It was sunny today. Spring is coming. Just when I want to put on the brakes and have the world slow down. I’m thirty one days in but I can see the ski season ending, and with the California drought I doubt Mammoth will make it until June.

I don’t think I could live on the east coast. Gray was natural, to be expected when I grew up there, but having lived in Southern California for decades I enjoy the rain, an occasional overcast day, but string a few together and I get depressed.

Not that I don’t get down out here. Felice’s house is nestled into the hills and from November until…just about now, it can get pretty dark. But then I walk outside and…

I remember they told you to turn on the a/c in the winter to maintain the system. That was a chore in Vermont and Utah, but out here it’s a regular activity. I had it on today. When the sun was shining, the thermometer hit eighty and I was thrilled to be alive.

Possibility. It’s what comes after satisfaction. Driving down the highway with the sunroof open and the radio blasting and you think…about what you can do.

And that’s when songs start running through my brain. When I walk down the sidewalk and lyrics are popping through my brain gaining new insight all the while.

Jackson Browne had a comeback in ’93, “I’m Alive.” But without huge commercial success he went back to rocking. He cast aside his acoustic return and fired up the band and the result, 1996’s “Looking East,” was even less successful, because as you age so does your audience and suddenly they don’t want to hear anything new. But I liked that album, especially the title cut, but those songs didn’t really come alive until Jackson released them in live acoustic versions in 2005.

Running down around the towns along the shore
When I was sixteen and on my own

I was not on my own when I was sixteen. Maybe it’s a SoCal thing, where every Valleyite remembers taking the bus to Zuma. With the weather so good, no crime in evidence, little dirt and detritus, parents relax the reins, they let their kids go not only to the beach, but to the Strip, to find themselves.

Life became the Paradox, the Bear, the Rouge et Noir
And the stretch of road running to L.A.

That’s the Golden Bear, in Huntington Beach. The Sweetwater in Redondo. There was a musical scene, steeped in folk music, that rivaled Greenwich Village. Only in this case you drove there, and there was somewhere to park, and you went to partake in the scene and the tunes. Going home later to listen to your albums and practice your guitar. Back then that’s what we did. Just like kids Instagram and YouTube today. We were looking for the same things, notoriety and fame, it’s just that in this case it was all based in music.

No I couldn’t tell you what the hell those brakes were for
I was just trying to hear my song

Ah, the immortality and optimism of youth. Then again, minor scrapes and bruises take forever to heal when you’re older, when you’re young the damage disappears long before your next adventure. And it was this relentless testing of limits that led to the explosion of consciousness and sound in San Francisco and Los Angeles. And it’s the underpinning of the Silicon Valley revolution. And the Hollywood dream factory to this day.

It’s all about the possibilities. Discovering who you are and then doubling down on it.

But you need a base of freedom, a safety net that embraces failure, in order to triumph.

So while you were battling the precipitation, bundling up against the elements, wishin’ and hopin’ that spring would come, it’s already here…

In Los Angeles.

Just thought I’d let you know.

The rebirth has happened. We’re challenging preconceived notions. We’re testing the limits.

Better bring your own redemption when you come
To the barricades of heaven where I’m from

You’re coming, right?

“Barricades Of Heaven” (acoustic)

“Barricades Of Heaven” (studio)

He’s creatively bankrupt.

Recent studies show that few post and no one clicks through on likes, what’s a poor boy to do?

Buy something with all that Wall Street money to deflect criticism as those prognosticating and investing miss the point.

Steve Jobs is a hero not because he started the computer revolution, but because he continued it. Sure, he dandied up the Mac and got people buying fashion, but truly it was the iPod that broke Apple wide open, with the iPhone and iPad making it the world’s most valuable company.

Amazon has stayed ahead by creating the Kindle, in-house.

I’m not saying that that Apple and Amazon made no acquisitions, didn’t build upon the technology in the field, but I am saying they pushed it to create something new, that caught the public’s fancy. That’s Apple’s challenge today, to continue to innovate with its founder gone.

Microsoft was famous for stealing others’ ideas and then improving upon them. But the lack of vision has hobbled the company. After improving word processing and spreadsheets and the browser and utilizing the company’s OS to leverage their adoption, the company ran out of steam because it just couldn’t innovate.

Facebook innovation is centered on changing privacy and advertising policies, flummoxing users all the while.

The Instagram purchase was akin to an industrialist buying a baseball team.

Nothing is pushing the ball forward, because there’s no vision. The guy in the hoodie is played out.

One can even argue he stole his original idea from the Winklevosses.

Just because you’re under thirty, that does not mean you’ve got your pulse on technology.

Furthermore, execution is key, but it’s built upon a foundation of creativity. You can get a plethora of people to play the notes, but finding someone to write them?

Yes, tech is just like music. A manager can get lucky once. The proof of talent is someone who does it twice, never mind many times.

Kind of like Bruce Allen. Who went from BTO to Bryan Adams to Michael Buble all of whom were different. And Bruce gets little press. But he’s working all the time.

Furthermore, the press and the public were caught flat-footed, because living in the so-called “Greatest Country In The World” they were asleep when it came to WhatsApp. I was too, until I went to Bogota and asked what that app Wendy kept tapping on her iPhone was. She stared at me incredulously…it’s WHATSAPP!

We want to communicate, we want to share. And some are fame whores. But most of us just want to be connected.

And Facebook and Twitter and so many social networks are built upon the fame whore paradigm. Let’s get the wannabe to spread the word, get everybody interested so we can go public and get rich and leave investors holding the bag.

Twitter… Baba Booey said he hadn’t tweeted in weeks. I barely do. Because I see no reason to put another raindrop into a sea of noise. I’m not saying I don’t check my feed, but what happens when only the fame whores are left?

You’ve got Facebook. Which has hit a wall. After the thrill of connecting with everybody you’ve ever known is gone, then what?

BlackBerry missed out, BBM was the first. Well, not really, AOL’s Instant Messenger was the first, but they could never capitalize on that.

Apple has iMessage, but it’s not an open platform.

And we learn that the cell companies are caught flat-footed, the same way the record companies were when ringtones died. Charging for texts? That’s soon to be history.

But is WhatsApp worth $19 billion?

Of course not. But it’s not real money anyway.

Don’t confuse Facebook with Google, which wanted WhatsApp too. Google had a second act, known as Gmail, the company is not only about search. The purchase of YouTube was after the fact. The purchase of Nest? There’s a bit of vision there, but…

Apple is still the king. Because it’s actually making products people want. That they’re paying hard cash for.

But it’s not forever, it’s just until the next big thing.

Social networking is forever. Facebook and Twitter may not be, they may just be features in a future ecosystem.

Meanwhile, WhatsApp is news today and we’ll be talking about something else tomorrow.

But unlike tech, a great song is forever. You don’t have any use for your Windows XP machine, but you still want to hear Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy.”

You can’t buy the world, the same way you can’t buy romance. Connection is something you feel. Creativity is something inbred. Just because Mark Zuckerberg fleshed out Facebook that does not mean he’s a visionary.

He’s anything but.

Stop drinking the kool-aid.

P.S. It’s truly a global village. But only someone from Kiev seems to know this. Jan Koum set about to lasso the entire world’s users, not just those in the media-savvy, media-hungry United States. If you’re not marketing to the entire world, you’re not dreaming big enough.

P.P.S. Like a great band, the message was sent by fans, not publicity. Marketing is secondary to usage. In other words, people know a good app/track when they see/hear it, and they find out about it from other users.

Ginny gave me “The Art of Critical Decision Making” for Christmas.

She gave everybody else a bathrobe. After saying it’s hard to buy a gift for me, she told me to get back to her, to let her know what I thought.

Huh. I’m self-educated. Show me a lecturer and I’ll point out someone I can daydream during the presentation of. I can count on one hand the number of riveting college professors I had, and they were all in the art department, which is why I switched majors, from English, wherein they didn’t give a hoot what I thought, they just wanted to teach me classical theory and eradicate all the creativity extant in my body.

I was never one of those people lauding educators. Because like musical stars, we only cotton to the best, the rest are journeymen at best, some are barely punching the clock, it’s like no one ever busted them and told them they were boring.

And I was afraid Michael Roberto would be boring.

The intro certainly was. Wherein they lauded him, reciting all his accomplishments and I started to tune out. But then, Mr. Roberto began.

Unfortunately, the initial lecture was too much of an overview. Don’t tell me where you’re going, just take me there. The theories were littered with examples, but they were just a tease, no depth was afforded, I wanted to know about how they decided to switch to New Coke, but alas, I didn’t find out.

Not yet anyway. There are twelve CDs, and this was just the first.

But at the end of the first, after delineating the thought process made in decisions, Professor Roberto said he believed in the case method, and his first example was going to be…the 1996 Everest tragedy.

I can get into that. I read ” Into Thin Air,” Krakauer’s essay in “Outside” before that, I know the players, I’m a student of the game.

And I heard about Rob Hall and Scott Fisher and Beck Weathers and then Roberto started talking about…

Something I just couldn’t figure out.

I didn’t go to business school, I don’t have an MBA, and although I’d like the experience, I’m fearful they’d drain out my essence. You see it’s too much about money, less about emotions than critical thinking. And without emotion you’ve got no joy. And the only joy MBAs get is when they party, which is why so many go to these schools, to network, what they learn there is secondary at best, even at Harvard. It’s who you know, not what you know, don’t ever forget it.

But I was now stimulated. There’s nothing like delving into a new subject. And if you think school is for learning…I point you back to the earlier paragraph. That’s what flummoxes the nerds, the fact that they do well in school but are lousy at life. They get their degree, they get a job at the firm, and when they don’t make partner…they’re lost.

But I was having a pure learning experience. Roberto was listenable, better than good if not truly phenomenal. But I just couldn’t understand the point he was making. But about the fifth time through, I got it, he was saying SUNK COSTS!

What are sunk costs?

Essentially those you’ve already made that you cannot retrieve.

And listening to Roberto pontificate I was running through scenarios from my own life. After you invest so much, do you keep on going?

Kind of like Tim Armstrong and Patch. It was his idea, he couldn’t let go.

Roberto said CEOs who made major purchases kept investing, only their successors with no emotional ties could cut bait.

Think about this. Professor Roberto has. You’ve spent so much time and money…it’s easier to spend more, it’s easier to believe. Doubling down prevents you from the fall. Kind of like those students who think it’s about grades as opposed to life.

We just terminated someone. My initial instinct was to keep going, we’d spent so much already.

But Ginny, the soon to be nonagenarian, was the first to say we should pull out. That’s the wisdom of age.

The youngster just keeps trying harder, banging his head against the wall.

Every day I get e-mail from people saying they’re never going to give up.

You can’t tell these people they’re good, but not good enough. They’ve dedicated so much time and money into being a musician, working in the biz, they can’t start all over again.

But they should.

Kind of like Marko Babineau and Steve Tipp.

Babineau started selling real estate, he gave up looking for a new job in the music business. As did Tipp. But there are too many dreamers surviving on scraps believing the good days are gonna come back when the truth is they’re over fifty and their opportunities have evaporated.

Then there’s the criticism of the labels, that they just don’t stick with anything anymore. But maybe they’re smarter than you are, maybe they like the act but just don’t see how they can make any money, so they drop them. Certainly the new CEO/President drops most of the previous regime’s acts, he’s got no emotional ties to them.

It’s no crime to let go. Sometimes it’s smart.

Rob Hall and Scott Fisher had expended so much time and effort in getting their charges to the top of Everest that they ignored their own rules, like turning around between 1 and 2, no matter where they were.

Furthermore, they’d never seen bad weather. People have a bad habit of ignoring the odds. Just because they’ve never experienced the downside, that does not mean it’s not coming.

And Professor Roberto went much deeper than I’m going now. And listening was quite stimulating, and I’m looking forward to the next ten CDs.

But think about those sunk costs.

If you can’t write off the past, you’re beholden to it.

“The Art of Critical Decision Making”

“The Art of Critical Decision Making” – amazon

Used to be our heroes O.D.’ed.

Now they die of old age.

Once upon a time Devo remade “Satisfaction” and after taking us back in time, devolving to a sound earlier than the art rock and corporate tunes that dominated the airwaves, they broke ground in video and inspired us by demonstrating that art is all about conception, execution comes last.

In other words, where was Devo coming from?

Now we wonder where we’re going to.

As the baby boomers age, some are defying this. Dieting down to nothing and wearing their children’s clothing, they believe if they just look young, they will be. But as Bob Dylan so eloquently sang:

For them that think death’s honesty
Won’t fall upon them naturally
Life sometimes must get lonely

In other words, if Bob Casale can die, I can too.

And it’s coming, it’s inevitable, and it’s just beginning to dawn upon the baby boomers…that they, like their music, is not forever.

It’s weird getting old. Because like Grandpa Simpson you want the old days to come back, and you understand the game. NBC is owned by nobody, run by the megalomaniacs at Comcast and ultimately reports to Wall Street. So rather than continue to employ ratings champion Jay Leno, they hand the reins to Jimmy Fallon and get the complicit press to trumpet this fact and we oldsters are sitting at home thinking there’s been nothing new in late night since Dave went on at 12:30, and we’d all rather watch the DVR, if not Netflix. Reading the news you’d think Fallon won the gold medal, when the truth is he’s got a show produced by an ancient comedy titan featuring people desperate for exposure.

That’s right, Lorne Michaels blew up Saturday night television and hasn’t done anything innovative since. But he’s smart and rich and gives good parties so he gets a pass in this world where you coast on what you’ve done before when we see what you’re doing now is not worth the attention.

Even Devo is coasting.

After scoring films and television, Mark Mothersbaugh reunited the troops with Bob’s brother Jerry and found out…nobody wanted to hear anything new, but many wanted to experience what once was. They wanted to whip it good. In other words, Devo went from cutting edge to nostalgia.

And David Bowie was so busy being cutting edge he missed the target.

And Paul McCartney releases new music that none of his old fans want to hear.

And the youngsters all want to sell out to corporations in order to get rich and win.

And I’m stuck in the middle with you.

We remember when a record could change the world. When rock stars were revered for who they were and what they said as opposed to the shenanigans featured on gossip blogs. When we laughed at no talents instead of giving them a pass like the one Ryan Seacrest and his Kardashians get.

But admit you’re old and you’re deemed irrelevant.

That’s the innocent, wet behind the ears youngsters’ refrain. You’re old, as if the pejorative were enough to scare people into submission.

But the truth is, it does.

But the funny thing is except for tech, now dominated by the not so young, youngsters are not pushing us out of the way, just demanding the keys to the car, like a teenager requests of his parents, not because he can drive any better, but just because he believes he deserves it.

The train is idling on the track.

Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison never made it to the station.

Along the way we lost Marc Bolan in a car accident, John Lennon in a tragedy, and Les Harvey died on stage before he got his one big break.

But now, more important than your chart position is your cholesterol number. Cancer can strike at any time. When your chest thumps you don’t think it’s anxiety or too stressful a workout, you think the end is nigh.

And you realize…

We’re sailing into the sunset.

We made history and soon we will be so.

Everything we thought so important is fading away.

We went from testing limits to being the limit.

So, so long Bob 2. I bought all those records, you weren’t the star, but I knew who you were.

So long cutting edge videos, they can only be done once, and they were, in the eighties.

So long KROQ, which once pioneered bleeding edge music and was the sound of a generation.

So long MTV, which was so busy casting aside generations it didn’t realize there was no core left to appeal to the next.

So long percolating in your local market before bursting upon the scene as a phenomenon, if anyone of note is creating in Akron, we know immediately.

And so long the rock dream.

We wanted to rock and roll all night and party every day.

Now we want to live in gated communities, get up early and turn the sound down.

Don Henley said we wouldn’t go quietly, but the truth is we are. Because we just did not see it coming. We just did not believe our time would ever end. We screwed and divorced and didn’t plan for retirement, believing life was one big rock festival, but now ticket prices are prohibitive and you don’t want to go and you see everybody imitating what once was and you say so but nobody is listening.

Because it’s not our world anymore.

Rest in peace Bob Casale. I hope when my time comes I can see it coming. Because to be cut down when you still have gas in the tank, when you still have dreams, when there’s so much more you want to do and didn’t get around to…

Is tragic.