Andy Wirth is CEO and cofounder (with Bode Miller) of Peak Skis. Wirth previously was the president and CEO of Squaw Valley Ski Holdings (parent company of what is now known as Palisades Tahoe), and before that he worked at Steamboat. Yes, we cover Peak skis and the ski industry, but also tune in to hear about Andy’s skydiving accident in which his arm was nearly completely severed, as well as his history growing up in a military family, and fighting forest fires, and…

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/andy-wirth/id1316200737?i=1000631071612

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/07a6e87d-38bb-4507-8bdc-5f53e133a374/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-andy-wirth

What a movie! “Fair Play” is the kind of flick that used to play in the theatre, that opened to some intriguing reviews and then grew week by week by word of mouth until everybody you knew had seen it. And everybody you knew… Had been to college, wanted to make something of themselves, thought the world was their oyster until sometime in their life they realized they never reached the destination, or no longer believed in the destination, or accepted where they were, or ended up broken down on the side of the road and wondered what happened to them.

Now I seem to have established a dividing line, between the educated and the uneducated, between the hoi polloi and the elite. You’ve got it right there.

Used to be there was a continuum. The red state person might see an indie flick, might capture the Friedmans, but now everyone is on their own path, building their resumé, and they want to be damn sure they don’t look like the people they hate. This is the problem with DeSantis and Cruz and the rest of them who were educated at Ivy League institutions and now want you to believe they’ve rejected all they’ve learned, all the values of the elite, and are down in the pit with the great unwashed. What a bunch of b.s.

But “Fair Play” is on Netflix. Available to all. That’s one thing we can all afford, Netflix. So whatever end of the economic spectrum you are on you can press play and…

You’ll find a somewhat boring, somewhat slow movie. Yes, I’m looking for something that rivets me, that has me glued to the screen, that excludes all other thoughts. And that wasn’t “Fair Play” until…

You don’t know where the film is going. It takes a while to reveal the elements, to establish context, and then you’re fully engrossed.

What we’ve got here is the financial world. When I went to college the goal was to become a professional, a doctor, lawyer or maybe even an accountant. To rise above. To make a good upper middle class living. But then Reagan legitimized greed and that was not enough. Now you had to be a world-beater, you had to set the world on fire. Nerds inherited the earth. But they were not the only ones. You could drop out of college and make bank and put a dent in the universe in Silicon Valley, or you could finish your degree and get recruited by a consulting firm, or go straight to the bank and try to climb the ladder.

They work at a bank. Not really, they work at a fund. Which turns out to be highly respected. You see the rich have to park their money somewhere, and they’ve got to trust the people they invest with, because they’re busy making more money. So you vet different outfits, look at the numbers, lay down some cash and… Of course you’re diversified, you own real estate, but you’re in the market, and you need a firm to help you there. And that’s where Luke and Emily work, at the firm.

As you watch this movie you’ll scratch your head and wonder why anybody would take this path. It’s simple, the money. You’ll learn this as the film unspools. Yes, you can make so much money that you can blow thousands meaninglessly.

Don’t confuse these financial people with celebrities. Celebrities make it rain in bars, are all about the exterior, their image, whereas these financial titans are all about the interior, the money. Well, within the club you want to possess the accoutrements. A house in the Hamptons, a place in Aspen, a NetJet account. But you don’t care what the great unwashed think of you. And you don’t want them to pay attention to you. Because if they knew how much money you were really making, creating nothing, there’d be revolution in the streets. Scratch that, if the gutting of the abortion laws didn’t cause riots in the street, income inequality won’t either. Those at the bottom believe they can make it to the top. But ask yourself if you fit the paradigm of those in this movie, whether you’ve got the bona fides, the CV.

And you are working for the man, ’round the clock, all you’ve got is the money. It’s just like working a service job, you’re counting the hours until you get off, so you can spend your cash on what really interests you, but you can’t give up the game, because the money is just too good.

Now I’m past this point in my life. The script has been written. I am who I am. But there’s a time in your late twenties and thirties when you’re laying pipe, when you’re figuring it out. All the people you knew, where are they, what became of them… Did they go home and never risk, never take a chance in the big city? Did they get married right away and become slaves to their responsibilities or are they still in the hunt. You think everybody’s part of your cohort. But ultimately you wake up one day and realize the journey is yours alone, no one else really cares about you.

But for a while there…

And you’ve got a relationship. Maybe established in college or graduate school, maybe in your job. And you’re so connected while disconnected at the same time. You’re in it together, but that’s nearly impossible. One person ascends the ladder before the other, there is tension…

All the elements of the late twenties/early thirties relationship are here. The quickie, the need to do it anywhere and everywhere. The carnality is palpable, it drives you, you’re firing on all cylinders, walking a wire only you can see, and it’s thrilling and depressing and confounding all at the same time.

I’m not going to tell you the plot points of “Fair Play.” I’d never even heard of “Fair Play” until I saw an article in the paper, how it was a hit at Sundance, how it was sold for double digit millions, and it was on Netflix.

In other words, there was no friction. It was in my mind and I could act.

I’m not going to the theatre, never ever. What a rip-off. But even worse is the amount of time involved. But the bottom line is oftentimes I’m not in the mood and when I am in the mood it’s between screenings or…

But to turn on the TV and the Roku, push the button on Netflix, that required little effort. I wanted to see “Fair Play.” Because the article said people had visceral reactions to it, not all the same, and they wanted to talk about it, and that’s my kind of movie.

Actually, while the film was running, I was playing my own life in parallel. Thinking about events and feeling emotions that I hadn’t been in touch with in years. The movie evoked them. That’s one of the elements of great art.

And “Fair Play” is not perfect. I’m not sure I completely accept the ending. But the stops along the way, I recognize so many of them. And you might too.

This film is true to life in a way that the tentpole movies are not. Its focus is narrow, and therefore it resonates even more. It gets the intimate truth right, the truth you feel inside that no one else is exposed to.

And relationships at this age have ups and downs, and makeup sex and…

You want to watch this movie.

Trailer (only watch this if you need convincing, better to start the film cold): https://tinyurl.com/3u3re5fh

What do you want me to say?

My inbox is filling up with people asking me to comment on the war in Israel. But in today’s modern world, the truth is self-evident, in the news. But having said that, it is well-documented that X/Twitter is a cesspool of misinformation. But now the truth is out, now you know what it’s like to be Jewish, now you know that Hamas and the rest of these Arab countries won’t be satisfied until Israel is wiped from the face of the earth.

But you probably don’t know the history anyway. How the Palestinians were offered their own country back in the forties and refused to accept it, because they insisted that the Jews not have their own country. 

Not that Israel is perfect. As a matter of fact, recently its politics/government has been insane, with Netanyahu trying to eliminate democracy, or at least put a huge dent therein. Then again, there’s this same force in America, a march to autocracy, and it’s based on hatred, Biden runs a crime family and the Democrats are pulling the country down the drain. And if you believe that mantra, you probably believe that the Palestinians are an innocent people unfairly oppressed by the Israelis and…

You don’t think about dying in America. Maybe they’ll shoot up your kids’ school, but you need a gun in your house to protect yourself so you can commit suicide when depressed or shoot a supposed intruder who is your friend. You think you’re safe. But if you’re an Israeli, you must constantly look over your shoulder, you must constantly be on guard.

But having said that, the problem is that Bibi took his eye off the ball. Rust never sleeps, nor does Hamas or Iran or Hezbollah.

But that’s all history.

Sure, innocent people will be killed in Gaza. But these are the same people who chose to be represented by Hamas.

Oh, I don’t want to get into the details. I don’t want to give you specifics that you can argue. I just want to say the world is an unsafe place and if you think it can’t happen to you, you’re wrong. Like Ukraine… Ignoring Ukraine, refusing to fund it, is like ignoring a drought in the central California valley and then being surprised when there’s a shortage of grapes or lettuce or…

We’re all in it together, and one thing is for certain, we can’t all get along. Even worse, we’re not even starting from the same facts.

But death’s honesty, that’s real. Once you’re gone it doesn’t matter what you think, because you can’t think.

Anything I write here will only dig a deeper hole, will only piss off those who may not agree with me, they can nitpick something I said and bounce back.

But where is Roger Waters now? All those pro-Palestinian agitators, the BDS people, so upset with Israel that they want to see its demise so the Palestinians can live peacefully…

I’ve got nothing to add. It’s all there if you want to see it.

It was a surprise, that’s one of the big stories. That Israel didn’t see it coming.

What else are we not seeing coming.

It appears after the 1/6 convictions that no one is going to rise up in the streets to defend Trump. But it’s not an impossibility.

And it’s also not an impossibility that Trump is not the nominee. Then how does Biden look as a candidate? Strange things happen, isn’t that the point here? I was surfing my phone late Friday night, catching up on the news, the last thing I expected to see was war in Israel. It reminded me of the death of Princess Diana, 9/11, I was just checking in online and I was confronted by information that did not compute, that I could not easily digest. It was visceral. No one had e-mailed me about it, it was personal and private, yet ultimately universal.

That’s what it’s like to be living in the world today. You get the information alone and immediately start texting people, did you see? That’s how you get the word out.

We’ve got tons of information, yet people are still fighting wars like they always have.

And the problem remains the Jews. If only we can get rid of the Jews, everything will be all right.

What a bunch of crap that is, if for no other reason that there aren’t even that many Jews on the planet. But a scapegoat, a group that many have a negative opinion about, who are ultimately expendable… Yup, shoot ’em up in the synagogue, throw rockets at them, it’s those people, the other, the loudmouths, the money-changers, that are the problem.

It’s Hamas. But it’s also Kanye West. And the protesters in Charlottesville.

I’m not changing any minds here. I’m paying attention just like you. The hostages…it appears the Israelis value human life more than Hamas, otherwise they’d blow Gaza to smithereens.

We don’t know exactly how this plays out. But one thing is for sure, the vaunted Israeli military…turns out not to be all-knowing, omnipotent, our perception was incorrect, things change.

And the Iron Dome… The last time Hamas fired rockets commentators said that Israel should share this technology with the Palestinians.

Yes, it’s clear, the Israelis are the oppressors and the Palestinians are the oppressed. Really? Tell me, how do you live, how do you defend yourself, when the stated goal of your enemy is your complete demise, when this is not the first rodeo, when Jews have been eradicated, made pariahs for centuries.

Yup, especially you Jews. Keep on with that Palestinian b.s.

What a long strange trip it’s been, and continues to be.

Forget about the music, focus on the AUDIENCE!

WHAT?

Of course the music is important. But you’re no longer playing to gatekeepers, there are no rules, no A&R guys scratching their chins. Oh, of course those people still exist, but if you’re playing the hit single game you’re on a fool’s errand, or in country music, which is always a step behind the pop game, as in it’s still controlled, but that won’t be forever, as terrestrial radio continues to diminish in importance.

You used to depend on the label, on intermediaries, to build your audience. Now that’s your responsibility. And no one cares how you do it. If someone is judging your music, ignore them. Phish never had a hit single. And neither has Tedeschi Trucks. But they both do a ton of live business, have fans who go to every show and can’t stop testifying. The one act that appears most in my inbox is not Drake, or the Weeknd, or Taylor Swift, it’s Phish. Their fans can’t stop telling me about them. Now even the managers don’t know how many Phish fans there are, whether it’s the same people going to every show, but one thing’s for sure, there are very few of them compared to the aforementioned big three, but they’re dedicated, they lay out their dough, Phish shows are swimming in attendees, the band can even do festivals!

And it’s not only Phish. There’s Jason Isbell. On a smaller scale Wilco. These are two other acts people bug me about. Once again, who cares about the music, it’s not made for you, it’s made for those addicted, the fans. And if the circle grows it will be because of these fans, not mainstream media. The media is just a victory lap, especially for these acts that have been around for a while. The looky-loos have already checked them out and either said yes or no, and once they’ve said no it’s nearly impossible to addict someone, there’s just too much in the pipeline, people don’t come back.

Of course you can have a popular record, but that does not mean you’ll have fans. And how many people are actually hearing that record?

As for Taylor Swift, she wouldn’t be a superstar if she hadn’t started out in country music. And Coldplay wouldn’t be selling out stadiums if they weren’t one of the last acts under the wire before the VH1/music television paradigm died. You can’t reach everybody today, world domination is nonexistent, forget about it, don’t stay at home polishing that one track that’s going to break you wide, instead go out and try to find fans, and if people don’t like what you’re doing figure out why and change it.

Those are the stories of today, people doing it their way, by themselves. Yes, Zach Bryan is now attached to Warner, but he started himself and plays by his own rules. And keeps putting out music, not caring about overwhelming the system, but satisfying his fans.

And if you want to be big, you must do the opposite of everybody else, just like the execrable Peter Thiel said. Don’t try to imitate, don’t do what everybody else does, that ship has sailed. You want to be unique, you want to create your own lane, you want to hoover up all the people everybody else ignores.

And want a tip? Make your lyrics, your story, personal. Yes, have an identity. Don’t get good makeup, unless that’s what you’re selling, don’t sing to hard drive, do it your way, so people can identify with you. I abhor the fact that Pink does her damn acrobatic act, I mean one tour okay, but forever? But she’s the only one doing it, and people clamor for tickets, so my opinion doesn’t matter. Also, she had hits before the entire system blew apart.

Forget the old rules. Forget protecting your interests. The music is just a vehicle to establish your audience. Don’t complain about Spotify payments. If anybody is listening, great. Odds of having a billion plays of anything, which pays quite well by the way, are incredibly low. Your songs are a demonstration, manna for the fans, who’ll go to the show, buy merch…

A manager is more important than a label. You don’t want someone who can schmooze as much as someone who has vision, who can execute your vision, who can make things happen. Someone who doesn’t depend on others but is a self-starter.

Forget the legacy acts. They were built in another era.

Forget pop, it’s too expensive. To make the music, to get known, and it all appears phony anyway.

As for hip-hop… That’s its own game, but the biggest people in it seem to be outsiders, who focus on authenticity more than an individual track. Then there are acts like Run the Jewels who have never had a hit, but have a huge audience.

But all that was in the past, and I’m talking about today.

It’s all from the bottom up. The creator is king. The platform is irrelevant. You use them all. Yes, you must be on social media, yes you must reveal your inner life, must detail your life constantly, but not to grow your audience, but to satiate the one you already have, the one in control of your career, the one that will grow you…or not. If you don’t know your biggest fans, you’re doing it wrong. Believe me, they won’t stop coming to shows, they won’t stop hanging out, they’ll contact you on the internet, empower them.

If you have a catchy song…

I’d argue that Dave Matthews was broken by “Ants Marching,” and that was never a hit. But just like Coldplay, Dave and his band broke in the old era, with VH1, don’t try to emulate Dave, other than his focus first on his audience. Dave doesn’t appear to be playing the game, and he’s got a sense of humor about the whole thing, he’s only serious when he’s actually playing.

I don’t care what you think, it does not matter. Does not matter what I think. It’s not about slicing and dicing, analyzing the tracks, if you’re not interested, fine. It’s just a matter of whether SOMEONE is interested, and whether the act can grow the fire. Yes, you’re starting with kindling, and the spark might be a catchy tune, or something you do live, but it’s not about a typical hit massaged by the machine. Hell, you could work with Max Martin, create a radio-friendly track, but odds are it won’t help your career unless someone is spending a ton of money and telling you what to do, and you don’t want that, because these people DON’T KNOW! Only you know, because you’re online, you’re on stage, you’re in touch with your audience, you’re feeling the vibe, you know what works and what does not.

As for money?

Your goal is to give up your day job. Which might never happen. But if it does, don’t dream of mansions… Those are for somebody else, mostly people not in music at all. You want to be able to travel by bus, and have enough money for freedom when you’re not working, to maybe go on vacation, possibly to an island. It’s a lifestyle, you should be thrilled you can make a living playing music.

Having said that, and I hate to insert this caveat, I hate to go negative, but no one is entitled to a living playing music, absolutely no one. If you’re complaining about streaming payments, ticket fees, how the world is stacked against you, you’re a chump. It’s just like every other business. There are hurdles, a labyrinth, and you have to figure out how to navigate, how to establish a path. And if you can’t do it, it’s your fault. Don’t be a sucker, don’t complain, no one is listening, just work. You’ll know when you’ve got it right, you’ll hear from the audience, and those are the only people who matter.

The downside is world domination is nearly impossible. The upside is you’ve got all the tools to do it yourself, and most of them are completely free, if not close to it. Create whatever music you want. Get the word out however you want. Monetize however you want. There are no rules, you’re creating your path yourself. And it’s going to be unique to you.

If you’ve got people listening, don’t care if outsiders criticize your music, they’re just haters, you’re on to something, keep going.

Forget everything you ever knew. Forget reading music business books. Forget paying people for a leg up. Look into the mirror and have a conference with yourself, figure it all out yourself, it’s scary, but thrilling.

And entirely doable.

As a matter of fact, it’s the way to do it. Forget the labels and the publishers and the old media that are not hip. The agents are hip. That’s the most important person after your manager. But you can even make it without playing live if you’re innovative enough. But you need to let the people touch you. Which means you’ve got to be out there, honest, leaving some blood on the saddle.

There are more slots than ever. But only for truly creative people.

You can do it. Or maybe you can’t. But there are plenty who can. They’re inventing the new music business.