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Peace at Last?

PEACE AT LAST?: Current Issue, Issue 20, Volume 1, for Tuesday, November 30, 2010. New Issue published every Tuesday, and updated throughout the week. Next issue due online December 7, 2010.

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INITIALIZING

ISSUE INTRODUCTION BY EDITOR AND PUBLISHER C. A. PASSINAULT

We’ve paved the way with a very effective war, and we’ve won. Is it now time to begin conquering with peace?

As we enter this season of peace, with Christmas and New Years mere weeks away as we are well within the 2010 holiday season, is it finally time to begin an era of peace?
Peace? Really? So soon?
Now, I’m not saying that we are ending our three front war, the war for change. That will continue. I’m saying that we’ve gone as far as we’ve been able to go combating unethical people and disrupting markets, as we’ve won those battles, and it’s time to change gears into another phase. It’s time to attempt to move forward.
In the modeling and talent industry, this means that, effective immediately, going out of our way to fight modeling and talent scams will cease. While scam-fighting efforts, and tools, will remain on my talent resource sites, and advancements will continue to be made in combating modeling and talent scams, emphasis of the sites will be on more positive areas of modeling and talent careers, such as finding and booking jobs. The focus will shift toward moving forward, with far fewer “in your face” tactics. Our overall efforts will stay on course, but discretion, and tact, will take point. The same will go for the other two fronts in our ongoing war, being the photography services industry, and the Tampa indie film market.
As an offshoot, and, really, a part, of the Tampa indie film market, I’ve been fighting a pop culture site which I’ve written about in past issues (among them, the Evil Among Us, issue 15 of Frontier Pop, October 26 - November 1, 2010). This pop culture site, which, in my opinion, was an enabler of the unprofessionalism which led to the Tampa indie film war, peaked around the time all of this started. In mid 2007, with The Tampa Film Review monthly film festival going strong, the site was at its peak.
In the fall of 2007, the message board of the pop culture site erupted into the largest fight that it had ever seen. It was so bad, that the fighting literally hit critical mass, and without me having to post a single thing, the participants began to fight each other. It was quite entertaining to watch, actually.
In December of 2007, I mobilized my Tampa Bay Film site, which was not even a year old at that point, and declared war on the Tampa indie film clique. The pop culture web site was the online epicenter of the clique, and The Tampa Film Review was where they met and hung out every month. I began to heavily criticize all of that, and the eyes of many people were opened to what was really going on. The credibility of the Tampa indie film clique, the pop culture web site, and The Tampa Film Review all took massive hits in 2008. The pop culture site experienced a boycott, and their message board posts plummeted, as did their readership. The Tampa Film Review saw a decline in support too, and by the end of 2008, it was abruptly cancelled. The last, and final Tampa Film Review, was in January 2009, and once that was over, the Tampa indie film clique was fragmented. That fragmentation eroded support for the pop culture site, which was crippled.
Tampa Bay Film, myself, and my allies rejoiced. We had won.
Of course, the six people or so involved with the pop culture site did not give up. The fight simmered on. The editor reformatted the site in January 2010. Amidst further decline of the readership, and an ongoing civil war among the few who were left, the editor further retreated by eliminating the readers comments, and tried to divert the comments to the dead message board.
That’s what I’d do. I’d make it harder for anyone to participate.
In April 2010, I decided to follow through on an ambition that I had since I began designing web sites in 1998. I decided to launch my own pop culture and entertainment online publication and web site, Frontier Pop, which, by default, would directly compete with what was left of the pop culture site. I picked the name, started branding, and began developing the web site format, which was based upon what I learned from my other web sites, as well as what I had developed for my Frontier Society web site a few years ago.
On July 16, 2010, the pop culture site editor created a flash video attacking several people. I was the main person who they attacked. This, of course, inspired me to launch Frontier Pop ahead of schedule. Frontier Pop was already pretty much done, and it was ready to go. So, four days later, on July 20, 2010, Frontier Pop launched. With its first issue, it took the target audience from the rival pop culture site. Frontier Pop was also superior to the old pop culture web site in every way, and there were reports that the editor of the pop culture site and his tiny band of cronies freaked out; they knew that they could not compete.
Today, the pop culture site is at its all time lowest point. It has, literally, from my observations, and from the whining of the editor, hit rock bottom.
This said, with the objectives of my war, which started three years ago, achieved, it is now time to move on. I’ll continue to fight them if they want to continue, but come on. You guys lost. You’re like a third world country which was sent packing back to the stone age. Do you really think that you’re a threat to what I’m doing when I fly over your broken and burnt village in state of the art fighter jets, and the three people who you have left try to throw spears at my planes? Do you really think that I’m going to waste the time and the effort to engage you?
I’ve succeeding in destabilizing the self-serving, discriminatory monopoly which had a hold on this market, and am now moving on to other things. Mission accomplished.
It will be a peaceful phase, and the start of a new era, but an uneasy one.
Of course, I have some observations, and some points, to make.

1. The editor is now stating that they will relaunch their pop culture web site in 2011 with a NEW DESIGN and NEW FORMAT!
Oh, really? I didn’t see this coming. Well, actually, I did. I predicted that they would go running back to the drawing boards after Frontier Pop sent them packing. I’m thinking, though, that they have been studying the advanced concepts which I incorporated into Frontier Pop, and that many of my ideas will be ripped off- I mean, will find their way into their new site.
Well, if you can’t compete with me, I guess that they see it as a valid reason to steal from me, I’m guessing. Isn’t that the way of their friends, too?
It’s funny, too. Didn’t they claim earlier this year, before Frontier Pop launched, that I was jealous, and angry, and that I wanted to copy their site? Well, I didn’t copy their site, and came up with something that was so far ahead of what their site was, that they had no hope of competing with it.
If there was nothing wrong with your site to begin with, what are you reformatting you site, now? What made you change your mind? I fear that the irony will be that they will try to copy what I’ve done with Frontier Pop!
I suggest that they ask their friend Brandon for help. Although his site has little, to no, original content, and it parrots published news from other sources, it, at least has a competent design. Well, maybe competent, but boring. It is, however, much better than the mess which is the pop culture site!
At any rate, since the editor of the pop culture web site is a poor designer (although he is a decent writer), I look forward to see what he comes up with. I also look forward to his attempts at competing with Frontier Pop, and at trying to stay relevant. Good luck.
Seriously, though, although I kicked their asses, I really don’t have anything against them. I’m a forgive and forget kind of guy (although you will have a long way to go to earn my trust again). If they ask for help, I’d probably be the first one to help them out. It’s kind of like when a superpower sends a country back to the dark ages after a conflict, and then they render humanitarian aid and help the country rebuild.
I wouldn’t have a problem helping out. I only ask that they don’t rip off Frontier Pop, or any of my other sites, in an attempt to compete. Such unethical behavior not only pisses me off, but I tend to call them out on it. Unethical people have, historically, always tried to rip me off when they found that they could not compete with me. I call these thieves out, however, and they pay with their professional credibility!
Let’s not be petty, or vindictive. Despite what a few misguided people might think, I’m not.
Regardless, the Frontier Pop Pioneer Class site will be adapted for my Frontier Society site, which will serve as a reference library for Frontier Pop, and the upcoming Advanced Model site, which is now scheduled to launch in January 2011.

2. I did not start any of this fighting. I was wronged, and did what I had to do. I stuck up for myself, and defended myself.
These people have slandered me, spread rumors about me, threatened me, and have done other things which are unethical and unprofessional. They started it, and I had the resources to fight back. I wasn’t going to roll over and go away like the other victims of the pop culture site and the Tampa indie film clique did. I fought back, and kicked their asses professionally.
For example, the picture on the right is one example of what they did. What would you do if a group of people ganged up on your and did this to you?
PLEASE NOTE:
I did not do this image. Someone affiliated with my opponents stole one of my headshot photographs from my Myspace profile (it took me a while to figure out where they found it. It was deep in one of my photo galleries) and then Photoshopped it onto a naked body in an attempt to humiliate me.
They failed. Doing things like this doesn’t hurt me in the least bit, and reflects solely on the character of the people behind this, which is probably why they chose to remain anonymous. Someone looks bad through actions like this and it’s not me.
And here I was thinking that crimes like this only happened to models and celebrities.
As you can see, this is how amateurs and unethical people react to criticism. It also justifies me fighting back against these people when they slander and threaten me.
This said, I can hardly be made to be the bad guy. I’m not the bad guy, especially when I am simply standing up for myself, my rights, and the rights of their other victims. If anyone has any issues with my actions, they really need to take this into consideration.

Deciphering the fake picture
It’s not difficult to figure out the motivation behind this picture, and the camp where it came from.
First, they took a self-portrait that I took of myself in October 2001, which was on my Myspace profile photo gallery. In the original picture, I had an unshaven look, and was scowling into the camera a bit (I’ve included a picture of me, below, from the same time period, for comparison). When combined with the picture of the naked man, this shifted the context, and turned it into a picture of an angry naked man.
Obviously, all of the tattoos that they put on the naked angry man body have Tampa indie film references. Let’s elaborate, shall we?
On his right chest is a huge QP, which represents my criticism of the Quiet Place film, which was done in late 2006, and released in early 2007. Joe Davison played a lead role in that film. On his left chest is a hideous picture of Tampa filmmaker / actor Joe Davison, whom I am certainly no fan of. On his left shoulder is a picture of Gurdy the clown, who was the killer in the Davison/ Koch film 100 Tears. On the belly area is a big “99", which is a reference to a Guzzo Bros film, shot here in Tampa, which I have been critical of.
The context of the photograph, therefor, is of an angry naked man (with a homosexual reference, I gather) who is obsessed with Joe and the Guzzo Brothers, which is NOT the case in reality (I am not gay, and could really care less about these people). The references to Davison projects, too, lead me to believe that this work is from someone who knows Joe.
These people cannot take constructive criticism, it seems, and I can only wonder how they will react when my reviews for these referenced projects come out.
The person who made this fake picture is obviously no fan of my Tampa Bay Film site, and is one of their mindless followers. By telling it how it was, I opened myself up to this cowardly attempt to humiliate me. I put all of the blame on the Tampa indie film clique and a certain pop culture site and its “Editor”, and this is indicative of the professionalism one can expect in the Tampa indie film scene. If they will do it to me, they will do it to you. Do not trust anyone until they earn your trust!

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THE LATEST UPDATES ON FRONTIER POP FEATURES

This was one of the first things published on Frontier Pop, and was online before the site officially launched. We added video excerpts of the play.

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THE LATEST UPDATES AND NEWS ON OUR SUPPORTING WEB SITES AND COMPANIES

Independent Modeling has just been updated, again, with the new site online in October!

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C. A. Passinault - Posted 12/01/10: 0830

Finally, after running behind for several issues (five to be exact... November was a busy month, as I’ve been up to my elbows in a project which I cannot talk about online at the moment.... Let’s just say that it will secure the resources that I’ll need for my event and indie film projects), I’m caught up. Although the past five issues of Frontier Pop will stay rather small until more content is added in the future (remember that all issues remain in play, and are updated with new content, as they are treated as subject-based sections of content), we’re on track. Next week’s issue of Frontier Pop, issue 21, will be larger than they have been recently, linking to a ton of Tampa indie film reviews on my Tampa Bay Film Tampa Film Review site. All of those reviews will link back to the issue 21 running archive here on Frontier Pop. That’s my secret weapon: all of my web sites, and recent updates and content addition to them, are often treated as part of current issues of Frontier Pop. Also, all of my sites are a part of Frontier Pop. This makes Frontier Pop the largest, and most effective, pop culture, entertainment, and information site in Florida, with over 12 years of content referenced. And my competitors wonder why they cannot compete.
Additionally, it needs to be understood that Frontier Pop will be the primary sponsor in all of my event projects, which include, but are not limited to, film festivals, indie film community events (the Tampa Film Conference, for example), modeling and talent events, photography events, parties, theme events, stage plays, stage productions, and anything else. Also, I have business interests which will be the primary advertisers on Frontier Pop, which vests my interests in making this site the best that it can be in the long term (my closest competition have no businesses of their own, and have to beg for advertisers, which cripples their incentive to compete).
Effective immediately, I will try to refrain from making fun of people here on Frontier Pop, although, if they persist with their slander and threats, I reserve the right to continue to mock them, as well as take the necessary legal action against them which my attorney assures me is an option. They started it, I finished it, teaching them a lesson, and if they wish to continue, well, we can do that. Thank you!