144 MEDIA BLOG

September 25, 2023

Hotel Security Releases Raucous New Single “Forget It”

By Robert Geline, President of 144 Media, Inc.

Brace yourself for Hotel Security’s hard hitting new rocker, “Forget It,” released recently on all major streaming services. An adrenaline-charged metal-inspired anthem, the band’s new single explores throwing the past to the wayside and embracing the unknown. Find a link to the song at hotelsecurityband.com

In the tradition of Hotel Security’s debut self-titled 2021 album, “Forget It” delivers a high-energy aural assault that features edgy guitar, dramatic vocal and aggressive rhythm. Lyrics tackle the universal wish for a fresh start but caution about the consequences with a humorous twist. “I wanted to show the appeal of a radical future-forward attitude, but also the dangers,” says lead vocal and keyboardist Matt Geline. “So yeah, I was definitely having fun with the concept.” Adds lead guitar Austin Rowey: “This song continues our effort to give our audience music that they enjoy, but also something that we hope connects with their lives.”

For more about HOTEL SECURITY:

March 1, 2022

HOTEL SECURITY DEBUT ALBUM: A SMORGASBORD OF POP/PROG ROCK SOUNDS FOR FANS OF ALL AGES

By Robert Geline, President of 144 Media, Inc.

New York, NY: “Don’t you get bored of normal life?” asks the opening lyric of “Get Mental”, one of 10 songs on HOTEL SECURITY, the newly released debut album by the New York City pop/prog rock group of the same name. For anyone who answers “Yes” to the question, this exuberant new offering provides a welcome diversion from the occasional tedium of the everyday routine.

Available on all streaming services, https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/hotelsecurity/hotel-security

HOTEL SECURITY delivers listeners an exciting sonic smorgasbord of choices. They range from the sci-fi fantasy of the lead track, “Hotel Security”, to the head-banging drive of “Get Mental”, rippling arpeggios and high-flying falsetto of “Icarus”, mood changes of “After Midnight”, and topical message of “Point of No Return”.

 Throughout, the energy and enthusiasm of HOTEL SECURITY punctuate its inventive offerings to deliver an exuberant listening experience that rock fans of all ages will find a welcome addition to their playlists.  Says Matthew Geline, Hotel Security’s lead vocal and keyboardist: “We hope people will have as much fun listening to our new album as we had writing and recording it.”

July 27, 2021

Will the Kids Save Post-COVID New York City?

By Robert Geline, President of 144 Media, Inc.

New York, NY – There are big questions about whether New York City will ever return to its pre-COVID levels of business and cultural vitality. Will the office economy be as robust as before if companies allow employees to continue to work from home? Will tourism return to pre-pandemic levels if shootings in Times Square continue to grab headlines? If tax revenues decline, how much will inevitable cuts in city services impact the quality of life?

These are just a few of the questions facing New York, and it’s easy to predict a bleak future based on outcomes that don’t go the city’s way. But there is at least one bottom line reality about New York City that provides a hopeful augury: It’s a place that young people continue to want to live, work and play. This vital aspect of New York life was on full display on a recent Saturday night in July.

Arlene’s Grocery is a bar in New York’s East Village that features live music. It’s one of many such venues in the city, but we chose to mention it because on this Saturday night, one of the featured bands was a new group for which our son, Matthew, serves as lead singer, plays keyboard, and writes songs. The band is called Hotel Security, and it was making its live debut. To sample the sound

The scene at Arlene’s and the surrounding neighborhood was hopping. Young New York was out in full force this warm July night, filling the streets with enough people to make you think a special event was underway. The full energy and enthusiasm of youth was in the air, and it was impossible not to feel this urban pulse without a sense of optimism about the city’s future.

New York has always been the “Emerald City” for young people from near and far. It draws those with high hopes and big dreams, whether they were born in Bangor, ME, Bakersfield, CA, Bangladesh, or Brooklyn. Despite the ravages of COVID and the uncertainty that faces the city, that fundamental fact remains unchanged.

Will the kids and their drive to “make it in New York” help the city’s post-COVID recovery? Absolutely. Will their youth power be enough to save it? I won’t speculate on that, but I also wouldn’t bet against the idea. (By the way, Hotel Security’s debut was well received. They’ll be back at Arlene’s and elsewhere around town in the weeks and months to come.)

 

 

June 10, 2021

America’s COVID Independence Day: The Bitter and the Sweet

By Robert Geline, President of 144 Media, Inc.

New York, NY – There will be much to celebrate this July 4, the day America celebrates its “independence” from COVID-19. The country will be on track to achieve “herd immunity” to the virus thanks to a vaccination effort that has been successful enough to permit picnics, parades, fireworks and other celebrations to go on with crowds and without the face masks, hand sanitizers and social distancing that have marked our lives for so long.

The festivities will mark an important milestone of our progress on the long road back to pre-pandemic life. The virus has been turned back, but it has not been eradicated. Thousands of new infections continue to be counted every day, and people continue to die from the disease and its complications. As of this writing, CDC statistics show the virus has killed almost 600,000 people in the U. S., and because most of the world outside the U.S. remains unvaccinated, and will for some time, the threat of a viral mutation the vaccines don’t protect against remains a threat.

Nonetheless, the progress here against the virus has been a public achievement of major proportions, and it is important to celebrate it. At the same time, it will be just as important to remember the losses we have suffered due to COVID and pay special attention to  what the pandemic has shown us about our society. Possibly unlike anything else we have experienced as a nation, COVID has shown us our strengths but also laid bare our weaknesses.

On the plus side, the pandemic brought out the resiliency, resourcefulness, kindness and determination in the American spirit that allowed us to endure the disease and make it through. But the virus also laid bare the inequities and enmities in our society, heightened them as possibly nothing before and helped divide us as a nation in ways unseen since the Civil War. It is the bittersweet legacy of our progress against the pandemic and the question it poses for our future:  We are meeting the prodigious public health threat it presented, but will we meet the societal challenges the virus has thrown into such stark relief?

December 1, 2020

How To Deprogram Millions of Trump Voters

By Robert Geline, President of 144 Media, Inc.

New York, NY – As Joe Biden ascends to the Presidency on January 20, it is time to ask: “How do we help close to 75 million people who voted for Donald Trump shake off his continuing con and join the rest of us here in the imperfect real world of American democracy?

They have, after all, been brainwashed with lies, propaganda and magical thinking for years, from the false claim of record crowds at Trump’s inauguration to the dangerous deception of a killer virus that was just going to “disappear.” Many Trump followers are similar to cult members who need deprogramming. To bring them back from Trump’s Big Lie, here are a few suggestions:

** President-elect Biden: Keep doing what you’re doing. You are sending the right messages. The calm, confident and competent tone and tenor of your transition is absolutely the right stuff. Keep it up in the White House to show Trumpsters how a stable President does things and how important that is.

** Elected Republicans at all levels: It’s time — way past time, actually — to reject Donald Trump and start offering some kind of positive vision of the America you want to see in coming years. Give Trump voters an option to the racism, xenophobia, contempt for the Rule of Law, chaos and corruption he fed them. You’ll be helping them and probably yourselves, too. In fact, your political lives may depend on it. Are you listening, Mitch McConnell?

** The Lincoln Project and Republican Voters Against Trump: You might be the folks who come up with that positive vision for Republicans at all levels. I don’t think Tom Cotton, Jim Jordan et al. will be much help on that. Are you listening, Mitch McConnell?

** Democrats on the Left: Take a couple of steps toward the center, please, and show willingness to accept compromise and incremental progress. No push for national unity can work without your shoulders to the wheel, and Trump voters need to see you’re not really all socialists and communists out to take down capitalism as Trump maintained.

** Rupert Murdoch: Stand up and say Donald Trump was dangerous to democracy, and it’s a good thing he lost the election.

** The Media in general: How about giving Trump the minimal coverage he deserves as a soundly defeated one termer? Sure, he could start a war or try to between now and mid-January, and you’ll have to pay attention. But after January 20, there is little reason to listen when Trump burps, is there?

** Donald Trump: Actually, all you have to do is keep doing what you’ve been doing since the voters said: “You’re fired.” The more you refuse to admit defeat and whine, complain, falsely accuse, play the victim, lie and maintain your delusional fantasy of a “stolen election”, the more you confirm for people the mistake they made by giving you their vote.

September 10, 2020

It’s All About Turnout Now

By Robert Geline, President of 144 Media, Inc.

New York, NY: The Presidential race is heading for the finish line. Between now and election day there will be three Presidential debates, one Vice Presidential debate and who knows how many controversies and surprises to occupy the headlines. At this point, it seems hard to know what might actually count as a “surprise.” In this year of COVID and controversy that has further split an already divided country, we understand almost anything can happen and probably will.

But amidst all the uncertainty, there are a few things that do seem pretty clear. While there is much talk about the undecided voter, and given the context of Trump’s narrowest of wins in 2016 that’s perfectly reasonable, it is also the case that almost everyone who has a vote knows right now for whom they will cast their ballot.

Almost no matter what happens in the next 60 days, those decisions aren’t changing. Do you know anyone who is still on the fence? Have you tried to talk a Trump supporter out of his or her choice, or a Biden voter into switching to Trump?

Despite the hundreds of millions that will be spent on everything from TV ads to T-shirts between now and November to win the hearts and minds of those few who have yet to decide and hold the allegiance of those who have made their choice, what matters most now is only this: Which campaign has the organization to make sure their voters get to the polls?

This is the least visible part of the campaign and, as such, it gets the least media attention. It is easy to put cameras in front of a speech or a rally, but not so easy to dig out the details of an organization’s “ground game.”  But make no mistake, from making sure that vote by mail works the way it is supposed to (a key challenge in 2020) to assigning people to physically get seniors to the polls, turnout is all that matters now.

August 5, 2020

Trump’s Unstated 2020 Campaign Message

By Robert Geline, President of 144 Media, Inc.

New York, NY: As the final 100 days of the 2020 presidential campaign unwind, we will be watching a battle for the White House unlike anything we have witnessed. The contest will be waged amid unprecedented uncertainty. Read More

June 3, 2020

The President’s Message on COVID-19: Dollars Trump Death

By Robert Geline, President of 144 Media, Inc.

As the COVID-19 summer of 2020 begins, there is no ambiguity about the message Donald Trump and his Republican enablers are pinning Trump’s re-election hopes on at this stage of the pandemic-plagued campaign. It’s dollars over deaths. Make no mistake about it…
Read More

April 23, 2020

The Verdict on Trump’s COVID-19 Response? “You’re Fired.”

By Robert Geline, President of 144 Media, Inc.

New York, NY: The COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. appears to be peaking and moving into a potentially less virulent phase. The social distancing Americans have adhered to since March and heroic performance by healthcare workers have knocked down the spread of the disease and opened the door to a phased return of the country’s economic, social and community life.
Read More

February 14, 2020

Hey, Democrats: “I Don’t Hear a Single”

By Robert Geline, President of 144 Media, Inc.

The late Tom Petty counts among the legends of rock ‘n roll for his instantly identifiable guitar, vocal and lyrical style. From among his many hits, there is a line in one song I think the Democratic party and its candidates need to take very seriously as the 2020 campaign moves toward the general election.

Read More

March 20, 2019

The Ten Commandments Of Effective Public Speaking

By Robert Geline, President of 144 Media, Inc.

A few years ago, at the season of Easter and Passover, we posted our idea of what “THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF EFFECTIVE PUBLIC SPEAKING” might look like if they came down from On High. As we once again welcome Spring and the time of renewal, here is a reprise of that list, presented in the interest of keeping your audiences awake:
Read More

February 7, 2019

Howard Schultz: Can His Message Win the Middle?

By Robert Geline, President of 144 Media, Inc.

I like Starbucks coffee. We buy it by the bag (Espresso), ground for a paper filter, and brew it at home. I don’t like standing in line in a Starbucks store, and I really don’t like the prices. So it was with mixed feelings recently that I watched former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz roll out his exploratory third party presidential bid.
Read More

November 2, 2018

Voice Variety: The Secret of the Great Speakers

By Robert Geline, President of 144 Media, Inc.

What separates the most dynamic public speakers and corporate presenters from those who don’t stand out? In more than two decades of working with speakers ranging from top executives to athletes and celebrities, I’ve found the best verbal communicators know how use their voices to enhance their storytelling impact.
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April 11, 2018

Is the Reality TV President Losing His Audience?

By Robert Geline, President of 144 Media, Inc.

When Donald Trump won the White house, I wrote that he had done so, in my view, not because of the rules of politics, campaigning and communication he had broken, but by consistently following these two fundamental principles of effective persuasive communication:
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March 12, 2018

The Ten Commandments of Effective Public Speaking

By Robert Geline, President of 144 Media, Inc.

by Robert J. Geline

Spring means renewal and new beginnings. What better time than the season of Easter and Passover to offer a refresher on what it takes to succeed when it’s your time to get up and present? I don’t have a hotline to the Lord, but if I did, he might pass along a list of The Ten Commandments of Public Speaking that reads like this:
Read More

May 3, 2017

“A guy goes into a bar . . . “ WHEN IS HUMOR IN A PRESENTATION THE RIGHT STUFF?

By Robert Geline, President of 144 Media, Inc.

When is the right time to use humor in a presentation?
How much funny stuff is too much? What kind of stories are o.k.?

Questions like these come up frequently in workshops, and I have heard a variety of opinions on the answer. My view is that humor is a powerful tool that can have benefits for the presenter and the audience. When used properly, it can be a great way to establish rapport and set comfortable tone that helps maintain audience attention.
Read More

January 27, 2017

The Teflon Don(ald) Trump vs. The Media:
What’s at Stake in this Fight?

By Robert Geline, President of 144 Media, Inc.

In the first week of Donald J. Trump’s presidency, sales of George Orwell’s 1984 jumped to the top of the best-seller list on Amazon.com. Why the sudden attraction to an almost 70-year-old warning about the dangers of totalitarianism that introduced the idea of “Doublethink” and the language of “Newspeak”?
Read More

December 7, 2016

The Rules Donald Trump Did Not Break

By Robert Geline, President of 144 Media, Inc.

blog-trumpFor the record: I am not a Donald Trump supporter, and did not vote for him.

The conventional wisdom holds that Donald Trump “broke all the rules” in his successful campaign for the Presidency, and that he has possibly rewritten the politician’s playbook for success.
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October 30, 2016

Eye Contact Insight: “Stop” It For More Successful Interviews & Presentations

By Robert Geline, President of 144 Media, Inc.

The CEO was surprised. “I need to look away in order to think,” he noticed during a recent coaching session to prepare for a panel discussion to be video webcast to a global audience.

The executive was referring to his habit of regularly breaking eye contact in order to organize his thoughts while responding to questions during videotaped role-play interviews. The habit made him appear detached and ill at ease, detracting from his credibility and positive perception of his message.
Read More

September 30, 2016

How To Cure The “Content-Free Speech” Virus

By Robert Geline, President of 144 Media, Inc.

There is an epidemic afoot in the land that you won’t find in a list of infectious diseases. I call it the “content-free speech” virus, and it is seriously degrading the quality of discourse at every level of society.
Be warned: Failure to treat this insidious malady can destroy careers, reputations, deals and entire organizations. The afflicted are unable to avoid interspersing their speech with entirely content-free words or phrases.
Read More

August 30, 2016

UK Exporters: Don’t get Lost In Translation

By Robert Geline, President of 144 Media, Inc.

Thanks largely to Hollywood and cheap jet travel, the British traveler often knows that to satisfy the cravings of a sweet tooth, you need to ask for a cookie in an America bakery, and not a biscuit, which will get you some kind of breakfast or dinner roll. And to answer nature’s call, Brits often understand that you’ll get there faster in the US by asking for the bathroom or the restroom, and not the loo.
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