The psychology of the fade out at the end of a song

A "fade out" in music is when when volume of the song decreases gradually until the listener hears nothing at all, and is a common way songs are ended. There's a lot of hate for the fade out, as many people think it's a lazy way to end the song. Critics will say "I guess they couldn't come up with a good ending so they just turned the volume down".

Perhaps in many cases it is the result of laziness but often times it works well to create a feeling that the song is continuing on forever. But why would gradually turning down the volume create a vibe that something is continuing on forever?

One thing I've noticed is that the songs seem to sound their best during the fade out. Technically it probably doesn't really sound any better at all, but it's the point where you're like "goddamn this song is awesome, I wish it would keep going and going, I don't want it to stop". It's the point where you really start to appreciate the song and realize how good the vibe is. You've already heard the chorus several times by now at this point, but you took it for granted. Now you're realizing that this isn't going to last forever, and you're trying to hold onto it for as long as you can and cherish the moment.

You've heard the phrase "You don't know what you've got until it's gone", which can apply to many things in life like relationships and your health. When you're in the moment you don't quite realize just how good you have it, it's not until it's over or gone that you really appreciate it. Well, the fade out gives us the unique opportunity to have each foot on a different side and see both perspectives at the same time. On the one hand we still hear the song and are still in the vibe, but the other side of us sees it slipping a way and is in the perception of the song being over. We're able to experience both being in the moment and seeing the moment lost at the same time - which enables us to appreciate the song in the way we appreciate things in life after they're gone - only this time we have the benefit of getting to do that while we're still in the moment, if only for a brief amount of time.

Update in the living room flour story: Husband Vince Napoli threatens to press charges against People Liking People. Bonus: Breastfeeding Flashmob

You may remember back in November this video that went viral for a few days:




Basically the mother, Mary Napoli, had thrown flour all over the house and then made it look like her kids had "gotten into the bag of flour and made a mess". But almost immediately speculation began that the whole thing was set up - the flour was spread just a little too evenly around the living room in places where small children would not be able to reach, and a half-second glimpse of the mother showed she was actually covered in flour herself.

We wrote a little entry about it and poked fun at the whole hoax, comparing it to the balloon boy incident. We also tried to be thorough in the information that we presented, and included Mary and her husband Vince Napoli's contact information. Evidently displaying publicly accessible phone numbers on the internet is a major crime, and People Liking People now faces being fired from the internet. We've been contacted by Vince Napoli himself who is threatening to do just that and also get his lawyers involved. See the comments below he left on our site:






Ok Vince, you have your lawyer look at it. He'll call you a fucking dumbass for wasting his time. You might as well file a lawsuit against Spokeo.com while you're at it too. OMG, an entire website dedicated to contact information? Somebody call 911!

But really, in a way we feel bad for the Napoli's. They wanted a little fame just like we all do, but instead of actually accomplishing something worthwhile they....threw flour in their living room. Come on guys, you'll have to do a little better than that.

Update: Mary Napoli is at it again. A friend of People Liking People has brought it to our attention that the mother was kicked out of the Somerset Mall in Troy, Michigan last week for get this: a "breast-feeding flash mob."



From nydailynews.com:

Mall security shut down a group of women about to launch into a breast-feeding flash mob at an upscale shopping center in Troy, Mich.

The group was led by Mary Napoli, who was confronted by a security officer when she sat down to nurse her 1-year-old son, Patch.com reported.

It always seems like the people who don't have the capacity to feel shame are the ones that need it the most. What an embarrassment this has to be for husband Vince Napoli, who's just trying to quietly hold down his job at WADL TV. We're definitely starting to see a pattern here with attention whoring activities involving their kids. It's one thing to want to stand for a cause (by the way, breastfeeding is allowed in the mall, just not protests or demonstrations) or try to become a celebrity on Youtube, but when you're shaping young lives in that environment it ends up hurting us all in the long run. We can only hope that they end up seeking the help they so desperately need.

Michele Bachmann's campaign chairman quits and switches to Ron Paul

Well this is an interesting turn of events for the Bachmann & Paul campaigns.

From The Guardian:

The US Republican candidate Michele Bachmann's Iowa campaign chairman has resigned and endorsed rival Ron Paul, six days before Iowa voters begin the nomination process to select the party's 2012 presidential nominee.

Kent Sorenson, an Iowa state senator who had served as Bachmann's state campaign chairman for nearly a year, said he had decided to switch his support to Paul because the campaign had reached "a turning point".

This is quite a blow to the Bachmann campaign, which is practically on life support at this stage of the game. In an effort to save face, Bachmann responded to the departure by alleging that Sorenson sold himself out and left to go to the Paul campaign after they offered him money:

“Kent Sorenson personally told me he was offered a large sum of money to go to work for the Paul campaign,” Bachmann said in a hastily arranged news conference outside a Pizza Ranch in Boone, where she held her 11th campaign event of the day.

It turns out though that that might actually be a complete lie, as Michele Bachmann's Iowa political director Wes Enos later issued a statement completely contradicting the Minnesota congresswoman:

“I won’t say much about the situation or the conflicting statements beyond this; I can say unequivocally that Kent Sorenson’s decision was, in no way financially motivated.

While I personally disagree with Kent’s decision, and plan to stay with Michele Bachmann because I truly believe in her, I cannot, in good conscious watch a good man like Kent Sorenson be attacked as a ‘sell-out’ ….That is simply not the case, and it was not the basis of his decision,” said Mr. Enos.

So Michele Bachmann comes right out and says "he's just doing it for the money" and within hours her political director says it's completely untrue. Not off to a good start considering her chairman just resigned on the same day. And all of this just 6 days before the Iowa Caucus.

Ocean Marketing's Paul Christoforo: Douchebag of the year

Everyone's doing their year-in-review and the best & worst of 2011 reviews so this couldn't have come at a better time. We're not going to waste any time or energy trying to go back and analyze all the idiots over the past year, we don't even have to do that - because we have the perfect candidate by which all other douchebags pale in comparison. Meet Paul Christoforo, "President" of his soon-to-be-defunct marketing company Ocean Marketing.

Paul Christoforo, through Ocean Marketing, was working as an outsourced representative for N-Control's Avenger controller attachment when he received an e-mail from a customer wondering where his order was.


Read the exchange that started it all here.

Customer "Dave" had ordered the PS3 controller attachments on November 3rd and was initially told they would be arriving to him by early December. Well, December rolled by and after a couple of weeks passing with no order yet, Dave decided to contact customer service on Dec. 16 to see what was up. Dave was very polite and even wished Ocean Marketing happy holidays:

I ordered 2 of the upcoming PS3 controllers (invoice xxxxxxxxx—Nov 3, 2011). Any chance of getting an update of when these items will ship? I’m not really happy about being forced to pay upfront then have the advertised date of “Early December” be completely missed without any sort of update on availability. I really need one of them for a X-mas present as well. Anyways, looking forward to finally using one of these bad boys. Thanks and happy holidays.

-Dave

With such a nice initial communication, how could anything go wrong? This is the company's chance to go out of their way to show empathy for the customer and apologize for the delay, and do everything they can to make sure the product is sent out as soon as possible. What actually ended up happening though is a completely different story. Paul Christoforo turned the situation into one of the biggest customer service nightmares we've ever seen.

When asked about the estimated time of arrival for the attachments, he responded "Dec 17", the next day. A few days later he writes "They still haven’t shipped yet on the way here from china".

Well that sucks, but hey, that happens sometimes right? Product releases get delayed, and it's just the nature of buying things online. Well Christoforo was just getting started. Here are some of the more interesting responses from representative Paul Christoforo to customer Dave:

"im sure you don’t complain to activision or epic games so put on your big boy hat and wait it out like everyone else."

"Feel free to cancel we need the units were back ordered 11,000 units so your 2 will be gone fast. Maybe I’ll put them on eBay for 150.00 myself."

And then it gets much worse...

"Son Im 38 I wwebsite as on the internet when you were a sperm in your daddys balls and before it was the internet, thanks for the welcome to message wurd up."

"You just got told bitch … welcome to the real internet"

"We do value our customers but sometimes we get children like you we just have to put you in the corner with your im stupid hat on."

And if simply shitting all over a customer wasn't enough, Paul Christoforo then digs himself a bigger hole by pissing off industry insider Mike Krahulik of Penny Arcade and gaming convention Pax, after customer Dave forwarded the exchange to him and other gaming sites. The exchange then continues between Christoforo and Krahulik, the most amusing part of which is Christoforo's "Do you know who I am??" attitude when he's quite the nobody himself, especially in relation to Mike Krahulik.

"Were in 6 countries and you’re not going to take my money for a booth that’s a crock I can guarantee I’ll get a booth if I want one money buys a lot and connections go even further. He’s a native Bostonian from Little Italy . Who are you again"

"If you let some little kid influence you over a pre order then we don’t want to be a your show ,Ill be on the floor anyway so come find me , I’m born and raised in Boston I know the people who run the city inside and out watch the way you talk to people you never know who they know it’s a small industry and everyone knows everyone."

Paul Christoforo then seemed to have finally realized he fucked up big time, but it was much too late.

Mike I’m not trying to fight with you I’m really not , you should give me the benefit of the doubt before judging over one person’s bitching . Did I feed into his emails a little bit too much yeah ok . But it’s one person dude for real. No disrespect intended for you , My name is good in this industry and I know a lot of people. I’ll be at CES are you going ?

Awww poor guy, it was just a misunderstanding. Shame on us for siding with the dirty customer and not good guy Paul Christoforo. And plus, he knows a lot of people. ooooo we're impressed, and Mike Krahulik definitely was too. His response: "Please remove me from this mailing list". Ouch!

This all went down a few days ago, and ever since then we've been witnessing a public meltdown eerily similar to that of Charlie Sheen's, where Paul Christoforo has taken to his twitter account to defend himself but in doing so only reveals what a nutbar and douche nozzle he is. Oh and in case you were wondering, Christoforo and his Ocean Marketing group has been fired from the position of representing the Avenger controller product. N-Control has issued a statement:

"We apologize for our poor representation from Ocean Marketing," David Kotkin, the owner and inventor of Avenger Controller told Kotaku. "We wanted to give Paul a chance. He was rough around the edges, but he had drive and enthusiasm. However his behavior was unprovoked, unnecessary, and unforgivable. We are no longer represented by Ocean Marketing."

Let this be a lesson to companies out there: be very careful before you let some outsourced company (or in this case, probably just 1 guy) take control of the one thing that matters most to your company: the relationship with your customers. Really, you shouldn't be outsourcing that at all. You need people who actually work for the company, because there's a much higher chance they'll actually give a shit than just some fly by night Joe Schmoe like Christoforo, where the only thing he cares about is himself.


Update: A friend of People Liking People has sent us Paul Christoforo's contact information:

Paul Christoforo
Address: 295 Chestnut Ave, Apt 33 Carlsbad, CA 92008



Update 2: There is speculation that Christoforo is experiencing wild mood swings as a result of a steroid abuse problem. It's unconfirmed at this time but if you have any additional information please let us know.

Update 3: We have learned that the Twitter accounts initially thought to be Christoforo's are not his at all. His real Twitter account is @OceanDeepSea. The @oceanmarketting and @oceanstretagy accounts are fakes.

Dirty ass hoe punches 70 year old Walmart greeter

The holidays really bring the best out of people don't they?

Meet Jacquetta Simmons, a 26 year old dirty skank from Batavia, NY.



Jacquetta Simmons was on her way out the door after shopping at Walmart on Christmas Eve when 70 year old Walmart greeter Grace Suozzi asked to check her receipt, which is commonly done to ensure accuracy at the register and cut down on shoplifting. Instead of simply showing the greeter the receipt like any normal person would do, skank hoe Jacquetta Simmons proceeded to assault the elderly woman and knock her on the ground.

From wtsp.com:

Patterson said Simmons is accused of punching and knocking down Suozzi at 11:23 a.m. after the employee asked Simmons to see receipts for items the customer was carrying in store bags. After hitting Suozzi, Simmons ran out of the store, but employees and customers quickly surrounded her until police arrived.

What could have been quickly over and done with has now turned into a mess for Ms. Simmons, who now faces 2 second-degree assault charges and is being held on a $20,000 bond.

Where does trash like this keep coming from? Is it really that hard for some people to think their actions through and know the consequences that are obvious to the rest of us? What a dumbass.

Update: a friend of People Liking People has sent us her contact info:

Jacquetta Simmons
E-mail: quettquett1985@yahoo.com
Phone: (585) 285-3224
Address: 104 Ellsworth Ave. Batavia, NY 14020

Merry Christmas to all

Merry Christmas to all from People Liking People!

We were hoping for a white Christmas but it has sure been a strange winter so far, it's in the mid 40s today for most of the midwest, while it actually snowed in some places in Texas today.

Speaking of the weather, you've got to check out these Weathergirls, we just can't get enough of them! Here's today's weather report:

Scioto County, Ohio: State officials close down the last pain clinic in the county

From abcnews.go.com:

Attorney General Mike DeWine said Tuesday that local and state officials shut down Greater Medical Advance in Wheelersburg, about 100 miles south of Columbus.

DeWine says an investigation found 14,000 prescriptions came out of the clinic in nine months.

Well, I guess it's back to doing heroin.

Seriously though, these people are going to feed their addictions one way or another. I'd rather have them popping pharmaceutical grade opiates than shooting up with dirty hypodermic needles.