I now like "Heard It In A Love Song."
I'm still shaking. I haven't driven in snow that bad since the seventies. Vail Pass is closed and I'm wondering whether to bother trying to make it to Telluride tomorrow, since they're expecting 18-36 inches.
Now it didn't snow all day. Well, there were a few flurries just before noon, but after that there was some sun. I wondered if the storm was just a myth, especially in ski country, they like to believe the flakes will fly.
And on the way to the airport it was RAINING! Now I'm sophisticated enough to know this is ultimately a bad sign, because as the night wears on the temperature drops and then you've got snow on top of ice, the worst of all possible worlds.
And Eagle County Regional Airport is at 6,540 feet. Downhill from Vail's 8,150. And the temperature was in the mid-thirties. And visibility was good. So I was feeling confident, wondering if all my anxiety was ill-spent.
Kinda like the car rental.
Tempkins told me to go to Thrifty, he said they had the best deals. But no one was at the desk and Avis and Budget and Alamo told me they had no cars whatsoever.
I was just checking, because the Hertz website said they had no four wheel drives, I wanted a four wheel drive, I'd reserved a Chevy Venture, which comes in both iterations, front and all, but usually the rental fleet is just front so...
I went to Hertz.
I asked them about the Venture, whether it was two or four wheel drive.
They told me they hadn't seen a Venture in months.
But they had my reservation.
They were gonna give me an SUV. And by time the clerk went through a few computer screens she told me I was gonna get an Infiniti, a QX80.
Now that's living in style.
But that's not what I got.
I got a QX70. Would it fit my skis?
First I had to check for dents, I don't want no extra charges.
And I already declined the $64 and change insurance policy. I know, I know, you don't need it, but I'm only renting the car for one day...
Now I'm wondering whether I should have bought it, I still might call and request it.
So the car came with satellite radio, and even navigation and NeverLost, and there were too many switches to figure out and I had a hard time turning it on and getting out of the parking lot and then...
I couldn't see a damn thing. The windshield wipers were bad. Or...
I mean you know you're in trouble when you can't see the road.
And I was far from the Interstate.
I blasted the defrosters. I turned up the music. And I tried to figure out where I was going.
Eagle, Colorado ain't that complicated, but there are roundabouts and I couldn't see anything and then... On the window, were those now snowflakes?
I didn't want to believe it. It had been raining only minutes before, I'd gained no elevation.
But it was true, it was snowing.
And then it was a blizzard.
You know, the kind where the high beams render vision impossible and the low beams show you there's snow, but you still can't see the road.
I started off behind two trucks. But then I got worried they were going too slow, and the longer it took me to get back to Vail, 35.5 miles, the more snow there'd be on the road.
So I passed them.
I was feeling confident, my winter driving skills were still in evidence. I could ride this pony.
And then I couldn't see the damn line on the road. Where the hell was I supposed to go? Left, right, center... I'd lost my guidance, believe me, you want to be following those red tail lights, they were the only thing giving me direction.
And the hills are getting steeper and I'm starting to go slower.
The speed limit is over 70, I started off doing 60, now I was down at 50, was I ever going to make it?
And then other drivers started to freak out, they started to go slow.
And then the left lane started to be covered by snow.
And then the heavens EXPLODED!
You'd think it's the end of the world. But somehow in the midst of this winter storm there was lightning, happened three times, I could finally see the road, for an instant anyway, but I felt like I was experiencing Armageddon.
And I finally realize I'm listening to the Bridge, Sirius XM's soft rock channel for the uninitiated. The Little River Band segued into Carole King and then I heard the bumper. I listen to the Bridge, I felt comforted. Carole King was my friend, the song never sounded better.
And then I heard Marshall Tucker's "Heard It In A Love Song"...
I hate that song. I love "Can't You See," but not this big hit.
But tonight I loved it. I couldn't take my hands off the wheel, I had no idea how to change the channel, I endured it and it revealed itself to me, decades later.
Finally I was in Edwards. Civilization. People live there and ski Vail. I thought I was home free.
Until I got to Avon and found myself exiting without knowing it. There was no way you could see the highway. I was drifting right, headed for disaster, the only thing that saved me was that rough pavement they install that makes your tires roar and alerts you to the fact you're flirting with disaster.
Now I had to pay attention.
BUT I ALREADY WAS!
I was wired, concentrating, doing my best, would it be enough?
Then I lost all perspective, I had no idea what lane I was in, all I know is there were two tire tracks and I was following them.
And then the lights started to blink and flashers were going and I thought there was an accident, but it's just that everybody had slowed to a crawl, because there was no way you could make fruitful progress.
In the slowdown I passed a fire truck. Its lights were not flashing, it was barely moving, was it going to an accident, coming back from a fire, or had it lost its way?
And then there were lights. Visibility returned. But there was barely one lane and it was still four miles to Vail and off in the distance were flashing red and blue lights. Was it a snowplow?
And now I was starting to freak. Would I be able to find the exit?
I highly doubted it.
Who else would be going to Vail? Who could I follow? Wouldn't they just be continuing down I-70?
There was no lane line visible. I figured I'd keep an eye out for the bending guardrail and try to follow it off the highway.
But then there was a huge blinking sign, whose yellow letters told us Vail Pass was closed, the highway ended here, we ALL had to get off at Vail.
Whew!
But then the car started beeping, telling me people were too close, even though I couldn't see anyone around me.
And in town an SUV was barreling, could he stop before he plowed into me on the roundabout?
And that guy in the Audi, entering from a side street, was he gonna maintain traction or slide into me?
And now I was alone.
But I was slippin' and a' slidin', only a few feet from home.
But I made it.
Now what?
Do I pack up and leave in the morning or...sit here in Vail?
And if I sit here in Vail, I'm racking up $130 in rental car fees every day.
Telluride is four hours and forty six minutes away.
Montrose is three hours and twenty six minutes, I can meet my buds at the airport there tomorrow...
If they can make it.
Buzz is they're going to get fifty inches at Wolf Creek.
Now that's just west of Telluride, but T'ride is gonna get double digits. Are we even gonna be able to make it from Montrose to Telluride, which sits at 8,750 at the end of a long, winding, two lane road?
My buddies on the east coast are clueless, they think they're gonna make it, I emailed them and asked for flight info, told them to contact me if their flights were canceled or diverted.
So I'm sitting here wondering whether to pack or to punt.
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Saturday, 30 January 2016
Thursday, 28 January 2016
My Name Is Lucy Barton
Everybody comes from somewhere.
Does everybody feel inferior and inadequate?
I do. My mother always told me someone else was the expert, knew better, and I couldn't compete. My father would lionize outcasts, with glasses and straight A's, and it drove my older sister nuts, she still feels like she's competing with Kathy Eckber.
So when a book makes me feel like I'm not alone, that there are other people like me, I can't put it down, I smile on the inside, I've got to tell you all about it, in case you feel like I do.
Elizabeth Strout is famous for "Olive Kitteridge," an award-winning book that deserves its accolades. Olive is not lovable, breaking the mold Hollywood and the media tells us art must conform to. I hate when people tell me the characters in a movie are not likable. So many people in the world are not likable, I'm looking for truth.
And they made "Olive Kitteridge" into an HBO movie which I never finished, because the book was private and the film was for everybody. You know how you feel alone, with your thoughts, roaming through society as a party of one? That's the feeling you got from Olive, you were inside her mind, which got you inside your own.
There was a follow-up book, "The Burgess Boys," not quite as good as "Olive Kitteridge," but satisfying.
And now this, "My Name Is Lucy Barton," there were reviews and features for about two weeks and then nothing. It's funny that way, how there's a big hoopla and then silence. If something continues to be part of public discourse it's a hit.
And I'm not sure "My Name Is Lucy Barton" is a hit.
I can see why. People need a linear plot, they need satisfaction, and "Lucy Barton" does not provide this. You're not actually sure where it's going and when it's over you wonder if you missed something. Kinda like life. Get old enough and so many roads are closed off you have to own your location and that's freaky, because it's never where you expected it to be, and so much you wanted to accomplish you never will.
Lucy is sick. She's in the hospital. Her mother comes to visit her. And you hear about her life.
She grew up dirt poor. People made fun of her.
Have you ever been made fun of? I have, which is why I will never do so. We can't control our looks, we all commit faux pas, life is a struggle, what makes you so special that you have all the answers and can ridicule others? And sure, there are bullies, deranged solo actors. But so often the perpetrators are the cool club, the winners, the popular people in school. They're put on a pedestal but they're rotten to the core. That's one great thing about graduating, leaving these people behind, and knowing that as you get older people can't punch you, because it's gonna cost 'em.
Lucy escaped the hinterlands. And her family never really forgave her for that. They want to keep you down, where they are, where they can continue to pick on you, keep you in your place. She got a scholarship to college and she got married and...
It didn't solve her problems.
We all think if we reach that threshold, if we get to that point, if we achieve our heart's desire, we'll be happy, life will work out. But it doesn't. You ultimately make the most of what you've got, but life has a way of twisting and turning and turning lemonade into lemons.
Not that anybody will say this.
We live in an age of positivity. Keep your chin up, be a winner, like the pop songs.
But inside we despair. We have too many questions and too few solutions. We're insecure. That's one thing I've learned in life, if someone is bragging about their achievements, focused on their possessions, despite their braggadocio they're insecure inside, their balloon is always losing air, they're afraid of being exposed.
Do you make peace with your family?
Do your siblings forgive you for moving on and garnering success or do they still poke at you while asking for money and favors all the while.
You have heroes.
But then you find out that the heroes are flawed.
There's so much wisdom in "Lucy Barton," let me extract some gems.
"I have no memory of my mother ever kissing me."
Bingo, my dad either. Recently my mom has been giving me a peck, it feels good, but the truth is I'm incredibly inhibited when it comes to physical contact. I need a sign, a green light before I touch you. And feeling comfortable with contact...
"Then I understood I would never marry him. It's funny how one thing can make you realize something like that."
Lucy's in love with an artist. He asks her what she ate growing up. She ultimately told him baked beans, which was a positive spin on molasses and bread. He then asked if they sat around and farted after that.
People are cruel. Not all of them, but when you think you love someone and they treat you badly, when they say something that cuts you to the core, you know you can never spend your life with them.
"...and I see now that he recognized what I did not: that in spite of my plenitude, I was lonely. Lonely was the first flavor I had tasted in my life, and it was always there, hidden inside the crevices of my mouth, reminding me."
I understand. I'm not sure why I feel this way. Was it having two sisters and a father who was quite the breadwinner but far from a guy's guy? I am lucky in that as I've grown older my social circle has grown, I fear for those my age who are uncoupled, who work in solitude, or maybe they're just better adjusted than I am.
"I felt that she would leave soon. As has often been the case with me, I began to dread this in advance."
I had to work with my shrink to learn how to get off the phone. I was thrilled people called me, that anybody wanted to talk to me, I'd listen to them for hours, for the contact, to cement the bond.
And when I feel conversation lagging and the party breaking up, I start asking questions and making jokes, anything to keep it going.
"I suspect I said nothing because I was doing what I have done most of my life, which is to cover for the mistakes of others when they don't know they have embarrassed themselves."
I'm always worried someone's gonna say the wrong thing, make themselves look bad and others uncomfortable. I don't know why it's my responsibility, I'm working on letting go, it's difficult, I don't want anybody to get hurt.
"How are we going to make sure we do not feel inferior to another?"
When you find the answer, let me know.
But the truth is this is nothing we can learn from another, they can tell us we all put on our pants the same way, yet we still carry the weight of the loser. I'm making progress here too, learning that so many presenting their case with bluster are flawed, that those who succeed in one area are failures in another. And it's not about putting them down but showing myself there's an opening for me to play, that I can suit up and get on the field. That's truly half the battle, so many are too inhibited, they can't handle the scrutiny, they're afraid to fail, someone needs to succeed, maybe it can be me.
If you're looking for business insight, "My Name Is Lucy Barton" is not for you.
But if you feel like you just don't fit in, that something happened to you long ago and it's holding you back, you should crack it.
If you believe art is about illustrating the human condition, making you feel connected, and delivering insight all at the same time, this is your book.
It's an easy read.
It might be too difficult to discuss.
But you'll treasure it.
http://www.amazon.com/My-Name-Is-Lucy-Barton-ebook/dp/B011G3HG5G
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Does everybody feel inferior and inadequate?
I do. My mother always told me someone else was the expert, knew better, and I couldn't compete. My father would lionize outcasts, with glasses and straight A's, and it drove my older sister nuts, she still feels like she's competing with Kathy Eckber.
So when a book makes me feel like I'm not alone, that there are other people like me, I can't put it down, I smile on the inside, I've got to tell you all about it, in case you feel like I do.
Elizabeth Strout is famous for "Olive Kitteridge," an award-winning book that deserves its accolades. Olive is not lovable, breaking the mold Hollywood and the media tells us art must conform to. I hate when people tell me the characters in a movie are not likable. So many people in the world are not likable, I'm looking for truth.
And they made "Olive Kitteridge" into an HBO movie which I never finished, because the book was private and the film was for everybody. You know how you feel alone, with your thoughts, roaming through society as a party of one? That's the feeling you got from Olive, you were inside her mind, which got you inside your own.
There was a follow-up book, "The Burgess Boys," not quite as good as "Olive Kitteridge," but satisfying.
And now this, "My Name Is Lucy Barton," there were reviews and features for about two weeks and then nothing. It's funny that way, how there's a big hoopla and then silence. If something continues to be part of public discourse it's a hit.
And I'm not sure "My Name Is Lucy Barton" is a hit.
I can see why. People need a linear plot, they need satisfaction, and "Lucy Barton" does not provide this. You're not actually sure where it's going and when it's over you wonder if you missed something. Kinda like life. Get old enough and so many roads are closed off you have to own your location and that's freaky, because it's never where you expected it to be, and so much you wanted to accomplish you never will.
Lucy is sick. She's in the hospital. Her mother comes to visit her. And you hear about her life.
She grew up dirt poor. People made fun of her.
Have you ever been made fun of? I have, which is why I will never do so. We can't control our looks, we all commit faux pas, life is a struggle, what makes you so special that you have all the answers and can ridicule others? And sure, there are bullies, deranged solo actors. But so often the perpetrators are the cool club, the winners, the popular people in school. They're put on a pedestal but they're rotten to the core. That's one great thing about graduating, leaving these people behind, and knowing that as you get older people can't punch you, because it's gonna cost 'em.
Lucy escaped the hinterlands. And her family never really forgave her for that. They want to keep you down, where they are, where they can continue to pick on you, keep you in your place. She got a scholarship to college and she got married and...
It didn't solve her problems.
We all think if we reach that threshold, if we get to that point, if we achieve our heart's desire, we'll be happy, life will work out. But it doesn't. You ultimately make the most of what you've got, but life has a way of twisting and turning and turning lemonade into lemons.
Not that anybody will say this.
We live in an age of positivity. Keep your chin up, be a winner, like the pop songs.
But inside we despair. We have too many questions and too few solutions. We're insecure. That's one thing I've learned in life, if someone is bragging about their achievements, focused on their possessions, despite their braggadocio they're insecure inside, their balloon is always losing air, they're afraid of being exposed.
Do you make peace with your family?
Do your siblings forgive you for moving on and garnering success or do they still poke at you while asking for money and favors all the while.
You have heroes.
But then you find out that the heroes are flawed.
There's so much wisdom in "Lucy Barton," let me extract some gems.
"I have no memory of my mother ever kissing me."
Bingo, my dad either. Recently my mom has been giving me a peck, it feels good, but the truth is I'm incredibly inhibited when it comes to physical contact. I need a sign, a green light before I touch you. And feeling comfortable with contact...
"Then I understood I would never marry him. It's funny how one thing can make you realize something like that."
Lucy's in love with an artist. He asks her what she ate growing up. She ultimately told him baked beans, which was a positive spin on molasses and bread. He then asked if they sat around and farted after that.
People are cruel. Not all of them, but when you think you love someone and they treat you badly, when they say something that cuts you to the core, you know you can never spend your life with them.
"...and I see now that he recognized what I did not: that in spite of my plenitude, I was lonely. Lonely was the first flavor I had tasted in my life, and it was always there, hidden inside the crevices of my mouth, reminding me."
I understand. I'm not sure why I feel this way. Was it having two sisters and a father who was quite the breadwinner but far from a guy's guy? I am lucky in that as I've grown older my social circle has grown, I fear for those my age who are uncoupled, who work in solitude, or maybe they're just better adjusted than I am.
"I felt that she would leave soon. As has often been the case with me, I began to dread this in advance."
I had to work with my shrink to learn how to get off the phone. I was thrilled people called me, that anybody wanted to talk to me, I'd listen to them for hours, for the contact, to cement the bond.
And when I feel conversation lagging and the party breaking up, I start asking questions and making jokes, anything to keep it going.
"I suspect I said nothing because I was doing what I have done most of my life, which is to cover for the mistakes of others when they don't know they have embarrassed themselves."
I'm always worried someone's gonna say the wrong thing, make themselves look bad and others uncomfortable. I don't know why it's my responsibility, I'm working on letting go, it's difficult, I don't want anybody to get hurt.
"How are we going to make sure we do not feel inferior to another?"
When you find the answer, let me know.
But the truth is this is nothing we can learn from another, they can tell us we all put on our pants the same way, yet we still carry the weight of the loser. I'm making progress here too, learning that so many presenting their case with bluster are flawed, that those who succeed in one area are failures in another. And it's not about putting them down but showing myself there's an opening for me to play, that I can suit up and get on the field. That's truly half the battle, so many are too inhibited, they can't handle the scrutiny, they're afraid to fail, someone needs to succeed, maybe it can be me.
If you're looking for business insight, "My Name Is Lucy Barton" is not for you.
But if you feel like you just don't fit in, that something happened to you long ago and it's holding you back, you should crack it.
If you believe art is about illustrating the human condition, making you feel connected, and delivering insight all at the same time, this is your book.
It's an easy read.
It might be too difficult to discuss.
But you'll treasure it.
http://www.amazon.com/My-Name-Is-Lucy-Barton-ebook/dp/B011G3HG5G
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Wednesday, 27 January 2016
Annapurna
I've got to drive from Vail to Telluride.
And I'm becoming more frightened by the minute.
I used to do long distances all the time, twelve hours at a clip, I just put a cassette in the deck and off I'd go. But that was a long time ago, before Sirius XM, do I upgrade my rental car to include it? I think so. But forget the distance, what I'm worried about now is the snow.
Last January there was nary a drop. But El Nino is causing the sky to dump, the day I leave, and the day before and the day thereafter and...
My buddy Steve was gonna come up from Taos, take me in his four wheel drive, but his plans changed, he's got to go to Mexico City. So I rented a car.
Oh, I could have flown. But it made no sense. To pay a hundred bucks to ride two hours back to Denver and then pay triple digits to fly to Montrose and still end up almost two hours away.
Or, I could have flown direct, if I'd come from L.A.
But I was too scared.
My hemoglobin is low, and the altitude at Telluride is sky high, so I figured I'd come to Vail and adjust.
Which is how I ended up here, which is how I ended up at Annapurna last night.
It's an Indian/Nepalese restaurant. I found it on Yelp. We arrived on Saturday and needed lunch and I was looking for new alternatives and Annapurna's rating was sky high, just like Telluride, ha!
So we went.
I'd like to tell you the atmosphere was a selling point, but it looked like an upscale Denny's, although there were prayer flags, but food can overcome atmosphere any day of the week. But what do we eat? I know Indian, I'm clueless as to Nepalese.
So I asked Om.
I didn't know that was his name at the time, it's just that he was the only person in attendance that looked like he'd come from that region of the world. Yes, it was his restaurant. He told me to get the chicken makhani, and he recommended the lamb skewers too.
But Felice doesn't like lamb unless it comes as chops, so we ordered some shrimp and some eggplant in addition to the makhani and savored every bite, the food was delicious.
And then Om came to check up on us, to talk.
That's when we found out his name was Om. Yup, like the mantra. It's common in Nepal. Where Om would like to go back to live. But he can't, because the country is in financial straits.
Om and his wife immigrated at the turn of the century. Actually, his wife came first. They settled in Glenwood Springs, which is an hour from Aspen but might as well be an hour from Tulsa, it's nowhere, how did Om end up there?
Word of mouth. There are a lot of Nepalese in Colorado.
But mostly Boulder. It seemed that they went to Glenwood Springs on a whim, almost throwing a dart, but they stayed there for sixteen years, until they sold the business and tried to move back.
But it didn't work. The money just didn't add up.
And it always comes down to the money. That's how Om ended up owning a restaurant to begin with. You've got to put food on the table, pardon the pseudo pun. And you've got to send money back to your relatives. Om's mother had two strokes and is partially paralyzed and his dad has dementia. Om's brother looks after them, Om has to help him out.
But not only him, Om is helping out people in the village. Because all that money sent after the earthquake? The politicians pocketed it, you can see no evidence of it. Nepal is in bad shape. Right after the disaster people helped each other out, now they're out for themselves, a cab driver tried to charge Om double to go the two miles from the hospital to his family abode. Om challenged him, and then ended up giving him the 100 rupees and letting someone else take the cab. That's only a dollar, but that's a lot in Nepal.
And Om's daughter is in medical school in Kathmandu.
And his son is in medical school in the U.S.
I told him he must be very proud.
He is.
What's all this hogwash about immigrants, stealing jobs, ruining the economy? The immigrants come with nothing and work hard and get ahead. If only all the people bitching put their nose to the grindstone.
But Om is less concerned with the politics of the U.S. than the politics of Nepal. He's dealing with bigger issues. While we're all on social media bragging about our possessions and experiences he's earning money to help those who don't have any, his brethren back home.
Kinda like my ancestors. And yours. Coming to the new land and helping out those left behind.
Which makes my anxiety about driving to Telluride seem inconsequential.
And it is.
But I try to exercise good judgment, I try not to take unnecessary risks. Automobiles are deadly weapons.
I may end up meeting friends at the Montrose airport.
The weather forecast could change.
But right now I'm consumed with the variables.
And the story of Om.
http://www.annapurnavail.com
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And I'm becoming more frightened by the minute.
I used to do long distances all the time, twelve hours at a clip, I just put a cassette in the deck and off I'd go. But that was a long time ago, before Sirius XM, do I upgrade my rental car to include it? I think so. But forget the distance, what I'm worried about now is the snow.
Last January there was nary a drop. But El Nino is causing the sky to dump, the day I leave, and the day before and the day thereafter and...
My buddy Steve was gonna come up from Taos, take me in his four wheel drive, but his plans changed, he's got to go to Mexico City. So I rented a car.
Oh, I could have flown. But it made no sense. To pay a hundred bucks to ride two hours back to Denver and then pay triple digits to fly to Montrose and still end up almost two hours away.
Or, I could have flown direct, if I'd come from L.A.
But I was too scared.
My hemoglobin is low, and the altitude at Telluride is sky high, so I figured I'd come to Vail and adjust.
Which is how I ended up here, which is how I ended up at Annapurna last night.
It's an Indian/Nepalese restaurant. I found it on Yelp. We arrived on Saturday and needed lunch and I was looking for new alternatives and Annapurna's rating was sky high, just like Telluride, ha!
So we went.
I'd like to tell you the atmosphere was a selling point, but it looked like an upscale Denny's, although there were prayer flags, but food can overcome atmosphere any day of the week. But what do we eat? I know Indian, I'm clueless as to Nepalese.
So I asked Om.
I didn't know that was his name at the time, it's just that he was the only person in attendance that looked like he'd come from that region of the world. Yes, it was his restaurant. He told me to get the chicken makhani, and he recommended the lamb skewers too.
But Felice doesn't like lamb unless it comes as chops, so we ordered some shrimp and some eggplant in addition to the makhani and savored every bite, the food was delicious.
And then Om came to check up on us, to talk.
That's when we found out his name was Om. Yup, like the mantra. It's common in Nepal. Where Om would like to go back to live. But he can't, because the country is in financial straits.
Om and his wife immigrated at the turn of the century. Actually, his wife came first. They settled in Glenwood Springs, which is an hour from Aspen but might as well be an hour from Tulsa, it's nowhere, how did Om end up there?
Word of mouth. There are a lot of Nepalese in Colorado.
But mostly Boulder. It seemed that they went to Glenwood Springs on a whim, almost throwing a dart, but they stayed there for sixteen years, until they sold the business and tried to move back.
But it didn't work. The money just didn't add up.
And it always comes down to the money. That's how Om ended up owning a restaurant to begin with. You've got to put food on the table, pardon the pseudo pun. And you've got to send money back to your relatives. Om's mother had two strokes and is partially paralyzed and his dad has dementia. Om's brother looks after them, Om has to help him out.
But not only him, Om is helping out people in the village. Because all that money sent after the earthquake? The politicians pocketed it, you can see no evidence of it. Nepal is in bad shape. Right after the disaster people helped each other out, now they're out for themselves, a cab driver tried to charge Om double to go the two miles from the hospital to his family abode. Om challenged him, and then ended up giving him the 100 rupees and letting someone else take the cab. That's only a dollar, but that's a lot in Nepal.
And Om's daughter is in medical school in Kathmandu.
And his son is in medical school in the U.S.
I told him he must be very proud.
He is.
What's all this hogwash about immigrants, stealing jobs, ruining the economy? The immigrants come with nothing and work hard and get ahead. If only all the people bitching put their nose to the grindstone.
But Om is less concerned with the politics of the U.S. than the politics of Nepal. He's dealing with bigger issues. While we're all on social media bragging about our possessions and experiences he's earning money to help those who don't have any, his brethren back home.
Kinda like my ancestors. And yours. Coming to the new land and helping out those left behind.
Which makes my anxiety about driving to Telluride seem inconsequential.
And it is.
But I try to exercise good judgment, I try not to take unnecessary risks. Automobiles are deadly weapons.
I may end up meeting friends at the Montrose airport.
The weather forecast could change.
But right now I'm consumed with the variables.
And the story of Om.
http://www.annapurnavail.com
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Tuesday, 26 January 2016
Individuals Are Everything
The Doors could never replace Jim Morrison and Apple can't replace Steve Jobs.
They teach us to get along, tell us institutions are king, but the truth is America succeeds because it's the land of rugged individuals with a vision who need to do it their way.
That's one of the reasons the music business blew up. There was no other home for the hustlers who inhabited it. The roll-up of concert promoters was good financially (for some, anyway), but all the innovation comes from outside. Coachella was started by independents. All of the big festivals, from ACL to Bonnaroo to Lollapalooza...from guys who thought different.
You think Steve Jobs had edges? Try hanging with Marc Geiger, who helped birth Lollapalooza. Geiger's a bubbling froth of opinions and emotions, always talking about the bleeding edge, he may have been too far ahead with ArtistDirect but he was right, and now he's having a second act at WME, just like Steve Jobs. You see the true revolutionaries just can't help themselves, they want their ideas to be realized. Anybody can get lucky once, but if you do it twice...
Did anybody expect Apple to burgeon after the passage of Steve?
There've been enough movies since his passing to completely assassinate his character, but people love his devices and those left in charge can't seem to come up with a new one. I torched the Watch, and now Walt Mossberg has too (http://bit.ly/1PFcTX1). And after app developers abandon it you've got a dead platform, kinda like Google Glass.
I still hope they'll get it right, because I want something to believe in, I need something to believe in. Musicians used to fulfill this role before their goal was solely riches and fame, they keep telling us they're entitled to success, but they don't take a different road, they keep plying the one already trodden upon. Come on, did you ever hear "The End"? Who came up with that stuff? We always want new people who can come up with stuff that will surprise and amaze us.
But the millennials are all about getting along, being a member of the group. Bill Gates could barely have friends. He handed Microsoft to Steve Ballmer who nearly buried it. Buying the worthless Nokia. Only Gates could steer that ship.
We're jealous of the envelope pushers, we keep criticizing them, saying they can't get along. But they're the ones we secretly lionize.
We don't need entrepreneurship courses in college, we need to teach creativity, we need to tell people it's okay to be unique, to think different. Instead of focusing on the bullies we should look at those they attack and build them up. No one in America wants a nonconformist and then they end up supporting Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders.
Trump's a joke, born on third base with a checkered business record he thinks just because he's rich and can finance his own campaign he knows best. At least give Bernie credit, he comes from nothing and has never wavered in his views, never done what's expedient, the people have come to him. That's right, the leaders are always one step ahead, we play into their hands.
Isn't it funny that musicians abhor Spotify but it's a cutting edge techie who developed it, helping them and their listeners even if they don't know it, eviscerating piracy and paying forever, making the history of recorded music available at everybody's fingertips. That's how you know you've won, when the Luddites lost in the past get angry.
The future is coming. But it's just that half of America has decided it wants it to look like the past. Inane Democrats want manufacturing to come back to our shores and ridiculous Republicans want to get rid of the safety net and have "those people" work meanwhile wanting their Medicare protected and benefiting from a disproportionate amount of federal money given to their red states.
But that's arguing over what's been, what's in the rearview mirror, the cutting edge individual wipes the slate clean and creates something new. And he needs to get it exactly right, we all know what a horse created by committee looks like, an ass.
Sure, individuals don't triumph in a vacuum. Steve Jobs needed a team and Jim Morrison needed a band. But Avie Tevanian left Apple and the company experienced no hiccups. I'm all for paying these individual creators billions, it's when the game-playing corporate lifers ascend to the throne and pay themselves a fortune that my dander gets up. What did they build? All they can do is manage!
The "New York Times" believes its masthead is bigger than any of its reporters, but the Op-Ed page still hasn't recovered from the loss of Frank Rich and the Gray Lady is still feeling the sting of Nate Silver's absence.
Meanwhile, our society keeps looking to the organization, the political parties, the judges and the system to solve our problems.
I hate to sound like a right winger, a Libertarian, but we've got to empower those who can truly make a difference, those dedicated to their ideas who will stop at nothing to see them realized.
Tim Cook is a supply chain expert, he can never fix Apple. And Jony Ive may be a great designer, but without Steve Jobs he's nearly irrelevant. He's like a great session musician without a song.
They don't like Jeff Bezos.
They don't like Mark Zuckerberg.
They didn't like Steve Jobs.
Isn't that interesting, everybody revolutionizing our society is disliked, and all of them made tons of money but ultimately considered it to be secondary, it was about the product, the vision.
Which is why music is a backwater, we've got the spoils but no stars. Shake me up. Hell, Frank Zappa's documentary is the talk of Sundance.
Who are they gonna make a doc about today?
No one.
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They teach us to get along, tell us institutions are king, but the truth is America succeeds because it's the land of rugged individuals with a vision who need to do it their way.
That's one of the reasons the music business blew up. There was no other home for the hustlers who inhabited it. The roll-up of concert promoters was good financially (for some, anyway), but all the innovation comes from outside. Coachella was started by independents. All of the big festivals, from ACL to Bonnaroo to Lollapalooza...from guys who thought different.
You think Steve Jobs had edges? Try hanging with Marc Geiger, who helped birth Lollapalooza. Geiger's a bubbling froth of opinions and emotions, always talking about the bleeding edge, he may have been too far ahead with ArtistDirect but he was right, and now he's having a second act at WME, just like Steve Jobs. You see the true revolutionaries just can't help themselves, they want their ideas to be realized. Anybody can get lucky once, but if you do it twice...
Did anybody expect Apple to burgeon after the passage of Steve?
There've been enough movies since his passing to completely assassinate his character, but people love his devices and those left in charge can't seem to come up with a new one. I torched the Watch, and now Walt Mossberg has too (http://bit.ly/1PFcTX1). And after app developers abandon it you've got a dead platform, kinda like Google Glass.
I still hope they'll get it right, because I want something to believe in, I need something to believe in. Musicians used to fulfill this role before their goal was solely riches and fame, they keep telling us they're entitled to success, but they don't take a different road, they keep plying the one already trodden upon. Come on, did you ever hear "The End"? Who came up with that stuff? We always want new people who can come up with stuff that will surprise and amaze us.
But the millennials are all about getting along, being a member of the group. Bill Gates could barely have friends. He handed Microsoft to Steve Ballmer who nearly buried it. Buying the worthless Nokia. Only Gates could steer that ship.
We're jealous of the envelope pushers, we keep criticizing them, saying they can't get along. But they're the ones we secretly lionize.
We don't need entrepreneurship courses in college, we need to teach creativity, we need to tell people it's okay to be unique, to think different. Instead of focusing on the bullies we should look at those they attack and build them up. No one in America wants a nonconformist and then they end up supporting Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders.
Trump's a joke, born on third base with a checkered business record he thinks just because he's rich and can finance his own campaign he knows best. At least give Bernie credit, he comes from nothing and has never wavered in his views, never done what's expedient, the people have come to him. That's right, the leaders are always one step ahead, we play into their hands.
Isn't it funny that musicians abhor Spotify but it's a cutting edge techie who developed it, helping them and their listeners even if they don't know it, eviscerating piracy and paying forever, making the history of recorded music available at everybody's fingertips. That's how you know you've won, when the Luddites lost in the past get angry.
The future is coming. But it's just that half of America has decided it wants it to look like the past. Inane Democrats want manufacturing to come back to our shores and ridiculous Republicans want to get rid of the safety net and have "those people" work meanwhile wanting their Medicare protected and benefiting from a disproportionate amount of federal money given to their red states.
But that's arguing over what's been, what's in the rearview mirror, the cutting edge individual wipes the slate clean and creates something new. And he needs to get it exactly right, we all know what a horse created by committee looks like, an ass.
Sure, individuals don't triumph in a vacuum. Steve Jobs needed a team and Jim Morrison needed a band. But Avie Tevanian left Apple and the company experienced no hiccups. I'm all for paying these individual creators billions, it's when the game-playing corporate lifers ascend to the throne and pay themselves a fortune that my dander gets up. What did they build? All they can do is manage!
The "New York Times" believes its masthead is bigger than any of its reporters, but the Op-Ed page still hasn't recovered from the loss of Frank Rich and the Gray Lady is still feeling the sting of Nate Silver's absence.
Meanwhile, our society keeps looking to the organization, the political parties, the judges and the system to solve our problems.
I hate to sound like a right winger, a Libertarian, but we've got to empower those who can truly make a difference, those dedicated to their ideas who will stop at nothing to see them realized.
Tim Cook is a supply chain expert, he can never fix Apple. And Jony Ive may be a great designer, but without Steve Jobs he's nearly irrelevant. He's like a great session musician without a song.
They don't like Jeff Bezos.
They don't like Mark Zuckerberg.
They didn't like Steve Jobs.
Isn't that interesting, everybody revolutionizing our society is disliked, and all of them made tons of money but ultimately considered it to be secondary, it was about the product, the vision.
Which is why music is a backwater, we've got the spoils but no stars. Shake me up. Hell, Frank Zappa's documentary is the talk of Sundance.
Who are they gonna make a doc about today?
No one.
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Even More Glenn Frey
Hi Bob!
I was so very fortunate to be a friend of Glenn Frey's back in the Aspen days.
He was a man of passion, fierce determination, HUMOR and the ability to communicate in a most authentic way.
We shared time skiing, "playing" golf, and sharing our musical passion that still inspire me to this day.
I was at Glenn's home the evening that he first had his wonderful wife Cindy over for a dinner. He asked me to come out to the house to hang with him and meet Cindy as he was so very nervous to meet her. Cindy may not even know this but, this is also a view into the Glenn's incredible humility. He was so excited that this new beautiful energy had come into his life and did NOT want any form of celebrity to diminish the potential to present himself as "just a real guy that happens to do what I do." Not an ounce of ego in sight, just truth.
I was also present the night that "Hell Froze Over" in a small club in Aspen. As he introduced the "mystery band members" late in the evening, you could hear the incredible pride and passion in his voice to be with his Brothers again. As Mr Henley walked out on that tiny stage and took his seat behind the drums, the place came apart. As the first few notes of Desperado took form, everyone could feel the magnitude and importance of what was taking place. Hope reborn. Passion in flight once again. Come on man!! THAT was what it was all about to Glenn. The absolute synergy between everyone on that stage AND in the crowd. He was the enzyme that created the action potential all around him. That IS what the great ones do.
He had such great pride in his family, friends and his music that it was infectious to be with him and feel that wave form radiate from him and only hope that some of it would carry through in our own lives
Thank you Glenn for sharing your time and truth with me and the rest of this planet! I also thank Cindy for showing Glenn that LOVE IS REAL!!
With Humility and GREAT Respect,
Dr Michael Bathke
_____________________________________
Hi Bob,
It's my first time writing you, although I read and absorb all of your work. Thank you for being so thought provoking. There are times I want to jump on a plane and fly out to LA and kick your ass and other times when I want to give you a high-five, or in the case of your Glenn Frey piece, a man-hug.
Pardon in advance my, what I am sure will be, rambling. I'm doing this more for the cathartic aspect than anything else. Feel free to paraphrase and publish what you'd like, or just read and hopefully enjoy by yourself without publishing. Like I said, this will be cathartic and I need that right now.
I do indie promotion for Top 40 and Hot AC and have been doing so since the mid-80's. I have never promoted an Eagles single, although I have worked several solo records by Glenn, Henley and Timothy.
I first met Glenn at a TJ Martell golf tourney in LA in 1992 around the time that MCA released his "Strange Weather" album. We hit it off immediately and I asked him if he'd consider coming to Chicago to play in the Martell golf event that I was chairing in conjunction with the old Hitmakers conventions. He said "I'll do almost anything if it involves golf, but I'll only fly to Chicago if you come to lunch with me and my wife Cindy." I said "Anytime" and he said, "Right now." We jumped in his minivan and went to Dr. Hogly Woglys BBQ, somewhere in the LA Valley. The three of us and their infant daughter, Taylor.
We became fast friends. Like super-fast. So fast that it was kind of a "why me?" moment in my life that I'll never forget.
I was honest with Glenn when I told him that I wasn't a huge Eagles fan. In what I would learn would be Glenn's great sense of humor, he replied, "Me either" and laughed that unforgettable laugh/cough of his. But I had seen (The) Eagles in concert twice and certainly respected them...and of course both times were on dates with babes that wanted to see the shows more than me. But what really hit me immediately was how fucking cool Glenn was. Here I am sitting in a dingy BBQ joint and this guy just wreaked of cool. Even driving a minivan. He defined cool.
Although I had Glenn's contact info I felt it would be more appropriate to ask Bruce Tennenbaum and Mark Gorlick at MCA to help facilitate Glenn's participation in the Chicago Martell event. I can still remember Tennenbaum..."Are you fickin' crazy? He's an Eagle. There's no way he's gonna fly to Chicago." I asked Bruce to at least make the effort. He called me back the next day and in disbelief said that Glenn was looking forward to being our celebrity host. And he did it two years in a row!
Timing was everything, as far as my luck was concerned. Glenn was touring in support of the "Strange Weather" album and I took advantage of our friendship and visited radio almost everywhere the tour played...and of course had PD's ecstatic about meeting Glenn and getting a picture with him. Often he'd say, "I'm gonna make you look good tonight Cooper," and he'd dedicate my favorite song on the new album to "My buddy Cooper and his radio pals here tonight." The song was "River of Dreams." Never a hit. But a song I loved as my friendship with Glenn continued to grow and I learned what had inspired him to write it.
Glenn was in Chicago doing a corporate gig for GD Searle (big pharma company) on a polar-cold Saturday night in late '93 or early '94 when he told me, "Hell's freezing over on Monday." What? He said there would be a press conference and that the Eagles were getting back together. He told me it was going to be a drug and alcohol free tour in respect to Walsh and said, in his own inimitable way, "Cooper. I have no idea how long this tour will go or when and where it'll end. But whenever it does, I want to walk off the stage and see you standing in the wings with a bottle of 1976 Chateau Lafitte Rothschild in one hand a big fat doobie in the other." I complied.
"It's gonna be huge! Irving's got a 727 that seats 210-people that's being reconfigured to seat 51. And we're gonna have police escorts to and from every venue. If you think we've been having fun the last couple of years, wait 'til you fly on EAGLE ONE." The first time I did, I was blown away! Wide-eyed and amazed at the precision of the police motorcade, motorcycles blocking entrances to the interstate and then passing our van, sirens wailing, leapfrogging with each other to get to an entrance ramp a few miles up and block it for us. And when we got to the airport, Glenn turned to me and said, "Cooper. Watch what we do when we pull up to the jet." The line of vans made three complete circles around the big 727 before pulling up under the tail where we boarded the plane. I asked Glenn why they did that, and his response..."Because we can." Typical cool!
I couldn't be at the last show of Hell Freezes Over, but on the next to last show in Little Rock I did when Glenn had asked me to do. It blew his mind! "You didn't," he said with the biggest smile you can imagine. He then asked Cindy to make sure there were wineglasses in their compartment the next night for their flight back to LA. Whether or not he ever fired up that joint on the plane, I may never know. But I do know that he loved that bottle of wine.
I have dozens of stories about how cool Glenn was. Dozens! But as Andrew Kastner wrote to you yesterday, Glenn's generosity was unequaled by anyone that I've known. It went far beyond gifts, expensive wine and dinners, always footing the tab for golf, etc. Not even watching him give every single employee in a big Emeril-owned restaurant in New Orleans a fifty and wishing them a merry Christmas surprised me. Every worker from the servers to the dishwashers to the valet parker...and we didn't even drive to the restaurant! That was Glenn. He was charitable beyond his generosity. He asked me several times over the years which charity meant a lot to me at given points in time and he'd make a donation, in my honor, to that charity...as long as it benefitted kids. He was a mensch!
Glenn loved to visit Chicago and when he was here, Gibson's, a well-known, see-and-be-seen, celebrity hangout was where you could find him along with his sidekicks I'd affectionately refer to Tom & Jerry (Nixon & Vaccarino). He loved their steaks. During Eagles tours he would intentionally base the band in Chicago for up to a week at a time and they'd fly out to shows in the Midwest, usually about an hour's flight away. I'd rarely dine at Gibson's unless Glenn was in town. Dining there without him will be strange, to say the least.
Up until just the past year and a half or so, Glenn rarely texted me. He had on old flip-phone and I guess it was cumbersome. But when he finally caught up with technology, it was always great to hear from him. He'd end each text session with me with "Pax, Elvis" (sometimes even "Elvoid").
When my mom passed away in August '14, Elvis texted me, "Heard about your mom. Lost mine last Sept 9. It's a tough one. On tour but will get to Chicago in the next week or two so we can grab dinner and toast to the fine ladies that brought us into this world. Pax, Elvis" A week later he texted me to pick a restaurant for dinner..."Just the two of us. Maybe not Gibson's. Too loud. Somewhere we can talk. Elvoid."
As always, Glenn controlled the conversation and had me laughing. When the conversation shifted to my mom's passing, I realized that while Glenn had come to Chicago to help comfort me, he was also trying to comfort himself, since the one-year anniversary of his mom's passing was just a few weeks away. I saw a side of Glenn that I had never seen. Vulnerability. It was telling. My rock star friend and I alternated attention drawing laughs, but also needed to have our napkins replaced so we could wipe our tears away. He gave me great advice on how to help me help my dad deal with losing his wife. It was truly the most precious couple of hours I had ever spent with him. And he still wreaked of cool all the while.
I sent Glenn an "inside joke" via text about an unnamed rocker back in early October. His reply was typical Elvis.."Goofball in any medium. Definitely a red state guy." I replied with the pre-pubescent "LOL" and told him I'd be in NY in November to see Hamilton and asked if he and Cindy wanted to join for the play or an early dinner. His reply cut right through me. He said he'd been in LA for two months and that he was "very sick" and described his illness. He said it was not life threatening, but demanded, "Tell no one" and even said "I repeat, tell no one." I texted him on his birthday a month later and never heard back. I knew it was more serious than he had thought.
I know how many millions of lives Glenn touched through his music. But he touched mine in a way that only a certain kind of man could. While we would only see each other occasionally, our genuine friendship never waned. My life has been enriched because my friendship with Glenn Frey. And not because he was so fucking cool. Because he was truly a great man.
Rick Cooper
_____________________________________
Dear Bob,
Thanks for providing such a heartfelt forum for both Bowie and Glen. Folks of our times see our heros and inspirations passing and, through the memories of our generation, reflect on the beauty and wonder of those times.
It was a smaller world back then. It seemed like eventually everybody met everybody at gigs and nights in the canyons and we would recognize the spark and share the joy in each other's art and success.
I sound like the old fart I am but, as all the old farts say, ya had to be there!
Thanks for the memories, Bob.
Charles Haid
_____________________________________
Bowie's death was hard, but Glenn's was personal.
I have a quick story about how much the Eagles and Glenn Frey impacted my life at a critical moment.
In late April and May of 2012, I was finishing up my time at Berklee in Boston. I had a great, great band with a killer vocalist who decided, a week before graduation (aka to most 21 year olds the time when "real life" begins, whatever that means), that she was going to leave the band. I was devastated, lost. I had a plan, and then with a few words, the rug under my feet was gone. My world was turned upside down, and it was the Eagles who made things right again.
Each year Berklee gives various musicians and music industry people honorary doctorates for outstanding contributions to music. The year that I graduated, the Eagles were amongst the honorees. I always liked the Eagles, but it wasn't until I was chosen (somehow, out of over 250 eligible guitarists, I snuck into that lineup of five killer slingers and me) to be in the student band to play several Eagles songs in an arena for my peers, family, and the Eagles themselves that I became a devout follower.
I was forced to focus on these Eagles songs for close to two weeks straight with rehearsals every night spanning from four to eight hours. And if it weren't for Glenn and the gang, I promise you I would have lost my head. I'd have been drowning in my own sorrows, but I didn't have the time to do that because I had to do these songs justice. The songs of Glenn (and Don and Joe and the rest) saved my life. Or at the very least, gave me something to focus my energy into.
So, thank you, Glenn, for making one 21 year old girl's toughest times (at that point) a lot better. I will miss you, but your music lives on forever.
Thank you, Bob, for the great tribute to Glenn. And for telling it like it is.
Best,
Amy Mantis
_____________________________________
You talk about the age of the artist and how that's evaporated. I grew up listening to the Eagles and they kept me sane at during an insane time. I was an instant fan of Glenn Frey for some reason he was our spokesman. Just as we used to say a class act. His death was like a look into mortality. I feel as sense of loss that I have not felt. He will live forever in our memories and in the music. Thank you Glenn Frey and thank you to the Eagles.
Sincerely
Allen Miller
_____________________________________
In the venue management game we don't have to go to/sit through every show. With the Eagles I always did. Man they were sooooo damn good. The songs, the harmonies, the perfect sound and the audiences always loved them!. We last hosted them March 2/4/6 here in Sydney fully expecting that they will be back at some point. Now we live with the knowledge that they won't, not like that anyway.
Hope you are in good health and doing what you love.
Cheers from down here,
Don Elford
_____________________________________
Hey Bob, it's great to see all the comments and history that is Glenn Frey.
I'll never forget at the Melbourne 2003/4 show (that was filmed for the DVD) he said: "this song is about my credit card and my wife, it's called Take It To The Limit"
Always loved his humor, his songwriting, (even though i only became a fan from Hell Freezes Over)
I teach my students Take It Easy when they all reach the open chord changes fast enough level.
Glad I saw them when I did.
Best,
Neville Kaye
_____________________________________
As a younger twenty-six year old, this tribute moved me. The historical picture behind the Eagles and Glenn Frey was not something I was aware of. We "millenials" are rightly accused of misunderstanding - or just not knowing - history.
I never saw the Eagles, but was lucky enough to see Glenn Frey in 2008 somewhere in central Minnesota during the summer. I had recently graduated high school and desperately wanted to hit the road, for lack of a better or less clichéd phrase. I was with some friends at a cabin. The parents there said we should come along to the show, so we did. Being 18 and full of youthful gusto, we snuck in some vodka in water bottles and enjoyed the hell out of the show. Glenn had to stop playing at one point, because of a massive thunderstorm that briefly passed through. After the rain, he and his band came out and started again with "Take it Easy". Soon after was "Hotel California" and some of the other major hits. But what stands out the most, was seeing the parents and other older folks there. They looked like my friends and I did when we would go away for weekends of music at Alpine Valley. I had not seen this before, and for the one of first times, was truly aware of the power of music.
It is clear to me now, that the Eagles and Glenn set a tone that has yet to be distorted.
Thanks for the great tribute.
David Reiersgord
_____________________________________
Hi Bob,
Thanks for your Glenn Frey post. When I heard the news on NPR driving home from work, I reached down and started playing the Desperado CD. That CD seemed to find it's way to my player often over the past many years. It's my favorite Eagles album, though my cell phone ring tone is Take it Easy. Love that song.
Could you forward Bernie Leadon's reply to your post?
Thanks
Doug Thompson
_____________________________________
I understand that I'm late to the party and you may be all Glenn Frey tributed out, but I'll still give my bit.
I, too, am an 80's kid, and it wasn't "cool" to still like the Eagles when I was in high school back in Ohio, but I did. I didn't care – I just loved listening and drumming along to it.
So, coincidentally, just last week before Glenn passed, when making another of what seemed to be an endless series of trips to the doctor and hospital for my son, I needed to cheer up. I wanted to just open the car window and sing and drum along to something good.
For some inexplicable reason, I decided to search for Glen Frey on Spotify and listened to the entire "Solo Collection." And I opened the all my windows and the sunroof, drummed the crap out of my steering wheel and sang my lungs out. And it *was* good.
Thanks, Glenn. RIP.
Greg Heibel
Menlo Park
_____________________________________
Dear Bob,
I miss Glenn Frey. Mind you, I've never met the man. But I miss him. Badly. Real grief. Real bewilderment about what to do next. I have always loved the Eagles, but I didn't realize the almost intangible depth their music has had in my life. I can't be alone.
I grew up in the standard 70's home. Shag carpet, divorced parents, no small amount of desperation about what tomorrow held. But when my sister and her boyfriend pulled into the driveway in his Grand Am with an 8-Track of "Take it Easy" blaring, everything was ok. In fact, it was better than ok. I just knew listening to all those songs that I didn't even understand yet that life was gonna be ok.
When life gets rough today, I go back to that place. Maybe it's arrested development, I don't know. But it wipes the slate clean for me - those songs. I used to sit on my sister's bed and stare at the album cover for One of These Nights – feathers and horns and wings and shit. I had no idea what that artwork meant – It was just cool. And when my sister put the record on and kicked me out of her room, I didn't care. I could still hear Glenn Frey singing "Lyin' Eyes" through the walls. Like some kind of beautiful, musical Prozac. The whole world was out there, and I was ready. Confident.
In 1995, I bought tickets to the Hell Freeze Over show in Little Rock. Somehow the ticket dispenser at the record store kicked out 5th row seats. Never happen today. Won the lottery. I took a girl with me on our first date. A full moon rolled over War Memorial Stadium. One of those rare moments that – even if given the opportunity to trade for any other moment - you wouldn't trade for anything. Perfect! We've been married now for 20 years. I feel like Glenn Frey was our best man.
We've lost dozens of cultural icons over the past several years. Always will. But this is different. This isn't just sad. This hurts. Thought you might understand. Thanks for your work.
Paul Leinhardt
_____________________________________
Thanks for the notes you made on Glenn and his passing. You struck a major chord with me about Glenn and I had to write back.
The Eagles were in the Cali arc of time from Sweetheart of the Rodeo to around Running with the Devil. Glenn Frey was there guiding the finest ship to sail these waters. It's easy to forget the war of escalating guitar sounds that was playing out in the top 100 in the 70s. They went from Take It Easy to Hotel California in just a few years. That transition in style was instinctual for this band and never felt contrived. They could make me cry in my beer one moment and the next tune, jump to my feet to bang my head and pump my fist. That said, I always wished they would get back to the Cali country roots in a new record, but now my hope is Buck Owens has other plans for Glenn.
Of the many talents that one needs to be a legend in music, Glenn was probably not the worlds best at any of them. He just possessed a wider range and combination of the many talents needed to succeed in the music industry and continued learning new skills later in life. A Man of many talents. I think his longest lived songwriting will be the early Eagles material so long as country musicians continue to want to ply their trade. In many ways, modern country owes more to the Eagles than even Buck or George or Hank. That had to be written. I hope the thought someday embarrasses a bigwig in Nashville, but these days, money covers up shame.
The sad thought I had when I got the news is there will not be another Tequila Sunrise. The hangover from the 70s has long faded.
David Fink
_____________________________________
I went hiking today and found myself on top a ridge looking out over a valley and mountain range, played Lyin Eyes over and over and over and thought Glenn would have liked that setting and maybe a great location for cover shoot. In a way I wish they was more public about his condition over the last 6 months so he could have seen just how huge of a presence he had and how loved he was.
John Rotella
_____________________________________
Springsteen put up a free Chicago concert this week to make up for his NYC show being snowed out.
His version of Take It Easy acoustic with the crowd singing along will make you cry:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6sC66RNK68
Joe in PDR
_____________________________________
One of my favorites is Glenn's answer to a question in a 60 Minutes episode in 2007 about "why were the Eagles so successful?"
http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/the-enduring-popularity-of-the-eagles/
To quote Irving from History of the Eagles…it's all about "song power"
Brad Moist
_____________________________________
A profound tribute to Glenn Frey ... reads like an Eagles tune.
Nancy Kauffman
_____________________________________
Lyin' Eyes is my favorite Glenn Frey song. Since he died I have been watching the live performance from the 70s on my iPad all the time.
Today I was driving and switched stations and as it came through the speakers I began sobbing. So much is lost, so much time has passed. It was damp and grey like the northeast and I recalled my college depression. All these years later and I'm still back there. I managed to make it through to tonight, but for me January 18, 2016 was the day the music died.
Wendy Morris
_____________________________________
I hope that Glenn is looking down and smiling. So many heartfelt things have been shared now that he is gone. I hope he felt all the love while he was here - the impact he had on people not just as an Eagle but as a person.
It reminds me how important it is to share love and respect while the people I care about are still here to hear it.
Thanks for all the great music Glenn.
Kim Garner
_____________________________________
Mr. Lefsetz,
Your Glenn Frey blog was spot on perfect. Well said, well done. I agreed and cried with every word. Every single word. Sometimes the clear truth does indeed bring me to tears.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Mary Lou Peterson
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I was so very fortunate to be a friend of Glenn Frey's back in the Aspen days.
He was a man of passion, fierce determination, HUMOR and the ability to communicate in a most authentic way.
We shared time skiing, "playing" golf, and sharing our musical passion that still inspire me to this day.
I was at Glenn's home the evening that he first had his wonderful wife Cindy over for a dinner. He asked me to come out to the house to hang with him and meet Cindy as he was so very nervous to meet her. Cindy may not even know this but, this is also a view into the Glenn's incredible humility. He was so excited that this new beautiful energy had come into his life and did NOT want any form of celebrity to diminish the potential to present himself as "just a real guy that happens to do what I do." Not an ounce of ego in sight, just truth.
I was also present the night that "Hell Froze Over" in a small club in Aspen. As he introduced the "mystery band members" late in the evening, you could hear the incredible pride and passion in his voice to be with his Brothers again. As Mr Henley walked out on that tiny stage and took his seat behind the drums, the place came apart. As the first few notes of Desperado took form, everyone could feel the magnitude and importance of what was taking place. Hope reborn. Passion in flight once again. Come on man!! THAT was what it was all about to Glenn. The absolute synergy between everyone on that stage AND in the crowd. He was the enzyme that created the action potential all around him. That IS what the great ones do.
He had such great pride in his family, friends and his music that it was infectious to be with him and feel that wave form radiate from him and only hope that some of it would carry through in our own lives
Thank you Glenn for sharing your time and truth with me and the rest of this planet! I also thank Cindy for showing Glenn that LOVE IS REAL!!
With Humility and GREAT Respect,
Dr Michael Bathke
_____________________________________
Hi Bob,
It's my first time writing you, although I read and absorb all of your work. Thank you for being so thought provoking. There are times I want to jump on a plane and fly out to LA and kick your ass and other times when I want to give you a high-five, or in the case of your Glenn Frey piece, a man-hug.
Pardon in advance my, what I am sure will be, rambling. I'm doing this more for the cathartic aspect than anything else. Feel free to paraphrase and publish what you'd like, or just read and hopefully enjoy by yourself without publishing. Like I said, this will be cathartic and I need that right now.
I do indie promotion for Top 40 and Hot AC and have been doing so since the mid-80's. I have never promoted an Eagles single, although I have worked several solo records by Glenn, Henley and Timothy.
I first met Glenn at a TJ Martell golf tourney in LA in 1992 around the time that MCA released his "Strange Weather" album. We hit it off immediately and I asked him if he'd consider coming to Chicago to play in the Martell golf event that I was chairing in conjunction with the old Hitmakers conventions. He said "I'll do almost anything if it involves golf, but I'll only fly to Chicago if you come to lunch with me and my wife Cindy." I said "Anytime" and he said, "Right now." We jumped in his minivan and went to Dr. Hogly Woglys BBQ, somewhere in the LA Valley. The three of us and their infant daughter, Taylor.
We became fast friends. Like super-fast. So fast that it was kind of a "why me?" moment in my life that I'll never forget.
I was honest with Glenn when I told him that I wasn't a huge Eagles fan. In what I would learn would be Glenn's great sense of humor, he replied, "Me either" and laughed that unforgettable laugh/cough of his. But I had seen (The) Eagles in concert twice and certainly respected them...and of course both times were on dates with babes that wanted to see the shows more than me. But what really hit me immediately was how fucking cool Glenn was. Here I am sitting in a dingy BBQ joint and this guy just wreaked of cool. Even driving a minivan. He defined cool.
Although I had Glenn's contact info I felt it would be more appropriate to ask Bruce Tennenbaum and Mark Gorlick at MCA to help facilitate Glenn's participation in the Chicago Martell event. I can still remember Tennenbaum..."Are you fickin' crazy? He's an Eagle. There's no way he's gonna fly to Chicago." I asked Bruce to at least make the effort. He called me back the next day and in disbelief said that Glenn was looking forward to being our celebrity host. And he did it two years in a row!
Timing was everything, as far as my luck was concerned. Glenn was touring in support of the "Strange Weather" album and I took advantage of our friendship and visited radio almost everywhere the tour played...and of course had PD's ecstatic about meeting Glenn and getting a picture with him. Often he'd say, "I'm gonna make you look good tonight Cooper," and he'd dedicate my favorite song on the new album to "My buddy Cooper and his radio pals here tonight." The song was "River of Dreams." Never a hit. But a song I loved as my friendship with Glenn continued to grow and I learned what had inspired him to write it.
Glenn was in Chicago doing a corporate gig for GD Searle (big pharma company) on a polar-cold Saturday night in late '93 or early '94 when he told me, "Hell's freezing over on Monday." What? He said there would be a press conference and that the Eagles were getting back together. He told me it was going to be a drug and alcohol free tour in respect to Walsh and said, in his own inimitable way, "Cooper. I have no idea how long this tour will go or when and where it'll end. But whenever it does, I want to walk off the stage and see you standing in the wings with a bottle of 1976 Chateau Lafitte Rothschild in one hand a big fat doobie in the other." I complied.
"It's gonna be huge! Irving's got a 727 that seats 210-people that's being reconfigured to seat 51. And we're gonna have police escorts to and from every venue. If you think we've been having fun the last couple of years, wait 'til you fly on EAGLE ONE." The first time I did, I was blown away! Wide-eyed and amazed at the precision of the police motorcade, motorcycles blocking entrances to the interstate and then passing our van, sirens wailing, leapfrogging with each other to get to an entrance ramp a few miles up and block it for us. And when we got to the airport, Glenn turned to me and said, "Cooper. Watch what we do when we pull up to the jet." The line of vans made three complete circles around the big 727 before pulling up under the tail where we boarded the plane. I asked Glenn why they did that, and his response..."Because we can." Typical cool!
I couldn't be at the last show of Hell Freezes Over, but on the next to last show in Little Rock I did when Glenn had asked me to do. It blew his mind! "You didn't," he said with the biggest smile you can imagine. He then asked Cindy to make sure there were wineglasses in their compartment the next night for their flight back to LA. Whether or not he ever fired up that joint on the plane, I may never know. But I do know that he loved that bottle of wine.
I have dozens of stories about how cool Glenn was. Dozens! But as Andrew Kastner wrote to you yesterday, Glenn's generosity was unequaled by anyone that I've known. It went far beyond gifts, expensive wine and dinners, always footing the tab for golf, etc. Not even watching him give every single employee in a big Emeril-owned restaurant in New Orleans a fifty and wishing them a merry Christmas surprised me. Every worker from the servers to the dishwashers to the valet parker...and we didn't even drive to the restaurant! That was Glenn. He was charitable beyond his generosity. He asked me several times over the years which charity meant a lot to me at given points in time and he'd make a donation, in my honor, to that charity...as long as it benefitted kids. He was a mensch!
Glenn loved to visit Chicago and when he was here, Gibson's, a well-known, see-and-be-seen, celebrity hangout was where you could find him along with his sidekicks I'd affectionately refer to Tom & Jerry (Nixon & Vaccarino). He loved their steaks. During Eagles tours he would intentionally base the band in Chicago for up to a week at a time and they'd fly out to shows in the Midwest, usually about an hour's flight away. I'd rarely dine at Gibson's unless Glenn was in town. Dining there without him will be strange, to say the least.
Up until just the past year and a half or so, Glenn rarely texted me. He had on old flip-phone and I guess it was cumbersome. But when he finally caught up with technology, it was always great to hear from him. He'd end each text session with me with "Pax, Elvis" (sometimes even "Elvoid").
When my mom passed away in August '14, Elvis texted me, "Heard about your mom. Lost mine last Sept 9. It's a tough one. On tour but will get to Chicago in the next week or two so we can grab dinner and toast to the fine ladies that brought us into this world. Pax, Elvis" A week later he texted me to pick a restaurant for dinner..."Just the two of us. Maybe not Gibson's. Too loud. Somewhere we can talk. Elvoid."
As always, Glenn controlled the conversation and had me laughing. When the conversation shifted to my mom's passing, I realized that while Glenn had come to Chicago to help comfort me, he was also trying to comfort himself, since the one-year anniversary of his mom's passing was just a few weeks away. I saw a side of Glenn that I had never seen. Vulnerability. It was telling. My rock star friend and I alternated attention drawing laughs, but also needed to have our napkins replaced so we could wipe our tears away. He gave me great advice on how to help me help my dad deal with losing his wife. It was truly the most precious couple of hours I had ever spent with him. And he still wreaked of cool all the while.
I sent Glenn an "inside joke" via text about an unnamed rocker back in early October. His reply was typical Elvis.."Goofball in any medium. Definitely a red state guy." I replied with the pre-pubescent "LOL" and told him I'd be in NY in November to see Hamilton and asked if he and Cindy wanted to join for the play or an early dinner. His reply cut right through me. He said he'd been in LA for two months and that he was "very sick" and described his illness. He said it was not life threatening, but demanded, "Tell no one" and even said "I repeat, tell no one." I texted him on his birthday a month later and never heard back. I knew it was more serious than he had thought.
I know how many millions of lives Glenn touched through his music. But he touched mine in a way that only a certain kind of man could. While we would only see each other occasionally, our genuine friendship never waned. My life has been enriched because my friendship with Glenn Frey. And not because he was so fucking cool. Because he was truly a great man.
Rick Cooper
_____________________________________
Dear Bob,
Thanks for providing such a heartfelt forum for both Bowie and Glen. Folks of our times see our heros and inspirations passing and, through the memories of our generation, reflect on the beauty and wonder of those times.
It was a smaller world back then. It seemed like eventually everybody met everybody at gigs and nights in the canyons and we would recognize the spark and share the joy in each other's art and success.
I sound like the old fart I am but, as all the old farts say, ya had to be there!
Thanks for the memories, Bob.
Charles Haid
_____________________________________
Bowie's death was hard, but Glenn's was personal.
I have a quick story about how much the Eagles and Glenn Frey impacted my life at a critical moment.
In late April and May of 2012, I was finishing up my time at Berklee in Boston. I had a great, great band with a killer vocalist who decided, a week before graduation (aka to most 21 year olds the time when "real life" begins, whatever that means), that she was going to leave the band. I was devastated, lost. I had a plan, and then with a few words, the rug under my feet was gone. My world was turned upside down, and it was the Eagles who made things right again.
Each year Berklee gives various musicians and music industry people honorary doctorates for outstanding contributions to music. The year that I graduated, the Eagles were amongst the honorees. I always liked the Eagles, but it wasn't until I was chosen (somehow, out of over 250 eligible guitarists, I snuck into that lineup of five killer slingers and me) to be in the student band to play several Eagles songs in an arena for my peers, family, and the Eagles themselves that I became a devout follower.
I was forced to focus on these Eagles songs for close to two weeks straight with rehearsals every night spanning from four to eight hours. And if it weren't for Glenn and the gang, I promise you I would have lost my head. I'd have been drowning in my own sorrows, but I didn't have the time to do that because I had to do these songs justice. The songs of Glenn (and Don and Joe and the rest) saved my life. Or at the very least, gave me something to focus my energy into.
So, thank you, Glenn, for making one 21 year old girl's toughest times (at that point) a lot better. I will miss you, but your music lives on forever.
Thank you, Bob, for the great tribute to Glenn. And for telling it like it is.
Best,
Amy Mantis
_____________________________________
You talk about the age of the artist and how that's evaporated. I grew up listening to the Eagles and they kept me sane at during an insane time. I was an instant fan of Glenn Frey for some reason he was our spokesman. Just as we used to say a class act. His death was like a look into mortality. I feel as sense of loss that I have not felt. He will live forever in our memories and in the music. Thank you Glenn Frey and thank you to the Eagles.
Sincerely
Allen Miller
_____________________________________
In the venue management game we don't have to go to/sit through every show. With the Eagles I always did. Man they were sooooo damn good. The songs, the harmonies, the perfect sound and the audiences always loved them!. We last hosted them March 2/4/6 here in Sydney fully expecting that they will be back at some point. Now we live with the knowledge that they won't, not like that anyway.
Hope you are in good health and doing what you love.
Cheers from down here,
Don Elford
_____________________________________
Hey Bob, it's great to see all the comments and history that is Glenn Frey.
I'll never forget at the Melbourne 2003/4 show (that was filmed for the DVD) he said: "this song is about my credit card and my wife, it's called Take It To The Limit"
Always loved his humor, his songwriting, (even though i only became a fan from Hell Freezes Over)
I teach my students Take It Easy when they all reach the open chord changes fast enough level.
Glad I saw them when I did.
Best,
Neville Kaye
_____________________________________
As a younger twenty-six year old, this tribute moved me. The historical picture behind the Eagles and Glenn Frey was not something I was aware of. We "millenials" are rightly accused of misunderstanding - or just not knowing - history.
I never saw the Eagles, but was lucky enough to see Glenn Frey in 2008 somewhere in central Minnesota during the summer. I had recently graduated high school and desperately wanted to hit the road, for lack of a better or less clichéd phrase. I was with some friends at a cabin. The parents there said we should come along to the show, so we did. Being 18 and full of youthful gusto, we snuck in some vodka in water bottles and enjoyed the hell out of the show. Glenn had to stop playing at one point, because of a massive thunderstorm that briefly passed through. After the rain, he and his band came out and started again with "Take it Easy". Soon after was "Hotel California" and some of the other major hits. But what stands out the most, was seeing the parents and other older folks there. They looked like my friends and I did when we would go away for weekends of music at Alpine Valley. I had not seen this before, and for the one of first times, was truly aware of the power of music.
It is clear to me now, that the Eagles and Glenn set a tone that has yet to be distorted.
Thanks for the great tribute.
David Reiersgord
_____________________________________
Hi Bob,
Thanks for your Glenn Frey post. When I heard the news on NPR driving home from work, I reached down and started playing the Desperado CD. That CD seemed to find it's way to my player often over the past many years. It's my favorite Eagles album, though my cell phone ring tone is Take it Easy. Love that song.
Could you forward Bernie Leadon's reply to your post?
Thanks
Doug Thompson
_____________________________________
I understand that I'm late to the party and you may be all Glenn Frey tributed out, but I'll still give my bit.
I, too, am an 80's kid, and it wasn't "cool" to still like the Eagles when I was in high school back in Ohio, but I did. I didn't care – I just loved listening and drumming along to it.
So, coincidentally, just last week before Glenn passed, when making another of what seemed to be an endless series of trips to the doctor and hospital for my son, I needed to cheer up. I wanted to just open the car window and sing and drum along to something good.
For some inexplicable reason, I decided to search for Glen Frey on Spotify and listened to the entire "Solo Collection." And I opened the all my windows and the sunroof, drummed the crap out of my steering wheel and sang my lungs out. And it *was* good.
Thanks, Glenn. RIP.
Greg Heibel
Menlo Park
_____________________________________
Dear Bob,
I miss Glenn Frey. Mind you, I've never met the man. But I miss him. Badly. Real grief. Real bewilderment about what to do next. I have always loved the Eagles, but I didn't realize the almost intangible depth their music has had in my life. I can't be alone.
I grew up in the standard 70's home. Shag carpet, divorced parents, no small amount of desperation about what tomorrow held. But when my sister and her boyfriend pulled into the driveway in his Grand Am with an 8-Track of "Take it Easy" blaring, everything was ok. In fact, it was better than ok. I just knew listening to all those songs that I didn't even understand yet that life was gonna be ok.
When life gets rough today, I go back to that place. Maybe it's arrested development, I don't know. But it wipes the slate clean for me - those songs. I used to sit on my sister's bed and stare at the album cover for One of These Nights – feathers and horns and wings and shit. I had no idea what that artwork meant – It was just cool. And when my sister put the record on and kicked me out of her room, I didn't care. I could still hear Glenn Frey singing "Lyin' Eyes" through the walls. Like some kind of beautiful, musical Prozac. The whole world was out there, and I was ready. Confident.
In 1995, I bought tickets to the Hell Freeze Over show in Little Rock. Somehow the ticket dispenser at the record store kicked out 5th row seats. Never happen today. Won the lottery. I took a girl with me on our first date. A full moon rolled over War Memorial Stadium. One of those rare moments that – even if given the opportunity to trade for any other moment - you wouldn't trade for anything. Perfect! We've been married now for 20 years. I feel like Glenn Frey was our best man.
We've lost dozens of cultural icons over the past several years. Always will. But this is different. This isn't just sad. This hurts. Thought you might understand. Thanks for your work.
Paul Leinhardt
_____________________________________
Thanks for the notes you made on Glenn and his passing. You struck a major chord with me about Glenn and I had to write back.
The Eagles were in the Cali arc of time from Sweetheart of the Rodeo to around Running with the Devil. Glenn Frey was there guiding the finest ship to sail these waters. It's easy to forget the war of escalating guitar sounds that was playing out in the top 100 in the 70s. They went from Take It Easy to Hotel California in just a few years. That transition in style was instinctual for this band and never felt contrived. They could make me cry in my beer one moment and the next tune, jump to my feet to bang my head and pump my fist. That said, I always wished they would get back to the Cali country roots in a new record, but now my hope is Buck Owens has other plans for Glenn.
Of the many talents that one needs to be a legend in music, Glenn was probably not the worlds best at any of them. He just possessed a wider range and combination of the many talents needed to succeed in the music industry and continued learning new skills later in life. A Man of many talents. I think his longest lived songwriting will be the early Eagles material so long as country musicians continue to want to ply their trade. In many ways, modern country owes more to the Eagles than even Buck or George or Hank. That had to be written. I hope the thought someday embarrasses a bigwig in Nashville, but these days, money covers up shame.
The sad thought I had when I got the news is there will not be another Tequila Sunrise. The hangover from the 70s has long faded.
David Fink
_____________________________________
I went hiking today and found myself on top a ridge looking out over a valley and mountain range, played Lyin Eyes over and over and over and thought Glenn would have liked that setting and maybe a great location for cover shoot. In a way I wish they was more public about his condition over the last 6 months so he could have seen just how huge of a presence he had and how loved he was.
John Rotella
_____________________________________
Springsteen put up a free Chicago concert this week to make up for his NYC show being snowed out.
His version of Take It Easy acoustic with the crowd singing along will make you cry:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6sC66RNK68
Joe in PDR
_____________________________________
One of my favorites is Glenn's answer to a question in a 60 Minutes episode in 2007 about "why were the Eagles so successful?"
http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/the-enduring-popularity-of-the-eagles/
To quote Irving from History of the Eagles…it's all about "song power"
Brad Moist
_____________________________________
A profound tribute to Glenn Frey ... reads like an Eagles tune.
Nancy Kauffman
_____________________________________
Lyin' Eyes is my favorite Glenn Frey song. Since he died I have been watching the live performance from the 70s on my iPad all the time.
Today I was driving and switched stations and as it came through the speakers I began sobbing. So much is lost, so much time has passed. It was damp and grey like the northeast and I recalled my college depression. All these years later and I'm still back there. I managed to make it through to tonight, but for me January 18, 2016 was the day the music died.
Wendy Morris
_____________________________________
I hope that Glenn is looking down and smiling. So many heartfelt things have been shared now that he is gone. I hope he felt all the love while he was here - the impact he had on people not just as an Eagle but as a person.
It reminds me how important it is to share love and respect while the people I care about are still here to hear it.
Thanks for all the great music Glenn.
Kim Garner
_____________________________________
Mr. Lefsetz,
Your Glenn Frey blog was spot on perfect. Well said, well done. I agreed and cried with every word. Every single word. Sometimes the clear truth does indeed bring me to tears.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Mary Lou Peterson
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Monday, 25 January 2016
The Kardashian Paradigm
Kim Kardashian is the biggest star of the twenty first century.
Because she told us so. Because she and her family realized the way you win today is by being the story, day after day, month after month, year after year.
The hip-hoppers know this, it's why Drake releases a steady stream of product. He's satiating his customers. He's the biggest star in their universe.
And Taylor Swift won not because she's that damn good, certainly not since she went pop, but because she owned the news cycle, inviting reporters to her house, baking cookies for fans, the music was an afterthought, the campaign was king.
Kind of like Donald Trump. The reason he's winning in the polls is because he's dominated the news cycle, it's all Trump, all the time. And like the Kardashians, the Donald knows that controversy sells, and that the audience knows you're playing a game and gives you a break. Nobody thinks Kim Kardashian has any talent and few believe that Trump is really gonna build a wall and do the rest of the outrageous things he says. He's just vying for attention.
And it works.
You might be living in the last decade, wherein quality could go viral. But now you're the sucker. The audience has been buried in a tsunami of hype, of forwarded articles, there's so much information that they ignore most of it, no matter how good the underlying content might be, they just gravitate to what's been anointed by the media.
But the tail might still wag the dog.
That's the story of the year, how Bernie Sanders got no love from the media but was revealed to own the youth vote and be a significant challenger to Hillary despite being labeled an irrelevant socialist. As for that moniker, does it mean anything anyway, since the Republicans have labeled Obama a socialist his entire term?
And then we have the surprise victory of Chris Stapleton at the CMAs. Turns out the voters were sick and tired of the formula, no calorie snacks known as today's country music. They reacted.
So when there's a vote...
Don't trust the polls. People just say they like who's being promoted, they figure no one else counts. Not that many people love Trump. But they do hate the establishment.
Do they hate the music too?
Maybe.
The self-promoting made by committee Top Forty stuff gets love from those still addicted to the old formula, the radio game. But is that really where America's heart is today?
So there you have it. If you don't control the discussion, if you're not a media maven, you're irrelevant. You're playing the old game, releasing an album every other year not knowing it's over in a weekend and people are wondering what you've done for them lately. You can't bubble up from the bottom. And the other radio formats are nearly irrelevant, because except for the diehards, everybody's abandoned them, there's no there there. Come on, if you haven't been amazed who's number one at Active Rock or some other meaningless format you're making your living chasing the meager returns in those genres from the brain dead people who believe that music still counts.
In the twenty first century you've got to tell a story every damn day. And if you're sitting there saying you're an artist and you want to do it like they did in the seventies...chances are you weren't alive back then, when people of your ilk could not even get a record deal.
So start by creating and talking and pushing the envelope constantly. The press may not have cared, but Bernie was out stumping incessantly.
And Bernie's the anti-Kim. She's style, he's substance. She's plastic surgery, he's Geritol. And it turns out in this topsy-turvy world we live in we're looking for authenticity. That's why Trump succeeds, he says what no one else will but we all know as the truth. We're hungry for the truth.
Hillary's a great politician, but she's so busy polling she's got no idea what the truth is anymore. Truth is intrinsic, you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows. You just combine your education with what comes across the plate and make a judgment.
I'm excited about the future. Turns out the American public has no time for b.s. And those who thought they were in control are not. You could wipe D.C. off the map and most people wouldn't care. The elected officials are sold out whores who will do whatever it takes to keep their jobs. Meanwhile, those they supposedly represent can't get a job, certainly not one that pays the bills.
And we're so long in the tooth with meaningless music made by the usual suspects that a revolution is gonna come and wipe it all out. Don't doubt me, just ask all the acts that disappeared from the chart after the Beatles came out.
But there will be very few winners. That's what tech teaches us, we gravitate to the best, to where everybody else is. And we don't need no me-too. Come on, is there a reason for Bing to exist? So there will be very few successful artists. And I say hallelujah, I'm sick of the cluttering of the airwaves and inboxes by the marginally talented who can play because the new tools have democratized creation.
But those few who win won't sit on the mountaintop with their arms crossed. No, they'll be part of the discussion, we'll hear about them every damn day. Just like it was Adele all day long from mid-November until New Year's.
But what has she done for us lately? Does anybody know anything but "Hello"? The soccer moms drove her album up the charts but she's not even on streaming services. She's thinking she won, but she's losing. She should be on TV constantly. She should be doing covers on YouTube. She should get down in the pit and be one of us. Putting out an album we all buy and promptly forget? That's so old school as to be laughable.
But the media propped the story up.
The media is where we now live. We don't want the words of the unanointed, we want to know you're somebody, with a track record, with veritas.
Trump won the media war.
Will he win the election? Even the nomination?
Only the people will tell you.
But one thing's for sure, those who thought they were in control, who were telling us they knew, who were pulling the strings...
Are not.
We want story.
We want truth.
And we want to know that everybody else is paying attention and you're important.
That's how you win today.
And those who will win tomorrow won't play the old game, and they'll be a whole hell of a lot more trustworthy than the bozos we've been paying attention to for years.
That's right, Kim Kardashian opened the floodgates.
But she's gonna be washed away.
But who replaces her?
That's gonna be fascinating.
--
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Because she told us so. Because she and her family realized the way you win today is by being the story, day after day, month after month, year after year.
The hip-hoppers know this, it's why Drake releases a steady stream of product. He's satiating his customers. He's the biggest star in their universe.
And Taylor Swift won not because she's that damn good, certainly not since she went pop, but because she owned the news cycle, inviting reporters to her house, baking cookies for fans, the music was an afterthought, the campaign was king.
Kind of like Donald Trump. The reason he's winning in the polls is because he's dominated the news cycle, it's all Trump, all the time. And like the Kardashians, the Donald knows that controversy sells, and that the audience knows you're playing a game and gives you a break. Nobody thinks Kim Kardashian has any talent and few believe that Trump is really gonna build a wall and do the rest of the outrageous things he says. He's just vying for attention.
And it works.
You might be living in the last decade, wherein quality could go viral. But now you're the sucker. The audience has been buried in a tsunami of hype, of forwarded articles, there's so much information that they ignore most of it, no matter how good the underlying content might be, they just gravitate to what's been anointed by the media.
But the tail might still wag the dog.
That's the story of the year, how Bernie Sanders got no love from the media but was revealed to own the youth vote and be a significant challenger to Hillary despite being labeled an irrelevant socialist. As for that moniker, does it mean anything anyway, since the Republicans have labeled Obama a socialist his entire term?
And then we have the surprise victory of Chris Stapleton at the CMAs. Turns out the voters were sick and tired of the formula, no calorie snacks known as today's country music. They reacted.
So when there's a vote...
Don't trust the polls. People just say they like who's being promoted, they figure no one else counts. Not that many people love Trump. But they do hate the establishment.
Do they hate the music too?
Maybe.
The self-promoting made by committee Top Forty stuff gets love from those still addicted to the old formula, the radio game. But is that really where America's heart is today?
So there you have it. If you don't control the discussion, if you're not a media maven, you're irrelevant. You're playing the old game, releasing an album every other year not knowing it's over in a weekend and people are wondering what you've done for them lately. You can't bubble up from the bottom. And the other radio formats are nearly irrelevant, because except for the diehards, everybody's abandoned them, there's no there there. Come on, if you haven't been amazed who's number one at Active Rock or some other meaningless format you're making your living chasing the meager returns in those genres from the brain dead people who believe that music still counts.
In the twenty first century you've got to tell a story every damn day. And if you're sitting there saying you're an artist and you want to do it like they did in the seventies...chances are you weren't alive back then, when people of your ilk could not even get a record deal.
So start by creating and talking and pushing the envelope constantly. The press may not have cared, but Bernie was out stumping incessantly.
And Bernie's the anti-Kim. She's style, he's substance. She's plastic surgery, he's Geritol. And it turns out in this topsy-turvy world we live in we're looking for authenticity. That's why Trump succeeds, he says what no one else will but we all know as the truth. We're hungry for the truth.
Hillary's a great politician, but she's so busy polling she's got no idea what the truth is anymore. Truth is intrinsic, you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows. You just combine your education with what comes across the plate and make a judgment.
I'm excited about the future. Turns out the American public has no time for b.s. And those who thought they were in control are not. You could wipe D.C. off the map and most people wouldn't care. The elected officials are sold out whores who will do whatever it takes to keep their jobs. Meanwhile, those they supposedly represent can't get a job, certainly not one that pays the bills.
And we're so long in the tooth with meaningless music made by the usual suspects that a revolution is gonna come and wipe it all out. Don't doubt me, just ask all the acts that disappeared from the chart after the Beatles came out.
But there will be very few winners. That's what tech teaches us, we gravitate to the best, to where everybody else is. And we don't need no me-too. Come on, is there a reason for Bing to exist? So there will be very few successful artists. And I say hallelujah, I'm sick of the cluttering of the airwaves and inboxes by the marginally talented who can play because the new tools have democratized creation.
But those few who win won't sit on the mountaintop with their arms crossed. No, they'll be part of the discussion, we'll hear about them every damn day. Just like it was Adele all day long from mid-November until New Year's.
But what has she done for us lately? Does anybody know anything but "Hello"? The soccer moms drove her album up the charts but she's not even on streaming services. She's thinking she won, but she's losing. She should be on TV constantly. She should be doing covers on YouTube. She should get down in the pit and be one of us. Putting out an album we all buy and promptly forget? That's so old school as to be laughable.
But the media propped the story up.
The media is where we now live. We don't want the words of the unanointed, we want to know you're somebody, with a track record, with veritas.
Trump won the media war.
Will he win the election? Even the nomination?
Only the people will tell you.
But one thing's for sure, those who thought they were in control, who were telling us they knew, who were pulling the strings...
Are not.
We want story.
We want truth.
And we want to know that everybody else is paying attention and you're important.
That's how you win today.
And those who will win tomorrow won't play the old game, and they'll be a whole hell of a lot more trustworthy than the bozos we've been paying attention to for years.
That's right, Kim Kardashian opened the floodgates.
But she's gonna be washed away.
But who replaces her?
That's gonna be fascinating.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
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