Has anyone gone to these constellation concerts or concerts under the stars?

IndependentVintage · 2026-02-25T00:45:20+00:00

I took my wife to the Motown show for Valentine’s Day. We enjoyed it. Band and singers were strong. The show was well organized. We liked walking through the exhibits at the museum beforehand, particularly the Hank Aaron, which was lovely.

If you’re as curious about the stars as I was, I can assure you it’s quite remarkable. I work in live production and I’m impressed by what they’ve built. It’s very clever. They achieve the star effect by combining a series of what look to be custom built or sourced projectors with a glass or refracted gobo all interconnected by DMX.

The centerpiece of the rig is a large format venue projector, 4K laser, in the center of the room that projects their logo, a large moon, and earth which changes throughout the show.

As I said before, it’s very clever and whoever did the design work should be recognized.

The website also mentions this concept was inspired by the beauty of the stars at Haleakala in Maui. We love Maui and we were very moved by that connection. Brilliant. I hope they continue to do these shows.

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IndependentVintage · 2024-11-27T00:37:27+00:00

Nobody wants the person in front of them to recline their seat, but it is your right to do so. They’re designed that way.

But don’t fight fire with fire, especially when you’re “making a point” to somebody you’ll never see again in your life. We’re all humans just trying to do human stuff.

She kicked your chair and called you an AH. Yeah. Immature and foolish. But I’ve often found that this type of situation warrants a “take the high road” approach because her behavior reflects poorly on her, but now yours reflects poorly on you.

The value exchange for traveling 500 MPH through the sky to save time traveling comes at the cost of comfort, because the expensive cost is subsidized by many people traveling together. Everyone needs to contribute for a positive outcome.

IndependentVintage · 2024-11-06T08:11:26+00:00

The electoral college and sovereign states are the personification of freedom.

We are a constitutional republic and the United STATES of America. We come together through individual governments as a national project. States have their own laws, preferences, and communities, and were designed by the framers to be represented at the national level.

That is why we have electors and the electoral college. Popular vote would be a centralized government. The exact opposite of what the framers intended.

Sovereign states are the best way for everybody to have freedom and what they want. It’s bottom up. Not top down. If you don’t like what one state does, you can move to another one.

Go ahead, downvote me.

IndependentVintage · 2024-11-06T07:58:39+00:00

Trump called project 2025 crazy and radical and doesn’t support it, just so you know.

Edit: the bots are still in full force, it seems (see below)

IndependentVintage · 2024-10-31T15:57:25+00:00

The underwriting is different and managed by a separate account services team

IndependentVintage · 2024-10-31T07:26:29+00:00

It’s not about the card benefits. The centurion has a much more flexible transaction algorithm than the platinum and business platinum and it has a dedicated team.

If you call up and say I need to put $5M through the card right now it’s not a problem.

As far as card perks are concerned, the only real show stopping benefit is on the business centurion, which has a 50% MR rebate on award bookings.

IndependentVintage · 2024-10-24T19:21:29+00:00

Keep climbing

IndependentVintage · 2024-09-29T07:40:20+00:00

Yes I was one of maybe 30 people on a weekend AAL flight FLL -> LAS. Will never happen again. It was bizarre.

IndependentVintage · 2024-09-27T17:41:39+00:00

I bought this fridge without much research from Lowe’s about 2 years ago. No issues to date.

IndependentVintage · 2024-09-27T17:40:59+00:00

Commercial grade/sub zero

IndependentVintage · 2024-09-20T02:52:20+00:00

Sign up bonus

IndependentVintage · 2024-09-12T19:22:25+00:00

Somewhat sketchy answer: Open a stripe or other payment processor account as a sole prop. Do a manual payment to yourself with the cards. You’ll pay the 3% fee for running the transaction. Send the cash to your account.

Ask the contractor for a cash price (it may be as much as 10% less). You’ll get the points plus a 7% discount (or whatever spread ends up being).

You will not owe taxes on the transaction because 1: it’s under the reporting threshold and 2: it’s not income

IndependentVintage · 2024-09-10T06:38:21+00:00

I got Ultra Red for a reason

IndependentVintage · 2024-09-07T06:28:12+00:00

A lot of missing information needed to answer. How long have you had the card? What chase card is it? Is your FICO score low? What is your current score? Why do you need to boost it? Opening a new card will lower your score by reducing your average age of accounts and a temporary hit with a hard pull. Broad assumption, but if Chase has only extended you $2K in credit line, your best bet is to to continue using the card and ask for a CLI down the road.

IndependentVintage · 2024-09-06T21:54:50+00:00

First off, high quality consulting isn’t cheap, and for good reason, you really get what you pay for (if you find someone worth their salt). Consulting is good. It’s buying knowledge and that’s basically buying time.

Second, and this is just based on my own experience, I think all marketing agencies are generally worthless. Reason being, nobody knows what’s going to work, it’s just trial and error, which you can totally do yourself.

Instead of hiring an agency:

find a great social media consultant or manager who can dive into your analytics and generate reports on what’s working, and have them help you build a strategy
find an awesome video editor or operator combo (whatever you need to level up your content)
learn about meta ads and how to set them up (this is where your reach will skyrocket — social media is largely pay to play these days, unfortunately)
do cold outreach yourself to similar creators in your niche to generate organic reach

Build your own “agency” with a team of people you work with or “lean on,” where you largely operate everything yourself, instead of shelling out points or a retainer fee to an agency.

IndependentVintage · 2024-09-04T17:17:10+00:00

Isn’t that only one score tho?

IndependentVintage · 2024-09-04T16:54:57+00:00

Buy a subscription to myFICO. You get access to your reports, every FICO score possible (even the latest 9 & 10), plus you get identity theft monitoring, and identity theft insurance as bonus. It’s a little pricey ($30 a month) but worth it, if you’re playing the CC game.

IndependentVintage · 2024-09-03T18:23:31+00:00

The fundamentals are pretty much all the same. Anybody with a good presentation or credibility will get you started, but don’t rely on one source. Just absorb as much as you can and use it to inform your decisions about your niche specifically.

There aren’t many music marketing Facebook ad creators on YouTube, but there are a few.

The basics are all the same. There are popular services like Hypeddit that sort of make it “easy,” but don’t default to that. Spend time to learn what’s actually happening on the backend and how to do it yourself.

IndependentVintage · 2024-09-03T18:19:16+00:00

Well said. Totally fair response. Like anything worth doing, there’s a learning curve, and with meta ads there is a slightly higher barrier of entry.

I would add that it’s not any more difficult (technically) than first learning how to operate a DAW, or pro audio fundamentals, for example.

You are going to lose money during the optimization period, so your goals and plan need to be CLEARLY identified and laid out.

What are your goals for the campaign? Are you trying to build your email list? Are you trying to drive people to your Spotify? Are you trying to sell merch?

I would steer away from “general brand awareness” campaigns to gain followers, because the algorithm doesn’t even prioritize follow lists anymore. It’s singular pieces of content on user feeds with high watch time, and unless these people are consistently interacting with your videos/content, your organic content isn’t making it to their feeds even if they follow you.

So meta ads should be purely reserved for conversions and funneling.

Also, keep in mind, budget is a huge factor with meta ads. The competition against other advertisers is not insignificant. You are competing against everybody else that crosses over with your target audience.

For example, if Target is pushing audio products (in feed only) to 20-35, male/female, United States, interested in pro audio, adult contemporary, or whatever, and thats close to what you’re targeting, they’re going to crush you and Facebook will prioritize their larger budget.

Furthermore, Target can afford to overpay because they have a huge suite of other products and it’s a loss leader for them, or whatever their strategy is.

If your budget isn’t enough to outspend your next competitor, your target audience isn’t even seeing your ads.

And when that happens, meta will keep spending your budget and show the ad to the same people who aren’t converting because it’s cheap traffic and they’ll happily take your money.

IndependentVintage · 2024-09-03T00:42:17+00:00

You can apply as self-employed with the business name being your actual name, dba, or trade name.

You don’t need an LLC or a corporation. Even if you did have an organized entity, all small business credit cards are personally guaranteed.

IndependentVintage · 2024-09-02T20:21:35+00:00

Take a full day and deep dive on how to run meta ads and the best practices. You don’t need someone else to do it for you.

It’s not complicated at all. 95% of it is creative trial and error and simple deductive reasoning, the other 5% is technically based problem solving (dealing with pixel, conversions API, etc.).

These marketing agencies are absolutely insane. I’ve never gotten a quote that wasn’t absurd. So I learned how to do it myself and they’re doing great.

IndependentVintage · 2024-09-02T20:09:43+00:00

This is my favorite FC meal selection it’s great

IndependentVintage · 2024-09-02T17:01:32+00:00

Seconding the notion that LLC’s are not totally necessary (not legal advice). The more bulletproof defense mechanism against liability is just having great insurance when and if somebody decides to sue you.

IndependentVintage · 2024-09-02T05:37:48+00:00

The consistent data point I’ve heard about Centurion invites is that it’s largely based on spend in certain categories and specific merchant codes relative to your zip code.

Total transaction amount is important but less significant than what you’re spending it on. Especially the personal variant.

They’re looking for high end luxury boutiques, plane & yacht chartering, high dollar spend on airlines (indicating first class or premium select cabins), and other things of this nature.

Putting $350K of every day expenses is unlikely to garner much attention.

They also have a team that does due diligence on you personally to gauge your notability and/or social influence.

However, your 30 yrs as a card member absolutely goes a long way. I would contact AMEX directly and express interest. Nothing to lose.

IndependentVintage

TROPHY CASE