It’s time for a divorce.

Our focus on tech has been so all-encompassing that music has suffered.

But those aren’t our people!

The coders, the MBAs… They think differently. MBAs are first and foremost about the money. Great musicians are first and foremost about the art.

That’s the number one e-mail I get, HOW DO I MAKE MONEY!

Not me personally, but the wannabe musicians.

That’s the first thing they’re focused on.

And then you’ve got the bozos telling them they’ve got to social network, as if living online will make your tunes any better.

And then they beg for cash on Kickstarter to make stuff that most people don’t want.

THIS IS A BUSINESS?

If you want to be in tech, so be it. Learn how to code, get your MBA, but stop straddling the fence.

The value of WhatsApp has nothing to do with music.

The fact that managers and agents are investing in tech has nothing to do with music. They’re just chasing income.

It’s time to lock the door and practice your instrument. Hone your skills and take us on a journey.

The connection between music and tech is minimal. You make your music on a computer and you distribute it via the Internet.

THAT’S IT!

Artists are soul-searchers, ponderers, they ask the questions the rest of us didn’t know we had.

Artists take risks, they’re willing to fail, end up with nothing. Oh, we read about techies doing this, but they’ve still got their degrees and their contacts when the truth is when you fail as an artist you’re probably done, because it’s your name on the production and your cred is toast.

Oh, you may be able to regroup and utilize a different name or band, but that was the style decades ago, when musicians were lifers, not prepubescents and graduates out on a lark before they enter the real world.

Music is a calling.

But now all the discussion is about tech.

The labels don’t want to be ripped off like they were with MTV, so they extract a huge toll for anybody with a tech solution.

The label heads hang with rich techies so they too want to find instant cash, whereas most great art develops over time. Hell, how many visual artists emerge fully-formed? Most don’t even find their style until they’re deep into a adulthood.

And performers don’t realize that the heart is the tunes themselves. That material is everything. When done right, it’s life itself.

So if you’re more thrilled with your handheld than you are with your instrument, switch careers.

If you get high from how many followers you’ve accumulated, know that’s got nothing to do with what people think of your tunes.

If you’ve got someone paying for your art, that’s a start, but that does not mean everybody else is interested.

So walk into the wilderness, pay attention to your muse, and come back and wow us!

1. I met the guy who designed the Opera House!

And I’m still shaking, pinching myself, he was more of a rock star than any I’ve met in many a year, because not only was he charismatic and looked the part, he could engage in a deep discussion of art.

It’s all about money in the United States. Everybody’s trying to climb the greased ladder and the only thing that matters is your bank account. The days of David Byrne, et al, going to RISD and challenging our preconceptions are long gone. That’s what art does, challenge our beliefs, make us look at the world differently and inspire us. And we haven’t had that spirit here…well, since maybe 1969.

Where’s my record on the chart? How many did I sell? Doesn’t matter what it says or what it means or whether it tests limits, unless, of course, you’re one of the countless wannabes who believes they’re entitled to attention, they can rap philosophically all day long, you just don’t want to listen to their music.

So this guy is designing for TWO HUNDRED YEARS! That’s how long Kjetil Thorsen believes the Opera House will last. And he finds it inhibiting. Especially the library they built in Alexandria, he doesn’t want it to eclipse the memory of the original.

And Thorsen is inspired by music, not on headphones, but live. He goes to concerts regularly to be inspired.

He stood there giving me the inspiration for the Opera House as we stared at the model and my jaw dropped. This is the way people used to talk about music!

Maybe you’ve never been to Oslo, but Thorsen and his firm Snohetta are redesigning Times Square, they’re in charge of the only building that actually sits on the World Trade Center site.

AND I MET HIM!

How did this happen?

Well, it turns out the Managing Director of Universal knows him. But the hookup came from the guy in Turbonegro, who cold e-mailed him.

I’m just not that big a guy! But he wanted to meet me.

I’m absolutely FLOORED!

There are 100 people in the office in Oslo. 50 in the office in NYC. They’re only entitled to work 8 hours a day, they must leave thereafter, to gain inspiration.

They’ve got a robot and a laser cutter and 3-D printers to make models. They have a meeting every Monday where they not only go over projects, but personal business.

And they’re building a house based on a painting.

And they’re having so much fun, that it was purely inspiring.

You know, the way it used to be walking into a record company, HA!

Snohetta projects

World Trade Center Pavilion

The story in the “New Yorker” – The Psychology of Space

“USA Today”, “10 best opera houses around the world”

2. Streaming is king in Norway, as are singles.

I went to lunch with the local Universal brass. Physical is only 10% of the market. Unless you’re making a concept album, which we all know is oh-so-rare, you get a singles deal. Could be for one or two, could be for twenty, maybe if you have enough they assemble them into an album, but generally speaking the idea of going into the studio to cut a long player is dead.

As for Spotify, 30% of the public pays. And some also go for local streaming service WIMP, which will allow you to stream lossless (take that Neil Young/Pono!)

The only problem with streaming is it’s reduced the popularity of local repertoire, it used to be 30% of the market, now it’s only 10%.

Used to be oldsters bought physical product, hyped on TV.

Now youngsters stream ad infinitum and the whole world is at their fingertips.

Radio reacts to Spotify streams.

It’s not uncommon for a local act to have 5 million Spotify streams of a popular single. They can live on the income, and the government helps with production, which is mostly done at home on computer.

This is the new model.

Unfortunately, the radio dominated United States market, populated with crybabies who don’t understand the new economics, are keeping the U.S. behind the Nordic countries.

3. I went to Holmenkollen!

Actually, I thought it was in Sweden. I guess the old “Wide World of Sports” footage didn’t keep repeating the location. That’s where I heard about the world’s preeminent ski jumping/cross-country competition.

At first it was terribly foggy. Then we went to the top of the jump and the sun started to squeak through. It’s so steep!

And they keep on rebuilding it and there’s no standard!

The initial jump a century ago had a hill record of 21.5 meters. Now the hill record is 141 meters.

You can see the jump from all over Oslo, go to the site, look at the pictures!

Holmenkollen

4. I ate reindeer!

And it was good!

They told me to try a sandwich, but they all came with eggs, and I’m not a fan. Sandwiches here only have one slice of bread, maybe that’s why everybody is so skinny!

The reindeer was served in a creamy sauce, they said it would be gamey but I found it close to beef stroganoff, just a little chewier, and I liked that!

5. I’ve got a black eye.

You see I was walking into my hotel room, and I was hit by a hanger!

Well, to tell you the truth, I bumped into it, but it was huge.

Good idea to put the hangers right by the door.

Next time I’ll look out!

Hopefully.

I was just wondering whether he was still alive.

In “One Trick Pony,” Paul Simon and his band are driving around in their van playing “Dead Rock Stars,” wondering who’s alive or dead.

I had no problem.

But when that movie was released, I was much younger. You get older and it’s all a blur. Not only their lives, but yours. Your hopes and dreams are dashed and even though the future keeps coming down the pike at an alarming rate, you keep thinking about the past.

That’s the amazing thing about our world today. Everybody is findable but you don’t see them. You look them up online, thrilled that they’re there, but you’re not sure what you’d say to them if you saw them, because you know now that their experience was different than yours and you’d prefer to keep them in a fixed state in your mind’s eye. Ever notice that when you run into somebody from your past you’re shocked they got old? Even though you’ve aged, you can’t fathom that they did.

But it was the reverse with Mickey Rooney. By time he flew on my radar he was already past his peak, we’d look at pictures from his salad days and marvel, that he was so cute, and married to so many.

That’s the first thing I knew about him. That he’d been married six or seven times already.

Why I wondered. Why make such an important decision so frivolously?

Then again, that’s the essence of show people, they make decisions we don’t or won’t. And we love them for it. We watch them take risks we believe unfathomable, chuckle when we’re right, but keep watching nonetheless. Katy Perry and Russell Brand? Why couldn’t they just date!

But show people screw first, ask questions later and despite these faux pas we love them none the less.

Mickey Rooney had a career renaissance. Doesn’t happen in music, certainly not anymore. Bruce Springsteen gave Gary U.S Bonds another go-round, but today Miley Cyrus couldn’t help Stevie Nicks and despite being on HBO no one wants to hear the Boss’s music on the radio. It’s all new all the time, we put ’em on the scrapheap while they’re still hot. Is there anybody who believes Robin Thicke will have another hit other than himself?

But Rooney found a way.

But actors are different from musicians.

Musicians die, actors live on.

Musicians go on the road, succumb to temptation and then do drugs to cope with it all. A lethal combination, that’s for sure.

But if you manage to make it through the gauntlet, clean up, find a good significant other and hopefully tour using one home base, jetting in and out for gigs, you can continue to make a living and be a star in somebody’s eyes.

Then again, we see musicians as their material, actors as their roles. We believe musicians are real, we know actors are fake.

But they stood in front of us twenty feet tall. At the drive-in. Even when the pictures truly got small on the tiny old screens of yore they emerged triumphant, because they were so good-looking, so charismatic.

And if you were big enough, a bright enough star, your legacy lived on, even if your present day circumstances bore no resemblance to fame.

But then everything disappeared in the rearview mirror. I don’t think kids today know who Mickey Rooney was, never mind all those bands whose records I spun ad infinitum back in the seventies.

So, so long Mickster. I always kept an eye on you, mostly on late night talk shows.

And I love that you sued your stepson and his wife and won. In an era where everybody feels cheated, it’s stunning when someone truly is, and proves it.

And my favorite part of your obit was when your mother turned down a $5 offer because she was waiting for a better one, those were the rules of vaudeville.

And the rules of life aren’t much different. It’s all about who wants you.

And we always wanted Mickey Rooney.

1. I used to always be early, but now I’m afraid of being late.

Being early is a curse in a world where everybody is late. Not only do you waste time waiting for people, you end up being the greeting committee, making small talk, introducing people. Almost no one is on time in L.A., so I’ve trained myself to…be on time, as opposed to early. But now with so many time-wasters, most especially the smartphone, I’m finding it hard to even be on time. I’m starting to cut it too close, I’m losing track of who is really me. I wanted to take a boat ride around the fjord at 1 and somehow I misjudged the distance and I ended up being only a few minutes early. But they left at about 1:02. Kind of like the movies. Which wait for no one. I was hustling there and thinking “I don’t want to be one of those people who complains that the world runs on time.”

2. I’m old.

I remember when my father was thrilled when he qualified for the senior discount. Baby boomers are horrified. The worst was in Vail, when the ticket seller at the bus station assumed I was a senior, eek! But I accepted the senior discount at the Nobel Peace Center, when I look in the mirror I know my time is fading.

3. WW1 was a hotbed of poison gas.

We never got to World War I in school, never mind World War II. The teachers just assumed we knew it by osmosis, not realizing even though they’d lived through history, we had not.

I’d heard of mustard gas, but I did not know it was so prevalent, along with other chemical weapons, in the first World War. They agreed not to use them in the future at the Geneva Convention. And this made me feel so good until I realized the U.S. tortures despite the Geneva accords. You want to be a good guy, you want to be able to scold those who are not. Furthermore, America has not eradicated all its chemical weapons yet.

The 2013 Nobel Peace Prize went to OPCW, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. It was only formed in 1997, but has helped effect a vast reduction in chemical weapon stores.

Makes you want to change course and be a do-gooder, because as you age personal achievement loses meaning.

4. Willy Brandt was a winner.

Yes, he received the Nobel Peace Prize. But I did not know he protested Hitler and moved to Norway and even went back to Germany on a fake passport.

Americans, especially Jews, are skeptical of all Germans. But from what I read today, Brandt was truly one of the good guys.

5. Henrik Ibsen trained to be a pharmacist.

It’s hard not to take the easy way out. Used to be our parents told us to be doctors or lawyers. Now college graduates go into finance because they want a safety net. But to wake up and decide to follow your heart…everybody talks about it, very few do it. Because it’s just too risky, especially in the arts.

6. Henrik Ibsen was the artistic director of the Christiana Theatre and it went bankrupt.

We tend to think of legends on a vertical rise to success, all victory, all the time. When the truth is there are numerous bumps in the road. Ibsen experienced rejection. But this does not mean everybody who experiences failure is destined to be a winner. Perseverance is definitely a component of success, but it’s more than that…it’s drive, it’s vision, it’s luck. Which is why the arts are populated by the winners and the sour grapes people. The losers always try to tear down the winners, believing their chance has been stolen, when the truth is the winners are usually special people with special talents. Not that all Top Forty hitmakers are, but is their work truly legendary?

7. You can walk right up to the Royal Palace.

But the guards don’t stare directly into space, like at Buckingham Palace.

8. Alcohol is expensive to discourage consumption.

What else are you supposed to do during the long, cold, lonely winter?

But would people drive different cars in the U.S. if gas were more expensive? They do in Europe. Then again, we’ve got an upper class so wealthy in the U.S. that it doesn’t care about gas prices. That’s the problem with the ultra-rich, they skew the game for the rest of us. Doubt me? Then try to get a good ticket to a desirable show. Prices are so high because certain people can afford it. You might scrimp and save to see your personal hero for $500-$1000, but there are tons of people who buy these tickets on a whim, who come late and leave early, whose main desire is oftentimes just to be able to say they were there.

9. Architecture inspires pride.

It’s not the Sydney Opera House, but the Oslo Opera House is almost as striking, and certainly legendary here. You walk on the roof! People want to feel good about their city, too bad too many people are so rich they build monuments to themselves, like Eli Broad’s art museum in L.A. Sure, it’s great to have the museum, but are our communities so broke that we cannot build these edifices ourselves? Oh, that’s right, we don’t want to pay taxes. The common good has gone out the window in the U.S. Taxes are high in Scandinavia. Living is good. And social mobility is even higher.

10. Traveling is about making mistakes.

I couldn’t find the right ferry until I saw it pulling out of port.

11. I love to people watch.

Just looking at how people dress, what their bodies are like, is utterly fascinating. There are fewer overweight people in Oslo than even Los Angeles, home of the U.S. super-skinny, but there are homeless people in Oslo, I saw them.

12. The fjord usually freezes, but not this year.

Is it an anomaly or global warming? Everybody is testifying about what a mild winter Oslo experienced, even though I’m cold and it’s April (I keep thinking about pulling out my gloves, but no one else does.)

This time of year there’s usually ice floating in the fjord, but there was none today.

How weird. I thought the Amsterdam canals would freeze, but that just turned out to be fiction, written by an American in “Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates.” So I figured the Norwegian fjords wouldn’t freeze either. And that’s our world today, we’re always making assumptions, and we’re always getting it wrong.