A Further Exploration Into A Terrible Idea Comment Count

Ace

So a business school student and his LSA buddy had a spectacularly bad idea. No, we don't need a new fight song to pair with The Victors, the best fight song in the long and storied history of fight songs. That suggestion alone is enough to make an idea very bad indeed, but what sets this bad idea apart is the details. Lord almighty, is this just the worst of ideas. Why?

WE ALREADY DID THIS. Remember "In The Big House"? Dave Brandon already tried this. When Dave Brandon tries something, it means you should never, ever try to do that thing again.

WHY IS THIS EVEN A GOAL?

“This project is meant to be, number one, extremely unique,” Weiss said. “The goal of this song is to get a lot of big names that are associated with the University.”

I'll try to ignore that the kid called his unoriginal and terrible idea "extremely unique" and address the idea that the University of Michigan needs "big names" associated with it.

I think we're good, thanks.

FINE, LET'S HEAR YOUR BIG NAMES.

While the song’s lyrics and tune are still undetermined, Weiss said it is the organization’s aim to involve big names in the music business and University alumni to contribute to the song. For example, he said Weinberg wants to get Eminem involved.

Weiss also said that David Banner, a rapper and music producer, has already agreed to produce the final product.

I'd laugh if not for the overwhelming feeling this guy is serious, which makes me quite sad. Let's start with Eminem.

  1. Not an alum! You probably knew that.
  2. In fact, his daughter goes to Michigan State.
  3. Peaked in 1999, hasn't made good music since 2002. His new music is basically the old music with more yelling, less novelty, worse production, and an unfortunate amount of auto-tune.
  4. Is gleefully misogynistic and homophobic in his music, which probably isn't the ideal way to represent the University.
  5. Charges in the neighborhood of $30-40K per verse, so not only is he a bad idea, he's an expensive bad idea.

In the other corner, we've got David Banner, who's from Jackson, Mississippi, and is inextricably associated with Southern rap. His solo career peaked in 2005 with the club single "Play" and he hasn't released a major label album since 2008. It's a little shocking that a current college student would suggest David Banner, because I feel old playing "Cadillac on 22's" in my car. I can't imagine most students associate the name David Banner with anything outside of the Incredible Hulk.

HERE'S WHAT AN EMINEM/DAVID BANNER COLLABORATION WOULD PROBABLY SOUND LIKE IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 2015.

YouTube Doubler

HARD PASS.

Comments

jman077

February 11th, 2015 at 12:53 PM ^

But doesn't really address the issue where you threatened to make a kid unemployable because he had an idea he thought would be fun

EDIT: Someone just pointed out to me that this second post is by Ace, not Brian. Sorry Ace, you good.

YoungGeezy

February 11th, 2015 at 12:54 PM ^

Coming up with a dumb idea as a 19 year old and having someone blog about it isn't going to prevent him from getting a job in 3 years. Purely speculation, but I feel good about the chances.

I do agree that the "threat" he posted may have gone a little far, but this blog scrutinizes the decisions of high school juniors and seniors, yet all of a sudden, Brian and Ace criticize a college sophomore who isn't an athlete and we find it unacceptable? Something's ass-backwards here.

jman077

February 11th, 2015 at 1:01 PM ^

I don't think this blog's ever written about high school juniors and seniors wth that tone. You're pretending there is not a difference between saying "I am disappointed this guy is going to OSU instead" and Brian's post below.

Remember the other day when Brian criticized the Blockhams for pretending that only Ohio State has the type of fans that tweet nasty things at recruits? This is Brian proving his own point.

santosbfree

February 11th, 2015 at 8:49 PM ^

The most embarrassing thing about being a Michigan fan is the other Michigan football fans. I would have specified fans of this blog, but I'm actually impressed that some of you had the guts to call Brian out on shaming a 19 year old. There's hope out there, although I'm sure the next decommit or non-Michigan high school recruiting lean will ruin that.

I Like Burgers

February 11th, 2015 at 12:57 PM ^

You guys are way overblowing the "bullying" aspect here.  Kid wants to work in business, and this is an incredibly valuable lesson of what can happen when you attempt to mess with a brand.  It'll probably be a better learning experience than anything else has learned or will learn in b-school.  When coming up with new ideas, know your customer base.  And know what can happen when a bad idea makes it into the public.  People in the real world get fired for shit like this.

You'd think witnessing what happened to Dave Brandon first hand would be lesson enough for everyone at Ross, but I guess not.  Maybe having something like this hit closer to home will drive the point home.

bronxblue

February 11th, 2015 at 12:57 PM ^

If an employer somehow found a blog post basically saying this kid had a dumb idea, and then took that as meaning he was a bad hire, then I'd buy it.

More realistically, a kid looking to get publicity and recognition for an idea is now being criticized for it.  I mean, didn't we just get through everyone calling Mike Weber every name in the book because he dared to be torn between staying committed to OSU or switching to UM?

kevin holt

February 11th, 2015 at 1:22 PM ^

Fuck it. It IS a bad idea. And maybe it makes him a bad hire. I don't see an issue.

If it doesn't pass and it gets swept under the rug, this kid will realize in a few years how lucky he is that it didn't happen. But he's an adult and needs to know that nothing can be erased when you have the internet.

jmdblue

February 11th, 2015 at 1:45 PM ^

It is an idea with no art/product.  The kid is (I suspect now maybe it's "was") using his postition in student government to get "preapproval" for his extremely unique creation that doesn't even exist.  Who cares whether it's, you know, good or makes going to football games better.  The main thing is getting its production on Mr. Weiss's resume.

bronxblue

February 11th, 2015 at 1:58 PM ^

I think it's a bad idea, and while there may be some altruism in his plans I can't get over the "goal" of making it unique and then suggesting popular artists with no connection to the school chiming in.  To me, that reads "hey look at this totally cool idea I have to get my name into the UM history" as much as some burning desire to have another, better song played after a first down.

 

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

February 11th, 2015 at 1:33 PM ^

I think there's a big difference between this and Mike Weber.  Weber was trying to make a decision for himself.  Emphasis on the last two words.  That's all he was trying to do.  He's not asking for approval.

This dude is presenting an idea to the world.  The world is not obligated to like it.  Even more than presenting it, he's asking the world for money.  Nobody is entitled to protection from the reaction to their ideas.  Inherent in what he's doing is approval or disapproval, especially from people who your idea affects.

bronxblue

February 11th, 2015 at 2:01 PM ^

My point about Weber was more with people rushing to protect this college kid for a dumb idea while at the same time calling out Weber for his decision to chose OSU over UM.  Basically, it felt like a weird distinction people were making, as if Weiss is a civilian and Weber is something else that opens him up to more criticism.

Honestly, my belief is that if you go out and say you want to improve on X, expect to have people who like X to take offense.  And if anyone thinks this is some horrible internet vigilantism, check out what happened to people with #GamerGate to see just how bad it can get.  This is just a dumb Twitter picture getting put on a blog.

StephenRKass

February 11th, 2015 at 1:29 PM ^

Pretty sure Adam's daddy or one of his daddy's friends will be able to pull strings to get him a job. Mr. Weiss and Mr. Weinberg will be just fine. Actually, they'll be better off:  this is part of the necessary education they came to get from Michigan.

Oh, and regarding the threat? You really need to listen to the Liam Neeson clip from Taken. The so-called "threat" Brian delivered is straight from this Neeson screed. And it should be patently obvious that Brian was being sarcastic. But as I said elsewhere, he failed to use the /s tag. So it turns out that many people here have their shorts in a wad about the "cyber-bullying."

I've half a mind to link to the "Leave Britney alone" video.

michgoblue

February 11th, 2015 at 1:40 PM ^

SRK, thanks for pointing that out.  That movie has been on my "must see" list for a while, but I still haven't had a chance, so that went right over my head.  I actually took Brian's threat literally, and did kind of think that it was too much.

With that frame of reference, however, I actually revise my opinion.

However, what leads you to believe that either Mr. Weiss or Mr. Weinberg have connections to get them a job when they get out of school?  Is there some info on these kids that I missed that would lead to the belief that their parents are big wigs?  Serious question. 

StephenRKass

February 11th, 2015 at 2:00 PM ^

Go to their respective websites.

Weiss:  Watch the videos shot by Weiss. Kid from Miami area. Read his CV at his Linkedin site. Go through his twitter acct. See his home down in FL. It is all there.

Weinberg:  Actor from LA. In Home Alone 4, among others. Again, it is all there.

After you have done this, the conclusion they come from significant money, connections, and opportunity is obvious enough. If you need me too, I can provide links and pages, but it is all there in the previous posts today. Only thing I didn't figure out is what house Weiss the "Fratographer" is part of. Didn't look that hard, but would be interesting to know if he is a Sammie.

michgoblue

February 11th, 2015 at 2:49 PM ^

Thanks for providing the info.  I was actually curious why so many assumed that these kids were privileged, but apparently they are.  That said, I am still not sure that their parents can simply call in favors to get them jobs.  For example, if Weiss' dad is a neurosurgeon, and Weiss wants to go into law or finance, his day may not have any connections there.  Same goes for a moderate-level actor - he may not have connections in the area that his son wants to work. 

bacon

February 11th, 2015 at 2:08 PM ^

What? I took Brian's post as a joke. I love the reworking of the Taken speach for this purpose. If he actually does it, I'm not sure it would be bad or good, he's threatening to repost things that these kids already voluntarily posted online. People do this all the time, if you put something on Twitter, don't expect that no one will see it. It's a great lesson for people. I've only hired a few people myself, but when I googled them and they had social media accounts that painted a bad picture, I just eliminated them immediately.

Coastal Elite

February 11th, 2015 at 1:13 PM ^

Is it possible that we’re having a collective knee-jerk reaction against this because of all of the (admittedly excessive and ill-advised) tinkering that Dave Brandon did with THE BRAND? I’m just kind of concerned that we may move too far in the other direction, where we're just retrenching in this stodgy "This is MICHIGAN and we've been doing the same thing since 1817 and by god we're not going to change one iota of it until 3817.” I mean people griped when the band started doing pop routines at halftime because older alums just wanted them to keep doing homages to the polka. There are good innovations and bad innovations, and to a certain degree you can't figure out which are going to work out until you actually do them. Legends jerseys could've been a train wreck, but most people (myself included) think they've actually been a good innovation. On the flip side, general-admission seating in the student section was a really great idea in theory and just executed horribly and abandoned. There was a point when every venerable tradition was something novel, and I don’t see the utility in preemptively stifling this on principle. If it’s popular, it’ll become a cherished part of our Michigan tradition. If it flops (as is likely), then it’ll go by the wayside.

Moe

February 11th, 2015 at 12:44 PM ^

This is how you respond to the bad idea.  By explaining that it's bad, and not calling out the kid who did it.  I applaud you, and hopefully Brian will learn to be a little more professional.

Trader Jack

February 11th, 2015 at 1:15 PM ^

Doesn't the person who came up with the idea play a role in determining the idea's feasibility, though? If Jim Harbaugh announced that he had an idea to create a 2nd fight song, wouldn't that be recieved differently than this kid? Part of what makes this kid's idea bad is the source of the idea - the kid himself. With any idea, the person whom the idea belongs to matters. It's something anyone would look at when determining the feasibility of the actual idea. In this case, the source of the idea (the kid) makes the idea itself even less feasible, somehow. I don't mind Brian pointing that out.

bleed_trueblue17

February 11th, 2015 at 1:13 PM ^

Is their profession, the very idea of a blog is a less professional take on things so I think ppl are being to harsh on Brian. Not saying they can't disagree with his method but to bash him as a person for basically sort of doing his job seems equally as bad

ST3

February 11th, 2015 at 1:21 PM ^

I'm willing to give Brian a pass on his post because of what a professional blogger is. I think Andrew Sullivan explained it pretty well:

http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2015/02/06/the-years-of-writing-dangerou…

[T]he speed with which an idea in your head reaches thousands of other people’s eyes has another deflating effect, this time in reverse: It ensures that you will occasionally blurt out things that are offensive, dumb, brilliant, or in tune with the way people actually think and speak in private. That means bloggers put themselves out there in far more ballsy fashion than many officially sanctioned pundits do, and they make fools of themselves more often, too. The only way to correct your mistakes or foolishness is in public, on the blog, in front of your readers. You are far more naked than when clothed in the protective garments of a media entity. But, somehow, you’re liberated as well as nude: blogging as a media form of streaking. I notice this when I write my blog, as opposed to when I write for the old media. I take less time, worry less about polish, and care less about the consequences on my blog. That makes for more honest writing. It may not be “serious” in the way, say, a 12-page review of 14th-century Bulgarian poetry in the New Republic is serious. But it’s serious inasmuch as it conveys real ideas and feelings in as unvarnished and honest a form as possible. I think journalism could do with more of that kind of seriousness. It’s democratic in the best sense of the word. It helps expose the wizard behind the media curtain.

Sullivan, IMO, the finest professional blogger ever, has decided to call it quits. I rue the day that Brian, the finest sports blogger I've ever read, follows suit because of the pressures of having to share his opinion with us daily and timely, without the benefit of an Editor to tamper his feelings or a few days to fully think through an opinion piece and it's potential ramifications.

MGoSteelers

February 11th, 2015 at 12:49 PM ^

Peaked in 1999, hasn't made good music since 2002. His new music is basically the old music with more yelling, less novelty, worse production, and an unfortunate amount of auto-tune.

 

Definitely peaked in 1999. Right before he spent the next decade becoming the top-selling artist..  Literally sold more albums than anyone else.

 

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2009-12-08-musicdecade08…