It wasn't creepy.
I was shocked how many people were there, it was essentially sold out. How did they know and why did they go?
Advertising, Nelly told me, she runs marketing for the tour. I didn't see any of it, not a bit, but that just shows how vast the world now is, you think you know everything, you think everybody else is clued-in when that's rarely the case.
Yes, they were oldsters, but they'd paid to come. Tickets were not exorbitant, the average price was $55, but what got them out of the house in an era where all the entertainment is inside the house? Was it the acts, the experience..?
Having seen it, I'll tell you it's about the music, the songs.
I went expecting to laugh, figuring this was a novelty that no one was interested in. I expected the place to be a third full at most. I mean this is a gimmick, right?
Now it started at 9, which is so reasonable in this era of gridlocked traffic, most people can't make it for the opening act even if they want to, they'd have to leave work early and sit on the freeway forever.
And at the appointed hour, the band began to play.
Didn't they do this first with Elvis? His players?
But these were not famous cats, and they were astoundingly good, better than most people plying the boards today, at least the new acts. It was shocking. But then I learned that they're all from the Broadway scene, they're pit players, and they're used to getting it right every night.
So Roy Orbison emerges from the footlights and...THE PEOPLE CHEER! It was like a regular concert, it was like everybody in attendance suspended disbelief and it was truly Roy Orbison on stage, alive.
But once you've seen the gimmick...
I found for the first half of the show, I could only watch the holograms for two numbers, after that I let my mind drift, I marinated in the music. But my eyes did lock on Buddy a bit more in the second half.
And it's not Pepper's ghost, it is something like a hologram, not that I heard exactly how these images were created. It's expensive. The rightsholders get an advance and then everybody's a partner, it's seen like a Broadway show, if it plays long enough, there's plenty of dough, right now there are two companies, two Roys and Buddys, one here and one across the pond.
Roy Orbison barely moved. After the show Nelly told me that one of his original players, upon seeing the hologram, said that Roy didn't even move his hips that way, he stood stone still. Did that detract from the experience? I don't think so.
The first thing I thought of was Journey, who I saw at the Hollywood Bowl a few years back. The songs had transcended the band, they were owned by the audience, which was singing along. It didn't matter it wasn't Steve Perry, and the truth is these attendees don't care about Steve Perry, his new album came and went in a matter of weeks, which is faster than the instant the new projects by Madonna and the Boss got, but Steve had been gone so long, if Perry puts out more new music, it too will fade away instantly. I'm not saying if Perry came back Journey couldn't do stadiums, like if Plant got back together with Page and they called it Led Zeppelin, but Robert still does good business by his lonesome and Journey does play stadiums, albeit with Def Leppard.
And the truth is you can never get these acts back together, Buddy Holly died in 1959, that's sixty years ago, and Roy Orbison died in 1988, which was thirty one years ago, before Gen-Z was even born. It's not like I passed on seeing Holly back then, I wasn't even aware. But now I know the songs.
Orbison opened. I heard he was closing, but you know how it is with billing and performing with these acts, even if they're dead!
And Roy's immediately playing his hits. People are oohing and ahhing, they're clapping during the songs, I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it.
And then Roy dissolved and Buddy came to life.
Now I was wondering, how short was this show gonna be? I mean after the gimmick did people get tired and did the producers not want to burn out their welcome?
Buddy was different. He had a long yellow guitar cord, at least it was yellow under the lights, and he jumped around like he had springs in his shoes and his body was made like Gumby's.
Like I said, I could watch the holograms for about two numbers. Normally you focus on the lead singer, but these guys aren't real.
But the music is.
The highlight of the show for me? "Well All Right," which Blind Faith covered so well on their first and only album, only ten years after Holly's death. Holly's version is more raw, more simplistic, less rocking, but it's the same damn song. As is "Not Fade Away," covered by the Stones back in '64. I heard "It's So Easy" and thought of the famous Ronstadt version. "Maybe Baby"... What would it have been like if Holly lived, would he be seen as a has-been, a legend, would he have had more hits? I'm not sure the younger generation is aware of him, but they should be.
And when the curtain came down, I thought it was over.
But after the break you had people testifying on a screen... There wasn't much screen time, a little nostalgia, illustrating the era, and then testimonials. Tom Petty got the biggest applause, illustrating that the audience was neither dead nor quite that old. And Petty was the only creepy part of the evening, it's so weird that's he gone, before his time.
And a few people left before the second half. And a couple left after a couple of numbers, but the rest stayed.
After Holly, Roy came back.
And then Holly again, with the aforementioned "Well All Right."
Then Orbison closed the evening with "Oh, Pretty Woman."
I never knew Orbison covered "Love Hurts," he does a killer version, but I still think Nazareth's is the best (the Gram Parsons/Emmylou Harris version kills too), but my lack of awareness of Orbison's iteration demonstrates I can still learn something.
So I'm sitting there contemplating who else they could get on the boards. In the future would acts film themselves just for this purpose, for when they were gone?
And the reality is, this is just a gussied-up tribute show. But tribute shows do great business, and this is the actual act and the playing is flawless.
Hmm...
We've seen gimmicks/fads come and go. Do you remember 3D TV? Hell, there's barely any 3D movies anymore. Do you see the trick once and forget about it?
But what if you never got a chance to see the act originally? Maybe you weren't even born yet.
This is the legacy of rock and roll. The songs. We all know them by heart.
And this is testimony to today's music business. Once upon a time it was all about the hit parade. But now the action is live, it's the aforementioned experience, leaving the home, sitting in a room full of people. There are many ways to skin the cat, many ways to bring people to the gig.
The future?
I have no idea.
If you're a muso, if you groan at any change or exploitation of music history, you'll be bored, you won't even go. But most people are just fans of the songs.
You can't get people out of the house to see old movies.
But there's something special about music, live music, when done right it loosens you up and sets your mind free. You go to a concert and the world outside fades away and you move to the tunes, you think about where you were when they were hits, when they played during your life.
And you sit there observing, and then Buddy Holly kills and you clap.
Just like me, I kid you not.
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Saturday 28 September 2019
Friday 27 September 2019
Endeavor Craps Out
Check the financial pages. Entertainment CEOs make as much as anybody ruling the Fortune 500, even though their companies are oftentimes worth less and generate less cash flow. There's a self-importance factor in Hollywood...these gents, and they are mostly men, control and steer the culture! That's a powerful position, and they believe they're indispensable.
Except in music, in the old days anyway. Music got short shrift because it was uncontrollable and unpredictable. And dependent upon the artists. That's one thing the Beatles and the classic rock revolution did, wrest control of the art from the suits and give it to the creators. You recorded what you wanted to, you controlled the cover art, the label just had the right to sell it and market it.
But something changed about thirty years ago, the suits and now they were wearing such, took control of the business. And there isn't a suit alive as credible as an artist when it comes to creativity. The artist has the idea, the suit wants to mold it to his or her vision. Credit Tommy Mottola. He brilliantly squeezed out Walter Yetnikoff and made it about the highly compensated, the finely dressed, exec. Mottola looked at Charles Koppelman's paradigm and then injected it with steroids, after all, Sony, along with Warner Brothers, had the best catalogs, the best artists in the business.
And speaking of Warner Brothers, Prince's main complaint with the company was it wouldn't allow him to release as much product as he wanted when he wanted. There was the issue of whether the music qualified under the deal, whether the new music would compromise exploitation of the previous release, whether the new music would be up to a platinum standard.
Turns out Prince was right. On many levels. Career artists are no longer about hits. They're about their catalog and their relationship with their fans, and the real money is made on the road.
The music survives, Prince survived every one of those suits at Warner Brothers until he fell to fentanyl.
There are two points here. One, who is more important, the artist or the suit, and two, the music business gets no respect, even though the profits from the Warner music labels built the Warner cable system, you see music scales, once it catches fire it takes almost nothing to continue to produce and reap the rewards, especially in the era of streaming, where there is no manufacturing and shipping.
So, for this exercise, the only thing that is truly important is the suits, how they wrested power from the artists and compensated themselves heavily and made like they were the artists. The worst example is Clive Davis, who gives the impression if it weren't for him, the music business wouldn't exist. But the truth is he had a very small purview, unlike Mottola or Mo.
So...
Everything's going along swimmingly in Hollywood until the internet. And when the internet came along, what did the Tinseltown titans do? Deny it, said they were entitled to control and reap the rewards of their wares, ultimately driving recorded music to half of its revenue. They could have embraced the internet sooner, but they were afraid they'd lose their compensation in the process, and nothing is as sacred as an entertainment exec's salary, bonuses and stock grants.
But over the past twenty years something has become clear... We can debate the extent to which Hollywood controls the culture, certainly less than it ever has in the era of social media and YouTube, but one thing is for sure...Hollywood execs are paupers compared to the Silicon Valley winners, and they don't like it.
If you're keeping up with the Joneses, and the Hollywood elite thought they were the Joneses, you don't want to wake up one day and find out you're far behind.
So...
Every company established a tech fund, an incubator, investment in tech was the way to riches.
But that's like asking a musician to play in the NBA, that's not in their skill set.
Furthermore, Universal Music famously sold the name "Uber" for a pittance.
But not everybody is stupid in Hollywood. One of the smartest is Ari Emanuel, along with his compatriot Patrick Whitesell. They didn't care that CAA demanded respect. They formed their own talent agency which ultimately merged with William Morris and they ended up in charge.
But it wasn't enough.
They saw the landscape changing. They saw the big paydays in Hollywood disappearing. So what did they do?
What the tech firms did, take on money to grow and cash in, big time. Yup, everybody at the now-named WME was waiting for the day when they'd become millionaires, billionaires, just like those they envied up north.
Now the question is, was it more about disruption or envy? Changing the business model before the bottom falls out or making those billions at the top.
It started with CAA, taking on investment. Remember thirty years ago, the breakthrough was that Michael Ovitz took CAA into business advising and commercial making. Once again, it was all about advice. But now it became about assets.
Yup, if you don't own anything, what have you got?
Well, you used to have a bunch of agents taking 10% and an occasional win in packaging. Good money, but there was less money and no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
The agencies decided to go for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
And the funny thing about this was their base was rejected, the talent they represented became secondary, because it didn't generate enough cash, it didn't scale. So, the talent was thrown under the bus, or maybe made to sit in the back of the bus, too bad, they had no choice.
Then the writers fired their agents. Their point was clear. Whose side were the agencies on? Were they sellers or buyers? There was an inherent conflict.
But these agencies now owned assets, they convinced themselves that they were sexy, and certainly history is littered with rich outsiders wanting to get in on the entertainment game.
But, as they did twenty years ago, the entertainment execs turned out to be bad seers, poor students of the game. The startup world faded and almost dried-up. You couldn't compete with the behemoths. Facebook and Google and Amazon...they either bought you or killed you, affecting your upside.
And the bloom was off the rose for tech investors. They were wary of burning their bucks.
But a VCs whole business is based on taking risks. So they continued to do so, someone else had to pay.
Until this year.
Lyft and Uber go public and sink. WeWork turns out to be a fabrication, there's very little there there. And Peloton has a small customer base, they're charging too much for the business to truly scale.
And investors realized all this. The game changed.
Endeavor waited too long to get in the game. Hubris. After all, they were desirable, they controlled the content, didn't they always say that content was king?
Of course not, distribution is king, which is why the cable companies mint money and 5G is going to generate beaucoup bucks. The L.A. execs misplayed their hand, they were out of their depth, they talked disruption, but truly it was about money.
Yup, Clayton Christensen said that the best companies disrupted themselves. Endeavor did this. But, when you disrupt, you have to write off your old bread and butter, your old customers, go from small to mass. And the UFC is mass, but Endeavor still wanted to control the old talent, they wanted it both ways, they wanted to get rich on the backs of their old bread and butter and not pay them. That's a recipe for disaster.
And it's not only Endeavor, it's CAA and UTA too. They've taken on these investments, and the investors want their money back.
This is not Warren Buffett, who kicks the tires and buys in for the long term, this is new money, that wants to put in a little to make a lot. And it wants to make that lot in only a few years.
So where does this leave us?
The financial press says Endeavor is hobbled forever. They're writing the entity's death warrant, they say if the company ever goes public, the number will be much lower. Also, they say most people have no idea what Endeavor is, what it does. The WSJ just wrote that. Which is a kick in the face to these He-Men of Hollywood. Aren't they kings?
Turns out they're not.
Turns out they're amateurs playing in a sophisticated world who are used to bullying people into submission, their greatest asset is their title, they declare you must play by their rules or you'll be excommunicated. They create the art, they're the ones who are talented, the talent itself is just grist for the mill, it can be replaced.
But we don't have a new Prince.
And we never got a new Beatles, never mind Bob Dylan.
The agents loss sight of their business.
And one thing is for sure, Wall Street knows its business. The Street has learned that oftentimes there's no there there, that there's no way to make money, and now investors are shunning those who want to go public at high valuations to reap their rewards, pay back their investors and get rich themselves.
Now these investors, these private equity companies, these VCs...this is their business, very few of their investments pan out, they just need a few to go nuclear, so they can afford the loss, not that they're happy about it, but they won't starve, whereas Endeavor hurt not only itself, but the whole entertainment business, now those with cash will think twice not only about investing in talent agencies, but other entities in Hollywood.
And this is kind of funny, because for decades, Hollywood screwed outside investors. They let them come to the set, they let them meet stars and they let them lose their money. There was always another mark.
But movies are no longer king. And everyone's seen this film. They know it can all be smoke and mirrors, they want to investigate. And when Endeavor decided to go public, those with the cash thought they were being ripped-off, overcharged for very few assets, so they said no.
Saying no to Hollywood?
Welcome to the new world. One in which Billy Joel no longer even makes records, where he writes his own ticket, he said goodbye to Hollywood long ago.
And now so has Wall Street.
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Except in music, in the old days anyway. Music got short shrift because it was uncontrollable and unpredictable. And dependent upon the artists. That's one thing the Beatles and the classic rock revolution did, wrest control of the art from the suits and give it to the creators. You recorded what you wanted to, you controlled the cover art, the label just had the right to sell it and market it.
But something changed about thirty years ago, the suits and now they were wearing such, took control of the business. And there isn't a suit alive as credible as an artist when it comes to creativity. The artist has the idea, the suit wants to mold it to his or her vision. Credit Tommy Mottola. He brilliantly squeezed out Walter Yetnikoff and made it about the highly compensated, the finely dressed, exec. Mottola looked at Charles Koppelman's paradigm and then injected it with steroids, after all, Sony, along with Warner Brothers, had the best catalogs, the best artists in the business.
And speaking of Warner Brothers, Prince's main complaint with the company was it wouldn't allow him to release as much product as he wanted when he wanted. There was the issue of whether the music qualified under the deal, whether the new music would compromise exploitation of the previous release, whether the new music would be up to a platinum standard.
Turns out Prince was right. On many levels. Career artists are no longer about hits. They're about their catalog and their relationship with their fans, and the real money is made on the road.
The music survives, Prince survived every one of those suits at Warner Brothers until he fell to fentanyl.
There are two points here. One, who is more important, the artist or the suit, and two, the music business gets no respect, even though the profits from the Warner music labels built the Warner cable system, you see music scales, once it catches fire it takes almost nothing to continue to produce and reap the rewards, especially in the era of streaming, where there is no manufacturing and shipping.
So, for this exercise, the only thing that is truly important is the suits, how they wrested power from the artists and compensated themselves heavily and made like they were the artists. The worst example is Clive Davis, who gives the impression if it weren't for him, the music business wouldn't exist. But the truth is he had a very small purview, unlike Mottola or Mo.
So...
Everything's going along swimmingly in Hollywood until the internet. And when the internet came along, what did the Tinseltown titans do? Deny it, said they were entitled to control and reap the rewards of their wares, ultimately driving recorded music to half of its revenue. They could have embraced the internet sooner, but they were afraid they'd lose their compensation in the process, and nothing is as sacred as an entertainment exec's salary, bonuses and stock grants.
But over the past twenty years something has become clear... We can debate the extent to which Hollywood controls the culture, certainly less than it ever has in the era of social media and YouTube, but one thing is for sure...Hollywood execs are paupers compared to the Silicon Valley winners, and they don't like it.
If you're keeping up with the Joneses, and the Hollywood elite thought they were the Joneses, you don't want to wake up one day and find out you're far behind.
So...
Every company established a tech fund, an incubator, investment in tech was the way to riches.
But that's like asking a musician to play in the NBA, that's not in their skill set.
Furthermore, Universal Music famously sold the name "Uber" for a pittance.
But not everybody is stupid in Hollywood. One of the smartest is Ari Emanuel, along with his compatriot Patrick Whitesell. They didn't care that CAA demanded respect. They formed their own talent agency which ultimately merged with William Morris and they ended up in charge.
But it wasn't enough.
They saw the landscape changing. They saw the big paydays in Hollywood disappearing. So what did they do?
What the tech firms did, take on money to grow and cash in, big time. Yup, everybody at the now-named WME was waiting for the day when they'd become millionaires, billionaires, just like those they envied up north.
Now the question is, was it more about disruption or envy? Changing the business model before the bottom falls out or making those billions at the top.
It started with CAA, taking on investment. Remember thirty years ago, the breakthrough was that Michael Ovitz took CAA into business advising and commercial making. Once again, it was all about advice. But now it became about assets.
Yup, if you don't own anything, what have you got?
Well, you used to have a bunch of agents taking 10% and an occasional win in packaging. Good money, but there was less money and no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
The agencies decided to go for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
And the funny thing about this was their base was rejected, the talent they represented became secondary, because it didn't generate enough cash, it didn't scale. So, the talent was thrown under the bus, or maybe made to sit in the back of the bus, too bad, they had no choice.
Then the writers fired their agents. Their point was clear. Whose side were the agencies on? Were they sellers or buyers? There was an inherent conflict.
But these agencies now owned assets, they convinced themselves that they were sexy, and certainly history is littered with rich outsiders wanting to get in on the entertainment game.
But, as they did twenty years ago, the entertainment execs turned out to be bad seers, poor students of the game. The startup world faded and almost dried-up. You couldn't compete with the behemoths. Facebook and Google and Amazon...they either bought you or killed you, affecting your upside.
And the bloom was off the rose for tech investors. They were wary of burning their bucks.
But a VCs whole business is based on taking risks. So they continued to do so, someone else had to pay.
Until this year.
Lyft and Uber go public and sink. WeWork turns out to be a fabrication, there's very little there there. And Peloton has a small customer base, they're charging too much for the business to truly scale.
And investors realized all this. The game changed.
Endeavor waited too long to get in the game. Hubris. After all, they were desirable, they controlled the content, didn't they always say that content was king?
Of course not, distribution is king, which is why the cable companies mint money and 5G is going to generate beaucoup bucks. The L.A. execs misplayed their hand, they were out of their depth, they talked disruption, but truly it was about money.
Yup, Clayton Christensen said that the best companies disrupted themselves. Endeavor did this. But, when you disrupt, you have to write off your old bread and butter, your old customers, go from small to mass. And the UFC is mass, but Endeavor still wanted to control the old talent, they wanted it both ways, they wanted to get rich on the backs of their old bread and butter and not pay them. That's a recipe for disaster.
And it's not only Endeavor, it's CAA and UTA too. They've taken on these investments, and the investors want their money back.
This is not Warren Buffett, who kicks the tires and buys in for the long term, this is new money, that wants to put in a little to make a lot. And it wants to make that lot in only a few years.
So where does this leave us?
The financial press says Endeavor is hobbled forever. They're writing the entity's death warrant, they say if the company ever goes public, the number will be much lower. Also, they say most people have no idea what Endeavor is, what it does. The WSJ just wrote that. Which is a kick in the face to these He-Men of Hollywood. Aren't they kings?
Turns out they're not.
Turns out they're amateurs playing in a sophisticated world who are used to bullying people into submission, their greatest asset is their title, they declare you must play by their rules or you'll be excommunicated. They create the art, they're the ones who are talented, the talent itself is just grist for the mill, it can be replaced.
But we don't have a new Prince.
And we never got a new Beatles, never mind Bob Dylan.
The agents loss sight of their business.
And one thing is for sure, Wall Street knows its business. The Street has learned that oftentimes there's no there there, that there's no way to make money, and now investors are shunning those who want to go public at high valuations to reap their rewards, pay back their investors and get rich themselves.
Now these investors, these private equity companies, these VCs...this is their business, very few of their investments pan out, they just need a few to go nuclear, so they can afford the loss, not that they're happy about it, but they won't starve, whereas Endeavor hurt not only itself, but the whole entertainment business, now those with cash will think twice not only about investing in talent agencies, but other entities in Hollywood.
And this is kind of funny, because for decades, Hollywood screwed outside investors. They let them come to the set, they let them meet stars and they let them lose their money. There was always another mark.
But movies are no longer king. And everyone's seen this film. They know it can all be smoke and mirrors, they want to investigate. And when Endeavor decided to go public, those with the cash thought they were being ripped-off, overcharged for very few assets, so they said no.
Saying no to Hollywood?
Welcome to the new world. One in which Billy Joel no longer even makes records, where he writes his own ticket, he said goodbye to Hollywood long ago.
And now so has Wall Street.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
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Trump Resigns
How do you lose a Presidency?
Very slowly, then all at once.
This is not a new story. Trump has been flirting with disaster from before his inauguration. Sure, his base loves him, but as the Donald so famously said, if he shot a person on Fifth Avenue, they wouldn't convict him. Blind devotion.
But that's not the entire country.
And that's not the United States Congress.
Now if you're a student of the game, you know that public figures do their best to never go on the record, to never commit. Even Elizabeth Warren in the last debate...they wanted to know if her health plan would raise taxes...she avoided the question. Once you own something, you're subject to the slings and arrows. And this works in both directions. Sure, you're afraid of your constituency, but also you're afraid of your record.
Despite a President who verges on being a king, who has eviscerated the concept of checks and balances in government, conventional wisdom is you can't piss off the public. Not only the Republicans believe this, but the Democrats too. The Republicans are afraid they're going to be "primaried." This is the downside of gerrymandering. It's clear a Republican is going to be elected, it's just a matter of which one, and if you move to the center, if you're reasonable, there's a good chance someone further right of you will challenge you and emerge victorious. So you don't say anything that will piss off your base...until you have to go on record.
I'm not talking about going on TV. TV has lost all credibility. Trump has been the greatest thing to happen to print, now app, journalism by the usual suspects. In other words, the NYT and the WaPo have triumphed, have increased their footprint, if they thought like techies as opposed to the old wavers they are, they'd forget about profits and think about mindshare, hell, you cannot turn on cable news without a talking head, left and right, quoting what writers in these papers said. I'd like to say the same thing about the "Wall Street Journal," but at best it breaks business stories, it killed on Theranos, it's done good work on WeWork, but when it comes to politics...Murdoch has turned the WSJ into a general interest paper, and as a result it doesn't go as deep as it used to, now that it's covering more. So, in politics, the NYT and the WaPo set the agenda. They write the news and the right reacts. The left thinks if it's in the paper it's enough, but it isn't. The right reads the articles and immediately begins a blitzkrieg of opposition, the left just assumes everybody knows the story and believes what the paper says is the truth, whereas the right has demonized the WaPo and especially the NYT to the point where people on the right believe these outlets are biased and unreadable. And I won't say either is perfect, but their opinion pages print both sides, which you'll rarely see in the WSJ. And sure, I could complain about the NYT all day long, it is servicing its customer base, which appears elitist and backwards technologically, but when it comes to hard news, the NYT is the best worldwide. As for the U.S., Bezos's investment has allowed the WaPo to increase spending and the paper has recovered, it was the WaPo that broke this whistleblower story.
So, it's just been a sporting contest. For nearly three years now. Facts are arguable, if they're even relevant, and Trump has stonewalled, provided almost nothing. Hell, Bill Barr declared that the Mueller Report showed no collusion, which was patently untrue, but he stole the Democrats' thunder and owned the narrative. It had little to do with Mueller's piss-poor performance live, the Democrats didn't know how to play their hand. But even a broken clock is right twice a day.
That's right, right wing spin on MSNBC is it was all Russiagate all the time, and the outlet's clamoring turned out to be baseless. Bill Maher asked last week whether this hurt the Democrats, guests agreed with him, left wing guests, there's little worse than a self-hating leftie.
But this whistleblower thing is something different. It ain't a blowjob and it ain't even a break-in, it truly comes down to national security and the sanctity of our elections. Are you really going to go against these things?
There are two wars, maybe three.
The first war is one of public opinion, which insiders oftentimes read wrong, they really don't know how the people think.
The second war is the media. Believe me, elected officials pay attention. They're all over cable news commenting and Trump himself is addicted. No one wants to look bad on cable news.
Then there's the public record. Do you want to regret your vote that is registered, carved in stone for all time?
This happens all the time. Like with "Obamacare." Forget the legal reasoning, Chief Justice Roberts didn't want to own the destruction of a national health care plan that benefited so many people, that's why his opinion was so convoluted. He knew history would crucify him. His conscience got to him, just as it did with Maguire, he could not take one for the team anymore, he had to say no.
So for now, the Republicans don't have to go on record. They can bloviate in the press. They can even vote against an investigation in the House. But when it comes to a vote on whether Trump has to go...
They don't want to vote, they're never gonna vote, because history will show they were on the wrong side, they'll be a laughingstock. Despite appearances, most Congresspeople are not stupid, they just act that way. And at the end of the day, they really only care about one person, themselves, they're worried about not only survival, but legacy, and they also know politics has a way of squeezing out even the most loyal people, you've got to look out for yourself.
Since the House is dominated by Democrats, there's an impeachment process in that chamber, and then it's kicked to the Senate.
Only chances are it will never get that far.
This is not Michael Cohen, this is Bill Barr, other White House insiders, the whistleblower said there were ten people involved. So if they testify, if the Republicans go for this, it's going to be a national scandal. They're going to have to say they agreed to classify material that didn't qualify for classification to save the President, that's why they were all talking about it, that's why the whistleblower heard about it. That's right, being external, hearing it secondhand, was even worse for the Administration, because it implicates so many people. Are they all gonna lie under oath? Maguire didn't. Just like the Mafia, when the government gets its hooks in you, it's every person for themselves. Save yourself, forget everybody else. Which means...Trump is without protection.
And the information that comes out is gonna look so bad. Bad behavior and then a cover-up. The cover-up alone is grounds for impeachment.
So at some point in the process, Mitch McConnell and the rest of the Senators are gonna tell Trump he has to go. These people have no loyalty to Trump, only the right wing cause. Hell, some even ran against Trump and excoriated him! They want to keep their base and their office, but they figure this story will work for their constituencies, they're gonna tell Trump to resign for the good of the country and the good of the Republican Party.
Oh, I can hear the resignation speech now... Trump bemoaning the attacks, saying he was the victim of a witch hunt, maintaining his innocence, but he'll say HE'LL take one for the team.
All this hogwash about him never leaving...just look at his business deals. The banks foreclosed on his properties, he didn't always win. He's a big baby who will cave, and it will happen very quickly.
But it will be Congress who will push him. This same Congress doesn't want to be burdened by, doesn't want to be tarred by, Trump. They want the Republican Party to survive! A whole cadre of Republican intellectuals and leaders are Never Trumpers. They want to reclaim the Party from the far right. They want reasonability. They want a chance as the country evolves away from work with your hands and the dominance of Christian whites. That's right, the future comes every day.
So, once the House holds public hearings, bad stuff is gonna come out. We saw this during Watergate. John Dean saved himself, lost his law license but said there was a cancer on the Presidency. Patrick Gray admitted he'd burned incriminating documents. Forget your agenda, if you just testify honestly damning things come out.
So yes, the whistleblower gave the inept Democrats, the fearful Democrats, another bite at the apple, and this time they're going for a solid chunk. The news has always been bad about Trump, this is just the cherry on top. And despite what Trump says, it appears to be a lock tight case. Forget the spin, the spin has no chance against the facts, and the facts here are bad.
So at some point in the process, long before any vote in the Senate, Trump will be told by Republican Congresspeople he has to go, just like they did with Nixon.
And just like with Nixon, just like with this whistleblower complaint, it's going to happen very quickly. I'm not saying that Trump is gonna be gone tomorrow, I'm just saying the tide is going to turn, when it does, very fast for the Republican Congresspeople, they're going to be very supportive until one day...they aren't.
So the system survives.
Isn't that what it's all about?
Very slowly, then all at once.
This is not a new story. Trump has been flirting with disaster from before his inauguration. Sure, his base loves him, but as the Donald so famously said, if he shot a person on Fifth Avenue, they wouldn't convict him. Blind devotion.
But that's not the entire country.
And that's not the United States Congress.
Now if you're a student of the game, you know that public figures do their best to never go on the record, to never commit. Even Elizabeth Warren in the last debate...they wanted to know if her health plan would raise taxes...she avoided the question. Once you own something, you're subject to the slings and arrows. And this works in both directions. Sure, you're afraid of your constituency, but also you're afraid of your record.
Despite a President who verges on being a king, who has eviscerated the concept of checks and balances in government, conventional wisdom is you can't piss off the public. Not only the Republicans believe this, but the Democrats too. The Republicans are afraid they're going to be "primaried." This is the downside of gerrymandering. It's clear a Republican is going to be elected, it's just a matter of which one, and if you move to the center, if you're reasonable, there's a good chance someone further right of you will challenge you and emerge victorious. So you don't say anything that will piss off your base...until you have to go on record.
I'm not talking about going on TV. TV has lost all credibility. Trump has been the greatest thing to happen to print, now app, journalism by the usual suspects. In other words, the NYT and the WaPo have triumphed, have increased their footprint, if they thought like techies as opposed to the old wavers they are, they'd forget about profits and think about mindshare, hell, you cannot turn on cable news without a talking head, left and right, quoting what writers in these papers said. I'd like to say the same thing about the "Wall Street Journal," but at best it breaks business stories, it killed on Theranos, it's done good work on WeWork, but when it comes to politics...Murdoch has turned the WSJ into a general interest paper, and as a result it doesn't go as deep as it used to, now that it's covering more. So, in politics, the NYT and the WaPo set the agenda. They write the news and the right reacts. The left thinks if it's in the paper it's enough, but it isn't. The right reads the articles and immediately begins a blitzkrieg of opposition, the left just assumes everybody knows the story and believes what the paper says is the truth, whereas the right has demonized the WaPo and especially the NYT to the point where people on the right believe these outlets are biased and unreadable. And I won't say either is perfect, but their opinion pages print both sides, which you'll rarely see in the WSJ. And sure, I could complain about the NYT all day long, it is servicing its customer base, which appears elitist and backwards technologically, but when it comes to hard news, the NYT is the best worldwide. As for the U.S., Bezos's investment has allowed the WaPo to increase spending and the paper has recovered, it was the WaPo that broke this whistleblower story.
So, it's just been a sporting contest. For nearly three years now. Facts are arguable, if they're even relevant, and Trump has stonewalled, provided almost nothing. Hell, Bill Barr declared that the Mueller Report showed no collusion, which was patently untrue, but he stole the Democrats' thunder and owned the narrative. It had little to do with Mueller's piss-poor performance live, the Democrats didn't know how to play their hand. But even a broken clock is right twice a day.
That's right, right wing spin on MSNBC is it was all Russiagate all the time, and the outlet's clamoring turned out to be baseless. Bill Maher asked last week whether this hurt the Democrats, guests agreed with him, left wing guests, there's little worse than a self-hating leftie.
But this whistleblower thing is something different. It ain't a blowjob and it ain't even a break-in, it truly comes down to national security and the sanctity of our elections. Are you really going to go against these things?
There are two wars, maybe three.
The first war is one of public opinion, which insiders oftentimes read wrong, they really don't know how the people think.
The second war is the media. Believe me, elected officials pay attention. They're all over cable news commenting and Trump himself is addicted. No one wants to look bad on cable news.
Then there's the public record. Do you want to regret your vote that is registered, carved in stone for all time?
This happens all the time. Like with "Obamacare." Forget the legal reasoning, Chief Justice Roberts didn't want to own the destruction of a national health care plan that benefited so many people, that's why his opinion was so convoluted. He knew history would crucify him. His conscience got to him, just as it did with Maguire, he could not take one for the team anymore, he had to say no.
So for now, the Republicans don't have to go on record. They can bloviate in the press. They can even vote against an investigation in the House. But when it comes to a vote on whether Trump has to go...
They don't want to vote, they're never gonna vote, because history will show they were on the wrong side, they'll be a laughingstock. Despite appearances, most Congresspeople are not stupid, they just act that way. And at the end of the day, they really only care about one person, themselves, they're worried about not only survival, but legacy, and they also know politics has a way of squeezing out even the most loyal people, you've got to look out for yourself.
Since the House is dominated by Democrats, there's an impeachment process in that chamber, and then it's kicked to the Senate.
Only chances are it will never get that far.
This is not Michael Cohen, this is Bill Barr, other White House insiders, the whistleblower said there were ten people involved. So if they testify, if the Republicans go for this, it's going to be a national scandal. They're going to have to say they agreed to classify material that didn't qualify for classification to save the President, that's why they were all talking about it, that's why the whistleblower heard about it. That's right, being external, hearing it secondhand, was even worse for the Administration, because it implicates so many people. Are they all gonna lie under oath? Maguire didn't. Just like the Mafia, when the government gets its hooks in you, it's every person for themselves. Save yourself, forget everybody else. Which means...Trump is without protection.
And the information that comes out is gonna look so bad. Bad behavior and then a cover-up. The cover-up alone is grounds for impeachment.
So at some point in the process, Mitch McConnell and the rest of the Senators are gonna tell Trump he has to go. These people have no loyalty to Trump, only the right wing cause. Hell, some even ran against Trump and excoriated him! They want to keep their base and their office, but they figure this story will work for their constituencies, they're gonna tell Trump to resign for the good of the country and the good of the Republican Party.
Oh, I can hear the resignation speech now... Trump bemoaning the attacks, saying he was the victim of a witch hunt, maintaining his innocence, but he'll say HE'LL take one for the team.
All this hogwash about him never leaving...just look at his business deals. The banks foreclosed on his properties, he didn't always win. He's a big baby who will cave, and it will happen very quickly.
But it will be Congress who will push him. This same Congress doesn't want to be burdened by, doesn't want to be tarred by, Trump. They want the Republican Party to survive! A whole cadre of Republican intellectuals and leaders are Never Trumpers. They want to reclaim the Party from the far right. They want reasonability. They want a chance as the country evolves away from work with your hands and the dominance of Christian whites. That's right, the future comes every day.
So, once the House holds public hearings, bad stuff is gonna come out. We saw this during Watergate. John Dean saved himself, lost his law license but said there was a cancer on the Presidency. Patrick Gray admitted he'd burned incriminating documents. Forget your agenda, if you just testify honestly damning things come out.
So yes, the whistleblower gave the inept Democrats, the fearful Democrats, another bite at the apple, and this time they're going for a solid chunk. The news has always been bad about Trump, this is just the cherry on top. And despite what Trump says, it appears to be a lock tight case. Forget the spin, the spin has no chance against the facts, and the facts here are bad.
So at some point in the process, long before any vote in the Senate, Trump will be told by Republican Congresspeople he has to go, just like they did with Nixon.
And just like with Nixon, just like with this whistleblower complaint, it's going to happen very quickly. I'm not saying that Trump is gonna be gone tomorrow, I'm just saying the tide is going to turn, when it does, very fast for the Republican Congresspeople, they're going to be very supportive until one day...they aren't.
So the system survives.
Isn't that what it's all about?
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Thursday 26 September 2019
Michael Feinstein-This Week's Podcast
The King of the Great American Songbook, Michael Feinstein is a player, a singer and an archivist, he's born to and dedicated to the music. A legend with numerous albums and TV shows, you should listen to this even if only modern music floats your boat, hear how an outcast followed the music to success, how a true original was accepted by Ira Gershwin and the public at large. From the piano bar to the Hollywood Bowl, it's a mighty long way down not only rock and roll, but all music, to the TOP!
This was one of my favorite podcasts to do, I hadn't realized how similar Michael Feinstein and I are. I've known Michael for five years, whenever I encounter him he's testifying about some find, some music discovered in the archives that he will pore over and digest. Like film preservationists, Michael is single-handedly keeping the old music alive. Hell, he found the original "Over The Rainbow" and performed it with the Pasadena Pops! Michael challenges authority and has a sense of humor about himself. He's really a rock and roll artist, just playing different music, and I didn't know that until we did this podcast. We start off with conducting, but then we move into Michael's history and you'll see the parallel to other popular artists, people who couldn't find their way in the conventional world, who were square pegs in a round hole and then when they were true to themselves their careers blossomed. It's quite a story.
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0QqAau9rXWOwbhU0elHVPq
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/michael-feinstein/id1316200737?i=1000451308487
https://www.stitcher.com/s?eid=64173613
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Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
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This was one of my favorite podcasts to do, I hadn't realized how similar Michael Feinstein and I are. I've known Michael for five years, whenever I encounter him he's testifying about some find, some music discovered in the archives that he will pore over and digest. Like film preservationists, Michael is single-handedly keeping the old music alive. Hell, he found the original "Over The Rainbow" and performed it with the Pasadena Pops! Michael challenges authority and has a sense of humor about himself. He's really a rock and roll artist, just playing different music, and I didn't know that until we did this podcast. We start off with conducting, but then we move into Michael's history and you'll see the parallel to other popular artists, people who couldn't find their way in the conventional world, who were square pegs in a round hole and then when they were true to themselves their careers blossomed. It's quite a story.
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0QqAau9rXWOwbhU0elHVPq
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/michael-feinstein/id1316200737?i=1000451308487
https://www.stitcher.com/s?eid=64173613
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
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Tuesday 24 September 2019
Spin
The Democrats have to get ahead of the story.
If you were listening to the news today, and who wasn't, you heard about two things, Trump's impeachment and how this action will negatively impact the Democrats in 2020.
Now let's wait to see what the whistleblower has to say, what the transcript and ultimately the tape say, but if we're gonna grant a green light on impeachment after that, we've got to get on the same page. I'm speaking about Democrats here, the Republicans learned this lesson decades ago. In 2016 the Republican candidates were all against Trump, until he won the nomination, then they solidly got behind him. The Democrats? All they can talk about is losing, they're so busy arguing amongst themselves that they can't see the bigger picture.
Number one, timing. You never know what the future will bring, forgoing impeachment and waiting for 2020... A Democratic candidate could commit a faux pas, Trump could have a great victory, almost anything is possible, which is why you play the game instead of waiting to run out the clock. Only the aggressor wins in the end, no matter how good your defense is, you've got to put points on the board.
Number two, perspective, as in the Democrats have to agree on a story and continue to sell it. They must say impeachment is less about Trump than the Presidency, how they're defining the rules for administrations to come. That when someone tries to break the rules, an umpire must come in and cry foul! That's what they're doing here, in the name of justice, this is not Democrat versus Republican, this is about America versus fascism. Sure, use a softer word than fascism, but that's the point, we're doing this to preserve our American government and our American way of life. This message should be sold over and over again, it should trump Trump. If you make it about Trump, it's immediately partisan, if you make it about ethics, behavior, laws...that's hard to argue.
And the Democrats should all be saying how impeachment is gonna HELP their chances in 2020. That the public has been waiting for action in D.C. and now they're getting it. That the Republicans have thwarted movement for years and now the Democrats have to take singular action.
As for the election, Democrats have to say this is what people want, the aforementioned action, Representatives voting their conscience as opposed to triangulating and playing the insider game. After all, if you commit a crime in public the police don't refrain from arresting you because it might hurt their image, especially if you're a nobody. In this flattened, social media world, people feel equal to elected officials. Elected officials should be held to the same standard normal people employ.
The Democrats should say victory in 2020 is a foregone conclusion, that no matter who they nominate in 2020, they'll emerge victorious. You play like a winner or else you end up a loser.
You can define yourself to victory. Look at the Rolling Stones, the self-professed "World's Greatest Rock and Roll Band." Is that true? Who knows? But certainly after their contemporaries broke up and died, it was a self-defining prophecy, you had to see the Stones, they were the WORLD'S GREATEST! Michael Jackson tried to do the same thing, calling himself the "King of Pop." Although no one ever liked the word "pop." It never truly resonated with the audience, never mind MJ's questionable behavior.
What do they say on "American Idol," "fake it till you make it?" Everybody in America employs this aphorism, but not Democrats, they're never qualified enough, the odds are stacked against them, who in hell could vote for these losers? You want people of strength. Kinda like Hillary back in 2016, she called some of Trump's base "deplorables." The REPUBLICANS latched on to this and bullied her into apologizing, demonstrating weakness, Hillary should have doubled-down on her statement, showed her cojones, that would have made people believe in her, as for those who didn't, they never would.
This was the problem with Obama, he was looking for kumbaya. There's no kumbaya in America today, and the Republicans know this. They stole the Supreme Court pick, they gerrymandered, and when they lose, they pass laws hobbling the winner before he or she takes office. The Republicans fight dirty, the Democrats don't fight at all, they just whine.
So Pelosi and her pals, the entire DNC, the left wing bloviators, from now on they must say that Trump's impeachment is the best thing that ever happened to this country. That the government was built on checks and balances, that no branch of the government should be stronger than another, that to refuse to obey the law Trump is breaking the system. The Democrats should say they're leading, that this is what the country wants! Of course the Republicans will squirm, just ignore them, it's your spin against theirs, and there are more Democrats than Republicans.
I don't know about you, but my parents always told me to stand up to bullies, that unless you did they'd know you were afraid and never stop badgering you.
Unfortunately, today's left wing parents believe their kids should be immune from negativity and can't stop complaining to the authorities that their children are being bullied, even in private schools! People have to learn to fight for themselves, otherwise their entire lives will be compromised. Oh, don't get your knickers in a twist, this is why the Republicans dominate the conversation, they keep calling out the insane identity politics of the left. Meanwhile, the left is busy fighting amongst itself, arguing about transgender rights, all kinds of things that are important but irrelevant if you don't have power in government. First you get the power, then you institute change.
This is not hard. Hell, you even come up with a slogan like "Death Tax" to define the impeachment. Yup, Frank Luntz pwns the Democrats on a regular basis, by utilizing words to spin meaning and belief. The Democrats did a good job calling their abortion position "Pro Life," can't they call impeachment "Pro Government," or the "People's Position," or some cute phrase that will become common language, uttered all the time until those who hear it are spun in the right direction?
The Republicans have laid out the playbook, it's in plain sight. You fight a long war, like with the Federalist Society. You keep hammering and hammering until you get the other side questioning its beliefs.
I know the Democrats can do it.
They've got to start NOW!
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Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
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If you were listening to the news today, and who wasn't, you heard about two things, Trump's impeachment and how this action will negatively impact the Democrats in 2020.
Now let's wait to see what the whistleblower has to say, what the transcript and ultimately the tape say, but if we're gonna grant a green light on impeachment after that, we've got to get on the same page. I'm speaking about Democrats here, the Republicans learned this lesson decades ago. In 2016 the Republican candidates were all against Trump, until he won the nomination, then they solidly got behind him. The Democrats? All they can talk about is losing, they're so busy arguing amongst themselves that they can't see the bigger picture.
Number one, timing. You never know what the future will bring, forgoing impeachment and waiting for 2020... A Democratic candidate could commit a faux pas, Trump could have a great victory, almost anything is possible, which is why you play the game instead of waiting to run out the clock. Only the aggressor wins in the end, no matter how good your defense is, you've got to put points on the board.
Number two, perspective, as in the Democrats have to agree on a story and continue to sell it. They must say impeachment is less about Trump than the Presidency, how they're defining the rules for administrations to come. That when someone tries to break the rules, an umpire must come in and cry foul! That's what they're doing here, in the name of justice, this is not Democrat versus Republican, this is about America versus fascism. Sure, use a softer word than fascism, but that's the point, we're doing this to preserve our American government and our American way of life. This message should be sold over and over again, it should trump Trump. If you make it about Trump, it's immediately partisan, if you make it about ethics, behavior, laws...that's hard to argue.
And the Democrats should all be saying how impeachment is gonna HELP their chances in 2020. That the public has been waiting for action in D.C. and now they're getting it. That the Republicans have thwarted movement for years and now the Democrats have to take singular action.
As for the election, Democrats have to say this is what people want, the aforementioned action, Representatives voting their conscience as opposed to triangulating and playing the insider game. After all, if you commit a crime in public the police don't refrain from arresting you because it might hurt their image, especially if you're a nobody. In this flattened, social media world, people feel equal to elected officials. Elected officials should be held to the same standard normal people employ.
The Democrats should say victory in 2020 is a foregone conclusion, that no matter who they nominate in 2020, they'll emerge victorious. You play like a winner or else you end up a loser.
You can define yourself to victory. Look at the Rolling Stones, the self-professed "World's Greatest Rock and Roll Band." Is that true? Who knows? But certainly after their contemporaries broke up and died, it was a self-defining prophecy, you had to see the Stones, they were the WORLD'S GREATEST! Michael Jackson tried to do the same thing, calling himself the "King of Pop." Although no one ever liked the word "pop." It never truly resonated with the audience, never mind MJ's questionable behavior.
What do they say on "American Idol," "fake it till you make it?" Everybody in America employs this aphorism, but not Democrats, they're never qualified enough, the odds are stacked against them, who in hell could vote for these losers? You want people of strength. Kinda like Hillary back in 2016, she called some of Trump's base "deplorables." The REPUBLICANS latched on to this and bullied her into apologizing, demonstrating weakness, Hillary should have doubled-down on her statement, showed her cojones, that would have made people believe in her, as for those who didn't, they never would.
This was the problem with Obama, he was looking for kumbaya. There's no kumbaya in America today, and the Republicans know this. They stole the Supreme Court pick, they gerrymandered, and when they lose, they pass laws hobbling the winner before he or she takes office. The Republicans fight dirty, the Democrats don't fight at all, they just whine.
So Pelosi and her pals, the entire DNC, the left wing bloviators, from now on they must say that Trump's impeachment is the best thing that ever happened to this country. That the government was built on checks and balances, that no branch of the government should be stronger than another, that to refuse to obey the law Trump is breaking the system. The Democrats should say they're leading, that this is what the country wants! Of course the Republicans will squirm, just ignore them, it's your spin against theirs, and there are more Democrats than Republicans.
I don't know about you, but my parents always told me to stand up to bullies, that unless you did they'd know you were afraid and never stop badgering you.
Unfortunately, today's left wing parents believe their kids should be immune from negativity and can't stop complaining to the authorities that their children are being bullied, even in private schools! People have to learn to fight for themselves, otherwise their entire lives will be compromised. Oh, don't get your knickers in a twist, this is why the Republicans dominate the conversation, they keep calling out the insane identity politics of the left. Meanwhile, the left is busy fighting amongst itself, arguing about transgender rights, all kinds of things that are important but irrelevant if you don't have power in government. First you get the power, then you institute change.
This is not hard. Hell, you even come up with a slogan like "Death Tax" to define the impeachment. Yup, Frank Luntz pwns the Democrats on a regular basis, by utilizing words to spin meaning and belief. The Democrats did a good job calling their abortion position "Pro Life," can't they call impeachment "Pro Government," or the "People's Position," or some cute phrase that will become common language, uttered all the time until those who hear it are spun in the right direction?
The Republicans have laid out the playbook, it's in plain sight. You fight a long war, like with the Federalist Society. You keep hammering and hammering until you get the other side questioning its beliefs.
I know the Democrats can do it.
They've got to start NOW!
--
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--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
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Re-JBL L100s
Hey Bob…first of all, I love reading you…and I don't know how in the world you find the time to do all you do! I just wanted to say thanks for the kind mention you gave me about "Laid Back". I miss Gregg so much…and am just glad we got to do the "All My Friends" tribute to him a few years back, with so many great guest artists…including Gregory's old roommate and friend, Jackson Browne. Those were golden days for me…and for all of us that were involved. But then, these are golden days as well…getting to play with the Stones all these years has been such an amazing privilege…not to mention quite a lot of fun! Glad you got those JBLs humming. Cheers and all the best, Chuck Leavell
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Bob, Loved this!
When we went to Canada in 1972 to do the 2nd PPL Album. We blocked out 2 months in RCA's Studio right accross the street from Maple Leaf Gardens in downtown Toronto. Bob Ezrin found us a rental house an hr north in Aurora, so we had a marvelous 60 days recording, dining out, etc. While we were there Gordon Lightfoot came in after us in the evenings with Russ Titleman and Lenny Wornoker, and recorded an album in a couple of weeks. Stompin' Tom Connor came in over a weekend and recorded a whole album! But the impetus of my email is to tell you that our producer, Bob Ringe, who was on staff at RCA at the time, had his JBL L100's shipped up to Toronto to mix on! I'm not sure they're the truest speaker out there, but he was familiar with them and they sounded great!
Also, every music lover should have at least 2 sets of speakers.
Cheers,
Craig Fuller
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Hi Bob - When I signed with Polydor (I know, I know!) in 1972 I didn't have a stereo system, only a very cool Sony portable cassette recorder/player I'd been traveling around Europe with that came in a leatherette briefcase with two speakers and a stereo mic. (There's a photo of Keith Richards carrying one through an airport in the early 70's.) I was a dedicated singer-songwriter who thought he who travels light travels fast and was sure this was all I'd ever need. Then my album Aquashow came out in 1973 and due to the piss poor advance I got from Polydor I couldn't afford to buy anything to play it on so my producer Peter Siegel (and Polydor head of A&R) took me through the record company offices and scrounged up a turntable, amp and speakers for me to borrow. A year later RCA bought out my contract and Lou Reed (who had brought me to the label) accompanied me to his favorite audio shop and insisted I buy a Marantz amp and most importantly, blue foam JBL L100 speakers. And the audio store even let me buy on credit! Most musicians I know have terrible Hi-Fi setups at home and I went without for years when I moved to Paris. But when I turned 65 I figured it was time to listen in style and bought a Pro-ject turntable, NAD amp and Focal speakers and my vinyl collection is growing and I can listen to John Coltrane's A Love Supreme on vinyl every day even if my tinnitus keeps me from listening to anything too loud or too long. But nothing was as exciting as busking through Europe with that portable Sony cassette recorder when I was 22 and ready for anything. Less is more and smart people spend their dough on experiences not things. And wise people know you can never go back. But back in the day those JBL L100 speakers meant you had arrived baby!
From Paris,
Elliott Murphy
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Since I was always technically ignorant, after producing and mixing a few albums I came to rely firmly on small, inexpensive speakers for mixing a record. Record buyers aren't all audiophiles.
The tiny Auratone Sound Cubes were reliable, and later on the wonderful (and very popular)Yamaha NS-10's – both very affordable.
The really discriminating engineer would drape a Kleenex tissue over the NS-10 tweeter, deeming it just a touch too shrill.
I seem to recall that one good LA studio (may have been A&M) had a Chevy out back with a factory-issue radio, and they had installed a cassette deck so you could play your mono mix and hear how it would sound in your average vehicle.
If the mono mix sounded good on that dashboard speaker, you could be pretty sure that a high end stereo system would do it justice.
In spite of all the monster megawatt studio monitors available to us, all you really needed for a solid rock & roll mix was a simple pair of bookshelf speakers.
Tom Werman
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Dear Bob,
I've read your letter for years, but this is the first time I've replied. Not that I haven't wanted to before, but these speakers are the speakers of my childhood. My Dad was a salesman for a large security alarm company based in the Bay Area during the early seventies. He was newly out of college and making more money than he knew what to do with. He bought a house in the Cupertino hills (I can't imagine how many millions it is worth today) and set out to furnish the house. One of the first things he did was buy a sound system. My Dad, my Mom, and his best friend went to the stereo store (so goes the story) and started listening to equipment. And then the salesman pulled out Court and Spark and queued up Help Me. And the sale was made (including a copy of Court and Spark that I have today). Dad bought the JBL L100s and has them to this day. Uses them to this day. I wish I could remember the turntable and receiver, but I can't. What I do remember is sitting in front of those speakers listening to the Eagles, Elton, Fleetwod Mac, Doobies, The Who, Credence, Janis, all the greats. Listening and day dreaming. My parents and their friends in the background smoking weed. A gigantic thunderstorm that terrified me, but I stayed out in the living room to listen to the music. I remember whenever we moved one of the first things set up was the stereo and the first song always was Help Me. My Mom is gone and Dad let me have her albums. Maybe someday soon I can convince him to give me the speakers. Music is my religion and live music is my church. I have found my tribe thanks to my love of live music. My life would be much smaller without the love and it all started when I was a little girl daydreaming in front of the speakers.
Thanks for reminding me of a much brighter time on a dark Sunday evening.
Best
Jenn Thomas
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Thanks for a little walk down Memory Lane. I had all of those speakers below and never had to buy them. My Dad, Stan Pressman, followed my Dutch Uncle Henry Kloss around from company to company doing the marketing for him.
Adam
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I have a pair of JBL 100's that haven't been plugged in for twenty years, until just before I retired from Pollstar in June. They had been stored in our warehouse and I had to move them. One of my employees wanted to buy them, but after I heard them I couldn't give them up.
Now what, I have to plug them back in again? As always, thanks for your insight.
Best, Gary Smith
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Bob great story. Glad you stuck it through till the end to get it all woking.
I have a Sansui 881 that i still use as my primary. My uncle bought it new and i got it from him 30 years ago for 50 bucks.
I have a custom built set of Utah speakers i got from him as well. 3-way with 15" woofers. He had a guy make the cabinets out of solid walnut back in the 70's. Three coats of varnish and they are absolutely beautiful to this day. Not top of the line to be sure but they sound great.
The neighbors aren't big fans, but I still love to crank my big old stereo.
neighborhood office solutions
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Hi Bob
Go see Howard at audio specialists on Ventura in studio city - have him fix the Panasonic SL1300 - which is really a Technics
He did wonders with my SL1350 the stacker version of yours - he's a good kibitzer!
Stay cool.
Marc Federman
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Awesome, Bob. You are the Hifi man! I was just working with Fremer at a tradeshow, he's an icon...the JBL's and the THIEL's couldn't be more different. Enjoy!!
Micah Sheveloff
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And best thing yet, they make them again: https://www.musicdirect.com/best-selling-cost-no-object-reference-gear/JBL-L100-Bookshelf-Speakers
Now these are not the same speakers that you own, but in truth they're probably much better. Don't know, haven't heard them, but I bet Harman Int. (JBL's parent brand) would send you a review pair if you asked nicely.
Larry Fisher
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Now that you have the L100s set up go and listen to "There Goes Rhymin' Simon"
I had the studio version of these speakers (JBL 4310s) and to hear some of the best players playing some great songs with superior production you're in heaven.
Bill Garrett
Managing Partner
Borealis Records
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Nice one! I just hooked up my pair of L100's a few weeks ago and dropped the needle of my Dual CS 607 to play James Taylor's Anywhere Like Heaven from Sweet Baby James. The turntable is playing through a Harmon Kardon hk825 pre-amp / hk870 amp through the thickest speaker cable known to man. Heaven. Any Major Dude sounded superb as well, as did More Than A Feeling, Killer Queen, and That's The Way of The World (best EWF song ever, BTW).
Trouble is, you really do need to drive the L100's for them to sound as great as they can - they're not the paragons of efficiency that my modern day KEF's are. As you'd expect, they also sound better playing music that was recorded through an analog console on tape than they do playing modern digital stuff. Modern music is recorded and mixed in too pristine a manner - the result of an infinite number of tracks available and a perfectly clean signal chain. Old school recording was very much more of a gumbo than a steak with a bunch of separate sides. The L100's play that funky music right, boy.
Andy Dayes
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I actually bought an extremely affordable pair of AR-4s for my tiny NYC dining room a couple years back.
I got them as I found an entire subculture of new plug and play replacement parts for those old Acoustic Research speakers online with guides and whatnot.
I have a beautiful pair of klipsch speakers hooked upto a tube McIntosh in my living room - but people swear by the solid state marantz coupled with those AR-4s when they come over.
So much so that a few of my friends have bought AR-4s and refurbished them - and we are all under 45.
I wonder sometimes if it's because that dining room stereo setup of the AR speakers and the Marantz is probably what we heard great music on when we were young.
Either way the Allman Brothers sound great on that system, as does everything else but especially DEREK AND THE DOMINOES!
This was a fun one to read / thanks!
Best
Rich Zerbo
PS - I've had so many NAD systems die on me lol
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Yep, I still listen to vinyl on my stereo I bought at Pacific Stereo in 1978: Kenwood KA-601 High Speed Integrated Amp, Yamaha CT810II Tuner, Thorens TD145MKII turntable with a Stanton cartridge and Klipsch Heresy speakers. Certainly takes you back....
Mitch Roth
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I still have the JBL 4311B 's ...same great sound!
Gregory Beasley
C-Town Records
Cleveland Unlimited Records
Centurian Music Group
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Oh Bob, one of your best! In my dorm room in 1970 at UB (University of Buffalo, not anything related to Boston) we had the JBL's and another guy a few doors down had the AR's. We had soooo much fun blasting each other! The Dead, Allman Bros, Santana, you name it.
And Bob, I still open all my windows and roof top and blast that shit down the road. Especially when I pass Mar A Lago, the baby's house.
Best,
David E. Parker
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Haha I can see you stripping wires etc.
Jake Gold
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Bob-
Wow, hadn't experienced genuine jealousy in awhile. . .
Michael Battiston
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took me back.
Joel Marver
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For all of my audio and video wiring needs, I can't recommend Blue Jeans Cable enough. I believe they hit the bullseye on having the highest quality for the price. I've been using them for at least a decade now; every system in my house is wired with their products, even the in-wall and outdoor speakers. You may specifically like their ultrasonically welded terminated speaker cables.
https://www.bluejeanscable.com/store/speaker/indexmob.htm
Randy Stine
Straight No Chaser
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I remember when!!! (-:
Scott Palazzo
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Bob, since 1980 I've fed JVC 60w/channel (with a built-in 5-band EQ) into a pair of JBL 4312s in my den., and another pair in the living room. Same rig for almost 40 years. Can't beat it! Before that, in my starving musician years I plugged an old turntable into my Fender Twin. Paul Lanning
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Best email you've sent out in a long while. The journey to the joy of it is worth all of the effort. Nothing beats being completely enveloped in the most incredible music ever made.
Put on Bird Song by Grateful Dead from the "Reckoning" live album. Try not to move in that chorus. It's nice bluesy modal rock music, right up your alley.
Music First,
Elliot Kleinfelder
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Use to be the JBL factory rep for mid-atlantic are from 1974-77. Selling these were the easiest thing - even for those customers who wanted a 12" woofer three way. I would take the woofer out of the speakers and show the difference - JBL had a cast iron speaker basket versus an aluminum frame; show them the machine screws versus wood screws; the flattened voice coil wire that enable 47% more conductivity on a fire-retardant voice coil material. The we would sit down and really listen to the bass, mids and highs - voices, cymbals - all crystal clear. The final pitch was that most JBL had a sensitivity of 1 watt input delivered 91dB sound pressure level (SPL) at 1 meter and so what does that mean? paired with 64 watt amp the JBL's would deliver 114 dB of SPL - like a loud rock concert....
Terrance Moran
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This is so sad and you REALLY need to upgrade your stuff. At this point, it's not even called hifi gear. The EAT Turntable is a gem and the Thiel's are good as long as they are not ancient like everything else. The JBL's only play loud. You are missing so much of the music. It's a shame for someone into music as much as your are.
Wayne Krauss
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I have a pair of JBL 4311b home version studio monitors I bought at Pacific Stereo in 1981 along with a Dual turntable. I still love the sound. They have bass but great midrange, which is where most of the sound of the music is. When I remodeled my house many years ago, I put JBL in wall speakers in some of the rooms but not the living room where the 4311s were and are still.
Ted Gerdes
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Like you i was always chasing audio nirvana on ever improving gear in the 70/80s. Had a pair of JBL L112 for awhile and loved them. Hope to get back after it at some point. Regarding "Laid Back"..wow that one never gets old and one of my faves, especially "Queen of Hearts". I actually prefer this version of "Midnight Rider". Thanks for the "words" ..always enjoyable.
Best,
Steve Gietka
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Love this Bob. Long live big audio!
Peter
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Dang... I lusted after those things but could never afford them. Now, I think if you can find a good set, they cost more than they did new.
Dave Wood
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Bob,
Good news! JBL reissued the Classic L100's this year!
Bad news: they're $4k for a pair…
-Tom
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Next time, Bob, feel free to contact me. I'm right here in LA; 50 years in audiophilia, vinyl through digital. Been through everything. Two full systems in my house; happy to help.
Phil Ressler
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I won't be the first person to share the news, but JBL just re-released the L100s. They're supposed to be better than ever.
Lane Buschel
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Bob, I had 4311's, the studio equivalent of the L100's back in the 70's. Through an unfortunate series of events they went elsewhere. I bought Bose and other things but nothing were like the 4311's.
Last winter I found a pair from an estate sale here in Durham. Not a scratch on them.
They looked so good I was afraid they were fake.
When I fired them up I knew they weren't. The smile curve sound with the high bass (the low end sound you described) and the amazing top end were both there.
They'll have to pry them from my cold dead hands for me to lose them again.
Stephen Knill
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Dear Bob,
And all your guys in their seventies are in heaven with each of these gear articles, too!
Dennis Brent
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Wow - I miss the days of high end audio. It's sad that young people will never know the experience of hearing music through a high end system.
Victor Lassandro
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Bob, the Eico HF-81, a cheesy looking, 14 watt kit amp, from 1960 can't be beat for musicality, warmth, and detail. The secret? EL-84 tubes and big transformers.
But because of the low wattage, you need high efficiency speakers. I use the Dynacos A35 or A25, great speakers from Denmark from the 1970s.
I hear timbre and clarity I never experienced before from any classic stereo system! You can find all of the above on EBay.... but you may need the amp's capacitors replaced due to age.
John Rhode
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Bob, does your integrated amp have a setting for Quadraphonic sound? Does it have an RCA jack for 8-track? Do you still store your vinyl in milk crates? Come on Bob, you're tangentially in the music biz. Isn't it time to upgrade your audio components rather than relying on bubble gum, bailing wire and a swift kick to get some sound? Bite the bullet and buy a new system. Donate your old system to charity, along with the mirrored disco ball, and invest. It's likely a write-off for you. I just bought a new, high end system and I'm loving it. My friends think I'm crazy for what I spent, but I'm hearing sounds on my old LP's that I swear wasn't there when purchased years ago. You do realize this is 2019, not 1975?
Stuart K. Marvin
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I broke my sonic virginity on my dads 4311s and I was lucky enough to take them with me to college. Everything sounded great. Bass baby bass
A few years after getting my first gig with BMG and I had a few bucks in my pocket, I became a Dunlavy guy with much thanks from a tip from Denny Purcell @ Georgetown Masters (who has since passed). John Dunlavy was the brains behind Duntech. He has also passed but he still lives on in some of the most brilliant cabinets and crossovers ever built, check them out if you can ever find them.
Christian Svendsen
W.A.Y Entertainment
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JBL L100 RE-CONE 12" Speaker Kit White Cone! re-cone 12/3" "AquaPlax" PMR | eBay
https://www.ebay.com/itm/JBL-L100-RE-CONE-12-Speaker-Kit-White-Cone-re-cone-12-3-AquaPlax-PMR-/183762871665?_ul=CA
Regards Sam Boyd
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Klipsch La Scalas, McIntosh Tuner, Crown DC300A amp. Technics Turntable... I Robot from Alan Parsons Project... Vinyl.
Heaven
Keith Miller
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Hey Bob
Enjoy your writing.
In case you weren't aware the JBL L100 is back. With all the best of the old and current technology.
Enjoy
Levino
https://www.musicdirect.com/Speakers/JBL-L100-Bookshelf-Speakers
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I've been procrastinating to fix my L 36 JBLs.
They are like the L100s, but with a 10 inch woofer.
It's been ten years since I discovered the woofers needed new foam surrounds.
Your piece has inspired me to get them working again.
Gary Berlak
Fresno
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Bob you just took me back to my days selling Home & Car Audio for Audio Express in Searcy and Conway, Arkansas 1988 - 1992. We ruled the national car audio scene in the mid to late 80s with some amazing installers and sold a little home audio. JBL was our speakers of choice and Adcom was our high end amp / pre-amp. I actually sold a pair of the JBL Project Everest speakers to a guy out of state. Will never forget when we ran a mono GFA-555 to each speak and blew the roof off the listening room. Good days. Take care
Dan Fife
Awakening Events
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I thought you were more of a streaming man that considered the return of vinyl a bit of a fad? I am with you that there is no point in buying modern hifi equipment. Generally overpriced and made in a cottage setting. Much better to use the mass produced high end equipment of yesteryear. There is plenty about. Best Jorg Mohaupt
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1. Always trust Fremer.
2. After going through a string of preamps without satisfaction (I decided to upgrade FROM Adcom in 1999) I finally went back and bought the preamp I used to have (Adcom GFP 555-2) for $150 on ebay. Works like the charm it always was, and handles my turntable without an external preamp.
Michael Alex
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I completely agree on both subjects. I still have the JBL100 speakers I bought after college (early 80s), and Chuck Leavell is my favorite piano accompanist. His work consistently shines without overshadowing the artist he's working with. Truly a master.
All the best,
Elizabeth Butler
P.S. I double-checked my speakers, and I don't have the JBL 100s after all. They're the same speakers I've had since after college, but not as cool as yours. I still stand by my Chuck Leavell comment, though. He's the master.
Best,
Elizabeth
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Blasting off into the time machine is always a journey!
You didn't mention the snap, crackle, pop of the needle plowing and grinding its way through the groove. But hey, that was part of the '70s experience too...
Your next to last sentence describes it perfectly.
Will Eggleston
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The JBL L 100s were almost aspirational back when every penny I earned went to upgrading my stereo system. First I had Dynaco A25's, then the larger Advents and then finally saved enough to make the trip down to Crazy Eddie to get my L100s. Those who grew up or lived in New York will remember that place.
Yup..they were the benchmark until the 4311B's came along.
Tom Ennis
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If you think the L100's are good, try their studio counterparts, the 4311's or 4311b's... you can still find them out there, in great condition, recapped and serviced! Pair with a Fisher, Scott or Mac tube amp, and you'll never want to leave the house. Want to really blow your lid off? Try lossless streaming, with a TUBE DAC (digital to audio converter).
Enjoy!
Bart Doroz
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In about 1973, I bought a pair of JBL L-26 Decade. As of today, I am still running them. Now, that said, I've had the loudspeakers worked on, and replaced the tweeters with originals that I purchased on Ebay, but much like the L-100's when I turn them up in our rather large living room, they still bark like they did 46 years ago. Haven't really heard anything that can fill the room like them.
Tom T Ball
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You have surely transported anyone aged 50 or over to the old days when one never discarded speaker wire, connectors, alligator clips, and RCA cables, and many attempts at resuscitating any speaker that had a chance of producing sound. Now I feel justified for bringing back my JBLs from New Zealand, and storing them in three successive garages (where they still reside), along with the oversized cables with gold connectors (that fall off, as yours did).
But the most fun memory you raised was of Tom Campbell, who did the baritone hyperventilating voice overs for the Dow Stereo ads. I remember Dow, Cal Stereo, University Stereo, the Federated Group, and Pacific Stereo (where I bought all of my stuff) running ad after ad flogging all sorts of gear that no one under the age of 20 would recognize today.
So maybe I'll pull out my JBLs and my Harmon Kardon and try to convince my kids that not all music comes out of a handheld device.
Thanks for the memories, and congrats for getting your gear working again.
Adam Keller
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Bob I didn't understand much of the technical stuff but I knew about the JBL's and most of the other components you mentioned...yeah I hooked up my stereo back in the day but I was easy to please...once the music came through I was good...though I always tried to get a good receiver (Marantz) cuz like you I needed volume....
But man I do get the feeling you had playing Laid Back like it should be heard....
I miss those days so much that I almost hurt sometimes....crank it up Bob!
Tom Clark
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Thanks Bob
I just saw King Crimson at Radio City Music Hall and was blown away by the power and the musicianship. Like all concert experiences it was both auditory and physical (and great). Hi Fi may not be going to a concert, but the immersive and physical experience you write about is as close as we can come.
While the era of portable music thanks to iPod and smartphones has brought more listening to more places more of the time, all too often it has been less than the ecstatic experience you write about. Flat TV, smartphones, game consoles and other shiny objects have taken our attention and retail space for electronics.
However, your note shows just how wonderful and affordable the real thing is. I worked on the first Bluetooth speaker, but there are plenty of very affordable speaker and amp setups as you have that will blow those and you away if you do not need portability.
I am really happy that Amazon is now streaming full files so that when you have the gear you may be able to experience the full thing the artist made for you, and I am hoping this will help others hear what you are hearing once more.
Whether alone of with friends and family, an immersive audio experience is wonderful. Thanks for sharing.
Robert Heiblim
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Just to say I got my 40 year old Celestion Ditton 66's back from my son a few weeks ago, traded them for my Sonos 5's, and hooked them up to the new Sonos Amp - 125 watts per channel. My reaction was the same as yours - WOW! I have all the Allman albums on vinyl, including "Laid Back" (a highly underrated album), purchased on its release at the beginning of my last year at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick. I've listened to it on the new system and it's like a time machine. The depth of the sound - not even mentioning volume here, of which there's plenty - takes me back to the days when music was the centre of our universe. And BTW, check out the Sonos Amp - drives the pair of wired Dittons and a couple of small wireless Sonos speakers, plus input (through a switch box) from my turntable, cassette deck and CD player. Plus Apple Music and Idagio (classical) streaming. Who could ask for anything more?
Final note: could I put in a plug for the recent "Creedence at Woodstock" album as a potential add to the "best live albums of all time" list? Only heard it for the first time this summer. Always a CCR fan, but not huge in my world. This album is a revelation. Such a tight band live, and Fogerty's lead guitar is restrained, but incendiary. It's up there in its own way with "Live at Leeds" and "Fillmore East". Why it took 50 years to come to light I don't understand.
All the best,
George Goodwin
Toronto
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I haven't replied before but the line about turning up the stereo loud enough to hear it on your tractor out in the fields reminded me of Neil Young's story about having a sound system at his barn and one at his house as left and right going out on his pond in a rowboat and yelling to someone on shore "more barn!" I think it's from his autobiography Shaky.
Johnny Bee
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What an awesome read! Stripping wires...talk about a blast from the past!
Marc Reiter
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Bob, thank you for putting out your newsletter.
This recent article brought back many memories of my youth. Let me begin by telling you why it touched me. My dad was murdered back in 1983 when I was just 12 years old.
For the first 12 years of my life we drove from Lynwood, CA to Beverly Hills to visit Jonás Millers store on Wilshire where my dad would get all of his HiFi equipment. We lived in Lynwood in the 70s because my dad worked at Firestone Rubber Company. Anyhow, my dad was an intellect and a lover of classical music. We grew up in a home that had two JBL L400 cabinet speakers plus a pair of Sony bookshelf speakers that sort of look like the L100s you describe, the Monster cable was about 1 inch thick, Luxman Pre Amp and Amp, sansui tuner "I think" Nakamachi tape deck, Revox reel to reel and I don't recall the turntable but I'm sure the caliber was equal to the above.
After Firestone shut down, my dad went to work for M&K Speakers which as you probably know was started by Jonas Miller and Ken Kreisel.
Anyhow, when i went to college i was super into college radio and booked the bands on campus that played at the noon time outdoor shows for students. I booked everybody that was cool in the early 90s including No Doubt, Sublime, 311, Ice T, Redd Kross, Rage Against the Machine, Thelonious Monster, Marys Danish yo name a few. During school I hooked up with Mitch Okmin who now runs the MOB Agency but at the time was working for Miles Copeland at IRS Records, I than went and did an intenship at Capital Records in A&R during the Blind Melon days. After school i worked for Mitch and Ian Copeland at FBI when Ian moved his office to the Hollywood Hills.
Anyhow, not sure why i shared all that with you but I guess you pulled at my heart strings remembering my dad.
Please give me a thumbs up so at least I know you read my note. lol.
Cheers
Gonzalo "Gonzo" Vasquez
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First of all.. You took me right back to setting up speakers. I've worked around audio since I was 16 so I used to love helping friends set up their systems. And the first music you hear out of the stereo once its set up is like heaven.
The advents! I bought Advent speakers when I lived in Ottawa and I actually think I bought them at the Ex because they had a booth with the newest versions of them-- But I may be misremembering or romanticizing. I just remember that they were the best for me. Warm as anything because I like a bassy, warm sound. A shrill shallow sound out of a speaker is like nails on a chalkboard for me.
I don't like lending things in general, but I lent my Advents to a friend who was throwing herself a 50th birthday party. I should have known better because she was, well, careless is the least complicated way of describing her attitude. She had the party in a loft and at the end of the night set them outside near the elevators and they were taken by someone, the thought was that they assumed they were being thrown away.
I'm still bitter about that! She never offered to pay for them either.
I love that Greg Allman record! I wore it out. Great production.. And the opening notes of Midnight Rider? Still gives me shivers.
I'm going to go listen to it now
I still have my turntable from that era. Marble base on it. I can't remember what the make is. I keep thinking I'm going to pull it upstairs and set it up, but turntables are a lot of upkeep.
In any case, I'm thinking about those Advents right now..
Karen Gordon
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Hi Bob,
I work for Don Was at Blue Note, running his "Tone Poet" reissue program.https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/tone-poet-joe-harley-blue-note-interview/
I also have worked for the high end cable company AudioQuest for the last 35 years, helping to found and grow the company back in the early '80s. And I continue to work there, albeit in more of an advisory role, to this day.
Your story brought back such a flood of memories….Pacific Stereo, NAD and of course the JBL-100s! I owned a pair way back when… spending what I thought was an INSANE amount of money back in the 70s to get them!
I would love to offer you a couple of things that I think would make a substantial improvement to your listening experience.
First, you mentioned some troubles with speaker cables. Just tell me how long you need them to be, and whether you need spade lugs, bananas or pins (in place of bare wire which you should NEVER use) and what is needed on the amp end and what is needed on the speaker end. These are very modestly priced cables, nothing crazy at all, sub $100.
And you mentioned a power strip. I'd love to send you something that we make that is, likewise, VERY inexpensive but actually makes your system sound substantially better! I know I could be accused of being a shill, but at near 70 and having the time of my life working for Don (which has zero to do with AudioQuest), I just want you to hear this since you, so obviously, are a true LOVER of music.
If you are interested, just let me know, give me an address, and I'll make sure you have it all gratis.
Love your column Bob…. addicted to it!
Thanks,
Joe
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Bob,
Thanks for this and glad everything worked out with your L100s. We're right here in Northridge in the original JBL factory location. If you'd ever like a tour of the facility, I would be happy to take you around. You can see some historical stuff, engineering, and our torture testing (which is very impressive), We could also show you the HARMAN professional experience center which gets into our work for touring, recording and other markets and people usually find it the highlight of their visit.
Anyway, longtime, avid reader of your newsletter and I just wanted to put this out there. Hope you'll take us up on it.
Best regards,
Carl Jacobson
Global Director, Marketing Communications
HARMAN Professional Solutions
AKG | AMX | BSS | Crown | dbx| Digitech | JBL | Lexicon | Martin | Soundcraft | Studer
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Lol I thought when I got to the end you would say "and it sounded like shit"!
Michael McCarty
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Bob, Loved this!
When we went to Canada in 1972 to do the 2nd PPL Album. We blocked out 2 months in RCA's Studio right accross the street from Maple Leaf Gardens in downtown Toronto. Bob Ezrin found us a rental house an hr north in Aurora, so we had a marvelous 60 days recording, dining out, etc. While we were there Gordon Lightfoot came in after us in the evenings with Russ Titleman and Lenny Wornoker, and recorded an album in a couple of weeks. Stompin' Tom Connor came in over a weekend and recorded a whole album! But the impetus of my email is to tell you that our producer, Bob Ringe, who was on staff at RCA at the time, had his JBL L100's shipped up to Toronto to mix on! I'm not sure they're the truest speaker out there, but he was familiar with them and they sounded great!
Also, every music lover should have at least 2 sets of speakers.
Cheers,
Craig Fuller
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Hi Bob - When I signed with Polydor (I know, I know!) in 1972 I didn't have a stereo system, only a very cool Sony portable cassette recorder/player I'd been traveling around Europe with that came in a leatherette briefcase with two speakers and a stereo mic. (There's a photo of Keith Richards carrying one through an airport in the early 70's.) I was a dedicated singer-songwriter who thought he who travels light travels fast and was sure this was all I'd ever need. Then my album Aquashow came out in 1973 and due to the piss poor advance I got from Polydor I couldn't afford to buy anything to play it on so my producer Peter Siegel (and Polydor head of A&R) took me through the record company offices and scrounged up a turntable, amp and speakers for me to borrow. A year later RCA bought out my contract and Lou Reed (who had brought me to the label) accompanied me to his favorite audio shop and insisted I buy a Marantz amp and most importantly, blue foam JBL L100 speakers. And the audio store even let me buy on credit! Most musicians I know have terrible Hi-Fi setups at home and I went without for years when I moved to Paris. But when I turned 65 I figured it was time to listen in style and bought a Pro-ject turntable, NAD amp and Focal speakers and my vinyl collection is growing and I can listen to John Coltrane's A Love Supreme on vinyl every day even if my tinnitus keeps me from listening to anything too loud or too long. But nothing was as exciting as busking through Europe with that portable Sony cassette recorder when I was 22 and ready for anything. Less is more and smart people spend their dough on experiences not things. And wise people know you can never go back. But back in the day those JBL L100 speakers meant you had arrived baby!
From Paris,
Elliott Murphy
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Since I was always technically ignorant, after producing and mixing a few albums I came to rely firmly on small, inexpensive speakers for mixing a record. Record buyers aren't all audiophiles.
The tiny Auratone Sound Cubes were reliable, and later on the wonderful (and very popular)Yamaha NS-10's – both very affordable.
The really discriminating engineer would drape a Kleenex tissue over the NS-10 tweeter, deeming it just a touch too shrill.
I seem to recall that one good LA studio (may have been A&M) had a Chevy out back with a factory-issue radio, and they had installed a cassette deck so you could play your mono mix and hear how it would sound in your average vehicle.
If the mono mix sounded good on that dashboard speaker, you could be pretty sure that a high end stereo system would do it justice.
In spite of all the monster megawatt studio monitors available to us, all you really needed for a solid rock & roll mix was a simple pair of bookshelf speakers.
Tom Werman
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Dear Bob,
I've read your letter for years, but this is the first time I've replied. Not that I haven't wanted to before, but these speakers are the speakers of my childhood. My Dad was a salesman for a large security alarm company based in the Bay Area during the early seventies. He was newly out of college and making more money than he knew what to do with. He bought a house in the Cupertino hills (I can't imagine how many millions it is worth today) and set out to furnish the house. One of the first things he did was buy a sound system. My Dad, my Mom, and his best friend went to the stereo store (so goes the story) and started listening to equipment. And then the salesman pulled out Court and Spark and queued up Help Me. And the sale was made (including a copy of Court and Spark that I have today). Dad bought the JBL L100s and has them to this day. Uses them to this day. I wish I could remember the turntable and receiver, but I can't. What I do remember is sitting in front of those speakers listening to the Eagles, Elton, Fleetwod Mac, Doobies, The Who, Credence, Janis, all the greats. Listening and day dreaming. My parents and their friends in the background smoking weed. A gigantic thunderstorm that terrified me, but I stayed out in the living room to listen to the music. I remember whenever we moved one of the first things set up was the stereo and the first song always was Help Me. My Mom is gone and Dad let me have her albums. Maybe someday soon I can convince him to give me the speakers. Music is my religion and live music is my church. I have found my tribe thanks to my love of live music. My life would be much smaller without the love and it all started when I was a little girl daydreaming in front of the speakers.
Thanks for reminding me of a much brighter time on a dark Sunday evening.
Best
Jenn Thomas
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Thanks for a little walk down Memory Lane. I had all of those speakers below and never had to buy them. My Dad, Stan Pressman, followed my Dutch Uncle Henry Kloss around from company to company doing the marketing for him.
Adam
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I have a pair of JBL 100's that haven't been plugged in for twenty years, until just before I retired from Pollstar in June. They had been stored in our warehouse and I had to move them. One of my employees wanted to buy them, but after I heard them I couldn't give them up.
Now what, I have to plug them back in again? As always, thanks for your insight.
Best, Gary Smith
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Bob great story. Glad you stuck it through till the end to get it all woking.
I have a Sansui 881 that i still use as my primary. My uncle bought it new and i got it from him 30 years ago for 50 bucks.
I have a custom built set of Utah speakers i got from him as well. 3-way with 15" woofers. He had a guy make the cabinets out of solid walnut back in the 70's. Three coats of varnish and they are absolutely beautiful to this day. Not top of the line to be sure but they sound great.
The neighbors aren't big fans, but I still love to crank my big old stereo.
neighborhood office solutions
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Hi Bob
Go see Howard at audio specialists on Ventura in studio city - have him fix the Panasonic SL1300 - which is really a Technics
He did wonders with my SL1350 the stacker version of yours - he's a good kibitzer!
Stay cool.
Marc Federman
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Awesome, Bob. You are the Hifi man! I was just working with Fremer at a tradeshow, he's an icon...the JBL's and the THIEL's couldn't be more different. Enjoy!!
Micah Sheveloff
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And best thing yet, they make them again: https://www.musicdirect.com/best-selling-cost-no-object-reference-gear/JBL-L100-Bookshelf-Speakers
Now these are not the same speakers that you own, but in truth they're probably much better. Don't know, haven't heard them, but I bet Harman Int. (JBL's parent brand) would send you a review pair if you asked nicely.
Larry Fisher
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Now that you have the L100s set up go and listen to "There Goes Rhymin' Simon"
I had the studio version of these speakers (JBL 4310s) and to hear some of the best players playing some great songs with superior production you're in heaven.
Bill Garrett
Managing Partner
Borealis Records
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Nice one! I just hooked up my pair of L100's a few weeks ago and dropped the needle of my Dual CS 607 to play James Taylor's Anywhere Like Heaven from Sweet Baby James. The turntable is playing through a Harmon Kardon hk825 pre-amp / hk870 amp through the thickest speaker cable known to man. Heaven. Any Major Dude sounded superb as well, as did More Than A Feeling, Killer Queen, and That's The Way of The World (best EWF song ever, BTW).
Trouble is, you really do need to drive the L100's for them to sound as great as they can - they're not the paragons of efficiency that my modern day KEF's are. As you'd expect, they also sound better playing music that was recorded through an analog console on tape than they do playing modern digital stuff. Modern music is recorded and mixed in too pristine a manner - the result of an infinite number of tracks available and a perfectly clean signal chain. Old school recording was very much more of a gumbo than a steak with a bunch of separate sides. The L100's play that funky music right, boy.
Andy Dayes
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I actually bought an extremely affordable pair of AR-4s for my tiny NYC dining room a couple years back.
I got them as I found an entire subculture of new plug and play replacement parts for those old Acoustic Research speakers online with guides and whatnot.
I have a beautiful pair of klipsch speakers hooked upto a tube McIntosh in my living room - but people swear by the solid state marantz coupled with those AR-4s when they come over.
So much so that a few of my friends have bought AR-4s and refurbished them - and we are all under 45.
I wonder sometimes if it's because that dining room stereo setup of the AR speakers and the Marantz is probably what we heard great music on when we were young.
Either way the Allman Brothers sound great on that system, as does everything else but especially DEREK AND THE DOMINOES!
This was a fun one to read / thanks!
Best
Rich Zerbo
PS - I've had so many NAD systems die on me lol
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Yep, I still listen to vinyl on my stereo I bought at Pacific Stereo in 1978: Kenwood KA-601 High Speed Integrated Amp, Yamaha CT810II Tuner, Thorens TD145MKII turntable with a Stanton cartridge and Klipsch Heresy speakers. Certainly takes you back....
Mitch Roth
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I still have the JBL 4311B 's ...same great sound!
Gregory Beasley
C-Town Records
Cleveland Unlimited Records
Centurian Music Group
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Oh Bob, one of your best! In my dorm room in 1970 at UB (University of Buffalo, not anything related to Boston) we had the JBL's and another guy a few doors down had the AR's. We had soooo much fun blasting each other! The Dead, Allman Bros, Santana, you name it.
And Bob, I still open all my windows and roof top and blast that shit down the road. Especially when I pass Mar A Lago, the baby's house.
Best,
David E. Parker
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Haha I can see you stripping wires etc.
Jake Gold
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Bob-
Wow, hadn't experienced genuine jealousy in awhile. . .
Michael Battiston
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took me back.
Joel Marver
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For all of my audio and video wiring needs, I can't recommend Blue Jeans Cable enough. I believe they hit the bullseye on having the highest quality for the price. I've been using them for at least a decade now; every system in my house is wired with their products, even the in-wall and outdoor speakers. You may specifically like their ultrasonically welded terminated speaker cables.
https://www.bluejeanscable.com/store/speaker/indexmob.htm
Randy Stine
Straight No Chaser
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I remember when!!! (-:
Scott Palazzo
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Bob, since 1980 I've fed JVC 60w/channel (with a built-in 5-band EQ) into a pair of JBL 4312s in my den., and another pair in the living room. Same rig for almost 40 years. Can't beat it! Before that, in my starving musician years I plugged an old turntable into my Fender Twin. Paul Lanning
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Best email you've sent out in a long while. The journey to the joy of it is worth all of the effort. Nothing beats being completely enveloped in the most incredible music ever made.
Put on Bird Song by Grateful Dead from the "Reckoning" live album. Try not to move in that chorus. It's nice bluesy modal rock music, right up your alley.
Music First,
Elliot Kleinfelder
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Use to be the JBL factory rep for mid-atlantic are from 1974-77. Selling these were the easiest thing - even for those customers who wanted a 12" woofer three way. I would take the woofer out of the speakers and show the difference - JBL had a cast iron speaker basket versus an aluminum frame; show them the machine screws versus wood screws; the flattened voice coil wire that enable 47% more conductivity on a fire-retardant voice coil material. The we would sit down and really listen to the bass, mids and highs - voices, cymbals - all crystal clear. The final pitch was that most JBL had a sensitivity of 1 watt input delivered 91dB sound pressure level (SPL) at 1 meter and so what does that mean? paired with 64 watt amp the JBL's would deliver 114 dB of SPL - like a loud rock concert....
Terrance Moran
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This is so sad and you REALLY need to upgrade your stuff. At this point, it's not even called hifi gear. The EAT Turntable is a gem and the Thiel's are good as long as they are not ancient like everything else. The JBL's only play loud. You are missing so much of the music. It's a shame for someone into music as much as your are.
Wayne Krauss
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I have a pair of JBL 4311b home version studio monitors I bought at Pacific Stereo in 1981 along with a Dual turntable. I still love the sound. They have bass but great midrange, which is where most of the sound of the music is. When I remodeled my house many years ago, I put JBL in wall speakers in some of the rooms but not the living room where the 4311s were and are still.
Ted Gerdes
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Like you i was always chasing audio nirvana on ever improving gear in the 70/80s. Had a pair of JBL L112 for awhile and loved them. Hope to get back after it at some point. Regarding "Laid Back"..wow that one never gets old and one of my faves, especially "Queen of Hearts". I actually prefer this version of "Midnight Rider". Thanks for the "words" ..always enjoyable.
Best,
Steve Gietka
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Love this Bob. Long live big audio!
Peter
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Dang... I lusted after those things but could never afford them. Now, I think if you can find a good set, they cost more than they did new.
Dave Wood
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Bob,
Good news! JBL reissued the Classic L100's this year!
Bad news: they're $4k for a pair…
-Tom
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Next time, Bob, feel free to contact me. I'm right here in LA; 50 years in audiophilia, vinyl through digital. Been through everything. Two full systems in my house; happy to help.
Phil Ressler
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I won't be the first person to share the news, but JBL just re-released the L100s. They're supposed to be better than ever.
Lane Buschel
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Bob, I had 4311's, the studio equivalent of the L100's back in the 70's. Through an unfortunate series of events they went elsewhere. I bought Bose and other things but nothing were like the 4311's.
Last winter I found a pair from an estate sale here in Durham. Not a scratch on them.
They looked so good I was afraid they were fake.
When I fired them up I knew they weren't. The smile curve sound with the high bass (the low end sound you described) and the amazing top end were both there.
They'll have to pry them from my cold dead hands for me to lose them again.
Stephen Knill
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Dear Bob,
And all your guys in their seventies are in heaven with each of these gear articles, too!
Dennis Brent
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Wow - I miss the days of high end audio. It's sad that young people will never know the experience of hearing music through a high end system.
Victor Lassandro
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Bob, the Eico HF-81, a cheesy looking, 14 watt kit amp, from 1960 can't be beat for musicality, warmth, and detail. The secret? EL-84 tubes and big transformers.
But because of the low wattage, you need high efficiency speakers. I use the Dynacos A35 or A25, great speakers from Denmark from the 1970s.
I hear timbre and clarity I never experienced before from any classic stereo system! You can find all of the above on EBay.... but you may need the amp's capacitors replaced due to age.
John Rhode
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Bob, does your integrated amp have a setting for Quadraphonic sound? Does it have an RCA jack for 8-track? Do you still store your vinyl in milk crates? Come on Bob, you're tangentially in the music biz. Isn't it time to upgrade your audio components rather than relying on bubble gum, bailing wire and a swift kick to get some sound? Bite the bullet and buy a new system. Donate your old system to charity, along with the mirrored disco ball, and invest. It's likely a write-off for you. I just bought a new, high end system and I'm loving it. My friends think I'm crazy for what I spent, but I'm hearing sounds on my old LP's that I swear wasn't there when purchased years ago. You do realize this is 2019, not 1975?
Stuart K. Marvin
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I broke my sonic virginity on my dads 4311s and I was lucky enough to take them with me to college. Everything sounded great. Bass baby bass
A few years after getting my first gig with BMG and I had a few bucks in my pocket, I became a Dunlavy guy with much thanks from a tip from Denny Purcell @ Georgetown Masters (who has since passed). John Dunlavy was the brains behind Duntech. He has also passed but he still lives on in some of the most brilliant cabinets and crossovers ever built, check them out if you can ever find them.
Christian Svendsen
W.A.Y Entertainment
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JBL L100 RE-CONE 12" Speaker Kit White Cone! re-cone 12/3" "AquaPlax" PMR | eBay
https://www.ebay.com/itm/JBL-L100-RE-CONE-12-Speaker-Kit-White-Cone-re-cone-12-3-AquaPlax-PMR-/183762871665?_ul=CA
Regards Sam Boyd
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Klipsch La Scalas, McIntosh Tuner, Crown DC300A amp. Technics Turntable... I Robot from Alan Parsons Project... Vinyl.
Heaven
Keith Miller
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Hey Bob
Enjoy your writing.
In case you weren't aware the JBL L100 is back. With all the best of the old and current technology.
Enjoy
Levino
https://www.musicdirect.com/Speakers/JBL-L100-Bookshelf-Speakers
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I've been procrastinating to fix my L 36 JBLs.
They are like the L100s, but with a 10 inch woofer.
It's been ten years since I discovered the woofers needed new foam surrounds.
Your piece has inspired me to get them working again.
Gary Berlak
Fresno
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Bob you just took me back to my days selling Home & Car Audio for Audio Express in Searcy and Conway, Arkansas 1988 - 1992. We ruled the national car audio scene in the mid to late 80s with some amazing installers and sold a little home audio. JBL was our speakers of choice and Adcom was our high end amp / pre-amp. I actually sold a pair of the JBL Project Everest speakers to a guy out of state. Will never forget when we ran a mono GFA-555 to each speak and blew the roof off the listening room. Good days. Take care
Dan Fife
Awakening Events
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I thought you were more of a streaming man that considered the return of vinyl a bit of a fad? I am with you that there is no point in buying modern hifi equipment. Generally overpriced and made in a cottage setting. Much better to use the mass produced high end equipment of yesteryear. There is plenty about. Best Jorg Mohaupt
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1. Always trust Fremer.
2. After going through a string of preamps without satisfaction (I decided to upgrade FROM Adcom in 1999) I finally went back and bought the preamp I used to have (Adcom GFP 555-2) for $150 on ebay. Works like the charm it always was, and handles my turntable without an external preamp.
Michael Alex
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I completely agree on both subjects. I still have the JBL100 speakers I bought after college (early 80s), and Chuck Leavell is my favorite piano accompanist. His work consistently shines without overshadowing the artist he's working with. Truly a master.
All the best,
Elizabeth Butler
P.S. I double-checked my speakers, and I don't have the JBL 100s after all. They're the same speakers I've had since after college, but not as cool as yours. I still stand by my Chuck Leavell comment, though. He's the master.
Best,
Elizabeth
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Blasting off into the time machine is always a journey!
You didn't mention the snap, crackle, pop of the needle plowing and grinding its way through the groove. But hey, that was part of the '70s experience too...
Your next to last sentence describes it perfectly.
Will Eggleston
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The JBL L 100s were almost aspirational back when every penny I earned went to upgrading my stereo system. First I had Dynaco A25's, then the larger Advents and then finally saved enough to make the trip down to Crazy Eddie to get my L100s. Those who grew up or lived in New York will remember that place.
Yup..they were the benchmark until the 4311B's came along.
Tom Ennis
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If you think the L100's are good, try their studio counterparts, the 4311's or 4311b's... you can still find them out there, in great condition, recapped and serviced! Pair with a Fisher, Scott or Mac tube amp, and you'll never want to leave the house. Want to really blow your lid off? Try lossless streaming, with a TUBE DAC (digital to audio converter).
Enjoy!
Bart Doroz
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In about 1973, I bought a pair of JBL L-26 Decade. As of today, I am still running them. Now, that said, I've had the loudspeakers worked on, and replaced the tweeters with originals that I purchased on Ebay, but much like the L-100's when I turn them up in our rather large living room, they still bark like they did 46 years ago. Haven't really heard anything that can fill the room like them.
Tom T Ball
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You have surely transported anyone aged 50 or over to the old days when one never discarded speaker wire, connectors, alligator clips, and RCA cables, and many attempts at resuscitating any speaker that had a chance of producing sound. Now I feel justified for bringing back my JBLs from New Zealand, and storing them in three successive garages (where they still reside), along with the oversized cables with gold connectors (that fall off, as yours did).
But the most fun memory you raised was of Tom Campbell, who did the baritone hyperventilating voice overs for the Dow Stereo ads. I remember Dow, Cal Stereo, University Stereo, the Federated Group, and Pacific Stereo (where I bought all of my stuff) running ad after ad flogging all sorts of gear that no one under the age of 20 would recognize today.
So maybe I'll pull out my JBLs and my Harmon Kardon and try to convince my kids that not all music comes out of a handheld device.
Thanks for the memories, and congrats for getting your gear working again.
Adam Keller
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Bob I didn't understand much of the technical stuff but I knew about the JBL's and most of the other components you mentioned...yeah I hooked up my stereo back in the day but I was easy to please...once the music came through I was good...though I always tried to get a good receiver (Marantz) cuz like you I needed volume....
But man I do get the feeling you had playing Laid Back like it should be heard....
I miss those days so much that I almost hurt sometimes....crank it up Bob!
Tom Clark
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Thanks Bob
I just saw King Crimson at Radio City Music Hall and was blown away by the power and the musicianship. Like all concert experiences it was both auditory and physical (and great). Hi Fi may not be going to a concert, but the immersive and physical experience you write about is as close as we can come.
While the era of portable music thanks to iPod and smartphones has brought more listening to more places more of the time, all too often it has been less than the ecstatic experience you write about. Flat TV, smartphones, game consoles and other shiny objects have taken our attention and retail space for electronics.
However, your note shows just how wonderful and affordable the real thing is. I worked on the first Bluetooth speaker, but there are plenty of very affordable speaker and amp setups as you have that will blow those and you away if you do not need portability.
I am really happy that Amazon is now streaming full files so that when you have the gear you may be able to experience the full thing the artist made for you, and I am hoping this will help others hear what you are hearing once more.
Whether alone of with friends and family, an immersive audio experience is wonderful. Thanks for sharing.
Robert Heiblim
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Just to say I got my 40 year old Celestion Ditton 66's back from my son a few weeks ago, traded them for my Sonos 5's, and hooked them up to the new Sonos Amp - 125 watts per channel. My reaction was the same as yours - WOW! I have all the Allman albums on vinyl, including "Laid Back" (a highly underrated album), purchased on its release at the beginning of my last year at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick. I've listened to it on the new system and it's like a time machine. The depth of the sound - not even mentioning volume here, of which there's plenty - takes me back to the days when music was the centre of our universe. And BTW, check out the Sonos Amp - drives the pair of wired Dittons and a couple of small wireless Sonos speakers, plus input (through a switch box) from my turntable, cassette deck and CD player. Plus Apple Music and Idagio (classical) streaming. Who could ask for anything more?
Final note: could I put in a plug for the recent "Creedence at Woodstock" album as a potential add to the "best live albums of all time" list? Only heard it for the first time this summer. Always a CCR fan, but not huge in my world. This album is a revelation. Such a tight band live, and Fogerty's lead guitar is restrained, but incendiary. It's up there in its own way with "Live at Leeds" and "Fillmore East". Why it took 50 years to come to light I don't understand.
All the best,
George Goodwin
Toronto
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I haven't replied before but the line about turning up the stereo loud enough to hear it on your tractor out in the fields reminded me of Neil Young's story about having a sound system at his barn and one at his house as left and right going out on his pond in a rowboat and yelling to someone on shore "more barn!" I think it's from his autobiography Shaky.
Johnny Bee
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What an awesome read! Stripping wires...talk about a blast from the past!
Marc Reiter
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Bob, thank you for putting out your newsletter.
This recent article brought back many memories of my youth. Let me begin by telling you why it touched me. My dad was murdered back in 1983 when I was just 12 years old.
For the first 12 years of my life we drove from Lynwood, CA to Beverly Hills to visit Jonás Millers store on Wilshire where my dad would get all of his HiFi equipment. We lived in Lynwood in the 70s because my dad worked at Firestone Rubber Company. Anyhow, my dad was an intellect and a lover of classical music. We grew up in a home that had two JBL L400 cabinet speakers plus a pair of Sony bookshelf speakers that sort of look like the L100s you describe, the Monster cable was about 1 inch thick, Luxman Pre Amp and Amp, sansui tuner "I think" Nakamachi tape deck, Revox reel to reel and I don't recall the turntable but I'm sure the caliber was equal to the above.
After Firestone shut down, my dad went to work for M&K Speakers which as you probably know was started by Jonas Miller and Ken Kreisel.
Anyhow, when i went to college i was super into college radio and booked the bands on campus that played at the noon time outdoor shows for students. I booked everybody that was cool in the early 90s including No Doubt, Sublime, 311, Ice T, Redd Kross, Rage Against the Machine, Thelonious Monster, Marys Danish yo name a few. During school I hooked up with Mitch Okmin who now runs the MOB Agency but at the time was working for Miles Copeland at IRS Records, I than went and did an intenship at Capital Records in A&R during the Blind Melon days. After school i worked for Mitch and Ian Copeland at FBI when Ian moved his office to the Hollywood Hills.
Anyhow, not sure why i shared all that with you but I guess you pulled at my heart strings remembering my dad.
Please give me a thumbs up so at least I know you read my note. lol.
Cheers
Gonzalo "Gonzo" Vasquez
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First of all.. You took me right back to setting up speakers. I've worked around audio since I was 16 so I used to love helping friends set up their systems. And the first music you hear out of the stereo once its set up is like heaven.
The advents! I bought Advent speakers when I lived in Ottawa and I actually think I bought them at the Ex because they had a booth with the newest versions of them-- But I may be misremembering or romanticizing. I just remember that they were the best for me. Warm as anything because I like a bassy, warm sound. A shrill shallow sound out of a speaker is like nails on a chalkboard for me.
I don't like lending things in general, but I lent my Advents to a friend who was throwing herself a 50th birthday party. I should have known better because she was, well, careless is the least complicated way of describing her attitude. She had the party in a loft and at the end of the night set them outside near the elevators and they were taken by someone, the thought was that they assumed they were being thrown away.
I'm still bitter about that! She never offered to pay for them either.
I love that Greg Allman record! I wore it out. Great production.. And the opening notes of Midnight Rider? Still gives me shivers.
I'm going to go listen to it now
I still have my turntable from that era. Marble base on it. I can't remember what the make is. I keep thinking I'm going to pull it upstairs and set it up, but turntables are a lot of upkeep.
In any case, I'm thinking about those Advents right now..
Karen Gordon
_______________________________________
Hi Bob,
I work for Don Was at Blue Note, running his "Tone Poet" reissue program.https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/tone-poet-joe-harley-blue-note-interview/
I also have worked for the high end cable company AudioQuest for the last 35 years, helping to found and grow the company back in the early '80s. And I continue to work there, albeit in more of an advisory role, to this day.
Your story brought back such a flood of memories….Pacific Stereo, NAD and of course the JBL-100s! I owned a pair way back when… spending what I thought was an INSANE amount of money back in the 70s to get them!
I would love to offer you a couple of things that I think would make a substantial improvement to your listening experience.
First, you mentioned some troubles with speaker cables. Just tell me how long you need them to be, and whether you need spade lugs, bananas or pins (in place of bare wire which you should NEVER use) and what is needed on the amp end and what is needed on the speaker end. These are very modestly priced cables, nothing crazy at all, sub $100.
And you mentioned a power strip. I'd love to send you something that we make that is, likewise, VERY inexpensive but actually makes your system sound substantially better! I know I could be accused of being a shill, but at near 70 and having the time of my life working for Don (which has zero to do with AudioQuest), I just want you to hear this since you, so obviously, are a true LOVER of music.
If you are interested, just let me know, give me an address, and I'll make sure you have it all gratis.
Love your column Bob…. addicted to it!
Thanks,
Joe
_______________________________________
Bob,
Thanks for this and glad everything worked out with your L100s. We're right here in Northridge in the original JBL factory location. If you'd ever like a tour of the facility, I would be happy to take you around. You can see some historical stuff, engineering, and our torture testing (which is very impressive), We could also show you the HARMAN professional experience center which gets into our work for touring, recording and other markets and people usually find it the highlight of their visit.
Anyway, longtime, avid reader of your newsletter and I just wanted to put this out there. Hope you'll take us up on it.
Best regards,
Carl Jacobson
Global Director, Marketing Communications
HARMAN Professional Solutions
AKG | AMX | BSS | Crown | dbx| Digitech | JBL | Lexicon | Martin | Soundcraft | Studer
_______________________________________
Lol I thought when I got to the end you would say "and it sounded like shit"!
Michael McCarty
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Your First Album-SiriusXM This Week
Tune in today, Tuesday September 24th, to Volume 106, 7 PM East, 4 PM West.
Phone #: 844-6-VOLUME, 844-686-5863
Twitter: @lefsetz or @siriusxmvolume/#lefsetzlive
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Monday 23 September 2019
Impeachment
What are the Democrats afraid of?
This is what happens when you've been inside the Beltway, in the game for far too long, you get disrupted. That's right, Trump disrupted the Democrats who were so busy studying history that they didn't realize the country had changed.
Well, it's changed again.
What we've learned is that 30% of the people will vote for Trump no matter what. There's no way in hell you can convince them otherwise, write them off.
As far as those people in the middle, swayable, the canard is that if you make one false move they're gonna vote Republican again. But the Democratic leaders just don't get it. Those people voted for Trump because the Democrats weren't servicing them, the left was beholden to the nouveau riche, those who benefited from the system and globalization, and this sector believed, unfortunately correctly, that not only did the left wing elite not care about them, they had contempt for them. So they decided to flip the script, throw over the table, anything to wake the Democrats up and hopefully generate change.
Oh boy, they got it with Trump. And most of America doesn't like what he's done. But don't ask Nancy Pelosi to do anything about it.
Now the Democrats missed their chance. Like they have for decades, they've allowed the right wing to control the narrative, this time with the Mueller Report, Barr got out ahead and the Democrats never conceived of a viable strategy to get rid of the President. Then, way too late, they decided they would do so, slowly, like a record company transitioning from physical to digital...better not go too fast, you might piss off some of your old partners. But this appeal to everybody approach appeals to nobody! You've got to lead. That's what was wrong with Obama, he was so fearful of being labeled an angry African-American he stayed calm in the face of right wing shenanigans, he didn't call them out, he didn't get aggressive, he just squirmed like a five year old when they stole his Supreme Court pick. Hell, Obama could have shut down the government, done his best to bring the Republicans to their knees, but NO, you've just got to toss your hands in the air and then point to the other guy and say he's bad. Hell, Bill Belichick is bad, the Patriots keep testing the rules, but the Patriots consistently win, over and over again.
Trump has handed the Democrats a gift. He's admitted he discussed Biden with Ukraine and withheld aid. If not now, when?
What the Democrats don't realize is no one wants to vote for a pussy. Pussies are pissed on. You've got to bring out the dog in you, snarl, take action, it's a fight but the Democrats refuse to put up their dukes.
The Squad has urged them to, to drag themselves into the twenty first century, but movement has to be slow in government, so slow that Amazon, Google and Facebook became monopolies and D.C. was caught flat-footed, they didn't even understand what was going on, never mind the stakes. What do you expect from a leader like Chuck Schumer who still uses a flip phone?
This is not about getting Trump out of office, it's about the law and institutions. Trump keeps saying no...no tax returns, no testimony, no info and the Democrats roll over. Trump's turning the government into a monarchy and the Democrats are acting like serfs, thankful they can live at all.
Today the "Wall Street Journal" said the Biden claims had no merit, never mind the "New York Times." THAT'S THE RIGHT WING PAPER OF RECORD!
And if you'd gone to the Fox News website over the weekend you would have seen truth about what Trump did, albeit countered with a false narrative about Biden. You see when behavior is not only egregious but fact, you can't argue it. This is what the country has been waiting for, what the Democrats thought would never happen, Trump not only has been caught red-handed, but admitted it!
As for impeachment... If the Democrats play their cards right, Trump will be gone. History, the one the Dems don't pay attention to, demonstrates that the Republicans were against the impeachment of Richard Nixon before they were for it. The plethora of evidence turned them. Today, it looks like the Republicans in the Senate are solidly behind Trump, that's patently untrue! They're just afraid of him, but if he's gone, they've got nothing to be afraid of.
This is about getting the facts out in front of the public. If there is an impeachment process it will be featured not only across network and cable, but all over the web, where Trump's behavior will be delineated, the only thing open for discussion is the spin, but the facts remain. I mean you can tell somebody that a person has been mislabeled, that he's truthful and honorable, but when confronted with bad behavior again and again, you change your opinion.
Yes, if you're worried about the game, run out the clock, don't impeach Trump, wait to beat him in the next election. But who says Trump is gonna honor that election? Haven't the Republicans been screaming about voter fraud again and again as they purge the rolls of legal voters? And just like Trump keeps pushing the envelope now, who's to say he's gonna stop? This guy is enriching himself at the country's expense, the facts are there, but no one can blow the whistle because they're afraid the public will pooh-pooh their choices and in the past this hasn't worked?
It's a brand new country, in so many ways. Income inequality is rampant. The rich are richer and have more power and influence. The American Dream has faded, literally, even the aforementioned WSJ said so. Do you think the public is gonna behave like it always did?
NO WAY!
Yes, history will teach you a lot, but sometimes you have to throw away the books and do the right thing. Everybody knows what the right thing is. Then again, we live in such a b.s. country that you're better off denying your bad behavior than admitting it. Trump gets a pass, no one else does.
So just like I have no doubt that Warren will win the nomination and the election, I've got no doubt that if Trump's behavior was revealed in an impeachment process not only the public, but the Senate will turn against him. They'll have to. And the only way to get rid of this cancer on the Presidency is...
To get rid of Trump.
This is what happens when you've been inside the Beltway, in the game for far too long, you get disrupted. That's right, Trump disrupted the Democrats who were so busy studying history that they didn't realize the country had changed.
Well, it's changed again.
What we've learned is that 30% of the people will vote for Trump no matter what. There's no way in hell you can convince them otherwise, write them off.
As far as those people in the middle, swayable, the canard is that if you make one false move they're gonna vote Republican again. But the Democratic leaders just don't get it. Those people voted for Trump because the Democrats weren't servicing them, the left was beholden to the nouveau riche, those who benefited from the system and globalization, and this sector believed, unfortunately correctly, that not only did the left wing elite not care about them, they had contempt for them. So they decided to flip the script, throw over the table, anything to wake the Democrats up and hopefully generate change.
Oh boy, they got it with Trump. And most of America doesn't like what he's done. But don't ask Nancy Pelosi to do anything about it.
Now the Democrats missed their chance. Like they have for decades, they've allowed the right wing to control the narrative, this time with the Mueller Report, Barr got out ahead and the Democrats never conceived of a viable strategy to get rid of the President. Then, way too late, they decided they would do so, slowly, like a record company transitioning from physical to digital...better not go too fast, you might piss off some of your old partners. But this appeal to everybody approach appeals to nobody! You've got to lead. That's what was wrong with Obama, he was so fearful of being labeled an angry African-American he stayed calm in the face of right wing shenanigans, he didn't call them out, he didn't get aggressive, he just squirmed like a five year old when they stole his Supreme Court pick. Hell, Obama could have shut down the government, done his best to bring the Republicans to their knees, but NO, you've just got to toss your hands in the air and then point to the other guy and say he's bad. Hell, Bill Belichick is bad, the Patriots keep testing the rules, but the Patriots consistently win, over and over again.
Trump has handed the Democrats a gift. He's admitted he discussed Biden with Ukraine and withheld aid. If not now, when?
What the Democrats don't realize is no one wants to vote for a pussy. Pussies are pissed on. You've got to bring out the dog in you, snarl, take action, it's a fight but the Democrats refuse to put up their dukes.
The Squad has urged them to, to drag themselves into the twenty first century, but movement has to be slow in government, so slow that Amazon, Google and Facebook became monopolies and D.C. was caught flat-footed, they didn't even understand what was going on, never mind the stakes. What do you expect from a leader like Chuck Schumer who still uses a flip phone?
This is not about getting Trump out of office, it's about the law and institutions. Trump keeps saying no...no tax returns, no testimony, no info and the Democrats roll over. Trump's turning the government into a monarchy and the Democrats are acting like serfs, thankful they can live at all.
Today the "Wall Street Journal" said the Biden claims had no merit, never mind the "New York Times." THAT'S THE RIGHT WING PAPER OF RECORD!
And if you'd gone to the Fox News website over the weekend you would have seen truth about what Trump did, albeit countered with a false narrative about Biden. You see when behavior is not only egregious but fact, you can't argue it. This is what the country has been waiting for, what the Democrats thought would never happen, Trump not only has been caught red-handed, but admitted it!
As for impeachment... If the Democrats play their cards right, Trump will be gone. History, the one the Dems don't pay attention to, demonstrates that the Republicans were against the impeachment of Richard Nixon before they were for it. The plethora of evidence turned them. Today, it looks like the Republicans in the Senate are solidly behind Trump, that's patently untrue! They're just afraid of him, but if he's gone, they've got nothing to be afraid of.
This is about getting the facts out in front of the public. If there is an impeachment process it will be featured not only across network and cable, but all over the web, where Trump's behavior will be delineated, the only thing open for discussion is the spin, but the facts remain. I mean you can tell somebody that a person has been mislabeled, that he's truthful and honorable, but when confronted with bad behavior again and again, you change your opinion.
Yes, if you're worried about the game, run out the clock, don't impeach Trump, wait to beat him in the next election. But who says Trump is gonna honor that election? Haven't the Republicans been screaming about voter fraud again and again as they purge the rolls of legal voters? And just like Trump keeps pushing the envelope now, who's to say he's gonna stop? This guy is enriching himself at the country's expense, the facts are there, but no one can blow the whistle because they're afraid the public will pooh-pooh their choices and in the past this hasn't worked?
It's a brand new country, in so many ways. Income inequality is rampant. The rich are richer and have more power and influence. The American Dream has faded, literally, even the aforementioned WSJ said so. Do you think the public is gonna behave like it always did?
NO WAY!
Yes, history will teach you a lot, but sometimes you have to throw away the books and do the right thing. Everybody knows what the right thing is. Then again, we live in such a b.s. country that you're better off denying your bad behavior than admitting it. Trump gets a pass, no one else does.
So just like I have no doubt that Warren will win the nomination and the election, I've got no doubt that if Trump's behavior was revealed in an impeachment process not only the public, but the Senate will turn against him. They'll have to. And the only way to get rid of this cancer on the Presidency is...
To get rid of Trump.
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Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber
https://amzn.to/2l0voTO
Project Voldemort, that's today's business story.
"Snap Detailed Facebook's Aggressive Tactics in 'Project Voldemort'": https://on.wsj.com/2kF8hxI
Or, to put it another way, you can't handle the truth. It's easier to see Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos as winners than to delve into how they got there. Their characters are more chiaroscuro, but that doesn't stick in today's world of image. You're a winner or a loser. You're somebody or a nobody. And chances are, if you're a winner, you didn't get there the old-fashioned way, but by bending the rules and sometimes cheating.
It's probably been this way forever. But after tech started minting billionaires, they were subject to attention, if not scrutiny. Everybody wanted to be an entrepreneur, we even got a TV show about it, "Shark Tank," but the real lessons in how you make it were never shared. Oh, the sharks can talk about projections and scale, but no one focuses on the fact that Bill Gates made computer manufacturers pay for Windows whether it was installed or not. Yup, if you installed Linux, you had to pay for Windows anyway. This not only helped Microsoft, it was to the disadvantage of competing operating systems, made them nonstarters.
So Facebook bought Onarvo, which allowed them to spy on all your activity on your phone, including what you did at Snapchat. Yup, it'd be like allowing competitors to sit in on your writing sessions and then beat you to the punch with a release of the same song. Or, to put it another way, covering your indie track and distributing it by a major to prove that you either had to sell to them or get out of the way, i.e. change your business model like Foursquare, or lose out to the me-to product Instagram as all your features were copied almost instantly, as Snapchat did. Snapchat kept a dossier of Facebook's bad behavior, it's called "Project Voldemort."
Now Facebook SAYS it stopped using Onarvo when caught, but since that time the social media behemoth's heinous behavior has been revealed time and time again... But the stock? Investors are thrilled.
It always comes down to the money, and Travis Kalanick was spending too much of it, not keeping track of it, and creating/tolerating a sexist bro culture all the way.
Like every other male techie is not into private planes, swanky hotel rooms, hookers and drugs. Yup, they're imitating the rock star lifestyle. They killed themselves to get here, and now they want to relish the rewards. Most of them relate to sex. Yup, it's as base as that. Can you question that when Jeff Bezos puts his fortune on the line to date a friend's wife?
So Kalanick was just like Zuckerberg. Only Zuckerberg's company went public earlier in its lifespan. And Facebook stock tumbled at first too, but then it gained, it was all about advertising. Uber is not about advertising.
Uber is about providing a service.
Now speaking of services, there's a review of Netflix cofounder Marc Randolph's book "That Will Never Work" in today's WSJ too. No one could foresee streaming. At first Netflix didn't even have a subscription service. They made it up on the fly, and eventually ended up in streaming and their own production. The goal? To make sure no one could compete.
Founders. The wisdom today is you don't replace them. And if you do, you get a bad rep in the VC world. You see founders have a vision. It's like the songwriter in a band, he dies and you're screwed, like that guy in the Gin Blossoms, they never had another hit. But if you take money, you're beholden to it.
Kalanick was screwed by Mike Ovitz. Ovitz wrote off his investment in Kalanick's Scour so as to not be on the wrong side of copyright law.
So Kalanick protected himself from day one with Uber, by giving himself control with super-voting shares. Yup, Zuckerberg has control of Facebook, but Facebook was just an improvement on what had worked before, i.e. MySpace, et al, can you remember Friendster? Uber was conceived out of thin air.
At first it was black cars only. UberX was actually a me-too product. Uber felt it was on the right side of the law with black cars, but when you were competing with taxis...they weren't so sure.
So to combat local governments they came up with Greyball, which prevented the law from busting their drivers. Oh, Uber got in trouble with Apple, for its spying technology akin to Onarvo, but that's how the game is played in tech. You go over the line and wait until you get caught.
Now the institutions are not prepared. They're based on ancient technology, they're reaping the profits while the upstart begins to eat their lunch. As for the public? Uber is a blessing. You can't hail a cab almost anywhere in Los Angeles, but you can call up an Uber, with a nicer driver and a cleaner car. This is the way it always happens, the public votes and the old companies scream, but they die anyway.
So #deleteUber was a misunderstanding of what was going on. Uber turned off surge pricing so as to avoid huge bills that had gotten the company in trouble previously. But the creator of #deleteUber thought it was to kill the taxi business.
But one guy in Chicago with a hashtag put a permanent dent in Uber's rep. And allowed Lyft to flourish. And now, when I take an Uber ride, people wonder, why am I not using Lyft?
But it very easily could have gone the other way. Lyft could have cratered.
Kalanick wanted to win in China. The establishment told him it couldn't be done. Isn't that what they always tell you?
Uber went into driverless cars.
That mission has been pulled back since Kalanick was kicked out. How dumb is that? The future always arrives. Blockbuster is history. He or she who does not prepare for what's coming down the pike is gonna be snubbed out.
Same deal with UberEats. Supposedly losing money, but someone is going to own this sphere.
Today Uber is a nice company which folded its business in Asia and isn't prepared for the future and the stock has sunk. And you want me to laud the board and Dara Khosrowshahi? We've seen this movie before, we're seeing it right now. Apple was built on breakthrough products, Tim Cook is incapable of coming up with them, never mind delivering them. The iPod and the iTunes Store were built on the back of copyright protection...the labels wanted it, Jobs delivered it and wouldn't share FairPlay with competitors. The game remains the same, he or she who is not striving for a monopoly ends up with almost nothing. If you're not playing for all the marbles in tech, you might as well close down the company right now. Especially with social media sites and Uber...there's no there there, it's all virtual, there are no hard assets, except maybe some servers, but you can rent those too. It's all about what's in the brain. And we love the victorious techies as long as their warts are not revealed.
To tell you the truth, if you followed the Uber story in the newspaper, ironically covered mostly by Mike Isaac, the author of "Super Pumped," you will find little new in terms of Uber facts. But you'll learn a whole hell of a lot how business works, especially in Silicon Valley. The way the board gangs up on people. The way info is leaked to achieve the desired result. How personality is used to cover up a killer instinct. He or she who doesn't know how the game is played loses.
That's one thing that outsiders never understand. If you want to make it big in movies or music, move to L.A. Because that's where it happens. Until you hang with both the wannabes and the players, you'll have no idea how the system really works. And if you're outside the system, it's hard to win, especially in movies and TV. It's easier in music, but even if we write off the major labels, which are signing their own death warrant with such narrow pickings, the truth is there are zillions of people in L.A. who know about how much it costs to tour, where to get the best road people, how you penetrate media...you go where most people are. Amazon may be based in Seattle, but it's got a big team in the Valley, that's Silicon Valley to you.
If you ask me, Uber should blow out Dara Khosrowshahi immediately. Bring Travis Kalanick back. America loves a comeback, especially after a mea culpa. Didn't Steve Jobs come back from oblivion to triumph? And hiring an HR department, and a CFO with stricter cost accounting, that's easy, but not the vision thing.
Now if you're one of the boys, if you get along with everybody, self-deprecating and backslapping, I'm not worried about you, you'll always find a gig somewhere. You can make it to the top, but you'll have to kill a few people along the way, and the chances of you actually making it to ruling status are de minimis.
No, those who change the world are outsiders. Never a member of the group, never accepted. They've got a vision and they want to see it come true. And nothing will stop them, because they want to prove to the establishment that they have value, that you don't have to do it the usual way, that you don't have to blend into the group to succeed. And if you're one of these people, it's astounding how much information you can gain just by reading.
"Super Pumped" is one of the books you should devour.
Project Voldemort, that's today's business story.
"Snap Detailed Facebook's Aggressive Tactics in 'Project Voldemort'": https://on.wsj.com/2kF8hxI
Or, to put it another way, you can't handle the truth. It's easier to see Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos as winners than to delve into how they got there. Their characters are more chiaroscuro, but that doesn't stick in today's world of image. You're a winner or a loser. You're somebody or a nobody. And chances are, if you're a winner, you didn't get there the old-fashioned way, but by bending the rules and sometimes cheating.
It's probably been this way forever. But after tech started minting billionaires, they were subject to attention, if not scrutiny. Everybody wanted to be an entrepreneur, we even got a TV show about it, "Shark Tank," but the real lessons in how you make it were never shared. Oh, the sharks can talk about projections and scale, but no one focuses on the fact that Bill Gates made computer manufacturers pay for Windows whether it was installed or not. Yup, if you installed Linux, you had to pay for Windows anyway. This not only helped Microsoft, it was to the disadvantage of competing operating systems, made them nonstarters.
So Facebook bought Onarvo, which allowed them to spy on all your activity on your phone, including what you did at Snapchat. Yup, it'd be like allowing competitors to sit in on your writing sessions and then beat you to the punch with a release of the same song. Or, to put it another way, covering your indie track and distributing it by a major to prove that you either had to sell to them or get out of the way, i.e. change your business model like Foursquare, or lose out to the me-to product Instagram as all your features were copied almost instantly, as Snapchat did. Snapchat kept a dossier of Facebook's bad behavior, it's called "Project Voldemort."
Now Facebook SAYS it stopped using Onarvo when caught, but since that time the social media behemoth's heinous behavior has been revealed time and time again... But the stock? Investors are thrilled.
It always comes down to the money, and Travis Kalanick was spending too much of it, not keeping track of it, and creating/tolerating a sexist bro culture all the way.
Like every other male techie is not into private planes, swanky hotel rooms, hookers and drugs. Yup, they're imitating the rock star lifestyle. They killed themselves to get here, and now they want to relish the rewards. Most of them relate to sex. Yup, it's as base as that. Can you question that when Jeff Bezos puts his fortune on the line to date a friend's wife?
So Kalanick was just like Zuckerberg. Only Zuckerberg's company went public earlier in its lifespan. And Facebook stock tumbled at first too, but then it gained, it was all about advertising. Uber is not about advertising.
Uber is about providing a service.
Now speaking of services, there's a review of Netflix cofounder Marc Randolph's book "That Will Never Work" in today's WSJ too. No one could foresee streaming. At first Netflix didn't even have a subscription service. They made it up on the fly, and eventually ended up in streaming and their own production. The goal? To make sure no one could compete.
Founders. The wisdom today is you don't replace them. And if you do, you get a bad rep in the VC world. You see founders have a vision. It's like the songwriter in a band, he dies and you're screwed, like that guy in the Gin Blossoms, they never had another hit. But if you take money, you're beholden to it.
Kalanick was screwed by Mike Ovitz. Ovitz wrote off his investment in Kalanick's Scour so as to not be on the wrong side of copyright law.
So Kalanick protected himself from day one with Uber, by giving himself control with super-voting shares. Yup, Zuckerberg has control of Facebook, but Facebook was just an improvement on what had worked before, i.e. MySpace, et al, can you remember Friendster? Uber was conceived out of thin air.
At first it was black cars only. UberX was actually a me-too product. Uber felt it was on the right side of the law with black cars, but when you were competing with taxis...they weren't so sure.
So to combat local governments they came up with Greyball, which prevented the law from busting their drivers. Oh, Uber got in trouble with Apple, for its spying technology akin to Onarvo, but that's how the game is played in tech. You go over the line and wait until you get caught.
Now the institutions are not prepared. They're based on ancient technology, they're reaping the profits while the upstart begins to eat their lunch. As for the public? Uber is a blessing. You can't hail a cab almost anywhere in Los Angeles, but you can call up an Uber, with a nicer driver and a cleaner car. This is the way it always happens, the public votes and the old companies scream, but they die anyway.
So #deleteUber was a misunderstanding of what was going on. Uber turned off surge pricing so as to avoid huge bills that had gotten the company in trouble previously. But the creator of #deleteUber thought it was to kill the taxi business.
But one guy in Chicago with a hashtag put a permanent dent in Uber's rep. And allowed Lyft to flourish. And now, when I take an Uber ride, people wonder, why am I not using Lyft?
But it very easily could have gone the other way. Lyft could have cratered.
Kalanick wanted to win in China. The establishment told him it couldn't be done. Isn't that what they always tell you?
Uber went into driverless cars.
That mission has been pulled back since Kalanick was kicked out. How dumb is that? The future always arrives. Blockbuster is history. He or she who does not prepare for what's coming down the pike is gonna be snubbed out.
Same deal with UberEats. Supposedly losing money, but someone is going to own this sphere.
Today Uber is a nice company which folded its business in Asia and isn't prepared for the future and the stock has sunk. And you want me to laud the board and Dara Khosrowshahi? We've seen this movie before, we're seeing it right now. Apple was built on breakthrough products, Tim Cook is incapable of coming up with them, never mind delivering them. The iPod and the iTunes Store were built on the back of copyright protection...the labels wanted it, Jobs delivered it and wouldn't share FairPlay with competitors. The game remains the same, he or she who is not striving for a monopoly ends up with almost nothing. If you're not playing for all the marbles in tech, you might as well close down the company right now. Especially with social media sites and Uber...there's no there there, it's all virtual, there are no hard assets, except maybe some servers, but you can rent those too. It's all about what's in the brain. And we love the victorious techies as long as their warts are not revealed.
To tell you the truth, if you followed the Uber story in the newspaper, ironically covered mostly by Mike Isaac, the author of "Super Pumped," you will find little new in terms of Uber facts. But you'll learn a whole hell of a lot how business works, especially in Silicon Valley. The way the board gangs up on people. The way info is leaked to achieve the desired result. How personality is used to cover up a killer instinct. He or she who doesn't know how the game is played loses.
That's one thing that outsiders never understand. If you want to make it big in movies or music, move to L.A. Because that's where it happens. Until you hang with both the wannabes and the players, you'll have no idea how the system really works. And if you're outside the system, it's hard to win, especially in movies and TV. It's easier in music, but even if we write off the major labels, which are signing their own death warrant with such narrow pickings, the truth is there are zillions of people in L.A. who know about how much it costs to tour, where to get the best road people, how you penetrate media...you go where most people are. Amazon may be based in Seattle, but it's got a big team in the Valley, that's Silicon Valley to you.
If you ask me, Uber should blow out Dara Khosrowshahi immediately. Bring Travis Kalanick back. America loves a comeback, especially after a mea culpa. Didn't Steve Jobs come back from oblivion to triumph? And hiring an HR department, and a CFO with stricter cost accounting, that's easy, but not the vision thing.
Now if you're one of the boys, if you get along with everybody, self-deprecating and backslapping, I'm not worried about you, you'll always find a gig somewhere. You can make it to the top, but you'll have to kill a few people along the way, and the chances of you actually making it to ruling status are de minimis.
No, those who change the world are outsiders. Never a member of the group, never accepted. They've got a vision and they want to see it come true. And nothing will stop them, because they want to prove to the establishment that they have value, that you don't have to do it the usual way, that you don't have to blend into the group to succeed. And if you're one of these people, it's astounding how much information you can gain just by reading.
"Super Pumped" is one of the books you should devour.
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