Friday is taco night!

Oslo is just like America, just a little bit different. There’s a safety net. And it’s cold, there were flurries just now. And they read the “New York Times” and watch Netflix.

Huh?

That’s what Helle said. She checked the “Times” on a regular basis. With all the scuttlebutt that newspapers are history, that they can’t survive, the truth is today’s informed generation wants to know what’s going on, and they do that by tuning in to those with boots on the ground. Opinion may rule on American TV, but in the rest of the world, everybody wants facts.

In Canada too!

The only ones uninformed are Americans.

So the fastest way to get here was via United. Through Newark. There was only one seat left when I booked, by the window. I don’t know about you, but if you confine me, then I’ve definitely got to pee. And my social anxiety has me worried about bothering my seatmate. Once upon a time, I used to ask to switch, but that was before everybody decided the aisle was desirable.

And I read the newspapers, I had a lot of time, the plane left LAX an hour late. I was getting spilkes, was I gonna miss my connection?

Whew, I made it. But then we sat on the tarmac in Newark for two hours. One runway was closed for construction, another for weather and only one was available to come and go so I finished my periodicals to get ready to delve back into Ben Fong-Torres’s Little Feat book and finally we hit the air.

Flying into Oslo… It was like frozen tundra. Small hills, plenty of snow.

But at least there were trees! Vetle’s father grew up in Norway’s northernmost town, where there are no trees and no mountains, it’s just flat, it’s a sixteen hour drive from Oslo, you can see the Northern Lights.

And my driver kept telling me how expensive Norway was. He was an English bloke who couldn’t stay away from a Scandinavian blonde and now he’s a resident, and was a fount of information. Transplants always make the best guides.

He told me it was all about the oil. That’s why Norway hadn’t joined the European Union, it had too much money. And with everything imported, everything is so expensive, ten or fifteen bucks for a beer, at least that’s what he said. But my limited investigation proved it to be so, as I was dividing by six, trying to figure out what things really cost.

After checking into the Thief, yes, that’s the name of my hotel, I took a stroll towards the Fortress, the fourteenth century military bastion, and therein I saw a sign for the Norway Resistance Museum.

I’m a sucker for World War II history. I grew up just after, as did England’s classic rockers, it affects our world view.

But I did not know Germany occupied Norway, because I’m an American, from the greatest country in the world, where everything is better and most people can’t even name the Presidents on Mt. Rushmore.

Yes, the Germans launched a surprise attack, back in 1940, before the U.S. was even in the war. And Norway was unprepared. And the Germans took over. And there was a Norwegian who turned, a sympathizer who wanted to set up a German government.

And the truth is, Norway was occupied for essentially the entire duration. There was occasional help from the British, and eventually some boats from the Americans, but it was a matter of standing up to the powers that be, hoping they didn’t shoot you or send you off to a camp.

They had radios. And underground newspapers. (Do you remember underground newspapers, they were all the rage in the late sixties, long before Tumblr!)

And the Germans just could not defeat the people. They purged the underground newspapers, but they reappeared. Because with their backs against the wall, people tend to stand up for what they believe, it’s hard to convince them otherwise.

And the truth is we in the U.S. are unafraid of Canada and Mexico, they’re not going to invade. But in Scandinavia, Northern Europe…the countries are all so close!

Makes me feel so alive. Traveling opens your horizons, broadens your world, makes you see how tiny you truly are and how you think you know everything, but you don’t.

And after getting kicked out of the museum because I read the sign wrong, I thought they closed at five but it was four, I emerged into rain.

You’ve got to know, I haven’t lived in the east for oh-so-long. Grey skies and precipitation, they’re anomalies in Southern California.

My shoes are soaked and my pants are sticking to my legs and I’m loving it, fighting the elements, living the hard life, it builds character.

So after showering I went to dinner with Helle and Vetle. They both had iPhones. Vetle tethered mine to his so I could use the net to download the transportation app.

Yes, that’s how they do it here. You pay online.

There are so many things that are better here.

But Helle would still like to spend time in the States, believing it’s just too safe in Norway. Kind of like how Canadians say the country’s a giant high school, with everybody knowing each other and anybody who stands out being torn down.

But I told her it wasn’t that different. Except for a lot more land and a lot more poor people. And the middle class is struggling for money, the government doesn’t pay for public college and refund 60% of your living loans when you graduate, you’re on your own.

And I asked Helle and Vetle what true Norwegian cuisine would be, what the national food is.

And that’s when they told me TACOS!

Huh?

Started in the nineties, Tex-Mex became the rage. Even our Swedish waitress, who moved to Norway for the increased pay, agreed.

You can buy Santa Maria salsa in the grocery store!

And you can watch “House of Cards” on Netflix. And “Game Of Thrones” on HBO Nordic.

You see it is a very small world. And the truth is excellence translates. Whether it be the iPhone, which they believed had a 70% penetration, or Spotify, which they both subscribe to, or the aforementioned “New York Times.”

Same as it is back home.

Only completely different.

The Thief

Resistance Museum

Dinner at Festningen Restaurant

TATTLER

Start here. Because you know this one, most probably in its Linda Ronstadt incarnation from “Hasten Down The Wind,” the album with the Karla Bonoff covers.

Ry and his producer Russ Titelman take credit for writing it…along with Washington Phillips, whose version I’ve also included, it’s quite the blueprint.

Anyway, the soul of the guitar playing will immediately infatuate you, it’s like sitting down in an overstuffed chair.

This is from “Paradise and Lunch,” Ry’s fourth solo album, quite the comeback from the disappointing “Boomer’s Story.” But it was the second record that broke Ry through, “Into The Purple Valley.”

TEARDROPS WILL FALL

We bought these albums on recommendation, usually in the rock press, we had no idea what they sounded like until we broke the shrinkwrap and dropped the needle. Oftentimes we were surprised.

And this was the case with “Into The Purple Valley.” Yes, they told us the songs were from the Dust Bowl era, truly ancient, but we were not prepared for the sound.

But this was back when everything didn’t have to sound the same, when it was a badge of honor to have your own sound.

And I’m starting here with “Teardrops Will Fall,” because like “Tattler,” it’s easily digestible.

It’s reflective, and it will make you so too.

MONEY HONEY

A story song. About the power of cash.

The mandolin, the electric guitar and the female vocals…”Money Honey” is a tour de force, you’ll find yourself singing it at the strangest moments. It enters your brain and it stays there.

F.D.R. IN TRINIDAD

There are so many words, Ry can barely squeeze them in. As a result, you end up knowing them. Cordell Hull is famous in my world because he was mentioned in this song.

Yes, Ry Cooder was looking back in an era when everybody else was looking forward. He was imploring us to slow down and see what had happened as opposed to what was coming down the pike.

BILLY THE KID

Not the only song about the outlaw, but the best.

Once again, the mandolin is what hooks you.

ON A MONDAY

It’s all about the picking.

And the slide guitar.

And the hypnotic groove.

And the story that follows the days of the week.

HEY PORTER

It’s so SAD!

Written by Johnny Cash after exiting the armed forces, you can hear the anticipation for a return to regular life.

VIGILANTE MAN

A Woody Guthrie tune, it sounds like there’s no one else around. As if Ry is playing and singing by himself on a porch in Oklahoma.

ALIMONY

Listening to “Into The Purple Valley” is like falling down a rabbit hole, you get so deep you want more. So you go back and buy the initial LP, “Ry Cooder,” which is a bit too slick and not as good, but contains gems nonetheless, like this.

Yes, sometimes it takes a while to get it right. Or to put it another way, you’ve got to get it wrong to get it right. After making his first album, Ry knew what he wanted on his second. He stripped it down, it got more authentic. Or maybe it’s as simple as adding Jim Dickinson into the Van Dyke Parks/Lenny Waronker production stew.

Look at this one, look at that one
Tell me, do they look like me?

Ry isn’t afraid to play the scumbag. He doesn’t want to PAY!

DO RE MI

A famous Woody Guthrie song that I didn’t discover until I heard Ry Cooder’s rendition.

The truth is you need that do re mi, now more than ever. Even if you want to stay home as opposed to moving to California.

California’s a Garden of Eden
It’s a paradise to live in or see
But believe it or not
You won’t find it so hot
If you ain’t got that do re mi

ONE MEAT BALL

That’s all he could afford!

Not simple to get into, you’ll find this one running through your brain endlessly.

COMIN’ IN ON A WING AND A PRAYER

The one true keeper off “Boomer’s Story,” I was so enraptured with Ry that I bought the album and kept playing it over and over trying to get into it, but I couldn’t. Sometimes you miss.

But not on this one cut.

JESUS ON THE MAINLINE

Like I said, “Paradise and Lunch” was a complete return to form. It’s probably Ry’s best album.

Hear this track a few times and you’ll find yourself running around saying…

CALL HIM UP!

TAMP ‘EM UP SOLID

A train song that opens “Paradise and Lunch,” it starts off quietly and gets louder, as if the train has come over the horizon to pick you up to take you on a ride.

Its magic is its understatedness. Subtle, when done right, eclipses in-your-face.

DITTY WAH DITTY

As if you entered a roadhouse and there was a rollicking piano player and a guy picking and singing this song, in love with the mood they’re in. You feel privileged just to be INCLUDED!

FOOL FOR A CIGARETTE/FEELIN’ GOOD

From back when smoking was still reasonable, before it became the scourge of the lower class.

It’s hypnotic.

I GOT MINE

“Chicken Skin Music” was much better than “Boomer’s Story,” but it was kind of a treading water move, it seemed too similar in tone to “Paradise and Lunch,” however it is very good. Start here.

DOWN IN HOLLYWOOD

From “Bop till You Drop,” which was endlessly promoted as the first digitally recorded pop album, if only as much time had been spent on the music.

But this track, cowritten by Ry and Tim Drummond, actually got scads of airplay, it made Ry a known quantity.

LITTLE SISTER

Not a revelatory version of the Elvis hit, but worth hearing.

And from here it was downhill…

It’s almost as if Ry had paid so many dues that when others were paying attention he no longer cared about delivering.

But Ry did get his moment in the movies, his soundtrack work eclipsed and then replaced his solo work.

And eventually there came the Buena Vista Social Club and more solo records, but really it’s Ry’s early work that stands the test of time.

Start with his slide work on “Memo From Turner” and play the above. There’s more than that, but it’s a good place to start.

Rhinofy-Ry Cooder Primer

I haven’t watched in a long, long time.

But there was a time when I couldn’t miss it. It was the SNL of its day. It was our program. With our sensibilities and irreverence.

Yes, once upon a time the baby boomers were the younger generation, champing at the bit to replace our parents. But now we’re fading off into the sunset, just like Dave.

It’s hard getting old. You lose the drive. The need to prove yourself. To pull yourself up and demonstrate that you’re worthwhile. Age and you start to accept who you are and where you are, the die has been cast, your fate has been determined.

Get old and you don’t want to try new products, you believe efforts to change the world are futile, you know life is no longer about acquisitions but stories. Friendships and the tales that are told are everything. If you watch late night TV…you don’t, because you’re already asleep. And if you’re up at that hour, you’re watching Netflix, or your DVR, not the endless parade of celebrities selling stuff.

But at first, those celebrities wouldn’t do Dave’s show. He was on uber-late, when VCRs were just becoming ubiquitous, when the only people up were us.

So suddenly we knew who Larry “Bud” Melman was. Biff was one of our friends. The whole menagerie of people on the show…we knew them, long before we were familiar with Howard Stern’s Wack Pack.

Yes, Letterman was the first person to put Howard on national television. And show business is all about loyalty, Howard’s never forgotten it. And Howard’s hitting his stride right now.

But Dave is getting out of the way.

You could see it coming. His talk of antidepressants. Going on Alec Baldwin’s podcast and declaring that he just didn’t have it in him to work that hard anymore, to come up with all those stunts.

Many of which were conceived by his then girlfriend Merrill Markoe, who has been forgotten to history. Ain’t that always the case. The manager or the label may make all the money, but the act gets the fame, and fame is forever.

You watched to see what they’d come up with next. Not only Stupid Pet Tricks and the Alka-Seltzer suit, but the location shoots, how they made Sirajul and Mujibur stars. Unlike today, Letterman and company were poking fun at show business, as if to say I KNOW I’M A GAP-TOOTHED COMEDIAN, I KNOW I’M ONLY HERE TEMPORARILY!

If you don’t drink the kool-aid, you can have fun with it.

And Dave did.

Until he moved to 11:35.

Then he put on a suit, got rid of the wrestling shoes and sport jacket, he got slick, but we didn’t care, because suddenly Dave was God, back when whomever aired at 11:35 was so.

Those days are long gone.

But what killed Dave’s reign at the top was hosting the Oscars. Because unlike phony actors, Dave’s got an edge, he’s not an air-kissing ass-kisser. As a result, the press turned on him and then the public and soon middle of the road Jay Leno held the crown, and mostly kept it in the ensuing decades.

Not that Dave was no longer good. It’s just the era had passed. Kind of like Jimmy Page or Paul McCartney. They’re still talented, they can still do good work, but it’s not up to the standard of Zeppelin or the Beatles.

And one must mention acts, because Dave featured one every night, and although these performances could not mint instant stars, some were so powerful they could not be forgotten. Like Melissa Etheridge stamping her foot to “I’m The Only One.” Or my personal favorite, Sinead O’Connor doing “You Made Me The Thief Of Your Heart.” I can still see them in my mind’s eye. Back when music still ruled the culture, back when your performance was more important than your bank account.

And unlike Johnny, Dave didn’t really do interviews, he wasn’t so good at it. But hijinks would ensue.

And you never fast-forwarded past the monologue. Because the thrill was to watch Dave recover from the too often mediocre jokes that fell flat, twisting those lips, grimacing, tossing off a one liner.

And then there was the Top Ten list. Which triumphed because it was irrelevant.

And then there was Dave’s mother, most memorably at the Olympics.

Dave may have revered Carson, but he made late night his own.

And now everybody does his show. It’s comedy as opposed to interviews. But no one does it as well. And Jimmy Fallon’s failing is he’s nice, you can take him anywhere. Dave was not invited and stayed home anyway, knowing his job was TV host, not celebrity.

And he’s still got it. You hear it on podcasts, you see it when he’s got a favorite guest next to him, the sparks, the fun. It’s not rehearsed, the key is to spar, top each other, get in a jab, it’s not safe, at least it never was at 1:35.

But the truth is the format is antiquated. We don’t all assemble in front of the set every night. An appearance barely moves the needle. And everybody’s conscious of repurposing content for the web, where the eyeballs truly are.

But you have to wake up at some point and admit your time is done, that it’s unseemly to compete with those far younger for eyeballs even younger than they are. You let it go.

But still, it’s sad. It’s the end of an era.

Derek Jeter did not invent baseball.

But David Letterman invented late night television. Or shall we say he changed the rules, modified the game. And we were drawn to him for just this reason. In a world where rules were everything, with so much money involved in network television, Dave was willing to throw out the book and go his own way.

So, so long Dave. You’ll live on in our hearts. At least we baby boomers, whose lives were changed by you, you filled a niche we didn’t know we had and your memory will be lost to the sands of time, but so will we.

And so long Jay Leno. You were the best comic of the era, Dave made you a star, but when you got your turn you believed ratings equaled quality and you kowtowed to your bosses, most of whom we don’t remember the name of and are already gone.

And so long the era of the baby boomers. You were the largest segment of the population, you pushed and pulled and changed the world.

But now it’s someone else’s time.

And it won’t be on late night television. It’ll probably be online. But one thing we know for sure, the next star’s luminance will be comprised of the same elements that made David Letterman king – irreverence, ingenuity and the ability to poke fun at yourself. Add to that a great team which Dave adored and respected and the belief that it was all about the show, hitting the note every night as opposed to embellishing his celebrity.

The Jimmys will keep talking. Conan will continue to labor in obscurity.

But now there will be a giant vacuum at the center. Because someone’s got to lead. And the late night leader just hung up his gloves.

Melissa Etheridge “I’m The Only One”

Sinead O’Connor “You Made Me The Thief Of Your Heart”

BOOKSTORES

There was a front page story in the “New York Times” on the dearth of bookstores in Manhattan. I’m sick and tired of all the baby boomers lamenting the loss of yesterday. Sure, rents are high, sure Manhattan is quick becoming an artist free world, but that’s because of income inequality, the loss of bookstores is about digital, there’s a phenomenal store known as Amazon just one click away on the web.

And if you hate Amazon, you hate anybody who disrupts the past and makes things easier in the future. Let’s put it this way, we all abhor the fact that Wal-Mart eviscerated downtown, but now we see that Amazon was gonna do it anyway, and isn’t it interesting that Wal-Mart does so poorly in the Internet sphere.

Everybody wants cheap prices all the time. For all the hogwash about bringing manufacturing back to the U.S., no one wants to pay $1000 for a flat screen or the same price for a smartphone, that’s what globalization brings you.

As for bookstores, digital won. The fact that the boomers don’t know it yet does not make it untrue.

Youngsters are not addicted to physical books. But they are addicted to reading, and this is a good thing.

DATA

“The Dollar-And-Cents Case Against Hollywood’s Exclusion of Women”

And the nerds inherit the earth.

While you’re complaining that you have to take math in school, Nate Silver and the rest of the nerds are utilizing data to gain new insights and change entire industries.

Never again will talking heads bloviate about election results. Oh, maybe on Fox, where it’s about drumming idiots into submission with falsehoods, but the younger generation doesn’t watch cable TV news anyway. They’ve become inured to looking at the data.

And this data says that the Hollywood trope that no one wants to see females in movies is untrue.

You can argue with the Alison Bechdel paradigm, but the truth is Hollywood is undergoing a wrenching transition based on fact as opposed to feeling.

This is bad because it turns out people overseas do want to see action movies.

But this is good because the fivethirtyeight story will have an impact.

But it didn’t have an impact in a vacuum. The story appeared in the L.A. “Times” today.

Point being, doing good work is no longer enough, you need a publicity firm to get the word out. Which I’m sure fivethirtyeight had here.

It’s a sad world, but you’ve got to work it. In other words, to quote Pete Townshend, “meet the new boss, same as the old boss”…gatekeepers are kings once again, they may be different people, but they’re as powerful as ever.

When there’s cacophony, he with the most reach wins. Which is why we have superstar acts and a ton of wannabe and middling ones bitching that they just can’t get traction, they just can’t get money, the whole world is unfair.

But the truth is you’ve got to be great and you’ve got to have a team behind you.

Sorry.

Meanwhile, data has limited impact on creativity in music. Where it’s not about story and rarely done by teams.

Oh, that’s right, the Top Forty is dominated by teams making the same repetitive crap. Which is why even Top Forty is a backwater. You can tell that to Pitbull, no matter what he says on Howard Stern.

MICHAEL LEWIS

This story’s been told definitively twice before.

Once in “Wired” and once in “Newsweek.”

But neither one had traction.

I wrote about the one in “Newsweek”

you can read it here: The Information Age

And as a result my readers told me about the story in “Wired.”

But neither had any traction.

Because neither had the PR team/expertise of Michael Lewis.

Now the “Newsweek” article was written by Tom Wolfe, our preeminent cultural arbiter, who wrote how flash traders eclipsed the Masters of the Universe. Read it here:

Eunuchs of the Universe: Tom Wolfe on Wall Street Today

I’ve purchased Michael Lewis’s new book, I have not read it yet (I bought it via Amazon, it was delivered to my Kindle instantly the day it went on sale, the problem here is..?)

I love Lewis. But I love Tom Wolfe even more. Lewis is cerebral. Wolfe is emotional. Wolfe makes flash trading come alive.

But without “60 Minutes,” with the limited impact of “Newsweek,” Wolfe’s article went nowhere.

Illustrating it’s all about promotion.

As for “Wired”‘s article:

Raging Bulls: How Wall Street Got Addicted to Light-Speed Trading

it predated “Newsweek”‘s and was nowhere near as well-written as Wolfe’s, so it got no traction beyond the magazine’s readers.

Furthermore, what we’ve got here is the book business imitating the music business. Yes, this is a Beyonce move. No one knew about the Michael Lewis book, it launched and was on sale immediately and the news was everywhere. Will the impact last?

MARK CUBAN

He was quoted in the “New York Times” re the Michael Lewis book.

Cuban has figured out the modern paradigm better than the musicians.

Establish a persona as a thinker and a doer, willing to color outside the lines, and then be in the media all the time.

Cuban is respected because of his wealth and he walks a line where he is never overpromoting/becoming a buffoon.

Cuban is everything Jay Z and the wannabes wannabe. He’s a rich star.

And he’s staying that way by being in the news constantly. Always weighing in because the media asks. And pontificating on his blog. He’s firing on all cylinders.

This is the modern paradigm. Which is why Mark Cuban will probably outlive Michael Lewis’s book.

Maybe not.

FACTS

People  hate ’em. Especially those with an agenda.

This week Paul Krugman wrote a story debunking the myth of the skills gap. You can read it here:

Jobs and Skills and Zombies

Even the President is ignorant here. He was referencing the skills gap in Michigan yesterday.

The point is, everyone is swayed by the wind, and even though there are smart people who’ve devoted their lives to subjects, no one wants to give them any credit, especially if they work for that left wing organ known as the “New York Times.”

Left wing? That’s because the right wing labeled it so! The “New York Times” wrote negatively about the Obamacare website, the “Times” will criticize the left, the right won’t criticize the right.

But let’s not make this about politics, let’s stay with ignorance.

In this data-driven world, the uneducated and those with an agenda believe in being uninformed.

Just imagine if you were uninformed in tech, if you didn’t believe in the data.

Facts rule in tech, which is why tech is ruling us.