that you can plan things as detailed as possible and then - bam - it is something out of your life that happens you never thought about. Actually that is truer to life than you might think. In my case things could have been worse. My 91 year old dad could have had a heart attack or stroke. The back end of this car could have been totaled. All kinds of stuff just happens that you have no control over.



.



I’ll do an update on all the outstanding projects. Like what happened to that 3.8 billion dollar human rights case I have against the provincial government? What about that Futures Summit stuff that was supposed to be on their website? On and on like the Apple voting app? I’ll take a look at the status of all that tomorrow.


With regard to the corporate taxes - I’ll probably sent out the IRS returns for IAIJ and FOF Records in the next few days with the bulk of the Canadian ones in another week.



.
My Les Paul Studio



I replaced the Les Paul Grover tuners with Grover locking tuners that make string changes easier and tuning more accurate. Those cost about 160.00CAN but are worth it! I also changed the strings for the first time on that guitar. Those strings were probably at least two years old and played by who knows how many with sweaty hands - so that got done. I had to drive down to the downtown location store (Long&Mcquade) which for Torontonians is a driving and parking horror show. And I got an opened box set of tuners. Turns out those are the only ones in this part of the province so I’ll take it! Aside from that you see real musicians downtown hanging on to their dreams by a thread - working in that store - and my heart goes out to them.



I thought I would get the PRS locking tuners for that hollow body electric guitar, but no such luck at the store on Saturday - even though they said they were in stock! So maybe I will get them later this week - maybe….







Squashed Squirrel is now on iTunes and Spotify but not YouTube so it’s getting out there but too soon to make an announcement. I’m also pushing the one organizational umbrella of all music related functions with more certainty now. I now have direction and a goal and that is a relief and motivating. In the music world right now it is alluring to just give up and run away - but this new type of musician collective just emboldens me and keeps me in the game. It justifies all the work we have done and continue to do. Anyway, that’s what’s happening there!




Goodnight…..





https://youtube.com/shorts/WlR8YOvGTrE? ... Z0gAaaDncI

[Maurice Ali]

Posted March 5, 2024


So the good news is that I found out my human rights tribunal case for 3.8 billion dollars against the Provincial Government of Ontario is still alive!



.



It turns out you can check your file number for resolved cases - but only resolved cases - in this third party (I believe) website. If I search for my file I got nothing but if I searched minus the last digit I got some cases started around my date.




Usually these cases were abandoned due to non-performance of the applicant, and usually because it fell outside of the jurisdiction of the court. A case did get tossed because the applicant could not show they were harmed by the incident.



For me the government tried the jurisdiction and the usual methods to get it tossed including a summary hearing - but so far I’m still in there!



This could take years but I know for certain the case is still active!



I can’t find my vaccination record for measles. I do have a record for the shots up to 2 years of age but nothing after that. I was three or four years old when they came up with the measles vaccine and I can’t imagine not getting vaccinated in school (anyway) for measles twice in those years. However, it is still a nagging concern in the back of my mind. I know I had the mumps, but not sure about the measles. Now that it’s making a come back here this becomes another thing on my mind. The doctors will say you had to be immunized back in Edmonton in those years so a gambling man would probably forget about it. But still you wonder…..



I check on the collision damage today - fun, fun, fun?







Squashed Squirrel has finally showed up on YouTube. I searched for the song “It” as it’s an anthem song we could used for the orgs. Anyway at least I can link to it without people needing an app or subscription.




Goodnight…..





https://youtu.be/R5khp1wU-W8?si=qiSVA7YpeilI4etI

[Maurice Ali]

Posted March 6, 2024


We should officially release Squashed Squirrel’s album later today or tomorrow! These days people would scoff at all this but remember new music - especially album size - take lots of time and work. Why not continue the tradition of news reports on them. People used to have CD release parties and maybe a play of one of the songs in the local radio station.







Heck, the local artist used to get on radio stations to talk and play a song from the new album. Then on to playing a few venues with the new music. It does seem that we have mostly lost all that enthusiasm for new music. AI just cheapens the effort even more. It’s so depressing that many musicians have started to walk away from active music production. Without being able to tour - even jump in a car playing bar after bar across the province is now an impossibility. You can’t live that lifestyle of gigging for a living. Putting all the music in the world on offer for free has killed the cottage musician industry…..



Hugh high tech, and I place all the blame on them - high tech turned music from a physical product you could buy and make money on, into a digital product anyone couple copy and share without royalties to the artist and the record label. Without money the record labels fell along with their support to their artists. Without a business backing them up, artists could not handle it all and left the music profession - when was the last time you heard music being described as a profession? Talking about the release of a new CD became a subtle joke these days. Maybe you can now release on vinyl but it’s a hard sell to get any interest.




FOF Records still exists because I ran the label with next to nothing fixed costs. We gave the artist 100% royalties and so we won’t even be taking in that - we are talking about you Spotify!








Seriously, the only savior to the industry is to put value back in the music. Shun the streaming websites as you don’t get exposure there anyway. Go back to playing small local events and sell you music in physical form again like records and live performance that change with every appearance like old school house variations.







Right now if you aren’t huge, exposure of streaming sites is meaningless. People halfway across the world don’t care. You can’t play in front of them or have them buy your stuff with real cash going in your pocket - playing real gigs is where you can do that! Play local events and bars where you live and get familiar to people as a performer. With no streaming on offer - sell the vinyl record or a thumb drive for 10 bucks with a signed professional taken photo as a package. CDs are still a thing if you don’t let it die. High end entertainment home systems still accept them.



Get back to some real old school vibes!




So another news item about some guy you don’t know releasing a ten song album…..




Goodnight…..

[Maurice Ali]

Posted March 6, 2024


So Squashed Squirrel’s album is released:

Squashed Squirrel’s Debut Album Released!



By Shane Murphy, Fortress of Freedom Inc. / FOF Records Inc.










The Fortress of Freedom Corporation and FOF Records Inc. have officially released Squashed Squirrel’s latest album Miss Information! This is the debut album headed by front man Mihai Trusca who did most of the work on the album including recording, mastering and producing. The other contributors of Squashed Squirrel include Jim Burdon, Michael Atkinson and Zoltan Du Lac. What follows are some of the digital and social platforms you will soon be able to buy or stream the songs:




iTunes. Apple Music, SimfyAfrica, YouTube Art Tracks, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Play, Deezer, iHeartRadio, Napster, MediaNet, VerveLife, Tidal, Gracenote, Shazam, 7 Digital, Juke, Slacker, KKBox, Akazoo, Anghami, Spinlet, Neurotic Media, Yandex, Target Music, Claromusica, Zvooq, Saavn, 8Tracks, Q.Sic, Musicload, Kuack, Boomplay Music, TikTok, Pandora (but they decide if you are worthy).




You can buy the song from iTunes or stream it on all the popular streaming sites like Spotify or Tidal or Apple Music. There is a large number of stores here and some may take a few more days to show up but they will!




So all of us at FOF congratulate Squashed Squirrel for a great new album and wish the band continued success as their music gets out there!




https://orangemicmusic.com

https://fofrecords.com





FOF RECORDS: CUTTING EDGE MUSIC!

Congratulations to Mihai and the rest of the band on their debut album!



Continuing in the music is that I intend to send to Spotify’s CEO - Daniel Ek - a letter about making a threshold of 1000 views per song before royalties are paid. This letter will be very business like involving contract law and the possible diminishing of the monetary value of Spotify.



Currently FOF gets income regardless of views and nothing is held by us or the aggregators. We pay out 100% of these royalties to our artists. So their “reasons” for doing this do not help musicians even if “they” say it does. Anyway I should send that to their head office in Sweden in the next few days under the not-for-profit called FOFSTOCK. Advocacy is part of its constitution so this is just doing what it does!



For Thursday I have more unpleasant stuff to do with regard to that car crashing into our car last Saturday…..




Goodnight…..




https://youtu.be/NagO7P8KDo0?si=oIAtUU4iS6xnAKga

[Maurice Ali]

Posted March 8, 2024


I just want some things gone!



I finally talked to the guy who hit our car and he is going through the insurance route, so at least I have direction there. So I’ll call up my insurance company on Friday and start things and finally start to put this all behind me.



There is this big rain event turning into snow on the weekend so I’m going to put the sump pump back in its home and turn it in - this usually means winter is over…..




The corporate taxes can be sent as early as tomorrow. I made copies on Thursday and will do a final quick check of the numbers and then send it off to the tax center in Sudbury.



Then I have to go over all the bills and personal tax receipts for everyone in my family and get that ready. It just never ends. I may drive up to the music store today and see what’s happening with those locking tuners for my PRS as the weather will be crap on the weekend. These have been paid for weeks ago and they say the tuners are in stock - so what’s the delay?



I’m noticing more and more that I’m thinking like an old guy. Like if I’m doing something at work and you think “I wonder how long I’ll be doing this?”. Or: “I wonder what my last day of work will be like?” It just flashes through your mind as you will soon have options. I’m almost certain I’ll go till 67 but others a few years younger than me have retired where I am. You can’t hide from it anymore, even if you feel fine and fit, even if doctors say you are younger physically than your actual age - you can’t escape it - that you are getting older. That’s why I’ve made plans for the orgs. That’s why I have to make plans for myself. It’s not exactly happy trails, bad things are going to happen in the future and there is no stopping it. I would be great if you could just stop time and just carry on now forever but that doesn’t happen. You can be the richest man in the world and still end up a wrinkled old man that can’t enjoying his money. It is what it is…..



Anyway, that’s your update.




Goodnight…..

[Maurice Ali]

Posted March 9, 2024


I got my PRS Locking tuners and changed them as my activity for Friday night!




My PRS hollowbody locking tuners!




My PRS hollowbody guitar!



These are - I have to say it - better designed tuners than the others. Not only are they locking for fast string changes but the posts are brass! if you look closely at the hollowbody guitar bridge you will see brass saddles. So you have brass saddles then the strings and brass posts doing the resonating on this guitar which should give a superior sound! Also: They got rid of the large locking wheel on the back of the tuners and replaced that with a small metal (black coated) screw to lock in the string at the top of those brass posts. This means less weight on the head and less chance of “neck dive” when playing the guitar.




My new Fender Telecaster tuners with locking wheels!



These tuners were well worth the price, and a drop in installation. I got drop in tuners for all my guitars as a different shape on the new tuners means you can’t go back to the old ones. The wood around the tuners gets discolored by sunlight and if the replacements are not exactly the same - then you can see the shadow of what was there before and it just looks dodgy.



These last tuner mods mean that now it’s all about playing the guitar!



I should note that the PRS was a legit used guitar at half price. When I took the strings off you can see the beginnings of fret wear on the most commonly used frets on the fret board. This is the guitar you take to your first jam session or concert event for your gang as anyone who plays will see that someone who knows how to play used this guitar - just not me - and you can keep that secret to yourself until you play…..



We now start some social media promotion for Squashed Squirrel as it is in most stores now.



I’ll start on the Spotify letter later today.



I’ll check over the corporate taxes and get ready to send them in.




Goodnight…..

[Maurice Ali]

Posted March 10, 2024


Some sad news this weekend with the death of one of our musical artists.







I’m keeping the name from all of you till we are sure next of kin has been contacted as it just happened. So I’m like the police now, keeping names till next of kin are notified. The question was whether I just not say anything till Monday or Tuesday or say it with the qualifier. Saying it now with the qualifier lets people know the event was important to us but qualified. I don’t want his death to be looked at as an after-thought. More in the coming days and we will post the musical eulogy like we did with Pize and Don.



That makes four that made music with us. Michael’s brother did contribute to music we put out there but was never signed with a contract. So we can only go so far there, but Pize and Don and now this one mark major changes to the artist and the company, because if that contract, and so have to be officially disclosed and announced.




Aside from that, the weekend was uneventful otherwise. I bought a 7 guitar rack to add to the three guitar rack for our seven guitars. I went to the music store for this and tried to see if there were any guitars I could possibly want to add to the collection. Disappointingly there weren’t any.




That was surprising and basically closes off guitar purchases for the time being. Now it’s all about playing. I guess you could say that even if I’m a digital pedal and modeler kind of guy - I should still have a real cab and amplifier in the mix. We shall see, but there is no urgency there. I’m certainly not spending tons of money it. Anyway there will be less guitar corner going forward.




My Ibanez seven string guitar!



What is the guitar I like the most? Probably the Ibanez seven string. It matches my baked in mood. Sometimes moody and dark which requires that seventh string. It also screams Japanese guitar with the Gototh bridge and tuners. The soft basswood body (it resonated better with high gain) protected with a hard polyurethane finish. That technologically special neck, stainless steel frets and all that scream Ibanez and Japanese design, even if
this is made in Indonesia.




My Fender strat now has a new hard case!



After that is probably the Fender Stratocaster (warts and all), as it’s iconic for a guy my age and most of the guitarists I like play it. Like Jimi Hendricks, Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton and the list goes on.



So I turn another chapter in my guitar hobby…..



I guess I need the reminders that life is fleeting and can leave you at anytime. Best to secure your goals and ambitions and try to make them happen. Get your house in order rather than have friends and family be burdened with that…..




Goodnight…..





https://youtu.be/1CcWlKtBzgs?si=1XnSigdgZmE2OTag


https://youtu.be/xvpeIKI4ZiQ?si=8cs5KEwcDhndMOJl

[Maurice Ali]

Posted March 11, 2024


I’ll wait one more day before notices at IAIJ and FOF for our dearly departed member.




So after telling you I was done buying guitars - I didn’t say I was done remaking a present guitar in the collection.



I was actually at the point in giving away my cheap Kramer Focus guitar just as that I didn’t have to look at this embarrassment of a guitar - technically my first guitar. Anyway, it always bothered me that I didn’t have a classic strat. Sure I had a Super Stratocaster, not just a hot-rod strat with the hum-bucker in the bridge position, but also the modern neck, the block saddles and locking tuners and splittable bridge pickups. All that makes it a super strat that looks like a strat but doesn’t quite sound like a traditional strat.




The original pick guard and electronics.



I actually looked at getting this traditional three single pickup strat (SSS) as they were always the must have in every guitarist’s collection. But I had spent enough on guitars already - but what if I converted the super cheap hot-rod piece of crap guitar into a proper “old school” strat?




The old crappy electronics (small pots) and the better board!



A quick look on Kajiji showed a Fender Player loaded pick guard with all the electronics and pickups attached for 130 dollars. We settled on 110 dollars and they were passing by my hood and by around noon Sunday I had it!




The gutted guitar waiting for new electronics!



Now this work requires soldering wires, so I picked up a soldering kit and came home and started dismantling the guitar. You can see the difference in quality as the North American Fender has larger quality electronics and pickups that don’t act as microphones or squeal like the cheap ones did!



I tested the new board and everything worked. I did notice that everything was just a little bit different in spec. So the holes for the pick guard didn’t match. The knobs would not fit the Fender board. I was even going to use the Fender guitar output jack electronics but it just wouldn’t fit in the Chinese housing. Anyway I took out my cordless drill and started drilling pilot holes for the screws and screwed in the new pick guard and all the electronics.




The “new” guitar!



Now I have a cheap Chinese guitar with a mahogany body and maple neck but with North American quality electronics that now sounds like a Fender Stratocaster! I now made a quick run to the music store for the Fender knobs and with new strings the guitar looks like a guitar again! I should note that they had some sort of recital at the store - one guy playing all amped up and others in the audience playing along with their acoustics - cool! The only thing left to do is the tuners, but that can wait as I was blessed with tuners that are hard to turn but say in tune. Anyway I now have a new SSS strat like I’m supposed to have and all for very little money.



No that guitar itch is gone, and that was it for Sunday…..





https://youtu.be/wWcB84Gn1lU?si=kQQfmnyR3YO6OyBw