I twisted my ankle getting on the plane.
It was my fault. Everything's my fault. Felice says I'm impatient. I travel heavy, and when there was a backup on the gateway, execs checking their carry-ons because they won't fit on this tiny plane, I swerved to the left and little did I know there was a drop-off. Why don't they make the gateway flat from side to side? So, my ankle crumpled and I felt the pain and I wondered what was up with me, with this ski season, it's endless injuries, I'm feeling my age and it doesn't feel good.
It's not horrible. The pain is not sharp. But I'm depressed and angry and not only about my body. The weird thing about getting old is time runs out. You realize you're never gonna accomplish so much. On some level this is freeing, assuming your bank account is deep enough to carry you through. I now understand retirement. You get old enough and you realize the rat race is just that, an endless, meaningless dash. And you realize it's all about lifestyle and experiences, and none of us are gonna last or be remembered, it's all gonna be buried by the sands of time.
Now I'm in Bozeman for a guys' trip. I'm not much of a bro, I'm more of a loner or a listener to the women. And I haven't been to Montana since 1974, after graduating from college, when I snuck back into Yellowstone on my way out west. Yes, most of the national park is in Wyoming, but a tiny smidge is in Montana. Which makes it the only time I've ever been here.
And there's nothing here. Just wide open spaces. Big Sky Country as Chris Whitley so eloquently sang.
So I'm staring out the window, taking it all in, the mountains look so different up here, they're these spines/ridges. I don't know much about geography, but I haven't seen stuff like this before.
And then I think back, to my youth, when I was itinerant, when I lived in Utah, it was so different!
You didn't go anywhere! Airplane trips were long and expensive. No one traveled on a whim, not even the rich. And there was no internet and long distance was expensive so when you were off the grid, you were truly off the grid.
No one's off the grid anymore. Everybody's reachable, Googlable. And if you're not connected, you're a social outcast. Everyone expects to reach you instantly. That's what the entertainment industry doesn't understand with its windows and restrictions, they enrage us, we've got no tolerance for them.
But there was serenity in being off the grid. You could revel in your own personality and life. No one built a shrine to themselves on social media, there was no social media. Reporting was what you did over a beer at the bar with your buddies, or in the once a week or so when you called your parents collect and they called you back (didn't the phone company ever wise up to this?) Social was one on one and no one thought twice about reading a book.
Now I'm not saying the future is not advantageous. I love being able to go cheaply anywhere. However I hate that everybody carries their life's belongings on the plane to beat the baggage charge. Are people just cheap or are they really financially-challenged?
But something is lost in every revolution. And in this case it's solitude and reflection.
Flying in over the Bitterroots I was reminded of that two years in Utah, of living in Vermont, going to college. When internal was everything. When I experienced new things and reveled over them privately, storing them up to share maybe decades later, if at all.
And the truth is no one cares about anyone. Everybody's narcissistic. Or if they're tuned-in, they want some reward for it. We're all alone. The fact we can communicate is staggering. Ever wonder if someone feels like you do? How do you even tell them how you feel? Flying over barren land, seeing giant snowcapped mountains jutting up?
Not even 50,000 people live in Bozeman. The airport is new and civilized. Everybody on the plane was wearing boots, no one was dressed up for the occasion. This is the hinterlands.
Makes me want to move to the hinterlands.
Only the hinterlands are just like L.A. today. With Amazon, FedEx and wireless reaching everywhere.
But I did buy a book on my iPhone before we took off!
However, the reward is in socialization, and I'm hooking up with my homeys, some old, some new. The connection will enhance my mood.
We're all looking to enhance our mood.
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Saturday 7 March 2015
Friday 6 March 2015
Playlist Of The Year!
Have you heard the new Death Cab For Cutie track "Black Sun"?
Not "Black Hole Sun," this is definitely not Soundgarden, and if you don't know Death Cab For Cutie, even if you've never heard of them, that's irrelevant if you like rock music, you're gonna get it immediately, you're gonna wonder where it's been hiding, why you couldn't find it earlier.
I did.
Music has become incomprehensible. There's too much and not enough good and I don't know where to start. The radio stations are beholden to the labels, and they're not on demand in an on demand culture, and online there's a plethora of material and the playlists are too long with too many clunkers and then this guy e-mails me to check out his Spotify playlist and I start listening and I'm positively stunned, he's managed to extract the key tracks from all these bands I've heard of but don't know how to penetrate.
The opening cut is by Florence + The Machine, who I certainly know but never really got, and I like this but don't love it, and then the follow-up cut is Alabama Shakes' "Don't Wanna Fight" which is good but not good enough and then comes...Death Cab.
This guy picked out the one Noel Gallagher cut you've got to hear. It's good. I've read so much hype but I don't know where to start, now I do.
Then there's stuff that doesn't fly on the mainstream radar but is so infectious you wonder why it does not, like Django Django's "First Light."
Or how about Proxima Parada's "Climb To Love"?
Now this playlist is not hip-hop, and it only occasionally crosses over to pop, but if you're a rock fan, mostly without the roll, if you like that white boy music but feel that they stopped making good stuff in the seventies, before MTV, when everything became obvious, you're gonna love this!
Now I'm telling you, there are so few tune-outs. Unlike every other playlist I check out. You see curation is a skill.
The guy's name is "Songpickr."
All you need to search on is that in Spotify.
Oh, you don't have a Spotify account? What's wrong with you? You call yourself a music fan? That's where everybody is, where the action is, you want to be where the action is, right?
And Songpickr has other playlists, even one for Classic Rock, but the one I'm talking about is: "Songpickr: 2015 Best Songs of the Year (Indie, Rock, Alternative, Folk, Singer-Songwriter, Soul...)"
You search for it and when you find it you click to follow it and then it's in your playlist list and click to have it sync to your mobile device, so it upgrades on the fly and you can hear the new stuff as it's put up there.
Now I really like about 70% of the tracks. And I haven't found a curator this good...EVER! Makes my heart pitter-patter, makes me a believer...
Makes me think music has a chance.
For you, me and EVERYBODY!
_____________________________________
I corresponded with Songpickr and this is what he told me:
I do all the Songpickr playlists but 90% of my time is spent on the "Best Songs of 2015" playlist which has over 72,000 followers today.
I started when Spotify launched in Germany in March 2012. I was one of the first users in Germany.
There was a big Coke summer campaign - one of spotify's first brand deals - with a nationwide billboard campaign. Clue was users could upload/share their playlists on a landing page and brand them with a cover. I was one of the first users who uploaded a playlist so everybody who went to this landing page saw my playlist. By the end of 2012 I had approx 5-6k followers.
Then I made a mistake: On Jan 1st 2013 I started "Best Songs 2013" - a new playlist with zero followers while other users just renamed their playlist from 2012 to 2013 and kept their followers. Unfortunately I only recognized it when I already had 1-2k on my new playlist and I wanted to keep them.
2013 to 2014 and 2014 to 2015 I didn't repeat the mistake but simply renamed my playlist at the beginning of the year so I could keep building my followers. A lot of users do "Best Songs of Jan", "Feb", "March", etc. - all separate playlists. They will not reach a critical mass.
SEO within Spotify is important. In the early days basically every word, artist, genre, festival, etc. you put in your title or description text helped surfacing your playlist in the search results. When you typed in Bonnaroo, Coachella, Singer-Sonwriter - Songpickr came up first. Soon the discription texts were kind of abused so Spotify changed their search mechanic. Not working this way anymore.
It's a little bit like on Youtube in the early days - everybody experiments. It is tougher now if you didn't start early: Spotify's acquisition of Tunigo and Echonest was a game changer. I was lucky because I had uploaded my playlist to Tunigo.com before it was acquired and shut down. After the shutdown nobody could upload playlists themselves.
I follow every artist I add on Spotify, Facebook and Twitter and contact them to tell them that I added a track and kindly ask for a post in return. Because I mostly add newcomers, unsigned artists, indie repertoire the feedback is more positive than I expected. I think they see that I love music, that I am a fan not a business. 40% of my bitly traffic comes from the US. As a rule you can say that artists who have less than 50% of my playlist followers will consider a post but artists with more followers than I have don't even respond.
I invest more time than anyone else I know to hear, see and find music. And I want to pass on what I find so other people who don't want to put in the same effort still get easy access to great music they otherwise would not hear on the radio or tv.
You like rock, indie, singer-songwriter, folk, americana, soul - simply follow my playlist and never miss a great song or at least always have enough fresh new music without investing a minute to find it yourself.
Some artists even follow my playlist and profile and listen to my playlist so it shows up in their activity feed.
Also users share and post my playlists via Twitter or privately. Classic word-of-mouth.
I usually do this "playlist work" before I go to bed or in the morning before I go to work. Most of the time is spent on Saturday and Sunday. In total I probably spend around 7h per week to find new music.
I listened 64,000 min on Spotify in 2013 89,000 min in 2014.
I read the relevant music magazines but they became kind of slow and outdated. I don't want to read about releases two months after I added them to my playlists.
Blogs are better. Spotify, iTunes, Shazam Charts. Hype Machine. Last.fm - nobody talks about Last.fm since CBS acquired it but it is an incredible source for great recommendations if you have a huge "scrobble history". I have scrobbled 124.000 tracks since 2006 so their machine knows me pretty good.
I also follow approx 200 other playlists from Spotify, Digster, Filter, Topsify, Tastemakers with similar music taste. I listen to ALL tracks they add. You can see patterns. Who copies from who for example. How tracks evolve over time. You call that "playlist seeding".
My guess is that we will see tons of playlist promotion companies pop up over the next years - like radio, press, online, tv promotion agencies. A lot of labels already added Songpickr to their promotion lists.
In terms of repertoire I like to pick songs which are unique, touch my heart. If I personally don't like it I don't pick it no matter how hyped the band is. Credibility is all you have. I don't like it to be too mainstream but also not too edgy. It should still appeal to many people. It needs to work on shuffle so nothing too extreme on the heavy or arty side. I try to have a mix of different genres that work as a collection.
Of course you need some hits on top of the list in the visible first 10-20 tracks. When I once featured too many unknown artists in the first 10 tracks my new weekly users went down by 50%. People need to see some familiar names as a reference if the rest of the playlist is relevant for them. It is a little bit like the compilation business or radio programming.
Because I like my playlist to work like a radio station I always have between 200-300 songs. Otherwise you will often hear the same songs if you shuffle. I like people to discover new music.
After approx. max. 12 month I delete songs and move them over to my archive playlists. So right now the 2015 playlist features songs from April 2014 to March 2015. It's always a rolling 12-month-period.
And I update almost daily - at least 2-3 times per week. People see that you care about your list.
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Not "Black Hole Sun," this is definitely not Soundgarden, and if you don't know Death Cab For Cutie, even if you've never heard of them, that's irrelevant if you like rock music, you're gonna get it immediately, you're gonna wonder where it's been hiding, why you couldn't find it earlier.
I did.
Music has become incomprehensible. There's too much and not enough good and I don't know where to start. The radio stations are beholden to the labels, and they're not on demand in an on demand culture, and online there's a plethora of material and the playlists are too long with too many clunkers and then this guy e-mails me to check out his Spotify playlist and I start listening and I'm positively stunned, he's managed to extract the key tracks from all these bands I've heard of but don't know how to penetrate.
The opening cut is by Florence + The Machine, who I certainly know but never really got, and I like this but don't love it, and then the follow-up cut is Alabama Shakes' "Don't Wanna Fight" which is good but not good enough and then comes...Death Cab.
This guy picked out the one Noel Gallagher cut you've got to hear. It's good. I've read so much hype but I don't know where to start, now I do.
Then there's stuff that doesn't fly on the mainstream radar but is so infectious you wonder why it does not, like Django Django's "First Light."
Or how about Proxima Parada's "Climb To Love"?
Now this playlist is not hip-hop, and it only occasionally crosses over to pop, but if you're a rock fan, mostly without the roll, if you like that white boy music but feel that they stopped making good stuff in the seventies, before MTV, when everything became obvious, you're gonna love this!
Now I'm telling you, there are so few tune-outs. Unlike every other playlist I check out. You see curation is a skill.
The guy's name is "Songpickr."
All you need to search on is that in Spotify.
Oh, you don't have a Spotify account? What's wrong with you? You call yourself a music fan? That's where everybody is, where the action is, you want to be where the action is, right?
And Songpickr has other playlists, even one for Classic Rock, but the one I'm talking about is: "Songpickr: 2015 Best Songs of the Year (Indie, Rock, Alternative, Folk, Singer-Songwriter, Soul...)"
You search for it and when you find it you click to follow it and then it's in your playlist list and click to have it sync to your mobile device, so it upgrades on the fly and you can hear the new stuff as it's put up there.
Now I really like about 70% of the tracks. And I haven't found a curator this good...EVER! Makes my heart pitter-patter, makes me a believer...
Makes me think music has a chance.
For you, me and EVERYBODY!
_____________________________________
I corresponded with Songpickr and this is what he told me:
I do all the Songpickr playlists but 90% of my time is spent on the "Best Songs of 2015" playlist which has over 72,000 followers today.
I started when Spotify launched in Germany in March 2012. I was one of the first users in Germany.
There was a big Coke summer campaign - one of spotify's first brand deals - with a nationwide billboard campaign. Clue was users could upload/share their playlists on a landing page and brand them with a cover. I was one of the first users who uploaded a playlist so everybody who went to this landing page saw my playlist. By the end of 2012 I had approx 5-6k followers.
Then I made a mistake: On Jan 1st 2013 I started "Best Songs 2013" - a new playlist with zero followers while other users just renamed their playlist from 2012 to 2013 and kept their followers. Unfortunately I only recognized it when I already had 1-2k on my new playlist and I wanted to keep them.
2013 to 2014 and 2014 to 2015 I didn't repeat the mistake but simply renamed my playlist at the beginning of the year so I could keep building my followers. A lot of users do "Best Songs of Jan", "Feb", "March", etc. - all separate playlists. They will not reach a critical mass.
SEO within Spotify is important. In the early days basically every word, artist, genre, festival, etc. you put in your title or description text helped surfacing your playlist in the search results. When you typed in Bonnaroo, Coachella, Singer-Sonwriter - Songpickr came up first. Soon the discription texts were kind of abused so Spotify changed their search mechanic. Not working this way anymore.
It's a little bit like on Youtube in the early days - everybody experiments. It is tougher now if you didn't start early: Spotify's acquisition of Tunigo and Echonest was a game changer. I was lucky because I had uploaded my playlist to Tunigo.com before it was acquired and shut down. After the shutdown nobody could upload playlists themselves.
I follow every artist I add on Spotify, Facebook and Twitter and contact them to tell them that I added a track and kindly ask for a post in return. Because I mostly add newcomers, unsigned artists, indie repertoire the feedback is more positive than I expected. I think they see that I love music, that I am a fan not a business. 40% of my bitly traffic comes from the US. As a rule you can say that artists who have less than 50% of my playlist followers will consider a post but artists with more followers than I have don't even respond.
I invest more time than anyone else I know to hear, see and find music. And I want to pass on what I find so other people who don't want to put in the same effort still get easy access to great music they otherwise would not hear on the radio or tv.
You like rock, indie, singer-songwriter, folk, americana, soul - simply follow my playlist and never miss a great song or at least always have enough fresh new music without investing a minute to find it yourself.
Some artists even follow my playlist and profile and listen to my playlist so it shows up in their activity feed.
Also users share and post my playlists via Twitter or privately. Classic word-of-mouth.
I usually do this "playlist work" before I go to bed or in the morning before I go to work. Most of the time is spent on Saturday and Sunday. In total I probably spend around 7h per week to find new music.
I listened 64,000 min on Spotify in 2013 89,000 min in 2014.
I read the relevant music magazines but they became kind of slow and outdated. I don't want to read about releases two months after I added them to my playlists.
Blogs are better. Spotify, iTunes, Shazam Charts. Hype Machine. Last.fm - nobody talks about Last.fm since CBS acquired it but it is an incredible source for great recommendations if you have a huge "scrobble history". I have scrobbled 124.000 tracks since 2006 so their machine knows me pretty good.
I also follow approx 200 other playlists from Spotify, Digster, Filter, Topsify, Tastemakers with similar music taste. I listen to ALL tracks they add. You can see patterns. Who copies from who for example. How tracks evolve over time. You call that "playlist seeding".
My guess is that we will see tons of playlist promotion companies pop up over the next years - like radio, press, online, tv promotion agencies. A lot of labels already added Songpickr to their promotion lists.
In terms of repertoire I like to pick songs which are unique, touch my heart. If I personally don't like it I don't pick it no matter how hyped the band is. Credibility is all you have. I don't like it to be too mainstream but also not too edgy. It should still appeal to many people. It needs to work on shuffle so nothing too extreme on the heavy or arty side. I try to have a mix of different genres that work as a collection.
Of course you need some hits on top of the list in the visible first 10-20 tracks. When I once featured too many unknown artists in the first 10 tracks my new weekly users went down by 50%. People need to see some familiar names as a reference if the rest of the playlist is relevant for them. It is a little bit like the compilation business or radio programming.
Because I like my playlist to work like a radio station I always have between 200-300 songs. Otherwise you will often hear the same songs if you shuffle. I like people to discover new music.
After approx. max. 12 month I delete songs and move them over to my archive playlists. So right now the 2015 playlist features songs from April 2014 to March 2015. It's always a rolling 12-month-period.
And I update almost daily - at least 2-3 times per week. People see that you care about your list.
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Rhinofy-The Finer Things
"While there is time
Let's go out and feel everything
If you hold me
I will let you into my dream"
Steve Winwood was a star in the Spencer Davis Group when he was still underage and referred to as "Stevie," frontman for the first supergroup Blind Faith, a cutting edge band leader in Traffic and then a solo star in 1981 with "While You See A Chance." It wasn't completely uninterrupted, there were some slow days in the seventies, but nothing like the dry spell after "Arc Of A Diver" (yes, there was a mild hit on "Talking Back Through The Night," but the album was nowhere near as big as "Arc Of A Diver"), and then came 1986's "Back In The High Life."
Credit Russ Titelman, working without his old partner Lenny Waronker, he modernized Winwood's sound, almost to the point of pop, and what emerged was a giant hit, "Higher Love."
You remember, Chaka Khan's exquisite background vocals and that horrible, endlessly played video wherein Winwood tried to dance. Come on, isn't that one of the great things about MTV not playing videos anymore, we don't have to see musicians dance (or act!) who shouldn't? Whose talent is playing instruments and singing and...
And this being the eighties, this being long before Napster, if you heard a great track you went out and bought the album. And even though it was available on CD, "Back In The High Life" was only 45 minutes long, and each cut told a story, and the one that opened side two resonated with me, especially after my wife moved out and I had a new girlfriend.
"The finer things keep shining through
The way my soul gets lost in you
The finer things I feel in me
The golden dance life could be"
It didn't last, it never does. That's what everybody says that turns out to be true, the first relationship after a long one is the rebound. You're so thrilled to feel that pulse again that you believe it's forever. But it's not. And I'd warn you not to get involved with someone who's experienced a big breakup but you won't listen, no one ever does, but believe me, you're gonna get used and abused, dropped like a hot potato when your new love realizes that as great as you are you're just not them. As bad as the end of a marriage might be, the fact you made it that far counts for something, you built something, it may have crumbled but you're not ready to construct that edifice again, and knowing how hard it is to do you don't want to do it with someone who isn't right.
But for a while.
So I'm driving up PCH with my hand between her legs...
Well, it started when she called me. For every pushy guy many are waiting for a signal, and if you wink or show initiative we pick right up on it and dive in.
So we went to lunch and we started a relationship and suddenly "Back In The High Life" took on a whole new meaning. That's right, great albums work in both good and bad moods, they're constants, that you can rely upon, that will deliver at various times in life.
And back when cassettes still ruled, before there were even CD players in cars, you got behind the wheel of your automobile and played your favorites for your new love, which is what I did.
"The Finer Things" is not a single. It's got this synth beginning that sounds like a beautiful morning, a sun rising over a yellow brick road that you just can't wait to jump upon and trundle off into the future on.
And Steve starts to sing and there are so many changes, it's a Disneyland ride, without the abrupt turns and changes of a roller coaster.
"Oh, I've been sad
And have walked bitter streets alone"
Loneliness. The scourge of life. Your records will get you through until you find someone new.
"I will have my ever after"
And you can't lose your optimism, that's death.
"Please take my hand, here where I stand
Won't you come out and dance with me"
We're all children, looking for a playmate.
Like I said above, that relationship ended. The gory details are relevant, but you're not gonna hear them here. All I know is when I hear this song it reminds me of her.
But not only her.
When I'm feeling upbeat, when I'm starting a new adventure, when I feel confident, creeping into my brain I hear that synth intro and the words to "The Finer Things."
I'd love to let you into my dream.
While there's still time.
Let's go!
P.S. Will Jennings wrote the words to "The Finer Things" and John Robinson played drums and a bunch of people you don't know fleshed out the tracks and it oftentimes takes a village to make a masterpiece, when we all come together it can be a beautiful thing.
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/1EhM1M4
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Let's go out and feel everything
If you hold me
I will let you into my dream"
Steve Winwood was a star in the Spencer Davis Group when he was still underage and referred to as "Stevie," frontman for the first supergroup Blind Faith, a cutting edge band leader in Traffic and then a solo star in 1981 with "While You See A Chance." It wasn't completely uninterrupted, there were some slow days in the seventies, but nothing like the dry spell after "Arc Of A Diver" (yes, there was a mild hit on "Talking Back Through The Night," but the album was nowhere near as big as "Arc Of A Diver"), and then came 1986's "Back In The High Life."
Credit Russ Titelman, working without his old partner Lenny Waronker, he modernized Winwood's sound, almost to the point of pop, and what emerged was a giant hit, "Higher Love."
You remember, Chaka Khan's exquisite background vocals and that horrible, endlessly played video wherein Winwood tried to dance. Come on, isn't that one of the great things about MTV not playing videos anymore, we don't have to see musicians dance (or act!) who shouldn't? Whose talent is playing instruments and singing and...
And this being the eighties, this being long before Napster, if you heard a great track you went out and bought the album. And even though it was available on CD, "Back In The High Life" was only 45 minutes long, and each cut told a story, and the one that opened side two resonated with me, especially after my wife moved out and I had a new girlfriend.
"The finer things keep shining through
The way my soul gets lost in you
The finer things I feel in me
The golden dance life could be"
It didn't last, it never does. That's what everybody says that turns out to be true, the first relationship after a long one is the rebound. You're so thrilled to feel that pulse again that you believe it's forever. But it's not. And I'd warn you not to get involved with someone who's experienced a big breakup but you won't listen, no one ever does, but believe me, you're gonna get used and abused, dropped like a hot potato when your new love realizes that as great as you are you're just not them. As bad as the end of a marriage might be, the fact you made it that far counts for something, you built something, it may have crumbled but you're not ready to construct that edifice again, and knowing how hard it is to do you don't want to do it with someone who isn't right.
But for a while.
So I'm driving up PCH with my hand between her legs...
Well, it started when she called me. For every pushy guy many are waiting for a signal, and if you wink or show initiative we pick right up on it and dive in.
So we went to lunch and we started a relationship and suddenly "Back In The High Life" took on a whole new meaning. That's right, great albums work in both good and bad moods, they're constants, that you can rely upon, that will deliver at various times in life.
And back when cassettes still ruled, before there were even CD players in cars, you got behind the wheel of your automobile and played your favorites for your new love, which is what I did.
"The Finer Things" is not a single. It's got this synth beginning that sounds like a beautiful morning, a sun rising over a yellow brick road that you just can't wait to jump upon and trundle off into the future on.
And Steve starts to sing and there are so many changes, it's a Disneyland ride, without the abrupt turns and changes of a roller coaster.
"Oh, I've been sad
And have walked bitter streets alone"
Loneliness. The scourge of life. Your records will get you through until you find someone new.
"I will have my ever after"
And you can't lose your optimism, that's death.
"Please take my hand, here where I stand
Won't you come out and dance with me"
We're all children, looking for a playmate.
Like I said above, that relationship ended. The gory details are relevant, but you're not gonna hear them here. All I know is when I hear this song it reminds me of her.
But not only her.
When I'm feeling upbeat, when I'm starting a new adventure, when I feel confident, creeping into my brain I hear that synth intro and the words to "The Finer Things."
I'd love to let you into my dream.
While there's still time.
Let's go!
P.S. Will Jennings wrote the words to "The Finer Things" and John Robinson played drums and a bunch of people you don't know fleshed out the tracks and it oftentimes takes a village to make a masterpiece, when we all come together it can be a beautiful thing.
Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/1EhM1M4
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Thursday 5 March 2015
Change
AOL
Makes online easy.
But it turns out online is much more than their walled garden and that cable and telephone companies utilize pricing pressure to get people to sign up for a bundle that includes internet access. Turns out that access is king. All of AOL's content was no match for high speed access to everything.
AOL survives as a lame portal that gets way too much attention from Wall Street. And if you've got AOL e-mail, switch immediately. The truth is you're missing out on so many messages, with AOL's spam filters so tight and ever-changing.
GOOGLE
Made search work. Create comprehension from chaos, make the world understandable and usable for a huge swath of people and you'll get rich.
But you won't stay rich. In mobile search is secondary, it's all about the app.
But what is most interesting about Google is it got a pass. Utilizing its mantra of "Don't be evil" to market itself as a new kind of company (that only lasted until earnings faltered), Google's history is about the public and press giving it a chance when it does not deserve one. Sure, Google gave us Gmail, a slightly better Hotmail, but it makes no money on YouTube, Google Plus is an invasive disaster and Google Glass was a sideshow that got a ton of publicity while WhatsApp and Snapchat got all the glory.
Just because someone is good at one thing, do not assume they're good at everything. Furthermore, just because someone is rich, that doesn't make them smart and indomitable.
UNIVERSAL MUSIC
They said Doug Morris could not be replaced.
But they were wrong.
Lucian Grainge is younger and hungrier and knows, like Doug, it's ultimately about hits, but today it's also about so much more. Grainge is plumbing the digital universe. How successfully, we're not sure, but at least he's trying. Furthermore, Grainge is empowering the younger generation, most specifically by making John Janick head of Interscope. Doug Morris helped revitalize Sony, but there's no new blood, no one to lead the charge once he's gone.
JIMMY IOVINE
Learned it was about attaching yourself to a winner.
Whether it be Stevie Nicks or Bruce Springsteen or U2 in the old days.
Or Ted Field in the middle days.
Or Dr. Dre in the late days... Jimmy learned that if you're not a genius, you sidle up to geniuses, pave the way for them to create, being their best friend all the while. Come on, would the headphones have been as successful if they were called "Jimmy I's Beats"? OF COURSE NOT!
IRVING AZOFF
It's about survival. And Irving has. Survived, that is.
Respect he who lasts, it's a skill unto itself.
EVAN SPIEGEL
Who? Mr. Snapchat, who's now a billionaire.
It's easy to be a one trick pony. But now Spiegel has pivoted Snapchat into a content company, something prognosticators did not foresee, increasing dramatically the value of the enterprise. Like Mark Zuckerberg before him, Spiegel refused to sell out at a low price, he believed in himself and his vision. Those who take the short money, however large, are losers.
MARK ZUCKERBERG
Facebook is an advertising company, not a social network. After his HTML5 mistake, Zuckerberg pivoted and made Facebook the king of mobile advertising. It's like a klezmer band deciding it's better to make pop music. Well, a very successful klezmer band. Proving, even if the Winklevosses came up with the idea, they never could have turned Facebook into the juggernaut it has become.
TAYLOR SWIFT
Realized to win big today it's about marketing. Tunes are essential, but with it being so hard to reach everybody, he or she who owns the marketing skills becomes known worldwide. Assuming this is your desire...
KANYE
Is so busy complaining he forgot it's about music. Taylor Swift, his nemesis, never forgot that music comes first.
BILLBOARD CHART
Once you manipulate the statistics, you're history. We don't want formula, we want easily understandable facts. Which is why YouTube views and Spotify listens are so valuable. Once you start weighting, people's eyes glaze over and they tune out.
AMAZON
It just works and it's trustworthy. Hate Jeff Bezos all you want, but who else do you trust? Bezos always put the customer first, and then he sold them more things. It's like Walmart with its low prices but with even more. If you hate Amazon you don't use it.
COSTCO
Part of the fabric of America. Sold by its users. Not everything can be delivered by UPS or FedEx. Costco is about high quality, low prices and treating its workers and customers right. Rep is everything today. And he who forgets this ultimately loses. Sure, prices are low at Walmart, but not only does the Bentonville giant kill downtowns dead, they put their employees on welfare. Furthermore, Walmart was so inured to their profits they could not see the future, i.e. the internet coming. You're never the winner forever. Sleep with one eye open. Always.
ELON MUSK
PayPal was not sexy, but it laid the foundation for Mr. Musk's reputation.
We all need people to believe in, heroes shall we say. They used to be musicians, because they spoke the truth and were beholden to no one. But musicians have been devalued because their me-too music is bland and they're whored out to corporations, the enemy in the public's mind, bitching all the while. Whereas techies strike off into the wilderness and come back with gold. They innovate and titillate us and we believe in them. If you're not doing something different, if you're not reinventing the wheel, stop making music, we've got no time for you.
MICROSOFT
Yesterday's king, today's common man. Everybody peaks, nothing is forever. People are gunning for your throne. And the more you're invested in the way you're doing things, the more vulnerable you become. Disruption is easier with digital tools. Therefore, you must disrupt yourself. But it's hard for the rich and comfortable to do this.
BILLIONAIRES
Money used to be inherited, now it's usually made. We must educate our young rich to give back. Many of them do.
POLITICS
An inside game of gotcha that's so ridiculous, that only serves the insiders and the corporations who pay for it, that the public has tuned out. Ask not what your government can do for you, it's too busy doing it for itself. (No, this is not right wing pabulum, the government should employ more people, it should enhance the safety net, but the poor don't serve and they've got no voice and you can vote all you want, but the gerrymandering and corporate donations mean the game is stacked against you, the whole country is stacked against you unless you're smart and educated, so you can't bitch unless you have a degree and understand the landscape, which rules out so many.)
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Makes online easy.
But it turns out online is much more than their walled garden and that cable and telephone companies utilize pricing pressure to get people to sign up for a bundle that includes internet access. Turns out that access is king. All of AOL's content was no match for high speed access to everything.
AOL survives as a lame portal that gets way too much attention from Wall Street. And if you've got AOL e-mail, switch immediately. The truth is you're missing out on so many messages, with AOL's spam filters so tight and ever-changing.
Made search work. Create comprehension from chaos, make the world understandable and usable for a huge swath of people and you'll get rich.
But you won't stay rich. In mobile search is secondary, it's all about the app.
But what is most interesting about Google is it got a pass. Utilizing its mantra of "Don't be evil" to market itself as a new kind of company (that only lasted until earnings faltered), Google's history is about the public and press giving it a chance when it does not deserve one. Sure, Google gave us Gmail, a slightly better Hotmail, but it makes no money on YouTube, Google Plus is an invasive disaster and Google Glass was a sideshow that got a ton of publicity while WhatsApp and Snapchat got all the glory.
Just because someone is good at one thing, do not assume they're good at everything. Furthermore, just because someone is rich, that doesn't make them smart and indomitable.
UNIVERSAL MUSIC
They said Doug Morris could not be replaced.
But they were wrong.
Lucian Grainge is younger and hungrier and knows, like Doug, it's ultimately about hits, but today it's also about so much more. Grainge is plumbing the digital universe. How successfully, we're not sure, but at least he's trying. Furthermore, Grainge is empowering the younger generation, most specifically by making John Janick head of Interscope. Doug Morris helped revitalize Sony, but there's no new blood, no one to lead the charge once he's gone.
JIMMY IOVINE
Learned it was about attaching yourself to a winner.
Whether it be Stevie Nicks or Bruce Springsteen or U2 in the old days.
Or Ted Field in the middle days.
Or Dr. Dre in the late days... Jimmy learned that if you're not a genius, you sidle up to geniuses, pave the way for them to create, being their best friend all the while. Come on, would the headphones have been as successful if they were called "Jimmy I's Beats"? OF COURSE NOT!
IRVING AZOFF
It's about survival. And Irving has. Survived, that is.
Respect he who lasts, it's a skill unto itself.
EVAN SPIEGEL
Who? Mr. Snapchat, who's now a billionaire.
It's easy to be a one trick pony. But now Spiegel has pivoted Snapchat into a content company, something prognosticators did not foresee, increasing dramatically the value of the enterprise. Like Mark Zuckerberg before him, Spiegel refused to sell out at a low price, he believed in himself and his vision. Those who take the short money, however large, are losers.
MARK ZUCKERBERG
Facebook is an advertising company, not a social network. After his HTML5 mistake, Zuckerberg pivoted and made Facebook the king of mobile advertising. It's like a klezmer band deciding it's better to make pop music. Well, a very successful klezmer band. Proving, even if the Winklevosses came up with the idea, they never could have turned Facebook into the juggernaut it has become.
TAYLOR SWIFT
Realized to win big today it's about marketing. Tunes are essential, but with it being so hard to reach everybody, he or she who owns the marketing skills becomes known worldwide. Assuming this is your desire...
KANYE
Is so busy complaining he forgot it's about music. Taylor Swift, his nemesis, never forgot that music comes first.
BILLBOARD CHART
Once you manipulate the statistics, you're history. We don't want formula, we want easily understandable facts. Which is why YouTube views and Spotify listens are so valuable. Once you start weighting, people's eyes glaze over and they tune out.
AMAZON
It just works and it's trustworthy. Hate Jeff Bezos all you want, but who else do you trust? Bezos always put the customer first, and then he sold them more things. It's like Walmart with its low prices but with even more. If you hate Amazon you don't use it.
COSTCO
Part of the fabric of America. Sold by its users. Not everything can be delivered by UPS or FedEx. Costco is about high quality, low prices and treating its workers and customers right. Rep is everything today. And he who forgets this ultimately loses. Sure, prices are low at Walmart, but not only does the Bentonville giant kill downtowns dead, they put their employees on welfare. Furthermore, Walmart was so inured to their profits they could not see the future, i.e. the internet coming. You're never the winner forever. Sleep with one eye open. Always.
ELON MUSK
PayPal was not sexy, but it laid the foundation for Mr. Musk's reputation.
We all need people to believe in, heroes shall we say. They used to be musicians, because they spoke the truth and were beholden to no one. But musicians have been devalued because their me-too music is bland and they're whored out to corporations, the enemy in the public's mind, bitching all the while. Whereas techies strike off into the wilderness and come back with gold. They innovate and titillate us and we believe in them. If you're not doing something different, if you're not reinventing the wheel, stop making music, we've got no time for you.
MICROSOFT
Yesterday's king, today's common man. Everybody peaks, nothing is forever. People are gunning for your throne. And the more you're invested in the way you're doing things, the more vulnerable you become. Disruption is easier with digital tools. Therefore, you must disrupt yourself. But it's hard for the rich and comfortable to do this.
BILLIONAIRES
Money used to be inherited, now it's usually made. We must educate our young rich to give back. Many of them do.
POLITICS
An inside game of gotcha that's so ridiculous, that only serves the insiders and the corporations who pay for it, that the public has tuned out. Ask not what your government can do for you, it's too busy doing it for itself. (No, this is not right wing pabulum, the government should employ more people, it should enhance the safety net, but the poor don't serve and they've got no voice and you can vote all you want, but the gerrymandering and corporate donations mean the game is stacked against you, the whole country is stacked against you unless you're smart and educated, so you can't bitch unless you have a degree and understand the landscape, which rules out so many.)
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Hozier "To Be Alone"
I discovered this in a ski video:
http://bit.ly/1BLO0q0
One of the great things about the internet is you can pursue your passion, I'm combing skiing sites incessantly, and knowing they got 48" in Taos last week I clicked through to see what was going on. And I heard a track playing in the background which infected me. So I pulled out my iPhone and Shazamed it and lo and behold it was Hozier. You know Hozier, the guy with the international hit that all the girls liked, the sensitive guy I was overworked on and didn't get until now.
Maybe because the iteration synched with the video was a live take and the immediacy stung me, that's life, when it's just lived and not premeditated. That's what's wrong with the modern music business, nothing sees the light of day before its time, and by that time, after they've added so much and streamlined it, you no longer relate to it, all the humanity has been eliminated.
If you listen to this iteration of "To Be Alone" you'll know what it was like back in the midsixties when we discovered Clapton and the bluesbreakers. Not that Hozier exhibits Slowhand's prowess on this track, but the soul, it's there. Along with a dash of Cat Stevens, before he got too cute.
Check it out.
P.S. How am I supposed to find this stuff? It's not like Hozier hasn't been in the news, but the two tracks they promoted didn't do it for me. There's something radically wrong with the music business infrastructure, and it's got nothing to do with piracy or Spotify payments. It's become so money-focused that the music takes a back seat. We're promoting what appeals to the head but not the heart. Music lovers don't count. Not that I give the makers a pass. Their bitching and self-promotion turns me off. But thank god for the youngsters who've got enough time to dig deep and uncover this stuff. And synch it to their homemade productions. That's right, technology is not the enemy. Remix culture is good. It raises that which deserves attention above the surface. If only we could have a weekly playlist of what we need to hear as opposed to what we're supposed to hear. But blame corporate radio too, read this story in "Billboard" how Brandy Clark didn't have a chance on country radio:
"Why Must Country Singles Be 'Worked' By Labels to be Played on Commercial Radio": http://bit.ly/1vYxiTd
P.P.S. I'm including the studio take and the live Spotify Sessions take in this playlist. The studio version is close, but just doesn't capture the magic. The Spotify iteration is very close. Because if you've got it, you can replicate it, all you need is yourself.
P.P.P.S. All you oldsters bitching that this is not new, that the lyrics are good but not spectacular...remember that the English blues cats were a sore imitation of the Delta bluesmen at first. You've got to start somewhere. Once again, there's positively someone real singing this song, no machines. And this is only something music can do, only music can touch you in this way.
More like this please.
Spotify playlist: http://spoti.fi/1BbPXu3
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http://bit.ly/1BLO0q0
One of the great things about the internet is you can pursue your passion, I'm combing skiing sites incessantly, and knowing they got 48" in Taos last week I clicked through to see what was going on. And I heard a track playing in the background which infected me. So I pulled out my iPhone and Shazamed it and lo and behold it was Hozier. You know Hozier, the guy with the international hit that all the girls liked, the sensitive guy I was overworked on and didn't get until now.
Maybe because the iteration synched with the video was a live take and the immediacy stung me, that's life, when it's just lived and not premeditated. That's what's wrong with the modern music business, nothing sees the light of day before its time, and by that time, after they've added so much and streamlined it, you no longer relate to it, all the humanity has been eliminated.
If you listen to this iteration of "To Be Alone" you'll know what it was like back in the midsixties when we discovered Clapton and the bluesbreakers. Not that Hozier exhibits Slowhand's prowess on this track, but the soul, it's there. Along with a dash of Cat Stevens, before he got too cute.
Check it out.
P.S. How am I supposed to find this stuff? It's not like Hozier hasn't been in the news, but the two tracks they promoted didn't do it for me. There's something radically wrong with the music business infrastructure, and it's got nothing to do with piracy or Spotify payments. It's become so money-focused that the music takes a back seat. We're promoting what appeals to the head but not the heart. Music lovers don't count. Not that I give the makers a pass. Their bitching and self-promotion turns me off. But thank god for the youngsters who've got enough time to dig deep and uncover this stuff. And synch it to their homemade productions. That's right, technology is not the enemy. Remix culture is good. It raises that which deserves attention above the surface. If only we could have a weekly playlist of what we need to hear as opposed to what we're supposed to hear. But blame corporate radio too, read this story in "Billboard" how Brandy Clark didn't have a chance on country radio:
"Why Must Country Singles Be 'Worked' By Labels to be Played on Commercial Radio": http://bit.ly/1vYxiTd
P.P.S. I'm including the studio take and the live Spotify Sessions take in this playlist. The studio version is close, but just doesn't capture the magic. The Spotify iteration is very close. Because if you've got it, you can replicate it, all you need is yourself.
P.P.P.S. All you oldsters bitching that this is not new, that the lyrics are good but not spectacular...remember that the English blues cats were a sore imitation of the Delta bluesmen at first. You've got to start somewhere. Once again, there's positively someone real singing this song, no machines. And this is only something music can do, only music can touch you in this way.
More like this please.
Spotify playlist: http://spoti.fi/1BbPXu3
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Wednesday 4 March 2015
A Spool Of Blue Thread
Life doesn't unfold like you expect it to.
Oh, I'm not talking about accidents so much as expectations. That's right, people die before their time. You get sick and you never really recover. You don't get into the school you want to...
But you meet people who change your life. They take hold of your hand, mostly your mind, and pull you in an unforeseen direction. All the hopes and dreams of your youth evaporate and you end up somewhere different, that you could not perceive, which feels uncomfortable but just right all at the same time.
That's the funny thing about people, they have an influence.
Or maybe you're an influencer. You know who you are. You've got big plans. Nothing's gonna get in your way. You're a leader, not a follower. But without a flock, without someone to pay heed, you're lost, you feel empty inside. And when you gain adherents, suddenly your path starts to wobble, you're no longer going in the right direction.
That's what they don't tell you about life. How plans can be laid and hoops can be jumped through and still it doesn't work out as you planned. I'm not saying to give up and go with the flow, certainly not today, in these challenging, economic times, but the truth is you never know what will be built upon the foundation.
The foundation... That's important. Who you are. Both morally and your resume. People can tell if you're honest and trustworthy. And even if you're not, there will be people who will appeal to you, who'll grab hold of your avarice and take you right down. That's right, you've got to beware of who you hang with. Which is quite the conundrum, because you get nowhere without other people, and how are you supposed to choose? You think you know what's right, but then your mother and father pooh-pooh these people, or they reject you. What do you do when the person you put all your hope and faith in abandons you? How do you handle that? You just march forward like a zombie and re-evaluate who you hang with. Do you want the person who can make you laugh all night or the one who'll come to your rescue when your car breaks down, when you need a friend...
Friends are everything. And loyalty counts too. We want people we can depend upon. If there's no one you can depend upon life gets lonely. And the truth is so many people don't know this, that we're looking for trustworthiness. Not only someone to pick us up when we're down, but to listen to us without judgment. Not without feedback, no one gets to pass through life without hearing opinions on their efforts. But we're all so insecure and vulnerable and our desire is to reveal ourselves and if we don't feel we can with you we're always gonna keep you at a distance.
So we end up with people who we trust, who tug at us, who pull us in directions we could never foresee. This is how you go on the journey of life.
And the truth is money makes the trip easier. And everybody has to make some. And you envy those who inherit it but you cannot see the burden they carry. Just like you cannot see the burden of the beautiful. With every advantage comes a cost. And the goal is to feel comfortable in your own skin. To know that there's something in you that shines as brightly as another's bank account or looks. And until you truly believe this, you're at a disadvantage. Always believing you got the short end of the stick and if you could only be them...
But the truth is you can only be you.
Maybe it's your eyes. Maybe it's your compassion. Maybe it's the way you can turn everything into a joke. Maybe it's your disposition. Embrace it, and let others hang on to it.
But maybe other people scare you. You've been burned too many times. That's the downside of age. As you get older you've got less angst, you know how the game is played, but you've had so many losing experiences that they hobble you. And it happens to everyone. Maybe you married your high school sweetheart, had three perfect children, but then your spouse gets cancer and dies and you haven't been on a date in decades and you suddenly understand all the loneliness others spoke of. You thought they were weak when they were only human.
And you yearn to connect, we all yearn to connect. But somehow our humanity doesn't square with a world where money and fame are paramount and who you know is about getting ahead as opposed to making a life.
I don't know everything. Nobody does. But a lot of people act like they do. Then again, many people want to impart wisdom that will prevent pitfalls. But pitfalls are the way of life. If it all worked out we wouldn't be happy.
And you know what happiness is. When you're driving in your car or walking down the sidewalk and a tune is playing in your head and there's nowhere you'd rather be, you're thrilled to be alive.
But it won't last forever. Neither the mood nor your life.
So get up off that couch. Roll the dice. Put yourself in uncomfortable situations. Because good only comes from bad. Motivation comes from adversity. You ascend mountains you thought unclimbable. To find on the other side things you could never foresee. Where your parents didn't want you to go, where you didn't want to go. Where you're thrilled and comfortable until...
It all goes topsy-turvy again.
https://www.facebook.com/AnneTylerAuthor
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Oh, I'm not talking about accidents so much as expectations. That's right, people die before their time. You get sick and you never really recover. You don't get into the school you want to...
But you meet people who change your life. They take hold of your hand, mostly your mind, and pull you in an unforeseen direction. All the hopes and dreams of your youth evaporate and you end up somewhere different, that you could not perceive, which feels uncomfortable but just right all at the same time.
That's the funny thing about people, they have an influence.
Or maybe you're an influencer. You know who you are. You've got big plans. Nothing's gonna get in your way. You're a leader, not a follower. But without a flock, without someone to pay heed, you're lost, you feel empty inside. And when you gain adherents, suddenly your path starts to wobble, you're no longer going in the right direction.
That's what they don't tell you about life. How plans can be laid and hoops can be jumped through and still it doesn't work out as you planned. I'm not saying to give up and go with the flow, certainly not today, in these challenging, economic times, but the truth is you never know what will be built upon the foundation.
The foundation... That's important. Who you are. Both morally and your resume. People can tell if you're honest and trustworthy. And even if you're not, there will be people who will appeal to you, who'll grab hold of your avarice and take you right down. That's right, you've got to beware of who you hang with. Which is quite the conundrum, because you get nowhere without other people, and how are you supposed to choose? You think you know what's right, but then your mother and father pooh-pooh these people, or they reject you. What do you do when the person you put all your hope and faith in abandons you? How do you handle that? You just march forward like a zombie and re-evaluate who you hang with. Do you want the person who can make you laugh all night or the one who'll come to your rescue when your car breaks down, when you need a friend...
Friends are everything. And loyalty counts too. We want people we can depend upon. If there's no one you can depend upon life gets lonely. And the truth is so many people don't know this, that we're looking for trustworthiness. Not only someone to pick us up when we're down, but to listen to us without judgment. Not without feedback, no one gets to pass through life without hearing opinions on their efforts. But we're all so insecure and vulnerable and our desire is to reveal ourselves and if we don't feel we can with you we're always gonna keep you at a distance.
So we end up with people who we trust, who tug at us, who pull us in directions we could never foresee. This is how you go on the journey of life.
And the truth is money makes the trip easier. And everybody has to make some. And you envy those who inherit it but you cannot see the burden they carry. Just like you cannot see the burden of the beautiful. With every advantage comes a cost. And the goal is to feel comfortable in your own skin. To know that there's something in you that shines as brightly as another's bank account or looks. And until you truly believe this, you're at a disadvantage. Always believing you got the short end of the stick and if you could only be them...
But the truth is you can only be you.
Maybe it's your eyes. Maybe it's your compassion. Maybe it's the way you can turn everything into a joke. Maybe it's your disposition. Embrace it, and let others hang on to it.
But maybe other people scare you. You've been burned too many times. That's the downside of age. As you get older you've got less angst, you know how the game is played, but you've had so many losing experiences that they hobble you. And it happens to everyone. Maybe you married your high school sweetheart, had three perfect children, but then your spouse gets cancer and dies and you haven't been on a date in decades and you suddenly understand all the loneliness others spoke of. You thought they were weak when they were only human.
And you yearn to connect, we all yearn to connect. But somehow our humanity doesn't square with a world where money and fame are paramount and who you know is about getting ahead as opposed to making a life.
I don't know everything. Nobody does. But a lot of people act like they do. Then again, many people want to impart wisdom that will prevent pitfalls. But pitfalls are the way of life. If it all worked out we wouldn't be happy.
And you know what happiness is. When you're driving in your car or walking down the sidewalk and a tune is playing in your head and there's nowhere you'd rather be, you're thrilled to be alive.
But it won't last forever. Neither the mood nor your life.
So get up off that couch. Roll the dice. Put yourself in uncomfortable situations. Because good only comes from bad. Motivation comes from adversity. You ascend mountains you thought unclimbable. To find on the other side things you could never foresee. Where your parents didn't want you to go, where you didn't want to go. Where you're thrilled and comfortable until...
It all goes topsy-turvy again.
https://www.facebook.com/AnneTylerAuthor
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Tuesday 3 March 2015
Video Of The Day
"DLD15 - The Four Horsemen: Amazon/Apple/Facebook & Google - Who Wins/Loses (Scott Galloway): http://bit.ly/1zcuY74
Scott Galloway is on the road to being a bigger star than Kanye. Because Galloway is smart, he oozes intelligence, he doesn't have to tell us how great he is, we can see it.
I got this video from Vince Bannon. A music business refugee. That's right, Vince ran out of options. He went from concert promotion to label (Sony Music) to retailer (Best Buy) and then he got out. Or maybe he was forced out. But the truth is now Vince survives, because he saw the writing on the wall, he realized music ain't where it's at, Vince went to work for Getty Images, that's right the company that eviscerated the prices for photos and made everybody a professional. Vince acquires companies. He sent me this video.
Ian Rogers told me about an app. Called NextDraft, I'd never heard of it before. It's Dave Pell's compilation of the top ten stories of the day. And not only does Dave curate, he gives an introduction, he gives context, NextDraft is warm and addicting, you feel you're getting a phone call from a friend, and you can sign up for e-mail or put the app on your phone, as I did, nothing is a better time-filler. That's right, downtime is history. When we're waiting for the Uber, when we're in the doctor's office, we spend time on our phone. Who owns that time? Dave Pell is making inroads.
And the point of the above is that entry points are delivered by friends. That's your currency, who you know. People you trust will lead you to wealth. And Vince has done that here.
The clip above was posted on January 20th of this year. Only the music business is idiotic enough to believe it's all about the launch date, the first week. How many people are listening to the hyped albums of last year? Few. But when something is great, people find it and it gets its time. Like this clip.
I had to watch it twice. I wasn't paying close enough attention the first time through.
You know how you watch recommended videos...while you're doing something else. So you can tell your friend you checked it out. And you're never honest and say it sucks because that would engender conversation, and you don't have time for that, especially over opinions about what is good and bad, that's so last century. We just have time to gravitate to the great and partake.
And what I like about this clip is right up front Scott Galloway says he gets it wrong. This is so different from the entertainment world wherein everybody tells us they're the greatest when it's obvious they're not. And when a flaw is revealed they apologize profusely and go to rehab for stuff we didn't know there was rehab for. Whereas in tech you admit your mistake and pivot. And I could poke holes in a number of Galloway's theses, but his presentation is so stimulating you realize why Troy Carter pivoted from music to tech, why every entertainment company from WME to Universal Music makes tech investments, because tech is where the action is.
How did this happen? How did getting an MBA deliver more opportunities and stimulation than being a musician? Few want to screw the itinerant broke musician crashing on the basement floor, whereas they're lining up to have sex with the techies with brains.
Galloway makes a bunch of sexual references. They're staggering. But what he does most is analyze the big four tech companies and prognosticate.
You remember prognostication, the concept of looking to the future? All we do in music is try to put on the brakes. We've got me-too musicians bitching about change. And if you think that's a recipe for success, you're probably still addicted to your Palm Pilot.
Anyway, does Amazon have to get into physical retail?
Turns out their shipping costs are enormous.
Furthermore, did you catch the announcement of Shyp? Wherein parcels are delivered by regular folk, replacing UPS just like Uber replaced taxis? This video is six weeks old and just last week Shyp blew up. Pay attention.
As for Facebook... The amazing thing is how they have pivoted. Told you to invest in your page and are now telling you your organic reach should be assumed to be zero. That's right, you've got to pay to play. And unlike Google, Facebook is mobile-ready.
As for Yahoo... Galloway is the first person I've heard talk about the Tumblr disaster. It went from cool to irrelevant, a backwater of porn, never mind lacking profitability. What you buy is more important than the price you pay. As for Twitter and Pinterest...irrelevant according to Galloway, they just don't have scale.
And it's been the buzz for a year, how Google's search monopoly is...dying and irrelevant. Facebook search is up, but the truth is on mobile apps are king.
As for Apple... It's a luxury brand and in one year it's going to be the biggest watch company, old watchmakers are in denial. Galloway makes a big point about that.
And I don't want to just repeat what Scott Galloway says, I just want to say we live for stimulation. That's what got me listening to Frank Zappa and the rest of the icons, especially the Beatles. They weren't happy where they were, which was pretty damn good, they kept testing limits. How do you test limits today in music? Focus on new distribution methods, new marketing methods, play privates for your bottom line? It all comes down to the tunes and innovation has taken a back seat, or it's not being done by someone with the brains of Mark Zuckerberg, never mind Scott Galloway.
How is it going to turn out?
How are we going to get our information?
And the rise of data's importance is staggering. NYU developed an algorithm. You use the new tools just like musicians use Pro Tools. How long did we have to hear about the death of recording studios? In music it's all about decay, then someone makes a track in their bedroom that blows us away proving it's all about conception, that execution takes a back seat, and in music it's about humanity not perfection
That's right. In tech if it's imperfect it's toast, we don't want it, we expect everything to work right out of the box. But when a fat girl sings great songs well we're drawn to her, Adele doesn't look like Beyonce but she's bigger than everybody. Ain't that interesting. Meanwhile, she's gone away. With nothing new to say why stay in the public eye?
I wish I could inspire musicians to take the other path, a new road to riches wherein you're poor before you make it. Guns N' Roses wasn't successful out of the box. Sure, their album was, but there were years of struggle before that. No one wants to pay their dues in music anymore. The dues are paid by the producers and songwriters behind the scenes. The performers are just front people.
But Angela Ahrents is a bigger star than Nicki Minaj. She just may have more influence than Taylor Swift.
And I'm kidding when I say that Scott Galloway is gonna be bigger than Kanye, but if you're having a conference I'd call him. Because the goal is to get people thinking.
And my synapses are firing like the Fourth of July.
P.S. Stay to the very end. Especially to the heat maps of OS users.
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Scott Galloway is on the road to being a bigger star than Kanye. Because Galloway is smart, he oozes intelligence, he doesn't have to tell us how great he is, we can see it.
I got this video from Vince Bannon. A music business refugee. That's right, Vince ran out of options. He went from concert promotion to label (Sony Music) to retailer (Best Buy) and then he got out. Or maybe he was forced out. But the truth is now Vince survives, because he saw the writing on the wall, he realized music ain't where it's at, Vince went to work for Getty Images, that's right the company that eviscerated the prices for photos and made everybody a professional. Vince acquires companies. He sent me this video.
Ian Rogers told me about an app. Called NextDraft, I'd never heard of it before. It's Dave Pell's compilation of the top ten stories of the day. And not only does Dave curate, he gives an introduction, he gives context, NextDraft is warm and addicting, you feel you're getting a phone call from a friend, and you can sign up for e-mail or put the app on your phone, as I did, nothing is a better time-filler. That's right, downtime is history. When we're waiting for the Uber, when we're in the doctor's office, we spend time on our phone. Who owns that time? Dave Pell is making inroads.
And the point of the above is that entry points are delivered by friends. That's your currency, who you know. People you trust will lead you to wealth. And Vince has done that here.
The clip above was posted on January 20th of this year. Only the music business is idiotic enough to believe it's all about the launch date, the first week. How many people are listening to the hyped albums of last year? Few. But when something is great, people find it and it gets its time. Like this clip.
I had to watch it twice. I wasn't paying close enough attention the first time through.
You know how you watch recommended videos...while you're doing something else. So you can tell your friend you checked it out. And you're never honest and say it sucks because that would engender conversation, and you don't have time for that, especially over opinions about what is good and bad, that's so last century. We just have time to gravitate to the great and partake.
And what I like about this clip is right up front Scott Galloway says he gets it wrong. This is so different from the entertainment world wherein everybody tells us they're the greatest when it's obvious they're not. And when a flaw is revealed they apologize profusely and go to rehab for stuff we didn't know there was rehab for. Whereas in tech you admit your mistake and pivot. And I could poke holes in a number of Galloway's theses, but his presentation is so stimulating you realize why Troy Carter pivoted from music to tech, why every entertainment company from WME to Universal Music makes tech investments, because tech is where the action is.
How did this happen? How did getting an MBA deliver more opportunities and stimulation than being a musician? Few want to screw the itinerant broke musician crashing on the basement floor, whereas they're lining up to have sex with the techies with brains.
Galloway makes a bunch of sexual references. They're staggering. But what he does most is analyze the big four tech companies and prognosticate.
You remember prognostication, the concept of looking to the future? All we do in music is try to put on the brakes. We've got me-too musicians bitching about change. And if you think that's a recipe for success, you're probably still addicted to your Palm Pilot.
Anyway, does Amazon have to get into physical retail?
Turns out their shipping costs are enormous.
Furthermore, did you catch the announcement of Shyp? Wherein parcels are delivered by regular folk, replacing UPS just like Uber replaced taxis? This video is six weeks old and just last week Shyp blew up. Pay attention.
As for Facebook... The amazing thing is how they have pivoted. Told you to invest in your page and are now telling you your organic reach should be assumed to be zero. That's right, you've got to pay to play. And unlike Google, Facebook is mobile-ready.
As for Yahoo... Galloway is the first person I've heard talk about the Tumblr disaster. It went from cool to irrelevant, a backwater of porn, never mind lacking profitability. What you buy is more important than the price you pay. As for Twitter and Pinterest...irrelevant according to Galloway, they just don't have scale.
And it's been the buzz for a year, how Google's search monopoly is...dying and irrelevant. Facebook search is up, but the truth is on mobile apps are king.
As for Apple... It's a luxury brand and in one year it's going to be the biggest watch company, old watchmakers are in denial. Galloway makes a big point about that.
And I don't want to just repeat what Scott Galloway says, I just want to say we live for stimulation. That's what got me listening to Frank Zappa and the rest of the icons, especially the Beatles. They weren't happy where they were, which was pretty damn good, they kept testing limits. How do you test limits today in music? Focus on new distribution methods, new marketing methods, play privates for your bottom line? It all comes down to the tunes and innovation has taken a back seat, or it's not being done by someone with the brains of Mark Zuckerberg, never mind Scott Galloway.
How is it going to turn out?
How are we going to get our information?
And the rise of data's importance is staggering. NYU developed an algorithm. You use the new tools just like musicians use Pro Tools. How long did we have to hear about the death of recording studios? In music it's all about decay, then someone makes a track in their bedroom that blows us away proving it's all about conception, that execution takes a back seat, and in music it's about humanity not perfection
That's right. In tech if it's imperfect it's toast, we don't want it, we expect everything to work right out of the box. But when a fat girl sings great songs well we're drawn to her, Adele doesn't look like Beyonce but she's bigger than everybody. Ain't that interesting. Meanwhile, she's gone away. With nothing new to say why stay in the public eye?
I wish I could inspire musicians to take the other path, a new road to riches wherein you're poor before you make it. Guns N' Roses wasn't successful out of the box. Sure, their album was, but there were years of struggle before that. No one wants to pay their dues in music anymore. The dues are paid by the producers and songwriters behind the scenes. The performers are just front people.
But Angela Ahrents is a bigger star than Nicki Minaj. She just may have more influence than Taylor Swift.
And I'm kidding when I say that Scott Galloway is gonna be bigger than Kanye, but if you're having a conference I'd call him. Because the goal is to get people thinking.
And my synapses are firing like the Fourth of July.
P.S. Stay to the very end. Especially to the heat maps of OS users.
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Samsung Loses To Apple
"Gartner: iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus drove Apple past Samsung in Q4 worldwide smartphone sales": http://bit.ly/1FSBUKu
Get rid of the removable battery and microSD card?
That's like kicking out the drummer and the bass player, hard core fans are not going to like that.
Tech is not like music. In music it's about establishing a catalogue of hits so you can tour until you die. The future is important, but it's about the past even more. In tech if you're not on the bleeding edge, you're gonna die, which is what was happening to Apple, it just did not have large enough phones. And it turned out people wanted phablets. Because the whole world is going mobile, that's where you not only surf and connect, but buy too. It's like Gary Shteyngart's "Super Sad True Love Story" come to life. And Apple perfected the smartphone. Let's not forget, once again, that the Cupertino company was not there first, nor do you have to be, that's a big story in tech, that the bleeding edge does not often succeed...MySpace was replaced by Facebook and Rhapsody was overtaken by Spotify and the iPhone kicked the BlackBerry and Treo to the curb. And to win it's not about marketing so much as functionality. If it just works, people will use it. Hell, we're still fighting this
war with television remotes...can someone make a device I can comprehend that will work with all my devices? (Don't e-mail me your solution, the lack of a clear-cut winner dominating public consciousness speaks to my point.)
ANYWAY, Samsung ruled and now it's an afterthought. Furthermore, by following the crowd they're drowning the company. Never give up your uniqueness, it's what adheres people to you. Whether it be the quirky, center console ignition in Saabs or the quirky boxiness of Volvos, the people keeping those brands alive loved those. But, of course, brands are not forever. Especially in tech, where ramp-up costs are smaller.
So Samsung triumphed as the anti-Apple, giving people what they wanted and allowing them to give the middle finger to Jobs's company all the while. But it turns out that's all they had. There was no there there. Despite being a Korean company, Samsung was positively Detroit, where the exterior counts and the interior is irrelevant. Detroit's lunch was eaten by the Japanese, who knew that people would drive the ugliest cars if they just worked, and they did, and now Toyota is a juggernaut and if you're purchasing an American car you must not have gotten the memo or are financially-challenged, because you just have to read "Consumer Reports" to know that the Japanese own reliability.
But we're not looking for reliability in phones. We want functionality and something that lasts for two years, when we upgrade. And Samsung made a phone for all people, some for the cutting edge tinkerers and some for the poor. And now Apple has reclaimed its hold on the high end and Xiaomi has eaten up the low end and Samsung is toast. Because it's about form not content, design not intellectual property.
It's not so different in the music business. He who writes the songs wins in the end. Sure, ASCAP and BMI are fighting Pandora, but the truth is there's a ton of money in a hit song still, and it lasts forever.
So what did we learn here? What are the translatable elements?
Play to your hard core. Never abandon them. Sure, change is hard, but keep what they like and add new features. The Galaxy S6 is a me-too iPhone for people who hate Apple, huh?
Content drives everything. It's not what the phone looks like, but what it can do. Apps come to Apple first. Apple has cutting edge payment technology. Apple integrates all its devices. Apple has a culture, whereas Samsung does not. And it's culture that keeps your company alive. The music business has focused on the exterior ever since the advent of MTV, when how you looked became the key driver. Funny how almost all of those MTV acts never lasted. But the majors still focus on looks, because it's easier. And everyone there is brain dead, they don't want to walk into the wilderness and invent a new paradigm. But look what happened to Samsung, their business fell off a cliff. We'll find out if the Apple Watch is a success, but give the company credit for not only taking a risk, but one that took years and a fortune to develop. Imagine a music company doing the same. Oh no, you can't. In content, that's television. It's TV that's telling creators we'll give you a fortune carte
blanche, to do it your own way.
But the barrier to entry is so low in music! Why haven't we seen revolution?
Because when everybody can play, the rich and talented stay out. Microsoft is getting killed in phones. Google too. You go where the people are not. Instead, in the music business we've got wannabes yelling about their substandard wares muddying the marketplace, causing the public to ignore the sphere or pay attention to the usual suspects. And isn't it interesting that so many ignore what is supposedly so popular. Not only is Beyonce not that big, but neither is Kanye. As for the press lauding their efforts and puffing them up, these are the same people who kept telling us about the Korean miracle. but that's the newspapers, constantly reporting on what has happened, not what will be.
Apple is not forever. Nothing is forever. Success is about knowing where you've been and marching into the wilderness at the same time. Hell, look at our dearly-departed hero Steve Jobs. He lost Apple, foundered at NeXT and then returned triumphantly at Apple, but not immediately, the prognosticators still said the enterprise was going to go bankrupt or be sold. These same people today tell us about BlackBerry's chances. It's over. What next, the Doobie Brothers topping the pop chart?
Good ideas are a dime a dozen. Execution is so much harder. Marrying the two is incredibly difficult. Samsung had excellent execution and lame ideas. Furthermore, they were beholden to Google for software, which is akin to not writing your own songs. Apple won by matching great ideas with incredible execution. And, over time, they've established a fanbase. Sure, the naysayers and media want to tear them down, but there were people who hated the Beatles in the sixties. You never react, you just go your own way. And you've got to give Tim Cook credit for this, he never caved into the media, never mind so many on Wall Street who wanted his head.
So we'll all have mobile devices. Hell, we already do.
So what's next?
That's how you win. Knowing what's next. Samsung has been a me-too company from its inception. They made better flat panels than Sony and bigger handsets than Apple. But innovation is not spoken there.
Once upon a time the music business was like tech. The best and the brightest challenging convention. But now it's the dumbest of the dumb, sheeple who do what the mercenary fat cats tell them to while those with any purchase keep bitching their cheese has moved. No wonder it's seen as a second-class scene, without a truly triumphant product, one that everyone clamors to based on its innovation and quality, it's toast.
But you just can't say that. Because everybody remembers what once was and is waiting for those days to return.
But they're never coming back. Samsung is screwed, on the high end and low. Its only chance is to break new ground, but it's seemingly unable to, remember the company's disastrous smartwatch?
Remember the rest of the album from the artist with the hit single?
Neither do I.
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Get rid of the removable battery and microSD card?
That's like kicking out the drummer and the bass player, hard core fans are not going to like that.
Tech is not like music. In music it's about establishing a catalogue of hits so you can tour until you die. The future is important, but it's about the past even more. In tech if you're not on the bleeding edge, you're gonna die, which is what was happening to Apple, it just did not have large enough phones. And it turned out people wanted phablets. Because the whole world is going mobile, that's where you not only surf and connect, but buy too. It's like Gary Shteyngart's "Super Sad True Love Story" come to life. And Apple perfected the smartphone. Let's not forget, once again, that the Cupertino company was not there first, nor do you have to be, that's a big story in tech, that the bleeding edge does not often succeed...MySpace was replaced by Facebook and Rhapsody was overtaken by Spotify and the iPhone kicked the BlackBerry and Treo to the curb. And to win it's not about marketing so much as functionality. If it just works, people will use it. Hell, we're still fighting this
war with television remotes...can someone make a device I can comprehend that will work with all my devices? (Don't e-mail me your solution, the lack of a clear-cut winner dominating public consciousness speaks to my point.)
ANYWAY, Samsung ruled and now it's an afterthought. Furthermore, by following the crowd they're drowning the company. Never give up your uniqueness, it's what adheres people to you. Whether it be the quirky, center console ignition in Saabs or the quirky boxiness of Volvos, the people keeping those brands alive loved those. But, of course, brands are not forever. Especially in tech, where ramp-up costs are smaller.
So Samsung triumphed as the anti-Apple, giving people what they wanted and allowing them to give the middle finger to Jobs's company all the while. But it turns out that's all they had. There was no there there. Despite being a Korean company, Samsung was positively Detroit, where the exterior counts and the interior is irrelevant. Detroit's lunch was eaten by the Japanese, who knew that people would drive the ugliest cars if they just worked, and they did, and now Toyota is a juggernaut and if you're purchasing an American car you must not have gotten the memo or are financially-challenged, because you just have to read "Consumer Reports" to know that the Japanese own reliability.
But we're not looking for reliability in phones. We want functionality and something that lasts for two years, when we upgrade. And Samsung made a phone for all people, some for the cutting edge tinkerers and some for the poor. And now Apple has reclaimed its hold on the high end and Xiaomi has eaten up the low end and Samsung is toast. Because it's about form not content, design not intellectual property.
It's not so different in the music business. He who writes the songs wins in the end. Sure, ASCAP and BMI are fighting Pandora, but the truth is there's a ton of money in a hit song still, and it lasts forever.
So what did we learn here? What are the translatable elements?
Play to your hard core. Never abandon them. Sure, change is hard, but keep what they like and add new features. The Galaxy S6 is a me-too iPhone for people who hate Apple, huh?
Content drives everything. It's not what the phone looks like, but what it can do. Apps come to Apple first. Apple has cutting edge payment technology. Apple integrates all its devices. Apple has a culture, whereas Samsung does not. And it's culture that keeps your company alive. The music business has focused on the exterior ever since the advent of MTV, when how you looked became the key driver. Funny how almost all of those MTV acts never lasted. But the majors still focus on looks, because it's easier. And everyone there is brain dead, they don't want to walk into the wilderness and invent a new paradigm. But look what happened to Samsung, their business fell off a cliff. We'll find out if the Apple Watch is a success, but give the company credit for not only taking a risk, but one that took years and a fortune to develop. Imagine a music company doing the same. Oh no, you can't. In content, that's television. It's TV that's telling creators we'll give you a fortune carte
blanche, to do it your own way.
But the barrier to entry is so low in music! Why haven't we seen revolution?
Because when everybody can play, the rich and talented stay out. Microsoft is getting killed in phones. Google too. You go where the people are not. Instead, in the music business we've got wannabes yelling about their substandard wares muddying the marketplace, causing the public to ignore the sphere or pay attention to the usual suspects. And isn't it interesting that so many ignore what is supposedly so popular. Not only is Beyonce not that big, but neither is Kanye. As for the press lauding their efforts and puffing them up, these are the same people who kept telling us about the Korean miracle. but that's the newspapers, constantly reporting on what has happened, not what will be.
Apple is not forever. Nothing is forever. Success is about knowing where you've been and marching into the wilderness at the same time. Hell, look at our dearly-departed hero Steve Jobs. He lost Apple, foundered at NeXT and then returned triumphantly at Apple, but not immediately, the prognosticators still said the enterprise was going to go bankrupt or be sold. These same people today tell us about BlackBerry's chances. It's over. What next, the Doobie Brothers topping the pop chart?
Good ideas are a dime a dozen. Execution is so much harder. Marrying the two is incredibly difficult. Samsung had excellent execution and lame ideas. Furthermore, they were beholden to Google for software, which is akin to not writing your own songs. Apple won by matching great ideas with incredible execution. And, over time, they've established a fanbase. Sure, the naysayers and media want to tear them down, but there were people who hated the Beatles in the sixties. You never react, you just go your own way. And you've got to give Tim Cook credit for this, he never caved into the media, never mind so many on Wall Street who wanted his head.
So we'll all have mobile devices. Hell, we already do.
So what's next?
That's how you win. Knowing what's next. Samsung has been a me-too company from its inception. They made better flat panels than Sony and bigger handsets than Apple. But innovation is not spoken there.
Once upon a time the music business was like tech. The best and the brightest challenging convention. But now it's the dumbest of the dumb, sheeple who do what the mercenary fat cats tell them to while those with any purchase keep bitching their cheese has moved. No wonder it's seen as a second-class scene, without a truly triumphant product, one that everyone clamors to based on its innovation and quality, it's toast.
But you just can't say that. Because everybody remembers what once was and is waiting for those days to return.
But they're never coming back. Samsung is screwed, on the high end and low. Its only chance is to break new ground, but it's seemingly unable to, remember the company's disastrous smartwatch?
Remember the rest of the album from the artist with the hit single?
Neither do I.
--
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Citizenfour
Loners will save the world.
But our culture has shifted to one of belonging. The millennials are all about being a member of the group, they don't want to stand out, don't want to be ostracized, their goal is to be drones, to play the game so they can win.
True dat.
But I don't want to give a pass to the baby boomers. Ever notice that on HBO the twentysomethings have their show, "Girls," and the thirtysomethings have theirs, "Togetherness," but there's no boomer show? Because the boomers can no longer exhibit vulnerability. They finally took away Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz's license to make television, not that "thirtysomething" was a ratings juggernaut, but the truth is boomers are past introspection, they're in their glory years, or days, listening to Bruce Springsteen without a care in the world, all about lifestyle. But can that lifestyle be challenged?
The biggest story in the world today is that there is no story. And when something dramatic transpires, no one can do anything about it. Putin invades Ukraine and we're mum. But even that did not penetrate our mobile culture, wherein it's all about me all the time, I'm a star in my own world that no one is paying attention to, even though I hunger for the spotlight. Right and wrong are irrelevant. It's all about money and fame. And Ed Snowden hates that.
He laments the change of our culture in to one based on personalities.
And ain't that interesting, isn't that what Brian Williams is? Bill O'Reilly too? The news is subservient to them, they make the big bucks and cozy up to those in power and we're all the worse for it, because the truth is everybody's climbing a greased totem pole and the only ones who know it are at the top keeping the rest of us down.
Towards the end of this highly-reviewed movie, which is nowhere near as riveting as the hype, one of the characters, only in this flick the characters are real people, makes an amazing statement. He says that "What we used to call liberty and freedom we now call privacy. And now people are saying privacy is dead." That's what we're all fighting for, liberty, right?
When we're not fighting the government itself.
I understand the right wing position but I don't agree with it. We need a government, government does good things. Just like John Oliver said Sunday night, that we need highway taxes to fund infrastructure updates. Do you expect the private sector to take care of that?
But even more ludicrous is all the Second Amendment talk, how the government is gonna take our guns away so we must stockpile them, so we can shoot each other, because if you believe a gun can protect you from the government you didn't watch "Citizenfour," you're an idiot, because just like karate is no match for a gun, a gun is no match for the internet and electronic surveillance. You can wait for the drone to get you, but the truth is they'll kill your rep and wipe out your life with a few keystrokes long before that.
You'd expect people to be up in arms about "Citizenfour" but the truth is they're afraid. That's the government's job, with the media fanning the flames. If we don't let the agencies run wild, the terrorists are gonna bomb Oklahoma or Arkansas, so you'd better lay your rights down now. That's right, under the head fake of fighting "terrorism" we're all laying down to the government and the corporations and anybody who blows the whistle is a pariah.
You remember pariahs, don't you?
They used to be people like Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg, before they revolutionized the world and titillated your fantasies. Were these popular people in high school, did they get along?
Of course not. But at least they were smart. Like Snowden.
That's the revelation. Listening to Ed talk you're blown away. He gets the concepts, he can articulate them. But instead the newspapers are subjecting us to the proclamations of nitwits and clickbait rules online. Because you can't handle the truth.
And what is the truth anyway?
Turns out those climate change-denying scientists were paid for their positions.
But you probably didn't see that, just like you didn't see "Citizenfour," because you don't have HBO. And why would you need it? Susan Wojcicki and YouTube are gonna save the world! But the truth is there are very few good creators out there and HBO got there first.
So what is going on?
Do we live the lifestyle we fight for, or line up and protest?
And if you do protest, expect to be excoriated by the press. Because they're the story, not you. How they hang with the rich and powerful, envious of their perks and frequently partaking of the crumbs that fall off the table.
There's something hollow at the heart of America. Right and wrong used to matter. There was enough money for everybody, you could survive on a service job. But as the classes separated, the rich realized what was going on and desired to maintain their perch and keep the underclass down via subterfuge and fear.
And having gone to crummy schools, the underclass can't grasp the facts, even when they're staring them in the face.
So we're dependent on lone wolves to shake it up. Snowden says he's only the first, you can get him but others will follow in his wake.
Is this true?
Yes, for a small cadre of selfless people who put their morality before their pocketbook.
But everybody else is hustling to get ahead. In an ill-defined game where the cards are stacked against them and the odds keep getting longer every day.
Once upon a time, "Citizenfour" would incite a national debate. Now it's just grist for the mill, Snowden's character has already been assassinated, the flick will come and go as quickly as Beyonce's overhyped album.
Then again, Kanye lobbies for her recognition over and over again. With no one shouting him down.
And that's the way it is in America today, the sideshow is the main show.
And you know what happens when you're not paying attention to the main event... Your pockets get picked and you end up broke and busted on the side of the road. But now it's even worse, you'll have nowhere to go, you'll be powerless, because the government will limit your movement.
That's right, all this hogwash about taxes and government employees are the sideshow. The main event is how they've got our number and we're living in "1984" and if you believe it can't happen here...
The truth is it already has.
Watch this movie.
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But our culture has shifted to one of belonging. The millennials are all about being a member of the group, they don't want to stand out, don't want to be ostracized, their goal is to be drones, to play the game so they can win.
True dat.
But I don't want to give a pass to the baby boomers. Ever notice that on HBO the twentysomethings have their show, "Girls," and the thirtysomethings have theirs, "Togetherness," but there's no boomer show? Because the boomers can no longer exhibit vulnerability. They finally took away Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz's license to make television, not that "thirtysomething" was a ratings juggernaut, but the truth is boomers are past introspection, they're in their glory years, or days, listening to Bruce Springsteen without a care in the world, all about lifestyle. But can that lifestyle be challenged?
The biggest story in the world today is that there is no story. And when something dramatic transpires, no one can do anything about it. Putin invades Ukraine and we're mum. But even that did not penetrate our mobile culture, wherein it's all about me all the time, I'm a star in my own world that no one is paying attention to, even though I hunger for the spotlight. Right and wrong are irrelevant. It's all about money and fame. And Ed Snowden hates that.
He laments the change of our culture in to one based on personalities.
And ain't that interesting, isn't that what Brian Williams is? Bill O'Reilly too? The news is subservient to them, they make the big bucks and cozy up to those in power and we're all the worse for it, because the truth is everybody's climbing a greased totem pole and the only ones who know it are at the top keeping the rest of us down.
Towards the end of this highly-reviewed movie, which is nowhere near as riveting as the hype, one of the characters, only in this flick the characters are real people, makes an amazing statement. He says that "What we used to call liberty and freedom we now call privacy. And now people are saying privacy is dead." That's what we're all fighting for, liberty, right?
When we're not fighting the government itself.
I understand the right wing position but I don't agree with it. We need a government, government does good things. Just like John Oliver said Sunday night, that we need highway taxes to fund infrastructure updates. Do you expect the private sector to take care of that?
But even more ludicrous is all the Second Amendment talk, how the government is gonna take our guns away so we must stockpile them, so we can shoot each other, because if you believe a gun can protect you from the government you didn't watch "Citizenfour," you're an idiot, because just like karate is no match for a gun, a gun is no match for the internet and electronic surveillance. You can wait for the drone to get you, but the truth is they'll kill your rep and wipe out your life with a few keystrokes long before that.
You'd expect people to be up in arms about "Citizenfour" but the truth is they're afraid. That's the government's job, with the media fanning the flames. If we don't let the agencies run wild, the terrorists are gonna bomb Oklahoma or Arkansas, so you'd better lay your rights down now. That's right, under the head fake of fighting "terrorism" we're all laying down to the government and the corporations and anybody who blows the whistle is a pariah.
You remember pariahs, don't you?
They used to be people like Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg, before they revolutionized the world and titillated your fantasies. Were these popular people in high school, did they get along?
Of course not. But at least they were smart. Like Snowden.
That's the revelation. Listening to Ed talk you're blown away. He gets the concepts, he can articulate them. But instead the newspapers are subjecting us to the proclamations of nitwits and clickbait rules online. Because you can't handle the truth.
And what is the truth anyway?
Turns out those climate change-denying scientists were paid for their positions.
But you probably didn't see that, just like you didn't see "Citizenfour," because you don't have HBO. And why would you need it? Susan Wojcicki and YouTube are gonna save the world! But the truth is there are very few good creators out there and HBO got there first.
So what is going on?
Do we live the lifestyle we fight for, or line up and protest?
And if you do protest, expect to be excoriated by the press. Because they're the story, not you. How they hang with the rich and powerful, envious of their perks and frequently partaking of the crumbs that fall off the table.
There's something hollow at the heart of America. Right and wrong used to matter. There was enough money for everybody, you could survive on a service job. But as the classes separated, the rich realized what was going on and desired to maintain their perch and keep the underclass down via subterfuge and fear.
And having gone to crummy schools, the underclass can't grasp the facts, even when they're staring them in the face.
So we're dependent on lone wolves to shake it up. Snowden says he's only the first, you can get him but others will follow in his wake.
Is this true?
Yes, for a small cadre of selfless people who put their morality before their pocketbook.
But everybody else is hustling to get ahead. In an ill-defined game where the cards are stacked against them and the odds keep getting longer every day.
Once upon a time, "Citizenfour" would incite a national debate. Now it's just grist for the mill, Snowden's character has already been assassinated, the flick will come and go as quickly as Beyonce's overhyped album.
Then again, Kanye lobbies for her recognition over and over again. With no one shouting him down.
And that's the way it is in America today, the sideshow is the main show.
And you know what happens when you're not paying attention to the main event... Your pockets get picked and you end up broke and busted on the side of the road. But now it's even worse, you'll have nowhere to go, you'll be powerless, because the government will limit your movement.
That's right, all this hogwash about taxes and government employees are the sideshow. The main event is how they've got our number and we're living in "1984" and if you believe it can't happen here...
The truth is it already has.
Watch this movie.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
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