Spotify playlist: https://goo.gl/UP17Hp?utm_source=phplist5526&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=More+Release+Radar
Yes, I'm cherry-picking, these are just a handful of the cuts I listened to on my "Your Release Radar" playlist, but they're the ones that got me to react. It's positively thrilling to be exposed to new music, to stop looking in the rearview mirror and turn your head forward, especially when you're exposed to stuff that's previously unknown to you, like Luke Winslow-King's "I'm Glad Trouble Don't Last Always," the final cut below, if you're pressed for time read about and listen to it first, it's a winner!
"Hold On, I'm Coming"
Melissa Etheridge
Completely superfluous, not bad, but unnecessary. The last refuge of a has-been, a COVERS ALBUM! And isn't it funny that it's always whites covering blacks. I'm waiting for a black act to cover Night Ranger and Styx, HA!
"This House Is Not For Sale"
Bon Jovi
More of the same, but in this case mixed to a miasma that's impenetrable, and did Jon always sing in this stylized voice, or is that just frustration that he can't get arrested on wax.
He needs a new producer with a more modern and less dense sound. And sure, it's got an arena rock chorus, once again, poorly mixed, with the vocal too far down, but this is really self-parody. He needs to work with Dave Cobb....
"Kiss The Sky"
Jason Derulo
This is fantastic, from Derulo's greatest hits album. Sounds generic at first, but as it plays out you get hooked.
If we were living in the eighties, in a monoculture, with MTV ruling, everybody would know Derulo's name, but now...
He's part of the pop ghetto. (I know, that's a dangerous word, fraught with subtext, but pop is a minority, even if it's the loudest sound in a sea of noise, but my point is you think you're winning when you're on Top Forty but so many people don't tune in but so many of these records...those not paying attention would like them, if they ever heard them.)
"Waiting For The Thunder"
Blackberry Smoke
If you were a fan of southern rock crossed with Foghat you'll be stunned that a modern band has synthesized something new out of what once was, with an anthemic chorus putting it over the top. Sure, this is nearly paint-by-numbers, but it's solid. If we were in the heyday of AOR, during the seventies, this would sit right next to the Outlaws just fine, you'd like it, you'd see them as the middle band in a triple bill.
"I'm Glad Trouble Don't Last Always"
Luke Winslow-King
And here's the winner. By someone I've never heard of, doing that swamp rock sound, hearkening back to what once was without being pure nostalgia, with a big fat chorus to boot, this unheralded nobody is doing soulful blues rock better than Eric Clapton, all the old farts should track this guy down and play with him, to reinvigorate themselves, you can't think too much, you've just got to strap on the axe, turn up the amp, step up to the mic and feel the power, that's right, rock music is all about feel, something that starts in the heart and then migrates to the genitals, gets your whole body shaking, the problem with too much of today's music is it appeals to the brain, and in music, thinking is always secondary to feel.
This is on Bloodshot, most famous for releasing Ryan Adams's "Heartbreaker," how does an indie label survive, one that cannot participate in 360 degrees of revenue, they must be doing it for the love of it.
And "Your Release Radar" relies not on radio, it's not part of the winning through relationships and intimidation game, rather it's all driven by science, algorithms, so something can surface if it's good, and "I'm Glad Trouble Don't Last Always" is...good, that is, it's heavy without being fake, bass-driven but not bass-dominated. CHECK IT OUT!
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Saturday 13 August 2016
What It Means
Spotify: https://goo.gl/iM9ZZt?utm_source=phplist5525&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=What+It+Means
YouTube: https://goo.gl/KsCzXn?utm_source=phplist5525&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=What+It+Means
What kind of crazy fucked up world do we live in where a band of whites from the south writes the protest song of the year?
One in which everybody in pop music is so busy self-promoting their hedonistic vision that the sideshow becomes the real show.
Glenn Yarbrough died. If you lived through the sixties you'll remember him from the Limeliters, from his solo hit "Baby The Rain Must Fall." He was inspired by Woody Guthrie, he saw music could be an agent for change, it didn't just have to be mindless drivel.
But that's what we're subjected to, in a nation where facts are irrelevant, everybody's got their own agenda and we have not only political gridlock, but cultural and economic gridlock too. Both sides shout loudly and the issue gets covered up and we all put our tails between our legs and move on. But a song, it has power that transcends and maintains.
"He was running down the street
When they shot him in his tracks
About the only thing agreed upon
Is he ain't coming back"
Dead is dead, it's final. That's something seemingly only friends and families of the deceased seem to know, for everybody else the person gone is a bargaining chip, a point of discussion to hang your viewpoint upon, after you assassinate the character of someone who cannot defend him or herself.
"There won't be any trial
So the air it won't be cleared
There's just two sides calling names
Out of anger, out of fear"
Fear, it rules our nation, drummed up by wankers on TV and talk radio, saying how bad our nation is when the truth it's safer than ever before. It's all about perception as opposed to reality. And the outside agitators want to fan the flames of despair, it suits them, then you'll pay fealty to the powers-that-be, give up power over your own destiny, pointing at others as opposed to marching forward yourself, how ever hard that might be.
"If you say it wasn't racial
When they shot him in his tracks
Well, I guess that means you ain't black
It means that you ain't black"
The Supreme Court says we live in a post-racial society, that voter equality laws are passe, oversight is eliminated, and then the usual suspects make it harder for the underclass to vote.
"I mean Barack Obama won
And you can choose where to eat
But you don't see too many white kids lying
Bleeding on the street"
Just because we have a black President, just because separate but equal laws have been struck down, that does not mean we have equality. Today, unless they're athletes, African-Americans are demonized, as opposed to being given a hand up.
"And it happened last weekend
And it will happen again next week
And when they turned him over
They were surprised there was no gun
I mean he must have done something
Or else why would he have run"
He's running because once you're entangled with the police the games begin, it no longer becomes about the traffic violation, your entire character and past come into question. So, you're scared. And when people are scared they don't make the best choices.
"And they'll spin it for the anchors
On the television screen
So we can shrug and let it happen
Without asking what it means"
The media... Fox has an agenda. As does Murdoch's "Wall Street Journal." But call this out and the right wing just attacks the bleeding heart liberal press trying to get it right, it's the left wing media that blinks, not Bill O'Reilly or Sean Hannity stirring up discontent. News is purely entertainment, it's about the narrative, the personages proud of being on screen and rich, right and wrong are secondary to ratings.
"And that guy who killed that kid
Down in Florida standing ground
Is free to beat up on his girlfriend
And wave his brand new gun around
While some kid is dead and buried
And laying in the ground
With a pocket full of Skittles"
George Zimmerman may have gotten off, but he's turned out to be a bad actor, the shooting wasn't an anomaly, but the discussion is about black kids in hoodies and white fear.
"We're living in an age
Where limitations are forgotten
The outer edges move and dazzle us
But the core is something rotten
And we're standing on the precipice
Of prejudice and fear"
Just because we all have smartphones that does not mean we are not humans, with foibles and problems that need to be addressed. Instead we're told to be thrilled by social media breakthroughs and to be happy because we have flat screens, huh?
It's not only the demonization of the blacks, but the poor whites and the hard-working immigrants too. It's class warfare amongst the lower third, and those in charge, with power, are completely out of touch, or as even right winger Peggy Noonan pointed out...Syrians are settled in poor white communities as opposed to the Beltway. They don't want people like them in their own neighborhood, even though they're bleeding heart liberals. (http://goo.gl/XD2vVB)?utm_source=phplist5525&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=What+It+Means
Roger Ailes is a harasser who fostered a culture of sexual pressure and intimidation throughout Fox News. And when confronted, like every tribe throughout history the team just circled the wagons until Gretchen Carlson stood up for what was right.
Hillary Clinton is running for President as an advocate for us but she's so entrenched with the rich financiers that she's not sure what side she's on.
Donald Trump has taken advantage of tax laws after being born on third base and confuses running for President with promoting a television show and this guy knows what's going on on Main Street as much as a denizen of Ferguson knows what's going on on Wall Street.
What's a poor boy to do?
Play in a rock and roll band!
I don't expect "What It Means" to get Top Forty airplay. Then again, it's no "Eve Of Destruction," it's a rambling ditty which will make the band's fans happy, they'll sing along, but as for the rest of us...
We'll never hear it.
Then again, I discovered "What It Means" via Spotify's "Release Radar," that's right, algorithms are more trustworthy than personal recommendations, they're unbiased, they surfaced this track for me.
And listening gives me hope.
"What It Means" won't make the Drive-By Truckers rich, it will barely expand their audience, but they're speaking from the heart, they're doing what's right, which is hard to achieve when a track has ten writers and just as many hooks put together for a short attention span audience.
Maybe it's time we listened all the way through, to those saying something as opposed to trying to razzle-dazzle us into submission.
Every revolution starts with one step forward.
And the Drive-By Truckers just took one.
Now it's your job to follow in their footsteps.
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YouTube: https://goo.gl/KsCzXn?utm_source=phplist5525&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=What+It+Means
What kind of crazy fucked up world do we live in where a band of whites from the south writes the protest song of the year?
One in which everybody in pop music is so busy self-promoting their hedonistic vision that the sideshow becomes the real show.
Glenn Yarbrough died. If you lived through the sixties you'll remember him from the Limeliters, from his solo hit "Baby The Rain Must Fall." He was inspired by Woody Guthrie, he saw music could be an agent for change, it didn't just have to be mindless drivel.
But that's what we're subjected to, in a nation where facts are irrelevant, everybody's got their own agenda and we have not only political gridlock, but cultural and economic gridlock too. Both sides shout loudly and the issue gets covered up and we all put our tails between our legs and move on. But a song, it has power that transcends and maintains.
"He was running down the street
When they shot him in his tracks
About the only thing agreed upon
Is he ain't coming back"
Dead is dead, it's final. That's something seemingly only friends and families of the deceased seem to know, for everybody else the person gone is a bargaining chip, a point of discussion to hang your viewpoint upon, after you assassinate the character of someone who cannot defend him or herself.
"There won't be any trial
So the air it won't be cleared
There's just two sides calling names
Out of anger, out of fear"
Fear, it rules our nation, drummed up by wankers on TV and talk radio, saying how bad our nation is when the truth it's safer than ever before. It's all about perception as opposed to reality. And the outside agitators want to fan the flames of despair, it suits them, then you'll pay fealty to the powers-that-be, give up power over your own destiny, pointing at others as opposed to marching forward yourself, how ever hard that might be.
"If you say it wasn't racial
When they shot him in his tracks
Well, I guess that means you ain't black
It means that you ain't black"
The Supreme Court says we live in a post-racial society, that voter equality laws are passe, oversight is eliminated, and then the usual suspects make it harder for the underclass to vote.
"I mean Barack Obama won
And you can choose where to eat
But you don't see too many white kids lying
Bleeding on the street"
Just because we have a black President, just because separate but equal laws have been struck down, that does not mean we have equality. Today, unless they're athletes, African-Americans are demonized, as opposed to being given a hand up.
"And it happened last weekend
And it will happen again next week
And when they turned him over
They were surprised there was no gun
I mean he must have done something
Or else why would he have run"
He's running because once you're entangled with the police the games begin, it no longer becomes about the traffic violation, your entire character and past come into question. So, you're scared. And when people are scared they don't make the best choices.
"And they'll spin it for the anchors
On the television screen
So we can shrug and let it happen
Without asking what it means"
The media... Fox has an agenda. As does Murdoch's "Wall Street Journal." But call this out and the right wing just attacks the bleeding heart liberal press trying to get it right, it's the left wing media that blinks, not Bill O'Reilly or Sean Hannity stirring up discontent. News is purely entertainment, it's about the narrative, the personages proud of being on screen and rich, right and wrong are secondary to ratings.
"And that guy who killed that kid
Down in Florida standing ground
Is free to beat up on his girlfriend
And wave his brand new gun around
While some kid is dead and buried
And laying in the ground
With a pocket full of Skittles"
George Zimmerman may have gotten off, but he's turned out to be a bad actor, the shooting wasn't an anomaly, but the discussion is about black kids in hoodies and white fear.
"We're living in an age
Where limitations are forgotten
The outer edges move and dazzle us
But the core is something rotten
And we're standing on the precipice
Of prejudice and fear"
Just because we all have smartphones that does not mean we are not humans, with foibles and problems that need to be addressed. Instead we're told to be thrilled by social media breakthroughs and to be happy because we have flat screens, huh?
It's not only the demonization of the blacks, but the poor whites and the hard-working immigrants too. It's class warfare amongst the lower third, and those in charge, with power, are completely out of touch, or as even right winger Peggy Noonan pointed out...Syrians are settled in poor white communities as opposed to the Beltway. They don't want people like them in their own neighborhood, even though they're bleeding heart liberals. (http://goo.gl/XD2vVB)?utm_source=phplist5525&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=What+It+Means
Roger Ailes is a harasser who fostered a culture of sexual pressure and intimidation throughout Fox News. And when confronted, like every tribe throughout history the team just circled the wagons until Gretchen Carlson stood up for what was right.
Hillary Clinton is running for President as an advocate for us but she's so entrenched with the rich financiers that she's not sure what side she's on.
Donald Trump has taken advantage of tax laws after being born on third base and confuses running for President with promoting a television show and this guy knows what's going on on Main Street as much as a denizen of Ferguson knows what's going on on Wall Street.
What's a poor boy to do?
Play in a rock and roll band!
I don't expect "What It Means" to get Top Forty airplay. Then again, it's no "Eve Of Destruction," it's a rambling ditty which will make the band's fans happy, they'll sing along, but as for the rest of us...
We'll never hear it.
Then again, I discovered "What It Means" via Spotify's "Release Radar," that's right, algorithms are more trustworthy than personal recommendations, they're unbiased, they surfaced this track for me.
And listening gives me hope.
"What It Means" won't make the Drive-By Truckers rich, it will barely expand their audience, but they're speaking from the heart, they're doing what's right, which is hard to achieve when a track has ten writers and just as many hooks put together for a short attention span audience.
Maybe it's time we listened all the way through, to those saying something as opposed to trying to razzle-dazzle us into submission.
Every revolution starts with one step forward.
And the Drive-By Truckers just took one.
Now it's your job to follow in their footsteps.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/?utm_source=phplist5525&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=What+It+Means
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The HuffPo
He not busy being born is busy dying.
Or, if you prefer your musical references via the UK as opposed to the US, as Dave Edmunds once sang, "Crawling from the wreckage, crawling from the wreckage, INTO A BRAND NEW CAR!
In case you missed the memo, and I doubt you truly care, Arianna Huffington ankled the "Huffington Post," to focus on her wellness company, which is like A-Rod leaving the the playing field to become a Yankee advisor, he was toast and no one ever wanted to listen to him anyway, his expertise was doing his own damn job, at best.
And what is Arianna's job?
Being famous and getting rich.
The HuffPo was a good idea that followed its initially hyped vision ever so briefly.
The HuffPo was gonna take back the dialogue from the right, was gonna own the web if not talk radio, all the liberals angsting about Bush would have their own platform, where they'd write...for free.
Think about that, it wouldn't go over today. That's a dead paradigm. We'll cough up cat videos, post pictures of weddings and anniversaries, but those who provide content for a living, those who are writers, are on to the scam, they're not working for free.
Not that there aren't people who will.
Welcome to the modern web, where everybody's posting but the caliber of writing is so godawful that no one is reading. We don't even know if your ideas are half-baked, we can't get past the headline.
And the HuffPo was all about headlines.
It was about search engine optimization to generate clicks which sold advertising. And the team that developed this paradigm wanted to cash out, and did, and the progenitor moved on to create BuzzFeed, and the HuffPo ended up a couple of years and a couple of changes behind it.
Now let's give credit where credit is due... The HuffPo invented CLICKBAIT!
You know, all those saucy headlines that lead to non-stories. The HuffPo specialized in that, when it started we were still susceptible. But today, Facebook has mounted an assault against clickbait, it ruins the customer experience. But what kind of experience is it when the whole damn site is clickbait?
That's today's "Huffington Post." A lot of headlines and images but no content, it's the news equivalent of a Twinkie.
But Arianna became more famous and got more rich and the last laugh is on us.
That's the game today. Marissa Mayer does bupkes at Yahoo but gets rich in the process. It's about one and done. Having your payday. And then living the good life ever after.
This is not Steve Jobs on a mission to change the world taking a dollar a year in pay. This is all about cashing out, and staying out.
So, you know that the HuffPo was sold to AOL, and you know that AOL was sold to Verizon. And now there's no place for Arianna, she's a cog in a machine that doesn't want her. But the truth is Tim Armstrong and the AOL brass ultimately didn't want her either.
But this is less about Arianna than the site, the HuffPo itself. It was cutting edge once and didn't keep up with the times and is now marginalized. A thrill when it launched, now the left wingers would much rather go to Nate Silver's 538, at least there's data there, to go along with the analysis, it's not all puff pieces, empty calories.
And it's not only the HuffPo, it's Perez Hilton too. They both kept expanding into new territories, the HuffPo even launching a divorce vertical and Perez/Mario getting into fashion and pets. But these expansions looked exactly like what they were, land grabs to sell more advertising, and we're sick of ads, we want substance.
So, BuzzFeed does clickbait better than the HuffPo. It's clickbait with a twist, they create the content, and source it out everywhere, as opposed to the HuffPo consolidating others' stories. Aggregation sites are history, we're inundated with links, we now live in an app economy, on our mobile devices, we choose who gets through the filter and if you don't, you're irrelevant.
And Facebook at least pays lip service to its users. The HuffPo was almost always above its target audience, holier-than-thou just like Arianna herself.
It's a modern tech story, no different from Osborne Computer or Kaypro or WordPerfect or other titans that triumphed and faded away.
They stopped innovating, they didn't keep up with the times, then they were extinct.
Music is better, because if you've had hits you can trade on them forever, people always want to relive the good times.
Then again, the who moved my cheese people can't get over the death of rock and the rise of pop music and EDM, they refuse to embrace change, they want the past to return, and that's never gonna happen.
And the new music stars know the game has changed. Only an oldster spends three years polishing an album, the new kids on the block, led by the rappers, personified by Drake, are constantly in the marketplace, even releasing mixtapes for free. Because they know if you're not in the show, you're soon to be forgotten. There's a tsunami of info and if you don't catch the wave, ride it to the beach and hold on for dear life, you'll be plowed under, taken out to sea and never heard from again.
Still, the joke is on us. Because we buy this crap. The concept that Arianna Huffington is a star with gravitas entitled to our attention. Not admitting she's a creature of the media, she's barely different from Kim Kardashian, but the latter is richer, and if not educated, even more street smart.
So, if you're following Arianna into her wellness venture I'm laughing. Why exactly should we be listening to her, because she wrote a book? If I want to know about sleep I'll go to a doctor, I'll go to an expert, someone who dedicated his life to the cause as opposed to a trendmeister out for a buck.
But bucks she has, from her divorce and the sale of the HuffPo. Arianna's a winner. Because that's the American game, making something out of nothing and getting rich in the process.
But when so many are struggling, when the real problems of this nation not only go unsolved, but unaddressed, it's unseemly that we've got a coterie of people who've rigged the game to get rich and famous yet have contributed almost nothing to society.
You might hate the cops, but on a good day they keep the peace.
As for teachers, there are tons of bad ones, but they're on the front lines of the future, educating our children, they're where the rubber meets the road but we keep complaining about their unions. Come on, teachers haven't been well off since Reagan, many have other jobs, they can't live on their pay.
And I don't want to go down the rabbit hole of either police or educators, all I'm saying is they're underpaid people who are truly making a difference.
Does Mark Zuckerberg make a difference?
Well, he allows us to connect with everybody we ever knew, but is this the basis for a productive society? Where you roll up the world's population to sell them ads and bogus information?
We've got it wrong folks, we need a reset. Don't confuse today's tech titans with the progenitors. This is not Bill Gates contributing to productivity, putting a computer on every desktop, this is mostly wankers coming up with lame ideas that hoodwink us so they can get rich.
Of course there are exceptions, Uber is a breakthrough, Airbnb too, however disruptive.
But selling advertising in new ways? Utilizing subterfuge to get us to pay attention?
If that's your goal, if that's your achievement, you should be exposed.
And I'm exposing Arianna Huffington here.
Furthermore, she was a bad techie. Steve Jobs brought us the mouse, got rid of the floppy, kept killing the past to get on with the future. Arianna just stuck where she was, a one hit wonder with a pretty lame song to begin with.
Good riddance.
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Or, if you prefer your musical references via the UK as opposed to the US, as Dave Edmunds once sang, "Crawling from the wreckage, crawling from the wreckage, INTO A BRAND NEW CAR!
In case you missed the memo, and I doubt you truly care, Arianna Huffington ankled the "Huffington Post," to focus on her wellness company, which is like A-Rod leaving the the playing field to become a Yankee advisor, he was toast and no one ever wanted to listen to him anyway, his expertise was doing his own damn job, at best.
And what is Arianna's job?
Being famous and getting rich.
The HuffPo was a good idea that followed its initially hyped vision ever so briefly.
The HuffPo was gonna take back the dialogue from the right, was gonna own the web if not talk radio, all the liberals angsting about Bush would have their own platform, where they'd write...for free.
Think about that, it wouldn't go over today. That's a dead paradigm. We'll cough up cat videos, post pictures of weddings and anniversaries, but those who provide content for a living, those who are writers, are on to the scam, they're not working for free.
Not that there aren't people who will.
Welcome to the modern web, where everybody's posting but the caliber of writing is so godawful that no one is reading. We don't even know if your ideas are half-baked, we can't get past the headline.
And the HuffPo was all about headlines.
It was about search engine optimization to generate clicks which sold advertising. And the team that developed this paradigm wanted to cash out, and did, and the progenitor moved on to create BuzzFeed, and the HuffPo ended up a couple of years and a couple of changes behind it.
Now let's give credit where credit is due... The HuffPo invented CLICKBAIT!
You know, all those saucy headlines that lead to non-stories. The HuffPo specialized in that, when it started we were still susceptible. But today, Facebook has mounted an assault against clickbait, it ruins the customer experience. But what kind of experience is it when the whole damn site is clickbait?
That's today's "Huffington Post." A lot of headlines and images but no content, it's the news equivalent of a Twinkie.
But Arianna became more famous and got more rich and the last laugh is on us.
That's the game today. Marissa Mayer does bupkes at Yahoo but gets rich in the process. It's about one and done. Having your payday. And then living the good life ever after.
This is not Steve Jobs on a mission to change the world taking a dollar a year in pay. This is all about cashing out, and staying out.
So, you know that the HuffPo was sold to AOL, and you know that AOL was sold to Verizon. And now there's no place for Arianna, she's a cog in a machine that doesn't want her. But the truth is Tim Armstrong and the AOL brass ultimately didn't want her either.
But this is less about Arianna than the site, the HuffPo itself. It was cutting edge once and didn't keep up with the times and is now marginalized. A thrill when it launched, now the left wingers would much rather go to Nate Silver's 538, at least there's data there, to go along with the analysis, it's not all puff pieces, empty calories.
And it's not only the HuffPo, it's Perez Hilton too. They both kept expanding into new territories, the HuffPo even launching a divorce vertical and Perez/Mario getting into fashion and pets. But these expansions looked exactly like what they were, land grabs to sell more advertising, and we're sick of ads, we want substance.
So, BuzzFeed does clickbait better than the HuffPo. It's clickbait with a twist, they create the content, and source it out everywhere, as opposed to the HuffPo consolidating others' stories. Aggregation sites are history, we're inundated with links, we now live in an app economy, on our mobile devices, we choose who gets through the filter and if you don't, you're irrelevant.
And Facebook at least pays lip service to its users. The HuffPo was almost always above its target audience, holier-than-thou just like Arianna herself.
It's a modern tech story, no different from Osborne Computer or Kaypro or WordPerfect or other titans that triumphed and faded away.
They stopped innovating, they didn't keep up with the times, then they were extinct.
Music is better, because if you've had hits you can trade on them forever, people always want to relive the good times.
Then again, the who moved my cheese people can't get over the death of rock and the rise of pop music and EDM, they refuse to embrace change, they want the past to return, and that's never gonna happen.
And the new music stars know the game has changed. Only an oldster spends three years polishing an album, the new kids on the block, led by the rappers, personified by Drake, are constantly in the marketplace, even releasing mixtapes for free. Because they know if you're not in the show, you're soon to be forgotten. There's a tsunami of info and if you don't catch the wave, ride it to the beach and hold on for dear life, you'll be plowed under, taken out to sea and never heard from again.
Still, the joke is on us. Because we buy this crap. The concept that Arianna Huffington is a star with gravitas entitled to our attention. Not admitting she's a creature of the media, she's barely different from Kim Kardashian, but the latter is richer, and if not educated, even more street smart.
So, if you're following Arianna into her wellness venture I'm laughing. Why exactly should we be listening to her, because she wrote a book? If I want to know about sleep I'll go to a doctor, I'll go to an expert, someone who dedicated his life to the cause as opposed to a trendmeister out for a buck.
But bucks she has, from her divorce and the sale of the HuffPo. Arianna's a winner. Because that's the American game, making something out of nothing and getting rich in the process.
But when so many are struggling, when the real problems of this nation not only go unsolved, but unaddressed, it's unseemly that we've got a coterie of people who've rigged the game to get rich and famous yet have contributed almost nothing to society.
You might hate the cops, but on a good day they keep the peace.
As for teachers, there are tons of bad ones, but they're on the front lines of the future, educating our children, they're where the rubber meets the road but we keep complaining about their unions. Come on, teachers haven't been well off since Reagan, many have other jobs, they can't live on their pay.
And I don't want to go down the rabbit hole of either police or educators, all I'm saying is they're underpaid people who are truly making a difference.
Does Mark Zuckerberg make a difference?
Well, he allows us to connect with everybody we ever knew, but is this the basis for a productive society? Where you roll up the world's population to sell them ads and bogus information?
We've got it wrong folks, we need a reset. Don't confuse today's tech titans with the progenitors. This is not Bill Gates contributing to productivity, putting a computer on every desktop, this is mostly wankers coming up with lame ideas that hoodwink us so they can get rich.
Of course there are exceptions, Uber is a breakthrough, Airbnb too, however disruptive.
But selling advertising in new ways? Utilizing subterfuge to get us to pay attention?
If that's your goal, if that's your achievement, you should be exposed.
And I'm exposing Arianna Huffington here.
Furthermore, she was a bad techie. Steve Jobs brought us the mouse, got rid of the floppy, kept killing the past to get on with the future. Arianna just stuck where she was, a one hit wonder with a pretty lame song to begin with.
Good riddance.
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Friday 12 August 2016
The Great Con
There aren't going to be any jobs.
Did you read Farhad Manjoo's article in yesterday's "New York Times"? All about Amazon's distribution, now moving to drones? If you get your package via drone, and the costs drop as distribution becomes more efficient, not only do all those delivery people lose their gigs, and the people in the warehouse, which runs on robots, too, but so do the people in physical retail, which can no longer compete.
Sounds good, very efficient, BUT WHERE IS EVERYBODY SUPPOSED TO WORK!
The good news is you can have instant access to products at a cheap price.
The bad news is you can't afford to buy anything.
Been to a mall recently? Absolutely horrifying. There's no one there! I went to the Westside Pavilion for a movie and the place was empty and half the food stalls had closed and I know that's anecdotal, but look at Nordstrom's numbers and Macy's too, the latter is closing so many stores...
But you hear the canard that manufacturing must come back to America. That people need to be put back to work at high-paying jobs.
But I hate to tell you, even if they open those factories most of the jobs will be automated, never mind what labor there is driving costs up untenably. Do you want to pay more for a flat screen so Americans can go back to work? We live in the least altruistic society ever, it's all about me, all the damn time, no one wants to sacrifice. If you think people care about poor musicians, you probably didn't live through Napster, as for YouTube...the public LOVES IT!
And it gets worse... The triumphant companies making more money with fewer people are dominating in a way that will ultimately hurt the little guy.
Kind of like Apple Music, overpaying for exclusives. Myopic musicians like the cash. No fan ever liked an exclusive. But, the truth is there are no exclusives for developing artists, certainly not those who are not major label priorities. It's going to be harder to make it. If Apple Music with no free tier succeeds it'll be good for the top line performers, but bad for those on the bottom.
The winner take all economy is leaving the rest of us out. It's not only Facebook decimating MySpace, there's room for less art, you can make it, but no one will see it.
And it's only gonna get worse. Elizabeth Warren castigates the Silicon Valley titans for their egregious behavior, but the two candidates running do not.
And right now it looks like Hillary's gonna win.
So it's gonna be the same as it ever was. With the rank and file losing out. Remember when the rank and file bitched and started the Occupy movement? It's the media that killed it, saying there was no message. Oh, there's a message all right. The oligarchs and the monopolists are making life hard for the rest of us. They give us free products in exchange for our privacy and expect us to be happy. And if we dare to push back, with Adblock Plus, they cry foul.
Let's not even get into Trump. He's a bozo who's left rationality behind. But one thing's for sure, his supporters are angry.
It's this anger, on both the left and the right, that should be addressed.
But it's not.
Because the educated winners who made their own bucks feel entitled and don't want to give up anything and they've convinced the underclass that the problem is not them, but the supposed "takers." And if the rich pay more in taxes, what's gonna happen when you become rich? Even though the odds are low, it's this dream that keeps you moving forward.
The discussion is all wrong. It shouldn't be about immigration or trade... We should acknowledge the change in our society, how it's become automated, and we should ask how we lift up all players, give them a platform to survive and hopefully thrive.
But no, you're not making it because you're just not working hard enough. Even though I had rich parents who gave me not only tutors, but flew me around the world to show me how the other half lives. And then I worked hard to get into a good school and... I started my own business and made a billion. I'M ENTITLED TO IT! I'M SMART AND YOU'RE NOT!
And you're frustrated and on drugs since my buddies at the pharmaceutical company forced supposedly non-addictive Oxy down your throat and now you've switched to heroin and...
It's not a level playing field folks. And those in the media are envious of the billionaires, which is why Henry Blodgett started "Business Insider," so he could sell it, why Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher left the "Wall Street Journal" so they too could become rich... Either you've won and have circled the wagons or you're one of the small cadre with a chance of succeeding because of your relationships and status or...
You're completely left out, like you and me.
Think about it.
"Think Amazon's Drone Delivery Idea Is a Gimmick? Think Again": http://goo.gl/Lwlv2r?utm_source=phplist5523&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=The+Great+Con
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Did you read Farhad Manjoo's article in yesterday's "New York Times"? All about Amazon's distribution, now moving to drones? If you get your package via drone, and the costs drop as distribution becomes more efficient, not only do all those delivery people lose their gigs, and the people in the warehouse, which runs on robots, too, but so do the people in physical retail, which can no longer compete.
Sounds good, very efficient, BUT WHERE IS EVERYBODY SUPPOSED TO WORK!
The good news is you can have instant access to products at a cheap price.
The bad news is you can't afford to buy anything.
Been to a mall recently? Absolutely horrifying. There's no one there! I went to the Westside Pavilion for a movie and the place was empty and half the food stalls had closed and I know that's anecdotal, but look at Nordstrom's numbers and Macy's too, the latter is closing so many stores...
But you hear the canard that manufacturing must come back to America. That people need to be put back to work at high-paying jobs.
But I hate to tell you, even if they open those factories most of the jobs will be automated, never mind what labor there is driving costs up untenably. Do you want to pay more for a flat screen so Americans can go back to work? We live in the least altruistic society ever, it's all about me, all the damn time, no one wants to sacrifice. If you think people care about poor musicians, you probably didn't live through Napster, as for YouTube...the public LOVES IT!
And it gets worse... The triumphant companies making more money with fewer people are dominating in a way that will ultimately hurt the little guy.
Kind of like Apple Music, overpaying for exclusives. Myopic musicians like the cash. No fan ever liked an exclusive. But, the truth is there are no exclusives for developing artists, certainly not those who are not major label priorities. It's going to be harder to make it. If Apple Music with no free tier succeeds it'll be good for the top line performers, but bad for those on the bottom.
The winner take all economy is leaving the rest of us out. It's not only Facebook decimating MySpace, there's room for less art, you can make it, but no one will see it.
And it's only gonna get worse. Elizabeth Warren castigates the Silicon Valley titans for their egregious behavior, but the two candidates running do not.
And right now it looks like Hillary's gonna win.
So it's gonna be the same as it ever was. With the rank and file losing out. Remember when the rank and file bitched and started the Occupy movement? It's the media that killed it, saying there was no message. Oh, there's a message all right. The oligarchs and the monopolists are making life hard for the rest of us. They give us free products in exchange for our privacy and expect us to be happy. And if we dare to push back, with Adblock Plus, they cry foul.
Let's not even get into Trump. He's a bozo who's left rationality behind. But one thing's for sure, his supporters are angry.
It's this anger, on both the left and the right, that should be addressed.
But it's not.
Because the educated winners who made their own bucks feel entitled and don't want to give up anything and they've convinced the underclass that the problem is not them, but the supposed "takers." And if the rich pay more in taxes, what's gonna happen when you become rich? Even though the odds are low, it's this dream that keeps you moving forward.
The discussion is all wrong. It shouldn't be about immigration or trade... We should acknowledge the change in our society, how it's become automated, and we should ask how we lift up all players, give them a platform to survive and hopefully thrive.
But no, you're not making it because you're just not working hard enough. Even though I had rich parents who gave me not only tutors, but flew me around the world to show me how the other half lives. And then I worked hard to get into a good school and... I started my own business and made a billion. I'M ENTITLED TO IT! I'M SMART AND YOU'RE NOT!
And you're frustrated and on drugs since my buddies at the pharmaceutical company forced supposedly non-addictive Oxy down your throat and now you've switched to heroin and...
It's not a level playing field folks. And those in the media are envious of the billionaires, which is why Henry Blodgett started "Business Insider," so he could sell it, why Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher left the "Wall Street Journal" so they too could become rich... Either you've won and have circled the wagons or you're one of the small cadre with a chance of succeeding because of your relationships and status or...
You're completely left out, like you and me.
Think about it.
"Think Amazon's Drone Delivery Idea Is a Gimmick? Think Again": http://goo.gl/Lwlv2r?utm_source=phplist5523&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=The+Great+Con
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Thursday 11 August 2016
My Own Worst Enemy
Spotify: https://goo.gl/npgfpZ?utm_source=phplist5522&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=My+Own+Worst+Enemy
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This is the best Aerosmith song in decades!
I discovered it via "Release Radar," Spotify's new, algorithm-driven, customized new release playlist.
That's right, Spotify. No, I don't get paid by them. Yes, the site is imperfect, but not only is it the best streaming service, it's got a free tier so we've all got access, we can all participate, we can all be part of the group, and in this social world that's everything.
It was a stealth release. "Release Radar" that is. There was a press release last week and then...nothing. Spotify's got some of the worst marketing of all time. But, the service...
The word is out on "Discover Weekly," the playlist custom-tailored to you based on what you've listened to. And although I've discovered a lot of good stuff via "Discover Weekly," most of it's far from brand new, and it's the new stuff I hunger to be exposed to.
And, so far, "Release Radar" is far superior to "Discover Weekly," the hit to shit ratio is so much higher. With "Discover Weekly" I just click through to find something good, with "Release Radar" almost every track has me listening through.
And my customized new release playlist started off with...
A transcendent version of "Send In The Clowns" by Bryan Ferry, who even knew it was out?
And a new cut by Jamestown Revival.
And a good Florida Georgia Line cut with Tim McGraw.
But it's the Steven Tyler cut that closed me.
I was aware the album was out, the hype reached me, Tyler's got a way of promoting without looking like he's doing so, but going country is still a cheap shot and the initial single, "Love Is Your Name," didn't reach me.
But "My Own Worst Enemy"...
You see we don't know where to start, we might not even know the album is out, and if we do, what track do we listen to?
Lord knows how the algorithm picked out "My Own Worst Enemy," but it's looking like the machine is gonna beat the humans, not for the first time, after all, didn't that IBM computer win on "Jeopardy"?
Now the haunting acoustic intro of "My Own Worst Enemy" sets the mood. This is late night swamp music, when the iPhone camera is clicked off and illicit things happen and you experience the highest highs and the lowest lows of life.
And the stunning thing is...it sounds exactly like Tyler! Like he stepped right out of "Get Your Wings."
But, the song...it's more than serviceable, but it doesn't close you.
And then... At 1:15, after the chorus, when the keyboard kicks in, when the rest of the band kicks in, this is the "Dream On" formula, the whole thing is amped up, reminiscent of what once was but without being a remake.
And the chorus could be better, but then there's that twist at the very end, when he sings he was wrong, he's his own worst enemy, you're intrigued.
And then the strings kick in, Tyler's vamping, and you're telling yourself, THIS IS GOOD!
And the accordion adds texture, but what puts it over the top is...the searing guitar solo at 3:40, just when the song fades out, just when you think it's done, this is the Guns N' Roses trick, this is what made those Aerosmith records iconic, the wailing on the six string, you'll be sitting at home blown away, this is the Aerosmith sound you LOVED!
How did this happen? How did Steven Tyler do everything wrong to do everything right? Going on "Idol" for the dough, eviscerating his credibility, his foibles now all over the tabloid press. And Hootie went country but he was so much younger, and every other rocker with a deal has gone Nashville, Tyler was through the door so late that...
Nashville is not embracing him.
But if you're an old, dyed-in-the-wool rocker...
This is a REVELATION!
Turns out "My Own Worst Enemy" was produced by T-Bone Burnett, with Tyler's help, demonstrating that the Alpha Band player via the Rolling Thunder Review movie soundtrack guy most memorable for his work with Counting Crows...STILL HAS IT!
And the song was written by Tyler with the Warren Brothers, whoever they are, it's not a complete song for hire, it's not just the Nashville formula.
And you're gonna put this on and say I'm wrong. And if you're a wanker you're gonna click off. But if you're open to being closed you're gonna let "My Own Worst Enemy" play through and...
Goddamn it, you'll discover, IT'S GOOD!
P.S. Be sure to hang on through the fade-out, all five minutes and eleven seconds of this cut, it's like "Sister Morphine," "Moonlight Mile," "November Rain," but it's BRAND NEW, and isn't that what we're looking for, a way to be turned on to the best of what's coming out, as we march forward in this incomprehensible world we inhabit?
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This is the best Aerosmith song in decades!
I discovered it via "Release Radar," Spotify's new, algorithm-driven, customized new release playlist.
That's right, Spotify. No, I don't get paid by them. Yes, the site is imperfect, but not only is it the best streaming service, it's got a free tier so we've all got access, we can all participate, we can all be part of the group, and in this social world that's everything.
It was a stealth release. "Release Radar" that is. There was a press release last week and then...nothing. Spotify's got some of the worst marketing of all time. But, the service...
The word is out on "Discover Weekly," the playlist custom-tailored to you based on what you've listened to. And although I've discovered a lot of good stuff via "Discover Weekly," most of it's far from brand new, and it's the new stuff I hunger to be exposed to.
And, so far, "Release Radar" is far superior to "Discover Weekly," the hit to shit ratio is so much higher. With "Discover Weekly" I just click through to find something good, with "Release Radar" almost every track has me listening through.
And my customized new release playlist started off with...
A transcendent version of "Send In The Clowns" by Bryan Ferry, who even knew it was out?
And a new cut by Jamestown Revival.
And a good Florida Georgia Line cut with Tim McGraw.
But it's the Steven Tyler cut that closed me.
I was aware the album was out, the hype reached me, Tyler's got a way of promoting without looking like he's doing so, but going country is still a cheap shot and the initial single, "Love Is Your Name," didn't reach me.
But "My Own Worst Enemy"...
You see we don't know where to start, we might not even know the album is out, and if we do, what track do we listen to?
Lord knows how the algorithm picked out "My Own Worst Enemy," but it's looking like the machine is gonna beat the humans, not for the first time, after all, didn't that IBM computer win on "Jeopardy"?
Now the haunting acoustic intro of "My Own Worst Enemy" sets the mood. This is late night swamp music, when the iPhone camera is clicked off and illicit things happen and you experience the highest highs and the lowest lows of life.
And the stunning thing is...it sounds exactly like Tyler! Like he stepped right out of "Get Your Wings."
But, the song...it's more than serviceable, but it doesn't close you.
And then... At 1:15, after the chorus, when the keyboard kicks in, when the rest of the band kicks in, this is the "Dream On" formula, the whole thing is amped up, reminiscent of what once was but without being a remake.
And the chorus could be better, but then there's that twist at the very end, when he sings he was wrong, he's his own worst enemy, you're intrigued.
And then the strings kick in, Tyler's vamping, and you're telling yourself, THIS IS GOOD!
And the accordion adds texture, but what puts it over the top is...the searing guitar solo at 3:40, just when the song fades out, just when you think it's done, this is the Guns N' Roses trick, this is what made those Aerosmith records iconic, the wailing on the six string, you'll be sitting at home blown away, this is the Aerosmith sound you LOVED!
How did this happen? How did Steven Tyler do everything wrong to do everything right? Going on "Idol" for the dough, eviscerating his credibility, his foibles now all over the tabloid press. And Hootie went country but he was so much younger, and every other rocker with a deal has gone Nashville, Tyler was through the door so late that...
Nashville is not embracing him.
But if you're an old, dyed-in-the-wool rocker...
This is a REVELATION!
Turns out "My Own Worst Enemy" was produced by T-Bone Burnett, with Tyler's help, demonstrating that the Alpha Band player via the Rolling Thunder Review movie soundtrack guy most memorable for his work with Counting Crows...STILL HAS IT!
And the song was written by Tyler with the Warren Brothers, whoever they are, it's not a complete song for hire, it's not just the Nashville formula.
And you're gonna put this on and say I'm wrong. And if you're a wanker you're gonna click off. But if you're open to being closed you're gonna let "My Own Worst Enemy" play through and...
Goddamn it, you'll discover, IT'S GOOD!
P.S. Be sure to hang on through the fade-out, all five minutes and eleven seconds of this cut, it's like "Sister Morphine," "Moonlight Mile," "November Rain," but it's BRAND NEW, and isn't that what we're looking for, a way to be turned on to the best of what's coming out, as we march forward in this incomprehensible world we inhabit?
--
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Me On CNNi
http://snpy.tv/2aY1oNY
I can't look at myself on screen and maybe you'll find it painful too! I swear the hair I've got left has gone gray since the surgery and...when did I get so old?
It'll happen to you, isn't that what our parents said?
So I don't believe in self-promotion and if you want to skip this clip it's fine with me.
But this is me. And people are clamoring to see it, so I'm sending it.
P.S. When you see me reach my right arm behind myself at the beginning of the clip...I'm adjusting the volume, there's a speaker in my left ear.
P.P.S. And you'll notice I'm not moving my left arm. That's right, the doctor says not to let my elbow leave my side.
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I can't look at myself on screen and maybe you'll find it painful too! I swear the hair I've got left has gone gray since the surgery and...when did I get so old?
It'll happen to you, isn't that what our parents said?
So I don't believe in self-promotion and if you want to skip this clip it's fine with me.
But this is me. And people are clamoring to see it, so I'm sending it.
P.S. When you see me reach my right arm behind myself at the beginning of the clip...I'm adjusting the volume, there's a speaker in my left ear.
P.P.S. And you'll notice I'm not moving my left arm. That's right, the doctor says not to let my elbow leave my side.
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CNNi
From: Adam Lewis
Re: CNN
Great job. Love that I am waking up in the Ukraine and am seeing you!
Come a long way from the Xerox mailers.
Best,
A
______________________
You've got to understand, I've been locked inside the house for months, staring at the four walls, there are only so many books you can read and so many movies you can see. Your mood starts to sink and you lose touch with reality and...
They called me to be on CNNi tonight.
Actually, that's wrong, no one calls anymore, they e-mailed.
And twice in the ensuing recovery I've had to say no, after all, I was in a sling. But tonight... At 10:45? To discuss the Ed Sheeran/Marvin Gaye lawsuit?
Why not?
They send a car. Which is important, because driving is an issue.
And the woman had picked me up before. And she's a bit of a terror on the road. That's one thing about professional drivers, they want to get you there on time, their gig depends upon it. She asked me who'd set the pickup time, CNNi or me. I said CNNi, so if we were late, which we wouldn't be, it wouldn't be on her.
We got there early.
Security is heavy. There are two sets of doors and you can't break through either without a button being pressed. And when you're inside... Everything at a TV station is focused on what's on camera, the rest is pretty basic, everywhere I've ever been on. Hell, the desk is on a platform and there's little else, even on "Weekend Update" on SNL!
So I went to makeup, you always want makeup, otherwise your head is gonna shine, baby boomers all remember Nixon in the Kennedy debates...
So...
You learn to be nice to everybody. And when you are, they're nice back, and they tell amazing stories.
The makeup person is married to a nurse. And although off at midnight, she's got to be back at 7:30! And she lives in Long Beach! And she's got a sleeve tattoo. Her dad had a problem with it but it's a generational thing, I know that, so I'm not gonna judge.
And then there was a young woman photocopying. I don't know what got the conversation going but it turns out she goes to USC and she's an intern. She's studying journalism. And she turned out to be Jewish. She told me her father was the executive director of the Temple in Atlanta. I had no idea, but then we started to bond. She said she didn't go to summer camp, a rarity amongst Jews, but she was a member of the youth group, of NFTY, and all these memories came flooding back, I just wrote about that the other day!
And then it was time.
Now the anchors are pros. They walk the line from relaxed to professional, off camera to on, so seamlessly. They make you feel comfortable, they tee it up...
And you go off.
You've got to be knowledgeable, but you've also got to be good entertainment.
And when we were done they wanted to continue to talk to me, said I was fascinating, and for a boy who's been locked up inside for months that was music to my ears.
So I was jazzed, got my makeup removed, and got into the limo and got the above e-mail, from the Ukraine, was my driver Ukrainian?
I thought maybe, she was blond, had a heavy accent, so I asked her.
She was Iranian. She got out in 2002. She was only one when the Shah was deposed. Her father was Greek, so the Greek government aided their leaving, they got into Germany as refugees. And then through a religious program, since she was baptized, she got passage to the USA, to Tucson.
SHE DIDN'T SPEAK A WORD OF ENGLISH!
She stayed with a member of the church for a week. Then they got her an apartment and a gig watching children and she enrolled in college.
HOW DID YOU DO THIS, YOU DIDN'T SPEAK ENGLISH!
She shrugged her shoulders and said she picks up languages easily, she learned the game in Germany, the tricks.
And needless to say, after a year or so in Tucson, having switched to a job as a caregiver, she wanted out.
So she went to Houston.
HOW? WITH WHAT MONEY?
The church was long gone, financially anyway. She'd saved. And, oh yeah, a congregant had given her an old Dodge, so she had wheels.
But Houston was disappointing so she moved back to Tucson.
And then she decided to decamp to Los Angeles. She had an aunt there, but she didn't contact her.
And she had a baby...
Whoa, how did this happen?
From Germany, another Iranian refugee, they were in love, he came over.
And I'm thinking she's living on the bottom, just driving to make ends meet, but then she tells me...SHE OWNS THE COMPANY!
I figured she'd left college in the dust, a long time ago. But no, she got a business degree from CSUN. Working as a caregiver along the way. And she decided to start her own business with her own car to get ahead. And she took ads everywhere, she gained traction by pricing her services low, after all, she owned the car, and it was a recession, and after a year and a half, it worked!
Now she's got four cars and multiple drivers and the CNN account...
And the trigger was software, she invested $2500 in software that linked everything, that gave so much information, and then her business burgeoned. Others said she was nuts, but she wanted it.
And now...
Was she a citizen?
Yes.
Who was she gonna vote for?
Well, at first it was Trump, now she's not so sure. It's the first time she can vote and...
Trump is a businessman.
And my head is spinning. These are the immigrants Trump's people want to keep down? These industrious people who are contributing to society? Hell, buying software, aiding the bottom line?
This woman made something out of nothing. She's an upstanding American citizen.
It was heartwarming.
It was a revelation.
And, oh yeah, where there's a hit there's a writ. Since the "Blurred Lines" case everybody's come out of the woodwork, the line has been moved too far to the right, we've got to move it back. I think the "Blurred Lines" case will be overturned on appeal, after all, it's about the sheet music, the notes on the page, and they're not the same, and you can't copyright feel...
And Zeppelin won the "Stairway" case and...
Sometimes there's blatant infringement. But there are only so many notes, and so many ideas, and ideas have to come from somewhere.
And there's so little case law, because so few of these cases come to trial.
It's just that...
Musicians used to let stuff slide.
They don't let it slide anymore, certainly not the heirs.
It's a rough and tumble society, money is not free and opportunities in music have evaporated so it's not hard to see how we've gotten to this coarse, litigious point.
But that's a dead end.
Innovation is the way out.
New stuff constructed on the building blocks of the old.
We don't want to inhibit forward movement, we want to encourage it, and now too many people are afraid, just ask the major labels.
P.S. Forget the court of public opinion, these cases turn on legal precepts. Furthermore, so many have come out in defense of Ed Sheeran. Will two lawsuits in a year hurt his career? Probably not, because those who want to believe, will, fans are everything, and he's got 'em. It's not about haters, but lovers. And if you're an upstanding, forthright citizen who doesn't take more than your fair share of the pie...people are with you.
______________________
From: Adam Lewis
Re: CNN
The one thing I have learned from travel is that CNN goes everywhere. Luckily Fox has no reach overseas.
All is well. Hope the shoulder gets better.. Best of luck with the rehab..
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Re: CNN
Great job. Love that I am waking up in the Ukraine and am seeing you!
Come a long way from the Xerox mailers.
Best,
A
______________________
You've got to understand, I've been locked inside the house for months, staring at the four walls, there are only so many books you can read and so many movies you can see. Your mood starts to sink and you lose touch with reality and...
They called me to be on CNNi tonight.
Actually, that's wrong, no one calls anymore, they e-mailed.
And twice in the ensuing recovery I've had to say no, after all, I was in a sling. But tonight... At 10:45? To discuss the Ed Sheeran/Marvin Gaye lawsuit?
Why not?
They send a car. Which is important, because driving is an issue.
And the woman had picked me up before. And she's a bit of a terror on the road. That's one thing about professional drivers, they want to get you there on time, their gig depends upon it. She asked me who'd set the pickup time, CNNi or me. I said CNNi, so if we were late, which we wouldn't be, it wouldn't be on her.
We got there early.
Security is heavy. There are two sets of doors and you can't break through either without a button being pressed. And when you're inside... Everything at a TV station is focused on what's on camera, the rest is pretty basic, everywhere I've ever been on. Hell, the desk is on a platform and there's little else, even on "Weekend Update" on SNL!
So I went to makeup, you always want makeup, otherwise your head is gonna shine, baby boomers all remember Nixon in the Kennedy debates...
So...
You learn to be nice to everybody. And when you are, they're nice back, and they tell amazing stories.
The makeup person is married to a nurse. And although off at midnight, she's got to be back at 7:30! And she lives in Long Beach! And she's got a sleeve tattoo. Her dad had a problem with it but it's a generational thing, I know that, so I'm not gonna judge.
And then there was a young woman photocopying. I don't know what got the conversation going but it turns out she goes to USC and she's an intern. She's studying journalism. And she turned out to be Jewish. She told me her father was the executive director of the Temple in Atlanta. I had no idea, but then we started to bond. She said she didn't go to summer camp, a rarity amongst Jews, but she was a member of the youth group, of NFTY, and all these memories came flooding back, I just wrote about that the other day!
And then it was time.
Now the anchors are pros. They walk the line from relaxed to professional, off camera to on, so seamlessly. They make you feel comfortable, they tee it up...
And you go off.
You've got to be knowledgeable, but you've also got to be good entertainment.
And when we were done they wanted to continue to talk to me, said I was fascinating, and for a boy who's been locked up inside for months that was music to my ears.
So I was jazzed, got my makeup removed, and got into the limo and got the above e-mail, from the Ukraine, was my driver Ukrainian?
I thought maybe, she was blond, had a heavy accent, so I asked her.
She was Iranian. She got out in 2002. She was only one when the Shah was deposed. Her father was Greek, so the Greek government aided their leaving, they got into Germany as refugees. And then through a religious program, since she was baptized, she got passage to the USA, to Tucson.
SHE DIDN'T SPEAK A WORD OF ENGLISH!
She stayed with a member of the church for a week. Then they got her an apartment and a gig watching children and she enrolled in college.
HOW DID YOU DO THIS, YOU DIDN'T SPEAK ENGLISH!
She shrugged her shoulders and said she picks up languages easily, she learned the game in Germany, the tricks.
And needless to say, after a year or so in Tucson, having switched to a job as a caregiver, she wanted out.
So she went to Houston.
HOW? WITH WHAT MONEY?
The church was long gone, financially anyway. She'd saved. And, oh yeah, a congregant had given her an old Dodge, so she had wheels.
But Houston was disappointing so she moved back to Tucson.
And then she decided to decamp to Los Angeles. She had an aunt there, but she didn't contact her.
And she had a baby...
Whoa, how did this happen?
From Germany, another Iranian refugee, they were in love, he came over.
And I'm thinking she's living on the bottom, just driving to make ends meet, but then she tells me...SHE OWNS THE COMPANY!
I figured she'd left college in the dust, a long time ago. But no, she got a business degree from CSUN. Working as a caregiver along the way. And she decided to start her own business with her own car to get ahead. And she took ads everywhere, she gained traction by pricing her services low, after all, she owned the car, and it was a recession, and after a year and a half, it worked!
Now she's got four cars and multiple drivers and the CNN account...
And the trigger was software, she invested $2500 in software that linked everything, that gave so much information, and then her business burgeoned. Others said she was nuts, but she wanted it.
And now...
Was she a citizen?
Yes.
Who was she gonna vote for?
Well, at first it was Trump, now she's not so sure. It's the first time she can vote and...
Trump is a businessman.
And my head is spinning. These are the immigrants Trump's people want to keep down? These industrious people who are contributing to society? Hell, buying software, aiding the bottom line?
This woman made something out of nothing. She's an upstanding American citizen.
It was heartwarming.
It was a revelation.
And, oh yeah, where there's a hit there's a writ. Since the "Blurred Lines" case everybody's come out of the woodwork, the line has been moved too far to the right, we've got to move it back. I think the "Blurred Lines" case will be overturned on appeal, after all, it's about the sheet music, the notes on the page, and they're not the same, and you can't copyright feel...
And Zeppelin won the "Stairway" case and...
Sometimes there's blatant infringement. But there are only so many notes, and so many ideas, and ideas have to come from somewhere.
And there's so little case law, because so few of these cases come to trial.
It's just that...
Musicians used to let stuff slide.
They don't let it slide anymore, certainly not the heirs.
It's a rough and tumble society, money is not free and opportunities in music have evaporated so it's not hard to see how we've gotten to this coarse, litigious point.
But that's a dead end.
Innovation is the way out.
New stuff constructed on the building blocks of the old.
We don't want to inhibit forward movement, we want to encourage it, and now too many people are afraid, just ask the major labels.
P.S. Forget the court of public opinion, these cases turn on legal precepts. Furthermore, so many have come out in defense of Ed Sheeran. Will two lawsuits in a year hurt his career? Probably not, because those who want to believe, will, fans are everything, and he's got 'em. It's not about haters, but lovers. And if you're an upstanding, forthright citizen who doesn't take more than your fair share of the pie...people are with you.
______________________
From: Adam Lewis
Re: CNN
The one thing I have learned from travel is that CNN goes everywhere. Luckily Fox has no reach overseas.
All is well. Hope the shoulder gets better.. Best of luck with the rehab..
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Wednesday 10 August 2016
Mailbag
From: John David Souther
Subject: Re: Re-Black Rose
I'm truly grateful for the response to this piece of work.
BTW that was jazz legend Donald Byrd on fluegelhorn solo on Midnight Prowl, the great Stanley Clarke plays the bass viol solo on Silver Blue. Charles Veal wept the violin solo on Doors Swing Open.
Monster guitar guns Joe Walsh, Lowell George, Waddy Wachtel, and Danny Kortchmar all solo.
biggest thanks to producer Peter Asher for wrangling the cats into cohesion
JD
______________________________________
From: Peter Asher
Subject: RE: Re-Black Rose
Thanks to everyone for all the "Black Rose" attention. JD is not only one of my very favourite singers and writers but also one of my oldest and dearest friends and I am very proud of the work we did together on this record all those years ago. And equally happy that we still get to hang out together, drink martinis together, stay in each other's guest rooms and even sing the occasional Everly Brothers oldie in harmony.
By the way, to the best of my recollection (I do not have the credits in front of me) on "Midnight Prowl" it was not Jerry Hey playing trumpet but rather Donald Byrd playing flugelhorn. I remember the session well - I was a big fan and Donald did a series of amazing takes for us to choose between.
Peter
______________________________________
Subject: Re: Re-Black Rose
Hey Bob
Just saw your original post
and comments on J.D.
Couldn't agree more on the kudos for Black Rose. An incredible record, in an era of pretty damn fine music.
Production( yeah Peter) and
players...top notch, and more importantly, inspired.
J.D, of course, provided a stellar batch of tunes, and sang his ass off...As many have noted, WE all got it !!
It's JD..
He was and still is, the real deal..Go see him, if you're fortunate enough to have the chance..
Quick story...
At the A1A Songwriters Festival in January, standing in the wings with Jackson..
We're both shaking our heads and grinning...JD's onstage, positively killin' it
while fighting a NASTY case of the flu..Jackson turns to me and says
"shit...I don't sing like that when I'm healthy !"
And he's still creating great music...
Thanks again Bob.
And to the previous posters,
a big AMEN !
Jeff Hanna
______________________________________
From: Jon Allen
Subject: Re: Statue
Hi Bob,
I co-manage Smith & Thell (I'm NYC based and on cc is Anders Johansson, my partner who based in Stockholm). Thanks for listening and putting attention on their music and talent. "Statue" is a song, based on Maria (the "Smith" of Smith & Thell) and her experience after the tragic loss of both parents when she was only 13. "I needed love, but got a doctor" is indeed a real powerful line, but even more powerful with the real life context. The song and video have only been available outside of Scandinavia for about 7 weeks, so you nailed it when you guessed all the plays have mostly been in Scandi. This song (like all their music) was produced by Victor Thell (who is the other half of the duo) and written by him and Maria. Here is some unreleased music for you to check out. Thanks again.
https://soundcloud.com/buddyallenmgmt/sets/smith-thell-unreleased-music/s-lb6CR
Cheers.
Jon
______________________________________
Subject: TOM PETTY ON SIRIUS
Hey Bob,
I recently read a Tom Petty autobiography, not the Warren Zanes one, and it was poorly written: a pretty bad book.
But, wait easter eggs awaited! At the back of the book were Petty's favs from his Sirius FM radio show.
I threw them into a Spotify playlist if you or anyone else was interested.
https://play.spotify.com/user/project72oo/playlist/2cZpZ3AWVgV2EAhyb4lGcI
Regards,
Justin Brown, NZ
______________________________________
Subject: Re: Mailbag
I'm wondering what Blair W. Carrigan is saying? From the way he worded his letter, is he implying that Rush supposedly was influenced to write "Spirit of the Radio" after hearing UFO's "When It's Time To Rock"? Or the other way around? "Spirit of the Radio" was released in 1980. "When It's Time To Rock" was released in 1983. That song was also written by Phil Mogg and Paul Chapman, the guitarist who replaced Michael Schenker after he left the band. So it would seem that UFO lifted the idea from Rush.
Regardless, it brings up a cool concert memory.
I saw Rush and UFO several times through the 70's. The only time I remember seeing them together ('remember' being the operative word) was when UFO was opening for Rush on their "Farewell to Kings" tour. That was an epic show. Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. We had spent a day or two in line (remember when you had to do that?) and purchased 11th row seats.
However, 2 or 3 weeks or so prior to the show, UFO's guitar hero, Michael Schenker, had disappeared. It was big news on rock radio in L.A. Where did Michael disappear to? Was he dead or alive? Nobody seemed to know. UFO kept touring, having secured Paul Chapman to replace him. We were so bummed. We were huge Schenker fans and we didn't want a substitute. Both KLOS and KMET had been talking about it almost daily leading up to the show, and then the day before the concert came word that Schenker had been located in some bar in a small town in Germany. Apparently he needed a break and just decided to take one without telling anyone what he was doing or where he was going. Wild… but the word was that he would be coming back to the band. My friends and I were ecstatic at the news. The only question in our mind was whether he would make it 1/2 way around the world in time for our show. When the lights went out and UFO took the stage in darkness, the crowd could still see Schenker's white Flying V guitar come walking on stage and the place went abso-fucking-lutely nuts. UFO played a blistering set that had the place going crazy. I thought that topping UFO would be near impossible…
… but then Rush did just that. They were amazing. Absolutely blew me and my friends away. One of the best double bills that I think I've ever seen, and I've seen a boatload of 'em.
That's one of the things I love about your blog. You bring back some great memories. Thanks.
Charlie Imes
______________________________________
From: Brian Keith
Subject: Re: Uber Pool
I started driving for Uber three weeks ago because my business that was successful for 15 years (recruiting mfg workers), suddenly wasn't succesful anymore (linkedin & indeed & a hundred other reasons) ..It didn't take too long to figure out that with the fares in chicago being charged @ $1.70 base + .90 cents per mile + .20 cents per minute, that after Uber's 25% cut and the realization that operating a vehicle is estimated by people who know these things to be about .58 cents per mile, that I'm practically paying Uber for the privelege of working for them, or more generously, being allowed by Uber to borrow money from tomorrow as I put over 1000 miles a week on my 20,000 car so I can make $500-$700 a week to pay at least some of my bills while I watch my savings dwindle as work on getting my house in sell ready condition so the wife and I can massively downgrade the modest life we're become accustomed to.?
Oh, well I thought, at least this isn't permanent, just something to do til I figure out another way to make a living.
After a couple weeks I get a message from Uber congratulating me. I've driven enough to be entrusted with taking Uber Pool requests. Oh boy, what the hell is UberPOOL? I google it and the reviews from drivers and riders alike were not good. Drivers make less per ride most of the time and many riders don't understand what they are signing up for and punish the drivers with bad reviews when they find out they can't make stops or change their destination. The riders save a bundle and like you say, most of the time, especially in the suburbs. they ride alone. It's like winning a (very) small lottery. When they do get matched, it's like losing. They get a peek at the?struggle to find strange addresses, waiting for passengers and their travel time doubles and you guessed it, they punish us with a bad rating, which by the way will get us suspended if our accumulated rating hits below 4.6 out of a maximum 5.0. ALSO, hardly anyone tips. It's about a 20:1 ratio. Millenials especially, seem hell bent on abolishing the concept if tipping entirely.
I found it interesting that all of your driver's told you their sad story. I've been thinking I'm going to need to come up with a good sob story of my own, or perhaps put a picture of a random cancer baby on my dashboard to remind riders I'm a human being and perhaps get them to shove a dollar my way as they exit their five dollar thirty minute ride.
Brian
______________________________________
From: Jon Gordon
Subject: Re: Uber Pool
Hi Bob,
Long time reader (huge fan), first time commenter. Just thought I'd alert you to one thing about Uber Pool. Several months ago I took an Uber here in LA, from Hollywood to Silver Lake. I struck up a conversation with the driver, asked her how she liked driving for Uber. Turned out she drives for both Uber and Lyft - said it was the only way for her to make ends meet. Anyway, she told me she doesn't pick up Pool passengers anymore, not after the two bad experiences she had. One involved a passenger she picked up who was abusive to the original passenger, and while enough to dissuade me from using Pool, it was the second story she told me which I found really scary. She recounted how she picked up a young woman who had selected Pool and while they were on the way to the woman's destination, she picked up 3 men who (obviously) ordered a Pool car. A few blocks after dropping the young woman off at her house, the guys asked the driver if she could drop them off at a supermarket they just passed rather than their original destination. She thought it was weird, but I guess driving an Uber in LA you see all sorts of weird stuff. A few days later, she gets a call from the police asking to talk to her. Apparently, the guys went back to the house the woman was dropped off at and broke in. Thankfully the woman had a dog who apparently did a number on the guys but.......
"Wait a minute," I interupted, listening to all this in horror, "if you picked these guys up, one of them had to have an Uber account linked to their personal information, right?!" Oh yes. Animals and idiots she tells me. They catch the guys based on that and her testimony. She had to testify at the trial. It all sounded awful. After those two episodes she said she was done with Pool.
Anyway, while it's hopefully the exception to the rule, whenever I hear anyone talking about Uber Pool, I almost feel responsible to share that story.
Thanks for putting your voice out there.
Jon
______________________________________
From: Rob Glaser
Subject: RE: Saturday Night At Nobu
Bob,
This is the classic lefsetz post.
Poignant. Incisive. Right on the edge of 1970s-era Woody Allen nebbish self-pitying but not going over (much).
I do think I'm different than you Bob. Visiting places like the Nobu scene you describe can be fun, like going to the Zoo. But not in a way that makes me want to be someone other than who I am. Just like going to the Zoo doesn't make me want to be an Elephant.
Your piece definitely reminds me of two things I learned in my 40s that I wished I'd better understood in my 20s or 30s:
1. The essential truth of the great Lily Tomlin line: "The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you're still a rat."
2. Everyone dies in the end, and you can't take it with you. It's what you do in the middle to find meaning and create enduring value that matters.
After my ex-wife (with whom I get along with great now as we jointly raise 3 terrific kids) moved out 5 years ago, I got a great bumper sticker to remind me how I wanted to live the rest of my life: "My karma ran over my dogma."
It's still on my car.
Rob
______________________________________
From: Dan Millen
Subject: Re: Mailbag
Bob
In regards to Sean Mormelo's hate filled invective:
I I don't brag about this or publicize it much because it's personal but I am a decorated combat veteran of operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm with a Southwest Asia combat medal / dual Oakleaf cluster, several Army achievement medals to my name and served very proudly - so while he's certainly free to express his opinion and I thank him for his service, mine is as follows:
He can eat a big bag of dicks.
America belongs to every American. Period.
Peace and Love,
Dan Millen
www.rockonconcerts.com
www.thunderroadclub.com
______________________________________
From: BERTON AVERRE
Subject: Re: Mailbag
Bob, I'd like to respond to Sean Mormelo if I could.
Dear Mr. Mormelo,
First of all, I'm very sorry for the loss of your friend, and I'm aware that rings hollow, but I mean it. In this scary time, we get numb to stories like terrorist attacks, and we lose sight of the fact that every single person murdered is leaving behind loved ones, and is to be mourned. I'm sorry you have had to experience the pain and anger firsthand, and not at the remove of the rest of us not yet touched by the senseless slaughter.
I basically disagree with everything you say. Which means to many people of your political stripe that you can (and will) disregard anything I say. One of the saddest aspects of modern America is how we've been manipulated by politically motivated media into not listening to the other side. I hope you will continue to read.
You say, "This is MY country." Excuse me, but you're wrong. It's OUR country. I'm 62, and have lived in the United States my whole life. As hard as it may be for you to believe, the "hellhole" that is California is American, every bit as American as whichever state you live in. Which makes me 100% as American as you. There may be aspects of modern culture that rub you the wrong way, scare you, infuriate you. But when people like you and me disagree so strongly on so many things, there's only one reasonable way to settle issues, if we want to continue to call ourselves a democracy. Majority rules. Even if you hate it. Even if it makes you shout "Fuck You!" five times in one email.
It's possible you agree with a lot of people on the right who say that gay marriage is wrong. A solid majority of Americans don't have a problem with it. You feel safer carrying guns (apparently, a lot of them). I feel less safe the more people on the street packing. And a solid majority of Americans, like me, wants it to be harder for people to arm themselves to the teeth, not easier. You might agree with the current Republican candidate that we'd be safer lumping all Muslims into one category, and getting them out of our country. A solid majority of Americans disagree with him, and so with you.
In the Sixties, the right wing came up with a charming slogan: "America: Love it or Leave it." How would you feel if I, after citing the fact that more Americans agree with me than with you, said, "You don't like it? Leave!" No worries, I'm not going to say that. I don't have the right to dictate your beliefs, anymore than you have the right to dictate mine. If you can get a majority of Americans to agree with you, I'll have to lump it. When I've had to do that (so often) in the past, it was at times quite a bitter lump to swallow. But you know what I never said about my political opponents? "They're not Americans. This isn't their country." And I won't accept your saying it to me. It's not right, factually or morally.
In L.A., it's nigh on impossible to pass a bond measure, because most people have been sold on the inane message that being against any and all taxes is a workable plan. So we've got perhaps the worst airport of any major city in this country, and little to no hope of its being improved. It pisses me off no end: I think it's a classic case of stupid, shortsighted, unenlightened self-interest screwing things up for everybody. But if my fellow residents vote down the bond measures, I have to accept it. There's no percentage in me trying to shout down the multitudes. And there's really no percentage in me getting my guts in a permanent twist over it.
I think (no matter how hippy trippy it may sound to you) trying to live together in peace makes a whole lot more sense than retiring to our respective corners and screaming epithets at each other. And it's the best way to change things for the better, because it's pretty much the only way. If you want me to come around to your way of thinking (even on guns), saying "Fuck you, you're not a real American" isn't a persuasive argument. Saying, "Who cares what people like you think?!" won't work, either. I swear to you, if both sides made an honest attempt to listen to each other, we'd find a lot more common ground that you'd imagine. Those shitburgers in the media exhorting us to hate and fear each other might end up out their jobs, but that would be a bonus, wouldn't it?
Yours in the Hopes of a Better America,
Berton Averre
Subject: Re: Re-Black Rose
I'm truly grateful for the response to this piece of work.
BTW that was jazz legend Donald Byrd on fluegelhorn solo on Midnight Prowl, the great Stanley Clarke plays the bass viol solo on Silver Blue. Charles Veal wept the violin solo on Doors Swing Open.
Monster guitar guns Joe Walsh, Lowell George, Waddy Wachtel, and Danny Kortchmar all solo.
biggest thanks to producer Peter Asher for wrangling the cats into cohesion
JD
______________________________________
From: Peter Asher
Subject: RE: Re-Black Rose
Thanks to everyone for all the "Black Rose" attention. JD is not only one of my very favourite singers and writers but also one of my oldest and dearest friends and I am very proud of the work we did together on this record all those years ago. And equally happy that we still get to hang out together, drink martinis together, stay in each other's guest rooms and even sing the occasional Everly Brothers oldie in harmony.
By the way, to the best of my recollection (I do not have the credits in front of me) on "Midnight Prowl" it was not Jerry Hey playing trumpet but rather Donald Byrd playing flugelhorn. I remember the session well - I was a big fan and Donald did a series of amazing takes for us to choose between.
Peter
______________________________________
Subject: Re: Re-Black Rose
Hey Bob
Just saw your original post
and comments on J.D.
Couldn't agree more on the kudos for Black Rose. An incredible record, in an era of pretty damn fine music.
Production( yeah Peter) and
players...top notch, and more importantly, inspired.
J.D, of course, provided a stellar batch of tunes, and sang his ass off...As many have noted, WE all got it !!
It's JD..
He was and still is, the real deal..Go see him, if you're fortunate enough to have the chance..
Quick story...
At the A1A Songwriters Festival in January, standing in the wings with Jackson..
We're both shaking our heads and grinning...JD's onstage, positively killin' it
while fighting a NASTY case of the flu..Jackson turns to me and says
"shit...I don't sing like that when I'm healthy !"
And he's still creating great music...
Thanks again Bob.
And to the previous posters,
a big AMEN !
Jeff Hanna
______________________________________
From: Jon Allen
Subject: Re: Statue
Hi Bob,
I co-manage Smith & Thell (I'm NYC based and on cc is Anders Johansson, my partner who based in Stockholm). Thanks for listening and putting attention on their music and talent. "Statue" is a song, based on Maria (the "Smith" of Smith & Thell) and her experience after the tragic loss of both parents when she was only 13. "I needed love, but got a doctor" is indeed a real powerful line, but even more powerful with the real life context. The song and video have only been available outside of Scandinavia for about 7 weeks, so you nailed it when you guessed all the plays have mostly been in Scandi. This song (like all their music) was produced by Victor Thell (who is the other half of the duo) and written by him and Maria. Here is some unreleased music for you to check out. Thanks again.
https://soundcloud.com/buddyallenmgmt/sets/smith-thell-unreleased-music/s-lb6CR
Cheers.
Jon
______________________________________
Subject: TOM PETTY ON SIRIUS
Hey Bob,
I recently read a Tom Petty autobiography, not the Warren Zanes one, and it was poorly written: a pretty bad book.
But, wait easter eggs awaited! At the back of the book were Petty's favs from his Sirius FM radio show.
I threw them into a Spotify playlist if you or anyone else was interested.
https://play.spotify.com/user/project72oo/playlist/2cZpZ3AWVgV2EAhyb4lGcI
Regards,
Justin Brown, NZ
______________________________________
Subject: Re: Mailbag
I'm wondering what Blair W. Carrigan is saying? From the way he worded his letter, is he implying that Rush supposedly was influenced to write "Spirit of the Radio" after hearing UFO's "When It's Time To Rock"? Or the other way around? "Spirit of the Radio" was released in 1980. "When It's Time To Rock" was released in 1983. That song was also written by Phil Mogg and Paul Chapman, the guitarist who replaced Michael Schenker after he left the band. So it would seem that UFO lifted the idea from Rush.
Regardless, it brings up a cool concert memory.
I saw Rush and UFO several times through the 70's. The only time I remember seeing them together ('remember' being the operative word) was when UFO was opening for Rush on their "Farewell to Kings" tour. That was an epic show. Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. We had spent a day or two in line (remember when you had to do that?) and purchased 11th row seats.
However, 2 or 3 weeks or so prior to the show, UFO's guitar hero, Michael Schenker, had disappeared. It was big news on rock radio in L.A. Where did Michael disappear to? Was he dead or alive? Nobody seemed to know. UFO kept touring, having secured Paul Chapman to replace him. We were so bummed. We were huge Schenker fans and we didn't want a substitute. Both KLOS and KMET had been talking about it almost daily leading up to the show, and then the day before the concert came word that Schenker had been located in some bar in a small town in Germany. Apparently he needed a break and just decided to take one without telling anyone what he was doing or where he was going. Wild… but the word was that he would be coming back to the band. My friends and I were ecstatic at the news. The only question in our mind was whether he would make it 1/2 way around the world in time for our show. When the lights went out and UFO took the stage in darkness, the crowd could still see Schenker's white Flying V guitar come walking on stage and the place went abso-fucking-lutely nuts. UFO played a blistering set that had the place going crazy. I thought that topping UFO would be near impossible…
… but then Rush did just that. They were amazing. Absolutely blew me and my friends away. One of the best double bills that I think I've ever seen, and I've seen a boatload of 'em.
That's one of the things I love about your blog. You bring back some great memories. Thanks.
Charlie Imes
______________________________________
From: Brian Keith
Subject: Re: Uber Pool
I started driving for Uber three weeks ago because my business that was successful for 15 years (recruiting mfg workers), suddenly wasn't succesful anymore (linkedin & indeed & a hundred other reasons) ..It didn't take too long to figure out that with the fares in chicago being charged @ $1.70 base + .90 cents per mile + .20 cents per minute, that after Uber's 25% cut and the realization that operating a vehicle is estimated by people who know these things to be about .58 cents per mile, that I'm practically paying Uber for the privelege of working for them, or more generously, being allowed by Uber to borrow money from tomorrow as I put over 1000 miles a week on my 20,000 car so I can make $500-$700 a week to pay at least some of my bills while I watch my savings dwindle as work on getting my house in sell ready condition so the wife and I can massively downgrade the modest life we're become accustomed to.?
Oh, well I thought, at least this isn't permanent, just something to do til I figure out another way to make a living.
After a couple weeks I get a message from Uber congratulating me. I've driven enough to be entrusted with taking Uber Pool requests. Oh boy, what the hell is UberPOOL? I google it and the reviews from drivers and riders alike were not good. Drivers make less per ride most of the time and many riders don't understand what they are signing up for and punish the drivers with bad reviews when they find out they can't make stops or change their destination. The riders save a bundle and like you say, most of the time, especially in the suburbs. they ride alone. It's like winning a (very) small lottery. When they do get matched, it's like losing. They get a peek at the?struggle to find strange addresses, waiting for passengers and their travel time doubles and you guessed it, they punish us with a bad rating, which by the way will get us suspended if our accumulated rating hits below 4.6 out of a maximum 5.0. ALSO, hardly anyone tips. It's about a 20:1 ratio. Millenials especially, seem hell bent on abolishing the concept if tipping entirely.
I found it interesting that all of your driver's told you their sad story. I've been thinking I'm going to need to come up with a good sob story of my own, or perhaps put a picture of a random cancer baby on my dashboard to remind riders I'm a human being and perhaps get them to shove a dollar my way as they exit their five dollar thirty minute ride.
Brian
______________________________________
From: Jon Gordon
Subject: Re: Uber Pool
Hi Bob,
Long time reader (huge fan), first time commenter. Just thought I'd alert you to one thing about Uber Pool. Several months ago I took an Uber here in LA, from Hollywood to Silver Lake. I struck up a conversation with the driver, asked her how she liked driving for Uber. Turned out she drives for both Uber and Lyft - said it was the only way for her to make ends meet. Anyway, she told me she doesn't pick up Pool passengers anymore, not after the two bad experiences she had. One involved a passenger she picked up who was abusive to the original passenger, and while enough to dissuade me from using Pool, it was the second story she told me which I found really scary. She recounted how she picked up a young woman who had selected Pool and while they were on the way to the woman's destination, she picked up 3 men who (obviously) ordered a Pool car. A few blocks after dropping the young woman off at her house, the guys asked the driver if she could drop them off at a supermarket they just passed rather than their original destination. She thought it was weird, but I guess driving an Uber in LA you see all sorts of weird stuff. A few days later, she gets a call from the police asking to talk to her. Apparently, the guys went back to the house the woman was dropped off at and broke in. Thankfully the woman had a dog who apparently did a number on the guys but.......
"Wait a minute," I interupted, listening to all this in horror, "if you picked these guys up, one of them had to have an Uber account linked to their personal information, right?!" Oh yes. Animals and idiots she tells me. They catch the guys based on that and her testimony. She had to testify at the trial. It all sounded awful. After those two episodes she said she was done with Pool.
Anyway, while it's hopefully the exception to the rule, whenever I hear anyone talking about Uber Pool, I almost feel responsible to share that story.
Thanks for putting your voice out there.
Jon
______________________________________
From: Rob Glaser
Subject: RE: Saturday Night At Nobu
Bob,
This is the classic lefsetz post.
Poignant. Incisive. Right on the edge of 1970s-era Woody Allen nebbish self-pitying but not going over (much).
I do think I'm different than you Bob. Visiting places like the Nobu scene you describe can be fun, like going to the Zoo. But not in a way that makes me want to be someone other than who I am. Just like going to the Zoo doesn't make me want to be an Elephant.
Your piece definitely reminds me of two things I learned in my 40s that I wished I'd better understood in my 20s or 30s:
1. The essential truth of the great Lily Tomlin line: "The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you're still a rat."
2. Everyone dies in the end, and you can't take it with you. It's what you do in the middle to find meaning and create enduring value that matters.
After my ex-wife (with whom I get along with great now as we jointly raise 3 terrific kids) moved out 5 years ago, I got a great bumper sticker to remind me how I wanted to live the rest of my life: "My karma ran over my dogma."
It's still on my car.
Rob
______________________________________
From: Dan Millen
Subject: Re: Mailbag
Bob
In regards to Sean Mormelo's hate filled invective:
I I don't brag about this or publicize it much because it's personal but I am a decorated combat veteran of operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm with a Southwest Asia combat medal / dual Oakleaf cluster, several Army achievement medals to my name and served very proudly - so while he's certainly free to express his opinion and I thank him for his service, mine is as follows:
He can eat a big bag of dicks.
America belongs to every American. Period.
Peace and Love,
Dan Millen
www.rockonconcerts.com
www.thunderroadclub.com
______________________________________
From: BERTON AVERRE
Subject: Re: Mailbag
Bob, I'd like to respond to Sean Mormelo if I could.
Dear Mr. Mormelo,
First of all, I'm very sorry for the loss of your friend, and I'm aware that rings hollow, but I mean it. In this scary time, we get numb to stories like terrorist attacks, and we lose sight of the fact that every single person murdered is leaving behind loved ones, and is to be mourned. I'm sorry you have had to experience the pain and anger firsthand, and not at the remove of the rest of us not yet touched by the senseless slaughter.
I basically disagree with everything you say. Which means to many people of your political stripe that you can (and will) disregard anything I say. One of the saddest aspects of modern America is how we've been manipulated by politically motivated media into not listening to the other side. I hope you will continue to read.
You say, "This is MY country." Excuse me, but you're wrong. It's OUR country. I'm 62, and have lived in the United States my whole life. As hard as it may be for you to believe, the "hellhole" that is California is American, every bit as American as whichever state you live in. Which makes me 100% as American as you. There may be aspects of modern culture that rub you the wrong way, scare you, infuriate you. But when people like you and me disagree so strongly on so many things, there's only one reasonable way to settle issues, if we want to continue to call ourselves a democracy. Majority rules. Even if you hate it. Even if it makes you shout "Fuck You!" five times in one email.
It's possible you agree with a lot of people on the right who say that gay marriage is wrong. A solid majority of Americans don't have a problem with it. You feel safer carrying guns (apparently, a lot of them). I feel less safe the more people on the street packing. And a solid majority of Americans, like me, wants it to be harder for people to arm themselves to the teeth, not easier. You might agree with the current Republican candidate that we'd be safer lumping all Muslims into one category, and getting them out of our country. A solid majority of Americans disagree with him, and so with you.
In the Sixties, the right wing came up with a charming slogan: "America: Love it or Leave it." How would you feel if I, after citing the fact that more Americans agree with me than with you, said, "You don't like it? Leave!" No worries, I'm not going to say that. I don't have the right to dictate your beliefs, anymore than you have the right to dictate mine. If you can get a majority of Americans to agree with you, I'll have to lump it. When I've had to do that (so often) in the past, it was at times quite a bitter lump to swallow. But you know what I never said about my political opponents? "They're not Americans. This isn't their country." And I won't accept your saying it to me. It's not right, factually or morally.
In L.A., it's nigh on impossible to pass a bond measure, because most people have been sold on the inane message that being against any and all taxes is a workable plan. So we've got perhaps the worst airport of any major city in this country, and little to no hope of its being improved. It pisses me off no end: I think it's a classic case of stupid, shortsighted, unenlightened self-interest screwing things up for everybody. But if my fellow residents vote down the bond measures, I have to accept it. There's no percentage in me trying to shout down the multitudes. And there's really no percentage in me getting my guts in a permanent twist over it.
I think (no matter how hippy trippy it may sound to you) trying to live together in peace makes a whole lot more sense than retiring to our respective corners and screaming epithets at each other. And it's the best way to change things for the better, because it's pretty much the only way. If you want me to come around to your way of thinking (even on guns), saying "Fuck you, you're not a real American" isn't a persuasive argument. Saying, "Who cares what people like you think?!" won't work, either. I swear to you, if both sides made an honest attempt to listen to each other, we'd find a lot more common ground that you'd imagine. Those shitburgers in the media exhorting us to hate and fear each other might end up out their jobs, but that would be a bonus, wouldn't it?
Yours in the Hopes of a Better America,
Berton Averre
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Uber Pool
1
Sean went from West Hollywood to Malibu for twelve bucks.
I'm on the cusp of being able to drive my own car. The doctor said I'll be done healing in two weeks, and then the strengthening begins. This has been quite an ordeal. I'm used to surgeries where you start off the worst and then gradually get better. Here, you heal and then... I'm going to physical therapy, we had a breakthrough on Monday, she can lift my arm back a hundred and twenty degrees. But there's still pain.
So when I can't get Felice's car, I'm Ubering.
Now relative to the cost of this ordeal, this operation, any Uber rides I take are de minimis. That's what they don't tell you about the health care system, that even if you have insurance it's expensive. I've got a two thousand dollar deductible, I've met that...but you get bills from doctors you didn't even know existed, who helped out in the operating room, inserting the bovine patch, I got a bill for that too and...
All's to say I guess I shouldn't worry about the price of Uber.
But I do.
And when Sean told me he uses Uber Pool and not only is it cheap but there's usually no one else along for the ride...
I decided to take the plunge. Especially now that I don't have to wear my sling, now that I'm less uptight about sharing the back seat with another person.
Yesterday I rode from Sherman Oaks to Beverly Hills for $6.59.
Even better, I rode back in TRAFFIC, on the freeway, for five bucks.
And there was no one else along.
But today I couldn't get a pickup. The app kept requesting and twice drivers accepted and then rejected. So, if you're in a hurry, maybe Uber Pool isn't the best option. Or maybe, it's just that you can't count on it for a pickup.
And like everything else in life, the price will go up.
But right now, it's a bargain.
2
On the way back from lunch with Craig Kallman, who regaled me with stories of Atlantic breakthroughs, most notably Melanie Martinez, who sold 500,000 copies of her album despite getting no airplay, I got into the Civic of an Indian man and the windows were down, the radio was blasting and the seat was pushed back. Should I say something?
He's gonna pay in gas if the A/C is on. And he's been driving all day long, is he really gonna want to listen to me call my mom?
But my mother wasn't there, so I got this guy's story.
His wife died of cancer. Three years ago. He was working in the clothing business, but now he's staying home, he's looking after his seventeen year old daughter.
Now it's amazing what people will tell you. He worked for a company and then opened his own. He was grossing 500k and netting 200k. Pretty good money! All his expenses were deductible, mostly going to trade shows and renting booths and paying or hotels. And the billing? Thirty days! Oftentimes people just gave him their credit card and he sat on the number for a month. Had he ever been beaten? A couple of times, but that's the cost of doing business.
I never did ask him to roll up the windows. I had enough legroom. He turned down the radio when we began to talk. Driving was like the early sixties, when no one had A/C and we'd roll along with the wind in our hair, cooling off, not cocooned but feeling nature. It was a refreshing twist.
3
Today's driver was from Honduras. He used to work in quality control, but the company was sold and he lost his job and now he's driving Uber...this was his third day!
And his car was tiny, a Chevy Aveo. I was worried about getting squashed like a bug on the freeway. But Roberto was oh-so-nice.
You see he had bladder cancer. And went to the U.S. for treatment. He was cured, but it cost him a fortune to bring the rest of his family here.
And now, he's starting a church. He's been a pastor for ten years.
He wanted to know if I was a Christian.
Oh no, here we go.
I decided to tell him I was Jewish. And he lit up! HE was a quarter Jewish! On his mother's side. They'd come from Spain to Honduras, he'd done the genealogy, his church had advised it, and when he saw his relatives printed out he cried.
And there began an intertwining of religion and personal traumas.
He peed blood. His wife prayed for him. He believed the cancer had come back, after all, it had once spread throughout his body. But his doctor, a saint, Carmen somebody or other, told him he was cancer free, that it was just an infection, it was a miracle!
But he was supposed to be dead anyway.
You see he'd been in Ecuador on a sales trip, before he moved to the States, and he'd gotten sick and missed his flight and the plane had crashed. Everybody died, I could look it up.
4
And now I was getting wary. After my appointment in Brentwood I didn't know if Uber Pool would pick me up.
But I got a ride right away.
At least that's what the app said.
And I'm tracking the car, and it's a block away, and then it turns away.
Okay. This is why they call it "Pool," he's going to pick someone else up. And it was a he, I could see in the app.
And I'm thinking Uber Pool is for people with a lot of time, who favored money over everything else, I figured I was done.
But the car never stopped. It kept twisting and turning down the roads as if in a video game. What was happening?
And then I saw the Civic a block away, with its lights flashing. Obviously it was stopping to pick up someone at the restaurant. I didn't have to get home right away, but I'm not that cheap, this is ridiculous.
But finally the car pulled up to me.
And there was no one in it.
You see I was traveling with Mister Magoo. A septuagenarian in a ball cap who could barely see over the console.
And he spoke like Gilbert Gottfried when he imitates Groucho Marx. You've heard that on Howard, right?
And I'm wondering whether to give him directions or let him go his own way. You see drivers are addicted to Waze, but sometimes the app adds unneeded complication. Meanwhile, re Waze, how come my app doesn't allow me to eliminate hazardous intersections and everybody else's does? There's a choice under "Navigation" in their apps that I don't see. So when I get to Sunset without a light I don't have to make a left. The amazing thing about the technology economy is there are no answers, no one to ask for help. You Google and you Google and sometimes...you come up with nothing, no explanation at all.
I decide to let Victor go his own way. And find out he's been driving for Uber for three years. You see, he needs the money. He retired, but now he's got grandchildren, and it's so much harder to make it today, costs are through the roof and you can't depend on the company and...
Tell me about it.
He's from Ecuador. Emigrated to the U.S. and then enlisted in the armed forces. Wait a minute, at that age, did he go to Vietnam?
Indeed he did. Was over there for a year. Worked in the medical tent.
But I couldn't get much more out of him, the degree to which he was affected by the experience. But I did learn he goes back to Ecuador every three years, although so many have moved on. His sister to Venezuela and then to Spain. His friend to Argentina. You go where the money is, everybody's trying to get along.
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Sean went from West Hollywood to Malibu for twelve bucks.
I'm on the cusp of being able to drive my own car. The doctor said I'll be done healing in two weeks, and then the strengthening begins. This has been quite an ordeal. I'm used to surgeries where you start off the worst and then gradually get better. Here, you heal and then... I'm going to physical therapy, we had a breakthrough on Monday, she can lift my arm back a hundred and twenty degrees. But there's still pain.
So when I can't get Felice's car, I'm Ubering.
Now relative to the cost of this ordeal, this operation, any Uber rides I take are de minimis. That's what they don't tell you about the health care system, that even if you have insurance it's expensive. I've got a two thousand dollar deductible, I've met that...but you get bills from doctors you didn't even know existed, who helped out in the operating room, inserting the bovine patch, I got a bill for that too and...
All's to say I guess I shouldn't worry about the price of Uber.
But I do.
And when Sean told me he uses Uber Pool and not only is it cheap but there's usually no one else along for the ride...
I decided to take the plunge. Especially now that I don't have to wear my sling, now that I'm less uptight about sharing the back seat with another person.
Yesterday I rode from Sherman Oaks to Beverly Hills for $6.59.
Even better, I rode back in TRAFFIC, on the freeway, for five bucks.
And there was no one else along.
But today I couldn't get a pickup. The app kept requesting and twice drivers accepted and then rejected. So, if you're in a hurry, maybe Uber Pool isn't the best option. Or maybe, it's just that you can't count on it for a pickup.
And like everything else in life, the price will go up.
But right now, it's a bargain.
2
On the way back from lunch with Craig Kallman, who regaled me with stories of Atlantic breakthroughs, most notably Melanie Martinez, who sold 500,000 copies of her album despite getting no airplay, I got into the Civic of an Indian man and the windows were down, the radio was blasting and the seat was pushed back. Should I say something?
He's gonna pay in gas if the A/C is on. And he's been driving all day long, is he really gonna want to listen to me call my mom?
But my mother wasn't there, so I got this guy's story.
His wife died of cancer. Three years ago. He was working in the clothing business, but now he's staying home, he's looking after his seventeen year old daughter.
Now it's amazing what people will tell you. He worked for a company and then opened his own. He was grossing 500k and netting 200k. Pretty good money! All his expenses were deductible, mostly going to trade shows and renting booths and paying or hotels. And the billing? Thirty days! Oftentimes people just gave him their credit card and he sat on the number for a month. Had he ever been beaten? A couple of times, but that's the cost of doing business.
I never did ask him to roll up the windows. I had enough legroom. He turned down the radio when we began to talk. Driving was like the early sixties, when no one had A/C and we'd roll along with the wind in our hair, cooling off, not cocooned but feeling nature. It was a refreshing twist.
3
Today's driver was from Honduras. He used to work in quality control, but the company was sold and he lost his job and now he's driving Uber...this was his third day!
And his car was tiny, a Chevy Aveo. I was worried about getting squashed like a bug on the freeway. But Roberto was oh-so-nice.
You see he had bladder cancer. And went to the U.S. for treatment. He was cured, but it cost him a fortune to bring the rest of his family here.
And now, he's starting a church. He's been a pastor for ten years.
He wanted to know if I was a Christian.
Oh no, here we go.
I decided to tell him I was Jewish. And he lit up! HE was a quarter Jewish! On his mother's side. They'd come from Spain to Honduras, he'd done the genealogy, his church had advised it, and when he saw his relatives printed out he cried.
And there began an intertwining of religion and personal traumas.
He peed blood. His wife prayed for him. He believed the cancer had come back, after all, it had once spread throughout his body. But his doctor, a saint, Carmen somebody or other, told him he was cancer free, that it was just an infection, it was a miracle!
But he was supposed to be dead anyway.
You see he'd been in Ecuador on a sales trip, before he moved to the States, and he'd gotten sick and missed his flight and the plane had crashed. Everybody died, I could look it up.
4
And now I was getting wary. After my appointment in Brentwood I didn't know if Uber Pool would pick me up.
But I got a ride right away.
At least that's what the app said.
And I'm tracking the car, and it's a block away, and then it turns away.
Okay. This is why they call it "Pool," he's going to pick someone else up. And it was a he, I could see in the app.
And I'm thinking Uber Pool is for people with a lot of time, who favored money over everything else, I figured I was done.
But the car never stopped. It kept twisting and turning down the roads as if in a video game. What was happening?
And then I saw the Civic a block away, with its lights flashing. Obviously it was stopping to pick up someone at the restaurant. I didn't have to get home right away, but I'm not that cheap, this is ridiculous.
But finally the car pulled up to me.
And there was no one in it.
You see I was traveling with Mister Magoo. A septuagenarian in a ball cap who could barely see over the console.
And he spoke like Gilbert Gottfried when he imitates Groucho Marx. You've heard that on Howard, right?
And I'm wondering whether to give him directions or let him go his own way. You see drivers are addicted to Waze, but sometimes the app adds unneeded complication. Meanwhile, re Waze, how come my app doesn't allow me to eliminate hazardous intersections and everybody else's does? There's a choice under "Navigation" in their apps that I don't see. So when I get to Sunset without a light I don't have to make a left. The amazing thing about the technology economy is there are no answers, no one to ask for help. You Google and you Google and sometimes...you come up with nothing, no explanation at all.
I decide to let Victor go his own way. And find out he's been driving for Uber for three years. You see, he needs the money. He retired, but now he's got grandchildren, and it's so much harder to make it today, costs are through the roof and you can't depend on the company and...
Tell me about it.
He's from Ecuador. Emigrated to the U.S. and then enlisted in the armed forces. Wait a minute, at that age, did he go to Vietnam?
Indeed he did. Was over there for a year. Worked in the medical tent.
But I couldn't get much more out of him, the degree to which he was affected by the experience. But I did learn he goes back to Ecuador every three years, although so many have moved on. His sister to Venezuela and then to Spain. His friend to Argentina. You go where the money is, everybody's trying to get along.
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Monday 8 August 2016
Let Me Love You
Spotify: https://goo.gl/rUsUHL
YouTube: https://goo.gl/PXPRhL
Maybe this is the song of the summer.
They said EDM was dead, but it's bigger than ever, it's taken over the Top Forty, this is a stone cold SMASH!
Prognosticators pointed to the Major Lazer cut, "Cold Water," and that satisfies but it's missing that je ne sais quoi, that something extra that puts a track over the top. "Let Me Love You" has it. It's a one listen get.
We thought Diplo was the genius, but after this we've got to re-evaluate, maybe it's DJ Snake.
I was lamenting the days of coherence, when we were addicted to the radio, when we waited endlessly for our favorites to come on and experienced three minutes of bliss before we began to go through withdrawal, our only savior the track itself, which we waited once again to hear, which we went out and bought, so we could repeat it endlessly until we burned out on it, transferred our loyalty to a new hit.
It was not supposed to be this way.
The popsters bolstered by the Max Martin/Dr. Luke hit machine were supposed to rule, those tracks fronted by women who could appeal to the little girls who sustain careers today, can you say "Taylor Swift"?
But the biggest cut on Spotify last year was the Diplo/DJ Snake concoction "Lean On," three minutes of sheer magic, something that got you lockin' and poppin' instantly, there hasn't been a song that caused your body to move so fast and rhythmically since the "Twist."
Well, not sure I'd take that to the bank, it's just that I'm not a dancer, but every time I heard "Lean On" I couldn't help but boogie, hiking the Backbone Trail, sitting in front of the computer.
"Let Me Love You" is different. It's late night, after midnight, whereas "Lean On" was for when the drugs kicked in, it took the party into high gear.
And "Let Me Love You" is not quite as special as the hits from Justin Bieber's solo record, but DJ Snake said that was the best project of the past year. I learned that via Genius, which is now integrated into Spotify, who knew? I was riding the recumbent bike and I read not only the lyrics, but the whole backstory on the track, it was a mini-Wikipedia page, right there in the app, which was especially good since Wikipedia had BUPKES!
What is that SOUND! The one that resembles a double bass poured through a flanger? That's the difference between today's music and the old stuff, it's all about the sounds, they're the hooks. And the songs are packed with them.
Oh, we had great sounds in the past. But now they're all electronic, they all live in the box, and despite being inhuman they enrapture us nonetheless.
And then when Justin Bieber begins to sing...
"We used to believe
We were burnin' on the edge of somethin' beautiful"
We're all optimistic at heart, we're all hopeful, we want love, even the guys in all black who believe punk rules... Ever see them with their babies kitted out in Ramones t-shirts?
But it's the pre-chorus that puts the track over the top.
"Say, go through the darkest of days
Heaven's a heartbreak away
Never let you go, never let me down
Oh, it's been a hell of a ride
Driving the edge of a knife
Never let you go, never let me down"
It's like you're driving up PCH and you just downshifted, dropped gears, you can feel the torque.
"Don't you give up, nah-nah-nah
I won't give up, nah-nah-nah
Let me love you
Let me love you"
What a message in these turbulent times, where we're afraid one candidate will take us on a left turn into oblivion and the other just promises more of the same and terrorists run free... Music is supposed to help us escape, it's supposed to provide an alternative universe, one in which we're understood and smile.
That's right, "Let Me Love You" cocoons you. That's its magic.
It's not a novelty track like "Call Me Maybe." Not a wink of the eye scatological number hearkening back to what once was like "Blurred Lines." Rather, "Let Me Love You" is positively modern, it's brand new. And this is what we're truly looking for. The media follows the horse race, it wants something flashy it can promote, that's what the song of the summer has become.
But just like every August there's a sleeper flick that takes over the public consciousness...
Now there's a track that has snuck up on us as the days are getting shorter and the air is getting cooler that works not only in the summer but the fall, at home and in the club.
Oh, what a strange world we live in. Where a French DJ dominates and a supposedly over the hill adolescent pop star has a second act even better than the first.
I love it!
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YouTube: https://goo.gl/PXPRhL
Maybe this is the song of the summer.
They said EDM was dead, but it's bigger than ever, it's taken over the Top Forty, this is a stone cold SMASH!
Prognosticators pointed to the Major Lazer cut, "Cold Water," and that satisfies but it's missing that je ne sais quoi, that something extra that puts a track over the top. "Let Me Love You" has it. It's a one listen get.
We thought Diplo was the genius, but after this we've got to re-evaluate, maybe it's DJ Snake.
I was lamenting the days of coherence, when we were addicted to the radio, when we waited endlessly for our favorites to come on and experienced three minutes of bliss before we began to go through withdrawal, our only savior the track itself, which we waited once again to hear, which we went out and bought, so we could repeat it endlessly until we burned out on it, transferred our loyalty to a new hit.
It was not supposed to be this way.
The popsters bolstered by the Max Martin/Dr. Luke hit machine were supposed to rule, those tracks fronted by women who could appeal to the little girls who sustain careers today, can you say "Taylor Swift"?
But the biggest cut on Spotify last year was the Diplo/DJ Snake concoction "Lean On," three minutes of sheer magic, something that got you lockin' and poppin' instantly, there hasn't been a song that caused your body to move so fast and rhythmically since the "Twist."
Well, not sure I'd take that to the bank, it's just that I'm not a dancer, but every time I heard "Lean On" I couldn't help but boogie, hiking the Backbone Trail, sitting in front of the computer.
"Let Me Love You" is different. It's late night, after midnight, whereas "Lean On" was for when the drugs kicked in, it took the party into high gear.
And "Let Me Love You" is not quite as special as the hits from Justin Bieber's solo record, but DJ Snake said that was the best project of the past year. I learned that via Genius, which is now integrated into Spotify, who knew? I was riding the recumbent bike and I read not only the lyrics, but the whole backstory on the track, it was a mini-Wikipedia page, right there in the app, which was especially good since Wikipedia had BUPKES!
What is that SOUND! The one that resembles a double bass poured through a flanger? That's the difference between today's music and the old stuff, it's all about the sounds, they're the hooks. And the songs are packed with them.
Oh, we had great sounds in the past. But now they're all electronic, they all live in the box, and despite being inhuman they enrapture us nonetheless.
And then when Justin Bieber begins to sing...
"We used to believe
We were burnin' on the edge of somethin' beautiful"
We're all optimistic at heart, we're all hopeful, we want love, even the guys in all black who believe punk rules... Ever see them with their babies kitted out in Ramones t-shirts?
But it's the pre-chorus that puts the track over the top.
"Say, go through the darkest of days
Heaven's a heartbreak away
Never let you go, never let me down
Oh, it's been a hell of a ride
Driving the edge of a knife
Never let you go, never let me down"
It's like you're driving up PCH and you just downshifted, dropped gears, you can feel the torque.
"Don't you give up, nah-nah-nah
I won't give up, nah-nah-nah
Let me love you
Let me love you"
What a message in these turbulent times, where we're afraid one candidate will take us on a left turn into oblivion and the other just promises more of the same and terrorists run free... Music is supposed to help us escape, it's supposed to provide an alternative universe, one in which we're understood and smile.
That's right, "Let Me Love You" cocoons you. That's its magic.
It's not a novelty track like "Call Me Maybe." Not a wink of the eye scatological number hearkening back to what once was like "Blurred Lines." Rather, "Let Me Love You" is positively modern, it's brand new. And this is what we're truly looking for. The media follows the horse race, it wants something flashy it can promote, that's what the song of the summer has become.
But just like every August there's a sleeper flick that takes over the public consciousness...
Now there's a track that has snuck up on us as the days are getting shorter and the air is getting cooler that works not only in the summer but the fall, at home and in the club.
Oh, what a strange world we live in. Where a French DJ dominates and a supposedly over the hill adolescent pop star has a second act even better than the first.
I love it!
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Indignation
I'm reading Philip Roth.
I didn't plan to, I'm not that big a fan. I found "American Pastoral" to be tedious. But I read the reviews of the filmed version of "Indignation" and I became intrigued. I'm a sucker for boy meets goy at small college in the fifties stories, especially when the protagonist is flummoxed and misunderstood.
But "Indignation" was only playing at the Landmark and the screening times were never right and I decided what the hell, I'll read the book first.
I haven't read that much Roth. But I loved "Goodbye Columbus." How can a seminal film be so marginalized? It was Ali MacGraw's debut. she's remembered for the execrable "Love Story," but playing Brenda Patimkin, that's been forgotten.
But the novella was even better.
Even better than "Indignation."
But "Indignation" blew my mind.
It started with the blow job.
You're reading along, to the words of a septuagenarian. You expect dignity. This is not Jennifer Egan testing the limits of noveldom, this is an old hand proceeding forthrightly.
And then Marcus gets an unforeseen blow job and just can't handle it.
What do they say, you never want your dreams to come true?
Anybody that interested in him, he wants nothing to do with.
So he ignores her and she ignores him and he becomes further infatuated, he can't do his school work, all he wants to do is see her again, but she refrains.
He sends her letters...
Do you know the torture of being a red-blooded American male? Neither the techno-nerd nor the movie star? The movie star can get laid whenever he wants. The nerd holds his own, until his wealth allows him to penetrate a member of the opposite sex, sometimes the same sex, and be seen all over the media as triumphant. While the rest of us, in the middle...live in our heads.
Oh, if you could see inside. Into the men who never share, because it connotes weakness. You'd see the over-inflation, the feeling that Jennifer Aniston is just an ask away. And the incredible denigration, the belief that we're not attractive to anyone and we'll never get laid again.
So we plot. And we write. And we fantasize. And we think. And when someone deigns to actually like us, for us, we can't believe it. After all, we don't even like OURSELVES!
And then comes the famous eighteen minute scene. That's what the reviews have focused on, one extended interaction between student and dean.
Do you fit in?
Maybe you do. But not me. Not only have I often felt to be the outsider, I've chafed at the system, I can recite countless times I got in trouble with the authorities.
Like the time I put my feet on the desk in law school. The professor challenged me, believing I was a sleeping doofus who had not done the reading. But when I asked him a question he couldn't answer he kicked me out of class, told me to never come back.
But that was in L.A.
In Middlebury, Vermont... I was way out of my element. I went to a melting pot high school with plenty of Jews. I ended up at a college where 45% of the students went to prep school and they all thought studying was the highest calling of a student. Give me a break. What about skiing and music? No, got to go to the library.
I'm lucky I escaped. Sometime I'll tell you the story.
But in "Indignation" the dean criticizes Marcus's personality. Says there must be something wrong with him because he keeps changing rooms.
Has this ever happened to you? Where your whole being has been brought into question? How you live your life is seen as false, and you must change? They can break you these people, you're the only one on your own team. And if you screw up and get kicked out what are you gonna tell your parents? Yes, even back then, when college was comparatively cheap, our parents slaved to pay for it. And they didn't care what grades you got, as long as you stayed in.
In this case the Marcus didn't stay in. Because ultimately he told the dean...FUCK YOU!
Have you done this?
I have.
I don't anymore. You lose. You have to learn how to play the game. Took me fifty years to realize that. My father never played the game, he taught us to do what was right, not to jump off the bridge just because everybody else did.
And "Indignation" closes with the remark that...
"...and thus have postponed learning what his uneducated father had been trying so hard to teach him all along: of the terrible, incomprehensible way one's most banal, incidental, even comical choices, achieve the most disproportionate result."
It's true. Be yourself all the time, don't calculate, swing for the fences.
And you'll find yourself outside the stadium wondering who stole your glove.
Life is about not making mistakes. Ignore the words of the techies, all the hogwash about failure. The truth is America is a game and either you've got to stand outside it, which is almost impossible to do, or you've got to play it, by its rules. Permanent record indeed. What you've done in the past will come back to haunt you.
And I highly recommend "Indignation." It's short, not always easy to follow, but you'll get there.
And I've yet to see the movie, it's so hard to get out of the house, show up at the appointed time and slow down. Yes, even if I make it to the film I might be too antsy, thinking about business, about life, it's not the seventies anymore, we've got the world at our fingertips, with our mobile devices, and it's so hard to relax.
But I did start another Philip Roth book, "Sabbath's Theater," it's much harder going.
I triangulated, I researched. Although hated as well as loved, people I trusted said this was the best of his late period work.
And Mickey Sabbath is a puppeteer in a bad marriage who can't stop shtupping and fantasizing about his mistress, who is imperfect but exudes raw sexuality.
Those models, those famous people... They're two-dimensional, they're not really who guys have a hard-on for.
Guys go for the chubby ones. The voluptuous ones. The ones who can tie them in a knot, not the ones who haven't eaten since last Tuesday. Can't be thin enough? Then chances are you're not getting laid enough.
Drenka is the wrong side of normal weight. And she's got a very flat nose. But her curves, Mickey is obsessed.
And neither she nor he likes to screw their spouse.
Extramarital activity... It offends my sense of morality. But the truth is we only live once, and Mickey is over sixty and soon his functionality will decline and...
WHY NOT?
That's not the school I come from. I come from the school of suffering, of duty. I bitch about the rules but I obey them. Totally messed up, I know, that's why I go to the shrink. You'd think a rule-breaker like me would fit perfectly into our entrepreneurial society. But no, I want to win in the old world even though I am not fit.
And I'm trying to plow through "Sabbath's Theater." I have a pact with my Kindle, if I buy it, I finish it. But the book is hard going, despite the occasional titillation.
And then I read something so poignant, so right on, that I literally slapped my forehead with my palm, I saw myself in the book, my life became clear.
Sabbath and his goyishe wife are arguing, they're on the verge of breaking up, after decades, and when Mickey's wife tells him to stop shouting...
"'Shouting is IRRATIONAL!' she cried despairingly. 'You cannot think straight if you're shouting! Nor can I!'"
"'Wrong! It's only when I'm shouting that I BEGIN to think straight! It's my rationality that makes me shout! Shouting is how a Jew THINKS THINGS THROUGH!'"
Whew!
Have you seen "Hannah and Her Sisters," where Woody Allen falls in love with the beautiful goy Barbara Hershey (who in real life is Barbara Herzstein and JEWISH, talk about a mindbender...) There's a dinner scene therein where everybody's talking over each other.
That's a Jewish family.
And many Jewish men go for shiksas because they want to avoid that, they want someone to listen to THEM, they want to escape from the craziness, they don't want an authoritative balabusta to terrorize them.
But these non-Jewish women...
They're terrorized by us.
Not a single girlfriend, and they've all been non-Jews, at least the long term ones, has not accused me of of shouting.
My father shouted. I never thought twice about it.
Now I've learned to be calm. But I feel like I've adjusted my personality, like the dean wanted Marcus to do. It's not me.
But then I read this Philip Roth book and he gets it exactly right. The truth is when I am shouting I'M MY BEST SELF! The finest thinker. I don't shout and stutter, I'm clear as a bell, I'm an orator on the dais, I'm laying it all out in an orderly fashion.
But the shiksas are horrified.
I'm trying to figure it all out.
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I didn't plan to, I'm not that big a fan. I found "American Pastoral" to be tedious. But I read the reviews of the filmed version of "Indignation" and I became intrigued. I'm a sucker for boy meets goy at small college in the fifties stories, especially when the protagonist is flummoxed and misunderstood.
But "Indignation" was only playing at the Landmark and the screening times were never right and I decided what the hell, I'll read the book first.
I haven't read that much Roth. But I loved "Goodbye Columbus." How can a seminal film be so marginalized? It was Ali MacGraw's debut. she's remembered for the execrable "Love Story," but playing Brenda Patimkin, that's been forgotten.
But the novella was even better.
Even better than "Indignation."
But "Indignation" blew my mind.
It started with the blow job.
You're reading along, to the words of a septuagenarian. You expect dignity. This is not Jennifer Egan testing the limits of noveldom, this is an old hand proceeding forthrightly.
And then Marcus gets an unforeseen blow job and just can't handle it.
What do they say, you never want your dreams to come true?
Anybody that interested in him, he wants nothing to do with.
So he ignores her and she ignores him and he becomes further infatuated, he can't do his school work, all he wants to do is see her again, but she refrains.
He sends her letters...
Do you know the torture of being a red-blooded American male? Neither the techno-nerd nor the movie star? The movie star can get laid whenever he wants. The nerd holds his own, until his wealth allows him to penetrate a member of the opposite sex, sometimes the same sex, and be seen all over the media as triumphant. While the rest of us, in the middle...live in our heads.
Oh, if you could see inside. Into the men who never share, because it connotes weakness. You'd see the over-inflation, the feeling that Jennifer Aniston is just an ask away. And the incredible denigration, the belief that we're not attractive to anyone and we'll never get laid again.
So we plot. And we write. And we fantasize. And we think. And when someone deigns to actually like us, for us, we can't believe it. After all, we don't even like OURSELVES!
And then comes the famous eighteen minute scene. That's what the reviews have focused on, one extended interaction between student and dean.
Do you fit in?
Maybe you do. But not me. Not only have I often felt to be the outsider, I've chafed at the system, I can recite countless times I got in trouble with the authorities.
Like the time I put my feet on the desk in law school. The professor challenged me, believing I was a sleeping doofus who had not done the reading. But when I asked him a question he couldn't answer he kicked me out of class, told me to never come back.
But that was in L.A.
In Middlebury, Vermont... I was way out of my element. I went to a melting pot high school with plenty of Jews. I ended up at a college where 45% of the students went to prep school and they all thought studying was the highest calling of a student. Give me a break. What about skiing and music? No, got to go to the library.
I'm lucky I escaped. Sometime I'll tell you the story.
But in "Indignation" the dean criticizes Marcus's personality. Says there must be something wrong with him because he keeps changing rooms.
Has this ever happened to you? Where your whole being has been brought into question? How you live your life is seen as false, and you must change? They can break you these people, you're the only one on your own team. And if you screw up and get kicked out what are you gonna tell your parents? Yes, even back then, when college was comparatively cheap, our parents slaved to pay for it. And they didn't care what grades you got, as long as you stayed in.
In this case the Marcus didn't stay in. Because ultimately he told the dean...FUCK YOU!
Have you done this?
I have.
I don't anymore. You lose. You have to learn how to play the game. Took me fifty years to realize that. My father never played the game, he taught us to do what was right, not to jump off the bridge just because everybody else did.
And "Indignation" closes with the remark that...
"...and thus have postponed learning what his uneducated father had been trying so hard to teach him all along: of the terrible, incomprehensible way one's most banal, incidental, even comical choices, achieve the most disproportionate result."
It's true. Be yourself all the time, don't calculate, swing for the fences.
And you'll find yourself outside the stadium wondering who stole your glove.
Life is about not making mistakes. Ignore the words of the techies, all the hogwash about failure. The truth is America is a game and either you've got to stand outside it, which is almost impossible to do, or you've got to play it, by its rules. Permanent record indeed. What you've done in the past will come back to haunt you.
And I highly recommend "Indignation." It's short, not always easy to follow, but you'll get there.
And I've yet to see the movie, it's so hard to get out of the house, show up at the appointed time and slow down. Yes, even if I make it to the film I might be too antsy, thinking about business, about life, it's not the seventies anymore, we've got the world at our fingertips, with our mobile devices, and it's so hard to relax.
But I did start another Philip Roth book, "Sabbath's Theater," it's much harder going.
I triangulated, I researched. Although hated as well as loved, people I trusted said this was the best of his late period work.
And Mickey Sabbath is a puppeteer in a bad marriage who can't stop shtupping and fantasizing about his mistress, who is imperfect but exudes raw sexuality.
Those models, those famous people... They're two-dimensional, they're not really who guys have a hard-on for.
Guys go for the chubby ones. The voluptuous ones. The ones who can tie them in a knot, not the ones who haven't eaten since last Tuesday. Can't be thin enough? Then chances are you're not getting laid enough.
Drenka is the wrong side of normal weight. And she's got a very flat nose. But her curves, Mickey is obsessed.
And neither she nor he likes to screw their spouse.
Extramarital activity... It offends my sense of morality. But the truth is we only live once, and Mickey is over sixty and soon his functionality will decline and...
WHY NOT?
That's not the school I come from. I come from the school of suffering, of duty. I bitch about the rules but I obey them. Totally messed up, I know, that's why I go to the shrink. You'd think a rule-breaker like me would fit perfectly into our entrepreneurial society. But no, I want to win in the old world even though I am not fit.
And I'm trying to plow through "Sabbath's Theater." I have a pact with my Kindle, if I buy it, I finish it. But the book is hard going, despite the occasional titillation.
And then I read something so poignant, so right on, that I literally slapped my forehead with my palm, I saw myself in the book, my life became clear.
Sabbath and his goyishe wife are arguing, they're on the verge of breaking up, after decades, and when Mickey's wife tells him to stop shouting...
"'Shouting is IRRATIONAL!' she cried despairingly. 'You cannot think straight if you're shouting! Nor can I!'"
"'Wrong! It's only when I'm shouting that I BEGIN to think straight! It's my rationality that makes me shout! Shouting is how a Jew THINKS THINGS THROUGH!'"
Whew!
Have you seen "Hannah and Her Sisters," where Woody Allen falls in love with the beautiful goy Barbara Hershey (who in real life is Barbara Herzstein and JEWISH, talk about a mindbender...) There's a dinner scene therein where everybody's talking over each other.
That's a Jewish family.
And many Jewish men go for shiksas because they want to avoid that, they want someone to listen to THEM, they want to escape from the craziness, they don't want an authoritative balabusta to terrorize them.
But these non-Jewish women...
They're terrorized by us.
Not a single girlfriend, and they've all been non-Jews, at least the long term ones, has not accused me of of shouting.
My father shouted. I never thought twice about it.
Now I've learned to be calm. But I feel like I've adjusted my personality, like the dean wanted Marcus to do. It's not me.
But then I read this Philip Roth book and he gets it exactly right. The truth is when I am shouting I'M MY BEST SELF! The finest thinker. I don't shout and stutter, I'm clear as a bell, I'm an orator on the dais, I'm laying it all out in an orderly fashion.
But the shiksas are horrified.
I'm trying to figure it all out.
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Sunday 7 August 2016
Saturday Night At Nobu
The first person I saw was Arianna Huffington.
On the east coast it's the Hamptons.
On the west it's Malibu.
And if you haven't been to either, you've got no idea it's even further over the top than you think it is, if you think of it at all.
Where I grew up, in Southern Connecticut, there was a ferry to Long Island. I never took it. The Hamptons were only a hop, skip and a jump away, but this is when you yearned to go to the Cape, Cod that is. The hoi polloi went to Hyannis. Yes, where the Kennedys were. I remember going there as a child and then right before I started college, just after I'd purchased the Moody Blues' "A Question Of Balance." In reality, this was the turning point, from credible to repetitive, but I didn't know that yet, I hadn't fully immersed myself in the LP, which was packed up back in CT, there were no iPods, never mind Walkmen. And I would have liked the record to keep me company, because it rained three and a half of the four days.
But it never rains in Southern California. Certainly not during the summer. Sure, happens every once in a while, but your odds of experiencing it are only slightly better than finding Bigfoot.
Now it used to be that Nobu was in a shopping center. A mess of buildings near the city center. But then it moved to the beach.
But the ocean is not the star.
Right next to the restaurant is a structure that's been unable to find its way. It recently became a Soho House. Wanna know how someone's a poseur? They go there. They don't have their own house at the beach, they think the trappings make them fabulous. But the reason I mention the Soho House at all is now you can't get into the parking lot. I'm stunned some techie hasn't disrupted valet parking, the college-aged workers shuffling the Lamborghinis and the Porsches were completely flummoxed, we waited nearly half an hour to get out, and it wasn't only us, Jeffrey Katzenberg had to wait quite a while for his Tesla.
So the first thing you encounter is the hangers-on. Impossibly thin women, not far beyond puberty, hanging with their scruffy boyfriends. That's right, the more the women put on their look, the more casual the boys become. Then again, do these women really want to trade up? At Nobu, you go to be seen, your goal is to worm yourself inside. That's L.A. In New York you cobble together a resume and work your prep school connections to get ahead. In L.A. you spice up your image, practice your line of b.s., and then go on duty.
But you can't get close to the movers and shakers. Some of whom come with their bodyguards.
We had the best table in the restaurant, even better than Larry Ellison's, and he owns the place. You see my dinner compatriot had done the manager a few favors, that's how it works, even still in the music business.
But we were not household names.
Arianna and Larry were at the same table. Two away. And then I realized their dinner companion was David Mamet, he had his back to us, but I recognized his glasses and his square frame. And...I wanted to be there, to get in on that conversation.
I hate Arianna, she's a tireless self-promoter. And I used to love Mamet, before he skewed to the right politically. Have you seen "House Of Games"? That's enough to hang a career on. As for Larry? He earned it. That's right, he started Oracle, hard to argue with that.
But I was becoming deflated.
Now it's Nobu. Used to be Ma Maison. There have always been places you could see the stars, if not quite rub elbows with them. Which is a thrill if you grew up in the suburbs. The closest I ever came to a star back home is when I saw Bette Davis autographing books in Klein's on the Westport strip. Nobody I grew up with was famous, and when I first moved to L.A. I'd go up and say hi. Now I know that's a no-no and I never do.
But when you first get here you have dreams.
Forty years later I was confronted with the fact I'd never be an insider, I'd never get to the right table, I'd never hang with the famous names. Sure, I've met a bunch of musicians, but they no longer rule. And to tell you the truth, I always get uptight in the aftermath. They e-mail and they phone, exactly what am I supposed to say to them? It's like the door has opened but I'm paralyzed, I can't walk through, I don't have the skill, to just be one of the guys, to be fabulous and use each other to get ahead, to bask in each other's glory, I'm still just...nobody from nowhere, a gulf between me and them and wide as the Grand Canyon.
But then Justin Timberlake sat down next to us. With his bride Jessica Biel and the aforementioned Katzenberg and his wife. They could not have been closer, but they were still so far away.
I remember seeing JT when he was still in 'N Sync. Now he's a power player. How did he do this? What's in his DNA, how did he become so comfortable in his own skin?
Michael Milken shuffled by to a seat close to the water but not so desirable. Sam Zell wasn't quite in Siberia, but he didn't have an A-table. Taylor Hawkins was behind us, but...I don't think anybody recognized him.
Not that there were many looky-loos. If you were out on the patio on a Saturday night you were already someone, maybe just not enough of a someone. As for those inside and at the bar...the ones looking for their chance, never mind those on the deck outside, they couldn't get close. Hell, as we waited for our cars a guy came up to Timberlake and started talking like they were best friends and Justin looked over his shoulder to his bodyguard and...
You don't want to be this famous, you really don't. With the paparazzi flashing their cameras at you as you get into your car. Yes, that happened, stardom is an eco-system.
As Arianna, Ellison and Mamet got up to leave I realized it was Rebecca Pidgeon whose back I'd been looking at, David's wife, she was walking right by me and...
She's Jasper's cousin. I could have reached out and made the connection.
But I didn't. She was in a bubble. Sashaying and smiling and...
I was so close yet so far away.
And Felice wondered why they even came.
To see and be seen.
Used to be different in NYC. The rich stayed separate. Now, despite flying private they like to take their victory laps, they like to strut amongst those less fortunate, to illustrate their power, to survey their domain and their place in it.
And if you live in L.A. or New York you know this.
If you don't...
You've got no idea what's going on.
Take some Trump and Bernie voters to Nobu on a Saturday night and there'd be spontaneous revolution. If the less than fortunate ever got to see how the other half lives... Not those housewives playacting at being wealthy on national television, but the truly rich movers and shakers... They wouldn't be able to process it.
I'd like to tell you the food was bad.
That everybody looked worse in person.
That they were all jerks.
But the edibles were stupendous.
And everybody looked like their picture.
And when JT got up to say hi to the newly-arrived Jamie Foxx you told yourself...I wanna get me some of that.
But it kept being reinforced that I was too old, that I'd missed my chance.
P.S. Yes, you can put them down. Criticize their career path. State that you're just as happy and they've got nothing over you. But they do. Celebrities rule. And put a recognizable face together with money and you influence the government, you tilt the playing field. And America is all about the dream, almost all of these people are self-made. So, when you're confronted with the truth you wonder...what happened to me, how come I didn't make it?
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On the east coast it's the Hamptons.
On the west it's Malibu.
And if you haven't been to either, you've got no idea it's even further over the top than you think it is, if you think of it at all.
Where I grew up, in Southern Connecticut, there was a ferry to Long Island. I never took it. The Hamptons were only a hop, skip and a jump away, but this is when you yearned to go to the Cape, Cod that is. The hoi polloi went to Hyannis. Yes, where the Kennedys were. I remember going there as a child and then right before I started college, just after I'd purchased the Moody Blues' "A Question Of Balance." In reality, this was the turning point, from credible to repetitive, but I didn't know that yet, I hadn't fully immersed myself in the LP, which was packed up back in CT, there were no iPods, never mind Walkmen. And I would have liked the record to keep me company, because it rained three and a half of the four days.
But it never rains in Southern California. Certainly not during the summer. Sure, happens every once in a while, but your odds of experiencing it are only slightly better than finding Bigfoot.
Now it used to be that Nobu was in a shopping center. A mess of buildings near the city center. But then it moved to the beach.
But the ocean is not the star.
Right next to the restaurant is a structure that's been unable to find its way. It recently became a Soho House. Wanna know how someone's a poseur? They go there. They don't have their own house at the beach, they think the trappings make them fabulous. But the reason I mention the Soho House at all is now you can't get into the parking lot. I'm stunned some techie hasn't disrupted valet parking, the college-aged workers shuffling the Lamborghinis and the Porsches were completely flummoxed, we waited nearly half an hour to get out, and it wasn't only us, Jeffrey Katzenberg had to wait quite a while for his Tesla.
So the first thing you encounter is the hangers-on. Impossibly thin women, not far beyond puberty, hanging with their scruffy boyfriends. That's right, the more the women put on their look, the more casual the boys become. Then again, do these women really want to trade up? At Nobu, you go to be seen, your goal is to worm yourself inside. That's L.A. In New York you cobble together a resume and work your prep school connections to get ahead. In L.A. you spice up your image, practice your line of b.s., and then go on duty.
But you can't get close to the movers and shakers. Some of whom come with their bodyguards.
We had the best table in the restaurant, even better than Larry Ellison's, and he owns the place. You see my dinner compatriot had done the manager a few favors, that's how it works, even still in the music business.
But we were not household names.
Arianna and Larry were at the same table. Two away. And then I realized their dinner companion was David Mamet, he had his back to us, but I recognized his glasses and his square frame. And...I wanted to be there, to get in on that conversation.
I hate Arianna, she's a tireless self-promoter. And I used to love Mamet, before he skewed to the right politically. Have you seen "House Of Games"? That's enough to hang a career on. As for Larry? He earned it. That's right, he started Oracle, hard to argue with that.
But I was becoming deflated.
Now it's Nobu. Used to be Ma Maison. There have always been places you could see the stars, if not quite rub elbows with them. Which is a thrill if you grew up in the suburbs. The closest I ever came to a star back home is when I saw Bette Davis autographing books in Klein's on the Westport strip. Nobody I grew up with was famous, and when I first moved to L.A. I'd go up and say hi. Now I know that's a no-no and I never do.
But when you first get here you have dreams.
Forty years later I was confronted with the fact I'd never be an insider, I'd never get to the right table, I'd never hang with the famous names. Sure, I've met a bunch of musicians, but they no longer rule. And to tell you the truth, I always get uptight in the aftermath. They e-mail and they phone, exactly what am I supposed to say to them? It's like the door has opened but I'm paralyzed, I can't walk through, I don't have the skill, to just be one of the guys, to be fabulous and use each other to get ahead, to bask in each other's glory, I'm still just...nobody from nowhere, a gulf between me and them and wide as the Grand Canyon.
But then Justin Timberlake sat down next to us. With his bride Jessica Biel and the aforementioned Katzenberg and his wife. They could not have been closer, but they were still so far away.
I remember seeing JT when he was still in 'N Sync. Now he's a power player. How did he do this? What's in his DNA, how did he become so comfortable in his own skin?
Michael Milken shuffled by to a seat close to the water but not so desirable. Sam Zell wasn't quite in Siberia, but he didn't have an A-table. Taylor Hawkins was behind us, but...I don't think anybody recognized him.
Not that there were many looky-loos. If you were out on the patio on a Saturday night you were already someone, maybe just not enough of a someone. As for those inside and at the bar...the ones looking for their chance, never mind those on the deck outside, they couldn't get close. Hell, as we waited for our cars a guy came up to Timberlake and started talking like they were best friends and Justin looked over his shoulder to his bodyguard and...
You don't want to be this famous, you really don't. With the paparazzi flashing their cameras at you as you get into your car. Yes, that happened, stardom is an eco-system.
As Arianna, Ellison and Mamet got up to leave I realized it was Rebecca Pidgeon whose back I'd been looking at, David's wife, she was walking right by me and...
She's Jasper's cousin. I could have reached out and made the connection.
But I didn't. She was in a bubble. Sashaying and smiling and...
I was so close yet so far away.
And Felice wondered why they even came.
To see and be seen.
Used to be different in NYC. The rich stayed separate. Now, despite flying private they like to take their victory laps, they like to strut amongst those less fortunate, to illustrate their power, to survey their domain and their place in it.
And if you live in L.A. or New York you know this.
If you don't...
You've got no idea what's going on.
Take some Trump and Bernie voters to Nobu on a Saturday night and there'd be spontaneous revolution. If the less than fortunate ever got to see how the other half lives... Not those housewives playacting at being wealthy on national television, but the truly rich movers and shakers... They wouldn't be able to process it.
I'd like to tell you the food was bad.
That everybody looked worse in person.
That they were all jerks.
But the edibles were stupendous.
And everybody looked like their picture.
And when JT got up to say hi to the newly-arrived Jamie Foxx you told yourself...I wanna get me some of that.
But it kept being reinforced that I was too old, that I'd missed my chance.
P.S. Yes, you can put them down. Criticize their career path. State that you're just as happy and they've got nothing over you. But they do. Celebrities rule. And put a recognizable face together with money and you influence the government, you tilt the playing field. And America is all about the dream, almost all of these people are self-made. So, when you're confronted with the truth you wonder...what happened to me, how come I didn't make it?
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