ADVANCE PROMOTION IS DEAD
Your anticipatory hype is forgotten in the endless tsunami of new data. It makes no sense to build anticipation, it just dissipates. Now you pounce when the story is hot. Radiohead started it, Beyonce improved upon it and now Michael Lewis is taking it to the book business. The new watchword of marketing is SURPRISE!
PEOPLE LOOK FOR AN EDGE
It's no different from Sony selling Mariah Carey singles for 49 cents to go number one. Everybody's trying to rig the system. But when this is so, it's he who is honest and has credibility who gains people's ears. That's what today's musical artists don't understand. That by chasing the buck, whoring themselves out to anybody who'll pay, they're losing their identity, they're becoming no different from their compatriots. Want a tribe? Go your own way, have integrity, speak from the heart, people will follow.
QUALITY TRIUMPHS
Unlike in the music business, Michael Lewis is building a long term career. Sure, he started with a hit, "Liar's Poker," but many of the greats do. Then he wandered in the wilderness until he truly found his groove. "The Blind Side" made him a star years after the book came out, and "Moneyball" enhanced his reputation. You think you've made it but the truth is most people have never heard of you. Now people have heard of Michael Lewis, to the point where he can hype his book on "60 Minutes." That's almost equivalent to playing the Super Bowl. Only unlike Bruno Mars, Michael Lewis has something to say.
MOST PEOPLE CAN'T READ
"60 Minutes" did a good job of explaining the story: http://cbsn.ws/1fE3Cgk But the truth is most people will not read "Flash Boys" because they can't. Inured to television, they can't hold multiple concepts in their brains at one time, when the reading gets tough, they give up. "Flash Boys" is even harder to read than "The Big Short," it's the hardest book I've read in years. But wading through gives you passage into the club, and the truth is all winners want to be in the club, but most just say they're there, without truly being inside. Success is not only money and status, it's wisdom and knowledge. You gain that through experience, and hard work, like reading "Flash Boys."
QUALITY COUNTS
Despite "Flash Boys" being a difficult read, Michael Lewis is a great writer. He's evidence of the blockbuster syndrome. We only have time for great. I'll read anything Lewis writes because he's trying to get it right, he's not dumbing it down for mass consumption, and his style is to explain without emotion, he lets the carefully laid out facts sway you.
JUST BECAUSE SOMEONE'S RICH, THAT DOES NOT MEAN THEY KNOW ANYTHING
Nobody on Wall Street could explain flash trading, except for those perpetrating it, who were tight-lipped. Imagine a world wherein a label head has no idea how the records are made, how they get on the radio, that's what's been going on on Wall Street.
SPEAK THE TRUTH AND BLOWBACK WILL BEGIN
They're not gonna let Michael Lewis edge in on their turf. As soon as the book came out, insiders pooh-poohed it. They always do. America is a game of who has the biggest dick, and those at the top whip theirs out on a regular basis and the little people succumb to this intimidation. You get ahead not by kissing butt, but by standing up to power, that's what a great artist does. Michael Lewis is a great artist. Nobody on the "Billboard" chart is.
CURIOSITY RULES THE WORLD
Brad Katsuyama couldn't understand why trading had changed. He searched for answers. It was a long torturous path. He found them. If you're not busy questioning, you're busy dying.
SUCCESS IS A TRIAL BY FIRE
In other words, they've got no time for you until they do, after you prove yourself. Brad Katsuyama worked at the also-ran Royal Bank of Canada, the big boys laughed at him, but when he enlightened them and proved he could make them money... You want access? In business it's all about money. Doors open when you can make people a profit.
MONEY ISN'T EVERYTHING
Coders quit jobs they find unfulfilling. There's more money on the Street than there is in music, but many leave aside the riches because there's no fulfillment. In other words, when you've got access to money, you realize money is not the only thing.
RISK
Change doesn't happen without it. Brad Katsuyama quit a $2 million a year job to open a new exchange. There was no guarantee it would be successful. It still may not be.
GREED
We don't get good music because those at the top are all about the money. And those at the bottom don't understand the game. What we need are people who rise above who stand up to the b.s. That was what made Kurt Cobain a hero. He was insanely talented and yet refused to play the game, he needed to stay punk. It killed him. Hopefully it won't kill you.
MAKING A DIFFERENCE
We all need a purpose. Being famous is not one. That's just an end. But in today's culture we're inundated with the scorecard of fame and money, because they're easy to quantify. Work takes up an insane amount of time, it needs to be fun.
INFINITE AVAILABILITY
In the old brick and mortar book days, W.W. Norton would either be caught short or overprinting. It's hard to guess the amount of physical inventory necessary. But in the digital sphere, where you can buy a book wirelessly in a foreign country, a runaway success can continue to run.
TECHNOLOGY RULES
If you're unfamiliar with technology, you're going to have a hard time being a success. That does not mean you've got to code, but you've got to know what coding is, and fiber optic cable, and have a familiarity with tablets and smartphones and not only usage patterns, but where the game is going. If you want to bring back the past, you're doomed to live in it. It's hard to see 0's and 1's. Some people believe they need to be able to touch something to experience it. But the truth is so much is virtual these days. And this frees you up to play. But in a world of cacophony, you must execute at the top level and deliver that which intrigues if you want attention.
ART IS FOREVER, TECHNOLOGY IS NOT
The fiber optic cable laid from Chicago to New York is being superseded by microwave transmission. A great record is forever, nobody wants yesterday's flip phone.
IGNORANCE IS NOT BLISS
It just ensures you continue to be the tail wagged by the dog. Inform yourself. Care. It's not only stimulating, it's profitable.
THE WORLD RUNS ON MONEY, SO WHAT HAPPENS WITH IT COUNTS
The cash the flash traders were extricating from the system reduced productivity, the same way so many of the best and the brightest are wasting their time in finance as opposed to making a difference creating something.
LINKEDIN IS A TREASURE TROVE OF INFORMATION
That's where IEX found so many of its talented employees.
INTERVIEWS WILL TELL YOU ALL
In Wall Street if they want to know what's up with a competitor's business, they make like they're trying to poach you, or fill a gig, and you'll spill your guts.
THOSE AT THE TOP USUALLY HAVE NO CLUE WHAT IS HAPPENING AT THE BOTTOM, AND WHAT'S HAPPENING AT THE BOTTOM USUALLY BECOMES THE NEW TOP
It's like record execs who didn't use e-mail. But still, most execs don't have the time to check out social networks and WhatsApp, believing they're beholden to radio and retail. The truth is all these new systems will eclipse radio and retail, and if those in power let young 'uns in, they would. And they will eventually.
YOU DON'T NEED A PEDIGREE TO SUCCEED
Brad Katsuyama went to the local university in Canada. Sure, Yale and Harvard will open doors, but they won't make you a success. Furthermore, they may not make you think. Read this editorial re the job opportunities of the Ivy League prospect: http://huff.to/1jBprS3
THE PUBLIC HAS A VERY SHORT ATTENTION SPAN
Those in power on Wall Street know that this brouhaha about flash trading will fade. Power is often about distracting the masses. If someone can easily become famous on reality TV, they'll put all their energy there as opposed to doing the hard work to climb the ladder and crash your established party.
THE GOVERNMENT CAN'T BE COUNTED ON
Because of the revolving door between the companies being regulated and the regulators themselves. Furthermore, the best and the brightest rarely work for the government. And those who are rich get the best justice, it wasn't only O.J.
MAKING A LOT OF MONEY MAKES YOU NEITHER HAPPY NOR LIKABLE
"Flash Boys" is littered with put-downs of the blowhards who think they rule, but are oftentimes clueless.
WE CAN'T ERADICATE EVIL BUT WE CAN INSPIRE GOOD
That's the ultimate message of "Flash Boys," that one person can make a difference. Then again, Brad Katsuyama built a team around him. Which he found through relationships and interviews and LinkedIn surfing.
GOOGLE WILL TELL YOU EVERYTHING
He who knows how to sift out information wins in the end. Almost everything is lying in plain sight, assuming you know how to enter the right search terms and know what you're looking for. This is the education that is sorely lacking in our schools. How do you theorize and reconstruct the obvious to end up with new insights? That's your challenge.
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Saturday, 12 April 2014
Jesse Winchester
"I lived with the decent folks
In the hills of old Vermont"
I know I've become the obituary guy, but Jesse Winchester had a place in the firmament and now he's been completely forgotten, a footnote who's succumbed to the sands of time.
Kind of like "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?"
No one knows that flick anymore, at least not those of college age, even Princeton attendees, check out Frank Bruni's column for the story: http://nyti.ms/1hsMS0n
It's kind of like jetting forty years into the future and finding out no one knows what an iPod is.
Actually, that music playing device is already fading, just like the iTunes Store.
But my point is tech runs this century.
But music ran the last one.
Especially before we were all connected, when we could only find our brethren if we left our house and went to the gig.
And before we did, we played our records.
But not many played Jesse Winchester's debut, because like Todd Rundgren's initial LP, it was released on Ampex, and labels mattered.
Actually, they still do today.
And it's about marketing and radio, but back then it was also about distribution. Which is king. If it's not available, you can't buy it, most people were completely unaware of Jesse Winchester's debut.
Except for those who read the reviews.
And heard the covers of "Yankee Lady" by Brewer & Shipley and Tim Hardin and Matthews Southern Comfort.
"Yankee lady so good to me
Yankee lady just a memory"
1970 was a twist from what came before. It was the era of back to the land. After Kent State, after the first Earth Day, we began to look inward, we began to move to the hinterlands.
Assuming we weren't in Vietnam getting our ass shot off.
That's another thing the younger generation is clueless about. That through no fault of your own, you might get shipped off to a meaningless war and die, or come back so damaged you never recovered.
First you had to register for the draft.
That's when you became a man.
And you got a four year educational deferment and then...
It was open season.
Sure, we talked a lot about music, but we also talked a lot about Vietnam, the war, the chance we had to go.
Jesse Winchester did not. He fled to Canada. When that was a rare choice.
That was the legacy of the sixties, an emphasis on thinking for yourself. Which is out the window once more. The Dixie Chicks' career ended when they expressed a nonconformist opinion, and despite being entrepreneurial, today's youngsters all hew to the group.
Jesse's career was irreparably impaired. Being on Ampex and unable to tour in the States.
But it's the hard choices that build character.
So let his life be a beacon. That sometimes you've got to save yourself, because no one else will.
You've got to protest against injustice.
And if your message is not heard, maybe you've got to move on.
The fabric of our nation has changed so much. We celebrate neither rugged individuals nor freethinkers.
But they're the ones who are truly Americans. Those who lead by example as opposed to hectoring.
So dial up some Jesse Winchester if you remember.
Or listen to a cover of "Yankee Lady."
But know once upon a time the problem wasn't too much information, but too many questions. Our parents were not our best friends. We were influenced first and foremost by our own generation. To test the limits. To question authority.
To rally around the music for change.
And that's why this music means so much to us.
And Jesse Winchester might just be a footnote, but he's in there.
Because back then there were one hit wonders, but no one was listening to AM radio.
We were home, spinning soul-fulfilling stuff on our turntables, like Jesse Winchester.
"Yankee Lady" on Spotify: http://spoti.fi/1eiDJrz
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In the hills of old Vermont"
I know I've become the obituary guy, but Jesse Winchester had a place in the firmament and now he's been completely forgotten, a footnote who's succumbed to the sands of time.
Kind of like "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?"
No one knows that flick anymore, at least not those of college age, even Princeton attendees, check out Frank Bruni's column for the story: http://nyti.ms/1hsMS0n
It's kind of like jetting forty years into the future and finding out no one knows what an iPod is.
Actually, that music playing device is already fading, just like the iTunes Store.
But my point is tech runs this century.
But music ran the last one.
Especially before we were all connected, when we could only find our brethren if we left our house and went to the gig.
And before we did, we played our records.
But not many played Jesse Winchester's debut, because like Todd Rundgren's initial LP, it was released on Ampex, and labels mattered.
Actually, they still do today.
And it's about marketing and radio, but back then it was also about distribution. Which is king. If it's not available, you can't buy it, most people were completely unaware of Jesse Winchester's debut.
Except for those who read the reviews.
And heard the covers of "Yankee Lady" by Brewer & Shipley and Tim Hardin and Matthews Southern Comfort.
"Yankee lady so good to me
Yankee lady just a memory"
1970 was a twist from what came before. It was the era of back to the land. After Kent State, after the first Earth Day, we began to look inward, we began to move to the hinterlands.
Assuming we weren't in Vietnam getting our ass shot off.
That's another thing the younger generation is clueless about. That through no fault of your own, you might get shipped off to a meaningless war and die, or come back so damaged you never recovered.
First you had to register for the draft.
That's when you became a man.
And you got a four year educational deferment and then...
It was open season.
Sure, we talked a lot about music, but we also talked a lot about Vietnam, the war, the chance we had to go.
Jesse Winchester did not. He fled to Canada. When that was a rare choice.
That was the legacy of the sixties, an emphasis on thinking for yourself. Which is out the window once more. The Dixie Chicks' career ended when they expressed a nonconformist opinion, and despite being entrepreneurial, today's youngsters all hew to the group.
Jesse's career was irreparably impaired. Being on Ampex and unable to tour in the States.
But it's the hard choices that build character.
So let his life be a beacon. That sometimes you've got to save yourself, because no one else will.
You've got to protest against injustice.
And if your message is not heard, maybe you've got to move on.
The fabric of our nation has changed so much. We celebrate neither rugged individuals nor freethinkers.
But they're the ones who are truly Americans. Those who lead by example as opposed to hectoring.
So dial up some Jesse Winchester if you remember.
Or listen to a cover of "Yankee Lady."
But know once upon a time the problem wasn't too much information, but too many questions. Our parents were not our best friends. We were influenced first and foremost by our own generation. To test the limits. To question authority.
To rally around the music for change.
And that's why this music means so much to us.
And Jesse Winchester might just be a footnote, but he's in there.
Because back then there were one hit wonders, but no one was listening to AM radio.
We were home, spinning soul-fulfilling stuff on our turntables, like Jesse Winchester.
"Yankee Lady" on Spotify: http://spoti.fi/1eiDJrz
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Friday, 11 April 2014
Rhinofy-Crosby, Stills & Nash Primer
SUITE: JUDY BLUE EYES
It wasn't an immediate hit. "Marrakesh Express" got all the airplay. And being in excess of seven minutes long, radio was reluctant to play the track in its entirety, the days of free format radio were dying.
So the initial Crosby, Stills & Nash album developed slowly, most of us heard it at friends' houses, at parties, and marveled at the elixir that emitted from the speakers.
There was harmony before. But not in the rock of the day. And we remembered acoustic guitars from the folk/hootenanny years. But their return here was so fresh we all broke out our instruments and tried to replicate the sound.
All this was done without Neil Young, who now gets all the accolades. But at the time, Stephen Stills was king, one can argue he still should be.
WOODEN SHIPS
"Say, can I have some of your purple berries"
Yes, we listened to this album stoned, it was the heyday of marijuana, not today's mega-powerful bud, but the multi-joint stuff that mellowed you out without putting you on the floor.
The song was cowritten by the Jefferson Airplane's Paul Kantner and appeared in a bit slower take on their late '69 album "Volunteers," which has been unjustly forgotten, check it out.
But know at the turn of the decade, this was what was categorized as a hit, even though it was not a single, wasn't on AM radio, everybody knew it, we weren't mindless, but deep thinkers, and this music set us on our way.
LONG TIME GONE
My favorite cut on the debut. It sounds like mud is oozing all over the floor, pulling you into the sound, for which you're extremely grateful.
A David Crosby masterpiece wherein not only his vocal is the starring element. Listen to that organ, that bass, that electric guitar!
YOU DON'T HAVE TO CRY
Probably my favorite cut on the album today. It was one of the last tracks I got into originally. Its quiet subtlety prevented it from standing out, but it ultimately became indelible in my brain.
HELPLESSLY HOPING
This is what we've lost in the transition from McIntosh to Macintosh, from three-way speakers to earbuds. This is a rich sound that should be heard on vinyl.
Notice I included neither "Marrakesh Express" nor "Lady of the Island" on this playlist, not because I detest Graham Nash, I preferred his initial solo album the most of the three, but because they're sweet in a way the rest of the material was rich, and it's this richness which has given the debut longevity.
CARRY ON
To say "Deja Vu" was anticipated is an understatement. By this time, a year later, Crosby, Stills & Nash were the biggest band in the land, and they had an album cover befitting this status, it was faux leather, with an old-timey photo glued upon its front.
And there was nothing like dropping the needle on "Carry On" the very first time. Because of the SOUND!!
You'd put your ear in front of the speaker, you couldn't believe the mellifluousness of it all!
Incredible!
WOODSTOCK
It's the GUITAR!
Talk about a riff! Not quite as famous as "Smoke On The Water," but known by every baby boomer just the same.
We saw the Joni Mitchell credit, we knew who she was, but this was a completely different take upon the song she released in a slower, quieter version on "Ladies Of The Canyon."
This was a month before the "Woodstock" movie was released. We were still high on the Woodstock energy, and when the movie hit and was so gigantic, this was the anthem.
4+20
I didn't get it until I'd graduated from college and I was living in Sandy, Utah with a couple from Asheville, North Carolina and every day Tom put his head in front of the speaker as this played and wistfully contemplated his life.
You see he'd just turned twenty four.
I was only twenty one.
I didn't get it.
Yet.
ALMOST CUT MY HAIR
It was overblown even back then, but the emphatic Crosby vocal and stinging guitar triumphed anyway.
It took me eighteen months to cut mine, back when long hair no longer bespoke your politics, but back then...we all wanted to let our freak flag fly.
And yes, "Teach Your Children" was the hit off this album, but you already know that, and can live without it if you've never heard it, it's too sappy.
And yes, this is the album with Neil Young, I preferred "Country Girl" to "Helpless," but really his sound was different from that of the other three, and this playlist is about them, not him.
SHADOW CAPTAIN
Sometimes you give up on your dream, the Beatles never reunited, you never got back together with your summer camp girlfriend, we thought Crosby, Stills & Nash would never reunite.
AND THEN THEY DID!
AND IT WAS GOOD!
Everybody else disappointed, the Byrds reunion was close to abysmal, mostly because of the material. But this 1977 album not only sounded like the original act, the material was memorable!
And we were ready and willing.
This album was embraced by both radio and fans alike.
DARK STAR
This, "Shadow Captain" and "Fair Game" got the most airplay. But they were not the best tracks on the album.
CATHEDRAL
It's MAJESTIC!
Yes, it's a Graham Nash composition, but not an AM radio ditty, but something personal, akin to his solo work.
It goes from quiet to loud...it's an epic!
JUST A SONG BEFORE I GO
Once again, Graham Nash had the hit. But this one is less sappy than "Teach Your Children" and a bit deeper than "Marrakesh Express."
I GIVE YOU GIVE BLIND
The finale, a Stephen Stills number, it built and built and at home alone it resonated so much! When a record rode shotgun and kept you company, completed your life.
SEE THE CHANGES
The piece-de-resistance, the best song on the record.
"Ten years singing right out loud
I never looked was anybody listening
Then I fell out of a cloud
I hit the ground and noticed something missing"
Fame does not fix your life. Neither does money.
You think it will, that's your motivation. But if you live through the studio, the road and the dope, one day you wake up and look for more than one night stands.
"Now I have someone
She has seen me changing"
Change is so hard, especially if you're successful on societal terms. No one is more boorish than a rich and famous person. Which is why you're disappointed so much when you meet your heroes.
"And it gets harder as you get older
Farther away as you get closer"
Ain't that the truth. When the sand is running out of the hourglass, when you're becoming set in your ways, you wonder if you're ever gonna get to the destination, whether you're ever going to be happy.
And the more you know, the less you do.
Think about it. Only the young know everything.
And then Crosby, Stills & Nash went on to make more albums, none of them extremely memorable. 1982's "Daylight Again" even had a single that's become iconic, played endlessly on satellite radio, "Southern Cross."
But the truth is after coming back, the band was spent.
And we can speculate why, or just revel in the greatness of what came before.
Crosby, Stills & Nash were the biggest rock stars of their day. Today you might find that hard to believe, but listen to the above tracks and reevaluate, you'll be forced to.
Spotify playlist: http://spoti.fi/1osxxBJ
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It wasn't an immediate hit. "Marrakesh Express" got all the airplay. And being in excess of seven minutes long, radio was reluctant to play the track in its entirety, the days of free format radio were dying.
So the initial Crosby, Stills & Nash album developed slowly, most of us heard it at friends' houses, at parties, and marveled at the elixir that emitted from the speakers.
There was harmony before. But not in the rock of the day. And we remembered acoustic guitars from the folk/hootenanny years. But their return here was so fresh we all broke out our instruments and tried to replicate the sound.
All this was done without Neil Young, who now gets all the accolades. But at the time, Stephen Stills was king, one can argue he still should be.
WOODEN SHIPS
"Say, can I have some of your purple berries"
Yes, we listened to this album stoned, it was the heyday of marijuana, not today's mega-powerful bud, but the multi-joint stuff that mellowed you out without putting you on the floor.
The song was cowritten by the Jefferson Airplane's Paul Kantner and appeared in a bit slower take on their late '69 album "Volunteers," which has been unjustly forgotten, check it out.
But know at the turn of the decade, this was what was categorized as a hit, even though it was not a single, wasn't on AM radio, everybody knew it, we weren't mindless, but deep thinkers, and this music set us on our way.
LONG TIME GONE
My favorite cut on the debut. It sounds like mud is oozing all over the floor, pulling you into the sound, for which you're extremely grateful.
A David Crosby masterpiece wherein not only his vocal is the starring element. Listen to that organ, that bass, that electric guitar!
YOU DON'T HAVE TO CRY
Probably my favorite cut on the album today. It was one of the last tracks I got into originally. Its quiet subtlety prevented it from standing out, but it ultimately became indelible in my brain.
HELPLESSLY HOPING
This is what we've lost in the transition from McIntosh to Macintosh, from three-way speakers to earbuds. This is a rich sound that should be heard on vinyl.
Notice I included neither "Marrakesh Express" nor "Lady of the Island" on this playlist, not because I detest Graham Nash, I preferred his initial solo album the most of the three, but because they're sweet in a way the rest of the material was rich, and it's this richness which has given the debut longevity.
CARRY ON
To say "Deja Vu" was anticipated is an understatement. By this time, a year later, Crosby, Stills & Nash were the biggest band in the land, and they had an album cover befitting this status, it was faux leather, with an old-timey photo glued upon its front.
And there was nothing like dropping the needle on "Carry On" the very first time. Because of the SOUND!!
You'd put your ear in front of the speaker, you couldn't believe the mellifluousness of it all!
Incredible!
WOODSTOCK
It's the GUITAR!
Talk about a riff! Not quite as famous as "Smoke On The Water," but known by every baby boomer just the same.
We saw the Joni Mitchell credit, we knew who she was, but this was a completely different take upon the song she released in a slower, quieter version on "Ladies Of The Canyon."
This was a month before the "Woodstock" movie was released. We were still high on the Woodstock energy, and when the movie hit and was so gigantic, this was the anthem.
4+20
I didn't get it until I'd graduated from college and I was living in Sandy, Utah with a couple from Asheville, North Carolina and every day Tom put his head in front of the speaker as this played and wistfully contemplated his life.
You see he'd just turned twenty four.
I was only twenty one.
I didn't get it.
Yet.
ALMOST CUT MY HAIR
It was overblown even back then, but the emphatic Crosby vocal and stinging guitar triumphed anyway.
It took me eighteen months to cut mine, back when long hair no longer bespoke your politics, but back then...we all wanted to let our freak flag fly.
And yes, "Teach Your Children" was the hit off this album, but you already know that, and can live without it if you've never heard it, it's too sappy.
And yes, this is the album with Neil Young, I preferred "Country Girl" to "Helpless," but really his sound was different from that of the other three, and this playlist is about them, not him.
SHADOW CAPTAIN
Sometimes you give up on your dream, the Beatles never reunited, you never got back together with your summer camp girlfriend, we thought Crosby, Stills & Nash would never reunite.
AND THEN THEY DID!
AND IT WAS GOOD!
Everybody else disappointed, the Byrds reunion was close to abysmal, mostly because of the material. But this 1977 album not only sounded like the original act, the material was memorable!
And we were ready and willing.
This album was embraced by both radio and fans alike.
DARK STAR
This, "Shadow Captain" and "Fair Game" got the most airplay. But they were not the best tracks on the album.
CATHEDRAL
It's MAJESTIC!
Yes, it's a Graham Nash composition, but not an AM radio ditty, but something personal, akin to his solo work.
It goes from quiet to loud...it's an epic!
JUST A SONG BEFORE I GO
Once again, Graham Nash had the hit. But this one is less sappy than "Teach Your Children" and a bit deeper than "Marrakesh Express."
I GIVE YOU GIVE BLIND
The finale, a Stephen Stills number, it built and built and at home alone it resonated so much! When a record rode shotgun and kept you company, completed your life.
SEE THE CHANGES
The piece-de-resistance, the best song on the record.
"Ten years singing right out loud
I never looked was anybody listening
Then I fell out of a cloud
I hit the ground and noticed something missing"
Fame does not fix your life. Neither does money.
You think it will, that's your motivation. But if you live through the studio, the road and the dope, one day you wake up and look for more than one night stands.
"Now I have someone
She has seen me changing"
Change is so hard, especially if you're successful on societal terms. No one is more boorish than a rich and famous person. Which is why you're disappointed so much when you meet your heroes.
"And it gets harder as you get older
Farther away as you get closer"
Ain't that the truth. When the sand is running out of the hourglass, when you're becoming set in your ways, you wonder if you're ever gonna get to the destination, whether you're ever going to be happy.
And the more you know, the less you do.
Think about it. Only the young know everything.
And then Crosby, Stills & Nash went on to make more albums, none of them extremely memorable. 1982's "Daylight Again" even had a single that's become iconic, played endlessly on satellite radio, "Southern Cross."
But the truth is after coming back, the band was spent.
And we can speculate why, or just revel in the greatness of what came before.
Crosby, Stills & Nash were the biggest rock stars of their day. Today you might find that hard to believe, but listen to the above tracks and reevaluate, you'll be forced to.
Spotify playlist: http://spoti.fi/1osxxBJ
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Wednesday, 9 April 2014
Gulltaggen+
http://www.gulltaggen.no
1. The WikiLeaks guy had a crowdsourced phone.
It runs Linux. And it's the first mobile device he's had in years.
You see Daniel Domscheit-Berg is concerned about privacy. He told a story so hair-raising...the hair I don't have stood on edge.
IBM helped the Nazis.
Hitler invaded Poland and how did he find the Jews? Via IBM's subsidiary there!
Countries hired IBM to do the census. So when the Nazis invaded, they just combed through the data and saw...
Even worse, IBM opened markets where they knew the Nazis were going, and even got an award from the German government.
HOW DID HE KNOW THIS?
A book, by a "New York Times" writer a decade ago.
What did that movie say, "Be afraid, be very afraid."?
You see they're building a profile on you that's never going to evaporate. Read this story from NPR wherein a reporter goes to Google and discovers they've got all her search history FOR YEARS!
"If You Think You're Anonymous Online, Think Again": http://n.pr/1gxBixp
So as you cough up info consciously and unconsciously, know that it can and will be used against you, as Daniel said, corporations have no conscience, they do what makes money, they do what's expedient. Didn't the telcos cough up data to the U.S. government?
And you think you're doing nothing wrong...
Meanwhile, while bands keep trumpeting their Kickstarter campaigns wherein they release music few want to hear and even less remember, a bunch of people pissed that Nokia dropped their independent OS took it upon themselves to raise money via crowdfunding to build their own phone.
I saw it, I used it.
I'd like to tell you it's a kludgy piece of crap, but it's impossibly thin and really cool and what I liked most is how you scroll up and down for more pages, as opposed to the common left and right.
As for apps, there are plenty, but you can always run Android's in compatibility mode.
But aren't Android apps notorious for malware?
True, which is why Daniel doesn't run any.
And that's just the point, now he's in control of his phone, not the Google/Apple. He gets to decide what information gets out.
Also, the back is removable, so people can make new ones with batteries and other features.
I'm thinking this guy is on to something. If we don't stand up for privacy now, if we don't hold corporations accountable, game over in the future.
2. The man from Google.
My problem is you're reading this on your phone.
I woke up yesterday to rain so heavy, I thought I was still going to college in Vermont. I'd forgotten how miserable it is to walk around in rain so bad your shoes get wet and wind so bad it contorts your umbrella.
You see I wanted to take public transportation. Which I did. To the Spektrum, for the first day of Gulltaggen.
And there I heard the Google guy pontificate about mobile.
Now I'd like to tell you he was unlikable, but the truth is these guys are so smart, and the ones they let out of the building are so personable, that you're drawn in.
Ian Carrington's main point?
We live in a mobile world.
I've started to realize this. On a mobile device, people judge what I write by the first few paragraphs, if not the first sentence. There's just not enough room to look down. It's nearly fruitless to include multiple topics in one missive, because many will miss them.
But that's the world we live in.
Or, as Eric Schmidt said: "If you don't have a mobile strategy, you don't have a future strategy."
Hmm...
Google pivoted in 2010. Long before the music business. The company realized we're all going to the small screen, actually multiple screens, we've got many and we want a seamless experience, which is why Google has us logging in, to provide this, and to track us.
Oh, believe me they're tracking us, all in the name of advertising and predictions.
They're generating reams of data, well, zetabytes, to provide advertisers with info that will cause them to pony up cash. Carphone Warehouse found out that every dollar spent advertising on mobile generated five dollars of sales in stores.
They know if you bought a big ticket item or a small one. And charge for advertising accordingly.
And Ian said not to feature the same stuff on your mobile site, people don't buy TVs there.
But they do buy so much.
Sixty percent of those in attendance had purchased something online last year. Do sixty percent of businesses have good mobile strategies, do they have any mobile strategy?
What else did Ian say...
28% of UK kids under five use tablets. Hell, that's last year's statistic, this year it's higher. Like Gjermund told me, his kids all have tablets and they all watch different things, they couldn't sit through the "Frozen" DVD on the big screen, they wanted to stream their desire on their iPads, and his twins are THREE!
Yup, they can navigate just fine.
And 90% of smartphones in Japan are waterproof. The Samsung Galaxy S5 just released in America is, but soon everything will be.
Eric Schmidt also said the pace of change now is the slowest it will ever be. We're living in future shock, the times are changin' seemingly every minute.
And one more thing...
Every two days there's as much information created as there was in the entire history of time before 2003. And you wonder why no one hears your message...
3. Teslas
They're ubiquitous in Oslo. I figured it was because of the booming economy. But last night at dinner I was told it was all about the tax incentives!
A luxury car can easily cost $300,000 in Norway. But a Tesla costs close to what it does in the U.S., high six figures, because the government wants less pollution!
Little did I know Tesla is now the best-selling model in Norway.
Read here:
"Tesla Model S is Norway's best-selling vehicle, outsells Ford's entire range": http://nydn.us/1qhQ3u3
"Tax Exemptions in Norway Cut Tesla Model S Price in Half": http://bit.ly/1hfPApS
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1. The WikiLeaks guy had a crowdsourced phone.
It runs Linux. And it's the first mobile device he's had in years.
You see Daniel Domscheit-Berg is concerned about privacy. He told a story so hair-raising...the hair I don't have stood on edge.
IBM helped the Nazis.
Hitler invaded Poland and how did he find the Jews? Via IBM's subsidiary there!
Countries hired IBM to do the census. So when the Nazis invaded, they just combed through the data and saw...
Even worse, IBM opened markets where they knew the Nazis were going, and even got an award from the German government.
HOW DID HE KNOW THIS?
A book, by a "New York Times" writer a decade ago.
What did that movie say, "Be afraid, be very afraid."?
You see they're building a profile on you that's never going to evaporate. Read this story from NPR wherein a reporter goes to Google and discovers they've got all her search history FOR YEARS!
"If You Think You're Anonymous Online, Think Again": http://n.pr/1gxBixp
So as you cough up info consciously and unconsciously, know that it can and will be used against you, as Daniel said, corporations have no conscience, they do what makes money, they do what's expedient. Didn't the telcos cough up data to the U.S. government?
And you think you're doing nothing wrong...
Meanwhile, while bands keep trumpeting their Kickstarter campaigns wherein they release music few want to hear and even less remember, a bunch of people pissed that Nokia dropped their independent OS took it upon themselves to raise money via crowdfunding to build their own phone.
I saw it, I used it.
I'd like to tell you it's a kludgy piece of crap, but it's impossibly thin and really cool and what I liked most is how you scroll up and down for more pages, as opposed to the common left and right.
As for apps, there are plenty, but you can always run Android's in compatibility mode.
But aren't Android apps notorious for malware?
True, which is why Daniel doesn't run any.
And that's just the point, now he's in control of his phone, not the Google/Apple. He gets to decide what information gets out.
Also, the back is removable, so people can make new ones with batteries and other features.
I'm thinking this guy is on to something. If we don't stand up for privacy now, if we don't hold corporations accountable, game over in the future.
2. The man from Google.
My problem is you're reading this on your phone.
I woke up yesterday to rain so heavy, I thought I was still going to college in Vermont. I'd forgotten how miserable it is to walk around in rain so bad your shoes get wet and wind so bad it contorts your umbrella.
You see I wanted to take public transportation. Which I did. To the Spektrum, for the first day of Gulltaggen.
And there I heard the Google guy pontificate about mobile.
Now I'd like to tell you he was unlikable, but the truth is these guys are so smart, and the ones they let out of the building are so personable, that you're drawn in.
Ian Carrington's main point?
We live in a mobile world.
I've started to realize this. On a mobile device, people judge what I write by the first few paragraphs, if not the first sentence. There's just not enough room to look down. It's nearly fruitless to include multiple topics in one missive, because many will miss them.
But that's the world we live in.
Or, as Eric Schmidt said: "If you don't have a mobile strategy, you don't have a future strategy."
Hmm...
Google pivoted in 2010. Long before the music business. The company realized we're all going to the small screen, actually multiple screens, we've got many and we want a seamless experience, which is why Google has us logging in, to provide this, and to track us.
Oh, believe me they're tracking us, all in the name of advertising and predictions.
They're generating reams of data, well, zetabytes, to provide advertisers with info that will cause them to pony up cash. Carphone Warehouse found out that every dollar spent advertising on mobile generated five dollars of sales in stores.
They know if you bought a big ticket item or a small one. And charge for advertising accordingly.
And Ian said not to feature the same stuff on your mobile site, people don't buy TVs there.
But they do buy so much.
Sixty percent of those in attendance had purchased something online last year. Do sixty percent of businesses have good mobile strategies, do they have any mobile strategy?
What else did Ian say...
28% of UK kids under five use tablets. Hell, that's last year's statistic, this year it's higher. Like Gjermund told me, his kids all have tablets and they all watch different things, they couldn't sit through the "Frozen" DVD on the big screen, they wanted to stream their desire on their iPads, and his twins are THREE!
Yup, they can navigate just fine.
And 90% of smartphones in Japan are waterproof. The Samsung Galaxy S5 just released in America is, but soon everything will be.
Eric Schmidt also said the pace of change now is the slowest it will ever be. We're living in future shock, the times are changin' seemingly every minute.
And one more thing...
Every two days there's as much information created as there was in the entire history of time before 2003. And you wonder why no one hears your message...
3. Teslas
They're ubiquitous in Oslo. I figured it was because of the booming economy. But last night at dinner I was told it was all about the tax incentives!
A luxury car can easily cost $300,000 in Norway. But a Tesla costs close to what it does in the U.S., high six figures, because the government wants less pollution!
Little did I know Tesla is now the best-selling model in Norway.
Read here:
"Tesla Model S is Norway's best-selling vehicle, outsells Ford's entire range": http://nydn.us/1qhQ3u3
"Tax Exemptions in Norway Cut Tesla Model S Price in Half": http://bit.ly/1hfPApS
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Tuesday, 8 April 2014
Music/Tech
It's time for a divorce.
Our focus on tech has been so all-encompassing that music has suffered.
But those aren't our people!
The coders, the MBAs... They think differently. MBAs are first and foremost about the money. Great musicians are first and foremost about the art.
That's the number one e-mail I get, HOW DO I MAKE MONEY!
Not me personally, but the wannabe musicians.
That's the first thing they're focused on.
And then you've got the bozos telling them they've got to social network, as if living online will make your tunes any better.
And then they beg for cash on Kickstarter to make stuff that most people don't want.
THIS IS A BUSINESS?
If you want to be in tech, so be it. Learn how to code, get your MBA, but stop straddling the fence.
The value of WhatsApp has nothing to do with music.
The fact that managers and agents are investing in tech has nothing to do with music. They're just chasing income.
It's time to lock the door and practice your instrument. Hone your skills and take us on a journey.
The connection between music and tech is minimal. You make your music on a computer and you distribute it via the Internet.
THAT'S IT!
Artists are soul-searchers, ponderers, they ask the questions the rest of us didn't know we had.
Artists take risks, they're willing to fail, end up with nothing. Oh, we read about techies doing this, but they've still got their degrees and their contacts when the truth is when you fail as an artist you're probably done, because it's your name on the production and your cred is toast.
Oh, you may be able to regroup and utilize a different name or band, but that was the style decades ago, when musicians were lifers, not prepubescents and graduates out on a lark before they enter the real world.
Music is a calling.
But now all the discussion is about tech.
The labels don't want to be ripped off like they were with MTV, so they extract a huge toll for anybody with a tech solution.
The label heads hang with rich techies so they too want to find instant cash, whereas most great art develops over time. Hell, how many visual artists emerge fully-formed? Most don't even find their style until they're deep into a adulthood.
And performers don't realize that the heart is the tunes themselves. That material is everything. When done right, it's life itself.
So if you're more thrilled with your handheld than you are with your instrument, switch careers.
If you get high from how many followers you've accumulated, know that's got nothing to do with what people think of your tunes.
If you've got someone paying for your art, that's a start, but that does not mean everybody else is interested.
So walk into the wilderness, pay attention to your muse, and come back and wow us!
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Our focus on tech has been so all-encompassing that music has suffered.
But those aren't our people!
The coders, the MBAs... They think differently. MBAs are first and foremost about the money. Great musicians are first and foremost about the art.
That's the number one e-mail I get, HOW DO I MAKE MONEY!
Not me personally, but the wannabe musicians.
That's the first thing they're focused on.
And then you've got the bozos telling them they've got to social network, as if living online will make your tunes any better.
And then they beg for cash on Kickstarter to make stuff that most people don't want.
THIS IS A BUSINESS?
If you want to be in tech, so be it. Learn how to code, get your MBA, but stop straddling the fence.
The value of WhatsApp has nothing to do with music.
The fact that managers and agents are investing in tech has nothing to do with music. They're just chasing income.
It's time to lock the door and practice your instrument. Hone your skills and take us on a journey.
The connection between music and tech is minimal. You make your music on a computer and you distribute it via the Internet.
THAT'S IT!
Artists are soul-searchers, ponderers, they ask the questions the rest of us didn't know we had.
Artists take risks, they're willing to fail, end up with nothing. Oh, we read about techies doing this, but they've still got their degrees and their contacts when the truth is when you fail as an artist you're probably done, because it's your name on the production and your cred is toast.
Oh, you may be able to regroup and utilize a different name or band, but that was the style decades ago, when musicians were lifers, not prepubescents and graduates out on a lark before they enter the real world.
Music is a calling.
But now all the discussion is about tech.
The labels don't want to be ripped off like they were with MTV, so they extract a huge toll for anybody with a tech solution.
The label heads hang with rich techies so they too want to find instant cash, whereas most great art develops over time. Hell, how many visual artists emerge fully-formed? Most don't even find their style until they're deep into a adulthood.
And performers don't realize that the heart is the tunes themselves. That material is everything. When done right, it's life itself.
So if you're more thrilled with your handheld than you are with your instrument, switch careers.
If you get high from how many followers you've accumulated, know that's got nothing to do with what people think of your tunes.
If you've got someone paying for your art, that's a start, but that does not mean everybody else is interested.
So walk into the wilderness, pay attention to your muse, and come back and wow us!
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Monday, 7 April 2014
Today In Oslo
1. I met the guy who designed the Opera House!
And I'm still shaking, pinching myself, he was more of a rock star than any I've met in many a year, because not only was he charismatic and looked the part, he could engage in a deep discussion of art.
It's all about money in the United States. Everybody's trying to climb the greased ladder and the only thing that matters is your bank account. The days of David Byrne, et al, going to RISD and challenging our preconceptions are long gone. That's what art does, challenge our beliefs, make us look at the world differently and inspire us. And we haven't had that spirit here...well, since maybe 1969.
Where's my record on the chart? How many did I sell? Doesn't matter what it says or what it means or whether it tests limits, unless, of course, you're one of the countless wannabes who believes they're entitled to attention, they can rap philosophically all day long, you just don't want to listen to their music.
So this guy is designing for TWO HUNDRED YEARS! That's how long Kjetil Thorsen believes the Opera House will last. And he finds it inhibiting. Especially the library they built in Alexandria, he doesn't want it to eclipse the memory of the original.
And Thorsen is inspired by music, not on headphones, but live. He goes to concerts regularly to be inspired.
He stood there giving me the inspiration for the Opera House as we stared at the model and my jaw dropped. This is the way people used to talk about music!
Maybe you've never been to Oslo, but Thorsen and his firm Snohetta are redesigning Times Square, they're in charge of the only building that actually sits on the World Trade Center site.
AND I MET HIM!
How did this happen?
Well, it turns out the Managing Director of Universal knows him. But the hookup came from the guy in Turbonegro, who cold e-mailed him.
I'm just not that big a guy! But he wanted to meet me.
I'm absolutely FLOORED!
There are 100 people in the office in Oslo. 50 in the office in NYC. They're only entitled to work 8 hours a day, they must leave thereafter, to gain inspiration.
They've got a robot and a laser cutter and 3-D printers to make models. They have a meeting every Monday where they not only go over projects, but personal business.
And they're building a house based on a painting.
And they're having so much fun, that it was purely inspiring.
You know, the way it used to be walking into a record company, HA!
Snohetta projects: http://snohetta.com/projects
World Trade Center Pavilion: http://bit.ly/1st2gxY
The story in the "New Yorker": http://bit.ly/1lGgJmb
"USA Today", "10 best opera houses around the world": http://usat.ly/1jVD4w9
2. Streaming is king in Norway, as are singles.
I went to lunch with the local Universal brass. Physical is only 10% of the market. Unless you're making a concept album, which we all know is oh-so-rare, you get a singles deal. Could be for one or two, could be for twenty, maybe if you have enough they assemble them into an album, but generally speaking the idea of going into the studio to cut a long player is dead.
As for Spotify, 30% of the public pays. And some also go for local streaming service WIMP, which will allow you to stream lossless (take that Neil Young/Pono!)
The only problem with streaming is it's reduced the popularity of local repertoire, it used to be 30% of the market, now it's only 10%.
Used to be oldsters bought physical product, hyped on TV.
Now youngsters stream ad infinitum and the whole world is at their fingertips.
Radio reacts to Spotify streams.
It's not uncommon for a local act to have 5 million Spotify streams of a popular single. They can live on the income, and the government helps with production, which is mostly done at home on computer.
This is the new model.
Unfortunately, the radio dominated United States market, populated with crybabies who don't understand the new economics, are keeping the U.S. behind the Nordic countries.
3. I went to Holmenkollen!
Actually, I thought it was in Sweden. I guess the old "Wide World of Sports" footage didn't keep repeating the location. That's where I heard about the world's preeminent ski jumping/cross-country competition.
At first it was terribly foggy. Then we went to the top of the jump and the sun started to squeak through. It's so steep!
And they keep on rebuilding it and there's no standard!
The initial jump a century ago had a hill record of 21.5 meters. Now the hill record is 141 meters.
You can see the jump from all over Oslo, go to the site, look at the pictures!
http://www.holmenkollen.com/eng/About-Holmenkollen
4. I ate reindeer!
And it was good!
They told me to try a sandwich, but they all came with eggs, and I'm not a fan. Sandwiches here only have one slice of bread, maybe that's why everybody is so skinny!
The reindeer was served in a creamy sauce, they said it would be gamey but I found it close to beef stroganoff, just a little chewier, and I liked that!
5. I've got a black eye.
You see I was walking into my hotel room, and I was hit by a hanger!
Well, to tell you the truth, I bumped into it, but it was huge.
Good idea to put the hangers right by the door.
Next time I'll look out!
Hopefully.
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And I'm still shaking, pinching myself, he was more of a rock star than any I've met in many a year, because not only was he charismatic and looked the part, he could engage in a deep discussion of art.
It's all about money in the United States. Everybody's trying to climb the greased ladder and the only thing that matters is your bank account. The days of David Byrne, et al, going to RISD and challenging our preconceptions are long gone. That's what art does, challenge our beliefs, make us look at the world differently and inspire us. And we haven't had that spirit here...well, since maybe 1969.
Where's my record on the chart? How many did I sell? Doesn't matter what it says or what it means or whether it tests limits, unless, of course, you're one of the countless wannabes who believes they're entitled to attention, they can rap philosophically all day long, you just don't want to listen to their music.
So this guy is designing for TWO HUNDRED YEARS! That's how long Kjetil Thorsen believes the Opera House will last. And he finds it inhibiting. Especially the library they built in Alexandria, he doesn't want it to eclipse the memory of the original.
And Thorsen is inspired by music, not on headphones, but live. He goes to concerts regularly to be inspired.
He stood there giving me the inspiration for the Opera House as we stared at the model and my jaw dropped. This is the way people used to talk about music!
Maybe you've never been to Oslo, but Thorsen and his firm Snohetta are redesigning Times Square, they're in charge of the only building that actually sits on the World Trade Center site.
AND I MET HIM!
How did this happen?
Well, it turns out the Managing Director of Universal knows him. But the hookup came from the guy in Turbonegro, who cold e-mailed him.
I'm just not that big a guy! But he wanted to meet me.
I'm absolutely FLOORED!
There are 100 people in the office in Oslo. 50 in the office in NYC. They're only entitled to work 8 hours a day, they must leave thereafter, to gain inspiration.
They've got a robot and a laser cutter and 3-D printers to make models. They have a meeting every Monday where they not only go over projects, but personal business.
And they're building a house based on a painting.
And they're having so much fun, that it was purely inspiring.
You know, the way it used to be walking into a record company, HA!
Snohetta projects: http://snohetta.com/projects
World Trade Center Pavilion: http://bit.ly/1st2gxY
The story in the "New Yorker": http://bit.ly/1lGgJmb
"USA Today", "10 best opera houses around the world": http://usat.ly/1jVD4w9
2. Streaming is king in Norway, as are singles.
I went to lunch with the local Universal brass. Physical is only 10% of the market. Unless you're making a concept album, which we all know is oh-so-rare, you get a singles deal. Could be for one or two, could be for twenty, maybe if you have enough they assemble them into an album, but generally speaking the idea of going into the studio to cut a long player is dead.
As for Spotify, 30% of the public pays. And some also go for local streaming service WIMP, which will allow you to stream lossless (take that Neil Young/Pono!)
The only problem with streaming is it's reduced the popularity of local repertoire, it used to be 30% of the market, now it's only 10%.
Used to be oldsters bought physical product, hyped on TV.
Now youngsters stream ad infinitum and the whole world is at their fingertips.
Radio reacts to Spotify streams.
It's not uncommon for a local act to have 5 million Spotify streams of a popular single. They can live on the income, and the government helps with production, which is mostly done at home on computer.
This is the new model.
Unfortunately, the radio dominated United States market, populated with crybabies who don't understand the new economics, are keeping the U.S. behind the Nordic countries.
3. I went to Holmenkollen!
Actually, I thought it was in Sweden. I guess the old "Wide World of Sports" footage didn't keep repeating the location. That's where I heard about the world's preeminent ski jumping/cross-country competition.
At first it was terribly foggy. Then we went to the top of the jump and the sun started to squeak through. It's so steep!
And they keep on rebuilding it and there's no standard!
The initial jump a century ago had a hill record of 21.5 meters. Now the hill record is 141 meters.
You can see the jump from all over Oslo, go to the site, look at the pictures!
http://www.holmenkollen.com/eng/About-Holmenkollen
4. I ate reindeer!
And it was good!
They told me to try a sandwich, but they all came with eggs, and I'm not a fan. Sandwiches here only have one slice of bread, maybe that's why everybody is so skinny!
The reindeer was served in a creamy sauce, they said it would be gamey but I found it close to beef stroganoff, just a little chewier, and I liked that!
5. I've got a black eye.
You see I was walking into my hotel room, and I was hit by a hanger!
Well, to tell you the truth, I bumped into it, but it was huge.
Good idea to put the hangers right by the door.
Next time I'll look out!
Hopefully.
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Mickey Rooney
I was just wondering whether he was still alive.
In "One Trick Pony," Paul Simon and his band are driving around in their van playing "Dead Rock Stars," wondering who's alive or dead.
I had no problem.
But when that movie was released, I was much younger. You get older and it's all a blur. Not only their lives, but yours. Your hopes and dreams are dashed and even though the future keeps coming down the pike at an alarming rate, you keep thinking about the past.
That's the amazing thing about our world today. Everybody is findable but you don't see them. You look them up online, thrilled that they're there, but you're not sure what you'd say to them if you saw them, because you know now that their experience was different than yours and you'd prefer to keep them in a fixed state in your mind's eye. Ever notice that when you run into somebody from your past you're shocked they got old? Even though you've aged, you can't fathom that they did.
But it was the reverse with Mickey Rooney. By time he flew on my radar he was already past his peak, we'd look at pictures from his salad days and marvel, that he was so cute, and married to so many.
That's the first thing I knew about him. That he'd been married six or seven times already.
Why I wondered. Why make such an important decision so frivolously?
Then again, that's the essence of show people, they make decisions we don't or won't. And we love them for it. We watch them take risks we believe unfathomable, chuckle when we're right, but keep watching nonetheless. Katy Perry and Russell Brand? Why couldn't they just date!
But show people screw first, ask questions later and despite these faux pas we love them none the less.
Mickey Rooney had a career renaissance. Doesn't happen in music, certainly not anymore. Bruce Springsteen gave Gary U.S Bonds another go-round, but today Miley Cyrus couldn't help Stevie Nicks and despite being on HBO no one wants to hear the Boss's music on the radio. It's all new all the time, we put 'em on the scrapheap while they're still hot. Is there anybody who believes Robin Thicke will have another hit other than himself?
But Rooney found a way.
But actors are different from musicians.
Musicians die, actors live on.
Musicians go on the road, succumb to temptation and then do drugs to cope with it all. A lethal combination, that's for sure.
But if you manage to make it through the gauntlet, clean up, find a good significant other and hopefully tour using one home base, jetting in and out for gigs, you can continue to make a living and be a star in somebody's eyes.
Then again, we see musicians as their material, actors as their roles. We believe musicians are real, we know actors are fake.
But they stood in front of us twenty feet tall. At the drive-in. Even when the pictures truly got small on the tiny old screens of yore they emerged triumphant, because they were so good-looking, so charismatic.
And if you were big enough, a bright enough star, your legacy lived on, even if your present day circumstances bore no resemblance to fame.
But then everything disappeared in the rearview mirror. I don't think kids today know who Mickey Rooney was, never mind all those bands whose records I spun ad infinitum back in the seventies.
So, so long Mickster. I always kept an eye on you, mostly on late night talk shows.
And I love that you sued your stepson and his wife and won. In an era where everybody feels cheated, it's stunning when someone truly is, and proves it.
And my favorite part of your obit was when your mother turned down a $5 offer because she was waiting for a better one, those were the rules of vaudeville.
And the rules of life aren't much different. It's all about who wants you.
And we always wanted Mickey Rooney.
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In "One Trick Pony," Paul Simon and his band are driving around in their van playing "Dead Rock Stars," wondering who's alive or dead.
I had no problem.
But when that movie was released, I was much younger. You get older and it's all a blur. Not only their lives, but yours. Your hopes and dreams are dashed and even though the future keeps coming down the pike at an alarming rate, you keep thinking about the past.
That's the amazing thing about our world today. Everybody is findable but you don't see them. You look them up online, thrilled that they're there, but you're not sure what you'd say to them if you saw them, because you know now that their experience was different than yours and you'd prefer to keep them in a fixed state in your mind's eye. Ever notice that when you run into somebody from your past you're shocked they got old? Even though you've aged, you can't fathom that they did.
But it was the reverse with Mickey Rooney. By time he flew on my radar he was already past his peak, we'd look at pictures from his salad days and marvel, that he was so cute, and married to so many.
That's the first thing I knew about him. That he'd been married six or seven times already.
Why I wondered. Why make such an important decision so frivolously?
Then again, that's the essence of show people, they make decisions we don't or won't. And we love them for it. We watch them take risks we believe unfathomable, chuckle when we're right, but keep watching nonetheless. Katy Perry and Russell Brand? Why couldn't they just date!
But show people screw first, ask questions later and despite these faux pas we love them none the less.
Mickey Rooney had a career renaissance. Doesn't happen in music, certainly not anymore. Bruce Springsteen gave Gary U.S Bonds another go-round, but today Miley Cyrus couldn't help Stevie Nicks and despite being on HBO no one wants to hear the Boss's music on the radio. It's all new all the time, we put 'em on the scrapheap while they're still hot. Is there anybody who believes Robin Thicke will have another hit other than himself?
But Rooney found a way.
But actors are different from musicians.
Musicians die, actors live on.
Musicians go on the road, succumb to temptation and then do drugs to cope with it all. A lethal combination, that's for sure.
But if you manage to make it through the gauntlet, clean up, find a good significant other and hopefully tour using one home base, jetting in and out for gigs, you can continue to make a living and be a star in somebody's eyes.
Then again, we see musicians as their material, actors as their roles. We believe musicians are real, we know actors are fake.
But they stood in front of us twenty feet tall. At the drive-in. Even when the pictures truly got small on the tiny old screens of yore they emerged triumphant, because they were so good-looking, so charismatic.
And if you were big enough, a bright enough star, your legacy lived on, even if your present day circumstances bore no resemblance to fame.
But then everything disappeared in the rearview mirror. I don't think kids today know who Mickey Rooney was, never mind all those bands whose records I spun ad infinitum back in the seventies.
So, so long Mickster. I always kept an eye on you, mostly on late night talk shows.
And I love that you sued your stepson and his wife and won. In an era where everybody feels cheated, it's stunning when someone truly is, and proves it.
And my favorite part of your obit was when your mother turned down a $5 offer because she was waiting for a better one, those were the rules of vaudeville.
And the rules of life aren't much different. It's all about who wants you.
And we always wanted Mickey Rooney.
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Sunday, 6 April 2014
What I Learned In Oslo Today
1. I used to always be early, but now I'm afraid of being late.
Being early is a curse in a world where everybody is late. Not only do you waste time waiting for people, you end up being the greeting committee, making small talk, introducing people. Almost no one is on time in L.A., so I've trained myself to...be on time, as opposed to early. But now with so many time-wasters, most especially the smartphone, I'm finding it hard to even be on time. I'm starting to cut it too close, I'm losing track of who is really me. I wanted to take a boat ride around the fjord at 1 and somehow I misjudged the distance and I ended up being only a few minutes early. But they left at about 1:02. Kind of like the movies. Which wait for no one. I was hustling there and thinking "I don't want to be one of those people who complains that the world runs on time."
2. I'm old.
I remember when my father was thrilled when he qualified for the senior discount. Baby boomers are horrified. The worst was in Vail, when the ticket seller at the bus station assumed I was a senior, eek! But I accepted the senior discount at the Nobel Peace Center, when I look in the mirror I know my time is fading.
3. WW1 was a hotbed of poison gas.
We never got to World War I in school, never mind World War II. The teachers just assumed we knew it by osmosis, not realizing even though they'd lived through history, we had not.
I'd heard of mustard gas, but I did not know it was so prevalent, along with other chemical weapons, in the first World War. They agreed not to use them in the future at the Geneva Convention. And this made me feel so good until I realized the U.S. tortures despite the Geneva accords. You want to be a good guy, you want to be able to scold those who are not. Furthermore, America has not eradicated all its chemical weapons yet.
The 2013 Nobel Peace Prize went to OPCW, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. It was only formed in 1997, but has helped effect a vast reduction in chemical weapon stores.
Makes you want to change course and be a do-gooder, because as you age personal achievement loses meaning.
4. Willy Brandt was a winner.
Yes, he received the Nobel Peace Prize. But I did not know he protested Hitler and moved to Norway and even went back to Germany on a fake passport.
Americans, especially Jews, are skeptical of all Germans. But from what I read today, Brandt was truly one of the good guys.
5. Henrik Ibsen trained to be a pharmacist.
It's hard not to take the easy way out. Used to be our parents told us to be doctors or lawyers. Now college graduates go into finance because they want a safety net. But to wake up and decide to follow your heart...everybody talks about it, very few do it. Because it's just too risky, especially in the arts.
6. Henrik Ibsen was the artistic director of the Christiana Theatre and it went bankrupt.
We tend to think of legends on a vertical rise to success, all victory, all the time. When the truth is there are numerous bumps in the road. Ibsen experienced rejection. But this does not mean everybody who experiences failure is destined to be a winner. Perseverance is definitely a component of success, but it's more than that...it's drive, it's vision, it's luck. Which is why the arts are populated by the winners and the sour grapes people. The losers always try to tear down the winners, believing their chance has been stolen, when the truth is the winners are usually special people with special talents. Not that all Top Forty hitmakers are, but is their work truly legendary?
7. You can walk right up to the Royal Palace.
But the guards don't stare directly into space, like at Buckingham Palace.
8. Alcohol is expensive to discourage consumption.
What else are you supposed to do during the long, cold, lonely winter?
But would people drive different cars in the U.S. if gas were more expensive? They do in Europe. Then again, we've got an upper class so wealthy in the U.S. that it doesn't care about gas prices. That's the problem with the ultra-rich, they skew the game for the rest of us. Doubt me? Then try to get a good ticket to a desirable show. Prices are so high because certain people can afford it. You might scrimp and save to see your personal hero for $500-$1000, but there are tons of people who buy these tickets on a whim, who come late and leave early, whose main desire is oftentimes just to be able to say they were there.
9. Architecture inspires pride.
It's not the Sydney Opera House, but the Oslo Opera House is almost as striking, and certainly legendary here. You walk on the roof! People want to feel good about their city, too bad too many people are so rich they build monuments to themselves, like Eli Broad's art museum in L.A. Sure, it's great to have the museum, but are our communities so broke that we cannot build these edifices ourselves? Oh, that's right, we don't want to pay taxes. The common good has gone out the window in the U.S. Taxes are high in Scandinavia. Living is good. And social mobility is even higher.
10. Traveling is about making mistakes.
I couldn't find the right ferry until I saw it pulling out of port.
11. I love to people watch.
Just looking at how people dress, what their bodies are like, is utterly fascinating. There are fewer overweight people in Oslo than even Los Angeles, home of the U.S. super-skinny, but there are homeless people in Oslo, I saw them.
12. The fjord usually freezes, but not this year.
Is it an anomaly or global warming? Everybody is testifying about what a mild winter Oslo experienced, even though I'm cold and it's April (I keep thinking about pulling out my gloves, but no one else does.)
This time of year there's usually ice floating in the fjord, but there was none today.
How weird. I thought the Amsterdam canals would freeze, but that just turned out to be fiction, written by an American in "Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates." So I figured the Norwegian fjords wouldn't freeze either. And that's our world today, we're always making assumptions, and we're always getting it wrong.
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Being early is a curse in a world where everybody is late. Not only do you waste time waiting for people, you end up being the greeting committee, making small talk, introducing people. Almost no one is on time in L.A., so I've trained myself to...be on time, as opposed to early. But now with so many time-wasters, most especially the smartphone, I'm finding it hard to even be on time. I'm starting to cut it too close, I'm losing track of who is really me. I wanted to take a boat ride around the fjord at 1 and somehow I misjudged the distance and I ended up being only a few minutes early. But they left at about 1:02. Kind of like the movies. Which wait for no one. I was hustling there and thinking "I don't want to be one of those people who complains that the world runs on time."
2. I'm old.
I remember when my father was thrilled when he qualified for the senior discount. Baby boomers are horrified. The worst was in Vail, when the ticket seller at the bus station assumed I was a senior, eek! But I accepted the senior discount at the Nobel Peace Center, when I look in the mirror I know my time is fading.
3. WW1 was a hotbed of poison gas.
We never got to World War I in school, never mind World War II. The teachers just assumed we knew it by osmosis, not realizing even though they'd lived through history, we had not.
I'd heard of mustard gas, but I did not know it was so prevalent, along with other chemical weapons, in the first World War. They agreed not to use them in the future at the Geneva Convention. And this made me feel so good until I realized the U.S. tortures despite the Geneva accords. You want to be a good guy, you want to be able to scold those who are not. Furthermore, America has not eradicated all its chemical weapons yet.
The 2013 Nobel Peace Prize went to OPCW, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. It was only formed in 1997, but has helped effect a vast reduction in chemical weapon stores.
Makes you want to change course and be a do-gooder, because as you age personal achievement loses meaning.
4. Willy Brandt was a winner.
Yes, he received the Nobel Peace Prize. But I did not know he protested Hitler and moved to Norway and even went back to Germany on a fake passport.
Americans, especially Jews, are skeptical of all Germans. But from what I read today, Brandt was truly one of the good guys.
5. Henrik Ibsen trained to be a pharmacist.
It's hard not to take the easy way out. Used to be our parents told us to be doctors or lawyers. Now college graduates go into finance because they want a safety net. But to wake up and decide to follow your heart...everybody talks about it, very few do it. Because it's just too risky, especially in the arts.
6. Henrik Ibsen was the artistic director of the Christiana Theatre and it went bankrupt.
We tend to think of legends on a vertical rise to success, all victory, all the time. When the truth is there are numerous bumps in the road. Ibsen experienced rejection. But this does not mean everybody who experiences failure is destined to be a winner. Perseverance is definitely a component of success, but it's more than that...it's drive, it's vision, it's luck. Which is why the arts are populated by the winners and the sour grapes people. The losers always try to tear down the winners, believing their chance has been stolen, when the truth is the winners are usually special people with special talents. Not that all Top Forty hitmakers are, but is their work truly legendary?
7. You can walk right up to the Royal Palace.
But the guards don't stare directly into space, like at Buckingham Palace.
8. Alcohol is expensive to discourage consumption.
What else are you supposed to do during the long, cold, lonely winter?
But would people drive different cars in the U.S. if gas were more expensive? They do in Europe. Then again, we've got an upper class so wealthy in the U.S. that it doesn't care about gas prices. That's the problem with the ultra-rich, they skew the game for the rest of us. Doubt me? Then try to get a good ticket to a desirable show. Prices are so high because certain people can afford it. You might scrimp and save to see your personal hero for $500-$1000, but there are tons of people who buy these tickets on a whim, who come late and leave early, whose main desire is oftentimes just to be able to say they were there.
9. Architecture inspires pride.
It's not the Sydney Opera House, but the Oslo Opera House is almost as striking, and certainly legendary here. You walk on the roof! People want to feel good about their city, too bad too many people are so rich they build monuments to themselves, like Eli Broad's art museum in L.A. Sure, it's great to have the museum, but are our communities so broke that we cannot build these edifices ourselves? Oh, that's right, we don't want to pay taxes. The common good has gone out the window in the U.S. Taxes are high in Scandinavia. Living is good. And social mobility is even higher.
10. Traveling is about making mistakes.
I couldn't find the right ferry until I saw it pulling out of port.
11. I love to people watch.
Just looking at how people dress, what their bodies are like, is utterly fascinating. There are fewer overweight people in Oslo than even Los Angeles, home of the U.S. super-skinny, but there are homeless people in Oslo, I saw them.
12. The fjord usually freezes, but not this year.
Is it an anomaly or global warming? Everybody is testifying about what a mild winter Oslo experienced, even though I'm cold and it's April (I keep thinking about pulling out my gloves, but no one else does.)
This time of year there's usually ice floating in the fjord, but there was none today.
How weird. I thought the Amsterdam canals would freeze, but that just turned out to be fiction, written by an American in "Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates." So I figured the Norwegian fjords wouldn't freeze either. And that's our world today, we're always making assumptions, and we're always getting it wrong.
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