What else does he know how to do?
― Spirit of the Voice of the Beehive (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 21 January 2019 16:53 (five years ago) link
water guy kinda sounds like jeff goldblum
― Spirit of the Voice of the Beehive (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 21 January 2019 17:04 (five years ago) link
The guy is obv a douche, pretty much all the interviewees talking about his magnetic pull are... also obv douches, which may explain why they were taken in idk
― gray say nah to me (wins), Monday, 21 January 2019 17:13 (five years ago) link
Yeah. Feel like ILX0rs don’t really intersect with his target audience. We might be taken in by other angles though, remember Lunagate.
― Spirit of the Voice of the Beehive (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 21 January 2019 17:17 (five years ago) link
I didn’t realise the Netflix doc was made by the ppl who made the promo btw, I was actually thinking it was pretty skilfully edited to make maximum fun of “fuck Jerry” lol. I haven’t seen the Hulu one but nothing presented here seemed any more self-serving than just about any of the testimony from anyone else. It was funny how some of them were trying to get the audience not just to see them as innocent dreamers but actually to feel aggrieved on their behalf that some internet posters made fun of them - as many people have commented passim the thing that makes this such a heartwarming tale is that everyone involved is the actual worst
― gray say nah to me (wins), Monday, 21 January 2019 17:24 (five years ago) link
― gray say nah to me (wins), Monday, 21 January 2019 17:27 (five years ago) link
I feel like the douche factor in every aspect of life would be drastically reduced if we just started banning cameras from places.
― Yerac, Monday, 21 January 2019 17:29 (five years ago) link
Some of the “influencers” and attendees were honestly like sketch characters
― gray say nah to me (wins), Monday, 21 January 2019 17:32 (five years ago) link
you don't have to have a silver tongue or some sort of physical charisma to *build* charisma and that's kind of lost across the coverage and documentaries because all of the alluring bits of the puzzle are either alluded to or shown as part of the grift
the whole vibe reminds me of people who see bottle service as cool. which, to an extent, it is -- you're really allocating space in part of a club for your group, and buying everyone drinks at the same time without having to keep ordering. if you're genuinely rich or a celebrity who would get bothered a lot, it's a useful service. if you're a normal schlub, it's an extravagance and people wonder why the fuck you're in there spending a zillion dollars when drinks are a lot cheaper in the normal part of the bar
so if you value the perception of affluence and like being catered to -- your own space, better service, jumping some perceived queue, then the guy who offers that to you could seem cool. and if he's friendly and welcoming, even if he's kind of schlubby himself, then maybe you roll with it
and that's basically Billy McFarland's entire grift! the fake social access card and the attached parties at the office, the whole vibe, it's all just bottle service. and since he had this crowd there, he was able to sell the idea he was genuine to investors. well, not very well
― mh, Monday, 21 January 2019 17:33 (five years ago) link
I kept thinking of the dickhead entrepreneur bro who hangs around with aziz ansari’s character in parks & rec
― gray say nah to me (wins), Monday, 21 January 2019 17:34 (five years ago) link
The Magnises townhouse was pretty LOL.
― Yerac, Monday, 21 January 2019 17:36 (five years ago) link
the Hulu doc uses two clips of Entertainment 720
― sans lep (sic), Monday, 21 January 2019 17:41 (five years ago) link
I probably said it before, but selling an entire music festival as if it's the premium tier crap that's basically music festival bottle service (semi-private accommodations, access to an area to watch near the stage just for you) makes absolutely no sense unless you're insanely rich, because the elaborate stages and number of acts are paid off of the tens of thousands of average person tickets, not the tens or hundreds of boutique concert villa people
the reveal in the hulu doc (only one I've watched) that the festival itself was a loan-rolling grift for him to get his app business off the ground isn't surprising, although it's an extreme overreach on the part of a guy who never really pulled anything off. his entire m.o. was to keep grifting higher and larger, and I really think he never understood the numbers or business on where he was reaching
if you're rich enough to try to book Beyonce via an app, you don't need an app. you have people who reach out directly and book Beyonce
I guess if there are like, a few hundred Gaddafis left out there and they really like using their phones to buy shit he'd have a market
― mh, Monday, 21 January 2019 17:44 (five years ago) link
No doubt this dude will start all over again one way or another in a few years when he's out
Why wait that long?
https://youtube/vop_XdfFPts
― Never Turn Your Back On Virginia Woolf (Tom D.), Monday, 21 January 2019 17:45 (five years ago) link
in other news, Billy's eastern european model (ex?) girlfriend's instagram account is private but apparently adds nearly anyone
no huge lols in there unfortunately
― mh, Monday, 21 January 2019 17:46 (five years ago) link
mh OTM
only seen the netflix doc, but there's definitely a "you can't cheat an honest man" thing going on w/everyone that got sucked up into this
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 21 January 2019 17:47 (five years ago) link
I'll try that again..
― Never Turn Your Back On Virginia Woolf (Tom D.), Monday, 21 January 2019 17:48 (five years ago) link
Oh fuck it.
― gray say nah to me (wins), Monday, 21 January 2019 17:51 (five years ago) link
he made it pretty far for a guy whose only idea was to sell the idea of access without ever providing anyone any access
unless a few people getting the wrong Hamilton tickets minutes before the show directly from the company owner counts
― mh, Monday, 21 January 2019 17:56 (five years ago) link
Many of the talking heads in the Netflix doc, when seen in profile, had a man bun. Red flag right there.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 21 January 2019 18:04 (five years ago) link
I liked that one yoga teacher guy, maybe because he vaguely reminds me of a friend of mine, not sure if he had a man bun, but yeah.
― Spirit of the Voice of the Beehive (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 21 January 2019 18:12 (five years ago) link
Re mh’s convincing analysis: maybe the guy’s schlubbiness actually broadened his appeal.
― Spirit of the Voice of the Beehive (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 21 January 2019 18:13 (five years ago) link
Yoga guy totally had a man bun. You didn't even have to see his profile to know.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 21 January 2019 18:27 (five years ago) link
There was a thing about how Elizabeth Holmes kept her hair and makeup kind of schlubby on purpose in order to be taken seriously and gain trust.
― Yerac, Monday, 21 January 2019 18:35 (five years ago) link
Yerac, have you read the Carryrou book on Theranos/Holmes? what a trip
― mh, Monday, 21 January 2019 18:51 (five years ago) link
No, I haven't . Only just the articles that came out after. The thing about her voice was hilarious.
― Yerac, Monday, 21 January 2019 18:55 (five years ago) link
What about her voice? Was there some kind of Lauren Bacall thing going on where she intentionally lowered it?
― Spirit of the Voice of the Beehive (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 21 January 2019 18:57 (five years ago) link
Yep.
― Yerac, Monday, 21 January 2019 18:58 (five years ago) link
Apparently it's going to made into a movie with Jennifer Lawrence playing Holmes.
― nickn, Monday, 21 January 2019 19:02 (five years ago) link
Feel like what I read implies that movie has already been shot and will be finished this year.
― Spirit of the Voice of the Beehive (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 21 January 2019 19:03 (five years ago) link
No maybe not, just in development sorry.
― Spirit of the Voice of the Beehive (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 21 January 2019 19:08 (five years ago) link
Half an hour into the Hulu one, the millennialsplaining is fucking unbearable
― gray say nah to me (wins), Monday, 21 January 2019 20:20 (five years ago) link
It is over the top. I started laughing when there was a stock clip of whack a mole.
― Yerac, Monday, 21 January 2019 20:22 (five years ago) link
originally I was going to say that Theranos was a different type of grift, but in a way... no
there was actual capital invested in equipment and r&d but the core part of the grift was still telling people there was a product that never existed while trying to keep it rolling as long as possible without even trying to find a viable plan b
only instead of ja rule, theranos had a board with like... former high level government officials.
honestly, ja rule is probably more credible than henry kissinger though
― mh, Monday, 21 January 2019 20:23 (five years ago) link
kissinger never contributed anything as good as "holla holla" to this world
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 21 January 2019 20:25 (five years ago) link
I don't think he would've gotten as far without Ja Rule.
― Yerac, Monday, 21 January 2019 20:26 (five years ago) link
henry kissinger has never jumped on the mic with fat joe (afaik)
― mh, Monday, 21 January 2019 20:33 (five years ago) link
Wasn't Theranos more a case of trying to dress up a pig, to continue marketing a real product that was unfortunately being proven with each successive test/trial to be less useful than hoped. Not conceived as a con, more morphed into one
― calumy (rip van wanko), Monday, 21 January 2019 20:34 (five years ago) link
I'm sure they fully expected putting on a music festival would be easy.
― Yerac, Monday, 21 January 2019 20:40 (five years ago) link
xp nope, they never actually had a viable product. they were literally buying existing machines and shipping samples back to use them, and then trying to shoehorn old tech into a box, and the actual product use case was "tiny vial of blood from finger stick does these tests" and it's nearly a given that the tests they were doing would never be usable with blood taken that way. like, as far as we still know, that type of sample will never give you the ability to do that type of test because the needle's too small to collect that type of sample
― mh, Monday, 21 January 2019 20:49 (five years ago) link
excuse the redundancy in that last redundant sentence
― mh, Monday, 21 January 2019 20:50 (five years ago) link
I'm still waiting for some follow-up reports on whether it's true that the recent nyc grifter Anna Delvey actually stayed at the magnises townhouse or w/e
just a perfect storm of grifterness
― mh, Monday, 21 January 2019 21:02 (five years ago) link
https://www.gofundme.com/help-fyre-festival039s-billy-mcfarland-bounce-back
"$6 of $27M goal"
― nickn, Monday, 21 January 2019 21:48 (five years ago) link
Mh, is she in jail now?
― nathom, Monday, 21 January 2019 21:52 (five years ago) link
xp I thought for a second that the Gofundme for Mcfardland has raised $6mil and was about to throw my phone across the room
― You can't see it but I had an epiphany (Champiness), Monday, 21 January 2019 22:54 (five years ago) link
(Obvs I didn’t intend to write “Mcfardland” but now I kinda like it)
― You can't see it but I had an epiphany (Champiness), Monday, 21 January 2019 22:55 (five years ago) link
Mcfartland even better.
― nickn, Monday, 21 January 2019 23:03 (five years ago) link
going in on the Netflix doc and a few minutes I’ve got to say that the moral posturing in interviews about how Hulu was in the wrong to pay a fee for an interview was some amazing bullshit considering this is obviously made up of a lot of footage shot by the promo company
― mh, Monday, 21 January 2019 23:20 (five years ago) link
‘they captured a lot of footage that, from a marketing perspective, was second to none”— ceo of company that shot the marketing footage
― mh, Monday, 21 January 2019 23:21 (five years ago) link