It’s not jewelry!

If Apple messes up its music launch as badly as its watch launch, they’re screwed.

Not that I expect that to happen. Creating a music app is not that difficult. Creating a whole new computing device…now that’s a challenge, to both build and educate customers with regard thereto.

The public’s perception of Apple has changed. People see it as a personal electronics company. A corporation that sells devices you can purchase at Best Buy, take home, plug in and forget.

The Apple Watch is not that. The Apple Watch is akin to the Macintosh. The original. Back in 1984. It looks cool and easy, but the truth is although cool, it’s frustrating. Just ask anybody who had to swap floppy disks back in the day.

So I ordered an Apple Watch because I’m sick of living in the sixties. Waiting for the process to be refined and the price to come down. All that means is you live without the product for a few years, and that’s a mistake. I might as well get the utility today. The price comes down, power is increased, but the truth is today we expect products that work right out of the box, which the Apple Watch does, assuming you know how to use it.

And you don’t.

The learning curve is STEEP!

And let me be clear. My goal isn’t to have you “ooh” and “ahh” when you see it on my wrist, but to extract functionality from it. I want to use all the features. And I found it hard to get past Go, because the device is not intuitive.

But they know that. Which is why they offer help.

Now I’m wary that Angela Ahrendts is gonna screw up the company, turning Apple into fashion. If you think the Apple Watch is a fashion device, you don’t have one. And I doubt all the celebrities who were given one, make me puke, know how to use it.

And the funny thing is they’re positioning the watch as jewelry.

But it’s sold by geeks.

Go to the store, the clerks are clueless. They make like they’re selling a luxury device, but luxury goods are sold completely differently, by well-groomed people who are familiar with the device… Nobody I ran into at the Apple Store really knew how the watch worked.

But the guy I just had a chat with…

That’s what I’m talking about. Turns out after charging the device I got an e-mail, did I want a Personal Setup Session?

I figured it was canned video. Then I clicked through and found out you had to make a reservation. Come on, who’s got time, I don’t want to wait. But there turned out to be a slot at 9 PM tonight, so I took it. I just got off the phone.

Thank god I spoke with this guy, otherwise I’d have no real idea how to use the watch. He helped.

But he was a geek. With a stutter. A techie. He could never sell a Rolex, never mind a Ferrari.

But the truth is Rolex and Breitling and even Timex are screwed. Because just like the computer eviscerated the typewriter, the Apple Watch and its ilk are gonna eviscerate timepieces, because they just don’t do enough, they only tell time, and that’s the least of our worries in the modern world, we want to communicate, we want access to all our information, and the Apple Watch provides this.

I was getting into it. I saw my entire evening slipping away. I figured I’d go till midnight with Jonathan.

But he didn’t tell me the session was limited to forty five minutes until we were close to the end. I wouldn’t have wasted so much time on faces. And I can’t repeat this session. Then again, how would they know?

Of course they know, just ask Edward Snowden.

So Jonathan got me over the hump. But it reminds me of buying my Mac Plus back in ’86, but then I could spend all night studying the manual. Sure, I can go on my phone and read the help… But when you study, you need more.

And I’m gonna have to study to figure out how this thing works.

But after my initial frustration I was getting excited.

You’re gonna get one.

You just don’t know it yet.

Not all of us can be rich and famous, not all of us can grab the brass ring.

And personally I’m sick of the wankers singing about their lifestyle, flaunting their wealth, warbling their phony, broad stroke lyrics which say little and are completely unrelatable.

That’s right, I spent an hour going through the rock hits of the day and was horrified how low the bar had sunk, how there wasn’t even innovation musically, never mind lyrically, bring back 10cc.

And then I switched to country, where the formula was in full swing. The songs were written by committee with the audience in mind, trying to pull a heartstring here or there or creating a beer-drinking anthem just as fulfilling as Bud Light, which is not very much. I thought of all the great country artists of yore, who told the story of their lives, couldn’t one of them be covered by one of the capped tooth wonders? And then I heard “Little Bitty Dreams.”

Will Hoge has made almost ten albums. His major label deal is far in the past. He’s never had a hit. He doesn’t look like a movie star and his voice is imperfect. But he’s gotten better, isn’t that what life’s about?

I was enraptured from the initial picking. That’s all you need, an acoustic guitar and a story to tell.

I spent my small town Saturdays watching a big ‘ol movie screen
Hoping someday I’d be up there living all my dreams

We all have them. Dreams. A desire to go from here to there. To gain some recognition, to gain more money, to live a better life.

And I could be a Hollywood hero, make the girls all smile and weep
Think that someday they might have a boy like me

Acceptance. That’s what we want most, even more than wealth and physical beauty. Do you like us? Do you want to hang with us? What can we do to achieve this? Do we have to reinvent ourselves, change our look?

And I’d remember playing baseball, standing on the pitcher’s mound
Thinking someday a fastball might get me out of this town
And maybe I could wear the pinstripes, be a Yankee true and proud
But all that seems a million dreams away right now

I lived to play baseball. Every day after school. Long before parents drove you around in minivans to tournaments, before high schoolers went to Florida for spring training, I fantasized I could make it.

And then I realized I couldn’t.

Cause I met you and then I knew my big dreams were done

What is life about? Achievement or happiness? Is family a bigger dream than career?

And I’d settle down in the same small town and swear you were the one

The goal is to get out, that’s what I always thought, I was champing at the bit to go to the big city, to get away from the insularity. And I don’t regret my choice, but there is a benefit in familiarity, living where you feel comfortable, where everybody knows your name.

Some might call it giving up, but it don’t feel that way to me
I think it’s just the two of us and our little bitty dreams

I’ve been on this planet for decades but it wasn’t until I heard these lines that this life choice finally made sense. Maybe success is achieved in different ways, maybe stardom isn’t the only way to emerge victorious.

And we hear about people giving up all the time. But maybe they know something we don’t, maybe they aren’t afraid of competition, they just see another way to play the game of life.

Cause I met you and then I knew my big dreams were done
I’d settle down in the same small town and and try to raise a son
Some might call it giving up, but it don’t feel that way to me
I think it’s just the three of us and our little bitty dreams

Maybe that’s what it’s all about. Finding someone you love and having a family. Staying together, growing something.

I couldn’t stop playing “Little Bitty Dreams.” It was quiet and personal, I could relate to it, it seemed like I was entering someone else’s private world instead of them beating down the door to mine. My mind was set loose and my body relaxed. I was reminded what music could do.

And you can do this too. If you focus on yourself instead of us, if you follow your dream instead of ours, if you tell us what you feel instead of what we want to hear.

Rhinofy-Little Bitty Dreams

From: Michael Rapino
To: Bob Lefsetz
Subject: Re:

You like show so far

 

From: Bob Lefsetz
To: Michael Rapino
Subject: Re

Screen is unbelievable.

They had it backwards. Should have gone on tour before the album. Create word of mouth. Just a few shows. Then sell tickets.

We live in a pull economy not a push one.

Pretty incredible.

And Bono is such a frontman.

 

From: Michael Rapino
To: Bob Lefsetz
Subject: Re:

Smart idea agree they build buzz on the road connecting not pushing as u say

Yes he is one of the best frontman

 

From: Bob Lefsetz
To: Michael Rapino
Subject: Re

We live in a live world, not one of recordings. They’re kings of live, they should capitalize on that!

What kind of crazy fucked up world do we live in where the kings of rock blow their album release yet triumph live?

One in which those at the top are afraid of a changing paradigm, one in which they believe if you just push hard enough down someone’s throat your project will take, one in which those at the top don’t realize that the public is in charge and if you entrance the people you’re on your way to success.

RUN to get one of the remaining tickets to the U2 show.

And that’s what it is, a show, not a concert.

And that’s why it was so good.

Nobody wants to hear new music from U2, not even the fans in attendance. It was astounding how silent people were during everything but a few hits, even those in the pit.

Then again, they were astounded by the screen.

Forget the lightbulb. A red herring if there ever was one. We keep reading everywhere that the show begins with one lone bulb. What they don’t tell us is it’s GIGANTIC! A stage prop bigger than a baseball bat. It’s cool, but having read about it one is underwhelmed, like Nigel and his bandmates were with the miniature version of Stonehenge.

But the screen, that screen…

That’s why I went. U2’s 1992 “Achtung Baby” tour indoors was one of the three best I’ve ever seen. The band is famous for its production. It’s just the last time around they went too big. We read endlessly about the Claw, but it didn’t translate beyond the first few rows of the stadium. And stadiums are for sports, for communal audience experiences, they’re rarely for music, you’ve got to see bands indoors, and U2’s indoor show was a tour-de-force with no word of mouth because the hype machine killed it. With all the advance press about the production no one is talking about it. Whereas if they’d just done a few shows, people would have been shooting video, talking about it incessantly online, because the show is so COOL!

The new music works at the gig because it’s secondary to the production, it’s the score to the movie, and oh what a movie.

It’s an oldies act. They played too much new material. The silence of the audience was deafening. We were thrilled to hear “I Will Follow” but still didn’t find what we were looking for, never mind hear it.

Even the hardest core U2 fans have little depth. Or, I’ll say they were not in attendance last night. But when the images begin to fly…

Let me tell you how this works, and words cannot do it justice. There’s a stage on each end, with no backline, all the sound reinforcement equipment is flown, around a rig in the center of the arena, you have your own special speakers pointing at you, then again there are sometimes stereo effects. And it’s just a band, which is so antique today, it’s like going into a time capsule. And then…

Bono starts talking about his mother, and images of her wedding start showing on the screen.

The screen… The screen sits LENGTHWISE, down the center of the arena. You certainly don’t want to sit at either end of the bowl, and a high seat is better than a low one. Because it’s like being in a stadium movie theatre, watching a film.

So, the screen is gigantic. And it’s somewhat transparent. And then…

There’s an animated street. Which is cool enough. But then it begins to RAIN!

How did they come up with this shit? The person who did is a creative genius. Credit U2 for finding him.

And there’s a narrow catwalk between the two screens. And the band walks in it and sings in it and plays in it and the effect is completely different from the usual concert, you’re not there to sing along to your favorite hits, kiss your significant other, but to be wowed by the special effects. Whenever the screen shut down, went blank, the show went flat. Because the screen was the star, the band was supporting it.

Bono was extemporaneous. He was both offhand and rehearsed. Which worked to make the show unique, as opposed to the typical…HELLO CLEVELAND!

And it was cool when they spread out along the walkway between the two stages and did “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” but it was not the anthem of yore, just support for the images on screen, of Irish conflict. There was a power that music alone cannot provide.

Maybe this is the future. No one wants to hear a whole album by a has-been band, you’ve got to find a better way of exposing people. The new tunes were a great soundtrack for the visuals, it worked that way, you didn’t care if you didn’t know the song, your eyeballs were bugging out.

And, astoundingly the highlight of the show was a new song, “Ordinary Love,” which is not on the Apple album, but was featured in that Mandela movie soundtrack. You can hear greatness, you know it right away. And the problem is U2’s new album is good, but not great. It needed a hit it did not have. Every band is built upon hits. You need a few as linchpins to keep the whole act together, to keep people coming.

U2 can move forward from here. If it just throws the old paradigm out. If it realizes that recordings are now subservient to live, and that he who creates the best live show wins, financially as well as artistically.

And U2 has the best live show of the decade, probably of the century.

Go.

What’s wrong with giving $400 million to Harvard?

Nothing if you don’t mind being castigated by Malcolm Gladwell and becoming part of the billionaire backlash.

If you had asked me if Bernie Sanders had a chance, I’d have laughed at you. He’s an old socialist from a tiny state and his religion doesn’t resonate (I know, I’m a member of the tribe.) However, his message does.

They laughed at Occupy Wall Street.

They’re not laughing now.

We don’t care how smart John Paulson may be, he’s got his money, but can he donate it to those who need it?

As the “Wall Street Journal” said in response:

“The gifts highlight the diverging fortunes of the nation’s colleges. The 10 richest institutions held nearly a third of total cash and investments at four-year schools in fiscal 2014, while the top 40 accounted for two-thirds.”

Hedge-Fund Manager Paulson to Donate $400 Million to Harvard

The rich are getting richer while you struggle to pay your rent on your miniscule salary. But that’s because you’re lazy. We all know that. If you just tried a little bit harder you could be rich too!

Hogwash!

Try being a teacher, making a difference, helping the younger generation…you’ll be struggling financially for the rest of your days. There are only a few professions that pay stratospherically, and a society they do not make, but we revere those with bucks and lower their taxes, because after all, they’re job creators.

This is the story of our day, income inequality. After global warming. Have you ever seen it be in the fifties in June in NYC?

And what this has to do with art is too many artists are on the wrong side. They don’t know what the job of an artist is. Which is to reflect our humanity back upon us, to soothe us and point the way. Instead, all we hear are platitudes and sponsorship stories.

Then Bernie Sanders builds on decades of truth and the public resonates.

Hillary Clinton is Jay Z. She made it to the top, but her history ain’t clean.

Is all we’ve got Jay Z?

Is all we’ve got Hillary?

Jay Z is rapping how he won’t live on Jimmy Iovine’s farm. I mean is that really the issue here? Artists being kept down by Apple? Have we come to that, where our targets are those who we compete with personally, as opposed to those who impede the greater good?

Everyone can use more money.

But Harvard is already our wealthiest university.

It’s already got a $42.8 billion endowment. Can we share the wealth people?

No, that would be communism, that would mean the terrorists have won!

To watch the inroads Bernie Sanders is making is remarkable. Because he’s saying what the people want to hear. That’s right, he’s paid his dues and his time is now, like artists used to.

Not that Bernie’s gonna beat Hillary. If Hillary fails it’ll be her own damn fault, she’ll be so busy triangulating that her phoniness will kill her campaign.

So do you want to be cynical or optimistic?

I hate that the press is salivating over the election eighteen months in advance, most interested in the horse race. The papers are not on our side, certainly not the television stations.

We live online. Our power is online. That’s where you spread the story, that’s where you break the bands.

And what resonates online is truth, justice and the American Way.

And we haven’t had that spirit here since 1969.

Paulson couldn’t see the backlash coming. The rich live in a bubble.

Which side are you on? Do you want to elbow your brother as you try to climb the greased totem pole or band together with like-minded people to change this world of ours?

Hard work should be rewarded. But it should not ensure the continued wealth and power of a single class. Most can’t go to Harvard, which is need blind to boot. Instead you have to go to the state school with less money which won’t cover your costs even if you’re broke. Tough noogies. Taxes can’t go up and you didn’t have the right parents, too bad.

Something is definitely happening here.

And what’s astounding is artists are nowhere to be found. So busy triangulating themselves, they’re afraid to speak the truth for fear of missing out on endorsements and opportunities. But the twentieth century is dead, we are not all one big happy family, a country united. Rather we’re made up of the haves and have-nots. And, ironically, the rich are just as ignorant as the poor, but in a different way.

Ferguson, Garner, Baltimore, something’s brewing, it’s happening here.

It’s a living movie, we all have roles.

Live yours to the fullest.

“Malcolm Gladwell just went nuts on a Wall Street billionaire’s $400 million donation to Harvard”