I read it because James Patterson said it was his favorite book of the year.
Actually, I'll look it up!
"Maybe that's why 'Where'd You Go, Bernadette' is my favorite novel so far this year. It's funnier than a season's worth of 'Modern Family,' 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' and 'Justified' episodes; it's also the most original and imaginative fiction I've read since 'The Invention of Hugo Cabret.'"
http://nyti.ms/1akZNOP
That gets your attention, doesn't it?
No, I'm not a fan of James Patterson, I've never even read any of his books! All I know is you're required to hate him. But I've become intrigued by him, because a guy I went to college with coauthors his novels.
That's how Patterson does it. He comes up with an idea and gets somebody else to write the story, that's how you become rich in the book business...produce, produce, produce.
And this guy...I'll never forget standing on the steps of Hepburn Hall as he groused he'd gotten a B in poetry, and told us his prep school teacher told him he was her best student EVER!
Yes, he actually said that. I know they don't talk like that in real life. But at Middlebury College, "Lord Of The Flies" incarnate, you staked your spot on the intellectual ladder and you swatted down those below, and pushed aside those above.
I wasn't used to this. I went to public school. I still haven't recovered. Well, about ten years later I normalized, but after four years at Middlebury I was convinced I was...inadequate. Could never measure up. Because these people were winners and I was not.
But that's not the way it played out. The people who put me down, corrected my grammar, poked holes in my analysis, taught me to think before I speak, have not gone on to be world-beaters.
And that leaves me elated, alienated, depressed and exhilarated all at the same time.
Just like Bernadette.
Characters are supposed to be sympathetic. No one's got time to listen to complaints. Every rapper's a winner and every homeless person has got an app. Life is no longer about the middle, but the edges. If you're not a winner, you're a loser, kind of like Bernadette and her husband Elgin. Elgin's a winner, with a famous TED talk, Bernadette can barely leave the house.
A TED talk! That's why the book is so good, it's so au courant, not worried about being universal, unafraid of being dated.
And it's told primarily in e-mail. At least at first. Then there are faxes, snail mail, autobiography... Maria Semple is taking a risk. It's like the music of the sixties and early seventies. You put it on and your jaw dropped as you were taken through twists and turns only the musicians could conceive of. This is not Katy Perry, safely replicating what she's done before, but someone stalking into the wilderness on her own trip, which you can either ignore...
I looked up "Where'd You Go, Bernadette" on Amazon. It had 1600 reviews. It was not brand new. It was a positively cult item I'd never heard of being kept alive by word of mouth, today's vaunted virality. Especially in books. There's no money in books. They launch them with a zap of publicity and abandon them. It's left up to the readers to keep them alive.
For every "Fifty Shades Of Grey"... That's just the point, there's only one of those. Just about every other book is niche, except those by Malcolm Gladwell and Stephen King, and when you lie awake at night by the light of your Kindle, you feel like you're part of a secret world, and there's nothing more thrilling than being a member of a cult no one else is aware of.
And at first the sheer innovation is so thrilling you can't stop reading.
But then you're not sure where it's going and you're no longer riveted until...the twist. And then you cannot put it down.
And that's all I'm gonna tell you. Because there's nothing worse than a book review that gives away all the plot points.
But I will whip out a few good lines...
"My point is this. I'm getting really scared about the trip to __________. And not just because I hate people, which, for the record, I still do."
Ha! If you don't hate everybody on a regular basis, you're no friend of mine. I hate those people who never have a bad word to say about anybody, who refuse to gossip, who act so well-adjusted. It's hard for us to get along, like penguins without chicks!
"Not eating cake because the man has discipline."
I don't have this discipline. Can anyone deny oneself to this point? Hell, Jim Gaffigan has built an entire career on the inability to deny oneself food.
"Because, as they like to say, it's a company built on information, and that can just walk out the door."
THAT'S WHY STEVE JOBS WAS SUCH A SECRECY FREAK!
"He's usually all into his email."
I've been unable to break my addiction, you?
And the piece de resistance...
"My heart started racing, not the bad kind of heart racing, like, I'm going to die. But the good kind of heart racing, like, Hello, can I help you with something? If not, please step aside because I'm about to kick the shit out of life."
Whoo-hoo! I was just talking about this to my shrink this afternoon. I'm too INTO things for people. I just voraciously devour them and can't stop talking about them. I read too much, ski too much, analyze too much, if I had a dime from everybody who told me to cool it I'd be rich.
Yes, the world is comprised of those who do their best to fit in, to look cool. And I never fit in, and that does leave me hating people on a regular basis, but it does not leave me bored. I'm pissed the flight is only eleven hours, how am I going to get all my reading done! I want to know how every ski on the market turns. I hoovered up the credits on my albums. I'm writing so much now that you're unsubscribing!
You think I don't know that? That you've got limits!
And god forbid I go off point.
And if you don't unsubscribe, you jam it in my face. To make it less frequent and shorter and...
But there's a thrill in creativity. And to get the juices flowing you've got to work, work, work, to get to the pinnacle!
Which means I'm working all the time.
So I've never seen "Modern Family," or "Justified." I'm not saying they're bad, I'm not saying I don't have a whopping cable television bill, I'm just saying I'm so busy getting deeper into my stuff I don't have time for them!
Except when I don't. When I'm so spent I can barely get off the couch.
Like Bernadette.
http://amzn.to/YFYrUw
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Friday 25 October 2013
Rhinofy-Night Train
After a failed 1977 solo album, Steve Winwood licked his wounds for over three years and then released "Arc Of A Diver," which surprised everyone by containing a radio smash, "While You See A Chance."
Traffic petered out with 1974's "When The Eagle Flies," an unjustly forgotten record with the great opener "Something New" and the exquisite "Walking In The Wind," and then Winwood segued to Stomu Yamashta's group "Go," recorded one phenomenal track, "Winner/Loser," and that brings us up to the aforementioned '77 solo debut, which contained such winners as "Hold On," "Time Is Running Out," "Vacant Chair" and the album's highlight, "Luck's In," but without a hit single, Steve was on his way to obscurity, who knew a huge comeback was in the offing, never mind superstar status in 1986, with "Back In The High Life"...
"While You See A Chance" was all over the airwaves, which caused old and new fans to rush to the record store to purchase "Arc Of A Diver," and what they ended up with was the record of a one man band akin to McCartney's debut and Todd Rundgren's early work that was playable throughout.
But the gem was on the second side.
Yes, by this time, you needed a hit to get recognition. The early seventies album paradigm had already died, to be undermined even further in the MTV eighties. But even at this late date, all the way up to the Napster era, if you had a hit single people were interested in buying the album to see what you were all about, what you were up to. And at this point in 1980, the concept of being ripped off by the artist and the label with one good single per disc was anathema, almost unheard of.
So you started with side one, the hit was right up front.
And then you flipped "Arc Of A Diver" over and were confronted with the slow, exotic "Spanish Dancer," with its raindrop sounds, and six minutes later, when that spacious number ended you were jolted alive by the synth sounds of NIGHT TRAIN!
That's the amazing thing about "Night Train," it's got the chugging feeling of a train on the tracks. Ever been on a long distance nighttime train trip, the Trans-Europe Express? This is not America, with its substandard track and slowdowns, no, overseas the railroad is a viable alternative, oftentimes the transportation mode of choice. You sit in your compartment and watch the landscape go by, lulled into a contemplative mood wherein you mentally run through your past and posit your future.
"Night Train" is pure album track, it's eons before Winwood starts to sing. But what comes before the vocal is so enticing that you're positively hooked.
"Out of the night, burning with light"
Yes, a streaming line of illumination piercing the landscape, with the power of many horses, pulling the inhabitants into a new future.
And that's what the track sounds like, new, with all the synths percolating throughout, accents popping in the background, catching our attention and then disappearing, to be later replaced by another. It's a veritable Coney Island in the listener's mind.
And it keeps chugging along. It's a sweeter variation on the Kraftwerk theme, a homey English feeling as opposed to German industrialization. And as its almost eight minutes transpire you're brought along for the ride. At first you're just listening, but when you don't realize it, Steve hangs off the side of the car, grabs your arm and pulls you inside. You're sitting by the window, bobbing your head to his guitar work as the countryside goes by, there's nowhere you'd rather be.
"Paris to Spain, countries in pain"
You're an observer, you're safe in the cocoon of the music, of the train. Meanwhile, Steve's positively wailing on his six string, there's a left field synth and underneath it all the synths keep chugging along, just like the train. And then at seven minutes in, the synth starts to solo, the guitar comes out to jam, and suddenly the entire train starts to fade in the distance, while you weren't looking, while you were just enjoying yourself, you were deposited in another land and the train is pulling away without you and there's nothing you'd rather do than get back on board, which is why you get up from the couch and lift the needle to play the track again...and again...and again. It's your secret sauce, a hypnotic number only members of a large cult are aware of. Like the best music "Night Train" has the feeling it was made just for you, which is its magic, it's PERSONAL!
P.S. Despite predating MTV by eighteen months, a promotional film was made for "Night Train" that got airplay in the early days of the music television service, before the American record labels realized that MTV airplay was a rocket ship to riches and started cranking out clips. It's horribly cheesy in that early video style, but because of its amateur simplicity, it's endearing: http://bit.ly/yhLgI
P.P.S. I've included three versions of "Night Train." The original, from "Arc Of A Diver," the 2010 version from "Revolutions: The Very Best Of Steve Winwood" and the instrumental take from 2012's expanded version of "Arc Of A Diver." They all have their charms...LUXURIATE!
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/p6HcZ8
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Traffic petered out with 1974's "When The Eagle Flies," an unjustly forgotten record with the great opener "Something New" and the exquisite "Walking In The Wind," and then Winwood segued to Stomu Yamashta's group "Go," recorded one phenomenal track, "Winner/Loser," and that brings us up to the aforementioned '77 solo debut, which contained such winners as "Hold On," "Time Is Running Out," "Vacant Chair" and the album's highlight, "Luck's In," but without a hit single, Steve was on his way to obscurity, who knew a huge comeback was in the offing, never mind superstar status in 1986, with "Back In The High Life"...
"While You See A Chance" was all over the airwaves, which caused old and new fans to rush to the record store to purchase "Arc Of A Diver," and what they ended up with was the record of a one man band akin to McCartney's debut and Todd Rundgren's early work that was playable throughout.
But the gem was on the second side.
Yes, by this time, you needed a hit to get recognition. The early seventies album paradigm had already died, to be undermined even further in the MTV eighties. But even at this late date, all the way up to the Napster era, if you had a hit single people were interested in buying the album to see what you were all about, what you were up to. And at this point in 1980, the concept of being ripped off by the artist and the label with one good single per disc was anathema, almost unheard of.
So you started with side one, the hit was right up front.
And then you flipped "Arc Of A Diver" over and were confronted with the slow, exotic "Spanish Dancer," with its raindrop sounds, and six minutes later, when that spacious number ended you were jolted alive by the synth sounds of NIGHT TRAIN!
That's the amazing thing about "Night Train," it's got the chugging feeling of a train on the tracks. Ever been on a long distance nighttime train trip, the Trans-Europe Express? This is not America, with its substandard track and slowdowns, no, overseas the railroad is a viable alternative, oftentimes the transportation mode of choice. You sit in your compartment and watch the landscape go by, lulled into a contemplative mood wherein you mentally run through your past and posit your future.
"Night Train" is pure album track, it's eons before Winwood starts to sing. But what comes before the vocal is so enticing that you're positively hooked.
"Out of the night, burning with light"
Yes, a streaming line of illumination piercing the landscape, with the power of many horses, pulling the inhabitants into a new future.
And that's what the track sounds like, new, with all the synths percolating throughout, accents popping in the background, catching our attention and then disappearing, to be later replaced by another. It's a veritable Coney Island in the listener's mind.
And it keeps chugging along. It's a sweeter variation on the Kraftwerk theme, a homey English feeling as opposed to German industrialization. And as its almost eight minutes transpire you're brought along for the ride. At first you're just listening, but when you don't realize it, Steve hangs off the side of the car, grabs your arm and pulls you inside. You're sitting by the window, bobbing your head to his guitar work as the countryside goes by, there's nowhere you'd rather be.
"Paris to Spain, countries in pain"
You're an observer, you're safe in the cocoon of the music, of the train. Meanwhile, Steve's positively wailing on his six string, there's a left field synth and underneath it all the synths keep chugging along, just like the train. And then at seven minutes in, the synth starts to solo, the guitar comes out to jam, and suddenly the entire train starts to fade in the distance, while you weren't looking, while you were just enjoying yourself, you were deposited in another land and the train is pulling away without you and there's nothing you'd rather do than get back on board, which is why you get up from the couch and lift the needle to play the track again...and again...and again. It's your secret sauce, a hypnotic number only members of a large cult are aware of. Like the best music "Night Train" has the feeling it was made just for you, which is its magic, it's PERSONAL!
P.S. Despite predating MTV by eighteen months, a promotional film was made for "Night Train" that got airplay in the early days of the music television service, before the American record labels realized that MTV airplay was a rocket ship to riches and started cranking out clips. It's horribly cheesy in that early video style, but because of its amateur simplicity, it's endearing: http://bit.ly/yhLgI
P.P.S. I've included three versions of "Night Train." The original, from "Arc Of A Diver," the 2010 version from "Revolutions: The Very Best Of Steve Winwood" and the instrumental take from 2012's expanded version of "Arc Of A Diver." They all have their charms...LUXURIATE!
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/p6HcZ8
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Isn't It Enough
Spotify: http://spoti.fi/17j8oBG
YouTube: http://bit.ly/18TNsiN
Sometimes you only have to hear a song once.
We were making movies, back when that was exotic, back before you could buy a cam for a thousand bucks and everybody started making a documentary. As a result, there was not a door that would not open, everybody wants their song in a flick.
So we ended up on the second floor of a building on Sunset Boulevard meeting with Lionel Conway of Island publishing. And after b.s.'ing for about thirty minutes, he said he wanted to play us something...
"Sometimes I'd like to quit you and find somebody who
Don't know me quite as well"
We've all been through this. When life gets too tough. When the newness of love is gone. We ponder...what would it be like with somebody else?
"Yeah, like a gypsy, she would be my jewel
Spend my days in a lovin' spell"
Classic rock and roll imagery, I can't think of gypsies without thinking of "Love Potion No. 9," MADAME RUE!
"But baby I fit you, like a worn out glove
You know I ain't goin' nowhere"
That's what's funny about couples. Live together long enough and you start looking alike, the one who doesn't wear jeans suddenly does, and Nikes too, even the hairstyles, two people blend into one, they just can't help it. That's what you don't realize about jumping the track, that you're starting all over, and it's so HARD! There are so many false starts, meanwhile, sand keeps running through the hourglass.
"There ain't nothin' we can't rise above
We still got a lifetime to share"
Optimism. Without it a relationship dies. It's just a matter of time until someone punts. And the funny thing is it doesn't always take two, one is enough, one person can make a difference...sometimes.
"Isn't it enough that I still love you
Isn't it enough to make you stay
Don't make me suffer, baby
Don't throw it all away"
That must've been '83 we had that meeting on Sunset. But "The Boyfriend," the album from which "Isn't It Enough" is the opening track, didn't come out until '86.
We were housesitting on Bristol, behind a wall, ensconced in the upper class lifestyle we dreamed of but were only experiencing for a month. We were in the master bedroom, with the Proton TV suspended from the wall, and one night on MTV, we were addicted back then, they played this video.
Oh, eventually Patty Smyth & Scandal had a semi-hit with "Isn't It Enough," but it was absent the buzzsaw guitar and the exuberance. That's the thing about rock and roll, it can't be studied, it has to sound like you're about to come. You know that feeling, when nothing can hold you back, you can see the destination, and your only goal is to get there.
That's what we were doing on a regular basis.
But after we got married she moved out.
And that's when "Isn't It Enough" took on new meaning.
"Now I know you're tired
And feelin' all alone
I know what you're goin' through
I'll satisfy your fire
But I'm not made of stone
Tell me what more can I do"
That's what you do when they leave, TRY! It's like being George Costanza, you're suddenly doing the opposite of what you did when you were together. Listening instead of talking. Changing your look. You do everything to win them back. But it never works. If they're ever gonna return, it's gonna be their decision, and they rarely do.
"Now can you look in my eyes
And tell me there's nothin' there"
That's what we're looking for, a chance. But we blew it when we weren't even paying attention. They were making their decision to go when we believed everything was hunky-dory.
"You know I've compromised enough to show I care"
And then we stop. We're just short of begging. And this is never attractive. It's after this we regain our dignity, when we finally accept it's over. Not that we're totally convinced.
"Yeah, sometimes I'd like to quit you
And find somebody who don't know me quite the same
But it took so long just to get this far
I'll be damned if I'll do it again"
He's invested. And that's what relationships are, an investment, which pay dividends. They're also sharks, like Woody Allen said, if they don't keep moving they die. So pay attention, keep swimming.
But it's not really about the lyrics, they're just the icing on the cake. It's the aforementioned buzzsaw guitar. And the way the drums punch in between. And the other guitar dancing around. It's a cornucopia of sound.
With a heartfelt vocal delivery.
And even a bridge.
And the rest of "The Boyfriend" is almost as good.
Which landed Danny Wilde a deal with Geffen which paid no dividends. After which he retreated to his garage with his old buddy Phil Solem and became the Rembrandts.
And even though the "Friends" theme will have a long lifespan, most people have already forgotten "Isn't It Enough." But not me.
Because I love its pure sound. And honesty. And the fact that this is a guy who's willing to put it all on the line to convince her to stay.
This is rock and roll.
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YouTube: http://bit.ly/18TNsiN
Sometimes you only have to hear a song once.
We were making movies, back when that was exotic, back before you could buy a cam for a thousand bucks and everybody started making a documentary. As a result, there was not a door that would not open, everybody wants their song in a flick.
So we ended up on the second floor of a building on Sunset Boulevard meeting with Lionel Conway of Island publishing. And after b.s.'ing for about thirty minutes, he said he wanted to play us something...
"Sometimes I'd like to quit you and find somebody who
Don't know me quite as well"
We've all been through this. When life gets too tough. When the newness of love is gone. We ponder...what would it be like with somebody else?
"Yeah, like a gypsy, she would be my jewel
Spend my days in a lovin' spell"
Classic rock and roll imagery, I can't think of gypsies without thinking of "Love Potion No. 9," MADAME RUE!
"But baby I fit you, like a worn out glove
You know I ain't goin' nowhere"
That's what's funny about couples. Live together long enough and you start looking alike, the one who doesn't wear jeans suddenly does, and Nikes too, even the hairstyles, two people blend into one, they just can't help it. That's what you don't realize about jumping the track, that you're starting all over, and it's so HARD! There are so many false starts, meanwhile, sand keeps running through the hourglass.
"There ain't nothin' we can't rise above
We still got a lifetime to share"
Optimism. Without it a relationship dies. It's just a matter of time until someone punts. And the funny thing is it doesn't always take two, one is enough, one person can make a difference...sometimes.
"Isn't it enough that I still love you
Isn't it enough to make you stay
Don't make me suffer, baby
Don't throw it all away"
That must've been '83 we had that meeting on Sunset. But "The Boyfriend," the album from which "Isn't It Enough" is the opening track, didn't come out until '86.
We were housesitting on Bristol, behind a wall, ensconced in the upper class lifestyle we dreamed of but were only experiencing for a month. We were in the master bedroom, with the Proton TV suspended from the wall, and one night on MTV, we were addicted back then, they played this video.
Oh, eventually Patty Smyth & Scandal had a semi-hit with "Isn't It Enough," but it was absent the buzzsaw guitar and the exuberance. That's the thing about rock and roll, it can't be studied, it has to sound like you're about to come. You know that feeling, when nothing can hold you back, you can see the destination, and your only goal is to get there.
That's what we were doing on a regular basis.
But after we got married she moved out.
And that's when "Isn't It Enough" took on new meaning.
"Now I know you're tired
And feelin' all alone
I know what you're goin' through
I'll satisfy your fire
But I'm not made of stone
Tell me what more can I do"
That's what you do when they leave, TRY! It's like being George Costanza, you're suddenly doing the opposite of what you did when you were together. Listening instead of talking. Changing your look. You do everything to win them back. But it never works. If they're ever gonna return, it's gonna be their decision, and they rarely do.
"Now can you look in my eyes
And tell me there's nothin' there"
That's what we're looking for, a chance. But we blew it when we weren't even paying attention. They were making their decision to go when we believed everything was hunky-dory.
"You know I've compromised enough to show I care"
And then we stop. We're just short of begging. And this is never attractive. It's after this we regain our dignity, when we finally accept it's over. Not that we're totally convinced.
"Yeah, sometimes I'd like to quit you
And find somebody who don't know me quite the same
But it took so long just to get this far
I'll be damned if I'll do it again"
He's invested. And that's what relationships are, an investment, which pay dividends. They're also sharks, like Woody Allen said, if they don't keep moving they die. So pay attention, keep swimming.
But it's not really about the lyrics, they're just the icing on the cake. It's the aforementioned buzzsaw guitar. And the way the drums punch in between. And the other guitar dancing around. It's a cornucopia of sound.
With a heartfelt vocal delivery.
And even a bridge.
And the rest of "The Boyfriend" is almost as good.
Which landed Danny Wilde a deal with Geffen which paid no dividends. After which he retreated to his garage with his old buddy Phil Solem and became the Rembrandts.
And even though the "Friends" theme will have a long lifespan, most people have already forgotten "Isn't It Enough." But not me.
Because I love its pure sound. And honesty. And the fact that this is a guy who's willing to put it all on the line to convince her to stay.
This is rock and roll.
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Wednesday 23 October 2013
Has Kim Killed Kanye's Kareer?
In other words, is she Kanye's Yoko Ono?
At first I was offended by the baseball stadium proposal. But once the video leaked online I understood the genius of it, it was all a fake promotional stunt, made to burnish the Kardashian brand.
But is it working for Kanye?
Kim is a phony airhead who denies having plastic surgery despite having lips as big as watermelon rinds.
Uh-oh, she's white, right? I can say this, right?
That's what Kanye West does best. Bite back.
But anybody who doesn't know hate is the way of the Web is living in the last decade. Hate is a badge of honor, it illustrates you've made it. Ignore it or be brought down by it.
Kanye had kredibility.
But now he's jumped the shark.
We were on his team. Edgy genius whose mother tragically dies before her time.
But then he kept telling us how great he was, tweeted inane insanities (most of which have been forgotten, showing the lifespan of a tweet), told us he wrote the lyrics for "Yeezus" in a stolen moment and then decided he was a fashion king.
Last time I checked fashion didn't have the soul of music. Everybody wants to be a musician, because a musician stands for something, life incarnate. Fashion is inherently adornment, something secondary. Then again, when music is so vapid, is it a huge stretch that fashion is now primary?
But my point is Kanye's got no expertise in fashion. He's like Michael Jordan playing baseball, maybe good, but not good enough. It's like Kim's mentor Paris Hilton deciding to become a deejay. No one's gonna stand for that. They won't let her in the club. She hasn't paid any dues, she looks like a dilettante.
And Kanye dating Kim Kardashian is an even bigger head-scratcher than Lindsey Vonn dating Tiger Woods after deploring him. But don't equate athletes with musicians. Athletes are about the body, musicians are about the mind.
So if you're sitting on the sidelines, you're wondering what got into Kanye. I don't know a guy alive who'd like to pork Kim Kardashian. It's like surimi, otherwise known as imitation crab, Paris Hilton did this first, she invented the paradigm, Paris blazed the way for the untalented being famous for nothing, Kim's just following in her footsteps, the only difference being Kim's got a better momager.
I give Kris Jenner credit. She made something out of nothing. She's laughing all the way to the bank. And like every television phenomenon, it's time-stamped, it'll be over at some point, but can't it be soon?
But the Kardashian Klan appeals to the downtrodden Americans who dream of being rich but can never be so. They can identify. None of the tribe is that good-looking, except for one of the teenagers, who keeps drinking and driving and getting into trouble and shouldn't she be in school?
Fame at a young age kills.
Because fame is empty.
Once upon a time Kanye was about his music.
Now he's just about his fame. And when you chase mass appeal, you eventually become a laughingstock. Kanye is John Davidson with an edge. Someone we keep seeing we wish would disappear.
He used to be a fighter. Now he's a winner complaining he's getting no respect.
Come on Kanye, you're laughing all the way to the bank. Now you want our sympathy?
You give your kid an inane moniker that everybody is laughing at, you put out an album no one wants to hear, you keep complaining you're not taken seriously, but you know why, KIM K!
Lamar Odom is a two-dimensional basketball player. You were supposed to be our hope, our dream, our leader, but instead you fell for the hype and can't fathom that we're all disappointed in you, which we are.
Stop the shenanigans!
You don't have to get married. You're just gonna get divorced anyway. How do I know? No one who goes on the road has a first marriage that sticks, or to put it another way, show me a beautiful woman and I'll show you a man who's tired of screwing her.
At least the Kardashians know the press is a tool, a scummy subset in search of titillation for the brain dead. Photogs and reporters are voracious, sharks who eat 24/7 and are in constant search of food, you can't win feeding this beast unless you've got no talent and didn't deserve to be famous to begin with, like the Kardashians.
Which is unlike Kanye. Who made it on talent.
But we've got enough talented people. Blow yourself up, we don't care, the world moves on, there are tons more waiting to take your place.
We didn't need George Michael. What makes you believe we need YOU?
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At first I was offended by the baseball stadium proposal. But once the video leaked online I understood the genius of it, it was all a fake promotional stunt, made to burnish the Kardashian brand.
But is it working for Kanye?
Kim is a phony airhead who denies having plastic surgery despite having lips as big as watermelon rinds.
Uh-oh, she's white, right? I can say this, right?
That's what Kanye West does best. Bite back.
But anybody who doesn't know hate is the way of the Web is living in the last decade. Hate is a badge of honor, it illustrates you've made it. Ignore it or be brought down by it.
Kanye had kredibility.
But now he's jumped the shark.
We were on his team. Edgy genius whose mother tragically dies before her time.
But then he kept telling us how great he was, tweeted inane insanities (most of which have been forgotten, showing the lifespan of a tweet), told us he wrote the lyrics for "Yeezus" in a stolen moment and then decided he was a fashion king.
Last time I checked fashion didn't have the soul of music. Everybody wants to be a musician, because a musician stands for something, life incarnate. Fashion is inherently adornment, something secondary. Then again, when music is so vapid, is it a huge stretch that fashion is now primary?
But my point is Kanye's got no expertise in fashion. He's like Michael Jordan playing baseball, maybe good, but not good enough. It's like Kim's mentor Paris Hilton deciding to become a deejay. No one's gonna stand for that. They won't let her in the club. She hasn't paid any dues, she looks like a dilettante.
And Kanye dating Kim Kardashian is an even bigger head-scratcher than Lindsey Vonn dating Tiger Woods after deploring him. But don't equate athletes with musicians. Athletes are about the body, musicians are about the mind.
So if you're sitting on the sidelines, you're wondering what got into Kanye. I don't know a guy alive who'd like to pork Kim Kardashian. It's like surimi, otherwise known as imitation crab, Paris Hilton did this first, she invented the paradigm, Paris blazed the way for the untalented being famous for nothing, Kim's just following in her footsteps, the only difference being Kim's got a better momager.
I give Kris Jenner credit. She made something out of nothing. She's laughing all the way to the bank. And like every television phenomenon, it's time-stamped, it'll be over at some point, but can't it be soon?
But the Kardashian Klan appeals to the downtrodden Americans who dream of being rich but can never be so. They can identify. None of the tribe is that good-looking, except for one of the teenagers, who keeps drinking and driving and getting into trouble and shouldn't she be in school?
Fame at a young age kills.
Because fame is empty.
Once upon a time Kanye was about his music.
Now he's just about his fame. And when you chase mass appeal, you eventually become a laughingstock. Kanye is John Davidson with an edge. Someone we keep seeing we wish would disappear.
He used to be a fighter. Now he's a winner complaining he's getting no respect.
Come on Kanye, you're laughing all the way to the bank. Now you want our sympathy?
You give your kid an inane moniker that everybody is laughing at, you put out an album no one wants to hear, you keep complaining you're not taken seriously, but you know why, KIM K!
Lamar Odom is a two-dimensional basketball player. You were supposed to be our hope, our dream, our leader, but instead you fell for the hype and can't fathom that we're all disappointed in you, which we are.
Stop the shenanigans!
You don't have to get married. You're just gonna get divorced anyway. How do I know? No one who goes on the road has a first marriage that sticks, or to put it another way, show me a beautiful woman and I'll show you a man who's tired of screwing her.
At least the Kardashians know the press is a tool, a scummy subset in search of titillation for the brain dead. Photogs and reporters are voracious, sharks who eat 24/7 and are in constant search of food, you can't win feeding this beast unless you've got no talent and didn't deserve to be famous to begin with, like the Kardashians.
Which is unlike Kanye. Who made it on talent.
But we've got enough talented people. Blow yourself up, we don't care, the world moves on, there are tons more waiting to take your place.
We didn't need George Michael. What makes you believe we need YOU?
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Fountain Of Sorrow
While I was in Amsterdam, the days got shorter in L.A.
I know it's the way of the world, the shortest day of the year is only two months away, but it's still a surprise, it still catches me off guard, especially in SoCal, when you leave the house for dinner and it's dark and nippy you feel like there's been a death in the world, that something's been lost that can't be regained.
Actually, we've been in the midst of a heat wave, with temperatures that would be summer anyplace else. But not today. Today it started off foggy, the sun peeked out for a bit, but now it's gray, and driving home just now my mind hearkened back to Octobers past. And "Fountain Of Sorrow" started to play in my brain.
Funny how memories come back so vividly, even though they haven't passed through your brain in decades. I mentally pictured that Sunday afternoon all those years back when I accompanied my sister to a party with her social work buddies.
Funny thing about older siblings. You always look up to them, their friends are always just a bit more cool. As were they. On this gray day in the foothills of Hollywood. It was just after "Late For The Sky" came out, the track they played on the radio was "Fountain Of Sorrow."
"Looking through some photographs I found inside a drawer
I was taken by a photograph of you
There were one or two I know that you would have liked a little more
But they didn't show your spirit quite as true"
A. Nobody likes most photographs of themselves.
B. Perfection is overrated. The pictures we adore are those that are somehow three-dimensional, where what's inside the people photographed is evidenced. It's not about beauty, but life.
"Fountain Of Sorrow" has got an upbeat groove, it's not slow and heavy, unlike the opening, eponymous track of "Late For The Sky." But there's so much serious truth involved.
"But when you see through love's illusions, there lies the danger
And your perfect lover just looks like a perfect fool
So you go running off in search of a perfect stranger
While the loneliness seems to spring from your life
Like a fountain from a pool"
That's what we're all trying to avoid. The loneliness. And when we climb the ladder of integration we forget about the abyss, we can only see up, not down, so we want to go higher, and we end up falling all the way back down.
Happens to everybody, especially when they're young. This person's pretty good, if only I could change this or that, but you can't really change people, so you start dreaming of somebody better and you find someone who floats your boat, shows that gleam in their eye, and you jump ship, only to find what's beneath the waterline is far from endearing, but at this point you can't go back, you can never go back, because the person you've abandoned can never recover from what you did to them, they can never trust you again, and love is all about trust.
"Now for you and me it may not be that hard to reach our dreams
But that magic feeling never seems to last"
That line has always bugged me. I've never found life easy, never found that things work out. It's been a perpetual struggle. But as for that magic feeling not lasting...ain't that the truth. You reach the pinnacle, but the euphoria ultimately evaporates. No one can be famous 24/7, no one can be on top of the charts all year, the initial rush of love fades. It's the nature of existence. We've always got to keep moving, because the stagnant position ultimately feels worse and worse.
"And while the future's there for anyone to change, still you know it seems
It'd be easier sometimes to change the past"
That's what the youth don't know. How hard it is to accomplish your dreams, contrary to what Jackson says above. It's hard enough to start in Little League, never mind become a movie director or win an election. The world is your oyster and then it's not, I've always been worried opportunity is going to disappear, which is why I never had kids, didn't want to get married, owe no money, I want no obligations, I want to be able to turn on a dime and grab hold of the rope that leads me somewhere better, the so-called opportunity of a lifetime. And the truth is you make your own opportunities, but most get entrenched in obligations, go down the path of security and then it becomes impossible to make your way back. Oh, you can abandon everything and you'll end up with freedom, but truly you'll be starting over, at the bottom, and it won't be long until you want your old life back, because none of us really want to go back, we might have lines in our faces and squandered chances, but high school really wasn't that good and it makes no difference if your skin is baby smooth if you're inexperienced and unwise.
"I'm just one or two years and a couple of changes behind you
In my lessons at love's pain and heartache school"
My favorite line in the song, one of my favorite lyrics ever. I quote it all the time. You realize someone's more experienced, you're at the beginning, they're in the middle or at the end. You're behind them. Not that this is always bad, but life is about feeling inadequate until you finally realize we all are...insecure, searching for answers, wondering how we fit in.
As for love... I think I'm gonna die with so many questions unanswered. You always think life is in front of you, that you can make adjustments, until you wake up one day and you realize there's less time left in the top half of the hourglass than the bottom, and you'd better be wide awake or what's still left will pass you by.
"You've had to hide sometimes, but now you're all right
And it's good to see your smiling face tonight"
I smile now. There were years when I didn't. Most of the nineties, a positively lost decade that I'll never get back.
And the older you get the less you remember. When you're young your whole life lies in relief, you don't have to throw anything out to make room, but as you age you realize life is a continuum, no different whether you lived in 1813 or 2013. Life, love and happiness, that's what everybody's searching for.
And when I hear that downbeat and fall into that groove I feel I belong, to the great continuum of rock and roll, it's what keeps us baby boomers together. It's not the same for kids. Oh, there's still music, but it's not as meaningful. But we grew up with few other distractions. The best and the brightest played. And boosted by the youthquake of the sixties it was not about money so much as fulfillment, questions rather than answers. And that's the conundrum facing the aged. They like what they've achieved, but they still have their dreams, which are too often out of reach everywhere but in their minds.
So they put on the old records and are awash in who they once were, wondering how this many years later they can still feel lonely, sometimes only the music can make them feel complete.
"If you feel too free and you need something to remind you
There's this loneliness springing up from your life
Like a fountain from a pool"
Spotify: http://spoti.fi/1a8orTg
YouTube: http://bit.ly/1dklKz4
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I know it's the way of the world, the shortest day of the year is only two months away, but it's still a surprise, it still catches me off guard, especially in SoCal, when you leave the house for dinner and it's dark and nippy you feel like there's been a death in the world, that something's been lost that can't be regained.
Actually, we've been in the midst of a heat wave, with temperatures that would be summer anyplace else. But not today. Today it started off foggy, the sun peeked out for a bit, but now it's gray, and driving home just now my mind hearkened back to Octobers past. And "Fountain Of Sorrow" started to play in my brain.
Funny how memories come back so vividly, even though they haven't passed through your brain in decades. I mentally pictured that Sunday afternoon all those years back when I accompanied my sister to a party with her social work buddies.
Funny thing about older siblings. You always look up to them, their friends are always just a bit more cool. As were they. On this gray day in the foothills of Hollywood. It was just after "Late For The Sky" came out, the track they played on the radio was "Fountain Of Sorrow."
"Looking through some photographs I found inside a drawer
I was taken by a photograph of you
There were one or two I know that you would have liked a little more
But they didn't show your spirit quite as true"
A. Nobody likes most photographs of themselves.
B. Perfection is overrated. The pictures we adore are those that are somehow three-dimensional, where what's inside the people photographed is evidenced. It's not about beauty, but life.
"Fountain Of Sorrow" has got an upbeat groove, it's not slow and heavy, unlike the opening, eponymous track of "Late For The Sky." But there's so much serious truth involved.
"But when you see through love's illusions, there lies the danger
And your perfect lover just looks like a perfect fool
So you go running off in search of a perfect stranger
While the loneliness seems to spring from your life
Like a fountain from a pool"
That's what we're all trying to avoid. The loneliness. And when we climb the ladder of integration we forget about the abyss, we can only see up, not down, so we want to go higher, and we end up falling all the way back down.
Happens to everybody, especially when they're young. This person's pretty good, if only I could change this or that, but you can't really change people, so you start dreaming of somebody better and you find someone who floats your boat, shows that gleam in their eye, and you jump ship, only to find what's beneath the waterline is far from endearing, but at this point you can't go back, you can never go back, because the person you've abandoned can never recover from what you did to them, they can never trust you again, and love is all about trust.
"Now for you and me it may not be that hard to reach our dreams
But that magic feeling never seems to last"
That line has always bugged me. I've never found life easy, never found that things work out. It's been a perpetual struggle. But as for that magic feeling not lasting...ain't that the truth. You reach the pinnacle, but the euphoria ultimately evaporates. No one can be famous 24/7, no one can be on top of the charts all year, the initial rush of love fades. It's the nature of existence. We've always got to keep moving, because the stagnant position ultimately feels worse and worse.
"And while the future's there for anyone to change, still you know it seems
It'd be easier sometimes to change the past"
That's what the youth don't know. How hard it is to accomplish your dreams, contrary to what Jackson says above. It's hard enough to start in Little League, never mind become a movie director or win an election. The world is your oyster and then it's not, I've always been worried opportunity is going to disappear, which is why I never had kids, didn't want to get married, owe no money, I want no obligations, I want to be able to turn on a dime and grab hold of the rope that leads me somewhere better, the so-called opportunity of a lifetime. And the truth is you make your own opportunities, but most get entrenched in obligations, go down the path of security and then it becomes impossible to make your way back. Oh, you can abandon everything and you'll end up with freedom, but truly you'll be starting over, at the bottom, and it won't be long until you want your old life back, because none of us really want to go back, we might have lines in our faces and squandered chances, but high school really wasn't that good and it makes no difference if your skin is baby smooth if you're inexperienced and unwise.
"I'm just one or two years and a couple of changes behind you
In my lessons at love's pain and heartache school"
My favorite line in the song, one of my favorite lyrics ever. I quote it all the time. You realize someone's more experienced, you're at the beginning, they're in the middle or at the end. You're behind them. Not that this is always bad, but life is about feeling inadequate until you finally realize we all are...insecure, searching for answers, wondering how we fit in.
As for love... I think I'm gonna die with so many questions unanswered. You always think life is in front of you, that you can make adjustments, until you wake up one day and you realize there's less time left in the top half of the hourglass than the bottom, and you'd better be wide awake or what's still left will pass you by.
"You've had to hide sometimes, but now you're all right
And it's good to see your smiling face tonight"
I smile now. There were years when I didn't. Most of the nineties, a positively lost decade that I'll never get back.
And the older you get the less you remember. When you're young your whole life lies in relief, you don't have to throw anything out to make room, but as you age you realize life is a continuum, no different whether you lived in 1813 or 2013. Life, love and happiness, that's what everybody's searching for.
And when I hear that downbeat and fall into that groove I feel I belong, to the great continuum of rock and roll, it's what keeps us baby boomers together. It's not the same for kids. Oh, there's still music, but it's not as meaningful. But we grew up with few other distractions. The best and the brightest played. And boosted by the youthquake of the sixties it was not about money so much as fulfillment, questions rather than answers. And that's the conundrum facing the aged. They like what they've achieved, but they still have their dreams, which are too often out of reach everywhere but in their minds.
So they put on the old records and are awash in who they once were, wondering how this many years later they can still feel lonely, sometimes only the music can make them feel complete.
"If you feel too free and you need something to remind you
There's this loneliness springing up from your life
Like a fountain from a pool"
Spotify: http://spoti.fi/1a8orTg
YouTube: http://bit.ly/1dklKz4
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Tuesday 22 October 2013
Get Out Of My Life Woman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INIicQM7QyQ
What kind of crazy fucked up world do we live in where a Billy Gibbons throwaway track is more memorable than the complete album ZZ Top did with Rick Rubin?
One in which music has ceased being spontaneous and is over-written, over-rehearsed and over-managed to death.
Feel the GROOVE!
And listen to Billy's guitar work. He's positively wailing, inspiring all the young 'uns to pick up a guitar and the oldsters to take theirs down off the wall to learn the parts. Oh, when he goes down and starts picking from the bottom it's got the feel of those early Beatles changes.
And then Allen Toussaint comes in and adds unexpected funkiness from New Orleans. It's amazing this guy is still alive, never mind still functioning at the top of his game.
Then again, we put all our oldsters in a box, refusing them to grow, take chances, be new. And that's death for a musician. If a musician is not exploring, improvising and taking chances he might as well be dead, or in a drug coma.
"Come on, get up, get out of my life!"
Billy and Will vocalizing together, with Allen and then Billy adding instrumental accents. This is all done in the great tradition of music past.
That's the way it used to be. Recording was an effort to capture something, lightning in a bottle. You went into the studio and tried not to get it perfect, but get it right.
Now I'd say to put these guys together in a studio for forty eight hours and see what results. It'd be a modern day "Super Session." More covers, like this Allen Toussaint song of yore, would be just fine, because an arrangement can make a track sound brand new.
Wouldn't you go to see this concoction live?
Not in the arena. But in a low-ceiling place where you stood because you wanted to, because you needed to dance, not because the promoter is trying to squeeze in more people.
This is the way it used to be.
And can be again.
Really.
After a magical intro guitar sound that only Billy can deliver, the band settles into a groove and Billy's vocal is so expressive, like he really wants the woman to get out of his life, because when you auto-tune and comp vocals you get them perfect but they lose all their soul, all their humanity in the process.
But the essence of this track is the soloing, the noodling, the sound. It's Phish...if the players in that band were stars in their own right.
Maybe that's what this concoction of players should do. Go out with America's foremost jam band and show what riffing and taking chances is all about.
This is the anti-Katy Perry. The anti-Top Forty.
This is the music baby boomers grew up on, playing ad infinitum in their bedrooms and testifying about.
And going to see live.
Can't we make the music first?
It's enough.
If done right.
And this is.
P.S. Be sure to listen to the initial hit version of this song, by the Leaves, from their album "Hey Joe," it's positively lost in the sixties, but it'll illustrate what Will and Billy and Allen are referencing (YouTube, not on Spotify): http://bit.ly/zT29as
P.P.S. And be sure to play the 2009 live iteration from Allen Toussaint's recent album "Songbook", it positively swings, even though it's just him and the piano.
P.P.P.S. And play the original Toussaint take, with the sampleable beat.
P.P.P.P.S. This is the way it used to be, an infectious record put you in the wayback machine. You read the credits and were stimulated to go back and discover artists and renditions, you became fans of others along the way, according to Toussaint this is his most highly covered song, go on Spotify and have a field day!
Spotify playlist: http://spoti.fi/H0QGX8
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What kind of crazy fucked up world do we live in where a Billy Gibbons throwaway track is more memorable than the complete album ZZ Top did with Rick Rubin?
One in which music has ceased being spontaneous and is over-written, over-rehearsed and over-managed to death.
Feel the GROOVE!
And listen to Billy's guitar work. He's positively wailing, inspiring all the young 'uns to pick up a guitar and the oldsters to take theirs down off the wall to learn the parts. Oh, when he goes down and starts picking from the bottom it's got the feel of those early Beatles changes.
And then Allen Toussaint comes in and adds unexpected funkiness from New Orleans. It's amazing this guy is still alive, never mind still functioning at the top of his game.
Then again, we put all our oldsters in a box, refusing them to grow, take chances, be new. And that's death for a musician. If a musician is not exploring, improvising and taking chances he might as well be dead, or in a drug coma.
"Come on, get up, get out of my life!"
Billy and Will vocalizing together, with Allen and then Billy adding instrumental accents. This is all done in the great tradition of music past.
That's the way it used to be. Recording was an effort to capture something, lightning in a bottle. You went into the studio and tried not to get it perfect, but get it right.
Now I'd say to put these guys together in a studio for forty eight hours and see what results. It'd be a modern day "Super Session." More covers, like this Allen Toussaint song of yore, would be just fine, because an arrangement can make a track sound brand new.
Wouldn't you go to see this concoction live?
Not in the arena. But in a low-ceiling place where you stood because you wanted to, because you needed to dance, not because the promoter is trying to squeeze in more people.
This is the way it used to be.
And can be again.
Really.
After a magical intro guitar sound that only Billy can deliver, the band settles into a groove and Billy's vocal is so expressive, like he really wants the woman to get out of his life, because when you auto-tune and comp vocals you get them perfect but they lose all their soul, all their humanity in the process.
But the essence of this track is the soloing, the noodling, the sound. It's Phish...if the players in that band were stars in their own right.
Maybe that's what this concoction of players should do. Go out with America's foremost jam band and show what riffing and taking chances is all about.
This is the anti-Katy Perry. The anti-Top Forty.
This is the music baby boomers grew up on, playing ad infinitum in their bedrooms and testifying about.
And going to see live.
Can't we make the music first?
It's enough.
If done right.
And this is.
P.S. Be sure to listen to the initial hit version of this song, by the Leaves, from their album "Hey Joe," it's positively lost in the sixties, but it'll illustrate what Will and Billy and Allen are referencing (YouTube, not on Spotify): http://bit.ly/zT29as
P.P.S. And be sure to play the 2009 live iteration from Allen Toussaint's recent album "Songbook", it positively swings, even though it's just him and the piano.
P.P.P.S. And play the original Toussaint take, with the sampleable beat.
P.P.P.P.S. This is the way it used to be, an infectious record put you in the wayback machine. You read the credits and were stimulated to go back and discover artists and renditions, you became fans of others along the way, according to Toussaint this is his most highly covered song, go on Spotify and have a field day!
Spotify playlist: http://spoti.fi/H0QGX8
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Apple
TIM COOK
Is a bad lead singer. The Doors could never replace Jim Morrison and Queen could never find a singer to step in for Freddie Mercury. Talent and skill are important, but never forget charisma, that indefinable element that draws us to you. Not only did Jobs know the product presentations were a show, but that he was the star. Watching Tim Cook headline today's keynote is like having Lucian Grainge headline Staples Center. Huh?
FREE MAVERICKS
It gets everybody on the same page. Something the music business did with the CD and has never done since (yes, they killed the vinyl record to make way for the CD.) Unless you're moving into the future, you're going to be dragged down by the past. The music business should have switched everybody to files, they should now switch everybody to streaming, having a fire sale on files while they do it. Every track a quarter! Come and get 'em!
FREE MAVERICKS 2
People are cheap. Charge a dollar and most people will shy away. Give them something for free and they embrace it, assuming they want it.
APPS
Are all free now. If you're charging for one, you've missed the business model. Apps are service elements, add-ons to your core business.
NEW MAC PRO
Ridiculously high-priced, a middle finger to its core audience. Doesn't Apple have enough cash reserves?
And stop teasing its introduction. Tell me when it finally ships, not before. This is like Katy Perry telling us she has a new album...years in advance.
MAVERICKS 3
Everybody likes a surprise. Give us what we don't expect earlier than we thought possible.
As Seth Godin says, it's all about shipping, and by making Mavericks a free download TODAY, Apple wowed us, rendered us speechless.
DAVID POGUE
How does the "New York Times" let him go? This is like a label without any stars, or Pacha without famous deejays. That's what the "Times" no longer realizes, that we live in an era where we follow personalities more than faceless monoliths. As for Yahoo picking him up, it's the blockbuster strategy at work, suddenly there's a reason to go to the site, something that didn't exist previously. This is not AOL picking up the "Huffington Post," which is all traffic and no substance, Pogue is the public's tech guru. Better for him to be there than for AllThingsD to go solo, because Pogue's a star and nobody at AllThingsD is.
NEW iPADS
Apple upgrades them every year.
Isn't it interesting that Apple has a steady stream of product but in the music business acts can take years between albums? Apple stays in the public eye, we're always wondering what the company is up to.
SAMSUNG
Has no innovation. But mobile phones are now a commodity. And tablets will be too soon. Then it's all about a race to the bottom re price. Apple cannot win this war with its present strategy. It needs a new blockbuster product. At some point the iPad you have is good enough.
iPODS
Notice they weren't upgraded this year? It's a dying paradigm. Music goes with your phone. If you want one, they'll sell you one, but they're not gonna waste time redesigning and promoting them, unlike Sony, which keeps polishing old products until we no longer want them.
ATTENTION
Earned by Steve Jobs over fifteen years. With a bunch of hit singles. Miley Cyrus got us all to pay attention with no underpinnings. Her strategy would have worked better if she'd had more hits under her belt. As for Jay-Z, he'd have been better off writing an ANTI-Samsung song, that's how you get ahead as an artist, speaking truth to corporations, which rule our world...and our government!
APPLE STOCK PRICE
A better game to follow than SoundScan.
ONE MORE THING
That's what we miss about Steve Jobs, the gleam in his eye, the anticipation...that he would blow our minds.
This is what musicians used to specialize in, before they became crybabies only interested in the money. It's about the conception, the art, that's what resonates, that's what gives you power. Jobs was not only about innovation, but design. Because it's the little things that matter. The shiny silver back to the original iPod, the color of the original iMac. Sure, you need a great song, but the stray instrument at the right spot can make all the difference.
So set your mind free.
That's why Steve Jobs was so successful, he was a child of the sixties, an era of freedom and exploration. Furthermore, he knew it was about excellence.
ATTENTION 2
When artists are all whored out to the corporation, it's more interesting to go directly to the source, to hear what the corporation has to say. Hell, I'd rather listen to Samsung than Jay-Z any day. Apple has the whole world's attention. And grabs it every couple of months. The Cupertino company knows entertainment better than Hollywood.
FREE
If you're not giving something away, you're missing the point. That's how you bond your fans to you. It started over a decade ago with the free iTunes. And now we've got Mavericks and so much more. We already bought into the platform, this Halloween candy makes us stick.
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Is a bad lead singer. The Doors could never replace Jim Morrison and Queen could never find a singer to step in for Freddie Mercury. Talent and skill are important, but never forget charisma, that indefinable element that draws us to you. Not only did Jobs know the product presentations were a show, but that he was the star. Watching Tim Cook headline today's keynote is like having Lucian Grainge headline Staples Center. Huh?
FREE MAVERICKS
It gets everybody on the same page. Something the music business did with the CD and has never done since (yes, they killed the vinyl record to make way for the CD.) Unless you're moving into the future, you're going to be dragged down by the past. The music business should have switched everybody to files, they should now switch everybody to streaming, having a fire sale on files while they do it. Every track a quarter! Come and get 'em!
FREE MAVERICKS 2
People are cheap. Charge a dollar and most people will shy away. Give them something for free and they embrace it, assuming they want it.
APPS
Are all free now. If you're charging for one, you've missed the business model. Apps are service elements, add-ons to your core business.
NEW MAC PRO
Ridiculously high-priced, a middle finger to its core audience. Doesn't Apple have enough cash reserves?
And stop teasing its introduction. Tell me when it finally ships, not before. This is like Katy Perry telling us she has a new album...years in advance.
MAVERICKS 3
Everybody likes a surprise. Give us what we don't expect earlier than we thought possible.
As Seth Godin says, it's all about shipping, and by making Mavericks a free download TODAY, Apple wowed us, rendered us speechless.
DAVID POGUE
How does the "New York Times" let him go? This is like a label without any stars, or Pacha without famous deejays. That's what the "Times" no longer realizes, that we live in an era where we follow personalities more than faceless monoliths. As for Yahoo picking him up, it's the blockbuster strategy at work, suddenly there's a reason to go to the site, something that didn't exist previously. This is not AOL picking up the "Huffington Post," which is all traffic and no substance, Pogue is the public's tech guru. Better for him to be there than for AllThingsD to go solo, because Pogue's a star and nobody at AllThingsD is.
NEW iPADS
Apple upgrades them every year.
Isn't it interesting that Apple has a steady stream of product but in the music business acts can take years between albums? Apple stays in the public eye, we're always wondering what the company is up to.
SAMSUNG
Has no innovation. But mobile phones are now a commodity. And tablets will be too soon. Then it's all about a race to the bottom re price. Apple cannot win this war with its present strategy. It needs a new blockbuster product. At some point the iPad you have is good enough.
iPODS
Notice they weren't upgraded this year? It's a dying paradigm. Music goes with your phone. If you want one, they'll sell you one, but they're not gonna waste time redesigning and promoting them, unlike Sony, which keeps polishing old products until we no longer want them.
ATTENTION
Earned by Steve Jobs over fifteen years. With a bunch of hit singles. Miley Cyrus got us all to pay attention with no underpinnings. Her strategy would have worked better if she'd had more hits under her belt. As for Jay-Z, he'd have been better off writing an ANTI-Samsung song, that's how you get ahead as an artist, speaking truth to corporations, which rule our world...and our government!
APPLE STOCK PRICE
A better game to follow than SoundScan.
ONE MORE THING
That's what we miss about Steve Jobs, the gleam in his eye, the anticipation...that he would blow our minds.
This is what musicians used to specialize in, before they became crybabies only interested in the money. It's about the conception, the art, that's what resonates, that's what gives you power. Jobs was not only about innovation, but design. Because it's the little things that matter. The shiny silver back to the original iPod, the color of the original iMac. Sure, you need a great song, but the stray instrument at the right spot can make all the difference.
So set your mind free.
That's why Steve Jobs was so successful, he was a child of the sixties, an era of freedom and exploration. Furthermore, he knew it was about excellence.
ATTENTION 2
When artists are all whored out to the corporation, it's more interesting to go directly to the source, to hear what the corporation has to say. Hell, I'd rather listen to Samsung than Jay-Z any day. Apple has the whole world's attention. And grabs it every couple of months. The Cupertino company knows entertainment better than Hollywood.
FREE
If you're not giving something away, you're missing the point. That's how you bond your fans to you. It started over a decade ago with the free iTunes. And now we've got Mavericks and so much more. We already bought into the platform, this Halloween candy makes us stick.
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Monday 21 October 2013
McCartney Rules
1. Excellence
If it's not great, don't release it. Put it up on YouTube, not the album, if you're trying to get everybody's attention, make sure your music deserves it.
2. Availability
Put your complete album on YouTube and all streaming services. That's where people discover your music. Your hard core fans will buy it, for now anyway, but casual users sample, and see if they're interested. There's plenty of money if you can get people to focus and continue to listen.
3. Be your own curator.
Don't put out ten tracks, call it an album and leave us to discover what's good. Sure, you can focus on a single, but too often it's trying to be all things to all people and is not great. So point us to the two or three tracks we need to listen to.
4. Trust your heart.
Don't listen to anybody else. Push the cuts that resonate with you, that make your heart sing, jump for joy and cry. People are drawn to emotion, they want to be touched. Don't second guess, unless you're playing the singles game, and that's a game controlled by the usual suspects, unless your track was made by Dr. Luke and Max Martin, don't bother.
5. Press is a circle jerk.
Kinda like the wannabes want to send a CD that the writer won't listen to in order to make themselves feel good, ancient acts believe if they get enough ink, TV and radio play that they've done their job, but the truth is they haven't even scratched the surface. It's a direct to fan era. Know who your hard core is and give them tracks for free, if they're good, they'll spread the word. Fire your PR person and read Malcolm Gladwell's "Tipping Point."
6. Virality
Your goal is to keep your music alive. There's nothing more frustrating than spending a year on an album and then seeing it disappear in a month, never to be heard again as you ply the boards playing your greatest hits.
7. Reviews
Only matter if EVERYBODY says something is great.
8. Hunger
It's a conundrum, the audience has got no time, yet is desirous of something new and exciting that will not only satiate them, but they can turn others on to. That's your job, to feed this machine. Don't ask for the audience's time, don't put yourself above them, it's a privilege to be heard, your job is to serve the audience. Interestingly, the more you focus inward, on your art, the greater chance you have of succeeding. The two biggest left field hits in recent memory are all about the track, not the campaign... Lorde's "Royals" and Gotye's "Somebody That I Used To Know." The tracks infected listeners and they spread the word.
9. Sound
Don't master for radio if your track will never be played. Extreme loudness and compression is a disservice to your music unless you're playing the hit game.
10. Fame
Is no guarantee anybody will listen to anything more than a single. Which is why your single must absolutely kill. It's like your first line in a bar, if it's bad, you've blown your chance.
11. It's something you feel.
Great records cannot be described. They contain something that penetrates you in a way that stops time and you can't focus on anything but the pure sound and how it makes you feel. I still remember hearing "Sexual Healing" the first time...driving on the 10 East, between National and Robertson... Ha!
12. They call it show business.
But it starts with art. Business is easy, and always comes last. You can always hire someone to do your business, but you can't easily hire someone to create magic.
13. Don't fake it.
If you're losing your voice (or looks!) don't cover it up! The imperfections will appeal to people. Owning who you are is so enticing.
14. Artwork and album title and running order.
Are irrelevant. The art is a tiny square on a person's computer or mobile, and the title is only memorable if your album is, as for running order, no one listens that way anymore, if they listen to the whole album at all.
15. Don't pay attention to musos.
It's great people live for albums and music, but they vocally skew the discussion, the same way they've convinced everybody that vinyl is making a comeback, it's not, it's a pimple on the ass of the music business. Don't be afraid to alienate the holier-than-thou.
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
These albums sound so bad on the streaming services. They say they're at 320kbps, both Spotify and MOG if you've got premium, but they're a far cry from the CD, which is a far cry from the vinyl, which still isn't as good as the master tape. In other words, what kind of world do we live in where this stuff is recorded digitally, on computers, but we can't have the version direct from the source? It's got to be compressed and remastered and by time we hear it it sounds like it's being transmitted via two Dixie Cups on a string.
In the old days I probably would have bought McCartney's new album, I'm a fan. Maybe not the CD, CDs were always too expensive, you had to think twice before you laid your money down, vinyl led to experimentation. And I would have gotten home and broken the shrinkwrap and dropped the needle on my mega-stereo and been engrossed by the sound.
But today, even with great computer speakers, even with the ultra-popular Beats headphones, which are mediocre, the source is so crappy that what comes out is not music.
Oh, I know, you can hear a hit through mud. I believe that. But I also believe we get the music we deserve. Which is over-compressed, bass-heavy drivel, because something more sensitive loses all its sensitivity in today's digital translation.
And sensitive is what "Early Days" is.
I'm playing McCartney's new album, because I'm a fan, because it's scannable on Spotify, and if you're holding back from streaming services you're verging on irrelevance, like Thom Yorke's Atoms For Peace. The main challenge today isn't getting paid, it's getting someone to listen, and almost no one can accomplish this goal.
Exhibit one, Miley Cyrus.
Even grandmothers know who she is. Miley executed the best promotional campaign of the decade. But still no one wants the album, she only sold 270,417 copies of "Bangerz" last week, which to say is commendable is like lauding Miguel Cabrera if he hit 275 and 20 home runs. Sure, better than many, but still...positively mediocre.
But almost no one can sell an album these days. Certainly not Paul McCartney. Just look at Elton John, who had an even better publicity campaign, spouting nonsense that he has never sung better, Elton's sold 78,109 copies of "The Diving Board" in three weeks, only 11,816 last week, it's on its way to being completely forgotten before Thanksgiving.
So what does Paul McCartney do?
What everybody else does.
He goes on Stern, he plays unannounced gigs. But none of this has to do with the music. That's the problem with Miley Cyrus, she's a celebrity, her tunes are made by committee, she's a modern pop star with nothing to say, we just want to see the antics.
But McCartney, once upon a time he had something to say.
But first I listen for music. And I find this track "Early Days."
"New" gave people what McCartney thought they wanted. Something upbeat that hearkened back to what came before. But the problem with second-guessing the audience is it only works if you're truly in touch with the audience, like Dr. Luke, the oldsters are clueless, they're best off trusting their instincts.
Like with "Early Days," which was not made for radio, but home listening. It's so intimate. It's got that White Album feel. You know, that intimacy like Paul is literally sitting inside the speaker singing just for you. Anybody who was ever a fan will get it. But I doubt most fans will ever hear it. Oh, what a conundrum.
One other track stuck out, "I Can Bet," which is pedestrian until it has a change so delicious 35 seconds in you'll immediately start smiling and nodding your head, wondering if you're seeing the world through sixties glasses, viewing today, but having it look so much better.
That's what McCartney used to specialize in, the changes, the flourishes, no one's better.
And after getting hooked by these two cuts, , when I started the album from the top again it sounded better than the first time through, I was having the old experience, but almost no one is.
So where does this leave us?
In a singles world in an attention economy.
The album is a failed enterprise because despite so many lauding it, most have abandoned it, they just don't have the time for it, and therefore they wait for a single to surface before they pay attention, and when one doesn't, they move on, kind of like with the Elton album.
Oh, we could say it's all about radio. And oldsters do listen to their NPR. But despite ridiculous protestations from the radio industry, it's dying.
Not that an EP is always the answer. Fleetwood Mac released one and it's like it didn't come out.
Maybe like the Dead, these acts have to insert a few new cuts in their live shows, convince audiences that way first. If everybody's going to the bathroom, it goes straight to the dumper itself. If you can get everybody to like it at the show, you've got something, maybe you then push it out to attendees for free in e-mail, I mean why are we selling these albums anyway, all the money for McCartney is on the road.
What McCartney wants most is to be heard. And he deserves to be. Not because he's Paul McCartney, but because "Early Days" and "I Can Bet" are good. But that was not the message of the hype, which was all bland and non-specific.
Granted McCartney's old. And an occasional act, like Drake and Justin Timberlake, can sell an album. Their audience believes they're making a statement. But McCartney was the voice of his generation.
I guess we're all dependent upon virality.
And McCartney's got none. As a result, his album is gonna tank, maybe not as fast as Elton's, but soon.
That's what you need. Virality. To start a fire. If only these old acts realized we live in a new world and it's incumbent upon them to deliver excellence and go straight to the tastemakers, not the press, which will spread the message.
The press is old school. Even television. They're too cold. What these acts need is fans sending links. And they must focus on tracks as opposed to albums. Because no one's got time for filler.
And if you were never a McCartney fan, move right along.
But if you are one, try these:
"Early Days":
Spotify: http://spoti.fi/1caD1Lv
YouTube: http://bit.ly/183E5IN
"I Can Bet": http://bit.ly/16rxdFD
Spotify: http://spoti.fi/1ia2W3n
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If it's not great, don't release it. Put it up on YouTube, not the album, if you're trying to get everybody's attention, make sure your music deserves it.
2. Availability
Put your complete album on YouTube and all streaming services. That's where people discover your music. Your hard core fans will buy it, for now anyway, but casual users sample, and see if they're interested. There's plenty of money if you can get people to focus and continue to listen.
3. Be your own curator.
Don't put out ten tracks, call it an album and leave us to discover what's good. Sure, you can focus on a single, but too often it's trying to be all things to all people and is not great. So point us to the two or three tracks we need to listen to.
4. Trust your heart.
Don't listen to anybody else. Push the cuts that resonate with you, that make your heart sing, jump for joy and cry. People are drawn to emotion, they want to be touched. Don't second guess, unless you're playing the singles game, and that's a game controlled by the usual suspects, unless your track was made by Dr. Luke and Max Martin, don't bother.
5. Press is a circle jerk.
Kinda like the wannabes want to send a CD that the writer won't listen to in order to make themselves feel good, ancient acts believe if they get enough ink, TV and radio play that they've done their job, but the truth is they haven't even scratched the surface. It's a direct to fan era. Know who your hard core is and give them tracks for free, if they're good, they'll spread the word. Fire your PR person and read Malcolm Gladwell's "Tipping Point."
6. Virality
Your goal is to keep your music alive. There's nothing more frustrating than spending a year on an album and then seeing it disappear in a month, never to be heard again as you ply the boards playing your greatest hits.
7. Reviews
Only matter if EVERYBODY says something is great.
8. Hunger
It's a conundrum, the audience has got no time, yet is desirous of something new and exciting that will not only satiate them, but they can turn others on to. That's your job, to feed this machine. Don't ask for the audience's time, don't put yourself above them, it's a privilege to be heard, your job is to serve the audience. Interestingly, the more you focus inward, on your art, the greater chance you have of succeeding. The two biggest left field hits in recent memory are all about the track, not the campaign... Lorde's "Royals" and Gotye's "Somebody That I Used To Know." The tracks infected listeners and they spread the word.
9. Sound
Don't master for radio if your track will never be played. Extreme loudness and compression is a disservice to your music unless you're playing the hit game.
10. Fame
Is no guarantee anybody will listen to anything more than a single. Which is why your single must absolutely kill. It's like your first line in a bar, if it's bad, you've blown your chance.
11. It's something you feel.
Great records cannot be described. They contain something that penetrates you in a way that stops time and you can't focus on anything but the pure sound and how it makes you feel. I still remember hearing "Sexual Healing" the first time...driving on the 10 East, between National and Robertson... Ha!
12. They call it show business.
But it starts with art. Business is easy, and always comes last. You can always hire someone to do your business, but you can't easily hire someone to create magic.
13. Don't fake it.
If you're losing your voice (or looks!) don't cover it up! The imperfections will appeal to people. Owning who you are is so enticing.
14. Artwork and album title and running order.
Are irrelevant. The art is a tiny square on a person's computer or mobile, and the title is only memorable if your album is, as for running order, no one listens that way anymore, if they listen to the whole album at all.
15. Don't pay attention to musos.
It's great people live for albums and music, but they vocally skew the discussion, the same way they've convinced everybody that vinyl is making a comeback, it's not, it's a pimple on the ass of the music business. Don't be afraid to alienate the holier-than-thou.
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
These albums sound so bad on the streaming services. They say they're at 320kbps, both Spotify and MOG if you've got premium, but they're a far cry from the CD, which is a far cry from the vinyl, which still isn't as good as the master tape. In other words, what kind of world do we live in where this stuff is recorded digitally, on computers, but we can't have the version direct from the source? It's got to be compressed and remastered and by time we hear it it sounds like it's being transmitted via two Dixie Cups on a string.
In the old days I probably would have bought McCartney's new album, I'm a fan. Maybe not the CD, CDs were always too expensive, you had to think twice before you laid your money down, vinyl led to experimentation. And I would have gotten home and broken the shrinkwrap and dropped the needle on my mega-stereo and been engrossed by the sound.
But today, even with great computer speakers, even with the ultra-popular Beats headphones, which are mediocre, the source is so crappy that what comes out is not music.
Oh, I know, you can hear a hit through mud. I believe that. But I also believe we get the music we deserve. Which is over-compressed, bass-heavy drivel, because something more sensitive loses all its sensitivity in today's digital translation.
And sensitive is what "Early Days" is.
I'm playing McCartney's new album, because I'm a fan, because it's scannable on Spotify, and if you're holding back from streaming services you're verging on irrelevance, like Thom Yorke's Atoms For Peace. The main challenge today isn't getting paid, it's getting someone to listen, and almost no one can accomplish this goal.
Exhibit one, Miley Cyrus.
Even grandmothers know who she is. Miley executed the best promotional campaign of the decade. But still no one wants the album, she only sold 270,417 copies of "Bangerz" last week, which to say is commendable is like lauding Miguel Cabrera if he hit 275 and 20 home runs. Sure, better than many, but still...positively mediocre.
But almost no one can sell an album these days. Certainly not Paul McCartney. Just look at Elton John, who had an even better publicity campaign, spouting nonsense that he has never sung better, Elton's sold 78,109 copies of "The Diving Board" in three weeks, only 11,816 last week, it's on its way to being completely forgotten before Thanksgiving.
So what does Paul McCartney do?
What everybody else does.
He goes on Stern, he plays unannounced gigs. But none of this has to do with the music. That's the problem with Miley Cyrus, she's a celebrity, her tunes are made by committee, she's a modern pop star with nothing to say, we just want to see the antics.
But McCartney, once upon a time he had something to say.
But first I listen for music. And I find this track "Early Days."
"New" gave people what McCartney thought they wanted. Something upbeat that hearkened back to what came before. But the problem with second-guessing the audience is it only works if you're truly in touch with the audience, like Dr. Luke, the oldsters are clueless, they're best off trusting their instincts.
Like with "Early Days," which was not made for radio, but home listening. It's so intimate. It's got that White Album feel. You know, that intimacy like Paul is literally sitting inside the speaker singing just for you. Anybody who was ever a fan will get it. But I doubt most fans will ever hear it. Oh, what a conundrum.
One other track stuck out, "I Can Bet," which is pedestrian until it has a change so delicious 35 seconds in you'll immediately start smiling and nodding your head, wondering if you're seeing the world through sixties glasses, viewing today, but having it look so much better.
That's what McCartney used to specialize in, the changes, the flourishes, no one's better.
And after getting hooked by these two cuts, , when I started the album from the top again it sounded better than the first time through, I was having the old experience, but almost no one is.
So where does this leave us?
In a singles world in an attention economy.
The album is a failed enterprise because despite so many lauding it, most have abandoned it, they just don't have the time for it, and therefore they wait for a single to surface before they pay attention, and when one doesn't, they move on, kind of like with the Elton album.
Oh, we could say it's all about radio. And oldsters do listen to their NPR. But despite ridiculous protestations from the radio industry, it's dying.
Not that an EP is always the answer. Fleetwood Mac released one and it's like it didn't come out.
Maybe like the Dead, these acts have to insert a few new cuts in their live shows, convince audiences that way first. If everybody's going to the bathroom, it goes straight to the dumper itself. If you can get everybody to like it at the show, you've got something, maybe you then push it out to attendees for free in e-mail, I mean why are we selling these albums anyway, all the money for McCartney is on the road.
What McCartney wants most is to be heard. And he deserves to be. Not because he's Paul McCartney, but because "Early Days" and "I Can Bet" are good. But that was not the message of the hype, which was all bland and non-specific.
Granted McCartney's old. And an occasional act, like Drake and Justin Timberlake, can sell an album. Their audience believes they're making a statement. But McCartney was the voice of his generation.
I guess we're all dependent upon virality.
And McCartney's got none. As a result, his album is gonna tank, maybe not as fast as Elton's, but soon.
That's what you need. Virality. To start a fire. If only these old acts realized we live in a new world and it's incumbent upon them to deliver excellence and go straight to the tastemakers, not the press, which will spread the message.
The press is old school. Even television. They're too cold. What these acts need is fans sending links. And they must focus on tracks as opposed to albums. Because no one's got time for filler.
And if you were never a McCartney fan, move right along.
But if you are one, try these:
"Early Days":
Spotify: http://spoti.fi/1caD1Lv
YouTube: http://bit.ly/183E5IN
"I Can Bet": http://bit.ly/16rxdFD
Spotify: http://spoti.fi/1ia2W3n
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Final Amsterdam
CALIFORNIA
"Oh, it gets so lonely
When you're walking
And the streets are full of strangers"
There's no loneliness like the one you feel in a foreign country. It descends like a curtain, when you enter your hotel room, when someone brushes by you on the sidewalk, you don't fit in, you don't belong, life is going on all around you, but you're ensconced in a bubble.
"Oh, California I'm coming home
Oh, make me feel good rock 'n' roll band
I'm your biggest fan
California I'm coming home"
It's been getting a bad rap, people say Florida is the new California, but that can't possibly be, you see it's on east coast time, you've got to be out on the west coast, three hours behind and a whole mental state away.
But Jerry Brown, a seventies refugee, is giving the state a resurgence, with its high taxes and can-do spirit it's once again the beacon for the rest of the nation. But that's not why I live here.
It's the:
1. Freedom.
2. The weather.
3. The landscape.
4. The feeling that we're still inventing it, that there are opportunities.
Maybe I can't explain it, L.A.'s such a bad tourist town, spread out with few definitive attractions, but if you're looking for a place to live, to make home base, I've never found anyplace better.
THE TAXI HOME
I feel guilty that I'm only going to Santa Monica. The driver's been waiting in the queue for eons, expecting a long haul to Hollywood, downtown or even Orange County or the Valley, and I'm just a hop up the hill. Even worse, I wanted the driver to turn on the a/c, which was gonna cost him. Am I the only person who worries about others first, afraid not only that I'll be disapproved of, but that I'll disappoint and negatively impact them?
JEWISH HISTORICAL MUSEUM
That's what Jews do. Go to the synagogue, go to the Jewish sites. That's what my mother said, I'm following in her footsteps.
The most revelatory sight was the mikveh, uncovered deep beneath the old synagogue in a recent excavation, and I'm not even Orthodox, but I could see people stepping down into the ritual bath to achieve purity.
REMBRANDT'S HOUSE
He was a wheeler-dealer, an operator. His entrance room was a gallery, next door was a space where he did his hondling.
Also interesting were the box beds, cupboards for sleeping that you'd have to fold yourself up in half in in order to fit inside, which is exactly what they did, fearful if they lay flat, they'd be inhabited by bad spirits and whisked away, at least that's what the guide said.
FIDELITY
Ralph said to hook up with her and Jonty. That they knew the full electronic music experience.
Jonty told me about getting crushed in an elevator shaft in New York City.
Fidelity told me about growing up in East Germany.
Leipzig. That's where she was born. And I'm running the mental map, is that Austria? We Americans are so ignorant. But then she moved to Berlin. The wrong side.
Her father was a musician, not a member of the Party, and he told her to always be aware. To think before answering the questions of the teachers and the others who were informants, even the West Berliners who implored them to defect who were really working for East Berlin.
And one day on the radio Fidelity heard the wall had come down. She told her mother, who didn't believe it, and made her go to school. There was no one there.
She got a hundred marks for turning in her passport. With the money she bought concert tickets, she had to see Depeche Mode. And candy. You just couldn't get this kind of chocolate in East Germany. Not that she spent that much time in West Berlin after the wall came down. Because she and her former East Germans were put down. You could tell which side someone was from...by the clothes, the appearance, integration was a concept more than reality. And to this day Fidelity is untrusting. Because you never know...
VCs AND APP DEVELOPERS
Want to cash out. That's their goal. Everything's a means to something else. This has infected the music business a bit too, with wealth and fame so desired. But at the heart of it is the music itself. I realize I'm not on the money team. I'm on the cultural team. And if that leaves me broke, so be it.
PASQUALE ROTELLA
I had such a wild night on Friday. I went out with Pasquale Rotella, majordomo of the infamous Electric Daisy Carnival, a whole posse of people, his road manager, his talent buyer, his financial advisor, Jason Bentley, fellow Los Angeles promoter Milo, and David Lewis's team, except for Mr. Lewis himself, who had back trouble, he's the key player in Dutch EDM.
Not that it was called that back when all these people got involved. When no one else was paying attention.
Pasquale started off going to raves. And when that scene died, he started promoting shows himself. And had more ups and downs than those in it for the cash could tolerate. Promoting on an Indian reservation when he lost his site just days before expecting 30,000 people for a show.
It's like this electronic scene is a parallel business, everything music used to be. The people are in it for everything that's right, the music, the audience, the scene, the culture. They don't need anybody else to feel good. Live Nation and SFX came looking for them.
And what happens now is anybody's guess. Even the biggest insiders are fearful the scene could contract into what it once was. But it will never die. Because like-minded people love to embrace their outsider status and dance.
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"Oh, it gets so lonely
When you're walking
And the streets are full of strangers"
There's no loneliness like the one you feel in a foreign country. It descends like a curtain, when you enter your hotel room, when someone brushes by you on the sidewalk, you don't fit in, you don't belong, life is going on all around you, but you're ensconced in a bubble.
"Oh, California I'm coming home
Oh, make me feel good rock 'n' roll band
I'm your biggest fan
California I'm coming home"
It's been getting a bad rap, people say Florida is the new California, but that can't possibly be, you see it's on east coast time, you've got to be out on the west coast, three hours behind and a whole mental state away.
But Jerry Brown, a seventies refugee, is giving the state a resurgence, with its high taxes and can-do spirit it's once again the beacon for the rest of the nation. But that's not why I live here.
It's the:
1. Freedom.
2. The weather.
3. The landscape.
4. The feeling that we're still inventing it, that there are opportunities.
Maybe I can't explain it, L.A.'s such a bad tourist town, spread out with few definitive attractions, but if you're looking for a place to live, to make home base, I've never found anyplace better.
THE TAXI HOME
I feel guilty that I'm only going to Santa Monica. The driver's been waiting in the queue for eons, expecting a long haul to Hollywood, downtown or even Orange County or the Valley, and I'm just a hop up the hill. Even worse, I wanted the driver to turn on the a/c, which was gonna cost him. Am I the only person who worries about others first, afraid not only that I'll be disapproved of, but that I'll disappoint and negatively impact them?
JEWISH HISTORICAL MUSEUM
That's what Jews do. Go to the synagogue, go to the Jewish sites. That's what my mother said, I'm following in her footsteps.
The most revelatory sight was the mikveh, uncovered deep beneath the old synagogue in a recent excavation, and I'm not even Orthodox, but I could see people stepping down into the ritual bath to achieve purity.
REMBRANDT'S HOUSE
He was a wheeler-dealer, an operator. His entrance room was a gallery, next door was a space where he did his hondling.
Also interesting were the box beds, cupboards for sleeping that you'd have to fold yourself up in half in in order to fit inside, which is exactly what they did, fearful if they lay flat, they'd be inhabited by bad spirits and whisked away, at least that's what the guide said.
FIDELITY
Ralph said to hook up with her and Jonty. That they knew the full electronic music experience.
Jonty told me about getting crushed in an elevator shaft in New York City.
Fidelity told me about growing up in East Germany.
Leipzig. That's where she was born. And I'm running the mental map, is that Austria? We Americans are so ignorant. But then she moved to Berlin. The wrong side.
Her father was a musician, not a member of the Party, and he told her to always be aware. To think before answering the questions of the teachers and the others who were informants, even the West Berliners who implored them to defect who were really working for East Berlin.
And one day on the radio Fidelity heard the wall had come down. She told her mother, who didn't believe it, and made her go to school. There was no one there.
She got a hundred marks for turning in her passport. With the money she bought concert tickets, she had to see Depeche Mode. And candy. You just couldn't get this kind of chocolate in East Germany. Not that she spent that much time in West Berlin after the wall came down. Because she and her former East Germans were put down. You could tell which side someone was from...by the clothes, the appearance, integration was a concept more than reality. And to this day Fidelity is untrusting. Because you never know...
VCs AND APP DEVELOPERS
Want to cash out. That's their goal. Everything's a means to something else. This has infected the music business a bit too, with wealth and fame so desired. But at the heart of it is the music itself. I realize I'm not on the money team. I'm on the cultural team. And if that leaves me broke, so be it.
PASQUALE ROTELLA
I had such a wild night on Friday. I went out with Pasquale Rotella, majordomo of the infamous Electric Daisy Carnival, a whole posse of people, his road manager, his talent buyer, his financial advisor, Jason Bentley, fellow Los Angeles promoter Milo, and David Lewis's team, except for Mr. Lewis himself, who had back trouble, he's the key player in Dutch EDM.
Not that it was called that back when all these people got involved. When no one else was paying attention.
Pasquale started off going to raves. And when that scene died, he started promoting shows himself. And had more ups and downs than those in it for the cash could tolerate. Promoting on an Indian reservation when he lost his site just days before expecting 30,000 people for a show.
It's like this electronic scene is a parallel business, everything music used to be. The people are in it for everything that's right, the music, the audience, the scene, the culture. They don't need anybody else to feel good. Live Nation and SFX came looking for them.
And what happens now is anybody's guess. Even the biggest insiders are fearful the scene could contract into what it once was. But it will never die. Because like-minded people love to embrace their outsider status and dance.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
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