When this song first came out, it was considered a "Power Ballad", I really liked the encompassing sound and the video was really good with the traditional Orchestra mixed in. It is one of those songs that you play loud...if for no other reasons to hear the different pieces of the orchestral band in the background. Matter of fact, I might be wrong, I think it is the last of the "Power Ballads" truly. I was driving into work and this song had popped up on the "90's" channel on my Sirius/XM so I let it run, so I decided to roll with it.
Its distinct symphonic overtone owes to a sweeping string arrangement, orchestrated by Rose.Most live performances during the Use Your Illusion tour lacked the orchestral backing of the song (the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards being the best-known exception). It is the longest song to reach the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. The song peaked at #3 on the chart, becoming the band's sixth and last Top 10 hit, and eighth Top 40 hit. On the radio, "November Rain" is sometimes played in a shortened version of approximately six minutes, but many classic rock stations continue to play the full version. At around seven minutes in, the song fades and then builds into a two-minute coda featuring lead guitar by lead guitarist Slash, accompanied by vocal chants. This song is listed at number six in the The 100 Greatest Guitar Solos list by Guitar World.This song is also rated #9 in the Richter Scale best songs of all time. "November Rain" was voted #1 on the Rock 1000 2006, an annual countdown of the top 1,000 rock songs by New Zealand radio listeners. It was voted #2 on the Rock 1000 2007, being beaten out by "Back in Black" by AC/DC. The song was placed at #140 on Pitchfork Media'sTop 200 Tracks of the 90s.
Music video
The narrative quality of the music video accentuated the epic nature of the song. The video (directed by Andrew "Andy" Morahan)portrays Rose marrying his then-girlfriend Stephanie Seymour, intercut with a live performance in a theatre. Particularly, it can be noted for its large budget (about $1.5 million, including Seymour's dress, worth $8,000) and sweeping cinematography, which won an MTV Video Music Award for Best Cinematography. It is one of the most expensive music videos ever. Slash is prominently featured in some of the video's most memorable scenes, including a sequence of helicopter shots swooping around him as he plays the first guitar solo and a later scene where he plays the third solo while standing on Rose's piano onstage. Casting coordinator Mark Roberton observed; "the camera-man had a lot of responsibility, as the crane-cam was so close to Slash, precariously stood atop a piano that was near the stage edge. One wrong twitch and the guitarist would've had a long drop!" The video for "November Rain" uses the full version of the song as opposed to an abridged version. Orpheum Theater, a theater in downtown Los Angeles was acquired for an evening shoot that went several hours into the night, and, unlike usual common practice, they didn't mime for any of the takes. Between several differing versions of "November Rain", while the cameras on cranes that swooped close to Slash's frets were reviewed and set up for the next shot – the band entertained the 1,500 extras by playing more of their songs. For the outside shots of Slash while he is playing the first solo, Rose had originally envisioned it taking place in a "cool field" of sorts. However, since the video was shot in winter, there were no good-looking fields around, and eventually the band decided to use a church in New Mexico. Coincidentally, this was the same church used in the movie Silverado. Brad Hartmaier art directed the New Mexico sequences at the Silverado Movie Ranch. Working from sketches he made while sitting in the hotel bar, Hartmaier managed to build and dress two church sets. The Exterior church set was a dilapidated old church that he trucked out to the middle of a large prairie. Multiple crews worked for 24 hours straight building a duplicate church complete with fly away walls, hand made cathedral windows and decorations befitting the southwestern region where it was shot. Hartmeier was in the church with a walkie-talkie with Slash as a helicopter circled above for the big shot. Slash asked him what he did and he replied, "I'm the art director slash prop man, slash painter, slash mad scientist." Slash quickly replied with a chuckle..."Ha ha, I'm just Slash." Hartmeier later said of working on the video, "It was the best experience of my life." Nigel Phelps was the original Art Director; Hartmaier took his place when Phelps moved onto a feature film during the later part of the making of the video. The priest in the video, an Italian man named Gianantonio, was a friend of Rose. Unbeknownst to the band, the church used for the interior shots was where the priest had performed some of his last services, eight years prior to the shooting of the video. The music videos for "November Rain," "Don't Cry" and "Estranged" form an unofficial trilogy of sorts. While never specifically confirmed by the band, Rose and Del James have made statements supporting this idea. The similarity in production, style and plots can be considered evidence of this intent. As stated at the end of the video, "November Rain" is based on the short story "Without You" by James, available in his 1995 book The Language of Fear. The story concerns a rock star grieving over the death of his on-and-off-again girlfriend, who had committed suicide (inspired by Rose's troubled relationship with Erin Everly). While much speculation exists about how Seymour's character in the video died, the relationship between the video clip and James' short story strongly suggests that she kills herself. She appears looking visibly troubled during one shot of the wedding and during the funeral sequence, a mirror is visible, covering over half her face, a technique used by funeral homes to allow victims of head trauma to have the appearance of a full face in the event of an open casket funeral. The video remained popular throughout the rest of the decade. At the end of 1992, MTV placed "November Rain" at #1 on their top 100 videos of that year. Subsequently, it often appeared at #1 or in the top 10 of several future all-time MTV countdowns throughout the '90s. In addition, the video was voted Best Video Clip in Metal Edge's 1992 Readers' Choice Awards.
As of October 2024, November Rain is the most viewed song on YouTube released in the 1990s.
I got this in my email, from Jason Hanson, I have been on his email list for years, I know that he is selling a product, but the information has value. I shamelessly cut and pasted his email to my post. I have "Posted in the past about carjacking" and what prompted this post was the local news talking about another news blurp of a common occurance of a carjacking in the city at a gas station by "Youths", and the owner of the car usually shot and killed in the process and clues are not forthcoming in the community.
Here are some quick stats about carjackings…
1— About 45% of the time, a carjacking involves two or more criminals.
We know that “birds of a feather flock together.”
So, if you ever experience a carjacking, there’s a good chance it will be at
least 2 attackers.
2— About 60% of the time, a firearm will be used.
These thugs want to intimidate people by shoving a gun in their chest or
back.
This is why it’s not a bad idea to learn gun disarms.
3— The majority of carjackings will occur at a gas station or shopping mall.
This isn’t a shocker, since the carjackers will go where the people are at.
4— About 25% of the time, the victim is injured by their carjackers.
This is why I always carry a weapon on me.
I do not want to take the chance and roll the dice on my safety.
5— You are more likely to be carjacked by a juvenile than an adult.
When I lived in Baltimore City, MD, I was almost carjacked, and it was a
bunch of young punks.
If I had to guess their ages, it would be somewhere between 16-19.
Now, since 2020, carjackings have skyrocketed…
However, in the last year, many cities have started to have common sense and
realize that Defund the Police was the world’s most boneheaded idea.
So, carjackings have come down a bit, but they are still higher overall.
This is why you want to…
-Always keep your doors locked.
-Don’t sit on your phone in your car when you are in the Walmart parking lot
or gas station, etc.
-Have a weapon on you or within reach in your vehicle at all times.
-If you are in your car and someone tries to get in, immediately drive off
and get out of the danger zone…
And make sure you’ve got enough gas to escape, so never let your tank get
below ¼.
I saw this on Forbes and it reminded me of something that I posted 5 years ago in 2020 and I will repost in its entirety, and I will make bold the key passages and I will add an addendum. Most of the HR dept of most corporations are the Bastions of D.E.I. so if you are a white collar straight white dude you will have problems because most corporations will go out of their way not to hire or keep you. I don't worry about it because I have a technical degree plus an A&P license and I am close to retirement, so I am not so affected, but many younger guys will be affected, I have warned my son, he is pursuing an A&P license plus other technical skills to make himself more employable and to better protect his future. I have told other "Kids" the same things. If you go white collar, get a technical degree, it will protect you better in an uncertain world.
The first part was from 2020
My apologies for not posting...I have been suffering from what could be called a "malaise of spirit" as it were. I had run across this article and the taglines really stuck with me..The Italized is the quotes from the article I read and shamelessly cut and pasted....Hey I do that sometimes...But the article is linked on my post if you want to read the article for your viewing pleasure.
"For if the very public Black Lives Matter protests have polarized America, the silent fallout has now reached Hollywood."
"A revolution is under way. White actors are being fired. Edicts from studio bosses make it clear that only minorities – racial and sexual – can be given jobs.A new wave of what has been termed by some as anti-white prejudice is causing writers, directors and producers to fear they will never work again. One described the current atmosphere as ‘more toxic than Chernobyl’, with leading actors afraid to speak out amid concern they will be labelled racist."
The first sign came with one of the most powerful black directors in Hollywood, Oscar-winning Jordan Peele – the man behind box office hits such as Get Out and Us – stated in public that he did not want to hire a leading man who was white.‘I don’t see myself casting a white dude as the lead in my movie,’ Peele said. ‘Not that I don’t like white dudes. But I’ve seen that movie before.’As one studio executive responded privately: ‘If a white director said that about hiring a black actor, their career would be over in a heartbeat.’ Few doubt it.
The race card is a very powerful card.
Peele is more vocal than most about his hiring policy, but his outlook is increasingly widespread. Dozens of producers, writers and actors have spoken to The Mail on Sunday about the wave of ‘reverse racism’ pulsing through the industry.
It’s not “reverse racism” it’s racism pure and simple. Africans can be racists and they are. Black Lives Matter is a racist organization.
speaking on condition of anonymity, the executive confirmed that the climate is now toxic for any ‘white, middle-aged man in showbusiness’. Their careers, ‘are pretty much over’. They continued: ‘We’re only hiring people of colour, women or LGBT to write, star, produce, operate the cameras, work in craft services. If you are white, you can’t speak out because you will instantly be branded ‘racist’ or condemned for "‘white privilege’."
This is fucking great! I love to see the left eating its own and that is exactly what is going on in Hollywood. Guess what “middle aged white men”, you let this happen and now you are paying the price. Let’s see Hollywood produce movies only starring Africans. Won’t bother me a bit since I don’t go to movies anymore. I will love seeing all of those white liberal actors not getting cast in any movies anymore
.‘The pendulum has swung so far, everyone is paralyzed with fear by the idea anything you say could be misinterpreted and your career ended instantly. There are a lot of hushed conversations going on, but publicly everyone is desperate to be seen to be promoting diversity and too terrified to speak out. It’s imploding: a total meltdown.’
Sure I am enjoying the Hollywood leftist eating their own, there is a certain satisfaction watching that happen after watching that cultural trainwreck coming into the station, after seeing them screw over their country for 20 plus years by embracing the latest and greatest of the leftist causes all of a sudden to find themselves on the outside looking in and wondering "what just happened" and realized that they are 2nd class citizens now. But the realization for me is that what happened in Hollywood is happening all over the United States especially in Corporate America. We have the CEO of NBC stating that he is pushing to reflect 50% diversity hire in his company in new initiative's and right now his company is a mix of men and women and he states that he wants to set a cap of 25% of white males in his company and if memory serves, it about 38% white males so he will have to early retire them, or offer severance packages or outright fire them to meet his goal. Now this practice will become more widespread as the wave continues and more companies will do the same practice and it will be acceptable. Sure it is discrimination, but nobody will fight it because of "systemic racism(tm)" and if somebody tries to fight it in court they will be committing career suicide and they will be toxic for any future employment, Tell me I am wrong in this present corporate environment. I am what is called a "Summer Chicken" as I like to joke, which means I have lived more of my life behind me than what is left to me and I am fine with that, but I am concerned what kind of life my son will have, being treated a 2nd class citizen in the United States. I was at Sams Club picking up items for the spousal unit yesterday per her request, and my county is a "blue" county, it swung blue back in 2014 and voted for *Felonia Von Pantsuit* in 2016. Where I live in my county is still "Trump" territory, I call it "Roarks Drift" as a Tongue in Cheek reference, but while in Sams club with the mobs of people there were a lot of democrats and most of them were looking at me with hostility or what my friend *Shelldude* would call the "Fuck you look" I saw a lot of "Black lives matter shirts" and the "Enough is Enough" and the ever popular "I can't Breath". and I really didn't like this at all, it is a unfamiliar sensation, because as a rule I am very polite to people I nodded and smiled, No I didn't wear my Trump 2020 Hat, I didn't feel like provoking a confrontation and in the political arena, I would lose, even if I am in the right because the DA would suck and swallow to the mob. I push the envelope with my truck having the "deplorable Inside" sticker on the back as it is.
But that is from 2016 but the rest of the stuff still marks me as a conservative so who knows...My son will graduate in 2021 and we will move in a few years, we don't know where we will go, I made jokes about moving to Texas but the Spousal unit wasn't happy about that suggestion, we would have to find employment out there. We will move because we must, we cannot remain here, I do not want to stay here, for what I fear is coming. my friend *Shelldude* is somewhat prescient had coined a phrase in the 90's "Balkenization" I fear that this is coming I have to look to move to a place where there is more like me for no other reason than for my and my wife's safety. I never thought I would have to say that. I in the 1980's thought we were past all this tribal bullshit, but Obama really got it stirred up and and it has bore fruit. All of this kinda put me into a funk. It just came into a head, My creative energy was just kaput, I read my blogroll but I had no energy to put anything into the blog, I was bummed as they say. I would look at the keyboard and see nothing....and desultory tap the keyboard....tap.....tap....tap...then wipe the screen and close the screen and walk away....This sucks. On the flipside...with Hollywood having a meltdown there is room for independent productions to start making movies, with good quality content and not full of PC bullshit and if it sells well in the movies or on Netflix or what have you, it may break the back or the stranglehold that Hollywood has on the movie industry. and the culture wars. The last movie I saw was Midway and I considered it Pretty well done, overall, some minor glitches but well told. and some of those "woke" stars now that they have been burned and those conservatives that have been hiding, can come out of the closet, have nothing to lose can come out with the independents where merit counts and not how many checks you can mark off on a diversity card.
*My Name for Hillary Clinton during the 2016 Election
The 2025 article
This is the article from "Forbes" dealing with A.I. and the white collar workforce. A.I is the up and coming thing as companies are looking to cut cost and overhead and salaries is a traditional way to go.
“Artificial intelligence is going to replace literally half of all white-collar workers in the ... More
Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Ford CEO Jim Farley did something unprecedented last week. He said what CEOs behind closed doors have been discussing for months — that half of America’s white-collar workers are obsolete. "AI is going to replace literally half of all white-collar workers," he said at the Aspen Ideas Festival.
No hedge. No "but new jobs will emerge." Just the truth.
You can only imagine the conversations CEOs are having in closed-door meetings mapping out exactly which roles disappear first. They’ve run the numbers. They’ve seen the demos. They’ve already decided who stays and who goes. The only thing that changed last week is that another executive finally started saying it publicly.
JPMorgan’s Marianne Lake, the CEO of its Consumer & Community Banking and a member of the JPMorganChase Operating Committee, recently told investors that she could see headcount in operations dropping by 10% in the coming years as the bank implemented new AI tools. Amazon’s Andy Jassy called it "once-in-a-lifetime" technology that will shrink their corporate workforce. Anthropic's CEO went further , predicting 20% unemployment within five years.
But here’s what they’re not telling you: All those jobs aren’t disappearing. Some of them will be transformed into gig-economy jobs.
The Lie Everyone Pretended to Believe
When you zoom out, we’re starting to see a consistent theme: Some CEOs have stopped pretending. For two years, we’ve endured the corporate theater of "AI augments, it doesn’t replace" while some companies quietly tried to automate entire departments. The consulting firms sold "transformation roadmaps." HR departments hosted "upskilling workshops." Everyone is playing along.
But when Shopify’s CEO tells managers they can’t hire unless they prove AI can’t do the job, the pretense crumbles. When Fiverr’s CEO writes "AI is coming for you" — listing programmers, designers, lawyers and finance professionals by name — the comfortable fiction unravels.
The fear is, "If we don’t do it, someone else will. And then we're the ones getting replaced."
The White-Collar Gig Economy Is Already in Motion
The transformation isn’t coming — it’s here, hiding in plain sight. A remarkable 36% of employed respondents (equivalent to 58 million Americans when extrapolated from the representative sample) identify as independent workers, according to McKinsey’s American Opportunity Survey. This figure represents a notable increase since we estimated the 2016 U.S. independent workforce at 27% of the employed population. The gig economy is growing three times faster than the total U.S. workforce, with half of the entire U.S.-based working population likely to have joined it by 2027.
The gig-economy isn't just for blue-collar workers anymore.
Getty Images
Walk into any co-working space at 2 p.m. and count the laptops: former executives running fractional services, laid-off analysts selling expertise on demand. Approximately 3 million full-time gig workers (20%) are earning over $100,000 per year, while a third of employed respondents who earn more than $150,000 a year also say they work independently. This isn’t just Uber drivers anymore — it’s lawyers, accountants and consultants.
Companies aren’t just dabbling — More than 36% (57 million) of Americans have a gig work arrangement either as their primary or secondary job. The pandemic accelerated what was already inevitable: layoffs during the pandemic and cost-of-living issues may have pushed a larger number of workers to become independent workers. The enterprise software company that laid off engineers? They're contractors now. Same code, different classification. The gig economy conquered blue-collar work. Now it's coming for the corner office.
So How Does This Unfold?
So how are you getting ready for this?
Phase 1 (happening now): Companies freeze hiring for any role an AI can partially do. When someone quits, their work gets parceled out to contractors using AI tools. Marketing manager leaves? Five freelancers with ChatGPT replace them at half the cost.
Phase 2 (6 months): Mass "restructuring" eliminates entire departments. Surviving managers become "vendor relationship coordinators," overseeing networks of gig workers and AI systems. Your accounting department becomes one controller managing 20 fractional bookkeepers.
Phase 3 (18 months): The full gig transformation. Need a financial analysis? Post it on the internal gig platform. Need a marketing campaign? Another gig. Legal review? Gig lawyer with AI does it in two hours instead of two days.
Phase 4 (3 years): The companies that survive have 20% of their previous full-time headcount, but 500% more gig relationships. The corporation becomes a hub, not a hierarchy.
IBM’s CEO spoke about replacing HR workers with AI while hiring more programmers. He left out the part where those programmers are increasingly contractors, probably not employees.
The Gig Economy Nobody Prepared You For
When we imagined the gig economy, we pictured Uber drivers and TaskRabbit handymen and women. We didn't picture:
CFOs working for 10 companies simultaneously
Marketing directors running campaigns for competitors on alternate days
Software architects designing systems by the sprint, not the year
HR executives doing layoffs as a service (yes, this is real)
Just imagine doing the same work, just without the meetings, politics and commute.
So what about that full-time position you have? Is it already a gig job and you just don’t know it yet? Is your company one restructuring away from offering you the "opportunity" to continue your exact same work as a 1099 contractor?
The smart folks are getting ahead of it.
Working from anywhere as a white-collar gig worker
Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Three Options in the White-Collar Gig Economy
If you're reading this from your corporate desk, you have three paths:
1. The Denial Play: Ignore it. Cling to your "stable" job. Act surprised when it becomes a gig without your consent.
2. The Prepared Pivot: Start building your gig infrastructure now. Incorporate. Build a client base. Test the waters while you still have a salary.
3. The Gig Accelerator: Jump first. Use AI to serve multiple clients. Build the systems that let you outcompete your former employer.
Most will choose option one. They'll become reluctant gig workers, competing on price in a race to the bottom.
The Surprising Opportunities
The gig economy isn't just about cost-cutting. It's about capability multiplication.
The New Power Players:
Fractional Executives : Why be a full-time CMO for one company when you can be fractional CMO for five? Top fractional executives now out-earn their full-time counterparts by 3-5x.
AI-Powered Boutiques: Small teams using AI to compete with major firms. A three-person "agency" in Austin can win a contract from a Fortune 500 that used to go to a larger agency. Their secret? AI does 80% of the work, they do the 20% that matters.
Expertise Networks: Loose collectives of gig workers who team up for large projects. No office, no overhead, pure expertise.
The Micro-Multinational: Individual contractors serving global clients from anywhere. A designer in Buenos Aires or Bali can work for Silicon Valley startups any time of day. A financial analyst in Ohio can serve banks in Asia. Geography becomes irrelevant when AI handles the grunt work.
The Skills That Matter in the Gig Economy
The gig economy rewards different talents. Make sure you focus on the skills that matter.
Self-Marketing: Your LinkedIn becomes your lifeline
AI Integration: Not just using AI, but building AI-powered service offerings
Network Building: Your network is your net worth, literally
Financial Management: You're now CFO of You, Inc.
Rapid Adaptation: New client, new industry, new challenge every month
The corporate drone who can only function inside a hierarchy? Those days are numbered. The adaptable professional who can deliver value anywhere? That’s a six-figure gig worker.
So What Does This Mean for Me?
If You Are A Current Employee: Your job might already be temporary. Start building your gig option now, while you still have steady income to fund the transition.
If You Are A Recent Graduate: Consider skipping the corporate ladder entirely. Build gig capabilities from day one. Why start at $60K when you can bill $150/hour?
If You Are A Middle Manager: Your coordination skills are perfect for managing gig networks. Become the hub that connects and directs gig talent.
If You Are A Parent: Teach your kids entrepreneurship, not employment. The ability to find clients and deliver value is a lifelong skill that’s critical in the AI era.
The white-collar gig economy isn’t coming. It's here.
But here’s the silver lining: The same force destroying traditional employment is democratizing opportunity. The tools replacing corporate jobs enable individual empire building. The technology eliminating positions creates possibilities for those who grab them.
You can enter the gig economy as a victim — laid off and scrambling. Or you can enter as a leader — prepared, positioned and profitable.
