My mother sneaks into the movies.

I’m here for a wedding. Actually, I already went. Saw Lloyd Blankfein, was dying to talk to him, but you know backstage rules, unless you’re introduced they never treat you right, so I didn’t.

Before that I stopped at the Varvatos store. That’s the power of Howard Stern, John dresses the King Of All Media, so I know who he is, and when I had time to kill before the ceremony I walked over to his emporium where I found this book about the influence of rock in fashion, actually, that’s the title of the book, you should check it out, I’d say to even buy it, it’s here:

John Varvatos: Rock in Fashion

Broken down into sections you can truly see how fashion and rock went hand in hand. I always think about the sixties and seventies being about taking the stage in your street clothes, but in retrospect, there was a scarf here, a hat there… If you’re trying to make it, or just interested in the game, buy this book, great coffee table conversation. To tell you the truth, I thought Varvatos’s fascination with rock was phony, but now I’m reconsidering.

So I flew on American, historically one of the worst airlines extant. But after its merger with US Airways and now the L.A. to NYC war, they’ve upgraded the planes, and seemingly the help too. The story is now the aircraft are two-thirds business and one third coach. And in business, it’s lie-flat seats, which was really good, because my tush still hurts, I’m still sitting on a donut. And while I was lying down, I saw a woman waiting for the bathroom and noticed she had a nice rear end. When she turned around, I realized it was that actress Carla Gugino, you know, from “Entourage.” She was flying with her boyfriend. How do I know? I Googled!

And the east coast is so green! And humid. You eat outside and everybody drives in a convertible and it almost makes you want to move back.

And the conversation! Not about what you wear but college date rape and Israel and…it’s funny how it’s one big country yet we’re all so different. But when they started talking about college, I was glad I lived in L.A. I don’t want to recall my SAT scores. And I’m old enough to know that where you go is only a start.

So it’s weird to see my mother and all her friends aging. Some have all their marbles, some don’t, and some are no longer here.

And what they want to talk about is real estate and their estates. It’s the great American conversation, what the value of your place is. My mother is unhappy that the value of her condo has gone down so far, there are too many vacancies in the building, and she’s wary about the empty units selling, since taxes are so high.

But her life is pretty good. She’s addicted to Netflix on her iPad. She’s going through documentaries now, she watched three while I was at the wedding.

And the Gray Panthers go to the movies, like the zombies did in “Dawn Of The Dead,” it’s what they know! And my mom is pointing out the multiplex and that’s when she tells us she doesn’t pay. She’s got it all worked out in her head, since she’s on a walker she goes in a separate entrance, if she ever gets caught she’s gonna say she thought her friend bought the ticket!

P.S. The food has been spectacular. Had to have fried clams, but what surprised me was the quality of the oysters, which are supposedly the same everywhere because of air freight. That would be untrue. These were spectacular! And, of course, I went to Carvel, which you can get in Westwood, but it brings me back to my youth. And today we went to Pepe’s Pizza. The white clam is one of America’s delicacies, with a thin crust and a nearly-burnt end, this would take over America if they spread it west.

If you can’t buy it, if you can’t see it, if you can’t experience it…

It doesn’t matter how good it is.

That’s what the authors are truly railing against in the Amazon/Hachette war, that their books have been relegated to second-class citizens.

There’s a fiction being spread that content is king. That’s a complete fallacy, distribution is king. Sure, successful content creators may gain fame, but usually the money lands with the distributor. That’s how the majors became majors, because of distribution. Their pipeline not only made sure their product was in stores and featured, but that they got paid!

So the world is controlled by the faceless while the people out front get screwed. Oh, the company makes you famous, if you play ball. If you don’t, you’re George Michael, your hits dry up and whatever publicity you get is about anything but the music.

Apple is certainly a manufacturer and a software creator, but it’s also a distributor, the company decides what gets into the App Store. And also controls iTunes Store real estate.

Facebook decides what you get to see on your page. That’s right, you don’t have much control. Maybe if you paid, but there’s much more money in being a distributor of advertising than charging users who’ve become inured not to pay.

And now we’ve got Amazon, the consumer’s “friend,” tightening its grip upon distribution. That’s the issue. Once you control the final sale, you get to decide what is purveyed and at what price.

As Bob Dylan would say, we’re just pawns in their game.

Wal-Mart devoured Main Street.

Napster devoured record stores. Just because you can buy a vinyl record at your local emporium, that does not make YouTube and Spotify’s power any less. Yup, while you’re celebrating the old format, overpaying for the privilege, the digital distributors aren’t even paying attention.

So don’t believe everything you read. And question not only authority, but preconceptions.

Distribution has always been king. From the Gold Rush, wherein merchants who sold to miners oftentimes got richer than the diggers, to today, when he who controls the pipes wins.

Ever wonder why your cable bill is so high, why those companies roll in dough, why Comcast eats and devours everything in its path?

That’s the power of DISTRIBUTION!

From: ROB T
Subject: hi from rob thomas

Re: Rhinofy-Matchbox Twenty Primer

Dear Bob,

I’ve always enjoyed reading your letters and your recent take on matchbox twenty (or 20) was no exception.  There were even some points in there that we, ourselves, have talked about from time to time. But there were also, as I’m sure you would imagine, a couple parts that I feel completely miss the point of who we are and what we have accomplished.

Somewhere between being today’s hitmakers and being yesterday’s news is a zone that I would expect you to understand better than most. An artist that has had enough success to be able to pull together a fan base that genuinely cares about the music they are making even if they aren’t fully a part of the “love me” game we see playing out on reality shows and in celebrity magazines.

We may never be cool. We may never be tastemakers. We may even never again have hits on top 40 radio. But when we put out an album and go on tour there are more than enough people to listen and come see us to give us a career that’s enviable to 99% of people who do what we do.

It’s hard to believe that our career is “over” when so many people still come out to see us play.  In fact, we would’ve loved to have you stop by our last matchbox tour to give your take on our status but chances are we wouldn’t have heard you over the sound of our sold out crowds enjoying themselves hearing music they love.

I have nothing but respect for you and what you do but I feel like you have been so far on the inside for so long that you have lost touch with the best part of music. It’s subjective. And if tens of thousands of people want to come see me or matchbox or anyone that’s exactly what a REAL career is.

Step out from behind your computer sometime, Bob. There are real people out here who are fans of a great number of things that I’m sure you thought were long gone. And the artists they are fans of are having a lot of fun and enjoying their careers just fine.

Rt

p.s.
working on a new solo album. Hope you dig it.

This is not about books.

This is about corporations. And power. And the rights of not only artists, but individuals.

There’s a fiction in America today that corporations are our friends. Amazon even pushes the paradigm by saying all its efforts are for us. Pitting writers against readers in a sideshow that deflects from the truth that this really only about money, Amazon’s bottom line.

Amazon wants to own everything. Is that a good thing?

We’ve been wrestling with this issue for years, but no one wants to take a stand. Because they love that Facebook is free, Twitter too. The goal is to be in an Apple commercial, get sponsored by Samsung or Red Bull. But do these companies now have so much power that they’re hurting rather than helping us?

The Internet shrinks the world down to a click. With every store right next to the other, only one survives. So Google owns search. Facebook is your digital home. And Amazon is where you buy…seemingly everything.

Is this good for us?

Don’t trust the writers, they’re myopic and know nothing about money.

And don’t trust Hachette, run so inefficiently that the writers make a pittance while the company thrives.

Trust your gut. Do you really want to live in a 1984 world where Big Brother controls everything?

That’s the humorous element in this story. Amazon trotted out George Orwell’s quotes, saying to beware of publishers colluding against paperbacks when he said just the opposite. Credit the “New York Times” for revealing this truth, check it out here:

Dispute Between Amazon and Hachette Takes an Orwellian Turn

But what is most fascinating is the nerds at Amazon could get it so wrong. Read Brad Stone’s “The Everything Store.” Amazon long ago fired experts, recommendations are made by algorithms, and the keepers of our culture know nothing about the liberal arts, and everything about money. Either they can’t read or they can’t research or both, and that’s a sorry state of affairs.

But the truth is most of the public can’t either. The great unwashed want to be on reality shows and most college students focus on practical efforts like business, and what gets squeezed is culture. Ever wonder why music is so repetitive and mediocre? Because it’s made by the lowest common denominator element, the best and the brightest are working at the bank.

Hachette does not have clean hands. But the writers are a pawn in this dispute, like the Ukrainians living on the Russian border. They’re getting hurt while powers are fighting about something else.

But now the writers are fighting back, by banding together and taking an ad in the aforementioned “New York Times” urging you to e-mail Jeff Bezos. That’s a waste of time, don’t bother, Jeff will be inundated with a zillion e-mails in defense of the writers, if you base your efforts on public e-mail campaigns or petitions, you’ll do the wrong thing. But the truth is the Amazon/Hachette war is now a matter of public debate.

And that’s what it is, a war. And it’s not about books. It’s about how much of our lives are we going to turn over to Amazon.

Come on, you like instant delivery, you like a trustworthy merchant, but do you like a company that can single-handedly set prices and determine availability?

Oh, shut up about physical books and bookstores. That’s in the rearview mirror, digital won, because it’s convenient and inherently cheaper. If you don’t know this, I feel sorry for you, because then you don’t get the bigger picture, which is…

When are we the people gonna stand up to corporations?

The Supreme Court says they’re people too. Not hard to believe when the Republicans started the Federalist Society to infiltrate the bench and when they got power nominated these pro-business judges.

But the Democrats don’t have clean hands either. Because politics is all about money, and people just haven’t got as much, not when corporations can donate as much as they want.

But we’re supposed to sit at home satiated because we have a cheap mobile phone and free Facebook.

They came for our privacy, and we coughed it up, not only willingly plugging our information into fields online, but not realizing everything we ever did has been codified and put up for sale online. Google yourself, they’ve got not only your age and address, but everywhere you’ve ever lived, and who you were married to, good luck getting a fresh start.

And now they want to “benevolently” control our purchases, never mind our thoughts.

Jeff Bezos will ignore incoming e-mails, but he can’t ignore the publicity. Because it makes Amazon look…evil.

And Amazon is. It undercuts/undersells competitors. It constantly goes into new territories, and if it were smart and priced the Fire phone at zero, it would have a new cadre of supporters mindlessly marching into its coffers.

Do you want one company delivering not only your books, but your television, both the set and the programming, determining what to feature?

Where is the individual in today’s society? Who is looking out for us? Who is making sure we don’t get screwed?

Nobody. That’s right, nobody. You’re on your own, baby. And if we don’t band together, we’re screwed.

We used to band together as political parties, but we lost control of those to the corporations.

We used to band together under artists who spoke the truth, but they too all aligned with the corporations, the only ones with deep pockets.

And we idiots are consumed with logos. Believing if we just drive the right car and wear the right clothes we’ll win, when the truth is we lost a long time ago.

It’s time for a revolution in America, at least online. If we don’t rein in the Internet behemoths, it’s game over. Forget Obama, the kings will be Zuckerberg and Bezos, if they aren’t already. The former determines what information we’ll be exposed to and the latter determines what items we will buy.

This makes the cable and media landscape look like small potatoes. This makes Rupert Murdoch look like a pawn. Because Murdoch doesn’t control ALL the news, nor ALL the programming. Sure, some cable companies have virtual monopolies on distribution, but no cable company covers the entire nation, never mind the entire world.

But Google and Facebook and Amazon do, or are close to it. And they’ve got no competitors. They’re only becoming more powerful.

And the government won’t stop them.

Only we can do it.

Jeff Bezos is just a person. The Orwell screw-up shows the people he employs have blind spots.

At least let us buy our books while you work it out with Hachette.

But you can’t watch the Dodgers if you’re not on Time Warner and if you’re published by Hachette it’s like you don’t exist on Amazon.

Who’s sticking up for the little guy? Who, in this case, is just about everyone?

Nobody.

Never forget that.