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.

Virgil Wander

Everybody’s going somewhere. And the truth is if you’re not, you’re being left behind. But it used to be you could have stasis, have a job, earn a living, not get rich and not be poor, kinda experience life as it comes to you.

Like Virgil.

Virgil lives in Greenstone, Minnesota, north of Duluth. And at the beginning of the book he drives his Pontiac off the road and into the lake and if weren’t for a bystander rescuing him…

Virgil ends up with a head injury, and it changes his perspective.

Now I’ve been to Duluth, one of the last outposts before wilderness. It can be winter in the middle of summer, the lake is as forbidding as the Pacific at times. The wind blows, and don’t forget, the Edmund Fitzgerald embarked from Duluth.

I love that song. Along with Dan Fogelberg’s “Old Lang Syne.” I like story songs, although Harry Chapin’s were at times a bit treacly. Yet Gordon Lightfoot’s opus is completely different from today’s hits. It feels like it was cut up in the Great Lakes, it makes you feel something. The wind in your hair, the nip at your collar, you feel fully alive. I’m not saying that I want to be in Minneapolis today, but I have experienced double digits below zero. And as long as it doesn’t last too long, you sit inside overheated buildings and feel fuzzy, along with being warm. In our tech-ridden world, it illustrates that Mother Nature is still in charge. That’s one thing about being out in the elements, in the wilderness, you realize how insignificant you are, you think you matter, but you really don’t, like George Carlin said, save yourself, the Earth will be here long after you’re gone. Possibly without human inhabitants, as a result of global warming, but we believe everything we do is so important, and it’s not. What’s important is that moment in “Same Old Lang Syne.” We think about the old ones, and when you run into them, it’s bittersweet.

Now I found “Virgil Wander” on Amazon, it was one of the Best Books of 2018. Actually, I trust Amazon more than the major publications, than writers themselves, because they too often recommend titles to make themselves look good, unreadable stuff that makes you feel inadequate for being unable to fathom it. And I’m always looking for new books. I was on a run of bad ones for a while, but that has changed. I read Rebecca Makkai’s “The Great Believers.” It’s about the AIDS crisis in Chicago, but it’s more than that, and so readable. It’s lauded, and deservedly so. And “Late In The Day” by Tessa Hadley, which is a little less readable than “The Great Believers,” but the plot gets you going. The reviews say it’s comedic, but not by my standards. It’s about two couples and one husband dies and…I’m not gonna ruin it for you.

But the book that rang my bell most was “Virgil Wander.”

You see I download the samples to my Kindle.

I know, I know, you abhor the device. But kids are not addicted to bookstores, which will continue to die, and you’re victimized by inventory at the store and it’s easier to research titles online than comb through the shelves, and how do you know what’s good, by the blurbs? Ain’t that a laugh.

And I rarely read non-fiction. Because most of it can be summed up in a sentence, and a lot of it is wrong and it doesn’t ring that humanity bell. Of course there are exceptions, like “Educated. Read that immediately. But I wonder what the author’s gonna do next.

So I read the sample and really enjoyed it so I went back to Amazon to see who this author Leif Enger was. And I was immediately thrown off by the typeface of the book cover, it seemed to portend a story from a galaxy far far away in the past, but it turned out Mr. Enger wrote a legendary book, “Peace Like A River,” in 2007 that I’d never heard of, but the reviews were stellar, so I decided to dive into “Virgil Wander,” I bought it, long after midnight, when bookstores are closed.

And I became enraptured in the Greenstone world.

Lake Superior threatens on the shore, and then there’s a bluff and beyond that…nothing, plains. The thing about Minnesota is, as cold as it is in the winter, that’s how hot and muggy it is in the summer. But you can live there. Minneapolis is au courant, culturally bubbling, Prince is not the only hip thing to come from the city. And the lakes and the living…

Once again, most people have never been there. But maybe you’ve been outside the metropolis, you’ll get “Virgil Wander,” or maybe you’ll want to move there.

Virgil owns a cinema. No, he calls it a “movie theater.” But he’s not making any money. Oftentimes fewer than ten people are in the audience, since not only are movies dying, but Greenstone too.

So he works as city clerk. That’s a truism of the hinterlands, many people have multiple jobs, you just can’t pay the bills otherwise.

So eventually something big happens. But along the way, it’s a number of small events. Sure, some death, but mostly characters damaged and imperfect in a world where everybody’s doing their best to appear streamlined and together.

And now I don’t want to tell you more.

There’s a moment of misunderstanding, but you don’t realize it until deep into the book, but it made my heart sigh when the truth was revealed.

Not that that’s the number one plot point, but “Virgil Wander” is like life, there are many things going on, few of them major.

So I think you should read it. Especially if you’re a victim of the polar vortex. Just download it on your Kindle…oops, to the Kindle app on your iPad, phone or computer, you don’t have to leave the house, you can cocoon up with a book that will make you feel connected, not inferior, that there’s more to life than becoming a millionaire, that there are rewards in just waking up every day.

I recommend it.

“Don’t help elect Trump, you egotistical, billionaire assshole! Go back to getting ratioed on Twitter. Go back to Davos with other billionaire elites who think they know how to run the world.”

A protester to Howard Schultz at a book signing event last night.

Howard Schultz Against the Hecklers

For two years we’ve been hearing about the disillusioned and downtrodden who voted for Trump. The media has been flagellating itself, bending over backward to atone for completely missing the 2016 election. But is this same media now missing the concomitant beliefs of the younger generation and dispossessed on the left?

Actually, it’s kind of funny, the left wing press is the left wing candidates’ worst enemy. The mainstream media does not stop looking for gotcha moments with Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Conventional wisdom is we need a centrist to bring us all together, is this right?

Music was the anti in the sixties. Led by the biggest group ever, the Beatles.

The seventies were a victory lap.

The eighties were about MTV and the ability to reach more people and make more money than ever.

The nineties were about hip-hop, learning that everything N.W.A. and Ice-T said on their albums was true.

The aughts were about disruption, the mainstream’s inability to cope with the internet. It was about tech more than music.

In the teens, the tech wars are over and it’s all about money. There’s supposedly not enough in recordings, so ticket prices are exorbitant and acts are in bed with corporations. That’s the goal, to get some of that deep-pocketed money and ultimately become a brand yourself.

The end result has been the marginalization of music, the content is no different from the superhero/cartoon movies, and its impact on the culture is even less. Oh, you’ll see financial stories, but doesn’t that prove the point?

There’s an incredible backlash against billionaires and corporations, but musicians don’t stop cozying up to them, and don’t stop lauding them.

Meanwhile, concerts are productions, material, whereas music at best is ethereal. Music is secondary to the total effect, which is why so often it’s on hard drive.

I’d say we need a reset, and we’re gonna get one.

The unrest is palpable. The public is underserved. The music industry believes as long as there’s a hit parade, that something is moving/selling/streaming, it’s healthy. But this is untrue. It’s ultimately about resonance. And the Beatles and the British Invasion turned the music industry into a cash tsunami because of the tunes, not because of the demo, not because of some technical revolution. Albums had been around for a while, the Beatles, et al, finally found a use for them.

So most people feel shut out of the music industry. It’s impenetrable, and when you listen to the “hits” you find them unappealing.

So you watch television and listen to the oldies.

Speaking of which, the Eagles own the biggest selling album of all time, and they’ve never done a sponsorship deal, they’ve never sold out, and today, decades later, they play stadiums!

There’s this myth that today’s younger generation is not offended by having acts sell out. This is patently wrong. First and foremost they want someone to identify with, screw aspirations, they’re just trying to put food on the table and pay down their student loans. And yes, pre-teens may still be mindless, but not those who’ve hit puberty. David Hogg is a bigger star, a guiding light brighter than any musician. Sure, some hate him, but isn’t that the point, wasn’t that the effect of the rockers of yore? Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath were disdained with vigor before being seen as warm and fuzzy years later. They didn’t bend to be accepted. As for the theatrics of Alice Cooper, it was all in service to the youngsters’ outlook, ever hear “Generation Landslide”?

The labels are asleep. The musicians are asleep. The talk is of television and competition shows. The number of followers, the number of likes. Whereas sheer honesty shines through.

But slower than ever.

But someone who breaks all the rules will be accepted. Someone who doesn’t dress up, doesn’t depend on big production in the studio or on stage. Someone whose resonance radiates.

Sounds like Bob Dylan. Sounds like Peter, Paul & Mary. Sounds like the rest of the folkies.

But if you look back, you can see that folk era led to not only the music of the sixties, but the cultural changes of the sixties.

We’re at that moment right now.