https://spoti.fi/2wrg2Jq
I remember exactly where I was the first time I heard "Sweet Home Alabama."
I'd graduated from college only months before. Talk about a weird experience. What am I gonna do next?
In my case I was gonna be a ski bum in Little Cottonwood Canyon, i.e. Alta & Snowbird. My final year of college was the worst snow year in history, like Depeche Mode, I just couldn't get enough, but that was years before that track came out.
My father had bought me a new car for graduation. I didn't want one, I had a '63 Chevy convertible, although I was a bit anxious about it, it didn't have a low gear, so going down the canyon... And my father wanted me to get a Capri, which I did not want, he'd gotten screwed by the Lincoln/Mercury dealer, they'd sold him a lemon and he could squeeze out a good deal on the Capri, but I said no. And then one day my mother told me my father really wanted to buy me a car, which is how I ended up with my 2002, which was a demonstrator, even so, 6k was a lot of money back in '74. And I insisted upon two things inside, a/c, since my father kept testifying about its necessity, and a Blaupunkt AM/FM cassette radio. Morris first balked at the a/c, which cost $600, which brought the price to said 6k, but the radio was included, and I made twenty four Maxell cassettes for my trip to Utah, but whenever I hit a metropolis I tuned in the local FM station, to find something new.
And this morning in St. Louis they were doing construction, and it was raining, and I was reaching to the dial, since that head unit had no push buttons, not that I'd know the stations in St. Louis, and as I passed a gas station on the left, that's when I heard "Sweet Home Alabama."
This was just when "Free Bird" was becoming legendary, but before Lynyrd Skynyrd had been inducted into the pantheon, after all, they were working for MCA, the worst label in the business, even worse than RCA.
And the reason I remember hearing "Sweet Home Alabama" that day was because the track was so great, no other band had three lead guitarists, oh, the Outlaws copied them, but this was a new sound, the Allmans might have had two drummers, but three guitarists, what was the point, Cream only had one, but they danced together, entwined each other, came up with a complex sound that was so simple.
One of those guitars, one of the writers of the song, was Ed King.
He'd started out in the Strawberry Alarm Clock, who I'd seen at Fairfield University, but I'm not sure he was in the touring group, but he probably was, this was right after "Incense and Peppermints," another one listen track that sounded like nothing else, it was the organ and that spacy guitar, as well as vocals sung like the guy was gasping for air, like someone was pulling him somewhere else but he had to get the words out before he moved on. But this was the sixties, when the soundalikes were ignored and we were bombarded by new sounds constantly. Imagine what it was like to hear "Purple Haze" for the first time, nothing prepared you for it, we don't have breakthroughs like that these days.
But by time Lynyrd Skynyrd came on the scene, times had changed. FM radios were prevalent in cars, and the Allman Brothers were the biggest band in the land, albeit after the passing of Duane, it was "Brothers and Sisters," if I hear "Ramblin' Man" one more time I'm gonna shoot somebody, but I cannot get enough of "Come And Go Blues," with Gregg's husky, soulful voice, I can't believe he's gone, if you survive the maelstrom, you're supposed to last forever, if you made it out of the seventies, you should still be here, but Gregg is not.
And Lynyrd Skynyrd were perceived as me-too at first, and not in the sexual harassment way, even though that was rampant in rock and roll those days. They fought their way to the top, failed sessions in Muscle Shoals, but then Al Kooper signed them to his Sounds of the South label and they fought it out on the road. But, just after the first LP came out, while Al was still living and cutting in Hot 'Lanta, he got a call from the band, they had a new song, could they come up and cut it.
That's right, "Sweet Home Alabama" was cut in the fall of '73, even though it was not released until a year later, it sat in the can. And I asked Al if he knew, what a monster it was gonna be, and Al looked me in the eye and said...IT WAS SWEET HOME ALABAMA!
Only the amateurs can't tell a hit. You strive forever, trying to get it right, but when you hit it far over the fence, you know, even though it's so hard to do. Casual hits may make it via accident, but the legends are inevitable, like "Sweet Home Alabama."
They made a movie with that title, Kid Rock linked it with "Werewolves Of London" to dominate the charts in 2008, but the truth is the original is the apotheosis, a legend in a bottle, the lightning we're always waiting to strike us.
"Big wheels keep on turning
Carry me home to see my kin"
I always thought this was a "Proud Mary" reference, even if unconscious. Those big wheels, on the water, on the interstate, lull you into a state of suspended animation, alternately frustration and bliss.
He heard Neil Young sing about her.
In Birmingham they love the governor.
Watergate does not bother Ronnie Van Zant.
He stood up to the paragon of rock, who entranced both the boys and the girls before Mr. Young alienated them with "Time Fades Away."
We can analyze all day long whether Van Zant supported the governor or not. As for Watergate, this was written long before resignation, the point is can you let politics distract you from the business you've got to do, unfortunately today you do.
But it was the hook, the lyrics, the piano playing, nothing on the band's debut had prepared us for this.
And Ed King quit before the accident.
And latecomers Steve and Cassie Gaines perished in that plane, as did Ronnie, and for years there was no Lynyrd Skynyrd, there was a Rossington Collins Band, and then the act reunited with bits and pieces until bit by bit, the originals who were left fell by the wayside, to the point the only one now left is Gary Rossington himself.
And Ed King was hiding in plain sight for years, no one ever talked about him, you've got to die to get recognition these days. But if you grew up in that era, if you were an avid reader of liner notes, you knew who Ed King was.
And now he's gone.
But not only him. But an era where everybody wanted to play. Both on and offstage. Music ran the country, everybody was passionate, we judged you on your record collection, and if you made it everybody knew your track and when you went to the show it was clear who were the stars, the people on stage, not you in the audience taking selfies with your smartphone.
Maybe you remember.
Maybe you don't.
But one thing's for sure, the power and magic of "Sweet Home Alabama" maintains. From an era where a band from Jacksonville refused to be pigeonholed as dumb rednecks.
They pick me up when I'm feeling blue.
I know you feel the same way too.
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Friday 24 August 2018
All About Music
"Grab your things
I've come to take you home"
These were not the original lines in "Solsbury Hill," the words had to do with "taxi" and "tube" and Ezrin said there was no way they were going on the LP. And the lyrics you know, the ones above, weren't cut until the very end of mixing Gabriel's initial solo album, when Peter was inspired.
That's why I'm here in Mumbai, for the conference "All About Music." You pay me and put me in the front of the airplane and I'll go just about anywhere, the weirder, the more offbeat, the place people want to go to least, that's for me!
The best place I've been in the last decade is Bogota, because I felt so alive, because everybody had had a relative assassinated, they were living the Grass Roots lifestyle, they were living for today.
And now Mumbai.
Most people won't go to India. I was out with a friend who is a world traveler and he said no way, two people in his building went and one died and the other was sick for three months. And then I was reminded that Howard Rose's wife came and passed when she returned. Was there a connection? No one's sure, but is this the way I want to go? Kinda like on an airplane, you hit the turbulence... I know, I know, that's got nothing to do with crashing, and sometimes I can enjoy the ride, but when an A380 is being buffeted, I start to wonder, how in hell does this thing fly to begin with. That's like so much of today's technology, the fact that it works, if you sit back and think about it, is positively amazing.
So I'm here. And so far I haven't even gotten sick. Then again, I'm paranoid, I'm obeying the rules, and I'm living in the city, I have not gone to the hinterlands.
But I'd like to.
This is the first place I've been to that I haven't been able to figure out. So many people, so hot, but everybody seems to get along. I grew up when going to Manhattan was dangerous, the fact I could be safe in Mumbai..?
Maybe I'm not, maybe I'm ignorant, but that's what they tell me and so far it's true.
But I've seen so little!
I think it comes down to upbringing. Not only did my parents live to travel, they were all about the sights, the hotel room was secondary. The concept of lounging around in a great room was anathema. They wanted to go out and eat up the landscape, and now so do I.
After doing my keynote and sitting on a panel I wondered whether I should go out to this museum about the city, I'm into those places, where they tell you how we got from there to here, there's always a story. And in a world where there's always something to do or see online, you've got to tear yourself away from the computer. Then again, denigrating the smartphone and web is akin to yesterday's badge of honor of waking up early after little sleep. Now everyone agrees that sleep is the key to creativity and productivity and I do believe tomorrow everybody will be trumpeting the advantages of smartphones, sure, I'm online so much, but I enjoy it, all that knowledge at my fingertips, the only lament I have is they didn't come up with the internet and the smartphone earlier in my life.
When I sat in my bedroom listening to records and feeling lonely.
Oh, I'd go to the show and find other like-minded people.
But so much of what I was into were not hits, like the first Peter Gabriel album. Sure, "Solsbury Hill" is legendary today, but not yesterday, Atlantic didn't even want to put out Peter's third solo album, it came out on Mercury, but now it's considered his best, it eclipses both "So" and "Us" and if you don't agree you're a casual fan, and there we have the era of old, when we used to argue about records, when they were scarce, today there's an avalanche of product and music means less than ever before. Think about that, tracks have become commonplace, they're vehicles to sell merch and sponsorship, we're so far from the garden it's ridiculous.
So I'm trying to figure out the Indian music business, and I can't. I've learned tons, but it reminds me of entering the music business in L.A. way back when, it took me two years to learn who was real and who was not. This is a lesson they don't teach in school. As a matter of fact, that's when you grow up, when you leave school. I'm not saying that you shouldn't go to school, but life begins when you leave, and if you think the world is structured like school, you're wrong. Oh, you can go to work at Procter & Gamble or the law firm and hope you get recognized and move to the top, but if you're smart, and few people are, you now have a chance to invent yourself, carve your own path.
But it's difficult.
I learned that most people are full of shit, they talk a good game but were never going anywhere.
I learned that knowing everything would not get you far, they aren't looking for that kind of talent on the business side, they reward hustlers first and foremost.
I'm still learning.
And I'd like to come back to Mumbai to learn so much more, to all of India, because it's very different from the U.S., but the same.
Kinda like the addiction to filmed entertainment. But unlike in the States, they haven't dumbed down the movies in an effort to appeal to the entire world while satisfying almost no one. Bollywood and Tollywood and Kollywood are all about story. Story wins in this world, it's what life is based upon, it's what we love about books and movies and music... Facts are commonplace, you can look them up online, but can you tell a story?
Ezrin wasn't sure whether to tell stories, or teach production. He started off doing the former, and then spent most of the time giving lessons.
Which I felt were wasted on the audience.
But he asked for a show of hands of those making records...
And almost everybody's shot up.
This shocked me. But that's the world we live in, everybody can be a record producer, everybody can be a musician. That does not mean they'll be a success, but they do get a chance to play.
Oh, how I'd love to have made movies with my smartphone in junior high, To have those tools at my fingertips, to be able to do it for bupkes.
And after an hour, Ezrin asked for questions.
And the first person wanted to know what it was like working with Peter Gabriel.
Ezrin winced and said he was gonna answer this question, but he didn't want more like it, he wanted to stick to production.
Kinda like the moderator earlier today asked Bob how many drugs were consumed making "The Wall." NONE! Everybody was straight, they came in from 10-6 every day, they arrived in their BMWs and they worked until late afternoon, when they took tea and discussed the day's work. Then Pink Floyd went home and Bob worked on into the night.
That's the story of life, everybody lies, everybody's got a misconception. Just because you did drugs listening to an album, that does not mean the makers did. The penumbra is overrated, the drugs and the drinking, that's what the audience does, the innovators, the artists, work really hard, and they fall into drugs when they can't calm down after overworking.
But I was stunned this guy knew who Peter Gabriel was.
And whenever Bob referenced acts from the past, people would applaud. These twenty and thirtysomethings, halfway around the world.
They knew the songs.
That's the power of music.
It has influence, it can transcend cultures, it's more important than any tech or politics, it's what people live for, respect yourself, dig down deep and try to do your best, because the world depends on it.
Even far away in Mumbai.
Listen to Don Henley. At Glenn Frey's memorial he told the story of being in the hinterlands, far from running water, he ran into a native who looked at him and said HOTEL CALIFORNIA, even though it appeared there was no electricity to play music.
People know.
It's got to do with more than money.
Music changes the world. You've just got to go somewhere to see it.
I'm here in India and I realize we're all sustained by the common building blocks. We hear too much about the value of music being respected by businessmen, techies. If only the makers reached higher, respected themselves more, realized the future of our world depends on art. You want to reach someone? SING A SONG!
https://allaboutmusic.in
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I've come to take you home"
These were not the original lines in "Solsbury Hill," the words had to do with "taxi" and "tube" and Ezrin said there was no way they were going on the LP. And the lyrics you know, the ones above, weren't cut until the very end of mixing Gabriel's initial solo album, when Peter was inspired.
That's why I'm here in Mumbai, for the conference "All About Music." You pay me and put me in the front of the airplane and I'll go just about anywhere, the weirder, the more offbeat, the place people want to go to least, that's for me!
The best place I've been in the last decade is Bogota, because I felt so alive, because everybody had had a relative assassinated, they were living the Grass Roots lifestyle, they were living for today.
And now Mumbai.
Most people won't go to India. I was out with a friend who is a world traveler and he said no way, two people in his building went and one died and the other was sick for three months. And then I was reminded that Howard Rose's wife came and passed when she returned. Was there a connection? No one's sure, but is this the way I want to go? Kinda like on an airplane, you hit the turbulence... I know, I know, that's got nothing to do with crashing, and sometimes I can enjoy the ride, but when an A380 is being buffeted, I start to wonder, how in hell does this thing fly to begin with. That's like so much of today's technology, the fact that it works, if you sit back and think about it, is positively amazing.
So I'm here. And so far I haven't even gotten sick. Then again, I'm paranoid, I'm obeying the rules, and I'm living in the city, I have not gone to the hinterlands.
But I'd like to.
This is the first place I've been to that I haven't been able to figure out. So many people, so hot, but everybody seems to get along. I grew up when going to Manhattan was dangerous, the fact I could be safe in Mumbai..?
Maybe I'm not, maybe I'm ignorant, but that's what they tell me and so far it's true.
But I've seen so little!
I think it comes down to upbringing. Not only did my parents live to travel, they were all about the sights, the hotel room was secondary. The concept of lounging around in a great room was anathema. They wanted to go out and eat up the landscape, and now so do I.
After doing my keynote and sitting on a panel I wondered whether I should go out to this museum about the city, I'm into those places, where they tell you how we got from there to here, there's always a story. And in a world where there's always something to do or see online, you've got to tear yourself away from the computer. Then again, denigrating the smartphone and web is akin to yesterday's badge of honor of waking up early after little sleep. Now everyone agrees that sleep is the key to creativity and productivity and I do believe tomorrow everybody will be trumpeting the advantages of smartphones, sure, I'm online so much, but I enjoy it, all that knowledge at my fingertips, the only lament I have is they didn't come up with the internet and the smartphone earlier in my life.
When I sat in my bedroom listening to records and feeling lonely.
Oh, I'd go to the show and find other like-minded people.
But so much of what I was into were not hits, like the first Peter Gabriel album. Sure, "Solsbury Hill" is legendary today, but not yesterday, Atlantic didn't even want to put out Peter's third solo album, it came out on Mercury, but now it's considered his best, it eclipses both "So" and "Us" and if you don't agree you're a casual fan, and there we have the era of old, when we used to argue about records, when they were scarce, today there's an avalanche of product and music means less than ever before. Think about that, tracks have become commonplace, they're vehicles to sell merch and sponsorship, we're so far from the garden it's ridiculous.
So I'm trying to figure out the Indian music business, and I can't. I've learned tons, but it reminds me of entering the music business in L.A. way back when, it took me two years to learn who was real and who was not. This is a lesson they don't teach in school. As a matter of fact, that's when you grow up, when you leave school. I'm not saying that you shouldn't go to school, but life begins when you leave, and if you think the world is structured like school, you're wrong. Oh, you can go to work at Procter & Gamble or the law firm and hope you get recognized and move to the top, but if you're smart, and few people are, you now have a chance to invent yourself, carve your own path.
But it's difficult.
I learned that most people are full of shit, they talk a good game but were never going anywhere.
I learned that knowing everything would not get you far, they aren't looking for that kind of talent on the business side, they reward hustlers first and foremost.
I'm still learning.
And I'd like to come back to Mumbai to learn so much more, to all of India, because it's very different from the U.S., but the same.
Kinda like the addiction to filmed entertainment. But unlike in the States, they haven't dumbed down the movies in an effort to appeal to the entire world while satisfying almost no one. Bollywood and Tollywood and Kollywood are all about story. Story wins in this world, it's what life is based upon, it's what we love about books and movies and music... Facts are commonplace, you can look them up online, but can you tell a story?
Ezrin wasn't sure whether to tell stories, or teach production. He started off doing the former, and then spent most of the time giving lessons.
Which I felt were wasted on the audience.
But he asked for a show of hands of those making records...
And almost everybody's shot up.
This shocked me. But that's the world we live in, everybody can be a record producer, everybody can be a musician. That does not mean they'll be a success, but they do get a chance to play.
Oh, how I'd love to have made movies with my smartphone in junior high, To have those tools at my fingertips, to be able to do it for bupkes.
And after an hour, Ezrin asked for questions.
And the first person wanted to know what it was like working with Peter Gabriel.
Ezrin winced and said he was gonna answer this question, but he didn't want more like it, he wanted to stick to production.
Kinda like the moderator earlier today asked Bob how many drugs were consumed making "The Wall." NONE! Everybody was straight, they came in from 10-6 every day, they arrived in their BMWs and they worked until late afternoon, when they took tea and discussed the day's work. Then Pink Floyd went home and Bob worked on into the night.
That's the story of life, everybody lies, everybody's got a misconception. Just because you did drugs listening to an album, that does not mean the makers did. The penumbra is overrated, the drugs and the drinking, that's what the audience does, the innovators, the artists, work really hard, and they fall into drugs when they can't calm down after overworking.
But I was stunned this guy knew who Peter Gabriel was.
And whenever Bob referenced acts from the past, people would applaud. These twenty and thirtysomethings, halfway around the world.
They knew the songs.
That's the power of music.
It has influence, it can transcend cultures, it's more important than any tech or politics, it's what people live for, respect yourself, dig down deep and try to do your best, because the world depends on it.
Even far away in Mumbai.
Listen to Don Henley. At Glenn Frey's memorial he told the story of being in the hinterlands, far from running water, he ran into a native who looked at him and said HOTEL CALIFORNIA, even though it appeared there was no electricity to play music.
People know.
It's got to do with more than money.
Music changes the world. You've just got to go somewhere to see it.
I'm here in India and I realize we're all sustained by the common building blocks. We hear too much about the value of music being respected by businessmen, techies. If only the makers reached higher, respected themselves more, realized the future of our world depends on art. You want to reach someone? SING A SONG!
https://allaboutmusic.in
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
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Listen to the podcast:
-TuneIn: http://tunein.com/lefsetz
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
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The King Must Die
"And sooner or later
Everybody's kingdom must end"
They misdiagnosed the cause of my car overheating.
I'd just been on the phone with them earlier in the day, scheduling an appointment for major service two weeks hence, then I was ascending the hill on the 405, from the Westside to the Valley, and my car started to overheat. This was not my BMW of the seventies, which was not made for hot weather, which went into the red when you drove up a hill in hundred degree heat, since the day I bought it my Saabaru's temperature gauge has never moved, it heats up to a certain level and stays there, but now it was jumping near the red, and if it gets into the red you must shut the engine down, but when I took my foot off the gas, the engine got cooler, but when I went downhill into Sherman Oaks it got hotter, which is against the principle of a low gear in a standard transmission, so I drove it to the Subaru dealer the following morning where they diagnosed the problem as a failed radiator cap.
This did not sound right to me. And I'm somewhat knowledgeable about cars, because I grew up in the era when they didn't work, when no one had one over 100,000 miles, when everything in my 2002 broke, including the steering wheel. But today cars are so much better, they're kind of like computers, you used to have to know how they worked, now you just press a button and they run, seemingly forever. That's another issue, do you need a new car? Of course you can lease, but that's a bad use of your money, I own, but at what point do you bite the bullet.
I should have bitten the bullet that very day and ponied up for a new car, because after they said it was only the radiator cap I paid $1500 for said major service. And after dinner at CUT with Peter Shapiro, the damn automobile overheated in the same damn place on the 405, so I drove it to the dealer the very next morning where my service writer was unavailable and I tracked down the head mechanic, Darryl. Now, you've got to know Subaru is burgeoning, they used to have one and a half service writers, now they've got five. Used to be Darryl was easily located in a corner of the one and only shop, but now you have to canvass multiple buildings to find him. But I eventually did.
Now you've got to know, Darryl is the best mechanic I've ever encountered, there's no problem he can't diagnose, and after describing all the details of my problem he told me it was a blown head gasket, and when I told him the car was thirteen years old and had 92,000 miles on it he looked me in the eye and said "Get rid of it." Which I would have done, but I was $1500 upside down, damned if I was gonna get burned, especially when I found out it would be $3500 more to fix the damn thing.
That's right, I knew what a blown head gasket was, Darryl described it as "luck of the draw," saying I'd done nothing wrong, and my nephew is the number three BMW salesman in America, but he'd only give me a grand for the machine, and there was no way I could get it to his place in Irvine, so...
They gave me a Crosstrek to drive. I was stunned at how good it was, especially the blind spot warnings, but despite the excellence of Darryl, I do not want another Subaru, they're noisy and technologically antiquated and mine was far from trouble free. That's what they told me, I could make a trade on a new Subaru, which I didn't want. I made it easy for them, they could do one of two things, give me my $1500 back or buy my car from me.
They said they did not buy cars, I said the service center was owned by the same dealership that sold new cars.
They came back and said they'd give me twenty percent off the repair.
I told them it was very simple, they could honor my original offer, cash return or purchase, or I would either cancel payment on the credit card or sue them in small claims court, and I would win, I'm an attorney, it's a clear cut case.
I was shitting a brick, I was in shock, there was no way I was fixing the car for that price.
And that's when Paterno told me to hold my horses, they were already NEGOTIATING!
I didn't get it. But Peter said they'd come down already, to wait to see their next offer, the game had begun.
I was anxious, I saw no way I could win, they held most of the cards, and my car and my cash.
But an hour later they called with an offer. How about if they charged me for parts and they ate all the labor?
I said yes.
Now ultimately my car is back on the road, I authorized a couple of more repairs, since they were not charging me labor on anything they did, and there was trouble taking the engine apart, they had to send it to a machine shop, which I had to pay for, but right now the car is in tip-top shape, but I still should have bought a new one.
But that's not my point.
Last night, on Fox of all places, Trump said not to impeach him because the economy would tank.
He's starting to negotiate.
I know, I know, it looked like he was gonna serve out his term, he's survived this long. But as Frank Rich said last year, it took two years for Watergate to play out.
But, you say the Congress will never authorize impeachment.
It probably won't get to that. Because if you know your history, the Republican Senators told Nixon he had to go. Ultimately the Republican Senators are gonna tell Donald Trump to go, if he doesn't declare victory and leave early.
Oh, 25% of the public still supported Nixon when he resigned, that's not the point, it's a game, and Trump just blinked.
It's been a bad week. Trump keeps trumpeting all the good he's done, but so did Nixon.
At some point the camel's back breaks.
And it's kind of how you lose a fortune, very slowly and then all at once.
But most people did not live through Watergate, they've got no perspective. And the news is all about the horse race, who wins or loses the pennant is irrelevant to them. And this week especially has proven there are two teams, I checked the Fox site Tuesday and Cohen and Manafort were not even close to the top. Still aren't. Which makes you think that Trump can survive in this topsy-turvy world, but he won't.
He's begun to negotiate, he's playing defense, which is a bad place to be. Just ask Hillary, just ask the Democrats, they've been playing defense for decades, because the Republicans play offense, all the time. The right wing defines the issues, to the point that Democrats are running away from the demonized Nancy Pelosi.
But now Mueller is defining the game, by sticking to his guns, by being a Republican to begin with.
"I'm so afraid your courtiers
Cannot be called best friends"
So Trump demands loyalty, believing the government should be run like a Mafia family, but Sessions says no go, he's already running from the stink, there comes a time when you defend yourself, like John Dean, because you realize the man in charge is not looking out for you, and you don't want to go down with the ship.
"And if my hands are stained forever
And the altar should refuse me
Would you let me in, would you let me in, would you let me in
Should I cry sanctuary"
No one wants to save Trump other than himself.
Congresspeople want to save their jobs, first and foremost, they blow with the wind. They're afraid of being primaried, they're staying the course, believing their constituents are behind them, but they're not.
The polls were wrong about Trump's election, they're wrong about his support. A certain number will support any right wing President. The rest are delusional. But in between there's a coterie who have a sense of right and wrong, and in a country of hard working people falling behind they don't want to believe the game is rigged, that you can get away with bad actions with impunity.
And now David Pecker has turned state's evidence.
And rather than talk to the portraits in the White House, like Nixon, Trump is talking to his minions at Fox, at rallies, but he's stumbling, he's lost his self-confidence, he's on the run.
Life is a game, some know how to play it, some don't. Some learn through experience, others repeat their mistakes. You succeed with a village, Peter Paterno told me how to play my hand. Donald Trump has only listened to himself, demanded loyalty and breached the compact on a regular basis, the only supporters he truly has are his family, and already some of its members are on the run.
"While the juggler's act is danced upon
The crown that you once wore"
You think you can bend the game to your will, but it's been around too long, you've to play by the rules or support the new game. Bad actors always get caught, via their own acts, karma may not be instant, but it comes eventually and it is real. The highway is littered with politicians whose careers ended by their own hands. Can you say Gary Hart? Can you say John Edwards?
"The king is dead, the king is dead
Long live the king"
Life will go on, there will be a new king, in this case Mike Pence, maybe even a Democrat two years hence, because no one is bigger than the government, no one is above the law. That's part of the premise that Trump ran on, the game was rigged and he was gonna drain the swamp, but it turns out the quicksand is gonna consume him, and the more you fight it, the faster you sink.
Sure, the Republicans could triumph in November. There's a chance Trump could survive.
But history repeats. We've seen this movie one time already. And we all know you live or die, succeed or fail, based on your team. Michael Jordan needed Scottie Pippen to win, and LeBron couldn't carry a second-rate team all by himself. And the NBA reflects the modern paradigm, while football programs are rife with out of control coaches disrespecting their players. That's what the #MeToo movement is all about, it's a backlash to mistreatment, to male power. You could get away with it before, but not anymore.
My car will not last forever. At some point I'll have to replace it. Maybe sooner rather later.
But I'll get a new automobile, I'll survive.
Just like our country.
It doesn't need to be run by Trump.
P.S. The lyrics are from Elton John's "The King Must Die, the closing track on his first American album from 1970. Art reflects life, art reflects truth. No one quotes their bank account when they're looking for answers, they play music, they look at art, trying to gain insight into humanity.
P.P.S. No one is immune, everyone gets their comeuppance. Be a student of the game, maybe reinvent it, but know there's a cost for those who cannot foresee what's coming down the road, just like with Facebook, Zuckerberg and Sandberg were venerated leaders, does anybody want to lean in like Sheryl anymore? No, and the funny thing is she's not even aware of it, just like Donald Trump.
"The King Must Die": https://spoti.fi/2OYPrv5, https://bit.ly/2PtBw1b
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Everybody's kingdom must end"
They misdiagnosed the cause of my car overheating.
I'd just been on the phone with them earlier in the day, scheduling an appointment for major service two weeks hence, then I was ascending the hill on the 405, from the Westside to the Valley, and my car started to overheat. This was not my BMW of the seventies, which was not made for hot weather, which went into the red when you drove up a hill in hundred degree heat, since the day I bought it my Saabaru's temperature gauge has never moved, it heats up to a certain level and stays there, but now it was jumping near the red, and if it gets into the red you must shut the engine down, but when I took my foot off the gas, the engine got cooler, but when I went downhill into Sherman Oaks it got hotter, which is against the principle of a low gear in a standard transmission, so I drove it to the Subaru dealer the following morning where they diagnosed the problem as a failed radiator cap.
This did not sound right to me. And I'm somewhat knowledgeable about cars, because I grew up in the era when they didn't work, when no one had one over 100,000 miles, when everything in my 2002 broke, including the steering wheel. But today cars are so much better, they're kind of like computers, you used to have to know how they worked, now you just press a button and they run, seemingly forever. That's another issue, do you need a new car? Of course you can lease, but that's a bad use of your money, I own, but at what point do you bite the bullet.
I should have bitten the bullet that very day and ponied up for a new car, because after they said it was only the radiator cap I paid $1500 for said major service. And after dinner at CUT with Peter Shapiro, the damn automobile overheated in the same damn place on the 405, so I drove it to the dealer the very next morning where my service writer was unavailable and I tracked down the head mechanic, Darryl. Now, you've got to know Subaru is burgeoning, they used to have one and a half service writers, now they've got five. Used to be Darryl was easily located in a corner of the one and only shop, but now you have to canvass multiple buildings to find him. But I eventually did.
Now you've got to know, Darryl is the best mechanic I've ever encountered, there's no problem he can't diagnose, and after describing all the details of my problem he told me it was a blown head gasket, and when I told him the car was thirteen years old and had 92,000 miles on it he looked me in the eye and said "Get rid of it." Which I would have done, but I was $1500 upside down, damned if I was gonna get burned, especially when I found out it would be $3500 more to fix the damn thing.
That's right, I knew what a blown head gasket was, Darryl described it as "luck of the draw," saying I'd done nothing wrong, and my nephew is the number three BMW salesman in America, but he'd only give me a grand for the machine, and there was no way I could get it to his place in Irvine, so...
They gave me a Crosstrek to drive. I was stunned at how good it was, especially the blind spot warnings, but despite the excellence of Darryl, I do not want another Subaru, they're noisy and technologically antiquated and mine was far from trouble free. That's what they told me, I could make a trade on a new Subaru, which I didn't want. I made it easy for them, they could do one of two things, give me my $1500 back or buy my car from me.
They said they did not buy cars, I said the service center was owned by the same dealership that sold new cars.
They came back and said they'd give me twenty percent off the repair.
I told them it was very simple, they could honor my original offer, cash return or purchase, or I would either cancel payment on the credit card or sue them in small claims court, and I would win, I'm an attorney, it's a clear cut case.
I was shitting a brick, I was in shock, there was no way I was fixing the car for that price.
And that's when Paterno told me to hold my horses, they were already NEGOTIATING!
I didn't get it. But Peter said they'd come down already, to wait to see their next offer, the game had begun.
I was anxious, I saw no way I could win, they held most of the cards, and my car and my cash.
But an hour later they called with an offer. How about if they charged me for parts and they ate all the labor?
I said yes.
Now ultimately my car is back on the road, I authorized a couple of more repairs, since they were not charging me labor on anything they did, and there was trouble taking the engine apart, they had to send it to a machine shop, which I had to pay for, but right now the car is in tip-top shape, but I still should have bought a new one.
But that's not my point.
Last night, on Fox of all places, Trump said not to impeach him because the economy would tank.
He's starting to negotiate.
I know, I know, it looked like he was gonna serve out his term, he's survived this long. But as Frank Rich said last year, it took two years for Watergate to play out.
But, you say the Congress will never authorize impeachment.
It probably won't get to that. Because if you know your history, the Republican Senators told Nixon he had to go. Ultimately the Republican Senators are gonna tell Donald Trump to go, if he doesn't declare victory and leave early.
Oh, 25% of the public still supported Nixon when he resigned, that's not the point, it's a game, and Trump just blinked.
It's been a bad week. Trump keeps trumpeting all the good he's done, but so did Nixon.
At some point the camel's back breaks.
And it's kind of how you lose a fortune, very slowly and then all at once.
But most people did not live through Watergate, they've got no perspective. And the news is all about the horse race, who wins or loses the pennant is irrelevant to them. And this week especially has proven there are two teams, I checked the Fox site Tuesday and Cohen and Manafort were not even close to the top. Still aren't. Which makes you think that Trump can survive in this topsy-turvy world, but he won't.
He's begun to negotiate, he's playing defense, which is a bad place to be. Just ask Hillary, just ask the Democrats, they've been playing defense for decades, because the Republicans play offense, all the time. The right wing defines the issues, to the point that Democrats are running away from the demonized Nancy Pelosi.
But now Mueller is defining the game, by sticking to his guns, by being a Republican to begin with.
"I'm so afraid your courtiers
Cannot be called best friends"
So Trump demands loyalty, believing the government should be run like a Mafia family, but Sessions says no go, he's already running from the stink, there comes a time when you defend yourself, like John Dean, because you realize the man in charge is not looking out for you, and you don't want to go down with the ship.
"And if my hands are stained forever
And the altar should refuse me
Would you let me in, would you let me in, would you let me in
Should I cry sanctuary"
No one wants to save Trump other than himself.
Congresspeople want to save their jobs, first and foremost, they blow with the wind. They're afraid of being primaried, they're staying the course, believing their constituents are behind them, but they're not.
The polls were wrong about Trump's election, they're wrong about his support. A certain number will support any right wing President. The rest are delusional. But in between there's a coterie who have a sense of right and wrong, and in a country of hard working people falling behind they don't want to believe the game is rigged, that you can get away with bad actions with impunity.
And now David Pecker has turned state's evidence.
And rather than talk to the portraits in the White House, like Nixon, Trump is talking to his minions at Fox, at rallies, but he's stumbling, he's lost his self-confidence, he's on the run.
Life is a game, some know how to play it, some don't. Some learn through experience, others repeat their mistakes. You succeed with a village, Peter Paterno told me how to play my hand. Donald Trump has only listened to himself, demanded loyalty and breached the compact on a regular basis, the only supporters he truly has are his family, and already some of its members are on the run.
"While the juggler's act is danced upon
The crown that you once wore"
You think you can bend the game to your will, but it's been around too long, you've to play by the rules or support the new game. Bad actors always get caught, via their own acts, karma may not be instant, but it comes eventually and it is real. The highway is littered with politicians whose careers ended by their own hands. Can you say Gary Hart? Can you say John Edwards?
"The king is dead, the king is dead
Long live the king"
Life will go on, there will be a new king, in this case Mike Pence, maybe even a Democrat two years hence, because no one is bigger than the government, no one is above the law. That's part of the premise that Trump ran on, the game was rigged and he was gonna drain the swamp, but it turns out the quicksand is gonna consume him, and the more you fight it, the faster you sink.
Sure, the Republicans could triumph in November. There's a chance Trump could survive.
But history repeats. We've seen this movie one time already. And we all know you live or die, succeed or fail, based on your team. Michael Jordan needed Scottie Pippen to win, and LeBron couldn't carry a second-rate team all by himself. And the NBA reflects the modern paradigm, while football programs are rife with out of control coaches disrespecting their players. That's what the #MeToo movement is all about, it's a backlash to mistreatment, to male power. You could get away with it before, but not anymore.
My car will not last forever. At some point I'll have to replace it. Maybe sooner rather later.
But I'll get a new automobile, I'll survive.
Just like our country.
It doesn't need to be run by Trump.
P.S. The lyrics are from Elton John's "The King Must Die, the closing track on his first American album from 1970. Art reflects life, art reflects truth. No one quotes their bank account when they're looking for answers, they play music, they look at art, trying to gain insight into humanity.
P.P.S. No one is immune, everyone gets their comeuppance. Be a student of the game, maybe reinvent it, but know there's a cost for those who cannot foresee what's coming down the road, just like with Facebook, Zuckerberg and Sandberg were venerated leaders, does anybody want to lean in like Sheryl anymore? No, and the funny thing is she's not even aware of it, just like Donald Trump.
"The King Must Die": https://spoti.fi/2OYPrv5, https://bit.ly/2PtBw1b
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Thursday 23 August 2018
Seymour Stein-This Week's Podcast
I was at a gig last week and a promoter told me young agents had never heard of Bob Sillerman.
That was a turning point in the touring business, when Sillerman rolled up the promoters in 1996, it's the basis of the present touring landscape. You might think history is irrelevant, but he who knows it triumphs, not only in war, but business.
Seymour Stein knew history, he went to "Billboard"'s office to uncover the hits of yesteryear. And if you listen to Seymour's story, you'll find the blueprint for success today.
First and foremost there's the passion. If you ain't got it, move on, the business is too tough. Like AC/DC sang, it's a long way to the top if you wanna rock and roll - getting robbed, getting stoned, getting beat-up, broken-boned. If you don't have an inner mounting flame, you're not gonna survive. Actually, that's one of the problems with the business today, the focus on the penumbra, everything but the music itself, music is just not a vehicle to riches, when done right, it's life itself.
Seymour was led by that light. He took advantage of opportunities, didn't listen to advice to his detriment. But found a way to survive and prosper.
It's a learning experience, with no degree, none of the usual markers that can get you ahead in this life.
So you need to listen to Seymour's story, even if you have no interest in the Climax Blues Band, Peter Green, Madonna, Depeche Mode, Talking Heads or the Ramones. Because Seymour saw something in all of these acts, and he acted upon it. And there was not instant success, but he got to the point where he'd refined the process, he recognized what was a hit and was able to sign it.
Maybe you know Seymour's story, maybe you read his book, but in this podcast he evidences nuances, you can read between the lines, you can learn.
And you should.
A snippet: https://bit.ly/2BFdu0i
Listen to Seymour Stein on...
TuneIn: https://listen.tunein.com/SeymourSteinLetter
Apple: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/seymour-stein/id1316200737?i=1000418218226&mt=2
Google Play: https://play.google.com/music/m/Dfp3eqbkiwdcisfz3nqtqhez5xy?t=Seymour_Stein-The_Bob_Lefsetz_Podcast
Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/bob-lefsetz/bob-lefsetz-seymour-stein-10
Overcast: https://overcast.fm/+LBr9wjyc8
Castbox: https://castbox.fm/episode/Seymour-Stein-id1099656-id89317134?country=us
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That was a turning point in the touring business, when Sillerman rolled up the promoters in 1996, it's the basis of the present touring landscape. You might think history is irrelevant, but he who knows it triumphs, not only in war, but business.
Seymour Stein knew history, he went to "Billboard"'s office to uncover the hits of yesteryear. And if you listen to Seymour's story, you'll find the blueprint for success today.
First and foremost there's the passion. If you ain't got it, move on, the business is too tough. Like AC/DC sang, it's a long way to the top if you wanna rock and roll - getting robbed, getting stoned, getting beat-up, broken-boned. If you don't have an inner mounting flame, you're not gonna survive. Actually, that's one of the problems with the business today, the focus on the penumbra, everything but the music itself, music is just not a vehicle to riches, when done right, it's life itself.
Seymour was led by that light. He took advantage of opportunities, didn't listen to advice to his detriment. But found a way to survive and prosper.
It's a learning experience, with no degree, none of the usual markers that can get you ahead in this life.
So you need to listen to Seymour's story, even if you have no interest in the Climax Blues Band, Peter Green, Madonna, Depeche Mode, Talking Heads or the Ramones. Because Seymour saw something in all of these acts, and he acted upon it. And there was not instant success, but he got to the point where he'd refined the process, he recognized what was a hit and was able to sign it.
Maybe you know Seymour's story, maybe you read his book, but in this podcast he evidences nuances, you can read between the lines, you can learn.
And you should.
A snippet: https://bit.ly/2BFdu0i
Listen to Seymour Stein on...
TuneIn: https://listen.tunein.com/SeymourSteinLetter
Apple: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/seymour-stein/id1316200737?i=1000418218226&mt=2
Google Play: https://play.google.com/music/m/Dfp3eqbkiwdcisfz3nqtqhez5xy?t=Seymour_Stein-The_Bob_Lefsetz_Podcast
Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/bob-lefsetz/bob-lefsetz-seymour-stein-10
Overcast: https://overcast.fm/+LBr9wjyc8
Castbox: https://castbox.fm/episode/Seymour-Stein-id1099656-id89317134?country=us
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More Mumbai
You have to order the black Uber.
I was going to the museum. I figured I'd spring for Premier. But what turned up was a car of no denomination, at least not one I could decipher, with a broken seatbelt driven by a guy who didn't speak English. I figured it was just India. No! Turns out there's another Uber page, so on the way back I sprang for the best, which turned out to be a Toyota Innova. I know, I know, we don't have that car in the States. It's like a mini minibus. A three row car. Which cost me all of ten bucks, instead of the four it took to get there in the "Premier," that's right, India's cheap, not that I've got a handle on it, for that I'd have to stay here months!
You learn by asking questions. One person told me only the top five artists could tour, the rest were too busy playing weddings, devaluing their brand. But another person told me scores of acts could tour, but in both cases they said the public doesn't like to pay. Forty percent might buy a ticket and the rest get in for free. But aren't the paying customers pissed? They said no. What is the truth, that I'm trying to find out.
Troy Carter hipped me to a book called "Factfulness," recommended by Bill Gates, its author posits that it's not as bad as you think, we believe outside of the U.S. and Western Europe it's all third world, with no education and no medical infrastructure, but that's the way it used to be, fifty years ago, twenty, but so much progress has been made recently.
I was looking for poor people.
Privak told me there weren't any. But did he say this because he's an Indian? Kinda like "Wild Wild Country," Privak believes the Bhagwan was for real, the American press depicts him as a charlatan. That's right, we compared notes on Netflix, if you're not international, you're doomed, kinda like Pandora.
So we're driving...
Oh, that's right, the traffic. Tuesday it was insane. A free-for-all. If you're not willing to spot barely an inch between you and the next vehicle you're not made for Indian driving. And then there are the motorized rickshaws, little black and yellow beetles, with three wheels and a polished plastic top. They're darting in and out of traffic, shuttling school kids, people in full religious garb... That's another thing in Mumbai, you're not sure whether to heed the warnings. The street food looks delicious. In New York, you'd partake, but here? And everywhere else in the world you walk the street and are afraid, but natives told me India was safe. I just came back from a walk along the strand, I was literally the only white person I encountered in an hour. Some people looked at me funny, I was a bit self-conscious, now I know what it's like to be a minority.
So Tuesday Ralph and Privak and another associate took me to the Gateway of India. Built by the British, they exited through it when they left. And it's there that the terrorists entered when they went to bomb the Taj Mahal Hotel and Leopold's to shoot up the place. You remember. Or maybe you don't, maybe it has to happen in the States for it to register. Anyway, a group of Pakistani terrorists bombed the hotel and then went to Leopold's restaurant and killed people there. So now there's security, like at my hotel, the Taj Lands End, they lift the hood and the trunk of every car before they let you in the driveway. And they scan your body and your goodies before they let you inside. So, once again, I ask you, is Mumbai safe or not? I don't know!
But I do know that you cannot feel safe in transportation, just because you're not driving that does not mean you're immune. I wondered how there were not more accidents and then BAM! We got rear-ended. I'm thinking about my back, I'm thinking I'd better buy one of those international health policies.
And we drove by this high-rise which was the house of some billionaire, it's got six hundred rooms, or so they say, it has so much security outside you'd think it's a military outpost.
But so many of the buildings are schmutzy, they need a paint job.
And nearby the hotel they're camped out in droves hoping to get a peek at a Bollywood star, I can't remember his name, but it wouldn't mean anything to you anyway.
But Bollywood is even bigger than the legend. You know how you go to a place and you find out things are overblown? Not Bollywood. It runs the music business. It's all about having your track in a film. And there are "playback artists," who sing the songs for the actors, they're known by name, they can go on tour, Bollywood is big business, far bigger than the movie business in America in terms of social, political and music business.
So the Brits have been coming here for centuries. Like the Beatles, looking for enlightenment, looking for answers.
Is it achievable here?
I don't know.
But it is hot and it is humid and if you live in Los Angeles you might consider it to be unbearable. Then again, people live in Miami. And as bad as the weather is in NYC, people stay there.
And speaking of people, the young ones are trying to stand out, via fashion.
I'm literally halfway around the world, twelve and a half hours ahead of L.A., and I'd like to tell you it's the same, but it isn't!
P.S. Although everybody has a smartphone, iPhones are exotic. You can buy cheapies for far under a hundred bucks.
P.P.S. Everybody says people don't like to pay for music. And right now, a streaming subscription costs you a dollar or two a month. And you might think no one can afford it, but everybody here says they can. They say music was devalued in the cassette era, when albums were sold for twelve cents. That's right.
P.P.P.S. They skip generations here. Outside the metropolis there is no cable, it's all about mobile. You do everything on your phone. When we go to 5G in the States, watch out for this. I'm sick of paying Charter $200 a month. Oh, if I cancel TV the internet rate just goes up. Technology can disrupt anything, be prepared.
P.P.P.P.S. My favorite exhibit at the museum was the history of man. And what's interesting is like the Jews, they used the term CE, not AD, and BC. As in "Common Era' and "Before Common Era." Sure, Jesus is here, but he does not dominate, the foremost religion is Hinduism. And once we stop fighting over religion, there could be peace in the world.
P.P.P.P.P.S. The best stop was at the train station. That's one legend that's true, public transportation is crowded! They literally have to squeeze you on. But the trains... They look like they were built in the forties, they're dark and dirty and you stay in them for days, just like out of a movie. As for buses, I've yet to see a clean one, or a new one.
P.P.P.P.P.P.S. There are beggars, there are people with no shoes, never mind teeth. They coexist with the wealthy. And in the middle of the street I saw four guys towing a stand of bamboo, which is used for scaffolding. That's right, the past and the present coexist.
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I was going to the museum. I figured I'd spring for Premier. But what turned up was a car of no denomination, at least not one I could decipher, with a broken seatbelt driven by a guy who didn't speak English. I figured it was just India. No! Turns out there's another Uber page, so on the way back I sprang for the best, which turned out to be a Toyota Innova. I know, I know, we don't have that car in the States. It's like a mini minibus. A three row car. Which cost me all of ten bucks, instead of the four it took to get there in the "Premier," that's right, India's cheap, not that I've got a handle on it, for that I'd have to stay here months!
You learn by asking questions. One person told me only the top five artists could tour, the rest were too busy playing weddings, devaluing their brand. But another person told me scores of acts could tour, but in both cases they said the public doesn't like to pay. Forty percent might buy a ticket and the rest get in for free. But aren't the paying customers pissed? They said no. What is the truth, that I'm trying to find out.
Troy Carter hipped me to a book called "Factfulness," recommended by Bill Gates, its author posits that it's not as bad as you think, we believe outside of the U.S. and Western Europe it's all third world, with no education and no medical infrastructure, but that's the way it used to be, fifty years ago, twenty, but so much progress has been made recently.
I was looking for poor people.
Privak told me there weren't any. But did he say this because he's an Indian? Kinda like "Wild Wild Country," Privak believes the Bhagwan was for real, the American press depicts him as a charlatan. That's right, we compared notes on Netflix, if you're not international, you're doomed, kinda like Pandora.
So we're driving...
Oh, that's right, the traffic. Tuesday it was insane. A free-for-all. If you're not willing to spot barely an inch between you and the next vehicle you're not made for Indian driving. And then there are the motorized rickshaws, little black and yellow beetles, with three wheels and a polished plastic top. They're darting in and out of traffic, shuttling school kids, people in full religious garb... That's another thing in Mumbai, you're not sure whether to heed the warnings. The street food looks delicious. In New York, you'd partake, but here? And everywhere else in the world you walk the street and are afraid, but natives told me India was safe. I just came back from a walk along the strand, I was literally the only white person I encountered in an hour. Some people looked at me funny, I was a bit self-conscious, now I know what it's like to be a minority.
So Tuesday Ralph and Privak and another associate took me to the Gateway of India. Built by the British, they exited through it when they left. And it's there that the terrorists entered when they went to bomb the Taj Mahal Hotel and Leopold's to shoot up the place. You remember. Or maybe you don't, maybe it has to happen in the States for it to register. Anyway, a group of Pakistani terrorists bombed the hotel and then went to Leopold's restaurant and killed people there. So now there's security, like at my hotel, the Taj Lands End, they lift the hood and the trunk of every car before they let you in the driveway. And they scan your body and your goodies before they let you inside. So, once again, I ask you, is Mumbai safe or not? I don't know!
But I do know that you cannot feel safe in transportation, just because you're not driving that does not mean you're immune. I wondered how there were not more accidents and then BAM! We got rear-ended. I'm thinking about my back, I'm thinking I'd better buy one of those international health policies.
And we drove by this high-rise which was the house of some billionaire, it's got six hundred rooms, or so they say, it has so much security outside you'd think it's a military outpost.
But so many of the buildings are schmutzy, they need a paint job.
And nearby the hotel they're camped out in droves hoping to get a peek at a Bollywood star, I can't remember his name, but it wouldn't mean anything to you anyway.
But Bollywood is even bigger than the legend. You know how you go to a place and you find out things are overblown? Not Bollywood. It runs the music business. It's all about having your track in a film. And there are "playback artists," who sing the songs for the actors, they're known by name, they can go on tour, Bollywood is big business, far bigger than the movie business in America in terms of social, political and music business.
So the Brits have been coming here for centuries. Like the Beatles, looking for enlightenment, looking for answers.
Is it achievable here?
I don't know.
But it is hot and it is humid and if you live in Los Angeles you might consider it to be unbearable. Then again, people live in Miami. And as bad as the weather is in NYC, people stay there.
And speaking of people, the young ones are trying to stand out, via fashion.
I'm literally halfway around the world, twelve and a half hours ahead of L.A., and I'd like to tell you it's the same, but it isn't!
P.S. Although everybody has a smartphone, iPhones are exotic. You can buy cheapies for far under a hundred bucks.
P.P.S. Everybody says people don't like to pay for music. And right now, a streaming subscription costs you a dollar or two a month. And you might think no one can afford it, but everybody here says they can. They say music was devalued in the cassette era, when albums were sold for twelve cents. That's right.
P.P.P.S. They skip generations here. Outside the metropolis there is no cable, it's all about mobile. You do everything on your phone. When we go to 5G in the States, watch out for this. I'm sick of paying Charter $200 a month. Oh, if I cancel TV the internet rate just goes up. Technology can disrupt anything, be prepared.
P.P.P.P.S. My favorite exhibit at the museum was the history of man. And what's interesting is like the Jews, they used the term CE, not AD, and BC. As in "Common Era' and "Before Common Era." Sure, Jesus is here, but he does not dominate, the foremost religion is Hinduism. And once we stop fighting over religion, there could be peace in the world.
P.P.P.P.P.S. The best stop was at the train station. That's one legend that's true, public transportation is crowded! They literally have to squeeze you on. But the trains... They look like they were built in the forties, they're dark and dirty and you stay in them for days, just like out of a movie. As for buses, I've yet to see a clean one, or a new one.
P.P.P.P.P.P.S. There are beggars, there are people with no shoes, never mind teeth. They coexist with the wealthy. And in the middle of the street I saw four guys towing a stand of bamboo, which is used for scaffolding. That's right, the past and the present coexist.
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Tuesday 21 August 2018
Don't Get Confused By The News
Spotify's in trouble, its licenses are going to expire!
Nicki Minaj produced a tweetstorm about Spotify, claiming the company put the kibosh on her album!
Music distribution is mature. The news outlets don't want this to be so, so they keep printing headlines that make you think otherwise. But the truth is the music business was in turmoil for fifteen years, but now it's not. Now it's a matter of how great your music is and whether you can develop a fanbase, the rest is just a sideshow.
That's right, for fifteen years there were issues of piracy, a fight for the future, but music was the canary in the coal mine for digital distribution, it was disrupted first, and it's the only medium that's figured out a solution, all songs, on demand, for a low monthly price.
Don't argue with the future, don't go against the big boys (and girls!)
Every day I get e-mail from individuals saying they've solved the music distribution problem, that they've got a better Spotify. Don't they get it, Spotify won! Not only Spotify, but Apple and Amazon, you've got to heed Peter Thiel's mantra, go where the competition ain't. It'd be like someone e-mailing you they've got a Netflix competitor, just ready to roll out, that will be more producer-friendly and will pay creators better. Huh? The ship has already sailed.
If you're a marginal artist, and by that I mean by income, use the new tools to your advantage, don't rail against them. You've got low streaming payments because few people are listening. Yes, I get it, in the old days you made more with a ten dollar CD, but chances are you wouldn't have a record deal and wouldn't be able to play the game at all. And you wouldn't be able to have direct contact with your fans. Something is lost in every step forward, but the gains outweigh the losses. But that does not mean people won't bitch. And marginal news outlets won't gin up headlines to get you excited over nothing.
Spotify ain't going out of business, it's quite simple, they are the labels' biggest customer! Sure, there are strengths on both sides of the aisle, you negotiate to the best of your ability, utilizing your leverage, but putting Spotify out of business would be like refusing to sell through Amazon, and now even Nike does that. But the problem is musical people speak from their hearts, their emotions, they don't seem to have a business overview. The labels want Spotify to survive. They want to get paid!
As for all the writers...
You can't make any money in journalism anymore, and music scribes ae the serfs of journalism. On the low end, they're uneducated nincompoops beholden to artists and labels and on the high end they're self-publishers trying to sell views, self-anointed experts who are anything but. As for "Billboard," it decided to play to the public and now it's neither a trade nor a consumer publication and its charts are so out of touch as to be meaningless. Nicki Minaj is right there, about gaming the numbers by selling merch with the product. Of course this should be outlawed, but she does it too! But why "Billboard" does not go to a straight streaming chart and...
Being #1 is just a circle jerk, a way to make you feel good about yourself. The only question is whether you can sustain, whether you can build a fanbase that will support you. But there's no chart for that.
And we live in a TMZ world, where it's about evanescent headlines, as if they meant anything. Ever wonder why the truly rich don't brag, don't want people or the government in their business? Only musicians are dumb enough to believe chart numbers count. They're laughed at by the true players, who drop seven figures for a private while they talk through your performance. Used to be musicians spoke truth to the man, now musicians are slaves to the man, despite believing otherwise. Just like the public they sell to, consumers at the tit of consumption.
So if you're a musician, know that there's plenty of money if you gain success. And you gain success on your own terms. But really, it comes down to ticket sales and merch counts, how many fans do you have and how rabid are they, and there's no "Billboard" chart that illustrates this, as a matter of fact it's inside information most people are not privy to and the holders of this data don't want it revealed. They don't want to talk about papering houses, what really sells, they just want to blow smoke that you believe is truth.
Kinda like the journalism in the music business.
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Nicki Minaj produced a tweetstorm about Spotify, claiming the company put the kibosh on her album!
Music distribution is mature. The news outlets don't want this to be so, so they keep printing headlines that make you think otherwise. But the truth is the music business was in turmoil for fifteen years, but now it's not. Now it's a matter of how great your music is and whether you can develop a fanbase, the rest is just a sideshow.
That's right, for fifteen years there were issues of piracy, a fight for the future, but music was the canary in the coal mine for digital distribution, it was disrupted first, and it's the only medium that's figured out a solution, all songs, on demand, for a low monthly price.
Don't argue with the future, don't go against the big boys (and girls!)
Every day I get e-mail from individuals saying they've solved the music distribution problem, that they've got a better Spotify. Don't they get it, Spotify won! Not only Spotify, but Apple and Amazon, you've got to heed Peter Thiel's mantra, go where the competition ain't. It'd be like someone e-mailing you they've got a Netflix competitor, just ready to roll out, that will be more producer-friendly and will pay creators better. Huh? The ship has already sailed.
If you're a marginal artist, and by that I mean by income, use the new tools to your advantage, don't rail against them. You've got low streaming payments because few people are listening. Yes, I get it, in the old days you made more with a ten dollar CD, but chances are you wouldn't have a record deal and wouldn't be able to play the game at all. And you wouldn't be able to have direct contact with your fans. Something is lost in every step forward, but the gains outweigh the losses. But that does not mean people won't bitch. And marginal news outlets won't gin up headlines to get you excited over nothing.
Spotify ain't going out of business, it's quite simple, they are the labels' biggest customer! Sure, there are strengths on both sides of the aisle, you negotiate to the best of your ability, utilizing your leverage, but putting Spotify out of business would be like refusing to sell through Amazon, and now even Nike does that. But the problem is musical people speak from their hearts, their emotions, they don't seem to have a business overview. The labels want Spotify to survive. They want to get paid!
As for all the writers...
You can't make any money in journalism anymore, and music scribes ae the serfs of journalism. On the low end, they're uneducated nincompoops beholden to artists and labels and on the high end they're self-publishers trying to sell views, self-anointed experts who are anything but. As for "Billboard," it decided to play to the public and now it's neither a trade nor a consumer publication and its charts are so out of touch as to be meaningless. Nicki Minaj is right there, about gaming the numbers by selling merch with the product. Of course this should be outlawed, but she does it too! But why "Billboard" does not go to a straight streaming chart and...
Being #1 is just a circle jerk, a way to make you feel good about yourself. The only question is whether you can sustain, whether you can build a fanbase that will support you. But there's no chart for that.
And we live in a TMZ world, where it's about evanescent headlines, as if they meant anything. Ever wonder why the truly rich don't brag, don't want people or the government in their business? Only musicians are dumb enough to believe chart numbers count. They're laughed at by the true players, who drop seven figures for a private while they talk through your performance. Used to be musicians spoke truth to the man, now musicians are slaves to the man, despite believing otherwise. Just like the public they sell to, consumers at the tit of consumption.
So if you're a musician, know that there's plenty of money if you gain success. And you gain success on your own terms. But really, it comes down to ticket sales and merch counts, how many fans do you have and how rabid are they, and there's no "Billboard" chart that illustrates this, as a matter of fact it's inside information most people are not privy to and the holders of this data don't want it revealed. They don't want to talk about papering houses, what really sells, they just want to blow smoke that you believe is truth.
Kinda like the journalism in the music business.
--
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--
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Monday 20 August 2018
Mumbai
"And Tommy doesn't know what day it is"
They upgraded me to first class. That's right, I checked in and was walking towards the plane and the clerk stopped me and asked me if I was traveling alone, and she gave me a new ticket. And the paranoid person I am wondered if it would be an aisle, alone, like I had in business class.
In this case I got a whole room.
Once again, it's not like it looks in the pictures. You've got a compartment, with a thirty inch screen, with more movies and TV shows than you could watch in a year, with British series that haven't made it across the pond yet, along with flowers and a desk lamp and a vanity mirror and room to stretch out and I only wish it was longer than a three hour flight. You press a button and the doors close and you've got your own private area, your own private Idaho, but on this A-380, not a B-52, the service is so attentive that for a long time you don't want to close the doors. The food was Indian and scrumptious! What did Americans add to cuisine, hamburgers? Well the assorted dips, and the chutneys to go along with the curry, were extremely savory.
Now back to Dubai, I forgot to tell you that they had free Wi-Fi, fast enough for video, that's what the banners said. And free ice cream. I chose chocolate chocolate chip, it was better than Haagen-Dazs. That's right, for everyone, right in the concourse, courtesy of Emirates.
And there were more of those white-robed gentlemen on my flight. How do they keep the robes so clean? If it were me, one meal and it'd be toast. And I'd like to tell you the derivation of the attire, but I'm an American, and we know nothing. That's right, been nowhere, done little, but convinced we're the experts, like the blowhard at the party you can't wait to get away from. That's one thing about life, there's always someone who knows more, who's seen more, and once you realize this you're a citizen of the world, then again statistics tell us Americans don't even move to a different state anymore, they can't afford it. As for all this bashing of the U.S.A., that's one thing that's great about our country, the ability to question, to stand up, the thing that Trump is trying to eviscerate. Every day people tell me I'm an idiot online, why can't the President handle it. If you play to your naysayers you're missing the point. You've got to stay the course. Then again, do the masses agree with your course? We're gonna find out in November, then again, on the flight over I read a story about a southern city decreasing the number of polling places in African-American neighborhoods, makes me wonder if the game is rigged. Actually, it is. Which is why you should have voted for Hillary so we didn't end up with the right wing Supreme Court we've got now, it was always about the Supreme Court, and you blew your chance because Hillary was phony. She was, she turned me off by saying her favorite book was the Bible, but people are complicated and if you can't accept them warts and all, if you can't look past the gotcha points, you're gonna have a lot of trouble in this world. And I could rant further about politics, but you don't want to hear it, but it's the story of our age. Musicians used to be concerned, before they weren't whored out to corporations, when the draft had everybody on the same side. It comes down to whether you believe in a welfare state, if you don't...you're not on my team. Bye!
So it's hot in Mumbai and rainy too. It's the monsoon season. Vishal told me there are three seasons: summer, winter and monsoon. That it's humid during the day yet temperate at night. And he spoke perfect English, I know no Hindi or any other dialect/language used here. But Vishal did tell me sixty percent of the people speak English.
And I landed after three in the morning, but just driving to the hotel I got the vibe, why westerners are entranced by the country. It's different, yet inviting. And although Vishal told me it was perfectly safe, they did check under the hook and inside the trunk before letting us through the gate, which reminded me about terrorism in the past, but if you go through life afraid, you don't live, why are Americans now so afraid?
And my room is very nice with a view over the water but sans a desk. You don't find a hotel room in America without a desk. And the free Wi-Fi...I think I'm gonna have to pay for faster speed. And supposedly Uber is readily available. And I heard prices are cheap, but I do little research before I travel, I always Google once I arrive, once I'm excited.
And I'm excited and happy now. I'm twelve and a half hours from Los Angeles, a full day of travel. I'm literally halfway around the world, and already my eyes have been opened.
P.S. The above lyric is from the song "Christmas," from the Who's rock opera "Tommy," does anybody under thirty know that? The double album was not released to great fanfare, the song "Pinball Wizard" came out a few months before, but did not run up the chart. But "Tommy" built over time and became a landmark to the point the band played the Metropolitan Opera House. I saw them perform it at the Fillmore East. Watching Keith Moon was stunning, it was like he was two drummers. And I feel that "Tommy" is fading away, younger people prefer "Quadrophenia," just like some prefer the White Album or "Abbey Road" to "Sgt. Pepper." But "Tommy," like "Sgt. Pepper," was the breakthrough, it was a quantum leap forward, it was beyond conception. Anybody can follow in the footsteps, but can you jump ahead and be a leader, go where the people want to even though they are unaware? Then you're truly an artist.
P.P.S. And that's right, my Mac says it's Tuesday August 21st, 4:46 AM, but I left on Sunday and although I slept some on the flight to Dubai I'm not exactly tired and it's the middle of the night, thank you Billy Joel, and I'm gonna read and try to fall asleep, but I wonder how long it will take to adjust. Usually going east is hell, whereas going west is not. But going to India...you can go either way, since it's right smack dab in the middle, how's the jet lag gonna be? I'm gonna find out!
P.P.P.S. The toilet seats in Dubai were heated, so your tushy would feel all warm and fuzzy!
P.P.P.P.S. I drank from the water fountain in the Mumbai airport and I've been freaked out about it ever since. That's what everybody tells you, don't drink the water! And I was rationalizing it was the airport, but then they told me not to drink the water from the tap in my hotel room and...I've been OCD'ing about it ever since. I came with a full complement of medication, but I don't want to use it!
P.P.P.P.P.S. I forgot to tell you about the bathroom in first class! I know, this P.S. thing is getting kinda ridiculous, but my brain is somewhere over the ocean despite my body being here and I forgot to tell you this, and so much more that hasn't occurred to me yet. Anyway, the first class Emirates bathroom even has a shower! It is literally bigger than my bathroom at home!
They upgraded me to first class. That's right, I checked in and was walking towards the plane and the clerk stopped me and asked me if I was traveling alone, and she gave me a new ticket. And the paranoid person I am wondered if it would be an aisle, alone, like I had in business class.
In this case I got a whole room.
Once again, it's not like it looks in the pictures. You've got a compartment, with a thirty inch screen, with more movies and TV shows than you could watch in a year, with British series that haven't made it across the pond yet, along with flowers and a desk lamp and a vanity mirror and room to stretch out and I only wish it was longer than a three hour flight. You press a button and the doors close and you've got your own private area, your own private Idaho, but on this A-380, not a B-52, the service is so attentive that for a long time you don't want to close the doors. The food was Indian and scrumptious! What did Americans add to cuisine, hamburgers? Well the assorted dips, and the chutneys to go along with the curry, were extremely savory.
Now back to Dubai, I forgot to tell you that they had free Wi-Fi, fast enough for video, that's what the banners said. And free ice cream. I chose chocolate chocolate chip, it was better than Haagen-Dazs. That's right, for everyone, right in the concourse, courtesy of Emirates.
And there were more of those white-robed gentlemen on my flight. How do they keep the robes so clean? If it were me, one meal and it'd be toast. And I'd like to tell you the derivation of the attire, but I'm an American, and we know nothing. That's right, been nowhere, done little, but convinced we're the experts, like the blowhard at the party you can't wait to get away from. That's one thing about life, there's always someone who knows more, who's seen more, and once you realize this you're a citizen of the world, then again statistics tell us Americans don't even move to a different state anymore, they can't afford it. As for all this bashing of the U.S.A., that's one thing that's great about our country, the ability to question, to stand up, the thing that Trump is trying to eviscerate. Every day people tell me I'm an idiot online, why can't the President handle it. If you play to your naysayers you're missing the point. You've got to stay the course. Then again, do the masses agree with your course? We're gonna find out in November, then again, on the flight over I read a story about a southern city decreasing the number of polling places in African-American neighborhoods, makes me wonder if the game is rigged. Actually, it is. Which is why you should have voted for Hillary so we didn't end up with the right wing Supreme Court we've got now, it was always about the Supreme Court, and you blew your chance because Hillary was phony. She was, she turned me off by saying her favorite book was the Bible, but people are complicated and if you can't accept them warts and all, if you can't look past the gotcha points, you're gonna have a lot of trouble in this world. And I could rant further about politics, but you don't want to hear it, but it's the story of our age. Musicians used to be concerned, before they weren't whored out to corporations, when the draft had everybody on the same side. It comes down to whether you believe in a welfare state, if you don't...you're not on my team. Bye!
So it's hot in Mumbai and rainy too. It's the monsoon season. Vishal told me there are three seasons: summer, winter and monsoon. That it's humid during the day yet temperate at night. And he spoke perfect English, I know no Hindi or any other dialect/language used here. But Vishal did tell me sixty percent of the people speak English.
And I landed after three in the morning, but just driving to the hotel I got the vibe, why westerners are entranced by the country. It's different, yet inviting. And although Vishal told me it was perfectly safe, they did check under the hook and inside the trunk before letting us through the gate, which reminded me about terrorism in the past, but if you go through life afraid, you don't live, why are Americans now so afraid?
And my room is very nice with a view over the water but sans a desk. You don't find a hotel room in America without a desk. And the free Wi-Fi...I think I'm gonna have to pay for faster speed. And supposedly Uber is readily available. And I heard prices are cheap, but I do little research before I travel, I always Google once I arrive, once I'm excited.
And I'm excited and happy now. I'm twelve and a half hours from Los Angeles, a full day of travel. I'm literally halfway around the world, and already my eyes have been opened.
P.S. The above lyric is from the song "Christmas," from the Who's rock opera "Tommy," does anybody under thirty know that? The double album was not released to great fanfare, the song "Pinball Wizard" came out a few months before, but did not run up the chart. But "Tommy" built over time and became a landmark to the point the band played the Metropolitan Opera House. I saw them perform it at the Fillmore East. Watching Keith Moon was stunning, it was like he was two drummers. And I feel that "Tommy" is fading away, younger people prefer "Quadrophenia," just like some prefer the White Album or "Abbey Road" to "Sgt. Pepper." But "Tommy," like "Sgt. Pepper," was the breakthrough, it was a quantum leap forward, it was beyond conception. Anybody can follow in the footsteps, but can you jump ahead and be a leader, go where the people want to even though they are unaware? Then you're truly an artist.
P.P.S. And that's right, my Mac says it's Tuesday August 21st, 4:46 AM, but I left on Sunday and although I slept some on the flight to Dubai I'm not exactly tired and it's the middle of the night, thank you Billy Joel, and I'm gonna read and try to fall asleep, but I wonder how long it will take to adjust. Usually going east is hell, whereas going west is not. But going to India...you can go either way, since it's right smack dab in the middle, how's the jet lag gonna be? I'm gonna find out!
P.P.P.S. The toilet seats in Dubai were heated, so your tushy would feel all warm and fuzzy!
P.P.P.P.S. I drank from the water fountain in the Mumbai airport and I've been freaked out about it ever since. That's what everybody tells you, don't drink the water! And I was rationalizing it was the airport, but then they told me not to drink the water from the tap in my hotel room and...I've been OCD'ing about it ever since. I came with a full complement of medication, but I don't want to use it!
P.P.P.P.P.S. I forgot to tell you about the bathroom in first class! I know, this P.S. thing is getting kinda ridiculous, but my brain is somewhere over the ocean despite my body being here and I forgot to tell you this, and so much more that hasn't occurred to me yet. Anyway, the first class Emirates bathroom even has a shower! It is literally bigger than my bathroom at home!
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-TuneIn: http://tunein.com/lefsetz
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
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Dubai
It's dark here. In more ways than one. Trumpers would freak out. I was the only Anglo in my section on the plane, and when I went through security... There was a guy in one of those white suits which rednecks would call a dress and one thing's for sure, I'm not in Kansas anymore. Actually, I've been to Kansas, more than once, many times, in fact. My two best college buddies were from there. And KC is up-to-date and modern and the U. is on seemingly the only hill in Lawrence, which is quite large and steep, and the rest of the state is not as flat as depicted. Sure, there are no mountains, but the landscape rolls a bit. And the people who voted to cut taxes and starve the government along with education there...
Would be freaked out in Dubai. Where everything is truly up-to-date, in the twenty first century.
As for the darkness... It was only seven o'clock, what's up? Then I wondered if I had it backward, maybe it was seven a.m. and it was gonna get light soon. I mean fly in a tube for fifteen plus hours and you're all screwed up. As for the vaunted Emirates airline... It was very good, but not as great as Cathay Pacific, not even as great as Singapore. The flight attendants were from twenty nations and the food was tasty and there was a lounge in the back but the truth is it's still an airplane, you get inside and it feels cramped, no matter what the pics online show. Then again, it was an A380, a double-decker, an Airbus. Now Airbus has made Boeing up its game, but the point is not everything great is made in the U.S., and the A380 is pretty great, first and foremost it's QUIET! You can read, you can hear yourself think, there's not that constant whooshing sound.
But let's start with the lounge.
No, let's start with getting to the airport. They send a car. That's right I flew business, fly in the back of the plane for a day and it'll take you a month to recover. I know, I know, this separates the men from the boys, the rich from the poor, but the left wing is constantly dumbing itself down and the right wing is constantly luxuriating in its riches and it's no crime to get ahead, as long as you carry those less fortunate along with you.
But it took almost as long to get to the Tom Bradley International Terminal as it took to get from my house to the airport. How are they gonna accommodate more passengers in the future? Damned if I know. And checking in... There was a father wrapping his son's snowboard in plastic tape, to protect it. I'm not sure it would, but then they ended up taking it on the plane with them anyway.
And in the lounge, they have a prayer room, right next to the bathrooms. And a greeter, just like Wal-Mart, made me wonder if I could leave my bags unattended, did I ever tell you I was paranoid about my stuff, even though at this late age I think I could tolerate losing it all? But not my data, never my data.
And then on the plane a guy wanted me to trade my aisle single seat for a center double, facing the wall. Come on, at these prices? You should have booked earlier. He ended up getting another guy facing the wall to switch, and then he never ever talked to his wife across the aisle, amazing.
And after catching up on the Sunday "Times," why is it I read the paper slower on the plane, am I fearful I'll run out of things to read, I started reading this book "The Family Tabor," by Cherise Wolas, I read about it in the "Book Review" and downloaded it to my Kindle in the lounge. Luke sent me his autobiography, but I'm not taking a hard copy on the plane, I'm already carrying too much stuff.
And "The Family Tabor" is about a middle class family in crisis, middle class crisis, the kind the self-deprecating call "white people problems." But the truth is existential issues are the worst. Just as a poor person can only think about money, someone who is depressed or without love or who can't sleep or who has committed crimes can't get their issues out of their heads. It's all interior dialogue, rotating the characters, and I'm about forty percent through and not absolutely sure I can recommend it, but it's a great antidote to the endless preaching by the supposed winners in this world. You keep telling us you have it all, and then we scratch the surface and find...you don't.
And the A380 is like a lumbering bus on the way up, and although we hit some turbulence over the North Pole, when we gained altitude it was like riding a couch, and although the landing in Dubai was heavy, it was a good experience but as I said above, I was stunned to find Dubai in darkness.
Turns out they do not have Daylight Savings Time.
As for the airport...
Makes America look like a second class country. You see they were afraid of us, our freedom and cash and wherewithal, then we became afraid of them... How is it going to turn out? Well, there's more of them than there are of us, think about that. You can only keep your finger in the dike for so long before the dam bursts. Kinda like globalization, we're citizens of the world today, and if you don't like it, give up your mobile phone and flat screen made in Asia and your cars made in... Wait, just wait, that's what Trump's trying to do, make it all "Made In America"! But countries that do this fall behind, best to outsource, but you can't say that here, er, there, you've got to keep wrapping yourself in the flag and saying U.S.A, U.S.A! Meanwhile, the people yelling this loudest have never been anywhere else, Denmark is pretty damn good, as for Dubai...
I'm not gonna leave the airport, but the airport...
It's like living in the future. The elevators hold thirty people. There are waterfalls, the place is clean and...
Silent.
Yup, that was a note on the screen before we left the plane, that Dubai's airport has no announcements, although they did have some on the train to the B terminal and I just heard some prayer music, but it's absent all those gate announcements that no one listens to anyway. We live in a self-serve world, where you've got to be aware, not only know how to fix your electronics and sites, but navigate yourself through this world.
It's different here. The bathroom has a water sprayer next to the toilet, in case you don't use paper...
And for some reason it's dark in the lounge too, which supersedes any in America, even the rebuilt American and AmEx ones. Is it the oil? What is paying for all this?
I think it's the oil.
Meanwhile, American airlines are trying to get Trump to cripple Emirates, since it's supported by the government, but Trump can only look backward, allowing more coal emissions. Why is half of America so backward? Did you see that article about Google trying to sell self-driving technology to Detroit and the carmakers saying no? Because they're selling fashion, the exterior, but it's the interior that counts. Kinda like the YouTube stars, if all you've got is how you look, telling others how to look, you're gonna be in trouble. Of course there are models, of course there are Kardashians...then again, the Kardashians are all about business, entrancing and ripping-off the lemmings. That's the America we now live in, whereas the rest of the world has woken up and is focusing on electric cars and... There's a guy in the WSJ, Holman Jenkins, who can't stop beating up on Tesla. I'm not gonna defend Elon Musk or the company's financials, but I will say that Tesla single-handedly got the rest of the world's carmakers to get on the electric bandwagon, the leader being BMW, once again a foreign company, whereas Ford can only say it will sell SUVs instead of cars, you give the people what they want and then suddenly, they don't want it anymore. Steve Jobs had it right, you win by selling people what they NEED!
Would be freaked out in Dubai. Where everything is truly up-to-date, in the twenty first century.
As for the darkness... It was only seven o'clock, what's up? Then I wondered if I had it backward, maybe it was seven a.m. and it was gonna get light soon. I mean fly in a tube for fifteen plus hours and you're all screwed up. As for the vaunted Emirates airline... It was very good, but not as great as Cathay Pacific, not even as great as Singapore. The flight attendants were from twenty nations and the food was tasty and there was a lounge in the back but the truth is it's still an airplane, you get inside and it feels cramped, no matter what the pics online show. Then again, it was an A380, a double-decker, an Airbus. Now Airbus has made Boeing up its game, but the point is not everything great is made in the U.S., and the A380 is pretty great, first and foremost it's QUIET! You can read, you can hear yourself think, there's not that constant whooshing sound.
But let's start with the lounge.
No, let's start with getting to the airport. They send a car. That's right I flew business, fly in the back of the plane for a day and it'll take you a month to recover. I know, I know, this separates the men from the boys, the rich from the poor, but the left wing is constantly dumbing itself down and the right wing is constantly luxuriating in its riches and it's no crime to get ahead, as long as you carry those less fortunate along with you.
But it took almost as long to get to the Tom Bradley International Terminal as it took to get from my house to the airport. How are they gonna accommodate more passengers in the future? Damned if I know. And checking in... There was a father wrapping his son's snowboard in plastic tape, to protect it. I'm not sure it would, but then they ended up taking it on the plane with them anyway.
And in the lounge, they have a prayer room, right next to the bathrooms. And a greeter, just like Wal-Mart, made me wonder if I could leave my bags unattended, did I ever tell you I was paranoid about my stuff, even though at this late age I think I could tolerate losing it all? But not my data, never my data.
And then on the plane a guy wanted me to trade my aisle single seat for a center double, facing the wall. Come on, at these prices? You should have booked earlier. He ended up getting another guy facing the wall to switch, and then he never ever talked to his wife across the aisle, amazing.
And after catching up on the Sunday "Times," why is it I read the paper slower on the plane, am I fearful I'll run out of things to read, I started reading this book "The Family Tabor," by Cherise Wolas, I read about it in the "Book Review" and downloaded it to my Kindle in the lounge. Luke sent me his autobiography, but I'm not taking a hard copy on the plane, I'm already carrying too much stuff.
And "The Family Tabor" is about a middle class family in crisis, middle class crisis, the kind the self-deprecating call "white people problems." But the truth is existential issues are the worst. Just as a poor person can only think about money, someone who is depressed or without love or who can't sleep or who has committed crimes can't get their issues out of their heads. It's all interior dialogue, rotating the characters, and I'm about forty percent through and not absolutely sure I can recommend it, but it's a great antidote to the endless preaching by the supposed winners in this world. You keep telling us you have it all, and then we scratch the surface and find...you don't.
And the A380 is like a lumbering bus on the way up, and although we hit some turbulence over the North Pole, when we gained altitude it was like riding a couch, and although the landing in Dubai was heavy, it was a good experience but as I said above, I was stunned to find Dubai in darkness.
Turns out they do not have Daylight Savings Time.
As for the airport...
Makes America look like a second class country. You see they were afraid of us, our freedom and cash and wherewithal, then we became afraid of them... How is it going to turn out? Well, there's more of them than there are of us, think about that. You can only keep your finger in the dike for so long before the dam bursts. Kinda like globalization, we're citizens of the world today, and if you don't like it, give up your mobile phone and flat screen made in Asia and your cars made in... Wait, just wait, that's what Trump's trying to do, make it all "Made In America"! But countries that do this fall behind, best to outsource, but you can't say that here, er, there, you've got to keep wrapping yourself in the flag and saying U.S.A, U.S.A! Meanwhile, the people yelling this loudest have never been anywhere else, Denmark is pretty damn good, as for Dubai...
I'm not gonna leave the airport, but the airport...
It's like living in the future. The elevators hold thirty people. There are waterfalls, the place is clean and...
Silent.
Yup, that was a note on the screen before we left the plane, that Dubai's airport has no announcements, although they did have some on the train to the B terminal and I just heard some prayer music, but it's absent all those gate announcements that no one listens to anyway. We live in a self-serve world, where you've got to be aware, not only know how to fix your electronics and sites, but navigate yourself through this world.
It's different here. The bathroom has a water sprayer next to the toilet, in case you don't use paper...
And for some reason it's dark in the lounge too, which supersedes any in America, even the rebuilt American and AmEx ones. Is it the oil? What is paying for all this?
I think it's the oil.
Meanwhile, American airlines are trying to get Trump to cripple Emirates, since it's supported by the government, but Trump can only look backward, allowing more coal emissions. Why is half of America so backward? Did you see that article about Google trying to sell self-driving technology to Detroit and the carmakers saying no? Because they're selling fashion, the exterior, but it's the interior that counts. Kinda like the YouTube stars, if all you've got is how you look, telling others how to look, you're gonna be in trouble. Of course there are models, of course there are Kardashians...then again, the Kardashians are all about business, entrancing and ripping-off the lemmings. That's the America we now live in, whereas the rest of the world has woken up and is focusing on electric cars and... There's a guy in the WSJ, Holman Jenkins, who can't stop beating up on Tesla. I'm not gonna defend Elon Musk or the company's financials, but I will say that Tesla single-handedly got the rest of the world's carmakers to get on the electric bandwagon, the leader being BMW, once again a foreign company, whereas Ford can only say it will sell SUVs instead of cars, you give the people what they want and then suddenly, they don't want it anymore. Steve Jobs had it right, you win by selling people what they NEED!
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