Tune in tomorrow, Tuesday February 5th, on Volume 106, 7 PM East, 4 PM West.

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Is all publicity good publicity?

It was a strange game, since the NFL’s ratings were resuscitated by the Chiefs and their passing attack, and this contest was fought on the ground, until the Rams realized that going to the air was their only chance of victory and then Brady aired it out and put the stake in the heart of the competition.

Actually, the only heartfelt moment in the contest is when Robert Kraft honored Belichick and Brady after the trophy was awarded. Although I must say I liked it when they booed Goodell, before Jim Nantz elbowed him aside.

That’s what Trump has wrought, decorum and respect are out the window, you can say what you want to whenever you want to. Actually, that Republican Congressman yelling out YOU LIE during Obama’s State of the Union address predated Trump, but that’s the America we live in, a divided one. Separated into elites and nincompoops.

Kind of like that laughable talent show after the game was over, “The World’s Best,” what a train-wreck that was. A dog and pony show of those ignored if it weren’t for this program, pitched to the brain dead. Talk about shooting low, it’s as if CBS just decided to throw in the towel, concede to Netflix. But that’s the America we now live in, one of dumb and dumber. Meanwhile, the evening was sans politics and all we care about is politics, which is another reason why Maroon 5’s performance seemed so lame. When given an opportunity to take a stand you punt?

It’s not that Maroon 5 were bad, it’s that they were EH.

A rock band that went pop and followed trends with featured artists that stands for nothing, just like the game of football itself. There was no way in hell Maroon 5 could have succeeded. And they’re being trashed in every publication known to man, never mind the Twitterverse.

You see we’re at the end of the paradigm. Not playing the Super Bowl is more important than playing it. You get more cred for not doing the show. As for reaching potential customers… Adam Levine already reaches them via “The Voice.” Reminds me of my friend Chris Zarou, who manages Logic. Logic did his 1-800 suicide song on the Grammys and there was no bounce. Everybody who cared was already aware.

Used to be football games had marching bands. And Up With People. We made fun of sports. That was part of the sixties ethos, we rebelled against conformity, organization and dictators, like Belichick. The players are interchangeable, it’s a coaches game. Otherwise why would they all need headsets with BOSE painted upon them. Once you yield to the almighty dollar, you’ve lost the plot, like the commercial time outs.

Then again, if you’re addicted to football, there’s no convincing you the game is not America’s Pastime.

But I implore you to listen to Malcolm Gladwell’s podcast

“Burden Of Proof”

How much evidence do we need before we stop watching football because of C.T.E? You will stop, you just don’t know it yet. Kinda like the MTV Video Music Awards. They were cool and exciting, a must-see with memorable moments, and now they’re completely irrelevant. That’s what’s gonna happen with the NFL and its halftime show, it’s just that the commercial industrial complex doesn’t want you to know. Kinda like in the sixties people were for the war until they started showing all the atrocities on the evening news. The “New York Times”‘s latest C.T.E. story, of a guy who barely had any experience in the NFL, will make your skin crawl.

“Was C.T.E. Stealing His Mind? A Gunshot Provided the Answer”

You remember how MTV used to have its own halftime show during the Super Bowl, before the NFL got “hip”? Pretty soon, Netflix will have a C.T.E. documentary that launches on Super Bowl Sunday, it’s coming.

So the game was boring, there was only one broken arm, but we won’t know the true injuries for maybe decades. Kinda like smoking. Which is way down now, people got the message, you’re a pariah if you smoke.

As for tattoos… Did Adam Levine convince you not to have them? I remember cutting my long hair when it was no longer a statement of your beliefs, just a fashion choice. Now that we’re tattooing faces, a real rebel would go clean. As for Adam doffing his shirt and showing us his ink…it seemed like a wannabe rapper from the suburbs trying to be hip, it was laughable.

If you’re sensing a lack of passion in this article, BINGO!

I just don’t care.

I liked hanging with friends. I liked eating all the things I don’t except for special occasions. But I felt like I’ve experienced this ritual too many times, and it’s long in the tooth.

And I’m sitting on the couch thinking…am I just jaded and are kids into this?

And then I realize kids have much better things to do with their time. Why dedicate four plus hours to the ancient games of adults. It’s not like we have the Super Bowl of the Colosseum, what would that be in Roman numerals, Gladiator Bowl MMXIX? These contests die out, the paradigm shifts.

Steve Jobs makes Super Bowl commercials a thing, and everybody tries to imitate Apple’s for thirty five years and no one succeeds…isn’t it time to give up?

Isn’t that the story of today, of this decade, how those who think they know what is going on don’t? Like Trump, like Brexit, like so much in the world today.

There’s been tumultuous change and everybody thinks everything is still the same.

But it’s not.

Like music is so dramatic and fascinating that our eyes will bug out when we see it performed during football halftime. And that we will be impressed with explosions and fire, talk about primeval.

As for the movies advertised… Calorieless fantasies.

It’s like the powers-that-be are convinced everybody in America is dumb, and will accept this pabulum. That we will not be able to watch men causing brain damage to each other and we won’t be able to stop watching mediocre pop acts and tertiary sideshow performers on television.

The revolution is happening now, and you just don’t know it yet.

This is the nadir. No one in their right mind will play the Super Bowl again.

Parents are already keeping their children from playing football.

It’s kinda like global warming. People scream about it but you don’t see the changes and then you do and believe too.

Audi trumpets the percentage of electric cars they’ll produce and Trump cuts CAFE rules.

But that’s business.

In a country with no soul.

We need someone to bring the soul back.

And so far Kaepernick’s got more of the right stuff than Gladys Knight.

Today it’s about refusing the check, standing up for what’s right.

Be forewarned.

We came to Vail to celebrate Andy’s birthday.

Only Andy is not here. But we kept the restaurant reservation anyway, at Allie’s Cabin, on the mountain at Beaver Creek.

I can’t say the food was spectacular, but the ride up in a snowcat driven sleigh…whew, I haven’t seen that many stars in decades.

I told you I was an Eagle Scout, but the first time I slept outside was in the backyard. We had three-quarters of an acre. And the backyard was big enough for baseball and badminton and sleeping.

You know how it is, you beg your parents, and eventually they say yes.

You go outside just before dark, with your flashlights and provisions, and you tell jokes and stories and wait to get tired, which happens much later than you expect. And then when you’re deep in sleep, the sun comes up, and your bag is covered with dew and you schlepp it inside and watch cartoons.

And eventually you become a Boy Scout, a dying organization whose best feature was the hiking and camping. Only this time, we used tents.

And then you graduate to the point where you hike and camp by your lonesome, or with a partner.

Let’s see, I’ve hiked the Green Mountain Trail and slept overnight, but not the whole thing.

I’ve slept in Grand Teton National Park.

Actually, I’ve driven cross-country twice and camped the whole way.

I’m not sure anybody does that anymore, I think they fly. They’re not in search of America, but we were, kinda like that old Simon & Garfunkel chestnut, back when you couldn’t really know what a place was like unless you went there.

But I haven’t camped in years. Maybe because of my sleep apnea. Which went undiagnosed for years. I didn’t start to snore so bad until my ex-wife moved out. I woke up gulping for air for years, but I thought it was a sinus problem, I slept with the humidifier on. And then sharing a room with an engineer on a ski trip, he timed my breaths and I told my shrink and I still didn’t go for the sleep test. But then, months later, after my deductible was met, just before the end of the year, I went to the sleep clinic, and I’ve got it bad, real bad, 14, if you know what that means. And it took about a month to get used to the CPAP machine, but then in 2010 ResMed had a breakthrough, an automatically adjusting machine, and it’s so much easier today. But still, many people with sleep apnea won’t use the devices, I don’t know why. I used to be proud of myself, I could sleep on the shortest of flights, but now with the CPAP machine I feel like a superman, I have so much energy, I can’t imagine sleeping a whole night without it. Actually, I was in the Intercontinental Hotel in Toronto about ten years ago and the power went out and my machine wouldn’t work and it was one of the worst nights of my life, I hardly slept.

Which is all a long story to explain why I no longer camp.

Actually, the last time I did was in ’88. Long story, with my ex and her friend. I felt like the odd person out, it was the beginning of the end.

But I know the experience.

Like I’ve said, I went to college in Vermont, lived in Utah for two years thereafter, I know the back country.

But it’ll surprise you.

I wasn’t thinking of the stars when we got in the sleigh, I was thinking of the horse-drawn sleigh in Sun Valley, that takes you to Hemingway’s cabin, I did that back in ’75 with my parents. I was thinking of being cold.

And I was, we were. But we stretched those football capes around us, you know, like the players throw over their shoulders during a cold game, and when the sleigh left the station we were confronted with…

Stars.

Orion’s Belt. The Milky Way.

I started to get excited, I started to smile. This was the real thing, nature.

No drug I’ve ever taken is close to a natural high.

And we’re so addicted to our devices that we rarely put ourselves out of range, in the wilderness, where we feel small and not powerful, but privileged to be there. That’s one thing about Mother Nature, she don’t care, she’ll freeze your butt off, the world is perilous.

And snow was kicking up from the PistenBully. But I couldn’t stop looking up. It wasn’t a Spielberg movie, it was the real thing. It’s there every night, assuming it’s clear. It was there before us, and it’ll be there after us.

And I’m not quite sure I want to go there, but I am overwhelmed by space.

Then again, not only did I camp in the sixties, we explored space. It was the computer science/tech of the day. Mercury, Gemini, Apollo. It seemed otherworldly. Back when America was a can-do nation. When our politicians were not people of ridicule, but those who got things done.

And when they walked on the moon…

It was hard to comprehend. Kinda like the power of your mobile handset today, the way we never lose touch with anybody in the world.

But the sky is different. It’s more about awe.

Seeing the Big Dipper in its winter position, low in the sky, at an angle.

And I’m no astronomer, but I was still speechless.

You shoulda been there.

Don’t work unless the track is a hit.

In case you missed it, the idiot who tattooed Harry Styles on her face is reveling in the fact that she got all that attention, I’m sure you saw it, and thought WHAT KIND OF PERSON DOES THAT?

Turns out the tattoo was a fake. See the whole story explained here:

“How I rocked the entire world for $300”

But that video only has 85,421 views, far from the entire world. In other words, people were interested in the stunt, but not the track, which is far from close enough, never mind no cigar.

This paradigm was started by drummer Josh Freese. He too got attention for inventing what came to be known as the Kickstarter paradigm, i.e. different perks for different donations, but has anybody ever heard the music?

This is different from Radiohead doing their name your own price deal with “In Rainbows,” as Radiohead were already superstars with a dedicated fanbase.

But the nitwit with the Harry Styles tattoo did this for the attention. Believing it would springboard her to musical success. But it don’t work that way anymore. But this is evidence that the only way to get mass attention these days is to set yourself on fire, shy of that you’re dependent upon the work, and that’s a long hard struggle.

Like the Killers track “Land Of The Free.” Not only is the band known, but I think the song is a hit, but it isn’t, there are only 1,767,322 views on YouTube. And only 1,998,422 plays on Spotify. In other words the track has no traction, only fans and looky-loos have partaken of it. What are the odds for a newbie? LONG! Especially if they don’t make hip-hop with known suspects.

So what’s a poor boy to do?

Certainly not play in a rock and roll band.

But if you choose to go down this path…

You’re in the worst era ever in the history of making it. People have too many options, and they’re not only music, we’re living through the golden age of television. As for help… Major labels only want to sign that which is easy to break, and that’s hip-hop. So, chances are you’re not going to get any help and you’re going to have to do it yourself.

In other words, you’re gonna have to think really small. Your family and friends.

And if the word spreads, you play live.

Playing live is the best way to make it if you’re not a hip-hop act. But it’s really hard to get gigs, and it’s hard to get an agent, but if you get a response, you’re on to something.

One of the biggest bands in America has never had a hit, the Tedeschi Trucks Band. Sure, Derek Trucks got traction playing with the Allmans, but I’m pointing out this paradigm as one to pursue. The act goes on the road with way too many players to get rich, but it’s about the show, and it’s building, however slowly.

But in the age of social media influencers, no one wants to put in the work. Ironically, the easier it is to make and distribute it, the harder it is to get it heard.

Change always comes from outside. One act can skew the entire universe. As Nirvana did. So we’re waiting for something to break the hip-hop hegemony.

But it’s not going to arrive via stunting.

The internet loves a train-wreck, kill yourself, dismember somebody and you’ll be all over the news for half a day. THEN WHAT?

The faster you gain attention, the faster you lose it. MTV made acts big overnight, most of them faded just as fast, whereas those who took years to make it on rock radio before video are still around.

Life is about paying your dues, now more than ever, even though it doesn’t seem that way. There’s only one real social networking company, Facebook, with its original service and Instagram, expect Snapchat to buckle and sell, and there’s only one real search engine, Google, and one real shopping site, Amazon. Because if it works, everybody gravitates to it. Same deal with hits. The curve of adoption is ever so steep.

So you don’t play in everybody else’s arena, you do something new.

But just like in tech, if you don’t get a minimum of traction instantly, you pivot or give up. That’s right, if these companies don’t succeed, they literally go bankrupt or are sold for pennies on the dollar, so if no one’s paying attention to your work…

And most of these companies start off being free. If you’re thinking of money, you’re putting the cart before the horse.

But the truth is human beings are always looking for something new, and they want to tell everybody when they find it. But making the connection between producer and consumer…is harder than it’s ever been.