You don’t know what you need.

Once upon a time, advertising spread the word. But with untrustworthy corporations and a plethora of products, we’re all overwhelmed just trying to catch up with what we already own, never mind experiencing the new. There are more features in your OS than you can fathom. And it seems every year the days get shorter. Keeping up is a full time job, with the press reinforcing what’s history still matters and the young ‘uns going off into niches exploring that which will flame out shortly.

To share or not to share, that is the question.

Turns out most people on Facebook don’t. And Twitter is in a usage crisis. Turns out everybody wants to play at first, but when the newness wears off… Call it the turntable.fm syndrome, a hit for less than a month. We tried it, we abandoned it.

And as you get older you don’t need everything.

Like Apple TV.

Buy a movie from the iTunes Store? I’ve got hundreds of channels I’m paying for but not watching already!

Furthermore, I’m streaming the Olympics in real time, on my computer.

Oh what a world we live in. Where I can watch in HD what is occurring half a world away.

So I download the NBC Olympics app on my iPhone…

And if you think apps are for money, you’re missing the point. They’re vehicles, that bond you to you and your audience, to be used today and tossed tomorrow.

And as I log in and start watching the downhill portion of the Super Combined on my phone…Amy says, why don’t you throw it on the big screen?

THEY’VE GOT APPLE TV!

Not that Amy was sure how to use it, she had an older handset. But I figured out you just brought up the controls by sliding from under the iPhone screen, how you access the built-in flashlight, and with one click, I was watching the Olympics beamed from Russia to my iPhone to the Sharp big screen, in HD, just like that.

I couldn’t take my eyes off it.

Your biggest challenge today is getting someone to experience your product. And when this happens, it must deliver.

In other words, what will sell Beats Music is customers demonstrating it for others.

Furthermore, most people bitching about Spotify don’t use it.

As for kids, YouTube is enough.

And that’s the world we live in, one of overload, with no manuals and no instruction. It’s like we’ve returned to the Middle Ages, wherein everything is hand sold. And if we find something superior, we don’t stop testifying about it.

And I’m now testifying about Apple TV with Airplay, because it’s so damn COOL!

P.S. Felice and I are going to have a “House of Cards” marathon tonight. I’d stay home all weekend and watch all thirteen episodes if I didn’t have to go out of town. Then again, they’d be gone so fast and I’d be salivating for more. Satiating the audience is the new paradigm in the book business, read this article:

“Impatience Has Its Reward: Books Are Rolled Out Faster”

In other words, artificial delays are history. Don’t wait until everybody knows about your product, deliver for those who truly care, they’ll spread the word.

P.P.S. Did you read Farhad Manjoo’s buying guide, how to keep up with modern technology?

You must:

“How To Survive the Next Wave of Technology Extinction”

Manjoo is a star. Traveling from Slate to the WSJ and now the NYT, he who has the goods has opportunities these days. I love Manjoo’s writing because his personality comes out, and he’s willing to go on the record, as in the above article, wherein he tells you specifically what to buy, no one in the media is willing to go on record, but Manjoo is.

I don’t want to be President and I don’t want to win a gold medal.

But that does not mean I can’t be inspired to do my best, to test limits, to smile with a level of achievement that I could previously only dream of.

Obama is going to be in Palm Springs this weekend, where I’ll be visiting my mother. If the President had come to Fairfield, Connecticut in the sixties, I’d still be talking about it. We get a note on our door handle that they’re filming in the neighborhood and we wince, but everywhere I’ve lived other than Los Angeles the residents are thrilled when a movie production comes to town.

They told us anybody could become President, I read it in the “Weekly Reader,” but now I just know it’s the CEO of the country, and sure, I’d like Mary Barra’s paycheck, but I wouldn’t want to run GM.

As for the Winter Olympian, other than Shaun White and a few others they’re getting their one moment in the sun, before America and the media moves on. Winning a gold medal is akin to having a hit record. A one hit wonder can never give up, he or she believes the next hit is just around the corner. Whereas if you’ve never achieved the ultimate, never grasped the brass ring, it’s much easier to move on and find your real niche, as opposed to being stuck in adolescence or twentysomething fame, trading on it for the rest of your stunted life.

But that does not mean I don’t have dreams.

I tuned in at 11 PM on Saturday night to watch Bode Miller lose the downhill. I feared he’d lose, because ski racing is a toss-up, a game of changes, not a rigid gridiron inhabited by constants. But I love Bode because he does it his way. You might think he’s a loser, but talk to anybody on the World Cup circuit, he’s number one, he’s the threat no one can count out, he’s just a little bit better than everybody else, maybe because his afternoon playground was the hardscrabble Cannon Mountain as opposed to the video game console.

Unlike in music, you can’t make it without practice in the Olympics. Oh, you can push on the bobsled team, but most of these athletes practiced in obscurity to earn their one moment in the spotlight.

And for this I respect them.

I’m not a Ted Ligety fan. He’s just a bit too boyish and upbeat for me.

But today’s “New York Times” turned me around.

First, there’s an incredible sequence utilizing new media that demonstrates why he wins, check it out, even if you’ve never been skiing, it shows how Ted achieves his edge:

Sochi-Olympics/Giant-Slalom

And there’s also a story about… How he was a loser who turned himself into being a winner.

This is why they’re our heroes. Because they came up against adversity and won. I was reading the article getting inspired. Because I too know what it’s like to put in the hard work when no one’s watching so that when you finally get into the arena you shine.

Maybe you’ve got a coach.

But most of us are on our lonesome. And our parents might provide some bread, but really, making it all comes down to you. What’s going to keep us going?

I live for inspiration. It’s the one element I can’t manufacture. But I know it when I feel it. It has me racing to the keyboard, translating my thoughts into words. I want to dance on the screen to the point where you marvel. And that’s not easy to do.

And just like ski racing, you cannot write 24/7. How do you keep yourself going in between performances?

Reading. Living. Waiting for the inspiration to come. Which always happens when you least expect it.

I knew that Ted Ligety railed against the new ski regulations.

But I truly had no idea how much time he’d put in.

That’s what separates the winners from the losers. The hard practice.

And those who do it so well don’t brag about it, for them it’s all about the results. Winning is the sweetest satisfaction.

So I’m sitting in my house, nursing a minor cold, overeating crap, trying to slow down, and I read about Ligety and I want to buckle my boots, strap on my skis, and take dozens, HUNDREDS, of runs when no one is looking.

I truly believe if I do the hard work I will achieve my goals.

That does not mean I don’t waver. I get down in the dumps.

But then people like Ligety inspire me and I’m rearing to go.

“Told To Be ‘Realistic,’ Ted Ligety Defied His Doubters”

Is Eric Church the new Springsteen?

After singing about him, has he become him?

Like the Boss, Church is hungry, and it’s more than his heart, but he hasn’t had his victory lap yet, maybe the time is now.

Every successful act controls a gang. Known as its fanbase. Which is why classic rock artists can still tour today and Top Forty acts come and go. The acts with longevity stand for something. They play first and foremost to themselves, and then worry about their listeners. As for the label, the radio and the Fortune 500…they come last, if at all. It’s best if they can survive giving the establishment the middle finger.

They say we live in a hip-hop nation.

But that was a decade ago.

Conventional wisdom is we’re in the midst of a Top Forty juggernaut, that pop rules.

But is rock and roll still the sound of America?

Listening to Eric Church’s new album, I’m thinking so.

Life is frustrating. You need release. And it’s fun to bump butts at the club, but it gets old with all the aspirational music, you know, people who keep telling you how much better they are than you. People you can pay more money to, but will never get to talk to, never mind screw.

And then we’ve got “The Outsiders.”

Church described the title track as a mix of Waylon Jennings and Metallica. And I wouldn’t go quite that far, but it’s close. And not made for the mainstream, but for Church and his audience.

Not everybody listens with a group. Not everybody puts on their makeup and finery to appear their best. In other words, you wouldn’t catch Kim Kardashian at an Eric Church show. Because there’s an element of danger. And one thing the exalted are not are regular people, members of the public, their whole self-image is based on being better, superior to the rest of us, throw them in the pit and they’ll get pulled apart.

And although there may be drugs, Paris Hilton won’t go either. Because this isn’t about spinning records, but playing. Making that sound come out of the speakers that crowds out all the bad feelings, that makes you thrust your arms in the air and feel good.

Come on, have you ever played air guitar in the bathroom, practicing your moves in front of the mirror?

Rocked on the porch with a beer, nodding your head to the beat?

That’s what “The Outsiders” sounds like.

And this is truly the sound of America.

It’s the black underbelly revealed on both “The Sopranos” and “Breaking Bad.”

It’s an extended number that is not made for radio, just for you.

“Give Me Back My Hometown” is made for radio. And it’s got the haunting quality of the Springsteen track with the similar title. There’s heartfelt emotion. Sure, there’s a bit of paint by numbers, but it’s not as calculated as the country tsunami.

And that’s the truth, most of us live in our own hometown, with a bit of sex, a bit of drink, a bit of drugs, a bit of fun amidst the boredom and the drudgery, and what we’re all looking for is something to believe in.

And right now, the leading male exponent of believability is Eric Church.

He played the game a bit, always with some attitude, and now that he’s got some headway he’s going his own way, and the establishment has to follow him, because of his audience.

Once you’ve got an audience, you can go anywhere.

Kenny Chesney’s lost the plot. He’s too busy sunning himself in the Caribbean and plotting his next stadium trek.

But really, it comes down to music, and performance. No stage set, no dancing, no shenanigans are necessary if you’ve got the material to entrance your audience and make them close their eyes and sing along.

We want to belong.

We just can’t find anything to believe in anymore.

But just maybe, Eric Church is it.

Because when you listen to these tracks you remember the way it used to be, when AC/DC shook us all night long and we saw that wreck on the highway and got home and shivered, put on a record, and felt at ease.

P.S. I’m still pissed the entire album is not on Spotify. I get it, they want to drive first week sales so the antiquated press will trumpet Church’s success, and I’ll admit, you don’t want to jump into the new world too soon, timing is everything, but the truth is “Springsteen” has been streamed on Spotify 16,489,917 times, yes, even country kids have computers, and the amount of money made by selling recordings is bupkes compared to the money to be made on the road. Still, check out these two tracks, they’re not revolutionary but they contain the essence of what you used to know, that used to turn you on way back when…

The Outsiders – Spotify

Re: There’s Not Enough Money In Cool

Just to be clear, I am not pro abortion, but I believe a woman has the right to choose. I also believe strongly in the family structure of a man and woman, you simply can not pro create naturally any other way, but I have always said, why should gay people not be able to be miserable too, let em get married! Was fun picking each others brains and breaking bread, I love sharing opinions with people who have them, no matter what they believe. Rock on –

Robert Ritchie / Kid Rock