Now this clip isn’t riveting, you don’t sit on the edge of your seat fearful it’s going to end.

But when you see the women who started businesses because they learned how to code… When you see the Silicon Valley lifestyle, the working environment with free lunch and free dry-cleaning and a room to play with your band… You say I WANT SOME OF THAT!

That’s what’s being missed in all the coverage of entertainment and sports. The smart revolution. The point is made if you want a job in entertainment and sports today, never mind tomorrow, you’d better know how to code. Because these are data-driven enterprises. Data saved the Oakland A’s.

And the clip does something no amount of charity or publicity has achieved…it humanizes Mark Zuckerberg. Makes him seem like the guy down the street, who you’d enjoy a pizza with, as opposed to an aloof autism victim with no sense of right or wrong.

And the guy who invented Valve… He’s like the rock stars of yore. What kind of bizarre world do we live in where the rock stars wear three piece suits, dress up in the latest fashions, and the coders get to wear hoodies and comfortable clothing?

One in which what is on the inside truly counts.

And that’s rarely the case in music anymore.

What’s inside Rihanna?

NOUGAT!

There’s certainly no intelligence, no critical thinking, hell, the songs are written by a factory of faceless people. She’s just a front.

But these coders are the real thing.

Even will.i.am is learning to code.

And Troy Carter is investing in tech. Not only because that’s where the money is, but the sky’s the limit and it’s exciting.

Everybody in America wants a free lunch. And I’m willing to give it to them, but not much more. I believe in the public safety net, but that’s it. You’re not guaranteed acclaim, fame and success. Hell, go on the reality TV show. Unless you’re a financial wizard you’ll be broke and forgotten in a matter of years, a joke.

But none of the coders in this clip are a joke.

You look up to them.

It’s clips like these that inspire you.

The same way watching the Beatles on “Ed Sullivan” inspired baby boomers.

And the Beatles were self-taught.

Just like Mark Zuckerberg. He was so thrilled by computing, by coding, that he dug deeper.

All the greats are self-taught. Because of raw inspiration and desire. They haven’t got time for you because they’re so busy pursuing their dream.

Right now, coders are changing the world.

Rock stars are not.

And that’s upside down.

But if you watch this clip you’ll understand. Because coders are everything rock stars are not. They’re smart, personable, and they do it their own way.

Yup, the rock star paradigm is old and tired. It was invented fifty years ago, had a good ten year run, was propped up by MTV and has had lemmings all over it ever since. It’s like being a fan of hula-hoops, or advocating the excellence of typewriters. It’s passe.

What’s the future of music?

Excellence.

Now, more than ever, if you can read music and you’ve practiced ad infinitum you’ve got a chance of succeeding.

And if you’re bitching about opportunity and piracy, you’ve lost the plot. These techies created their own business, so should you.

But if I were a teenager today, if I just graduated from college, the thought of coming to Hollywood to pursue a career in the entertainment field would never cross my mind.

I’d go to Silicon Valley. I’d pursue tech.

Watch this clip and you’ll know why.

You want to know these people, you want some of their action.

But there’s a bar. You’ve got to know how to code. To build.

Marketing comes last.

I can’t. I’m being left behind.

You shouldn’t be.

P.S. This clip has 1,647,817 views, and it was put up yesterday. You think virality is about bells and whistles. No, it’s about soul, it’s about being more than skin deep, it’s about making people think.

Oscar for the funniest speech goes to…

This is bouncing around the Internet burnishing Jennifer Lawrence’s image while the Academy is home slapping its back for a miniscule ratings increase not admitting it has nothing to do with Seth MacFarlane or the show itself but good movies and the desire to play where everybody else is.

Water-cooler moments.

That’s why Marissa Mayer is getting everybody to come back to work, inside the building. Turns out you can be really damn productive at home, but you’re just not that innovative. While Sheryl Sandberg is out starting a religion, getting into touchy-feely world whilst alienating her core audience on her way to running for office, Marissa Mayer is looking at the books and realizing Yahoo is a disaster and is willing to do what’s unpopular to right the ship.

Unlike the Academy.

End game today?

Death.

Just ask the L.A. “Times.”

Wanna know why the “New York Times” is selling the “Boston Globe”? Because all news is national now. Of course we need local reporting, then again, the “New York Times” breaks more L.A. stories than the local paper, but the Internet has brought us all together. We only need one Google, one Amazon, one iTunes and maybe only a couple of major newsgathering organizations. Scary, I know. Then again, how much reporting and how accurate were the regional papers anyway? And there are scores of sites digging deep on all topics if you’re truly interested.

And the point I’m making is if you think it’s yesterday’s world, you’ve already been left behind. Facebook has peaked and Turntable.fm has already died. Famous for a minute doesn’t count. It’s about the long haul.

Facebook established a paradigm. That we would never lose touch with anybody ever again, that everybody would be findable and reachable online. But we don’t have to do it on Facebook. And it takes too much time to update your profile. And who wants everybody to know everything anyway. If you think Facebook is the future, you’re still e-mailing jokes to your buddies on AOL. Times change, can you?

The Oscars are opaque. It’s all image. In a world where we’ve got photographers on every corner, looking for faux pas. Wanna do something off the record? Then do it in the bathroom, in the dark, alone, otherwise it’s open season, everything’s up for grabs.

So Jennifer Lawrence wins an Oscar and instead of kissing butt for the inane press corps, asking questions so dumb and so rote they’re not worth answering, she criticizes them and speaks the truth.

“What was the process of getting ready?”

I JUST WOKE UP AND TRIED ON THE DRESS AND IT FIT…

This along with the profanity and the comment about the inanity draws you in, the clip is magic, you want to watch it again, because this is a person you know, but she’s talented and a star.

Everything you knew about being a star is toast.

1. Have Edges

They’re the only things that can hook people. If you’ve rounded off all your edges and sanded off all your warts you may be pretty, but you’re damn uninteresting.

2. Know Your Audience

It’s not gatekeepers, it’s the end user.

Movie-makers are so busy kissing the butt of distributors and marketers that they’re missing the point. We know if a flick is a hit within hours of its release, oftentimes before, because of advance screenings. You’ve got a plethora of texters and tweeters spreading the word. Advertising is not what it once was. This clip already has more views than almost all late night television programs.

It’s directly from your heart to theirs. Be real, and true, and more people want more of you.

3. Irreverence

Our whole nation is questioning authority, wondering why? If you’re a true believer following the party line you’re ignored. The way Jennifer pokes fun at the proceedings puts you on HER team as opposed to THEIRS!

4. Honesty

We know when you’re telling the truth. So do so. Don’t worry about alienating the vocal minority… That’s what they are, a cadre of pissed-off people who don’t care about you but want to weigh in so they can be heard. Yup, they need the attention, and by responding you give them what they want.

5. Hate

It goes with the territory. As good as Jennifer Lawrence is in this clip, she’s still young, beautiful and rich. Not everybody likes that. So she’s gonna be attacked. Accept it. People have felt this way forever, they just didn’t have a way of expressing it, not in way you could hear. Life has become high school. With cliques and snark. Own it. Unlike the Academy. Which thinks it’s above it all, when nothing could be further from the truth.

6. Don’t Let Them Put You Down, Or In A Box

Defend yourself against the system. The old man asking if Jennifer thinks she’s peaked too soon… Talk about raining on her parade… She just won! It’s like putting a mic in front of someone who’s dying and asking if they’ve got any regrets. It’s not the time. And who cares about the answer anyway?

7. Don’t Take Yourself Too Seriously

If you act above us, we’re just going to be inspired to tear you down.

We’re looking for viral moments. And now they’re quantifiable. All YouTube clips have a counter. And, of course, the lame labels are trying to game the system, but not when it’s news, not when it’s an evanescent moment captured on tape. This clip will never have a billion views, but it’ll have enough to help Jennifer Lawrence open her next movie.

And how did it happen?

By breaking all the rules.

Hell, the action’s supposed to be on the screen, during the show!

But it’s small, off-guard moments that end up winning.

What are we gonna remember about the Oscar telecast? Seth MacFarlane, boobs? Even Babs?

No.

We’re gonna remember the mistakes, the honesty, the truth of this unscripted exchange.

It’s all about being forward-worthy.

Think about that when you create. Is what you’re doing so interesting that people are gonna want to tell others about it, without you imploring them to do so?

That’s the magic you’re looking for.

And it’s got nothing to do with perfection, it’s got very little to do with beauty.

It’s got to do with humanity. Life. Insight into what it’s like to be where Jennifer Lawrence is.

She won.

More than an Oscar.

The audience’s heart.

This Is Us-Real Live Roadrunning Spotify

Listen to that piano!

Yup, push the track to 4:13…AND HAVE YOUR MIND BLOWN!

This is why we go to the show, not to see the nitwits dance, not to see the fearful sing and play to tape, but to hear our favorite tracks just a little bit different, just a little bit off, just a little bit BETTER!

So I got stuck on “Prairie Wedding,” and it reminded me of how much I loved “This Is Us.” So I dialed up the 2006 Mark Knopfler/Emmylou Harris cut and I found out…I was just as  hooked, just as enamored as I was when I first discovered it, way back then.

And then I found the live version!

Let me tell you how I do it. I go to Sonos, I make a playlist, and then I play it in all my zones, all over the house.

And recently I’ve switched to MOG, which has an insanely terrible interface, but sounds just a bit better than Spotify, which has an intuitive interface but an absolutely horrible search function, hell I searched for “Real Live Roadrunning” multiple times and it didn’t appear, but today it did. Huh?

Anyway…

It’s easy. You can do it on your computer. Or your iPhone. You just hit the Sonos app, choose a music service, search and create a playlist.
And this playlist contained…

“This Is Us” – the studio version

“This Is Us” – the live version

“Prairie Wedding”

“Prairie Wedding” – Kenny Rogers version

“See The Changes” – studio version

“See The Changes” – live take from Wolfgang’s Vault

And eventually…

“Calling Elvis” – live take from Dire Straits’ 1993 “On The Night”

That Kenny Rogers version of “Prairie Wedding” is pretty good. Once upon a time the playlist contained the Del McCoury take, but it didn’t float my boat.

As for “Calling Elvis”… I saw Dire Straits at the Forum back in 1991, in support of “On Every Street,” and this was the highlight, the opening cut from that album.

So I’ve got five Sonos zones. One is to the stereo, which I rarely employ, because it’s too much of a pain in the ass to fire it up, the rest of the zones are plugged in and ready to go at all times. There’s one in the kitchen. One in the bedroom. One by my computer. And one that fires directly into the bathroom, where I do some of my best reading.

And for a week straight, I listened to this playlist. Incessantly. It made me feel good.

Ever think you’re over music? That the Top Ten doesn’t resonate and the indie stuff is just too lo-fi and grating? I do. Too many wannabes following bad trends to places I just don’t care about.

And then I hear “This Is Us.”

The lyrics are great.

But what captures you is the music. It’s a veritable TEAR!

You can’t sit on the couch. You can’t help but move. It’s like an invisible hand lifts you and forces you to dance.

And I love the studio version.

But the live take is just slightly imperfect. It breathes. It lives. And, as a result, SO DO I!

You see I’m doing my back exercises, I’m walking around the house, and I’m constantly pulling out my iPhone, to dial up the live take of “This Is Us” once again.

We’ve lost the plot. We still think it’s about charts, about money.

But it isn’t, it’s about MUSIC!

This is something the baby boomers know. Which is why they overpay to see the stars of yore. Ask young ‘uns, and you find out music is disposable, grease for the event, something to laugh at and discard. But for baby boomers, music is life itself. Because they remember when music drove the culture, ruled the earth.

And they’re constantly looking for more. But they can’t find it. Because Pandora suggests Journey when you plug in Jackson Browne and algorithms have no humanity.

I didn’t want to watch TV, I didn’t want to read, I just wanted to listen to “This Is Us.”

I wanted to go to the show. I felt optimistic. Like life could work out.

I was who I once was, who I used to be.

And it’s all because of this track made by a guy losing his hair and his band of unknowns along with a white-haired country singer.

You see it’s the playing.

Hell, I’m jitterbugging in my chair right now!

Listen to Knopfler peel off those notes.

And then the whole thing breaks down at the aforementioned 4:13 and there’s a piano part so subtle, so right, that it trumps Obama, “The New York Times” and all those right wing protesters who think if we just have less everybody will be happy.

No, that’s WRONG!

We want more!

We want you to practice and play. We want no restrictions. We want you to titillate us. We want you to TRY!

It’s been decades since I took piano lessons. But listening to the playing on “This Is Us” I want to do nothing so much as sit down at the keys and PLAY!

Not so you’ll pay attention, but for the sheer enjoyment.

That’s what music’s supposed to be.

Not an assault, like Beyonce’s appearance at the Super Bowl.

When done right, no dancing is necessary. Just playing. And singing.

And we need stars.

But even more we need the people behind them. The faceless minions, the journeymen who paid their dues when no one was watching so they could touch us when given their chance.

Listen to that piano part!

It’s “Hansel & Gretel.” It’s a walk in the dark. It’s rain on an autumn day. It’s your love in your arms, the one who got away in your mind’s eye. It’s all of this and more.

THAT’S MUSIC!

The Sound City Movie

She was that kind of lady
Times are hard

Desperation and desire. The key elements to rock stardom.

And Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham had both.

She’s back in town
And she’s looking around

From Phoenix to San Francisco to Hollywood.

That’s where you had to end up. You could start anywhere. But if you wanted to make it, you had to come to L.A. And what you found there surprised you. No city center. No three piece suits. Just a bunch of suburbanites just like you. And in the hallowed halls of recording studios, in the darkness, was where not only the sound of America was created, but the world. There was magic in studios. But it really didn’t begin until the band plugged in and started to play.

And from the hinterlands to Sound City was a very long journey. As AC/DC once sang, it’s a long way to the top if you want to rock and roll.

But not anymore. Five year olds can wail on their iPads. Record in GarageBand and then their parents can implore the rest of us to buy the production on iTunes. We’re inundated with dreck. And the ultimate desire is to get rich.

That used to be the byproduct. The goal was to REACH EVERYBODY!

Yup, you could be recording in an industrial park, but if you got it right people could be singing your song not only next week, but forevermore. Chances were slim. As were opportunities. So you made the most of them. You only had one shot…to change the world…and your life.

It’s not about technology, but people. In the almost unwatchable last third of this movie Trent Reznor, Josh Homme and Dave Grohl create music utterly riveting. With one hand on his laptop, Trent’s not worried about the tech, but the sound. It always comes down to the sound.

And the songs.

Without both, you’ve got nothing.

We knew what Sound City was. Because we read the credits. More than once. They were not in tiny CD type, they were big, in the center of the gatefold, on the inner sleeve. We not only knew the studios, but the guitar strings. Everything about the musicians and their music, because the music touched us, because it changed our lives.

And it hasn’t been that way in a very long time.

Because everybody’s not shooting high enough. They don’t need it enough. There wasn’t a single person in Dave Grohl’s studio telling him all that new material sucked, from Stevie Nicks to Lee Ving to Paul McCartney. Looked like they were having fun, but you don’t want to hear a single song ever again.

Then there’s “Lithium.”

Nirvana was hungry. They had to get it right. The songs didn’t need to be good, they needed to be great. And some things never change. If you’re still that great, everybody will know. And if not, you’re in an endless circle jerk thinking that everybody cares, when they don’t.

So you can skip the first few minutes. Until Dave pulls up at the studio.

And they tell the story of Buckingham Nicks and Fleetwood Mac.

Ooh, brings chills.

Mick Fleetwood is looking for a cheap studio.

And Keith Olsen pulls up the Buckingham Nicks album. Recorded there. At Sound City.

Do you know “Crying In The Night”?

Check it out here:

Buckingham Nicks – Crying In The Night

It’s the best Fleetwood Mac song you’ve never heard. Better than anything the band has done since “Rumours.” But because musicians are insane and their own worst enemies, it and the album it came from has never been released on CD. Even though the vinyl record populated baby boomers’ dorm rooms back in the seventies, when they bought that first Fleetwood Mac album with Stevie and Lindsey and needed MORE!

And when the sound comes out of the speakers, you TINGLE! Because it’s the essence. Music played by people who NEED IT! Buckingham and Nicks were always gonna break through, because they were never gonna give up. That’s what it takes, more than talent, PERSEVERANCE! You pay your dues, you get kicked around, and if you hang around long enough you make it.

You’ve got to be playing so long you get lucky.

And Buckingham and Nicks do. They’re picked up and rescued by Mick Fleetwood and the rest of the Mac. Look at the photos. They were so young, so skinny, so CUTE!

They were our rock stars.

Like Tom Petty and his Heartbreakers. Who were known by everybody BEFORE “Damn The Torpedoes” and “Refugee.” It’s not about everybody knowing your name, but a track so indelible they’ve got to play it again and again, that they can’t forget.

And yes, these tracks were all cut on the Neve.

But they would have been hits if they were cut ANYWHERE!

Don’t forget, the even bigger “Rumours” was cut up north, at the Record Plant. Studios aren’t everything.

But people are.

It was a different era. We were all paying attention. And if you got it right, you were as big and rich as anybody in the world. And you only answered to yourself. THAT’S why everybody wanted to be a rock star, the FREEDOM!

And it was hard work.

But it was worth it.

But then MTV made it more about looks than music. And the Internet blew the system apart. And if you don’t think this is a good thing, you’re never going to make it.

We need more documentaries like this. That illustrate how it once was. It’s like discovering a Dead Sea Scroll.

The arc is bad. It’s two movies in one. The story of a studio and the story of a board. Great moviemakers, like great writers, know it can only be about one thing. Add too much, even if it’s great on its own, and you muddy the waters, you ruin it. An expert knows sometimes you’ve got to leave the best things out.

But when they show what it was like back in the seventies, with the girls and the dope and the hope, all tied together by the music, you just want to crank it.

And you realize you can’t make it. That it’s only the special few who deserve our accolades.

And this movie features more than one.

And when the soundtrack blasts, you say THAT’S IT!

P.S. The “Sound City” movie is totally free at the above link. Not sure if that was Dave’s intention or a programming glitch, but put on your headphones and ENJOY!