“Rise”: https://amzn.to/3uKX5kO

She’s not the person I thought she was.

Not that I had a huge desire to read this book. I just reserved it at the library and when another book I was reading lost my attention I decided to skim “Rise,” but I got hooked.

Lindsey’s image… Beautiful untouchable champion. Smiling and fabulous everywhere. When she’s not complaining. No one can deny her skiing skills, but despite all the media, no one has ever pierced the surface of Vonn until now. She had to do it. Because the media is too busy promoting fables and only you know what is going on inside your head.

She’s a loner who has trouble making friends. She only feels comfortable on the hill. Skiing is everything. It adds structure to her life. And when things are not going well, she sinks, into depression.

Goals… That’s the first thing I got out of this book, you can’t get where you’re going if you don’t know where it is. We all need goals. Assuming you want to achieve excellence. Maybe the excellence you’re pursuing is private. Or maybe you’re more of a looker than a doer. But in truth, to achieve greatness you’ve got to have a goal.

Lindsey’s was to be in the Olympics. She had that revelation when she was nine years old and encountered Picabo Street.

Now when one gets older, one often laughs at our younger year role models. We can now see three dimensions, oftentimes they’re not that admirable. But when you’re younger, these icons have incredible effect on you, especially if you’re a loner who doesn’t really fit in, who isn’t cool.

Julia Mancuso is cool. Lindsey is always being compared to her, and always negatively. Lindsey herself tries to compete with Julia by stuffing kleenex in her bikini top, which comes out in the hot tub and exposes her and mortifies her. No matter what Lindsey does, she is not an insider, she is not cool. And all the coaches warm up to Julia. That’s Lindsey’s inspiration, surreptitiously hearing her coaches say they’re going to put Julia in the 2002 Olympics and not her. And Lindsey turns it on, makes the team and has the best results and then…nothing. Back to regular life, back to being the underdog to Mancuso. Lindsey thought the Olympics would be transformational, but they’re just another race. And then her career goes up and down and she’s thinking of giving up.

That’s what happens to many who achieve their goal. When they reach it and it is not satisfying, they can no longer do it anymore. Like rock stars. Oftentimes nonverbal outsiders who believe if they have hit records their lives will work. And then they do reach the pinnacle and then nothing changes and they can never do it again, they just can’t find the motivation.

But Lindsey has her father.

Would it be better if we all had parents supportive of our dreams? And enough money to achieve them? Yes. But you can always change your life, you don’t live with your parents forever, and not all achievements are when you’re young. As a matter of fact, those who win when they’re young oftentimes have trouble coping with the long life thereafter. Not only athletes, but TV stars.

Her father pushes her. Says it’s not time yet. And arranges for Lindsey to spend the summer with a legendary Polish trainer in Monaco for the summer (her sponsor, Rossignol, helped out with the cost).

Lindsey had no idea what hard work was.

Most people don’t. Lindsey thought she was training hard, but she wasn’t even close. She now learned what she had to do and it paid off.

Most people have no context. Either they play in a minor league or not at all. But if you get a chance to go to the top… It separates the men from the boys. I remember my sophomore year in college, on the Middlebury Ski Team, doing the bleachers. We started off in September doing four sets. Hopping up on one foot, then the other and then both was one set. Never mind that it was hard, I didn’t feel myself the rest of the day, even longer. And dreaded having to do five sets the following week. So I decided to quit. There was no way I’d be a starting racer anyway. But I was on the phone with my mother and told her and she bad-vibed me. So I stayed with it. Just before the snow fell we were doing SIXTEEN sets. Unfathomable back in September, but I did it.

Like running up the Middlebury Snow Bowl. As hard as that was the first time, the second time we ran to the top, then ran halfway down and back to the top again. Huh? I mean just when you’re proud you made it, ready to relax, you’re back in the grinder.

Lindsey’s father said the family were not quitters. Even later in her career, when she’d had a bunch of injuries, her father pushed her to stay with it. To the point when Lindsey truly wanted to retire, her body having given out, no one on her team believed it, she was the one who constantly battled back from injuries. And she wanted to beat Stenmark’s record, right?

Well, wanting it is not enough. Hard work doesn’t mean you’ll always achieve your dream. But you can come close.

And the dedication.

Lindsey didn’t go to her junior prom. She didn’t go to any school dances. She had to punt sleepovers. So much of what normal kids do she didn’t do at all.

And she gets caught in an educational vortex and never finishes high school. Eventually gets her GED, but no one is looking out for her. There’s all this money, all these coaches, but you’re on your own so much. In Park City living alone as a teenager? Especially someone as isolated as Lindsey.

So she falls into a relationship with Thomas Vonn and ends up marrying him and excises whatever friends she does have and then a few years later, when she grows up, she realizes it’s wrong and she’s got to get divorced. Lindsey says breakups are harder than any training or racing.

And you think she’s on the circuit, living it up as a bon viivant. But she didn’t party, she immediately started thinking about the next race. And then there’s the time she’s finished in St. Moritz, gets a bunch of Red Bull and drives six hours to her place in Austria. Alone. Pretty glamorous, right?

Meanwhile, with success comes the hate. People saying her advantage is her looks, that she wouldn’t get the publicity if she wasn’t beautiful. Constantly complaining about perceived advantages in racing she doesn’t have. You think by winning you’ll be accepted, but just the opposite is true!

And then she retires. And every book has to end on a high note. She meets Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary and decides she wants to be a venture capitalist and…

These things are harder than they look. If you can do ONE thing at a world class level in life you’re lucky. But Lindsey is all hunky-dory…I’d like to check in with her in a few years.

But therapy is helping her get through.

She’s pissed she doesn’t get the respect of men. But the men are too weak to seek help. She’s stunned when she finds out she’s depressed, she expected the doctor to say she was okay. And she’s been taking the pills and been in talk therapy off and on forever.

And you think winning fixes all your problems.

So it turns out Lindsey Vonn is an imperfect person. You don’t read “Rise” and want to go on a date with her, but you do start thinking about your own choices and dedication.

And the truth is almost all of the big wheels in individual sports and the arts are loners who have a hard time fitting in. They may want to, but they don’t have the skills. So they fake it, or beg off from social situations. And in truth, nobody in the world really cares about you, you’re fodder for the machine, there’s always somebody there to replace you, so you’ve got to fix your own problems. But first you have to acknowledge they exist.

So do I recommend “Rise” to everybody?

Well, not really. If you’re not a skier, you might not fully enjoy it.

But this is not a typical play by play sports autobiography. Not I did this and then that and aren’t I great. If you know Lindsey’s career, you also know how much is left out. Like her father not speaking to her after she marries Vonn. How Vonn sabotages her equipment in Aspen after she breaks up with him.

“Rise” is not a blow by blow, but a focus on the experience, the mind, what it takes, the challenges and the motivations.

And in truth, you can’t learn how to act, what to do from a book. Because everybody is different, you’re not the writer. But if you are an individual on their own path, seeing it, but feeling alone in the quest, I highly recommend “Rise.”

The coterie of people who make it to the top is very very small. And the average person has no idea what it takes to get there. NO IDEA! Even Lindsey herself, she thought she was training hard until she spent that summer in Monaco. And the sacrifice. And if someone’s boasting about how hard they’re working, how great they are, don’t believe them. Because the true world-beaters are internalized.

So you see Lindsey Vonn on TV, in the gossip online. And you may end up hating her, who does she think she is, beautiful, living the life of Riley. But after reading “Rise” you wouldn’t want her life, no way. In a tunnel of skiing for decades, one-minded in your pursuit, only to come out the other side with no education and not enough social skills.

Every life is hard. That’s the truth.

But if for whatever reason you dream big, have airy goals, you should read “Rise” to see what it takes. You truly have no idea.

Unfortunately, this “Rolling Stone” article is behind a paywall. But the issue is bigger than that. Today everybody knows more information, some inaccurate, but there is no single outlet that everybody reads, everybody pays attention to.

Used to be “Rolling Stone.” Actually, there was a flourishing rock press in the pre-internet era. And despite all the hype about fanzines, they had a limited audience and it was the big publications that had reach: “Rolling Stone,” “Spin,” “Bender”… But now there is not one authoritative music information source. And this isn’t only in music, but in every vertical. Used to be your story was in the newspaper and you reached everyone in the market, many had subscriptions and those who didn’t got the information from the verbal scuttlebutt, after all, there wasn’t a whole hell of a lot more to talk about, there was no internet, talking and arguing about music was a big deal. Now it’s a much smaller deal. Social media has usurped the conversation and the delineation between artist and fan is no longer clear, the fan wants to be the artist, and can be on social media. And although artists are gods to some, they are the source of derision to others. That’s what the internet has done, pulled the artists off their pedestals, they’re seen as little better than you and me. Except for their devotees who police the behavior of the rest of the population, looking for negative feedback, the diss, and when they see it they bombard the perpetrator to the point where their inbox or Twitter feed is overwhelmed and nearly indecipherable, it becomes impossible to separate the wheat from the chaff.

All of which means if you’re promoting your act, there’s no single outlet that will reach everybody. As a matter of fact, there’s no single outlet that will reach a modicum of people. Late night TV has abysmal ratings, music comes on last and it’s all about creating viral content for the web, which is not the music, but comedy. Local newspapers have been on the decline in excess of a decade. The remaining majors, the “Times,” “WaPo” and “WSJ,” have seen their subscription numbers rise as a result of low-priced digital accessibility, and all of them cover music, in some cases quite well, but the target audience usually doesn’t read them, and since they’re smorgasbords of information, the market doesn’t take them seriously. It’s like ordering the burger at a Greek joint. Or spaghetti at the steak place. Beware.

And even when information is widely disseminated, there is no consensus. Today you believe what you want to believe, and find information confirming your bias.

All of which to say is most publicity on Spotify is that the corporation is evil and is screwing independent artists, those on the way up.

Well, David Macias runs Thirty Tigers, a label services company for independent artists, so it’s fascinating to read what he has to say. It’s outweighed by the contrary in every publication known to man, but it’s the truth.

And here it is:

“‘Vilification Is Easy’: Spotify Isn’t the Culprit, Says Head of Indie Label Thirty Tigers – The streaming giant isn’t perfect, says David Macias — but blaming them for the state of the music economy is too reductive”

“…David Macias, the owner and co-founder of the Nashville-based label-services company Thirty Tigers, has been frustrated by what he sees as a lopsided conversation scapegoating Spotify as the lone nefarious corporate giant in the music industry. From Macias’ vantage point — as the head of an independent music company that has succeeded during the streaming era — the conversation around royalty payments and streaming is much more nuanced. He spoke with Rolling Stone about the payout structures at his company and how Spotify has benefitted his roster of artists over the years:

On the whole, at Thirty Tigers the general rule of thumb is that our artists earn 75 percent of the gross. We split the remaining 25 percent with the Orchard, who is our distributor. Last year, year we did $36 million in sales, and the 10 to 12 percent of that that we keep is how we pay our staff of 27 people. We go out there and act as a label would on behalf of an artist, but we allow the artists to keep ownership of their work. The artists are their own labels. We are their loving back-end staff.

Any expense or advance comes out of the 75 percent that the artist earns, but because they are their own label, there are lots of ancillary revenues that can flow to artists — merch on the road, film or TV placement — that goes directly to them. 

It’s become more difficult to earn a living as an artist. Anyone trying has my deep respect. If an artist streams a million times, they should get about $4,000. And even though it seems like a million streams is a ton, last month, 45 of our roughly 100 artists streamed a million times on all streaming platforms, some considerably more than that. 

So, it pains me when I see artists and those who love them misdiagnose the source of their difficulty. Spotify is the current scapegoat for the ills of the working-class artist, despite them paying 63 percent of gross revenues back out to rights holders.

Democratization has been a huge boon to independent artists in that it has given more artists a chance, but it has not been enough to earn them a living wage. The pie is being sliced so thin that most artists are left hungry. In 2021, 60,000 songs were being uploaded to Spotify every day.

So how then can artists make enough money to survive? There are options for a patronage model like Patreon that can operate outside the revenue models of pre-recorded music. But what I do not want to see happen is that artists misattribute the source of their problem and undermine the DSPs that have played a huge role in the democratization of independent music.

Is Spotify perfect? Far from it. I won’t touch the Joe Rogan issue. That’s a matter of conscience for artists and their advocates. Do I wish that Spotify were not joining other DSPs in appealing the Copyright Royalty Board’s ruling that pays the publishers and songwriters 15 percent of revenues? Absolutely. When artists I work with have walked into their NYC offices, as often as not, I hear about the opulence of their offices and the perks that are made available to their employees on full display.

A painful question must be asked at this point: Is it an artist’s right to earn a living from their art in a capitalist market? In a country where the business-failure rate is 65 percent over ten years, should artists be immune from their businesses failing? As much as my heart goes out to anyone who is not able to make their dream come true, I would say that that answer is no.

Vilification is easy. I’ve heard that it’s not the people, it’s the system that is broken. To that, I counter that any system that has increased parity and overall revenues is not a broken system. There is just way, way, way more music available, and though the pie is growing, it’s unable to feed everyone. Artists need to understand the reality of the situation and be clear-eyed about what battles they need to be fighting. My contention is that dismantling the existing system without a replacement will harm independent artists.”

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/spotify-streams-payouts-joe-rogan-1298101/

Unless you subscribe, that link will only show you a few lines of the story.

“Rolling Stone” has some of the best coverage of music news, and most of it sits behind the paywall. But it is all accessible with an Apple News+ subscription for ten bucks a month, which every Mac and/or iPhone owner should pay for. It’s bupkes, $120 a year for not only “Rolling Stone,” but the near worthless “Billboard” whose stories are too often consumer facing, as well as some of the aforementioned WaPo and WSJ and much more. Best to go to the source as opposed to reading it on social media.

Scott Rodger manages Paul McCartney, Shania Twain, Andrea Bocelli and more. You’re gonna want to listen to this!

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/scott-rodger/id1316200737?i=1000550666206

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/30c89996-7ede-4465-b732-4e2adf6ae084/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-scott-rodger

https://listen.stitcher.com/yvap/?af_dp=stitcher://episode/90376178&af_web_dp=https://www.stitcher.com/episode/90376178

Re: More Mikaela

Bob,  that’s an excellent and very understandable analysis of the conditions and the evolution of alpine technical racing.

Having spent a fair amount of time in the Chinese ski resorts in the same general region that these events are being held, I can confirm the snow is very different.

It can be fun, but it’s very aggressive and takes a shift in mindset and expectations.  When coaching there, shifting the expectation of feel and adapting has been the first thing I’ve worked on.

Younger American athletes, especially from the west, have to shift in a similar manner when first competing in Europe. However, to a lesser degree.

Jonathan Ballou

Managing Director

Ski and Snowboard School

Aspen Skiing Company

__________________________________

From: Kara Hoisington

Subject: Re: Mikaela Falls

Yes, yes, all of this. I was an alpine racer for 20+ years growing up with my Dad as a coach at CVA during Bode’s day there and myself a coach at Whiteface when Mikaela was at Burke.

One of the hardest things about Mikaela’s talent is that she makes the impossible look so easy. Her natural feel for the snow and hard work is unimaginable to people in the sport. With Bode and Lindsey you could SEE the fight. The hard grunt out of the start gate, the barely holding on and then saving it. But with Mikaela, it all just glides.

I think this is why America finds it so hard to understand when she is human.

__________________________________

From: Michael Kurtz

Subject: Re: Curation, Not Censorship

I was sitting in a Montana poker game and struck up a conversation with an older gentlemen wearing a red “Hell yeah we’re pissed” cap. He wanted to know where my family was from and I said Germany. Without missing a beat he said, “I like Germans, they are good people. I was talking with a friend of mine whose family is from Germany and he told me “We may not have got the Jews the last time, but we’ll get ’em next time.” I swallowed and said, “Um, my wife is Jewish.” He just looked blankly at me.

__________________________________

From: Hugo Burnham

Subject: Re: India.Arie And Joe Rogan

The only people whining about you writing about politics – the “Stay in your lane, Old Man!”-ers are the ones whose ignorance and selfishness you expose. Probably more of the latter, I’d guess.  True Reactionaries, who are being made to feel uncomfortable, who keep staring at the same old spot for their missing cheese. Self-imposed hunger.

Pretty simple.