“Shiffrin wins first WC downhill in two years”: https://bit.ly/36nQVNx

Life goes on.

This is what you learn as you age. All those once in a lifetime events? Bobby Riggs vs. Billie Jean King, Evel Knievel jumping the Snake River Canyon? They’re hyped for months, then they come and go, and usually don’t live up to the buildup. Then again, there are the non-entertainment stories, the ones that are so outrageous, superseding our conceptions, that blow our minds and stick with us. Like walking on the moon. It’s my favorite Police song, but in the summer of 1969 when Neil Armstrong walked down that ladder and bounded on the surface you were glued to the screen, you couldn’t think about anything else. Well, there was a buildup, just like the Stones, we waited seemingly forever for Armstrong to emerge from the Lunar Module, but when he did…

Everybody remembers that. As well as the day President Kennedy was shot. And maybe today’s generation will remember 1/6, but seemingly everything else has come and gone. Oh, there are some personal memories, but shared ones that lived up to the billing? Very few.

Now one thing that Covid brought was death. Happens to us all, but almost all of us expect to live forever. Usually it’s a brush with cancer or some other health event that makes you aware of this. You survive, but now you know you’re mortal. But Covid, people dying all around us… Hell, they’ve already been forgotten, as has Covid been too. Masks are history. But if you read the legitimate news today, it’s a headline in the NYT and right up there in the WaPo, Omicron is surging in Europe. Now if you’re vaxxed, you should recover. But if not? And what does this mean for concerts, etc?

So Mikaela Shiffrin turned out to be a talker. It’s so funny, these athletes, so many “celebrities” are two-dimensional, despite social media, which is managed. But Shiffrin went on and on when interviewed after her losses at the Olympics. It seemed ugly that reporters were even asking questions, but Mikaela continued talking. Bode did, but most ski racers do not, the sport draws the strong, silent types.

But Shiffrin lost. When the whole world was watching. Now what?

Well, not a whole lot of success thereafter. Yes, life went on, the World Cup, which means one hell of a lot more to the racers than the Olympics, continued. But Shiffrin didn’t win. As a matter of fact, she was losing her lead in the World Cup overall. Maybe she was done. Maybe she couldn’t recover from the death of her father, maybe the Olympics were the nail in the coffin. This happens. Bo knows? Ask a youngster if they even know who Bo was! Same deal with the Boz.

But today Shiffrin won, in the downhill. Let’s see, that would be like Metallica having a number one pop song. Or conversely, Garth Brooks having a number one Active Rock track. Theoretically possible, but highly doubtful. Then again, there’s a lot more danger in ski racing. Physical, anyway.

But the whole world is not watching. Most Americans only pay attention to ski racing once every four years, at the above-referenced Olympics, but the White Circus goes on, in the rest of the world it’s about the World Cup, where there’s a hell of a lot more money. Not David Zaslav money, but more than the average working stiff earns. Did you see that Zaslav made $246 million last annum? That’s ugly, that’s offensive. In one year? After they’re finished with the oligarchs, can they please go after the billionaires? Who have abused the system to get ahead. Yes, paying government representatives to make sure their taxes are low. It’s like curling, these titans all hire lobbyists, lawyers, SWEEPERS, to make sure they get where they want to go.

Then again, money isn’t everything. But to those working multiple jobs to stay afloat it certainly is.

So life has a long arc. Then again, when you look back it always seems short. I remember dying to get out of college to start my real life, graduating from law school and feeling left behind in the music business. But most of those who skipped higher education flamed out long ago, and most don’t have much to show for their efforts. And there’s rampant ageism in music, the odds of being able to get a new job after 50? Nearly nonexistent. Even 40 or 45.

Today’s tragedy is tomorrow’s shoulder shrug. What seemed so overwhelming and terrible back then appears like just a blip on the radar screen in the rearview mirror.

So this week William Hurt dies. Timmy Thomas recently died, do you even know who he was? Richie Podolor, a legendary record producer, who cut those Three Dog Night hits, and a track I hear seemingly every day on SiriusXM that I can never seem to burn out on, Blues Image’s “Ride Captain Ride,” as well as Steppenwolf and the first Souther, Hillman, Furay album, which is a classic in my book, just passed away and he’s yet to get a mainstream obit, I haven’t seen one and that’s what the Google News says. And he was famous, he had worldwide success, most of us do not.

We just soldier on. Put one foot in front of the other. And most of the time, no one else is paying attention. Maybe our loved ones, but even they don’t know what goes on inside our brains.

It’s a conundrum. Life-changing events…frequently don’t change your life. The buzz goes down, eyeballs go elsewhere, and then you find yourself in the same place you always were, or close.

This is one of the downsides of victory. The high, the good feelings, don’t last that long, never mind the rest of the populace moving on.

As for the eyes of the world being upon you…they just need to focus on something, not necessarily your thing.

Most people grab the brass ring, reach the top and can’t sustain. Because it’s all about the goal, and once you get there, it’s hard to stay motivated. Like with the musicians, at least those who write and play their own songs, they thought if they had hits their lives would work, but they still didn’t, and then they couldn’t replicate the success.

It takes inner strength to carry on, never mind at an elite level. To compete and win you have to do so much behind the scenes, all that gym work… It’s like all the winners you see, you have no idea what they had to do to get there, almost no one else is willing to make the effort.

Especially athletes.

But I follow Mikaela. Because I’m interested in dominance. Which is why I won’t watch F1 this year, at least in the beginning. The story of Lewis Hamilton coming from behind to win the series, that’s amazing. But no, they decided they wanted to give it to someone else. But everybody has their time, let them establish records. Imagine if they’d pulled Babe Ruth so he wouldn’t have hit so many home runs, it’s the same thing.

So what can I tell you? Your life will go through twists and turns, many changes, and you’ve got to pay attention, because it’s easy to get caught in a backwater and get stuck and not progress. Opportunity exists until you die. But it’s a personal journey, it’s about character and backbone, you can’t be devastated by your losses, you’ve got to pick up and do it again.

So back in the late seventies the Kinks switched labels, from the moribund RCA, where they did good work which languished in the marketplace, to Arista, where Clive Davis was determined to return them to the chart.

Clive eventually did this. Mostly on bombastic arena rock. Kinks arena rock is superior to that of almost all comers, but it’s their more personal stuff that rings true, that we really remember.

And the second Arista outing, “Misfits,” is the band’s best work for the label.

But the first one, right out of the box, made more impact. You heard “Sleepwalker” on the radio. But it couldn’t compare to what was on the second side, the opener, “Juke Box Music,” and the closer…”Life Goes On.”

“Life Goes On” was and still is a killer. Great musically and lyrically, never mind Ray Davies’s unique, meaningful delivery.

So in the song, Ray, the singer, is down on his luck, having lost his “bank,” and he tries to commit suicide, but he didn’t pay the gas bill so he survives. And then Ray sings:

“Tornado, cyclone and hurricane

Can batter the houses with the thunder and rain

Blizzards can blow, the waves hit the shore

But the people recover and come back for more

Somehow the people fight back, even if the future looks black

Life goes on and on and on

Life goes on and on and on”

And that’s true.

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