Tuesdays with Tom: Mailbag Time!
Welcome back to the official Tuesdays with Tom mailbag! We’ve done these sporadically over the years and we’re bringing it back. Pretty self explanatory so I’ll just dive right in. Let’s see what people are wanting to know.
Why on Earth did I receive a Tuesdays with Tom on a Wednesday night two weeks ago?
- The Tuesdays with Tom family
There’s a very simple reason for this. I forgot to send it on Tuesday! In the four and a half years I’ve been doing this, I have never straight up forgotten to send that on Tuesday. However, that particular week I was in Bellevue, Washington for a three day work conference. The combination of flying over 2,000 miles away, shifting into a new time zone and mingling with over 150 people at once was a lot to digest. I didn’t realize it until Wednesday night and then I quickly sent it out on the flight back to Chicago. So on behalf of myself, I apologize for that oddity.
How was the live podcast event for Friday Night Beers?
Wowie, what a fun night! Thanks to everyone who joined us at The Standard Bar & Grill on the 20th. It was a huge success. Vince and I had a blast interacting with everyone there and we will definitely be doing another live event for our show at some point in the future. If you missed it, we recorded it and it’s available on our podcast feed to download.
You noted in one of your newsletters that the Cubs rebuild was a disgrace despite a World Series title, and the White Sox rebuild was phenomenal, yet no playoff series wins. Will you issue an apology if the Sox fail to meet expectations this year?
- Chris K.
Chris has submitted a question for every single mailbag I’ve done. I appreciate the interest and engagement man! With that said, he’s jumped to a few inaccurate conclusions here. I never said that the Cubs rebuild was a “disgrace”. That would be wildly inaccurate and only a blindly ignorant hater would say something like that. Anytime your team wins a championship, it is a massive success. In the case of the Cubs, winning their first World Series in 108 years is particularly impressive and memorable. That’s legitimately one of the biggest moments in American sports history. That’s not a disgrace. What I DID say though is that I strongly felt in the moment that they’d never win another one with that group. At the time, that was an unpopular take given the make-up of that roster. They had an amazing core of very young players, a well respected manager and maybe the best sports executive in all of American professional sports running the club. It felt like they had a 10-year window to compete for more World Series titles. Instead, they didn’t do much with the talent and the entire team was pretty much gone within five years. I was in the minority in making that prediction, but I ended up being correct. I think most Cubs fans would agree that blowing up the team five years after the biggest moment in franchise history was not on anyone’s radar in 2016. People felt similarly about the 1985 Chicago Bears after their dominant Super Bowl run. And 37 years later, Bears fans are still waiting on their next Super Bowl win. The Cubs will always have the 2016 team, but I think it’s fair to say that they left some meat on that bone.
To your White Sox comment, it’s frankly very fair to ask if their rebuild is going as well as people hoped. Yes, I have been very complimentary of the talent they’ve acquired. But I also never said it was “phenomenal”. The last two years the Sox have given me a lot of enjoyment and entertainment after a solid decade of being a complete afterthought. But the expectations now are title or bust with this group. And right now, it’s not looking good on that front. When you zoom out to the beginning of Rick Hahn’s tenure as general manager, they have accomplished very little. As you noted, they haven’t even won a playoff series with this group and last year’s humbling defeat by the Astros was a real wake-up call. This season is not off to a good start no matter how you look at it. They struggle to score despite having a bevy of talented hitters. I’m beginning to think it’s not a coincidence that they have so many players hurt all the time. But it’s a long season. I’d still pick them to win their division, but they need to start beating the best teams if they’re going to make a World Series run. At the same time, I don’t think their window has slammed shut and they should be competitive for years to come. As for issuing an apology, Chris is famous for demanding those. But I’d like to wait until at least after next year before I make a firm ruling on the success or lack thereof with this White Sox team. But he’s got my word that if it does falter, I’ll own it like a man.
Will Kenny Pickett win a Super Bowl with the Pittsburgh Steelers?
- Dad
I feel like there’s only one answer to this question. And that answer is HELL YES!! Here we go Steelers!
Any thoughts on the new Kendrick Lamar album?
That would be the album titled Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers. You could probably count on one hand the number of modern day artists who are so singularly important that they demand your full attention with every new track. Right now, Kendrick Lamar is on that list. Anytime an artist of Lamar’s caliber takes five years off from making an album, there are lofty expectations. But it’s been a particularly chaotic five years and I knew Kendrick Lamar would have a hell of a lot to say. I say all of that to say that I don’t know if it was possible for any new Kendrick album to ever live up to the hype. I consider 2017’s DAMN. a rap masterpiece and he won a Pulitzer Prize for 2015’s To Pimp A Butterfly. I loved good kid, m.A.A.d city and even the Black Panther soundtrack had plenty of bangers. With that in mind, Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers might be his fourth best album, but it’s still better than most music that the rap industry currently cranks out. I know I’m not the authority on all rap quality, but I’m knowledgable enough to know when I see shitty music. There’s way too much of it in rap today. We’ve seen plenty of the genre’s legends lose their touch (looking at you Kanye). Kendrick has not lost any steps, but I think expecting him to top multiple magnum opus worthy albums was probably unfair. This album probably is the opposite of the phrase “the whole is better than the sum of its parts”. I actually like the sum of the parts more than this whole. “N95” was the first song I really loved and probably the closest thing the album has to a traditional rap single. The soulful, deeply introspective Kendrick comes out on tracks like on “Purple Hearts” and “Count Me Out”. He seems to acknowledge that he’s tired of being rap’s savior in a song literally titled “Savior” and he’s within his rights to feel that way. The final track “Mirror” ends with the refrain “I choose me, I’m sorry”. After creating some of rap’s master works with incredibly thought provoking commentary, I think he’s earned the right to be a little selfish. Basically, if you love Kendrick or just great, thoughtful music, Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers will deliver the goods. Even if it doesn’t match the epic height of its predecessors.
What was your takeaway from the media upfront and newfront season this year?
People seem to like my inside advertising industry chatter for some reason. For the first time in three years, the swanky, glorified party known as upfronts returned to New York City and Los Angeles. Traditionally, this was when broadcast networks like ABC, CBS and NBC trotted out their TV lineups for media buyers and patted themselves on the back for how great they were. Then a bunch of people would get drunk at expensive parties and congratulate themselves prematurely on a job well done. As many people correctly pointed out, this year’s upfront season felt pretty different from years past. The decline of linear television is a topic that’s been beaten to death. But there were two comments during this cycle that really caught my attention. The first came from T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert at our sales conference a few weeks ago. He told a room full of T-Mobile’s advertising solutions team members that too many marketers are “paying the most expensive rates for the worst performance TV has ever produced.” That’s a jaw dropping admission from a man who’s indirectly in charge of an advertising budget that spends eight figures a year on TV! But he’s 100% correct. Despite the nonstop chatter about linear TV’s rampant inventory issues and shitty ratings, brands demand agencies to buy it all and pay more for it every single year. I understand how supply and demand works, but what other industry produces worse results every year and INCREASES their price? It all boils down to the simple truth that most people are terrified of change. Television advertising has been a successful strategy for over 60 years and moving into the digital age has been a slow, painful transition. Most agencies need the money too badly to tell their clients to change and even if they do, plenty of them don’t want to hear it. I’m not saying that nobody should be buying linear TV anymore, but it’s way past time to start abandoning that sinking ship.
This brings me to the other thought provoking statement. The biggest industry benefit of attending upfronts was getting a sneak peek at the upcoming shows before anyone else. But as Variety pointed out, hardly any of the presentations showed previews of new shows. It wasn’t even clear which shows would be on linear or streaming. It felt like a missed opportunity to be bold. Why? Because these companies have no idea what to do with streaming. Recently, Warner Discovery said they are no longer producing new scripted series for TNT or TBS. The literal slogan of TNT used to be “We Know Drama”. More like “We Know Drama (Doesn’t Work on Linear)” am I right?! Seriously, when was the last time you caught a linear TV show live when it actually aired? These upfronts can’t show any previews because they’ve moved almost everything entirely to streaming where people have to pay to play. Live sports are still keeping the lights on at these networks and there’s no previews available for that. Eventually, there will be a time when advertising figures out how to make this monetization shift from linear TV into streaming. But it’s going to get more convoluted before it gets more clear. I’m certainly not important enough to be at those bigwig industry events like the upfronts. And at the rate it’s going, they won’t be around by the time I am in that category.
What’s the stupidest thing you’ve seen recently?
We’ll close with this gem. For the first time in several years, I had a night out in Wrigleyville a few weeks ago. As a non-Cubs fan who’s approaching the end of his 20s, there’s very little reason for me to be in that area on a weekend. However, I made an exception to hang out with some friends I haven’t seen in awhile. Anyway, as many of you know the bars on Clark Street tend to cater to a very young and often over served crowd. While I was minding my own business at one of these watering holes, a man pointed to the floor and asked me if the weed pen laying there was mine. It wasn’t mine because I do not carry a weed pen. I didn’t know whose it was, but decided to lay it on the nearest table so it would no longer be collecting the unfathomable type of germs produced by a Wrigleyville bar floor. A different man was sitting at this table looking at the pen. Clearly, it was not his own otherwise he would have claimed it earlier. He continued to look at the pen for several seconds and then did something that I have never seen in 29 years of life. The man reached for an ice cube from a glass of water and began rubbing it on the mouth end of the stranger’s, floor-ridden weed pen. I suppose in his mind, the melted water would effectively eliminate all foreign and unhealthy substances from the pen. I’m not a doctor, but I’m pretty sure that’s not how germs work. If water could instantly eliminate germs, we’d be living in a much different society. Nevertheless, you know where this is going. The man smoked the pen when he was done! I watched this all with a friend next to me and we were laughing very hard. It was a good reminder of why I do not make a habit of being in that neighborhood on a Saturday night. Or any time for that matter.
Tom’s Thoughts of the Week
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I don’t know anyone who works for the Department of Homeland Security, but I refuse to believe that this REAL ID transition is anything but a ploy for money. In case you weren’t aware, it will soon be required for anyone over the age of 18 to have a REAL ID at the airport to fly in the United States. What is a REAL ID? It’s basically extra verification of your identity within the Department of Homeland Security. It’s remarkably similar to the requirements for TSA Precheck, which I already have. They want to know who you are, where you live, other proof of your existence and if you have a bank account. You’d think all of those things were implied if you are booking a flight, but apparently not! You can opt not to get a REAL ID, but you will need a passport instead if you choose to avoid it. My license was on the verge of expiring so I decided to bite the bullet and make the switch. Be warned though: you will need to show several different documents to apply and you cannot do it online. You have to go to the DMV and pay $31 in Illinois. The only positive thing I can say is that that DMV trip was astoundingly fast and I received my new ID in a few weeks. I just don’t believe for a second that this is actually for our benefit as a society.
George Carlin’s entire life and career was way before my time. But as a student and consumer of comedy, I’ve known about him for many years and seen some of his specials on TV randomly. I learned considerably more about the man watching the new HBO documentary George Carlin’s American Dream. The film is a two-part, nearly four hour experience that covers seemingly every single detail about Carlin’s life and his journey as a stand-up comedian. For example, I didn’t know that he was originally a clean-cut comic in the 1960s doing fairly wholesome bits on TV and radio. It wasn’t until the 1970s that he pivoted into edgier material when his career really exploded. Carlin’s forever part of American history because of his joke about the “seven words you can’t say on television”, which didn’t formally exist in the FCC until he called it out. His obsession and dissection of the human language was nearly unparalleled in the art form of comedy. The biggest takeaway from this is that Carlin was incredibly smart, blunt and unapologetic about his views and beliefs. Perhaps more so than any stand-up comedian ever, he made a career out of living with radical honesty and making it incredibly funny. If you’re a fan of his work or comedy in general, you’ll find a lot of value from watching this one.
The NBA playoffs have been a bit lackluster lately. Several of the games have been blowouts and frankly boring. However, I am intrigued by the matchup of the Boston Celtics against the Golden State Warriors. The Warriors renaissance has been a lot of fun to watch. They had a rough two years before their resurgence this year and they took advantage of the Phoenix Suns early playoff exit by thrashing the Mavericks. They deserve to be favored, but I think the Celtics match up pretty well against them. I’ll take the Warriors in six games and let’s hope for some competitive basketball.
Conan O’Brien became the latest podcaster to sell his collection of shows for a massive paycheck. Sirius XM has acquired the Team Coco podcast suite for a cool $150 million. O’Brien recently ended his long running late night TV show, but he’s been quietly humming along on various podcasts since the show ended. The flagship show is Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, but it also includes a “behind-the-scenes look at his late night shows called Inside Conan and a Parks and Recreation series hosted by Rob Lowe and Alan Yang called Parks and Recollection.” One thing it doesn’t include is exclusivity. This is something that continues to baffle me in the world of podcast acquisitions. If I’m paying $150 million for a podcast network, I want it to be exclusive to my platform to entice people to subscribe and give my company money. I understand why creators still want to be universally available, but it just seems odd business wise to allow that to happen. Also, I’ve yet to see conclusive evidence that these massive podcast deals are profitable for companies like Spotify and Sirius XM. How quickly can they make enough in subscriptions and ad revenue to turn a profit? It’s a mystery box until further notice. For what it’s worth, I’ll happily sell my podcast to almost anyone right now for $150 million. Please, make me an offer now!
I know occasionally I say this isn’t a space where I’ll discuss politics. But at this point, I don’t think the rampant gun violence that we experience daily in this country is a political issue. Senseless, preventable murder should be a bipartisan issue. Too many people have guns who shouldn’t have them. You don’t have a soul if these events have no effect on you. It’s sickening and disgusting how many of these mass shootings occur. Do you know how many shootings at schools have occurred just this year? 27. 27!! I can’t even keep them all straight in my head. And it’s not just happening at schools. There have already been 223 mass shootings this year in the United States and last year there were 693 mass shootings. There were 11 more over the weekend. If those statistics don’t disturb you, they should. The mere fact that we have a definition of a mass shooting is bad enough. “A shooting where at least four or more people are shot and killed.” That doesn’t account for how often I wake up to news of people being shot in Chicago in places you’d never expect. This is nothing new, but we’ve become way too accepting of it and numb to it for way too long. I commend people like Steve Kerr for using his platform to get riled up about this publicly. But it doesn’t seem to matter who calls for change or how many outlets are critical of this issue. Nothing changes. How can something as simple as background checks for guns not get legislated? We need our political leaders to step up and do something. Or we need to vote for the people who are going to do it. It should be that simple and I don’t see how that has anything to do with your political beliefs.